A novel approach to Borrelia vaccine formulation taking into account serological, genotypic and epidemiological information by which OspC proteins from different strains of B burgdorferi are grouped together. OspC antigens are chosen in order to constitute a representative sample of such groupings, so that the resulting vaccine provides the greatest cross-protectivity with the fewest number of antigens.

The present invention relates to the prevention and treatment of Lyme disease in mammals and in particular to immunogenic formulations comprising different serological forms of OspC to retard or prevent the development of Lyme disease. The invention also comprises recombinant methods for the preparation of novel antigens.
Lyme disease or Lyme borreliosis are terms used to describe the diverse clinical symptoms associated with tick-borne spirochetal infections caused by Lyme Disease Borrelia. Common manifestations of Lyme disease include disorders affecting the skin [erythema migrans (EM) or acrodermatitis chronica atrophicans (ACA)], nervous system (neuro-borreliosis), and joints (arthritis) but other organs and tissues may become infected and diseased. Lyme disease has a world-wide distribution and is the most prevalent tick-borne disease in both the United States and Europe. The range of clinical symptoms commonly associated with Lyme disease in Europe is broader than that in the United States, with skin and nervous system disorders being common in Europe but rare in the United States, whereas arthritis is more common in the United States than in Europe. The clinical symptoms in North America appear to be a subset of those observed in Europe.
Lyme disease is typically treated with antibiotics. Treatment may be delayed, however, due to the often complex clinical picture and the lack of widely available, reliable diagnostic tests. If the disease is allowed to proceed to a chronic condition, treatment with antibiotics is more difficult and is not always successful. Furthermore the prospect that permanent damage is induced is likely to be increased during the course of a prolonged infection. Accordingly, a vaccine to prevent Lyme disease is desirable.
Two antigens from Lyme disease Borrelia have been described that can protect against infection/disease by this organism as determined in animal models of Lyme disease. These antigens, OspA and OspC (or xe2x80x9cpCxe2x80x9d), therefore are likely candidates for inclusion in any vaccine designed to protect against Lyme disease. See Simon et al., European patent No. 418,827; Fikrig et al., Science 250: 553-56 (1990); Preac-Mursic et al., Infection 20: 342-49 (1992). OspA and OspC share many characteristics. Both are lipoproteins that are exposed at the cell-surface, (Howe et al., Science 227: 645-46 (1985); Bergstrom et al. Mol. Microbiol. 3: 479-486 (1989)), both are plasmid-encoded (Barbour et al., Science 237: 409-11 (1987); Marconi et al., J. Bacteriol. 175: 926-32 (1993)), the genes for these proteins are present in most strains (Barbour et al., J. Infect. Dis. 152: 478-84 (1985); Marconi et al., J. Bacteriol. 175: 926-32 (1993)), and both exist in multiple serologically distinct forms (Wilske et al., (1989)).
The existence of multiple, serologically distinct forms of these antigens is an obstacle to the development of an OspA and/or OspC vaccine to protect against most, if not all, forms of Lyme disease. For instance, it has been demonstrated by Fikrig et al., J. Immun. 148: 2256-60 (1992), that immunization with one serological form of OspA, such as recombinant OspA of strain N40, need not protect against a challenge with a strain expressing a different OspA, for example, strain 25015. Consequently, it is necessary to develop typing schemes to classify and group the different variants of the antigen i.e., OspA and/or OspC) such that the optimal mixture of serologically distinct forms of the antigen(s) that are needed to give broad protection can be determined.
A serotyping system for OspA has been developed using a limited number of monoclonal antibodies as the typing tools and 7 serotypes of OspA have been described using this methodology. Wilske et al., Ann. N.Y. Acad. sci. 539: 126-43 (1988). Restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis of OspA genes from 55 different European and North American strains identified six distinct genogroups. Wallich et al., Infection and Immunity 60: 4856-66 (1992). OspA proteins from North American isolates seem to be reasonably uniform since twelve of fourteen OspA""s belonged to OspA type I and two to OspA type III. By contrast, the OspA""s from European isolates are much more heterogeneous and include representatives of OspA types I (18), II (17), IV (4) and V (1). Construction of a phylogenetic tree based on sequence data for twelve OspA proteins from individual strains of B. burgdorferi supports the findings of the RFLP analysis but sequence information from isolates from two of the six genogroups is still lacking. At present no typing system exists for OspC.
Another consideration when selecting the appropriate antigens for inclusion in a vaccine is whether they are derived from strains that are epidemiologically important for the disease. In the mid-1970""s it was postulated that pathogenic bacteria arise from a limited number of clones of highly related bacteria that in some way have a selective advantage in causing disease. This clonal hypothesis has since been confirmed. See Achtman et al., J. Infect. Dis. 165: 53-68 (1992). Thus, it is highly likely that among the numerous strains of Lyme disease Borrelia found in nature, only a limited number of xe2x80x9cclonesxe2x80x9d exist that are highly adapted to causing mammalian, and in particular human, disease. In developing a vaccine to protect against disease in mammals and hence also in humans, it is of paramount importance to identify disease associated clones so that efforts can be concentrated against them. Thus it is necessary to elucidate the population structure of the species Lyme disease Borrelia and identify disease associated clones.
To date, a number of methods have been used to resolve the population structure of Lyme disease Borrelia, including (A) RFLP analysis of genomic DNA or of specific genes (LeFebvre et al., J. Clin. Micriobiol. 27: 636-39 (1989); Marconi and Garon, J. Bacteriol 174: 241-44 (1992); Postic et al., Res. Micriobiol. 141: 465-75 (1990); Stahlhammar-Carlemalm et al., Zbl. Bak 274: 28-39 (1990); Adam et al., Infect. Immun. 549: 2579-85 (1991); Wallich et al., Infect. Immun. 60: 4856-66 (1992)), (B) DNA-DNA hybridization (LeFebvre et al., J. Clin. Micriobiol. 27: 636-39 (1989); Postic et al., Res. Micriobiol. 141: 465-75 (1990)), (C) analysis of 16S rRNA by hybridization to oligonucleotide probes (Marconi et al., J. Clin. Micriobiol 30: 628-32 (1992) or by sequencing (Adam et al., Infect. Immun. 59: 2579-85 (1991); Marconi and Garon, J. Bacteriol. 174: 241-44 (1992)), (D) fingerprinting by an arbitrarily primed polymerase chain reaction (Welsh et al., Int. J. System. Bacteriol. 42: 370-77 (1992)), (E) multi-locus enzyme electrophoresis (Boerlin et al., Infect. Immun. 60: 1677-83 (1992)) and (F) serotyping of isolates (Peter and Bretz, Zbl. Baktk. 277: 28-33 (1992)).
There is broad agreement between the results obtained by these different procedures. In general, it appears that Lyme disease Borrelia isolates can be divided into at least three major groups. Indeed, some investigators believe that the genetic distances between members of these groups is sufficient to merit differentiating them into three separate species: B.burgdorferi sensu stricto (type strain B31), B.garinii sp. nov. (type strain 20047) and a species designated B.afzelii or the xe2x80x9cgroup VS461 Borrelia.xe2x80x9d See Baranton et al., Int. J. Syst. Bacteriol. 42: 378-383, 1992; Marconi and Garon, supra.
The significance of the existence of these different groups for vaccine development remains to be fully elucidated. It is clear from the data of Wallich et al., Infection and Immunity 60: 4856-66 (1992), that there is a strong association between the genogroup to which an isolate belongs and the type of OspA that is produced: isolates from the group containing strain B31 (genogroup AAA or B.burgdorferi sensu stricto) produce a type I OspA (all of thirty strains analyzed), isolates from the group containing strain 20047 (genogroup BBB or B.garinii sp. nov.) usually produce a type II (17/19) OspA but types V (1/19) and VI (3/39) were also noted, isolates from the clone containing strain BO23 (genogroup BBA or group VS 461) produce a type IV OspA (4/4), the remaining two isolates (genogroup B, B/A, A) produce a type III OspA.
Lyme disease isolates from North America predominantly belong to one group (genogroup AAA or B.burgdorferi sensu stricto), represented by strain B31, and consequently produce a type I OspA. This suggests that a vaccine containing a type I OspA may be sufficient to protect against most isolates causing Lyme disease in North America at the present time. In Europe the picture is more complex, since all three major clones are found and there is correspondingly an increased diversity in the types of OspA present (genotypes I, II, IV, V, VI). Furthermore, OspA was found not to protect in two studies, conducted using Lyme disease isolates from Europe, which also demonstrated the utility of OspC as a protective antigen. See U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/903,580; Preac-Mursic et al., Infection 20: 342-49 (1992).
It was not known heretofore whether OspC was clonally inherited, with specific types of OspC restricted to particular groups of Lyme disease isolates (that is, to B.burgdorferi sensu stricto, B.garinii sp. nov. or group VS461). As OspC is plasmid encoded, Marconi et al., J. Bacteriol. 175: 926-32 (1993), it was conceivable that there had been plasmid-mediated transfer of the OspC gene between the different species of Lyme disease isolates. If this were the case, then the different types of OspC which are known to exist but which have not been defined, would not necessarily be clonally inherited.
It is the object of the present invention to provide an effective OspC vaccine, with broad cross protective levels in relation to all strains, against Lyme disease in mammals, by selecting OspC formulations based on defined OspC families resolved by phenotypic typing (the OspC xe2x80x9cserovarxe2x80x9d typing) and RFLP typing analyses, and sequence analysis of a large variety of strains of worldwide origin.
Furthermore, the OspC gene has been discovered to be clonally inherited. Consequently, it now is possible to interpret the results of the OspC typing schemes in view of epidemiological information from a xe2x80x9cCommon Membrane Antigen Typingxe2x80x9d (CMAT) scheme, described below, which can be used to elucidate the clonal population structure of Lyme disease Borrelia strains. By the same token, it also now is possible to select the most appropriate OspC vaccine formulations either (a) to enable one to design vaccines to protect against strains prevalent within defined geographical regions or (b) to protect specifically and preferentially against epidemiological important disease associated clones or clonal clusters of B. burgdorferi.
In accomplishing these and other objectives, there has been provided, in accordance with one aspect of the present invention, an immunogenic composition comprising
(a) an amount of material comprising (i) one or more OspC antigens of Lyme disease Borrelia substantially purified from each of the 20 currently recognized OspC families of FIG. 11 or (ii) OspC variants or OspC mimetics of said OspC antigens, said OspC variants or OspC mimetics having a structure that is sufficiently similar to native OspC to induce the production of protective antibodies; and
(b) a physiologically-acceptable excipient therefore, wherein said amount is sufficient to elicit, in a mammal susceptible to Lyme borreliosis, an immune response that is protective against Lyme borreliosis.
According to a further embodiment, the above immunogenic composition comprises one or more, preferably two or more, OspC antigens of Lyme disease Borrelia of the 20 currently recognized OspC-families of FIG. 11 or OspC variants or OspC mimetics of said antigens as defined above under (ii), and a physiologically-acceptable excipient as defined above under (b).
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, an immunogenic composition is provided that comprises an amount of material comprising (i) one or more OspC antigens of Lyme disease Borrelia substantially purified from each of the OspC-families of FIG. 19 expressed by the human disease associated (HDA) clones and clonal clusters or (ii) OspC variants or OspC mimetics of the OspC antigens, said OspC variants or OspC mimetics having a structure that is sufficiently similar to native OspC to induce the production of protective antibodies; and
(b) a physiologically-acceptable excipient therefore, wherein said amount is sufficient to elicit, in a mammal susceptible to Lyme borreliosis, an immune response that is protective against Lyme borreliosis.
As a preferred embodiment, the above immunogenic composition comprises one or more, preferably two or more, OspC antigens of the ospC-families of FIG. 19, or OspC variants or OspC mimetics as defined above under (ii), and a physiologically-acceptable excipient as defined above under (b).
In a preferred embodiment, an immunogenic composition within the present invention is designed to protect against Lyme disease Borrelia strains prevalent within a particular geographic region, such as North America, Europe or Austria. As a preferred embodiment a combined OspA/OspC vaccine, which is superior to a vaccine formulated with either antigen alone is claimed.
The invention also comprises recombinant methods for the production of novel OspC antigens together with DNA sequences, expression vectors, and transformed host cells.
Other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description. It should be understood, however, that the detailed description and the specific examples, while indicating preferred embodiments of the invention, are given by way of illustration only, since various changes and modifications within the spirit and scope of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from this detailed description.

