A system for highly sensitive electrochemical detection of trace nitro-aromatic compounds in air, uses a carbon or carbon/gold working electrode with a surface that is modified to increase the electron transfer kinetics of nitro-aromatic compounds. Chemical modifiers of the working electrode surface include amino-aromatic compounds such as aniline and its derivatives. The detection method involves dissolving trace nitro-aromatic compounds in an electrolyte including aprotonic solvents, or dipolar solvents, in the electrochemical cell including a working electrode, a reference electrode and an auxiliary electrode. Voltage is varied across the working electrode and the reference electrode, and an electrical current is measured between the working electrode and the auxiliary electrode. The measured electrical peak current is a sensitive indication of the concentration of the trace compounds. This invention is appropriate for portable, field-testing of trace explosive compounds in air.

As a consequence of recent efforts to thwart the recent upsurge in international terrorism, there is an increased interest in the detection of explosive materials. These materials include nitro-aromatic compounds including 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT), dinitrotoluene (DNT) and similar derivatives.
Many detection methods have been used to detect explosive materials. These methods include gas and HPLC chromatography, x-ray scattering, neutron analysis, nuclear quadrupole resonance, and mass spectrometry (U.S. Pat. No. 6,571,649). These methods generally require expensive and sophisticated equipment, (e.g. high vacuum), equipment that is not portable (e.g. cylinders of compressed gases), and/or have a complicated sample preparation. These techniques, are therefore, not appropriate for low cost portable field-testing for trace explosive materials. A recent review of some of these methods for explosives detection is "Explosives detection systems (EDS) for aviation security" (Singh, S., Signal Processing vol. 83, 2003, p. 31-55).
Another known method for the detection of trace amounts of explosive materials utilizes immunochemical sensors. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,573,107 is directed towards the immunochemical detection of explosive substances in the gas phase using surface plasmon resonance spectroscopy. Immunochemical detection methods potentially offer high selectivity and high sensitivity.
Electrochemical detection refers to the use of electrodes, immersed in an electrolyte, and connected to an instrument that varies the voltage applied to the electrodes. The instrument measures the current flow between the electrodes. Typically, the electrode potential is varied; and an electric current flows between the electrodes that is characteristic of the presence of electrochemical active substances in the electrolyte. The magnitude of the current is proportional to the concentration of the electrochemical active substances. It is well known that TNT and other nitro-aromatic compounds are reduced electrochemically at the cathode and may be detected by electrochemical detection. Wang et. al. (Analytica Chimica Acta, vol. 485 (2003) p. 139-144) reported the monitoring of TNT in natural waters using an electrochemical technique. They reported a measurement sensitivity of 0.003 μA/ppb of TNT in natural seawater. This sensitivity level was achieved by Wang et. al. by subtracting the background signal, in natural seawater not contaminated by TNT, caused by the reduction of dissolved oxygen. The applicant reported (Reviews Analytical Chemistry vol. 18 no. 5, 1999, p. 293) the use of carbon/Hg film electrode materials in an aqueous solvent. This electrode material was successful to minimize the background by separating the atmospheric O2 background current from the TNT current, however the sensitivity reported was only ˜0.7 μA/μM (˜0.003 μA/ppb) and was comparable to the sensitivity reported by Wang. Despite these positive developments in the prior art, the sensitivity is still insufficient, and the kinetics of the TNT reduction reaction are too slow to achieve a practical portable field test for trace explosive materials. A practical electrochemical sensor for trace explosive materials should have high sensitivity, a short measurement time and in addition a way of cleaning the electrodes rapidly to perform further testing.
There is thus a widely recognized need for an electrochemical method and sensor for the detection of traces of explosives, and it would be highly advantageous to have an electrochemical method and sensor for the detection of traces of explosives, with high sensitivity, and fast reaction kinetics.

Electrochemical method and sensor for the detection of traces of explosives


According to one embodiment, a content addressable memory (CAM) device (100) may include a number of segments (102 or 104). Search target compare circuits (110 and 112) can compare a target value TARGET to programmable information values (PIV0 and PIV1) associated with a particular segment (102 and 104). If a search target value TARGET matches a programmable information value (PIV0 and PIV1), search operations may be performed in a segment (102 or 104). If a search target value TARGET does not match a programmable information value, (PIV0 and PIV1), search operations may be prevented within a segment (102 or 104).

Content addressable memory (CAM) devices enjoy a wide variety of applications, including conventional search engine systems. A search engine system can typically include one or more search engine devices. A search engine device can include circuitry for performing one or more types of search operations. In a search operation, a comparand (or key) may be compared to multiple entries to see if all or a portion of the key matches an entry. After a search operation, a search engine may give a search result as an output. Typically a search result may include an "index" value, which may be used to access associated data or may include associated data itself.
A CAM device, can be a preferred type of search engine system device. CAM devices can be capable of executing search operations faster than many other conventional approaches, such as those based in general purpose processors executing a search algorithm. CAM devices are typically based on particular types of CAM cells. Such CAM cells may include storage circuits integrated with compare circuits. Storage circuits may include, without limitation, storage circuits based on static random access memory (SRAM) type cells or dynamic random access memory (DRAM) type cells. Alternate approaches may include random access memories (RAM) arrays, or the like, with separate matching circuits and/or processes.
As with most integrated circuit devices, a desirable feature in a CAM device can be a rate at which compare operations can be executed. In many cases, an overall rate at which a conventional CAM device can generate results can be related to a number of entries that have to be searched.
In addition, power consumption is almost always an important factor for any integrated circuit. Lower power consumption in a device can allow for smaller power supplies and peak current requirements for a device and/or system.
A CAM may perform a search function described above by applying a search key or "comparand" to a table of stored data values. A CAM may then determine if any of the data values matches a given search key. A typical conventional search operation, along with a general architecture of a conventional CAM system will now be described in more detail.
Referring now to FIG. 10, a conventional CAM device is set forth in a block diagram and designated by the general reference character 1000. A conventional CAM device 1000 may include a number of entries (ENTRY0 to ENTRYn) 1002 and a priority encoder 1004. Each entry (ENTRY0 to ENTRYn) may store a data value for comparison with an applied key value KEY. In a conventional compare operation, a key value KEY can be applied to entries (ENTRY0 to ENTRYn) essentially simultaneously. That is, a key value KEY can be applied to all entries (ENTRY0 to ENTRYn).
Each entry (ENTRY0 to ENTRYn) can generate a corresponding match indication (MATCH0 to MATCHn) that can reflect whether or not data for an entry matches an applied key value. More particularly, if entry data matches a key value, a corresponding match indication can be active. If entry data does not match a key value, a corresponding match indication can be inactive.
Priority from among multiple active match indications can be established by a priority encoder 1004. More particularly, a conventional priority encoder 1004 can prioritizes match indication according to a "physical" priority of the entries. A physical priority can be a priority established by a physical location of an entry on a conventional CAM device. Typically, physical priority can correspond to an address of an entry, with lower address values having priority over higher address values.
In the example of FIG. 10, a priority encoder 1004 can encode a highest priority match indication into an index value INDEX. In some conventional approaches, an index value can be used to access associated data, or alternative, a highest priority match indication can access associated data directly.
In a conventional approach, some entries may be considered "invalid" and thus may be excluded from generating a match indication. Conventionally, invalid entries can be distinguished from valid entries by a valid bit. That is, valid entries may have a valid bit set to one value (e.g., 1), while invalid entries may have a valid bit set to another value (e.g., 0). In a conventional compare operation, a valid bit value of "1" may be applied in combination with a key, thus forcing invalid entries to "not match" a key value. However, a key value can still be applied to such invalid entries.
A drawback to conventional approaches can be limited flexibility in how data may be stored within CAM entries. As shown in FIG. 10, a typical conventional CAM can include entries accessible by a single addressable space that establishes a hard priority. If a large number of new data values needs to be entered, such data values have to be inserted at an appropriate address, and all lower priority values will have to be shifted to lower priority locations.
In light of the above, it would be desirable to arrive at a CAM device that can provide greater flexibility in the manner in which data may be stored in CAM entries.
In addition, or alternatively it would be desirable to arrive at CAM device that may provide search result values at a faster rate than conventional approaches.
Still further, it would be desirable to arrive at CAM device that may consume less power than conventional CAM devices.

Content addressable memory (CAM) device having selectable access and method therefor


The present disclosure provides a resource pushing method, a device and a storage medium for a smart device, the method includes: acquiring a first pushing resource according to a preset rule, where the first pushing resource is used by the smart device to interact with a user, pushing the first pushing resource to the user. In the solution, relevant resources are actively acquired according to behavior information of the user, triggering and hotspots, and are pushed to the user, thereby saving the cost in resource querying by the user, and increasing the exposure of platform resources.

With the rapid development of artificial intelligence and smart devices, more and more users use smart devices for information querying and media resource acquiring. However, in the current smart device, the way in which users acquire related resources may only be to input keywords and click on the query, and the content of the queried resources needs to be filtered one by one to acquire what they need. Besides, since there are a huge amount of resources in a network and users rely on manpower to find the resources they need, therefore, the efficiency is extremely low, and the cost for finding resources is high.

Resource pushing method, device, and storage medium for smart device


A developing device includes a developer bearer to carry, by rotation, developer including toner and magnetic carrier to a development range facing a latent image bearer, and the developer bearer includes a magnetic field generator having multiple magnetic poles and a cylindrical developing sleeve to rotate and bear developer on an outer circumferential face thereof with magnetic force of the magnetic field generator provided inside the developing sleeve. The developing sleeve receives developing bias voltage including an AC component, and includes a base to maintain a cylindrical shape of the developing sleeve and a low friction surface layer including a material lower in friction coefficient with toner than a material of the base.

1. Technical Field
Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to a developing device, a process cartridge, and an image forming apparatus, such as a copier, a printer, a facsimile machine, or a multifunction machine (i.e., a multifunction peripheral) having at least two of copying, printing, facsimile transmission, plotting, and scanning capabilities, that includes a developing device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, image forming apparatuses include a developing device to develop latent images formed on a latent image bearer with developer. For example, there are two-component developing devices that employ two-component developer consisting essentially of toner particles and carrier particles to develop the latent image on the latent image bearer. In two-component developing devices, a range where a developing sleeve, serving as a developer bearer, faces the latent image bearer, such as a photoreceptor, is called a development range. A magnetic field generator provided inside the developing sleeve generates a magnetic field that causes developer particles to stand on end, in the form of a magnetic brush, on the developing sleeve, and the magnetic brush contacts the latent image bearer in the development range. Thus, toner is supplied to the latent image on the latent image bearer, developing it into a toner image.
Additionally, on the surface of the developing sleeve downstream from the development range in the direction in which the developing sleeve rotates, the magnetic field generator exerts magnetic force to separate carrier particles from the developing sleeve. At that time, toner particles adhering to the carrier particles leave the developing sleeve as well. As the developing sleeve rotates further, the surface of the developing sleeve reaches a developer supply position where the developing sleeve is supplied with developer.
In such two-component developing devices, it is possible that history of a preceding image is inherited to a subsequent image, and the amount of toner on the latent image bearer fluctuates, resulting in image failure called "ghost images", in which image density fluctuates.
For example, in ghost images (also called "afterimages") that arise when solid images are formed by the two-component developing device, the image density is higher in a portion corresponding to a first rotation of the developing sleeve. It is known that the ghost image may be caused by the developer used for the preceding image and remaining on an outer surface of the developing sleeve. Ghost images may be inhibited by reducing the amount of developer remaining on the outer surface of the developing sleeve. For that, it is conceivable that the developing sleeve is provided with a low friction surface layer lower in friction coefficient with toner than a base material of the developing sleeve.

Developing device and image forming apparatus and process cartridge incorporating same


An image scanner having wireless carriage module is provided to overcome the abrasion problem occurred between the flat flexible cable and the transparent scanning platform. The image scanner includes a casing; a carriage module disposed inside the casing for picking up image data of an object to be scanned and converting the image data into digital data; a wireless transmitter incorporated into the carriage module for receiving and modulating the digital data into wireless signals and transmitting the wireless signals out; and a wireless receiver separate from the carriage module and being in communication with a processing system for receiving and demodulating the wireless signals from the wireless transmitter into the digital data and outputting the digital data to the processing system for further processing.

A flat flexible cable (FFC) is a common connecting wire between electric devices. It is advantageous to be easily and reversibly bent and stretched in a narrow and crowded space. For example, in a flatbed image scanner, the moving-around carriage module containing therein optical and photoelectric devices is connected with the circuit board through a flat flexible cable. Please refer to FIGS. 1A and 1B which are top and cross-sectional side views, respectively, schematically showing the connecting operation of a flat flexible cable in a flatbed image scanner. The flatbed image scanner 1 includes an upper cover (not shown) and a lower casing 10. In the lower casing 10, a carriage module 11 containing therein optical and photoelectric devices, a driving device consisting of a motor and gear set 121 and a rail set 122, a circuit board 13 including various electronic elements and electrically connected to a computer system 2 via a cable 16, and a flat flexible cable 14 connecting the carriage module 11 with the circuit board 13 are sealed under a transparent scanning platform 15. The carriage module 11 is moved by the motor and gear set 121 along the rail set 122 to pass by and scan a document or picture placed on the transparent scanning platform 15 so as to realize the image data of the document or picture.
Please refer to FIG. 2A which is a schematic cross-sectional diagram showing the structure of a conventional flat flexible cable. The flat flexible cable 14 includes a flexible copper foil 141, an insulating wrapper 142 made of a flexible plastic, and a strengthening plate 143 made of a rigid plastic. The insulating wrapper 142 surrounds the flexible copper foil 141 with two ends of the flexible copper foil 141 exposed for electric contact with the carriage module 11 and the circuit board 13, respectively. The strengthening plate 143 is mounted onto the end portion of the flat flexible cable 14 to facilitate the insertion of the exposed copper foil into the connecting slot (not shown) of the carriage module 11 or the circuit board 13. Further referring to FIG. 1B again, a portion 145 of the flat flexible cable 14 connecting to the circuit board 13 is fixed on the bottom of the lower casing 10, and another portion 146 connecting to the carriage module 11 is freely bent and stretched along with the movement of the carriage module 11.
During the movement of the carriage module 11, the flat flexible cable 14 keeps on electrically connecting the carriage module 11 with the circuit board 13 for signal transmission. The configuration of the flat flexible cable 14 changes all the time during the movement of the carriage module 11 along a scanning direction indicated by an arrow C. The distant end 144 of the flat flexible cable 14 from the carriage module 11, i.e. the U-turn portion, is likely to rise up to the inner surface of the transparent scanning platform 15, as shown in FIG. 2B, due to the flexible property thereof. Especially for an image scanner using a contact image sensor (CIS) as an image pickup device which requires close contact with the document on the transparent scanning platform 15, the flat flexible cable 14 generally keeps in contact with the inner surface of the transparent scanning platform 15 by a part thereof. For example, at a start position where the carriage module 11 is adjacent to the circuit board 13, the flat flexible cable 14 is bent to have a U-turn point at a position relative to the position A on the transparent scanning platform 15, as shown in the solid line of FIG. 1B. On the other hand, at a scanning position where the carriage module 11 moves away from the circuit board 13, the U-turn position shifts to a position B on the transparent scanning platform 15 along the scanning direction C, as indicated by the dotted line of FIG. 1B. As a result, abrasion is likely to occur due to the contact of the insulating wrapper 142 of the flat flexible cable 14 with the transparent scanning platform 15 and the movement of the contact point from the position A to the position B. In general, the insulating wrapper 142 is made of a thermoplastic plastic material and the transparent scanning platform 15 is made of glass. As known, a general thermoplastic plastic material has a smaller hardness than the hardness of the transparent scanning platform 15, so plastic chips may be generated due to the abrasion of the plastic flat flexible cable 14 and the glass scanning platform 15 so as to adversely affect the scanning quality.
Furthermore, in the above flatbed image scanner, the circuit board 13 is disposed on the bottom of the lower casing 10 and hard to be rearranged because of the physical connection to the carriage module 11 via the flat flexible cable 14. Therefore, the miniaturization of the image scanner, which is a trend of modern scanners, is difficult to be achieved.

Image scanner having wireless carriage module


In one or more embodiments, a method comprises receiving, at a processor, an input signal from an input device in response to a first actuation of the input device by a driver of an autonomous vehicle. The input device is a device disposed with the autonomous vehicle and has a second actuation of the input device associated with a standard operation of the input device. The second actuation has an actuation pattern different from an actuation pattern of the first actuation. In response to the input signal, a determination is made by the processor to determine whether the autonomous vehicle can perform a maneuver safely. In response to determining that the autonomous vehicle can perform the maneuver safely, a signal is sent by the processor to cause the autonomous vehicle to perform the maneuver.

Automatic lane change in autonomous vehicle often requires driver's consent, for example, as defined by certain states' laws. In some scenarios, an action by driver not intended to indicate consent can be accidentally interpreted as indicating consent. Thus, it is desirable for drivers to act differently or distinctly to indicate consent of lane change in an autonomous vehicle to avoid unintended consent. Automatic lane change in large-sized autonomous vehicles face additional challenges. Due to their large size and weight, it is often desirable for large-sized vehicles to have more time/distance to safely perform appropriate maneuvers.

Methods and apparatus for causing a lane change maneuver of an autonomous vehicle


Embodiments of the present invention provide a design for handling register overflow in a CPU having parallel registers. In an embodiment, spill code generated by a registers allocator may be analyzed to identify register spill instructions that can be associated. Register spill instructions that can be associated may be rewritten as parallel spill instructions, and the corresponding register spills may be configured for storage into memory in a manner permitting them to be loaded back to the registers in parallel.

The present invention relates generally to data processing systems, and more specifically to handling overflow from registers.
As known to those skilled in the art, in central processing unit ("CPU") architectures, registers are used to temporarily store and manipulate values using arithmetic instructions. Coded instructions to be executed on the CPU, and which may store and manipulate values on the registers and read values from the registers, must first be compiled. During a typical compilation process, a compiler is free to use a virtually unlimited number of symbolic registers. At the tail end of a compilation process, a register allocator may be used to map the symbolic registers onto the real, architected registers. When there are too many symbolic registers to be allocated to the real registers in a cycle, the overflow of symbolic registers may be temporarily stored in memory. This overflow to memory is commonly known as "spilling", and the location to which the overflow is made may be referred to as a "spill". To accomplish this spilling to memory, a register allocator will insert a store to spill ("store") instruction in a "spill code". When the stored data is needed again, the register allocator inserts a load from spill ("load") instruction in the "spill code" to load the symbolic register back into an available register location. ("Spill code" typically may be found dispersed within a larger body of processor code commonly known as "procedure code".)
While spilling designs for single registers are well known, effective designs for a CPU architecture having parallel registers are less apparent. A new design for handling the storing and loading of spills in a CPU architecture having parallel registers would be desirable.