Immunogenic formulation of OSPC antigen vaccines for the prevention and treatment of lyme disease and recombinant methods for the preparation of such antigens


Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for distributed forensics analysis. In one aspect, a method includes sending one or more requests to a client as part of a serialized flow for performing forensics analysis associated with the client; suspending the serialized flow at a first state; receiving responses to the one or more requests; resuming the flow at the first state to process the received responses; and advancing the serialized flow to a second state.

This specification relates to network communications.
In a conventional enterprise environment, digital investigations are often associated with incident response. Incident response includes the detection and investigation of system compromises and targeted attacks. Within a corporate setting, for example, investigations typically focus on timely response and damage assessment in addition to maintaining evidentiary standards. The typical enterprise owns and deploys many machines, or assets, serving a multitude of roles, for example, workstations, laptops, and servers. All these machines can be used as launch points for internal attacks and may become involved in forensic investigations. Traditional forensic acquisition of machine data includes shutting the target machine down, removing its disk and acquiring a bit for bit copy of the drive, followed by a manual analysis of the drive image.


A parallel recursive neural network, including: a memory configured to store data and processing instructions; and a parallel computer processor configured to: receive a set of input values; apply a recursive layer function individually on each of the set of input values in parallel to produce a set of hidden states; apply a reduction function on pairs of adjacent hidden states in the set of hidden states in parallel to produce a new set of hidden states; and repeat applying the reduction function of pairs of adjacent states in the new set of hidden states in parallel until a single output hidden state results.

In many machine learning applications in healthcare, the input is an arbitrary-length sequence of elements, including classification of waveform data, and natural language processing of clinical notes. Recurrent neural networks (RNNs) are often effective, but can be difficult to train to high accuracy on long sequences with long-range dependencies and difficult to implement efficiently on highly-parallel processing architectures such as GPUs. Methods and systems based on recurrent neural network (RNN) models are widely applied, but have high computational cost, especially on long sequences, limiting their applicability in resource-constrained settings.

Parallel sequence reductions with recursive neural networks


A system for determining a basket of financial instruments for hedging investment risk in actively managed exchange traded funds is described. The system uses a trusted computer system and includes a computer storage medium storing a computer program product. The product determines the basket of hedging instruments by extracting factor information from a portfolio of the actively managed exchange traded fund and determining factors that affect the price of the exchange traded fund. The program can select a portfolio of instruments with similar behavior with respect to the determined factors to produce a hedging portfolio that tracks the price of the exchange traded fund.

This invention relates to hedging techniques for exchange traded funds or similar basket products.
Exchange traded funds or basket products such as S&P 500 Depository Receipts (SPDRs) are vehicles for holding a basket of securities that can be traded on an exchange or securities market. More specifically, these instruments usually represent I an undivided ownership interest in a portfolio of stocks or other securities held by a Trust. The portfolio of stocks is often intended to track the performance of an index like the S&P 500 Index, and therefore seeks to invest substantially all of its assets in the stocks comprising the S&P 500 index, in proportion to the relative weights of stocks in that index. SPDR shares are securities issued by the SPDR Trust and may be traded on a stock exchange or in over the counter transactions.
The intra-day pricing of such securities is determined by supply and demand. Typically, these SPDR fund shares may be created or redeemed at the end of each business day at a net asset value price in so called "creation units". In the case of the SPDRs the creation unit has 50,000 SPDR fund shares. SPDR creation units are created or redeemed at the end of day net asset value through an in-kind transfer of securities corresponding to the S&P 500 index. While the official net asset value (NAV) of the SPDR Trust is only published at the close of every business day, the estimated value of the underlying S&P 500 index and the value of the creation basket are published continuously throughout each trading day. The per SPDR value of the index and/or the creation basket can be devised and distributed electronically to brokers, dealers, and investors throughout the world.
An intra-day value disseminated by the exchange is a real time calculation designed to give an investor a per share price which is very close to what the intraday net asset value would be, if it were calculated. At the end of trading, the intraday approximate calculation and the official NAV should be nearly identical.
Intraday values of exchange traded trusts such as SPDRs or mutual funds such as the Select Sector SPDRs may be evaluated from the publicly available creation basket or the index on a per share basis throughout the day as if the creation basket or the index were the portfolio of the fund. The calculation is relatively straight forward, since the creation basket composition changes little from day to day unless the index changes. While the fund may contain proportionately a few more shares of one stock and a few less of another stock than would be provided by multiplying the creation basket by the number of creation baskets that constitutes the fund, the calculation is very close to net asset value.
Trading on exchanges such as the America Stock Exchange involves a trader called a specialist. A specialist tries to match buy orders with sell orders in a manner that maintains an orderly market. Often specialists and market makers (who make markets for securities on exchanges or on electronic markets such as The Nasdaq Stock Market and who have obligations similar to but less demanding than those of the specialists to help maintain an orderly market) will have to take a contrary position to the prevalent position in the market by placing their own capital at risk. In securities markets, during the course of a trading day, there can be a net demand for a security, e.g., an exchange traded fund. Thus, over the course of a trading day, the specialist and any market makers trading the security can be selling more shares of a security than they are buying. In this situation, the specialist might buy components of the fund or derivatives based on the fund or on an underlying index in order to hedge its position. If the specialists and market makers have bought more shares of a security than they have sold, they might sell short components of the fund or associated derivatives to hedge their positions.