Pairing of spills for parallel registers

International Business Machines Corporation


A semiconductor memory device includes a memory cell capacitor for storing information, wherein the memory cell capacitor includes a capacitor insulation film of a double oxide on a lower electrode. The lower electrode has a layered structure of Ir/IrO.sub.2 /Ir or Ru/RuO.sub.2 /Ru acting as a diffusion barrier of oxygen or Pb. Further, the use of a Pt--Ir alloy is disclosed for the lower electrode.

The present invention generally relates to semiconductor devices and more particularly to a random access memory having a ferroelectric film (FRAM; ferroelectric random access memory) or a miniaturized dynamic random access memory (DRAM) having a high permittivity dielectric film.
With recent advancements in memory technology, particularly with regard to the art of device miniaturization, DRAMs that use a high permittivity dielectric film for the memory cell capacitor are studied intensively. Further, intensive efforts are being made also for FRAMs that use a ferroelectric film for storage of information. An FRAM stores information in the ferroelectric film in the form of polarization and has advantageous features of a non-volatile nature of information storage and a large access speed.
Conventionally, DRAMs are formed to have a dielectric film of SiN or SiO.sub.2 for the capacitor dielectric film of the memory cell capacitor. With an increase of the integration density and a corresponding miniaturization of the device, however, the use of such a conventional dielectric film has caused the problem of insufficient capacitance for the memory cell capacitor due to the excessive miniaturization of the memory cell capacitor. As a DRAM stores information in the memory cell capacitor in the form of electric charges, the decrease of the capacitance of the memory cell capacitor, which occurs inevitably as a result of the device miniaturization, causes a problem of an unreliable read/write operation or an unreliable holding of the stored information.
In order to compensate for such a decrease of the memory cell capacitance, it is proposed to use a high-permittivity dielectric film for the memory cell capacitor of a DRAM. For example, the use of a double oxide film such as (Ba, Sr)TiO.sub.3 (called hereinafter BST) or SrTiO.sub.3 (called hereinafter STO) is studied intensively for this purpose.
Further, it should be noted that a double oxide is used also in FRAMs for a capacitor dielectric film, wherein the double oxide used in a FRAM is a ferroelectric material that shows a spontaneous polarization below a Curie temperature. For example, the use of Pb(Zn, Ti)O.sub.3 (called hereinafter PZT) is studied intensively for the dielectric film of an FRAM.
As these dielectric or ferroelectric films of double oxides have a substantially different nature as compared with a silicon nitride (SiN) film or a silicon oxide (SiO.sub.2) film used conventionally for the capacitor dielectric film of a DRAM, there arises various difficulties when the semiconductor memory device is fabricated to have a conventional structure.
FIG. 1 shows an example of the memory cell of a conventional FRAM that uses a ferroelectric film for the capacitor dielectric film, wherein it should be noted that FIG. 1 shows only the essential part of the device including a local interconnection pattern, while the illustration of interlayer insulation films and interconnection patterns provided further thereon is omitted for the sake of simplicity.
Referring to FIG. 1, the FRAM is constructed on a Si substrate 101 carrying a field oxide film 102, wherein the field oxide film 102 defines a memory cell region on the substrate 101 as usual. Further, the Si substrate 101 carries thereon a gate electrode 104 extending across the memory cell region, wherein a gate insulation film 103 is interposed between the substrate 101 and the gate electrode 104 in the foregoing memory cell region. Further, diffusion regions 105 and 106 are formed at both sides of the gate electrode 104 in the memory cell region as a source and a drain of the memory cell transistor.
The gate electrode 104, on the other hand, is covered by a first interlayer insulation film 107, and a bit line 108 is provided on the interlayer insulation film 107 in electrical contact with the diffusion region 105 via a contact hole formed in the interlayer insulation film 107. The bit line 108 is then covered by a second interlayer insulation film 109, on which a memory cell capacitor is formed.
As indicated in FIG. 1, the memory cell capacitor includes a lower capacitor electrode 110 provided directly on the interlayer insulation film 109, and a capacitor dielectric film 111 is provided on the lower capacitor electrode 110. Further, an upper capacitor electrode 112 is provided on the capacitor dielectric film 111 so as to sandwich the capacitor dielectric film 111 between the lower and upper capacitor electrodes 110 and 112. A third interlayer insulation film 113 further covers the memory cell capacitor thus formed on the second interlayer insulation film 109.
The structure thus formed is provided with a via-hole extending through the interlayer insulation films 107, 109 and 113, and a local interconnection pattern 114 is provided on the interlayer insulation film 113 in electrical contact with the diffusion region 106 exposed by the via-hole and further in electrical contact with the upper capacitor electrode 112, such that the local interconnection pattern 114 connects the diffusion region 106 to the upper capacitor electrode 112 of the memory cell capacitor.
The fabrication of the FRAM of FIG. 1 may be carried out as follows.
First, the Si substrate 101 is formed with the field oxide film 102 such that the field oxide film 102 defines the memory cell region on the substrate 101. Further, a MOS transistor having the gate electrode 104 is formed in the memory cell region as the memory cell transistor of the FRAM, wherein the gate electrode 104 is insulated from the substrate 101 by the gate insulation film 103 and the MOS transistor further includes the diffusion regions 105 and 106 at both sides of the gate electrode 104.
Next, a silicon oxide film is deposited on the structure thus obtained including the gate electrode 104 as the first interlayer insulation film 107, and a contact hole is formed in the interlayer insulation film 107 so as to expose the diffusion region 105 by a well known photolithographic process. After the contact hole is thus formed, a layer of WSi is deposited on the interlayer insulation film 107 including the contact hole such that the WSi layer contacts the exposed diffusion region 105 at the contact hole. By patterning the WSi layer thus formed subsequently, the bit line 108 is obtained.
Next, another silicon oxide film is deposited on the structure thus obtained, to form the second interlayer insulation film 109, and the formation of the lower capacitor electrode 110 is made further on the insulation film 109, wherein the formation of the lower capacitor electrode 110 is made by depositing a Ti film and a Pt film consecutively to form a Pt/Ti structure.
The Pt/Ti film thus formed is then patterned by an ion milling process by using a resist mask to form the lower capacitor electrode 110, and a PZT film is deposited further on the lower capacitor electrode 110 by an RF sputtering process, for example. The PZT film thus deposited is patterned by an ion milling process by using the resist mask to form the capacitor dielectric film 111. Further, a Pt film is deposited on the dielectric film 111, followed by an ion milling process to form the upper capacitor electrode 112, similarly to the lower capacitor electrode 110. Thereby, the memory cell capacitor is formed on the interlayer insulation film 109.
After the memory cell capacitor is formed as such, a silicon oxide film is deposited on the interlayer insulation film 109 as the third interlayer insulation film 113 so as to cover the memory cell capacitor, and the diffusion region 106 is exposed by forming the via-hole noted before, such that the via-hole extends through the interlayer insulation films 107, 109 and 113. Further, a contact hole is formed in the interlayer insulation film 113 to expose the upper capacitor electrode 112, and a conductor layer is deposited on the interlayer insulation film 113 so as to establish an electrical contact with the diffusion region 106 at the via-hole and so as to establish an electrical contact with the upper capacitor electrode 112 at the contact hole of the interlayer insulation film 113. By patterning the conductor layer according to a photolithographic patterning process, one obtains the local interconnection pattern 114.
It should be noted that the conventional FRAM structure of FIG. 1, in which the memory cell capacitor is formed above the field oxide film 102, occupies a large area on the substrate 101 and is thus disadvantageous from a view point of increasing the integration density and hence the storage capacity of the information stored in the FRAM.
In order to eliminate the foregoing shortcoming of the conventional FRAM of FIG. 1 and to increase the integration density thereof further, there is proposed an improved structure of FRAM in FIG. 2, in which the memory cell capacitor is provided immediately above the diffusion region 106. In FIG. 2, it should be noted that those parts explained already are designated by the same reference numerals and the description thereof will be omitted.
Referring to FIG. 2, the FRAM has a structure similar to that of FIG. 1 except that a contact hole is formed through the interlayer insulation films 107 and 109 so as to expose the diffusion region 106, and the lower capacitor electrode 110 of the memory cell capacitor is connected to the diffusion region 106 via a conductive plug 115 of polysilicon or amorphous silicon filling the contact hole. In this construction, the local interconnection pattern 114 is eliminated and the upper capacitor electrode 112 is exposed at the contact hole formed in the third interlayer insulation film 113.
In the FRAM of FIG. 2, the lower capacitor electrode 110 of the memory cell capacitor has preferably a Pt/Ta structure including a stacking of a lower Ta layer and an upper Pt layer, for preventing a diffusion of Si from the conductive plug 115 to the PZT film 111 across the lower capacitor electrode 110. It should be noted that the Si atoms thus penetrated into the PZT film 111 would form an oxide film at the interface between the lower capacitor electrode 110 and the PZT film 111 as a result of a reaction with the oxygen atoms contained in the PZT film 111. By using the foregoing Pt/Ta structure for the lower capacitor electrode 110, the Ta layer acts as an effective diffusion barrier against Si, and the problem of diffusion of Si is successfully eliminated.
In relation to the diffusion barrier, it should be noted that the conventionally used Ti layer is found to be not effective for interrupting the diffusion of Si from the plug 115 to the lower capacitor electrode 110. Further, the use of a Ti layer in the lower capacitor electrode 110 causes the problem of diffusion of Pb and oxygen atoms from the PZT film 111 to the lower capacitor electrode 110 at the time of the RF sputtering process used for forming the PZT film 111. It should be noted that the RF sputter deposition of the PZT film 111 is conducted under an oxidizing atmosphere that contains O.sub.2. A similar problem of oxygen diffusion occurs also when applying an annealing process to the PZT film 111 after a formation thereof. It should be noted that such an annealing process is essential for improving the quality of the PZT film 111 and has to be conducted in an oxidizing atmosphere, while a material such as Pt or Ti does not function as an effective diffusion barrier against oxygen atoms. Thus, the oxygen atoms readily reach the conductive plug 115 underneath the electrode 110 and cause an extensive formation of silicon oxide at the interface between the plug 115 and the electrode 110. When this occurs, there is a substantial risk that the ohmic contact between the electrode 110 and the conductive plug 115 is lost.
Further, the diffusion of Pb from the PZT film 111 across the lower capacitor electrode 110 of the Pt/Ti structure causes a compositional shift in the PZT film 111, and there is a possibility that the PZT film 111 may loose its ferroelectricity or high permittivity, which are essential for the operation of the FRAM. Further, such Pb atoms thus diffused away from the PZT film 111 tend to form PbO at the interface between the Pt layer and the Ti layer in the lower capacitor electrode 110 or at the interface between the electrode 110 and the underlying interlayer insulation film 109. When such a PbO layer is formed, there is a possibility that the film above the PbO layer may scale off.
When forming a BST film for the capacitor dielectric film 111 in place of the PZT film to form a DRAM, on the other hand, a substrate temperature of about 500.degree. C. is required when a sputtering process is employed. When the BST film is formed by a CVD process, on the other hand, a substrate temperature of about 600.degree. C. is required. It should be noted that such a high substrate temperature is required in order to achieve a high permittivity for the deposited BST film. During such a deposition process of the BST film, an oxidizing atmosphere is employed similarly to the case of depositing a PZT film. Thus, there occurs the same problem of diffusion of the oxygen atoms through the lower capacitor electrode 110 when the lower capacitor electrode 110 has the PT/Ti structure. In this case, the formation of a silicon oxide film occurs at the interface between the conductive plug 115 and the lower capacitor electrode 110. Thereby, the ohmic contact to the memory cell capacitor is no longer guaranteed.
When the lower capacitor electrode 110 has the Pt/Ta structure, on the other hand, the diffusion of the oxygen atoms is interrupted effectively at the Ta barrier. However, the use of a Ta barrier causes a problem of formation of Ta.sub.2 O.sub.5 in the lower capacitor electrode 110 at the interface between the Pt layer and the Ta barrier. It should be noted that the Pt layer of the electrode 110 contacting directly the PZT film or the BST film 111 allows a substantially free passage of the oxygen atoms therethrough, and there tends to occur an accumulation of the oxygen atoms thus diffused at the interface between the Ta layer and the Pt layer in the electrode 110.
When such a formation of Ta.sub.2 O.sub.5 occurs in the lower capacitor electrode 110, the memory cell capacitor actually forms a stacked structure in which the Ta barrier layer and the Pt electrode layer sandwich a Ta.sub.2 O.sub.5 layer therebetween, and the BST or PZT film 111 and the upper capacitor electrode layer 112 are stacked consecutively on the Pt electrode layer. Thereby, the memory cell capacitor includes two capacitors connected in series, one including the Ta.sub.2 O.sub.5 layer as the capacitor dielectric film and the other including the BST or the PZT film 111 as the capacitor dielectric film. As Ta.sub.2 O.sub.5 has a permittivity substantially smaller than the permittivity of BST or PZT, the memory cell capacitor having such a series connection structure suffers from the problem of reduced memory cell capacitance. This problem becomes particularly acute when the structure of FIG. 2 is used to form a DRAM.

Semiconductor device having a dielectric film and a fabrication process thereof


A MicroElectroMechanical System (MEMS) includes a MEMS device; a feature extraction component coupled to an output of the MEMS device, wherein the feature extraction component is configured to provide a plurality of features of an output signal of the MEMS device; and a low data rate interface coupled to the feature extraction components, wherein the low data rate interface is configured to transmit the plurality of features of the output signal of the MEMS device, and wherein a low data rate of the low data rate interface is determined by a number of the plurality of features transmitted, wherein the MEMS device, the feature extraction component, and the low data rate interface are packaged together in a semiconductor package.

Digital microphones are used convert audio input signals into corresponding digital output signals. Typical digital microphones include high data rate interfaces including digital signal processing circuitry in order to convert the audio input signals into high quality digital output signals. Due to the always-on nature of the digital microphone and the high power consumption of the digital circuits in the high data rate interface, the use of the digital microphone in portable devices with battery life limitations can be strongly restricted. Manufacturers and customers desire digital microphones with a low data rate interface in order to reduce power and to extend battery life without a significant loss of performance.

Digital microphone with low data rate interface


A centrifuge separator for different specific gravity fluid separation. Gas enriched influent is then fed into a rotary impeller, where rotational energy of the impeller is transferred to the incoming fluid creating a forced vortex. Centripetal force exerted on the fluid particles help to separate the fluid/solids to rotate at different radius. Solids are moved towards a periphery of the tube where a cone collector facilitates to collect the solids. The conical shape allows the solids to slide into an annulus. The lighter specific gravity fluids are forced to segregate into two different rotating vortexes by virtue of the rotary motion of the impeller. The gas bubbles mixed with the influent help to accelerate the separation of two different specific gravity fluids.

It is observed during most current water treatment systems that the suspended solids are the main cause of concern and interfere with performance of the water purification. Also in food and beverage industry the suspended solid particulates are removed by passive filtration, which is very tedious labor oriented.
In the case of an oil spill in the ocean it is necessary to have a high volume flow rate separator machine where the separator machine separates the suspended oil droplets from incoming water. In the pulp and paper industry the wastewater discharged from the plant contains high level of suspended solids, which are presently removed by a coagulation process using chemicals.
The present invention is directed to overcoming the problems currently experienced with separating different particles from each other, and particularly solids and other particles that have become mixed with fluids.


Mounted on a toilet lid is a lamp, a battery, a gravity switch and a light sensor, whereby the lamp is automatically lit in the absence of light when the toilet lid is raised, and is automatically extinguished when the light sensor senses light or when the toilet lid is lowered to rest on the toilet seat.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an automatic self-illuminating toilet lid.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Toilet lids are almost universally known. However, toilet lids that embody a light source which can automatically be switched on when the toilet lid is raised, and which is automatically switched off when the toilet lid is lowered on to the toilet seat, are not known.


A method includes controlling a plurality of rotors to cause a plurality of antennas to traverse a flight path. Traversing the flight path includes concurrent translation of a body in a horizontal plane and rotation of the body about an axis. The plurality of rotors is coupled to the body. The method also includes, while traversing the flight path, receiving a first phase measurement of a first signal via a first antenna of a plurality of antennas and receiving a second phase measurement of the first signal via a second antenna of the plurality of antennas. The method further includes determining position information related to a location of the transmitter based at least in part on the first phase measurement and the second phase measurement.

Determining a geospatial location of a transmitter (e.g., a cell phone) may have application in civilian search and rescue, law enforcement, and military environments. Phase measurements of signals emitted by the transmitter and received by two or more antennas may be used to determine estimated locations of the transmitter. For example, the antennas at fixed locations may receive the signals and an estimate of the location of the transmitter may be determined based on phase measurements of the signals. The phase measurements of the signals received at fixed spatial points may not enable estimation of the location of the transmitter with a high degree of accuracy.