Hedging exchange traded mutual funds or other portfolio basket products


When a request to connected a requesting user to a target user is received by the social networking system, information associated with the requesting user and with users connected to the target user is retrieved. A fraud probability score indicating a probability that the requesting user is impersonating a user connected to the target user is determined based on the information associated with the requesting user and with users connected to the target user. Based on the fraud probability score, a determination is made whether the requesting user is a suspected imposter and remedial action is taken if imposter is suspected.

This invention relates generally to social networking systems, and in particular to the detection and remediation of imposter accounts in a social networking system.
Social networking systems allow users to create accounts that are tied to their identities. The users may be individuals or entities such as corporations or charities. Using their user accounts, users connect to other social networking system users and share information with other social networking system users. However, a user may create an account duplicating an account of another user (an "impostor account') to impersonate another person or entity. The impostor account may be used to provide the appearance that the duplicated user endorses or provides content or for another purpose.
Conventionally, social networking systems manually review imposter accounts based on users reporting imposter accounts. Such a manual review process may require significant human resources and depends on users to identify and report impostor accounts. In recent years, the number of reported impostor accounts has made the management of these reports an overwhelming task.
More recently, account management processes have reduced the amount of human resources used when an imposter account is reported. These account management processes use algorithms to help automate determination of the likelihood that an account is fraudulent. However, conventional processes still require users to report imposter accounts before remedial action is taken. Hence, if a user does not realize an account is an imposter account, no remedial action is taken regarding the imposter account.

Imposter account detection and remediation in a social networking system


An apparatus and method for down-link multiple-antenna transmission in a wireless communication system is provided wherein a base station section comprises: a down-link specific physical channel unit, a second common pilot channel unit, a beam weighting unit of common pilot channels, a multiplexing and summing unit, a down-link specific physical channel weighting unit, a specific physical channel and second common pilot channel multiplexing unit, an antenna array unit, a multiple-beam weight vector set unit, up-link specific physical channels, and a feedback bit information unit; and a service cell section or mobile station section comprises: an antenna unit, a channel evaluating unit, a beam selection unit, and a beam quantizing unit. The space characteristics of the physical channels are utilized reasonably. Accordingly, a beam gain is obtained, interference is suppressed effectively, and the apparatus is easy to operate.

The capacity of a wireless communication system depends on the capacity that the down-link links can support to a large extent. The traditional single-antenna transmission technology has been far unable to adapt to worse and worse wireless transmission environment. Advanced down-link transmission technology has played an important role in improving system performance and increasing capacity. Thus, various transmission technologies (related to time, multipath, space, and the like), which are able to obtain diversity gain, have been paid closer and closer attention and applied more and more in the recent years.
Two-antenna transmission diversity technology used for a base station (referred to as "Node B") in a code division multiple access (CDMA) system is determined by 3GPP Rel'99 protocol standard. It mainly uses the characteristics that signal fading during signal transmission is not associated with the fact that different antennas are used if the antennas are spaced apart with a distance larger than 10 wavelength of a carrier wave. So, the signals transmitted by the respective antennas are typically combined by employing a maximum ratio, thereby preventing multipath signal fading and enhancing system performance.
One of the wide-band features of a wide-band code division multiple access (WCDMA) system is to use multipath diversity of wireless transmission channels. The transmission antenna with increased number of Node B can be equivalent to increasing the number of propagation multipaths, which enables to obtain a larger gain of multipath diversity. Different technologies of multiple-antenna transmission diversity have been proposed in recent years.
Space diversity gain can be provided by an antenna array. Based on the same statistic characteristics of a domain of up- and down-link channels, the capacity of a wireless communication system can also be increased by formation technology which forms a wave beam of a down-link antenna array, wherein an evaluated up-link destination object angle (DOA) is utilized. However, the diversity gain obtained therein is limited.
Multiple-antenna closed-loop diversity array requires lager spaces between antenna units, normally larger than ten times of the wavelength. The multiple-antenna closed-loop diversity array will occupy more space. Multiple-antenna closed-loop diversity array requires higher feedback bits. If the original feedback rate does not change, the channel fading becomes worsen with higher speed, and the performance will be deteriorated. Furthermore, although multiple-antenna closed-loop diversity array has an effect for resisting the multipath fast fading, it cannot provide antenna gain and suppress the multiple access interference signals effectively.
It is often required by the multiple-antenna closed-loop diversity array that a user equipment (UE) calculate not only the short period fast variation weight vectors, but also the long period slow variation beam weight vector sets in each time slot. In one aspect, the complexity of UE is increased excessively while more feedback bits are required for feeding back the long period slow variation beam weight vector sets, even though the low feedback rate may be used by the slow variation beam weight vector sets.
The technology for forming down-link beams of an antenna array is still not perfect. A representative down-link method is based on that the statistic characteristics of the up- and down-link channels are the same, and DOA evaluated in an up-link is used to transmit in a down-link. In a frequency division duplex (FDD) mode, the difference between operation frequencies of up- and down-links would require a correction or adaptation system. Moreover, although the above method has space diversity gain, it does not resolve the problem of multipath fast fading.

Method and apparatus for down-link feedback multiple antenna transmission in wireless communication system


The method according to the invention comprises providing a flexible line (18) and a bend limiter axially immobilized around the flexible line (18) by a releasable immobilizing mechanism (46). It includes partially inserting the flexible line (18) through a hollow rigid member (40), immobilizing the bend limiter on the hollow rigid member (40), and deactivating the releasable immobilizing mechanism (46). The releasable immobilizing mechanism (46) is deactivated independently of the movement of the flexible line (18) relative to the bend limiter.