Systems and methods of transmitter location detection


The present invention provides a method and apparatus for increasing the intensity of coherent population trapping (CPT) resonances, used in atomic clocks and magnetometers, by pumping the atoms with light of alternating polarization. Pumping with such light, characterized by a photon spin vector that alternates in direction at a hyperfine frequency of the atoms at the location of the atoms, is referred to as push-pull pumping. In one embodiment of the system of the present invention, alkali-metal vapor is pumped with alternating circular-polarization D1 laser light that is intensity modulated at appropriate resonance frequencies, thereby exciting CPT resonances, which can be observed as increase in the mean transmittance of the alkali-metal vapor. These resonances are substantially enhanced due to an optically-induced concentration of atoms in the resonant energy sublevels.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of optically pumped atomic clocks or magnetometers, and more particularly to atomic clocks or magnetometers that operate by probing 0-0 coherent population trapping (CPT) resonances using light of alternating polarization referred to as push-pull pumping.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventional, gas-cell atomic clocks utilize optically pumped alkali-metal vapors. Atomic clocks are utilized in various systems that require extremely accurate frequency measurements. For example, atomic clocks are used in GPS (global positioning system) satellites and other navigation and positioning systems, as well as in cellular phone systems, radio communications, scientific experiments and military applications. A design similar to that of an atomic clock is also utilized as a magnetometer, since some of the atomic resonances are highly sensitive to the magnetic field.
In one type of atomic clock, a cell containing an active medium, such as rubidium or cesium vapor, is irradiated with both optical and microwave power. The cell contains a few droplets of alkali metal and an inert buffer gas (such as N2, any of the noble gases, or a mixture thereof) at a fraction of an atmosphere of pressure. Light from the optical source pumps the atoms of the alkali-metal vapor from a ground state to an optically excited state, from which the atoms fall back to the ground state, either by emission of fluorescent light or by quenching collisions with a buffer gas molecule such as N2. The wavelength and polarization of the light are chosen to ensure that some ground state sublevels are selectively depopulated, and other sublevels are overpopulated compared to the normal, nearly uniform distribution of atoms between the sublevels. The resonant transitions (or resonances) between these sublevels can be probed by the microwaves. It is also possible to excite the same resonances by modulating the light at the Bohr frequency of the resonance (a method currently known as coherent population trapping, or CPT), as first pointed out by Bell and Bloom, W. E. Bell, and A. L. Bloom, Phys. Rev. Lett. 6, 280 (1961), hereby incorporated by reference into this application. The changes in the ground state of alkali-metal atoms, introduced by the resonance, lead to a change in the transparency of the vapor, so a different amount of light passes through the vapor to a photo detector that measures the transmission of the pumping beam, or to photo detectors that measure fluorescent light scattered out of the beam. When an applied magnetic field, produced by the microwaves, oscillates with a frequency equal to one of the Bohr frequencies of the atoms, the populations of the ground-state sublevels are perturbed and the transparency of the vapor changes. If excitation by the modulated light (CPT) is used instead of the microwaves, a coherent superposition state of the ground-state sublevels is generated when the light modulation frequency or one of its harmonics matches one of the Bohr frequencies of the atoms. The changes in the transparency of the vapor are used to lock a clock or a magnetometer to the Bohr frequencies of the alkali-metal atoms.
The Bohr frequencies of a gas-cell atomic clock are the frequencies v with which the electron spin S and the nuclear spin I of an alkali-metal atom precess about each other and about an external magnetic field. For the ground state, the precession is caused by magnetic interactions. Approximate clock frequencies are v=6.835 GHz for 87Rb and v=9.193 GHz for 133Cs. Conventionally, clocks have used the "0-0" resonance which is the transition between an upper energy level with azimuthal quantum number m=0 and total angular momentum quantum number F=I+½, and a lower energy level, also with azimuthal quantum number m=0 but with total angular momentum quantum number F=I−½.
Conventionally, to excite CPT resonances, frequency-modulated (FM) or phase-modulated (PM) optical-pumping light with wavelengths close to the D1 or D2 resonance lines of the atom (shown in FIG. 1A) are used. The light is modulated at a microwave frequency v close to one half of the 0-0 resonance frequency v0, shown in FIG. 1B. The modulation amplitude and the carrier frequencies are chosen to optimize the sideband spectrum for CPT signals. The time-averaged transparency of the vapor increases when v=v0/2. The full width at half maximum of this CPT resonance can be less than 1 kHz. The amplitude of the 0-0 CPT resonance is not very large, often amounting to an increase in the time-averaged transmission by less than 1%. The frequency v0 of the 0-0 resonance has a very weak, quadratic dependence on the magnetic field, so some control of the magnetic field is needed to stabilize the clock.
In FIG. 1A, the atomic energy levels and the optical transitions are shown for an optically pumped atomic clock. The ground state of an alkali-metal atom, illustrated with 87Rb, is split into hyperfine sublevels by the Fermi contact interaction between the electronic spin, with quantum number S=1/2, and the nuclear spin, with quantum number I=3/2. An expanded diagram of the ground-state sublevels of 87Rb is shown in FIG. 1B. The hyperfine splitting separates the energies of sublevels with the total angular momentum quantum number F=I+S=2 from those with F=I−S=1. The energies of sublevels with the same F but different azimuthal quantum numbers m are shifted relative to each other by the magnetic field. Pumping alkali-metal atoms with D1 resonance light of fixed circular polarization drives the ground-state population distribution toward the end states of maximum or minimum m, depending on the sense (right or left) of circular polarization of the light. For high-density vapor, where spin-exchange collisions are the dominant spin-relaxation mechanism, or at high buffer-gas pressures, a spin-temperature population distribution similar to the one illustrated by the vertical bars in FIG. 1B is produced. For lower buffer-gas pressures and slower spin-exchange rates, the distributions are qualitatively similar, but differ in detail. The build up of the population in the end states results in very large microwave and Zeeman end resonance signals at frequencies vm and vz, as illustrated in FIG. 1B. However, the 0-0 resonance signal at v0 is very small, since the build up of population in the end state leaves few atoms in the initial and final states of the 0-0 resonance.
It has been found that the 0-0 resonance excited and probed by frequency-modulated light becomes too small for practical use at buffer-gas pressures exceeding a few hundred torr as described in D. E. Nikonov et al., Quantum Opt. 6, 245 (1994). Broadening of the optical absorption lines degrades the CPT signals generated with frequency modulated light in much the same way, and for analogous reasons, as decreasing the Qs (quality factors) of the two tuned circuits degrades the performance of phase-shift discriminators of FM radio or television receivers. The population concentration in the end state and the suppression of the 0-0 resonance also occurs when the pumping is done with unmodulated light of fixed circular polarization, and it is independent of whether the resonances are excited by microwaves, or with the circularly polarized light that is frequency-modulated at v0/2, half the 0-0 frequency.
Conventional CPT atomic clock systems have used modulated light of fixed polarization. It has been found that less degradation of the 0-0 CPT resonances with increasing buffer gas pressure occurs if light of fixed circular polarization is intensity-modulated at the frequency v0 instead of being frequency-modulated at v0/2.
Modeling calculations of population distributions and CPT resonances produced by intensity-modulated, right-circularly-polarized (RCP) light are shown in FIGS. 2A–C for 87Rb. The intensity-modulation pattern of RCP D1 pumping light is shown in FIG. 2A. The atomic population distribution among the ground-state sublevels is shown in FIG. 2B. The circularly polarized light pumps the atoms toward the end state of maximum azimuthal spin quantum number m, and away from the m=0 states participating in the resonance. FIG. 2C shows the calculated CPT resonance in the time-averaged absorption cross-section {overscore (σ)} of the atoms, normalized to the cross section σ0 for unpolarized atoms. The detuning ω-ω0 of the modulation frequency ω from the resonance frequency, ω0=2πv0, is normalized to the S-damping rate Γsd. Buffer gas pressures are assumed which are high enough to seriously degrade the FM or PM CPT. It is shown that the CPT resonance with intensity modulated light is barely visible, as a small decrease in the time-averaged cross section {overscore (σ)}, which is plotted in units of the absorption cross section σ0 of completely unpolarized atoms. For the modeling calculations of FIGS. 2A–C, a mean optical pumping rate Γop was used which was three times the S-damping rate Γsd of spins in the gas, i.e. Γop=3 Γsd. It was assumed that a small additional spin loss occurs at a rate Γ=0.01Γsd due to diffusion of alkali-metal atoms to the walls. The instantaneous pumping rate of the RCP light was assumed to have the time dependence R=Γop(2Pp!)2[2(2p)!]−1 cos2p πv0t with p=2. Any intensity modulation format with a similar time dependence gives comparable results.
The CPT signal with pulsed light of fixed circular-polarization at very high buffer-gas pressure has about the same amplitude as the CPT signal at low pressures with frequency-modulated light. In both cases, the small signal amplitude is due to the accumulation of most of the atoms in the end state, as shown in FIG. 2B. The suppression of the 0-0 CPT signal due to optical pumping has been discussed in J. Vanier, M. W. Levine, D. Janssen, and M. Delaney, Phys. Rev. A 67, 065801 (2003).
It is desirable to provide a method and system to increase the intensity of 0-0 coherent popularity trapping (CPT) resonances in alkaline-metal vapors.

Method and system for operating an atomic clock with alternating-polarization light

Princeton University, Office of Technology, Licensing & Intellectual Property


The invention relates in general to a television receiver that is capable of displaying two video programs and an electronic program guide (xe2x80x9cEPGxe2x80x9d) simultaneously. The EPG is displayed in a first portion of a split screen containing a picture-in-picture (PIP) display. Scanning of the electronic program guide causes different video programs to be displayed in the PIP display while the user is still able to watch the original video program on a second split screen.

The invention relates in general to a television receiver that is capable of displaying two video programs and an electronic program guide (xe2x80x9cEPGxe2x80x9d) simultaneously. The EPG is displayed in a first portion of a split screen containing a picture-in-picture (PIP) display. Scanning of the EPG causes different video programs to be displayed in the PIP display while the user is still able to watch the original video program on the second portion of the split screen.
In a conventional picture-in-picture (xe2x80x9cPIPxe2x80x9d) television receiver, the television takes video from at least two input sources and creates a single image. The image created by a PIP module is composed of a main part that occupies the full dimensions of the image, and one or more PIP parts that are scaled to occupy only a small portion of the overall image. The PIP part is typically wholly contained within the main part of the image.
The PIP part of the image may be arbitrarily positioned anywhere within the main picture, FIG. 1a. The PIP part of the image may also be arbitrarily sized (or resized), FIG. 1b.
In the multi-window display mode, also known in the television industry as picture-out-of-picture (xe2x80x9cPOPxe2x80x9d), two or more non-overlapping display regions are arranged on the screen in a mosaic pattern. Each display region contains video from an independent video source, and can be of varying sizes or shapes. The preferred implementation of the multi-window feature limits the number of regions to two, equal-sized panels (panel 1 and panel 2) that are displayed side by side, FIG. 2. In effect the screen is comprised of two main regions.
Television systems are also available which include various types of on-screen program guides which provide a viewer with information about available programs. One of these systems is described in PCT WO 97/34413. The EPG is of the type which provides one or more screens of program listings. These listings may include currently telecast programs and programs to be broadcast in the future. The EPG includes a PIP window for display of a currently telecast program. The viewer may change the program displayed in the PIP window by cursoring through listings of currently telecast programs in the EPG.
The problem with these television systems is that you cannot watch one video program while scrolling through an interactive EPG selecting and viewing other video programs.
The present invention overcomes the above problem by having a split screen with an interactive PIP EPG whereby a user can watch a first video program on one half of the video screen, while using an EPG in the second half of the video screen and selecting programs from the EPG for scanning in the PIP. This provides a television which displays one video program while simultaneously permitting a viewer to search for something else to watch via the interactive EPG and PIP.
Still other objects and advantages of the invention will in part be obvious and will in part be apparent from the specification.
The invention accordingly comprises the several steps and the relation of one or more of such steps with respect to each of the others, and the apparatus embodying features of construction, combinations of elements and arrangement of parts which are adapted to effect such steps, all as exemplified in the following detailed disclosure, and the scope of the invention will be indicated by the claims.

Multi-window pip television with the ability to watch two sources of video while scanning an electronic program guide


A system and apparatuses or devices capable of automatically performing processes of cell treatment preparatory to flow cytometry and similar cytological studies in a fully automated and streamlined manner are provided. The system and apparatuses or devices are adapted for preparation and (pre)processing of cell samples, e.g., blood and/or bone marrow samples.

Flow cytometry represents one of the essential tools employed in such fields as cytologic biology, cellular immunochemistry, and cytodiagnosis for cancer detection. Essentially, it aims at the classification of cells according to their sizes, types, contents of intracellular components, and like characteristics. Flow cytometry involves the pigmentation of cells with fluorescent dyes. The pigmented cells are caused to individually fluorescence under laser beam irradiation while flowing through slender tubing. The intensities of fluorescence of the individual cells are measured for the determination of their sizes, relative amounts of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid), etc. Flow cytometry analysis can identify and enumerate lymphocyte subsets in human cells in suspension.
One usage of the system, apparatuses and devices according to the present invention can be found in immunology and pathology laboratories at hospitals all over the world.
Conventionally, such cell pretreatment has been mostly performed manually at the cost of much time and labor. Manual pretreatment is also undesirable by reasons of unavoidable human errors and the non-uniformity of operations from one individual operator to another. The advent of an apparatus capable of full automation of cell pretreatment has thus been long awaited by the cytologists for the elimination of human toil and for gaining stability and constancy in the operations involved. No such system or apparatus is known, because of the complexities of the processes of cell pretreatment. However, there are several companies trying to partially automate some of the processes.
Becton-Dickinson (BD) with its BD Facs Lyse Wash Assistant (for automatic lysing, washing and centrifuging) and Beckmann Coulter with its TQ Prep Workstation (for automatic lysing procedure), the PrepPlus 2 Workstation (for pipetting of reagents, patient samples, controls and fluorospheres into daughter tubes), and the Antibody Cocktail Preparation Workstation (for cocktail mixing) offer complementary automation to the manual process.
The BD Facs Lyse Wash Assistant does not pipette reagents or patient samples. The centrifuge solution is based on a single vial (tube) centrifuge, where the vial rotates around its own axe. The inconvenience with that centrifuge solution is that the cells in the sample won't gather in the bottom of the vial, but on the walls. One lab engineer interviewed mentioned that there is a problem with losing too many cells in this process.
EP 0 645 631 B1, assigned to Becton Dickinson, describes an automated system for preparing samples and for loading the samples to an analyzer, wherein the system includes a sample carousel which mixes and indexes a plurality of sample tubes to a sample aspiration station.
Beckman Coulter offers several instruments in order to automate the complete manual procedure. The unfortunate outcome of using that strategy is that the automated process will still include several manual activities after buying these instruments. After pipetting patient samples and reagents in the PrepPlus 2 Workstation, the sample(s) must be manually moved to the TQ Prep Workstation for lysing procedure. The FP1000 Cell Preparation System is also a part of the Beckman Coulter family and is being used for lysing solutions.
EP 1 468 266 A1, assigned to Beckman Coulter, relates to an adjustably controllable environment containment system for a flow cytometer to protect both the particles being processed by the flow cytometer from contamination by both biological and non-biological materials and to protect persons using the flow cytometer from being exposed to the particles being processed and the chemistry utilized in the processing of such particles.
JP 2010133727, assigned to Beckman Coulter, regards a cleaning mechanism for cleaning an approximately cylindrical dispensation nozzle.
US 2011/017238 A1, assigned to Beckman Coulter, teaches a nozzle cleaning method and a nozzle cleaning device which allow to surely perform cleaning of a dispensing nozzle and which allow reduction in cleaning time. For this purpose, a nozzle cleaning method for cleaning a dispensing nozzle for suctioning and discharging a liquid includes: a first cleaning step in which, after termination of dispensing, an inner wall surface of the dispensing nozzle is cleaned in an upper portion of a storage tank overflowed with a cleaning liquid by discharging a liquid for preload; and a second cleaning step in which at least an outer wall surface is cleaned by lowering and immersing the dispensing nozzle into the storage tank overflowed with the cleaning liquid.
EP 2 407 791 A1, assigned to Beckman Coulter, relates to an analyzer comprising: a reading section for storing or obtaining specimen information including a sample type of a specimen, and specimen container information; a liquid level detecting section for detecting a liquid level and/or an interface of the specimen; a dispensing apparatus for dispensing a specimen; a washing apparatus for washing a dispensing probe; a calculating section for calculating a contamination adhering range of an external wall surface of the dispensing probe, based on the sample type, specimen suction-position and specimen container information stored or obtained by the reading section, as well as liquid level and/or interface information of the specimen detected by the liquid level detecting section; and a washing control section for controlling a washing range based on the contamination adhering range.
WO 2010/110265 A1, assigned to Beckman Coulter, describes dispenser comprising a storage section for storing a voltage correction coefficient for each specimen type and voltage correction coefficients based on the type of containers which contain specimens, an information reader for acquiring specimen information and container information, a calculating section for calculating a threshold voltage on the basis of the voltage correction coefficient of a specimen and the voltage correction coefficient of a container, which have been extracted from the storage section, and a determination section for determining to be liquid-level detection when the signal received by a dispensing probe outputs the threshold voltage for a predetermined period or longer.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,030,554, assigned to Beckman Coulter, discloses a method for rapid preparation of a whole blood sample for photo-optical analysis.
EP 0 418 026 A2 refers to an apparatus for pretreating cells for flow cytometry.
WO 2009/150632 A2 discloses an apparatus for preparing controlled amounts of liquid for cytometry, which apparatus comprises a sampler having: motion imparting means for moving a main tray with one or more tubes thereon, each containing a controlled amount of liquid; a support and moving unit for supporting and moving a syringe that transfers preparation liquids into the tubes; a motion imparting mechanism for moving the piston of the syringe. The apparatus further comprises a centrifuge located beside the sampler and having an access opening for receiving the tubes, for selective removal of residues to be discarded from the controlled amounts of liquid. Furthermore, the sampler comprises a motorized gripping mechanism disposed in the support and moving unit and coaxial with the syringe, the support and moving unit being movable to allow the tubes to be carried from the main tray to the centrifuge, and vice versa.
EP 0 628 822 A2 teaches a blood analysis system or instrument, generally, including an incubator station, a sample and reagent holding station, a pipette assembly, a centrifuge, an analysis station, and a transport assembly. Generally, the incubation station holds containers while reagents and fluids are being dispensed in those containers, and, if desired, for incubating the containers. The sample and reagent holding station holds samples and a plurality of reagents, and the pipette assembly transfers fluids from that sample and reagent holding station to containers in the incubation station. The centrifuge is provided for centrifuging the container, and the analysis station is provided to analyze the containers, optically to identify reactions therein. The transport assembly carries the containers between the incubator station, the centrifuge, and the analysis station. Preferably, the pipette assembly is automatically operated to draw fluids and preselected reagents from the sample and reagent holding station, and to dispense fluids into the containers held in the incubation station to produce predetermined solutions therein. Also, the transport subassembly is automatically operated to carry containers from the incubator station to the centrifuge after the predetermined solutions have been produced in the containers, and then to carry the containers from the centrifuge to the analysis station.
None of the previously mentioned prior art products teaches a fully automated system as well as its sufficiently developed components/units/devices therein, where the system and its different components/devices are being adapted for cooperating and working together in a streamlined and seamless manner and for preparing of cells that are to be thereafter used in flow cytometry analysis.
One of the problems left unsolved in the art of flow cytometry is how to expedite the complete process of pretreating cells to be studied. Such pretreatment consists of many steps to be followed strictly in a prescribed order. Among the steps are introduction of reagents into cell samples within sample tubes, centrifugal treatment of the sample-reagent mixtures, removal of the unnecessary liquid tops from the sample tubes, staining of the cells with a fluorescent dye, and filtration of the samples. The actual process is much more complex.
One aspect of the present invention is to provide a system and improved apparatuses/devices for a fully automated and streamlined, as well as more effective/efficient, preparation or pretreatment procedure of cells preparatory to their flow cytometric or similar cytological studies.
It is also an aspect of the present invention is to provide for reducing or eliminating any possibility for contamination of cell sample(s) being prepared or pretreated.
Another aspect of the present invention is to provide for reducing the loss of too many cells during the preparation or pretreatment procedure or process.
Yet another aspect of the present invention is to provide for full control of antibody and reagent usage, as well as minimizing faulty on analysis due to manual mistakes when e.g. staining.

Instrument, apparatuses and devices for pretreating cells


According to one method, the method comprises: receiving, from a client via a REST API, input in a first format; converting, using predetermined metadata, the input in the first format into input in a second format; sending the input in the second format to a legacy system for performing an operation using the input in the second format; receiving, from the legacy system, output in the second format, wherein the output is based at least in part on the operation performed using the input in the second format; converting, using the predetermined metadata, the output in the second format into output in the first format; and sending, to the client via the REST API, the output in the first format.