Such a method is in particular implemented in hydrocarbon exploitation solutions passing through an expanse of water, for example comprising a rigid structure fixed on the sea bottom or a floating structure such as a naval surface support, a semi-submersible platform, a floating riser, or a ship.
The flexible line to be connected on the structure is for example a flexible rising fluid transport pipe, also referred to as a riser. "Flexible pipes" refers to those described in the normative documents published by the American Petroleum Institute (API), API 17J and API RP 17 B and well known by those skilled in the art. More generally, the flexible line may be a composite bundle, a set of umbilicals or electrical cables.
The method of the aforementioned type is used during the installation and connection of the flexible line on the surface structure.
To that end, to reduce the risks of damage to the structure and the flexible line, it is known to submerge the flexible line in the expanse of water below the surface structure, and to raise it up to the connection area situated on the surface structure using a winch. Such a connection is referred to as a "pull-in".
The flexible line is guided on the structure by inserting it through a hollow rigid tube secured to the structure, oriented vertically, which constitutes a protective sleeve. The hollow tube is for example of the "I-tube" or "J-tube" type.
At the upper output of the tube, the flexible line is connected on the surface installation.
To avoid deteriorating the flexible line, in particular under the effect of the agitation of the water that may cause it to come into contact with the structure, it is known to mount a bend limiter, engaged around the flexible line, capable of locally imposing a bend radius greater than the minimum bend radius that the flexible line may occupy.
In the rest of the text, "bend limiter" refers to bend limiters for example made up of hinged rigid elements called "vertebrae", and limiters for example made up of multiple blocks of plastic material, as well as combinations of those elements.
A bend limiter is for example positioned around the flexible line in the vicinity of its upper end to cooperate with the hollow tube during the insertion of the flexible line into the tube.
To that end, first, the bend limiter and the flexible line are moved jointly toward the lower end of the hollow tube until the limiter is partially inserted into the hollow tube. Then, secondly, the flexible line is moved upward relative to the bend limiter to raise it through the hollow tube in order for it to be connected on the surface structure.
During the second phase, the bend limiter is kept immobile in translation in the hollow tube by embedding and/or fastening using gripping collars.
WO 98/23845 describes a method using a single winch to pull the flexible line and the bend limiter while temporarily securing the bend limiter to the flexible line using a frangible pin.
During the raising of the bend limiter toward the lower end of the hollow tube, the bend limiter and the flexible line move jointly. The bend limiter is then fastened to the lower end of the tube. Sufficient upward traction is then applied on the flexible line so as to break the frangible pin to allow the upward movement of the flexible line relative to the bend limiter.
Such a method is not fully satisfactory. In fact, to allow the release of the flexible line relative to the bend limiter, it is necessary to move the line locally relative to the bend limiter to cause the frangible pins to break. Such movement results from the implementation of an upward traction force on the flexible line. Such a force may deteriorate the pipe.
Furthermore, the method is complex and requires great reliability of the mechanical parts inserted between the flexible line and the bend limiter.

Method for connecting a flexible line to a structure of a fluid exploitation installation and associated connection device


An implantable cardiac stimulation device is equipped with a hardware elastic buffer. In an exemplary device, the hardware elastic buffer comprises SRAM and a SRAM controller. The device optionally includes averaging, concatenating, filling and/or other features.

Implantable stimulation devices operate on limited power and limited memory. Storage of information relevant to the condition of a patient's heart consumes these precious resources. For example, a typical implantable stimulation relies heavily on software instructions to store information. Software consumes execution time and consequently shortens the longevity of the device. Accordingly, there is a need for improved information storage methods and devices that reduce software execution requirements.

Implantable stimulation device equipped with a hardware elastic buffer


A transdermal therapeutic system comprising the active substance estradiol and having a layered structure of a backing layer which is impermeable to active substances and moisture, and active substance-containing matrix, and, if necessary, a removable protective layer covering the matrix, is characterized by the fact that the matrix comprises glycerol either comprising a maximum of 1%-wt. of water or being substantially free from water.

In the therapy of several diseases, Transdermal Therapeutic Systems (TTS) have been introduced on the market for some time now.
Also, TTSs comprising the active substance estradiol have been on the market as therapeutic agents for climacteric complaints, and, since a short time ago, also against osteoporosis; they have proved successful in therapy.
In the following the term "estradiol" is to be understood as the anhydrous substance of 17-.beta.-estradiol.
A disadvantage of prior art systems is the insufficient capability of the active substance to permeate through the skin. This cannot be increased beyond a certain limit, the so-called "saturation flow", although several galenic measures with respect to the TTS-design have been taken (use of multilayer systems, use of controlling membranes, variation of the active substance concentration, modification of the base polymer, and the like). This finding that the transdermal flow of an active substance from the solid, finely dispersed phase cannot be increased further in principle, can already be found in the still trailblazing works of Higuchi (e.g., T. Higuchi; Physical Chemical Analysis of percutaneous absorption process from creams and ointments. J. Soc. Cosmetic Chem. 11, p. 85-97 (1990).
The systems described in EP 0 421 454 comprise estradiol in an acrylic polymer under addition of "crystallization inhibitors" and tackifying resins. Swelling agents are contained to give protection against premature loss of adhesive force.
In addition, with a lot of active substances, so-called "enhancers" can be added to the TTS during production. These are usually liquid admixtures improving the absorption properties of human skin; for this reason, they allow the absorption of the active substance from a sufficiently small TTS-surface.
Readily volatile enhancers, e.g., ethanol used for the active substance estradiol, particularly involve problems caused by an extreme softening of the TTSs' adhesive layers, and they require additional bulky compartments in the system, rendering the TTS unacceptably thick.
The addition of less volatile, however, mostly less active enhancers (e.g., glycerol esters, cyclic amides, eucalyptol) allows the production of matrix systems comprising active substances and an absorption-promoting component in one or several layers. However, the insufficient adhesive force of these TTSs is disadvantageous. U.S. Pat. No. 4 863 738 represents one of many examples claiming the application of active substances, e.g., estradiol, together with a certain enhancer (in this case glycerol monooleate) in an optional TTS-matrix and in an optional concentration.
However, even such a prior art TTS does not permit a satisfactory therapy either. The reason is that either the chosen enhancers are poorly tolerated by the skin or that the systems have unacceptably large surfaces owing to the still insufficient flow through the skin.
Another (theoretic) possibility of increasing the active substance flow through the skin is to dissolve more active substance molecularly disperse, i.e., crystal-free, in the TTS than corresponds to the saturation solubility. The permeation rate through the skin increases to the same extent as the degree of supersaturation of these systems. However, these physical states are thermodynamically unstable, therefore these forms of administration are not storable. Within some months or years, at the latest, a spontaneous unforeseeable precipitation of active substance will take place so that the flow rate through the skin gradually decreases to the saturation flow level; depending on the starting concentration, this results in losing a great portion of the initial therapeutic activity.
This process occurring during storage is due to particular physicochemical characteristic features of estradiol.
At room temperature and normal relative air humidity (20-60% relative humidity), estradiol is not present in one of the two known anhydric modifications (I and II) but as a semihydrate (Busetta, Acta Cryst. 1972, B28, 560). Owing to the layered structure stabilized via hydrogen bridges, and because of the diffusional compactness of the crystal compound, the hydrate can be subjected to a short-term heat treatment to temperatures of about 170.degree. C. without decomposition thereof (Kuhnert-Brandstatter and Winkler (1976) Scientia Pharmaceutica 44 (3), 177-190). However, estradiol-semihydrate can quantitatively be converted into the anhydrous form already at about 120.degree. C. by way of enlarging the crystal surface by means of micronizing. According to the inventors' observations, the transformation already takes place at about 90.degree. C. if heating is conducted slowly (0.2-1 K/min) and in case of a particularly fine substance.
With decreasing partial water vapor pressure, on the other hand, estradiol has a higher solubility in some polymers, particularly in polyacrylates. According to Fick's law, higher concentrations with otherwise same conditions increase the diffusion flow through the skin; for this reason such a concentration increase is very desirable in transdermal therapeutic systems. However, the water introduced with the estradiol-semihydrate is already sufficient to cause gradual recrystallization from the solution as estradiol-semihydrate (Kuhnert-Brandstatter and Winkler (1976) Scientia Pharmaceutica 44 (3), 177-190). During crystallization, the flow rate from the system to the skin considerably decreases with the diminishing concentration.
Accordingly, transdermal therapeutic systems are known that offer a pharmacotherapeutically satisfying solution by exactly regulating the concentration to below the saturation solubility of the estradiol-anhydrate (DE-PS 42 37 453) or by using partially undissolved, disperse estradiol-anhydrate (DE-PS 42 23 360). Even in consideration of this latest state of the art, it is important to maintain a sufficiently low atmospheric humidity during production and storage of an estradiol-TTS in order to avoid large-area precipitation of the poorly soluble estradiol-semihydrate.
To this end, a package having a low water-vapor permeability can be used in principle. However, owing to the small estradiol amounts contained in today's TTSs, very small amounts of humidity are sufficient to cause precipitation of the estradiol-semihydrate. If, for example, 2 mg of estradiol (anhydrous) are present in a TTS in dissolved form, an amount (calculated on the basis of the molecular-weight ratios) of only 66.1 .mu.g of water can cause complete precipitation. Using conventional packaging means, it is therefore very difficult to exclude entry of such small quantities of moisture over storage periods of several years.