Some computer systems use multiple data formats and/or protocols to communicate. For example, components in a cloud-based computer system may communicate using internet protocol (IP), hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP), and/or other protocols. Further, to allow communications between various entities, one or more application programming interfaces (APIs) may be supported to provide a standardized way for communications.
A representational state transfer (REST) API is one type of API for providing web services. For example, a REST API may allow communications between two systems via HTTP. In this example, an HTTP request containing a payload is sent to a uniform resource identifier (URI), e.g., uniform resource locator (URL), and, in response, an HTTP response containing a payload may be provided to the requester. However, some systems or components therein may be unable to process the payloads provided via a REST API since the data may be stored unsupported format.

Methods, systems, and computer readable media for data translation using a representational state transfer (REST) application programming interface (API)


A gas insulated switching device with a gastight housing, with switching elements mounted in the housing, having an optical window on which an external camera can be positioned outside the housing on a support element in such, that the contacts and/or the contact positions of one or more switches can be displayed by this camera on a display screen, and with a switchable light source, which illuminates the area the camera is focused on to display the contact positions of one or more switches, as well as a camera system having the switching device. For easier and more cost effective use of a camera system, considering that direct optical control of specific switch positions are often not desired, the camera may be portable and/or positionable only temporarily, and the support element and the camera itself are provided with complementary elements for temporarily positioning the portable camera to the support.

A switchgear with a camera system adapted to the switchgear housing, in order to make the position of the internal of the switches visable, is shown in CA 2 274 854 C. In this state of the art, the camera is fixed directly to the housing of switchgear, in order to be a fixed installed part of the switchgear. The resulting disadvantage is, that for each switchgear panel a separate camera is need.

Gas insulated switching device and camera system for optical check of switching position in the switching device


Impact copolymers, comprising an in-reactor blend of homopolymer polypropylene and an ethylene-propylene rubber, can be processed into spunbond non-woven fabrics. These fabrics have been shown to have increased ultimate extension without reduction in the ultimate tensile strength, as compared to conventional homopolymer polypropylene derived spunbond non-wovens.

Spunbond fabrics produced with homopolymer polypropylene ("HPP") are well known in the industry. These fabrics though, possess certain qualities that are not ideal. Specifically, spunbond non-woven fabrics comprising HPP are subject to certain processing limitations that affect the ways in which these fabrics may be handled when producing a finished product.
Typical tactics used to modify the physical characteristics of a given HPP spunbond non-woven to make it more workable for a given application include increasing or decreasing a variety of parameters, alone or in various combinations. Parameters that may be modified include calender bonding temperature, calender pressure, calender bonding area, fiber diameter, and the weight of the fabric per unit area (basis weight). Even, however, when each of the above described properties is optimized for a given application, the HPP spunbond non-woven is still subject to certain inherent limitations that cannot be overcome, optimization notwithstanding.
Two of the most difficult issues to address with HPP spunbond non-woven fabrics are the limited fabric extension at the ultimate tensile strength and the nature of the fabric extension under load.
In view of these deficiencies, there is a need for novel spunbond non-woven products exhibiting improved force-extension relationships as compared to those of standard HPP spun bond non-woven fabrics.


A transmission server reads out encoded data files from storage medium such as memory in itself and removable medium, and transmits the read-out file to the reproduction apparatus upon the request from the reproduction apparatus. A plurality of encoded video files are corresponding to an AV content. These encoded data files correspond to different reproduction modes respectively. The transmission server transmits an encoded file to the reproduction apparatus which corresponds to the requested AV content and the requested reproduction mode. Further, the transmission server switches files to be transmitted based upon a mode switching request from the reproduction apparatus. In other words, the file to be transmitted is switched from an encoded file corresponding to a pre-request reproduction mode to another corresponding to a post-request reproduction mode.

A fast-forward mode or a reverse mode is known as a trick mode among reproduction modes of digital video data. The Patent Citations 1 and 2 disclose techniques which provide higher quality images using the trick mode reproduction process.
The Patent Citation 1 discloses a method whereby separate trick play data that is only for reproduction in a fast-forward mode and in a fast-reverse mode is prepared in addition to normal play data to enable the switching of signals to be read-out depending on the reproduction modes requested from a terminal. The trick play data for fast-forward reproduction at n-times play speed has frame numbers of 1, n+1, 2n+1 . . . . Such a method enables a quick switch from a normal mode to a trick mode and vice versa, and, shortens the time for reading-out the data.
The Patent Citation 2 discloses an apparatus for reproducing encoded video data utilizing the Motion Picture Coding Experts Group (MPEG) video compression protocol. This apparatus reproduces encoded video data in a fast-forward mode at n-times play speed by only decoding I-pictures and P-pictures when the frame interval of anchor frames is n (n=2, 3). This apparatus also performs fast-forward playback at twice the play speed by outputting the same frame twice for every two frames when the frame interval of the anchor frames equals three. The frame interval of the anchor frames is a frame interval between I-picture and P-picture or a frame interval between P-pictures.    Patent Citation 1: Patent H06-133262    Patent Citation 2: Patent H11-155129


The present invention relates to a process for producing high-quality crystals of protein or organic substances easily and efficiently. A solution of protein or an organic substance is prepared and then is cooled slowly to be supersaturated to a low degree. This supersaturated solution is irradiated with a femtosecond laser 10. A local explosion phenomenon occurs at the focal point of the laser and thereby a crystalline nucleus is generated. A high-quality crystal is obtained when a crystal is grown on the crystalline nucleus over a long period of time. The femtosecond laser to be used herein can be a titanium:sapphire laser having a wavelength of 800 nm, a duration of 120 fs, a frequency of 1 kHz, and an output of 400 mW.

With the progress of post-genome studies, it has become necessary to analyze the protein structure urgently. In order to do that, however, it is necessary to crystallize protein. Furthermore, organic crystals are considered as promising next-generation device materials. Accordingly, there are great needs for the technique of producing high-quality organic crystals. Generally, in order to deposit crystals from a solution, it is necessary to increase the degree of supersaturation through solvent evaporation, a temperature change, etc. However, a substance with a high molecular weight such as an organic substance or protein is not crystallized unless the supersaturation degree is extremely high. Once crystallization takes place in such a solution whose supersaturation degree is extremely high, the crystal grows rapidly. Hence, there is a possibility that the crystal to be obtained thereby may have a problem in its quality. Furthermore, such a high-molecular-weight substance generally is difficult to crystallize, which results in low productivity. Usually, crystallization conditions are determined as a result of trial and error through actual attempts of crystallization. This, however, is too complicated to be practical in the case of substances such as protein, an organic substance, etc. that must be crystallized. There is an attempt to produce an organic crystal using a nanosecond Nd:YAG laser (Physical Review Letters 77 (1996) p3475; JP2002-068899). In this method, however, crystallization is not achieved satisfactorily and it is particularly difficult to crystallize protein.

Process for producing crystalline nucleus and method of screening crystallization conditions


A matrix display device, suitable for displaying TV pictures, has a plurality of display elements (20) arranged in a matrix array and defined by electrodes (33 and 41) on opposing substrates with, for example, liquid crystal material (32) therebetween and with the display elements being individually controllable via switching elements (40) such as thin film transistors. Each display element is sub-divided into a plurality of sub-elements using a plurality of sub-electrodes (55) on one substrate which are each connected via a series capacitor (C.sub.X) to a switching element, the ratio of capacitances of the sub-elements to their respective series capacitors differing from one another. As applied voltage is increased, progressively more sub-elements are caused to change state providing in effect various grey scale levels. Display materials having comparatively sharp switching characteristics can be used.

This invention relates to a matrix display device comprising a plurality of display elements arranged in a matrix and defined by respective electrodes carried on opposed substrates between which is disposed an electrically excitable display material which, together with the electrodes, exhibits capacitance in operation, and in which the display elements are controlled by selectively applying voltage to the respective electrodes via respective switching means carried on one substrate.
In a known example of such a display device in which the electrically excitable display material comprises liquid crystal material, each display element is defined by a respective electrode carried on the one substrate and an opposing portion of an electrode common to all display elements carried on the other substrate. The switching means comprise thin film transistors (TFTs) and are arranged in an array of rows and columns. A plurality of data lines are each connected to a respective column of the TFTs and a plurality of gate lines are each connected to a respective row of the TFTS.
The device is driven by repetitively scanning the gate lines in sequential fashion so as to turn on all TFTs in each row in turn and applying picture (data) signals to the data lines for each row in turn so as to build up a display picture. When each line of TFTs is turned "on", the TFTs in that line form conductive paths between the data lines and the one electrode of each of the display elements of that line which thus charge up to the applied data voltage. When the gate line voltage falls at the termination of energisation of that line, the TFTs in that line are all turned "off". This isolates the display element electrodes and charge is stored on each display element in view of the inherent capacitance of the display element structure although storage capacitors may also be used. The display elements stay in the state into which they were driven, determined by the applied data voltage, until the next time the associated TFTs are turned on, in the case of TV signals, this being every field period.
This kind of display device may be used for data graphic purposes or to display TV pictures by sampling each line in the video signal and placing the appropriate voltages on the data lines.
Particularly when the display device is being used to display TV pictures, a grey scale capability is needed. In known devices this is achieved in practice utilising the display element's transmission/voltage characteristic and by adjusting the voltage applied across each display element accordingly. The liquid crystal material employed is chosen to have a voltage switching characteristic that exhibits an exponential slope and varies slowly with voltage applied thereacross. This necessary restriction on the kind of liquid crystal matter used to one having a gradual switching characteristic also results in limitations of other properties of the material such as viewing angle in particular.


Systems, computer-readable media and methods for aggregating data items from an out-of-order data stream over a sliding window efficiently. The method delays the value aggregation for certain time windows and computes partial aggregations that can be reused for the multiple time windows. Aggregations may have any value type such as Boolean, integer, strings, floating point, vector and map.

Data—often machine generated nowadays, e.g., by the devices and components of IT systems—is (or must often be) processed and analyzed in real time. For instance, in the Internet of Things (IoT), various devices continuously generate data, which is immediately analyzed by services running in the cloud or directly at edge nodes. The processed data is then possibly forwarded to data consumers, which may combine it with data from others sources or make decisions based on it.
Processing such data is often done by stream processing frameworks, engines, or services like Apache Flink (see https websites: <<flink.apache.org>>; <<de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apache_Flink>>; <<azure.microsoft.com/en-us/services/stream-analytics/>>; and <<en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azure Stream Analytics>> (the entire contents of each of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety herein)), which process data online in the form of data or event streams. Their application areas are numerous and include system monitoring, system verification and debugging, intrusion, surveillance, fraud detection, data mining like in advertising and electronic trading, and many others.
Analyses in those application areas often involve some form of aggregating data in real time over a sliding window, cf. M. Stonebraker, U. Cetintemel, and S. Zdonik: "The 8 requirements of real-time stream processing," SIGMOD Record 34(4), 2005 (the entire contents of which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety). A simple example of a data aggregation over a sliding window is to continuously count the bids in an online auction over the last hour. Data aggregations over sliding windows are stateful computations. A state essentially consists of the currently active/incomplete time windows with their tentative aggregation values. A newly received stream element may create new time windows, trigger the update of multiple tentative aggregation values, and finalize the aggregation of several time windows. However, maintaining the state can be computationally expensive and the state updates can quickly become the bottleneck, in particular, in real-time applications with high data velocity.
The efficient processing of data streams is further complicated when stream elements may not be necessarily received in the order they are generated. The analysis results may depend on the order in which the data of the stream elements is processed. Network delays and retransmissions of network packets are one reason that stream elements may not be ordered in data streams. Buffering and reordering the stream elements delays the outcome of an analysis, i.e., harming the latency of the output of the processed data stream. Furthermore, buffering and reordering may result in a huge memory and computational overhead, which can quickly become another bottleneck.
D. Basin, F. Klaedtke, and E. Zalinescu: "Runtime verification over out-of-order streams," ACM Transactions on Computational Logic, 21(1):5, 2020 (the entire contents of which is hereby incorporated by reference herein) describes a graph-based data structure to monitor system behavior on out-of-order event streams. Optimizations of this graph-based data structure are described in F. Klaedtke: "Method for operating a monitoring entity," U.S. Ser. No. 10/725,887B2 (the entire contents of which is hereby incorporated by reference herein). However, in the described monitoring approach, the analysis results are restricted to Boolean values. Roughly speaking, one is limited to check whether a given specification is true or false at a time point. This limits also the aggregations to Boolean values.

Delayed propagations for sliding-window aggregations over out-of-order streams


Disclosed is a method for transitioning a remote station from a current serving network node having an enhanced security context to a new serving network node. In the method, the remote station provides at least one legacy key, and generates at least one session key based on a calculation using a root key and using an information element associated with the enhanced security context. The remote station forwards a first message having the information element to the new serving network node. The remote station receives a second message, from the new serving network node, having a response based on either the legacy key or the session key. The remote station determines that the new serving network node does not support the enhanced security context if the response of the second message is based on the legacy key. Accordingly, the remote station protects communications based on the legacy key upon determining that the enhanced security context is not supported.

1. Field
The present invention relates generally to an enhanced security context for user equipment operating in a Universal Mobile Telecommunications Service (UMTS), GSM Edge Radio Access Network (GERAN), and/or Long Term Evolution (LTE) or Evolved UTRAN (E-UTRAN).
2. Background
A successful AKA (Authentication and Key Agreement) authentication in a LTE fourth generation (4G) network or (UMTS third generation (3G) radio access network or in a GERAN networks using 3G AKA authentication results in a pair of shared keys, a cipher key (CK) and an integrity key (IK), for securing communications between a user equipment (UE) and the network. The shared keys may be used directly to secure the traffic between the UE and the network as in the case of UTRAN (UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network), or may be used to statically derive keys, e.g., KASME or keys derived from it, in the case of E-UTRAN and KC or KC128, in the case of GERAN (GSM Edge Radio Access Network).
A compromised key may result in serious security problems until the keys are changed at a next AKA authentication. Typically, the AKA authentication is not run often due to the significant overhead required. Also, if both keys (CK and IK) are compromised, then the keys used between the UE and the serving Radio Access Network may also get compromised.
In UMTS/HSPA (High Speed Packet Access) deployments, some or all of functionalities of a radio network controller (RNC) and a Node B may be collapsed together into one node at the edge of the network. The RNC needs the keys for functionalities such as user plane ciphering and signaling plane ciphering and integrity protection. However, the RNC functionality may be deployed in an exposed location such as in a Home Node B in a UMTS Femtocell. Accordingly, RNC functionality deployed in possibly insecure locations providing access (including physical access) may allow the keys, CK and IK, to be compromised.
Session keys (modified version of CK and IK) may be used to lower the security risks associated with exposed RNC functionality. Techniques for providing such session keys are disclosed in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. US 2007/0230707 A1.
Unfortunately, the use of such session keys require upgrade modifications to the serving networks. However, networks operators are likely to upgrade serving networks in a staged manner.
There is therefore a need for a technique for a remote station to interoperate with serving network nodes supporting an enhanced security context and with legacy serving network nodes.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Apparatus and method for transitioning from a serving network node that supports an enhanced security context to a legacy serving network node


A system and method for throttling transmissions of gathered computer system monitoring and asset data within a customer's communications network. A relay is provided within the network with an interface for transmitting messages to a downstream device such as the Internet. A data transmission throttle controls the downstream interface to transmit data at or below a data transfer threshold defining an allowable data transfer volume per transmission period. The method includes receiving customer input and modifying the data transfer threshold based on the input, with thresholds being set for a matrix of transmission periods (such as 24 hour by 7 day). The data transmission throttle determines whether messages exceed thresholds for the current transmission period, such as by comparing the size of the message to a data flow counter, and controls data transmissions by the relay to not exceed the threshold and by resetting the counter for each threshold.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates, in general, to computer system and network monitoring and reporting software and systems, and more particularly, to a method and system for controlling communication loads and timing in a network of client and service provider devices that utilizes a cascaded pipeline with a plurality of relays to provide a reliable store and forward mechanism with priority messaging and includes one or more throttle mechanisms for controlling network usage at one or more relays in the pipeline.
2. Relevant Background
The need for effective and cost efficient monitoring and control of servers and their clients and computer network components, i.e., systems management, continues to grow at a rapid pace in all areas of commerce. There are many reasons system management solutions are adopted by companies including reducing customer and service downtime to improve customer service and staff and customer productivity, reducing computer and network costs, and reducing operating expenditures (including reducing support and maintenance staff needs). A recent computer industry study found that the average cost per hour of system downtime for companies was $90,000 with each company experiencing 9 or more hours of mission-critical system downtime per year. For these and other reasons, the market for system monitoring and management tools has increased dramatically and with this increased demand has come pressure for more effective and user-friendly tools and features.
There are a number of problems and limitations associated with existing system monitoring and management tools. Generally, these tools require that software and agents be resident on the monitored systems and network devices to collect configuration and operating data and to control communications among the monitored devices, control and monitoring consoles, and a central, remote service provider. Data collected on the monitored systems is displayed on the monitoring console or client node with tools providing alerts via visual displays, emails, and page messages upon the detection of an operating problem. While providing useful information to a client operator (e.g., self-monitoring by client personnel), these tools often require a relatively large amount of system memory and operating time (e.g., in excess of 2 percent of device processing time).
Additionally, the volume of data and messages sent between monitored systems and the service provider server can include very large files, such as configuration and asset files, which results in congestion of data communication networks. This can be a significant problem at connections between the customer environment and public networks, such as the Internet, that may have volume limits or that may increase usage charges based on such spikes in data transmission volumes. Further, filling the customer communication networks with large data loads can result in communications that are important or even essential to the customer's business being slowed, temporarily delayed, or even lost. For most businesses, loss or slowing of data transmissions is unacceptable, especially during their core hours. For example, e-commerce businesses rely on both timely communications and reliable communications, e.g., secure communications with no or little loss of data. In addition to data volume problems, the timing of the transmissions of the gathered monitoring and asset data to the service provider can vary significantly over time in many monitoring systems leading to unpredictable congestion within the network. Again, delays and losses of communications within the network result from the large increases in network usage that occurs at unexpected and undesirable times for the affected business.
Hence, there remains a need for an improved system and method for monitoring computer systems that addresses the need for reliable and secure data and message transmissions. Such a system and method preferably would reliably and timely transfer commands, alarms or alerts, monitoring data, and asset and configuration data to facilitate timely monitoring of computer and network operations. Additionally, such a method and system would preferably effectively manage communication network usage within the customer's environment and at the interface between the customer's environment and public networks to minimize disruptions to the customer's ability to utilize its internal communication network and external or public communication connections.

System monitoring service using throttle mechanisms to manage data loads and timing