Estradiol-TTS having water-binding additives


A system and method provide Time-of-Use (TOU) rate schedules that are bound by windows of time, i.e., a type of fuzzy switch time, which is bounded on both sides, rather than instantaneous switch times. The fuzzy TOU schedule defines the time of a tier switch as the end time of the first completed interval recorded after the start of some window of time. A monitoring system may be included that implements configurable usage filters that allow for the classification of usage in terms of interval data. Usage filters can be defined so that they are applied against individual interval readings, various aggregations of interval readings, and/or the statistical products of interval readings, etc. A filtering algorithm allows for the comparison of incoming and/or historical interval data against defined usage and schedule filters to determine if usage is abnormal and should be investigated further.

An automated means for collecting meter data involves a fixed wireless network. Devices such as, for example, repeaters and gateways are permanently affixed on rooftops and pole-tops and strategically positioned to receive data from enhanced meters fitted with radio-transmitters. Typically, these transmitters operate in the 902-928 MHz range and employ Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum (FHSS) technology to spread the transmitted energy over a large portion of the available bandwidth. Data is transmitted from the meters to the repeaters and gateways and ultimately communicated to a central location.
With the increased sophistication of meter reading techniques has come the corresponding sophistication of billing techniques. For example, energy meters may be operated as either a "demand" meter or as a "time-of-use" (TOU) meter. TOU meters allow a power company to provide greater differentiation by which the energy is billed. Energy metered during peak hours will be billed differently than electrical energy billed during non-peak hours. Also, demand meters allow for a billing charge based on the maximum amount of power consumed in a given period of time (e.g., 15 minutes). As a result, keeping track of time in the meter, both relative and absolute, has become more significant.
However, devices without clocks (e.g., water and gas meters) traditionally have not been able to provide TOU metering. TOU metering would be beneficial in the context of water and gas metering because TOU pricing helps distribute demand more evenly over a period of time. In the context of electricity, electrical energy is generated and reserve capacity not easily stored. While water and gas supplies are not generated, they must be pressurized and reserve capacity must be pumped to storage containers. Demand on the water and gas systems in the form of usage at endpoints results in a drop in system-wide pressure, which must be overcome using pumps. Since these pumps are almost always electrical, water usage is tied, though somewhat indirectly, to electricity usage. Demand on the water supply system is therefore related to demand on the electrical system and some of the same reasons to evenly distribute demand, or move demand into off-peak times, exist with water and gas systems as with electricity systems.
In addition, as water supplies in urban areas become more and more limited, municipalities may look for ways to limit water use (e.g., by using punitive pricing or restricting use outright). Examples of usage restrictions include daily restrictions on commercial and residential irrigation users, e.g., odd/even watering days, prohibited watering days, etc. TOU water metering will offer additional pricing and enforcement flexibility. For example, some municipalities have implemented limits on irrigation use by limiting irrigation to particular days of the week. This is typically enforced by visual inspection, but is fundamentally a time of use issue. Therefore, with TOU water metering, municipalities could penalize usage outside of certain time windows, for example mid-day (which is less efficient than late evening or early morning) or off-day irrigation, with higher pricing.
Water theft is another area of increasing concern for not only municipalities, but also for the individual consumers that may be affected. It would be desirable to monitor usage behavior via the data collection system. By comparing collected interval data against predefined usage profiles and schedules, suspect usage can be identified and the appropriate authorities automatically notified. Future visual inspections can thus be more appropriately targeted to suspected violators.
Therefore, there is a need to provide efficient techniques for providing TOU billing and data collection in relative time, clock-less metering devices, as well as a mechanism to detect fraudulent consumption.

Fuzzy time-of-use metering and consumption monitoring using load profile data from relative time transmit-only devices


A parallel computing system includes: each computing node including: a first channel receiving data which a preceding node transfers, and transferring received data to a subsequent node; a second channel receiving data which a preceding node transfers, and transferring received data to a subsequent node; and a computational processor receiving data which the first or second channel has received, and transferring processed data to a subsequent node; an input-output node including: a third channel receiving data which the first channel or the computational processor of a preceding node transfers; a fourth channel receiving data which the first channel or the computational processor of a preceding computing node transfers, and transferring the received data to the second channel of a subsequent computing node; and an input-output processor receiving data which the third channel has received, and transferring inputted and outputted data to the first channel of a subsequent computing node.

In a parallel computer in recent years, the necessity for a ring network and a torus network which extended the ring network to multiple dimensions increases. In the parallel computer, a plurality of computing nodes are connected by a network. In the parallel computer, a cost concerning node connection in a network poses a problem as the computing node increases. The ring network is advantageous because the cost concerning connections between many nodes is low.
In the ring network, the cost concerning the node connection is low. Also, the ring network is a symmetrical network. The symmetry of the network is a feature necessary to use the whole network efficiently and equally. Especially, since the parallel calculation program often causes each node to perform regular communication, the symmetry of the network becomes particularly important in the parallel computer. A regular communication pattern is a situation where all network constitution is seen as the same network constitution even if network constitution is seen from any node in the network, and a situation where each node in the network performs data communication by the same algorithm.
On the other hand, the parallel computer is composed of a large number of computing nodes and a small number of input-output node. When the parallel computer calculates, the parallel computer needs to input data from and output data to an external device. An amount of data inputted from and outputted to the external device is generally small, compared with an amount of data transmission between the computing nodes in the parallel computer. For this reason, when input-output devices are attached to only some nodes, a sufficient amount of data can be inputted and outputted. Each of the nodes to which the input-output devices are attached does not generally perform computing, but becomes an input-output node only for input and output of data. When the input-output node which performs input-output processing of data computes, the computing slows, compared with a node which does not perform the input-output processing. In order to perform parallel computing efficiently by the parallel computer, it is important to match the progress of computing and communication of the respective nodes with each other. When the progress of the processing performed by each node has a difference, the efficiency of the parallel computing gets worse.
Conventionally, there has been known a parallel computer with a variable structure distinctive system network in which a plurality of processors are connected by two networks which shared functions (see Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 7-230435). Also, there has been known a parallel computer in which the input-output node is provided on a mesh network (see Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 6-28330).

Parallel computing system and control method of parallel computing system


A carrier for semiconductor element packages comprising a carrier body having at least one series of laterally aligned chambers for receiving the packages and device for taking out the packages of the chambers. The device for taking out the packages of the chambers comprises a pushing member mounted to the carrier body to move laterally and slidably and provided with a sliding bar and a plurality of spaced projections formed on the sliding bar. Each projection has at one side of upper part thereof a slant surface which functions to raise inclinedly each package. Therefore, the carrier is capable of easily taking out the packages of the carrier and facilitating handling of the packages.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a carrier for storing semiconductor element packages therein and for facilitating transportation and handling of the stored semiconductor element packages therein, and more particularly to a carrier for semiconductor element packages which is provided with a device for taking out the semiconductor packages of the carrier.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, there is illustrated an example of conventional carrier for semiconductor element packages (PLCC type). As shown in the drawings, the carrier comprises a carrier body 1 which is provided with a plurality of lateral partitions 2 and longitudinal partitions 3 so that a plurality of chambers 4 for receiving semiconductor element packages 10 are defined by the two kinds of partitions 2 and 3. The carrier makes the storage, the transportation and the handling of semiconductor element packages easy.
Semiconductor element packages received in the above type of carrier may be conveniently taken out of the carrier and handled, by using an automatic handler having vacuum grippers. Where the carrier is manually handled, however, each of semiconductor element packages received in the carrier should be taken out by the vacuum grippers and then manually assembled on a socket. Otherwise, each of semiconductor element packages should be taken out of the carrier, by pushing out it through a throughout hole formed at the bottom of each chamber of the carrier and then manually assembled on a socket. Such manual operation causes handling and assembling operation of semiconductor packages in carrier to be troublesome and thus processing time to increase.

Carrier for semiconductor element packages


After the temperature response to a single period of heating (SAR segment) is determined, temperature increases for an arbitrary timecourse of heating is determined based upon a convolution of the temperature response curve for a sequence of different SAR segments.

In many fields, including some in medical practice, it is important to be able to rapidly predict heating of biological tissues or other materials through time. Although temperature through time is the most relevant parameter related to potential damage, in many fields (including Magnetic Resonance Imaging and the mobile phone industry) perceived challenges in predicting temperature have led to use of specific absorption rate ("SAR"), the rate at which energy is absorbed by tissue when exposed to a radio frequency (RF) electromagnetic field, for ensuring safety. SAR is the power absorbed per mass of tissue and is generally measured in units of watts per kilogram (W/kg). Typically, SAR is usually averaged over a known area, either as over the whole body or over a small sample volume (typically 1 g or 10 g of tissue).
Ten grams is a typical volume used most often to assess safety with respect to local tissue heating during MRI. The 10 g averaging is cumbersome and time-consuming to perform and by itself SAR is a quantity with limited direct relation to risk. While temperature increase has a much more intuitive and direct relationship to risk it is typically not calculated at all due to the associated complexity and time requirements. There remains a need for a new method for extremely rapid prediction of temperature increase for time-varying SAR levels after calculating the tissue response to a short SAR segment.


An apparatus and electronic circuit for the measurement of fluid levels in containers. The circuit and apparatus constitute an instrument which measures fluid levels by optical means. Only light signals are used near the fluid itself. The instrument thus provides an intrinsically safe method of measuring fluid levels in the presence of explosive or flammable fluids, vapours or gasses, or in containers which must be electrically isolated.

A variety of mechanisms are currently available to measure the levels of fluids in containers. There are also a number of measurement techniques available for use with completely sealed and pressurized containers. According to one prior art technique, mechanical apparatus is provided by which a float, typically disposed in a transparent tube parallel to the central axis to the tank, permits direct observation of the fluid level in the tank. A disadvantage of this technique is that it requires an operator to actually observe the tank level. This can lead to incorrect level measurement due to human error.
An alternative approach utilizes a float or similar device which is directly connected to an electrical/mechanical apparatus for generating an electrical signal which represents the fluid level in the tank. This technique, however, is difficult to use or may be prohibited in the presence of explosives or flammable fluids, vapours or gases, or in tanks or containers which must be electrically isolated.
Furthermore, such prior art techniques usually require mechanical or electrical sencing devices in proximity with the fluid, resulting in service and maintenance burdens for repairing such direct contact apparatus. In certain cases, it may be necessary to shut down or delay a plant's operation in order to repair or maintain such sensing apparatus.
In the art of surveying, it is known to use the detection of phase differences between emitted and reflected light signals to measure short distances (up to approximately 10 kilometers). However, it is believed that these broad principles have not hitherto been applied to the problem of measuring fluid levels in containers.

Optical phase difference range determination in liquid level sensor


A child resistant closure having an inner cap and an outer cap. The inner cap is normally biased into engagement with the outer cap for screwing the closure onto the container but the outer cap and inner cap become disengaged when the outer cap is turned in a direction to remove the closure from the container resulting in the outer cap being freely rotatable on the inner cap. Cooperating rigid fingers and teeth are provided on the inner and outer caps which become engaged when the outer cap is pushed downwardly to interconnect the inner and outer caps so that the closure can be removed from the container.

Various child resistant closures for medicine bottles have been devised to prevent or at least resist the access to the contents of the medicine bottle by children. One such closure includes an inner cap threadably mounted on the medicine bottle and an outer cap freely rotatable on the inner cap when an attempt is made to remove the closure from the bottle. A plurality of spring fingers extend between the top walls of the inner and outer caps to keep the caps spaced from each other, whereby the outer cap is freely rotatable on the inner cap. Cooperating teeth or lugs are provided on the inner and outer caps which become interconnected when the outer cap is pushed downwardly, whereby the closure can be unscrewed from the bottle.
While these child resistant closures have been satisfactory for their intended purpose, they have been subject to a certain disadvantage in that it is necessary to not only push the outer cap downwardly when removing the closure from the bottle but also when threading the closure back onto the bottle. Oftentimes, the manipulation of the outer cap is not accomplished resulting in the closure being merely placed on the bottle in an unsafe manner.
To facilitate the replacement of a two-piece child resistant closure on a medicine bottle without sacrificing the child resistant feature of the closure, the child resistant closure of the present invention has been devised.


An internal combustion engine of the valve-in-head type having a low profile cylinder head which requires minimal head-room in the engine compartment of an automotive vehicle The cylinder head has a rectilinear configuration with the valve trains disposed on horizontal axes extending transversely of the cylinder head. Each valve train in the cylinder head is provided with precise axial support at both ends of the train. The engine has a relatively thin upstanding combustion chamber over each cylinder and one or more pairs of poppet valves per cylinder each having a sealing surface adjacent its outer edge for engagement with respective seats defined by axially aligned header tubes. Each valve has a relatively short neck extending through the combustion chamber during the intake and compression strokes and when the fuel-air mixture is fired. The valve spring of each valve train is situated between a fixed abutment attached to the side wall of the cylinder head and the end of the valve cage remote from the poppet valves.

Internal combustion engines derive power from a controlled combustion of a mixture of a hydro-carbon based fuel and air inside a combustion chamber. A primary goal of any engine design is to increase fuel efficiency and performance while reducing emissions. A more complete combustion reduces emissions such as unburned hydrocarbons, (referred to herein "THC" emissions) as well as carbon dioxide (CO.sub.2) and carbon monoxide (CO). Of course, while complete combustion is desired, design trade offs must be made since the processes leading to the most complete combustion may have negative side effects. For example, if the peak temperature of combustion is too high, undue NO.sub.X emissions will be formed during combustion and be exhausted. In addition, for a very hot flame front in the presence of cooler spots in the combustion chamber or compression end of the cylinder, so-called "knock" may occur, thus reducing engine performance. Of course, a myriad of other considerations go into the design of any engine.
One means of increasing fuel efficiency while reducing emissions is to provide a relatively fast burn of the combustion charge. The idea underlying such a design is that a faster burn will be more complete since the charge constituents (fuel and air) will preferably be close to the point at which combustion is initiated when they are burned. So-called fast burn is typically achieved by virtue of engine designs which seek to minimize the surface-to-volume ratio (S/V) of the combustion chamber. The smaller S/V thus promotes a fast burn. By "fast burn" it is meant that the combustion is such that most of the pressure exerted on the piston by combustion is exerted over a small portion of the piston's travel which occurs just following ignition of the charge. Thus, while the high heat of the fast burn is advantageous in that it gives a more complete burning of the hydrocarbons, it may have the disadvantage of leading to engine roughness and vibration by virtue of such a large force being exerted during a small portion of the piston travel. Moreover, such an engine must be designed such that the peak temperature of combustion is high enough to get the desired hydrocarbon burning, but not so high as to generate undue NO.sub.X.
Another approach to achieving more complete combustion for fuel efficiency and emissions purposes is to increase the homogeneity of the charge. A combustion charge may not be completely homogeneous, meaning that certain regions are more volatile than others leading to uneven combustion. In one engine, to prevent such problems, the fuel-air mixture was subjected to an induced swirling motion prior to ignition to increase the thoroughness of the mixture. As shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,846,138 this swirling was induced by the valve stems extending across a thin, upstanding combustion chamber during the compression stroke of the flat-headed piston. The valve stems serve to induce a swirl in the fuel-air mixture being compressed leading to a more thorough mixing. Further, during the power stroke, the same configuration of the valve stems causes the flame front to swirl around these stems again improving the combustion. As discussed in that patent, the swirling induced by this configuration improved gas mileage and emissions for that engine.
The swirling during combustion in the engine according to the '138 patent was also beneficial in removing unburned hydrocarbons from the walls of the cylinder. Since the walls of the piston cylinder are typically cooler than the internal volume of the cylinder, unburned hydrocarbon molecules may cling to these walls during combustion. The swirling induced by the valve stems in the '138 patent help to sweep that charge around these cooler walls, thus assisting in removing unburned hydrocarbons. Such "scrubbing" of combustion chamber walls is thus a desirable feature for reducing such emissions.
While the extreme temperatures under which combustion typically occurs are advantageous in terms of burning the fuel efficiently, it has other draw backs which must be compensated for in the engine design. One example is in the valves associated with the combustion chamber. In a typical engine configuration, the intake and exhaust valves are disposed within the intake and exhaust ports which they are sealing. This is particularly disadvantageous in the case of the exhaust valve since that valve sits in the stream of hot exhaust gas as it leaves the combustion chamber and exits through the exhaust port to the exhaust manifold. Alternatively, the intake valve is almost continually subject to vacuum. Further, because of the configuration of conventional valves and their position relative to the cam shaft, typical valves are very long and have thin stems. Since flow to the stem away from the valve head is one means of heat transfer and dissipation, this means that a long thermal distance must be traversed to effectively draw heat away from the head in this manner. Further, the stems are typically very thin, meaning that only a small radiating surface is available for radiating heat in the stem. The other mechanism for cooling standard valves is flow from the head into the valve seat. Of course, this mechanism is unavailable when the valve is open and not in contact with the seat. Because typical valves are required to withstand incredibly high temperatures without having adequate mechanisms for withstanding such temperatures, they are typically formed of expensive and exotic materials so that they can successfully withstand the elevated temperatures. It would thus be desirable to avoid the undue expense and complexity of having to use such exotic materials for the valves.
A further consideration in regard to the valves is lubrication. A valve is generally actuated from a rotating cam shaft. In a typical single overhead cam, the cam contacts a cam pad at the end of a rocker arm. This contact causes the rocker arm to move the valve out of engagement with its respective port. The cam pads on the rocker arm, however, are typically located above the cam shaft, since the valves must be pulled out of engagement with their respective ports. As a result, lubricating this contact is problematic. Any oil that is thrown up to lubricate the cam/cam pad contact simply runs off due to gravity. A typical dual overhead cam arrangement suffers from similar problems. There, a cam engages the angled top surface of a bucket which houses the valve spring. Any oil thrown onto the top surface of the bucket also runs off due to gravity. While the cams are sufficiently lubricated to allow the engine to function, such lubrication is less than ideal and works against gravity, thus requiring an oversupply of oil to achieve lubrication.
The lubrication mechanism for the valve train itself is also less than ideal although it works for its intended purpose. Since the valves reciprocate in a bearing sleeve, there must be lubrication between the valve and the sleeve. This lubrication is typically carried out by a planned or intentional leakage of oil between the valve and the valve sleeve and past the valve seals. Thus, the valve seals are designed to have less than ideal sealing characteristics. In the case of the intake valve, the controlled leakage of oil in this manner is somewhat assisted by the fact that the intake port is constantly containing vacuum in the intake port. This assists in drawing lubricating oil between the bearing sleeve and the valve. Of course, this has the draw back of insuring that at least a small amount of oil is burned during each combustion cycle of a conventional engine. The exhaust valve, on the other hand, does not have such a mechanism for assisting in the movement of oil between the valve and the bearing sleeve. Because of the lack of such a mechanism this means that the exhaust valve and intake valve in a given engine typically see different amounts of oil, and are thus lubricated differently. Indeed, because of this, exhaust valves fail at a significantly higher rate than intake valves. In addition, the only way for oil in the bearing sleeve of an exhaust valve to exit is to be exhausted through the exhaust port during the exhaust strike of the piston with which a given valve is associated. This has negative impact in terms of emissions.
Lubrication of a typical valve train assembly is thus a difficulty which must be taken into account in engine design. Clearly, the system works, but extreme measures must be taken to compensate for the disadvantages of such systems.


A method for applying halide brine to surfaces requiring protection against freeze conditions, inhibition of snow and ice accumulating, deicing or freeze retardation, for example, or dust control with limited corrosion is disclosed, the method comprising the steps of forming an admixture of polyhydroxy carboxylate and polyalkoxylated amine dispersed in an halide brine solution in an amount effective to inhibit corrosion; and applying the admixture to surfaces. The method of this invention can be used to limit corrosion in the application of a halide brine to surfaces of dust-producing materials as well as surfaces requiring protection against freeze conditions.

Halide brines, particularly sodium chloride and other alkali metal and alkaline earth metal salts such as calcium chloride and magnesium chlorides, are used extensively for inhibiting snow and ice accumulations on a variety of outside surfaces including such uses as deicing, melting snow and freeze conditioning of roadways, paved areas, bridges and the like as well as for surfaces of bulk materials, coal and minerals for example. They are also used for dust control on similar surfaces such as paved and unpaved roadways, especially during dry weather, and during the handling and transportation of dust-producing bulk materials, such as coal or other materials.
Aqueous solutions of these halides are known to corrode metals and cause scaling or surface damage to concrete. For example, heavy use of road deicers can result in serious damage to autos and other vehicles as well as rapid deterioration of metal reinforcing rods in poured concrete roadways and bridges. The halides used for dust control and for freeze conditioning of bulk materials such as coal or other minerals often cause corrosive deterioration of the materials-handling equipment, rail cars and other container carriers.
The need for corrosion inhibitors designed for deicing and snow control is well known. Chromates, phosphates, zinc salts and nitrites have been used to provide varying degrees of corrosion inhibition for halide brines. Nitrites have been noted only to change the nature of corrosion from general to localized, causing possible perforation in metals in very short time. Chromates, zinc salts and phosphates have come under increasing scrutiny due to environmental concerns.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,531,931 teaches the use of a deicing composition comprising a deicing salt and corrosion-inhibiting water soluble rare earth salt and/or a water-soluble organic acid salt. A deicing composition and method comprising by-products from a wet milling process of corn is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,635,101. A process for deicing a roadway surface comprising adding to a snow or ice covered roadway surface an effective amount of a composition consisting essentially of a lignosulfonate and metal chloride salt is taught in U.S. Pat. 4,668,416. U.S. Pat. No. 5,118,444 discloses use of an amine oxide surfactant blended with an agriculturally acceptable pesticide to reduce irritation to animals and corrosiveness to materials, the use of a liquid deicing composition comprising magnesium chloride and an organic inhibitor selected from the group consisting of triethanolamine, triethanolamine acid salts, citric acid, metal salts of citric acid and mixtures thereof was disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,302,307.
There is a need, however, for a method for applying an environmentally acceptable, easy to use, deicing and freeze conditioning aqueous halide to outdoor surfaces without extensive metal corrosion or damage to cement structures. There is also a need in the art for a method of applying halide brines with improved corrosion-inhibition properties adapted for addition to otherwise conventional dust control compositions.

Method for applying halide brines to surfaces


A method of operating a data processing system running a visual programming language program development system to represent an instrument having a plurality of controls disposed in a layout pattern relative to one another in a visual program. The instrument block that corresponds to the instrument includes a GUI control panel display having a plurality of virtual controls and a connection region. Each virtual control causing the instrument to execute a function that alters the physical state of the instrument. The connection region is associated with the GUI control panel display. The connection region has a pin that is associated with one of the virtual controls and provides a programming interface for connections to other pins in the visual program. The association between the one of the virtual controls and the pin is provided in response to user input during a design phase of the program.

Modern measurement instruments typically include software interfaces that allow the instruments to be controlled from a computer that is remote from the instrument via a communication link such as a local area network or serial communication link. In its simplest form, the remote software displays a virtual instrument control panel and allows the user to set the various controls by interacting with the controls on the virtual control panel. Automation of a measurement in which different control values are required to be sequenced in some order requires skills that are not necessarily in the skill set of the laboratory personnel who are making the measurements.

Method for adapting GUI-based instrument components in a visual programming language


The present invention provides a fuel-injection control device for a diesel engine which uses a combination of a common-rail-type fuel-injection pump and an EGR control for exhaust gas purification.. In a fuel-injection control device for a diesel engine having a common-rail-type fuel-injection pump comprising a means for controlling fuel-injection pressure according to engine load and an EGR control means for adjusting the EGR ratio according to engine load, where the EGR can be reduced to zero, the means for controlling fuel-injection pressure includes a correcting function to correct the fuel-injection pressure in response to the EGR ratio.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fuel-injection control device for a diesel engine, particularly to a fuel-injection control device for a diesel engine using a common-rail-type fuel-injection pump, and in more detail to an optimum control device for the combination between a fuel-injection control and EGR (Exhaust Gas Recirculation) control in a diesel engine using a common-rail-type fuel-injection pump.
2. Description of the Related Art
A common-rail-type fuel-injection pump (also referred hereinafter to "a common-rail-type pump") has recently been developed, which is constructed to inject pressurized fuel from a reservoir, i.e., a so-called common-rail and allows the pressure of the injected fuel to be arbitrarily set and controlled in relation to engine operating conditions such as engine speed, engine load, etc. (see, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publications No. 62-75025 and No. 2-191865). A variety of advantageous methods have been contrived for applying such a common-rail-type fuel-injection pump to a diesel engine. For example, there have been proposed the methods for its utilization such as: the pressure of injected fuel is controlled according to an operating state of the engine and the timing and the interval of fuel-injection are also controlled according to an operating state of the engine (see, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 62-645); the pressure of injected fuel is controlled on the basis of an engine load (see, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publications No. 62-75025 above-mentioned and No. 63-50649); and so on.
On the other hand, in the purification of exhaust gas of a diesel engine, the engine cannot use a three-way reducing and oxidizing catalyst converter as in a gasoline engine, due to its excess air ratio, but it uses an EGR control for reducing NOx emissions. Practical techniques have yet been elucidated for minimizing the emissions of exhaust gases particularly in the case of combining the fuel-injection control using such a common-rail-type pump with the EGR control. For example, even though the EGR control is simply added to the technique of increasing the pressure of injected fuel as the engine load is increased as described in the above-mentioned Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 62-75025, it will be impossible to produce the minimum amount of NOx, black smoke, PM (Particulate Matter), etc. emissions.
Furthermore, specially in a diesel engine using the EGR control, it is necessary to stop the EGR control when the engine is cold in order to prevent the corrosion of cylinder bores and the like during such an interval. However, there is encountered the problem of a remarkably increased amount of NOx emission if the EGR is off when the engine is cold. With respect to a jerk pump which is widely used in a diesel engine at present and individually mounted for each cylinder of the engine, the only method for suppressing the increase of NOx when the engine is cold is to provide a delay in the fuel-injection timing. The delay in the fuel-injection timing when the engine is cold is, however, not practicable since it brings about an unstable ignition conjointly with a cold combustion chamber, resulting in such disadvantages as the vibration of the engine, the emissions of white smoke and an offensive smell, and so on.
Accordingly, the above-mentioned, proposed control method for a common-rail-type fuel-injection pump is intended to perform an optimum fuel control according to the operational state of the engine so as to prevent the output power of the engine from decreasing and to improve the fuel consumption ratio, but they take no consideration of reducing the emissions of NOx, smoke, etc. Effective methods for utilization of the common-rail-type fuel-injection pump are therefore hardly elucidated with the view of taking advantage of this common-rail-type pump to provide optimum control of a diesel engine combined with purification of the exhaust gas. As described above, particularly in the case of combining a fuel-injection control using this common-rail-type pump with an EGR control, it is an actual fact that any practical technique is not able to minimize the emissions of exhaust gases.

Fuel-injection control device for a diesel engine


A system and method including identifying a stopped range, identifying at least one lot of WIP associated with the stopped range, and processing the at least one lot in at least one operation within the stopped range at a lower priority relative to other lots. The system and method may be implemented as part of a range management system.

Semiconductor manufacturers are continually working to reduce time-to-market in an effort to improve serviceability while decreasing operating costs. This is particularly true for fabrication facilities that produce high volumes (on the order of 1,000 wafer starts per day) of complex products. As such, efforts have been made to develop and implement systems and methods, such as lean manufacturing and continuous flow manufacturing, to improve manufacturing process performance.
Range management is a production control methodology that employs lean manufacturing principles. In range management systems, wafer processing is partitioned into a series of flows, where the products in each flow follow similar routes through the fabrication facility. These flows are divided into ranges, and each range may include one or more operations. An operation is where the units (e.g., wafers) of a production lot are actually worked on, and may include, for example: lithography, metrology, overlay, metrology CD, etc. Normally, a particular lot spends twenty-four hours (e.g., a range day) in a range, and then is moved to the next range. Of the twenty-four hours, the lot may, for example, undergo six hours of processing time in the operations of the range, sixteen hours of non-processing time waiting in a queue, and two hours of transit time being moved between operations and/or other ranges. Thus, it is possible for numerous lots to be processed through a single range a twenty-four hour period.
Typically, new production lots are started every day, and a particular lot may undergo processing in seventy or more ranges before it is complete. Also, different lots may result in different end products, thereby requiring different operations during their manufacture. As such, there may be thousands of active lots in the fabrication facility at any one time, with those lots being dispersed amongst the numerous operations of the fabrication facility. Moreover, a given operation is not necessarily unique to a particular range. The same operation may be included in different ranges in the same flow and/or different ranges of different flows. As a result, it is common for plural lots to simultaneously require processing in the same operation, thereby necessitating that some lots wait in a queue while another lot is processed in the operation.
Range management systems are used to manage the flow of the production lots through the fabrication facility. Range management systems focus on delivering work in progress (WIP) (e.g., lots or units in a lot) on a known route at a known speed to meet committed customer deliveries on schedule. This is accomplished, at least in part, by creating daily production targets for each range and then controlling the fabrication facility by managing the WIP in the individual ranges.
Disruptions in product flow (e.g., a broken machine or tool), however, can cause elevated WIP levels in ranges. Conventional range management systems constrict product flow into ranges with elevated WIP in order to keep product cycle times predictable. Flow is constricted by "stopping" a range that is directly upstream of a range with elevated WIP. The effect of "stopping" a range is that none of the WIP in the stopped range will undergo any processing during the range day. While range stops are necessary for flow control for keeping product cycle times predictable, factory resources are not fully utilized when WIP is stopped.
Accordingly, there exists a need in the art to overcome the deficiencies and limitations described hereinabove.

Method and system for improved performance of manufacturing processes

International Business Machines Corporation


A wireless device generates a peak profile for a primary synchronization channel (PSCH), and has a synchronization stage for performing code group identification and scrambling code identification. A first peak from the peak profile is chosen. The first peak has a first path position. The synchronization stage is handed the first path position to obtain a first code group number and a first code number associated with the first peak. A multi-path search window is then opened in the peak profile around the first path position. A second peak within the multi-path search window is selected, and a verification procedure is performed on this second peak to determine if the second peak has a code number that is identical to the first code number. The first code group number is assigned to the second peak if the code number of the second peak is identical to the first code number.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to cellular wireless devices. More specifically, a method is disclosed for performing initial and target base station acquisition for a direct sequence code division multiple access (DS/CDMA) system.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Spread spectrum communication systems are becoming increasingly important in cellular networks. In particular, so-called third generation (3G) cellular standards have adopted direct sequence code division multiple access (DS/CDMA) as a communications standard.
To establish a network connection in a CDMA system, the user equipment (UE) must first perform a cell search procedure. The cell search procedure enables the UE to obtain timing and code synchronization for the downlink channel. Various methods are known in the prior art for performing a cell search procedure. Attention is drawn, for example, to the article "Cell Search in W-CDMA" by Yi-Pin Eric Wang and Tony Ottosson in Vol. 18, No. 8 (August 2000 edition) of IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications, which is included herein by reference. Base station acquisition is also discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,363,060 to Sarkar; U.S. Pat. No. 5,930,366 to Jamal et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 6,226,315 to Sriram, all of which are included herein by reference.
A simple overview of cell searching is presented in the following. Please refer to FIG. 1. FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a downlink Common Control Channel (CCH) 10 in a DS/CDMA system. The CCH 10 is broken up into a series of frames 12. Each frame 12 contains fifteen slots 14. Each slot 14 holds ten symbols, each of 256 chips. Hence, each slot 14 is 2560 chips in length. Please refer to FIG. 2 in conjunction with FIG. 1. FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a slot 14 in the CCH 10. The first symbol 16 in each slot 14 holds a primary synchronization channel (PSCH) 16p and a secondary synchronization channel (SSCH) 16s. The remaining nine symbols 18 follow after the first symbol 16. The PSCH 16p and SSCH 16s are orthogonal to each other, and hence can be broadcast on top of each other. The PSCH 16p chip coding is the same for all base stations, and does not change. The SSCH 16s chip coding changes with every slot 14 according to a predefined pattern that repeats every frame 12. Please refer to FIG. 3. FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a common pilot channel (CPICH) 20 broadcast with the CCH 10. The coding used for the CPICH 20 is unique to the broadcasting base station. In a DS/CDMA system, a base station can use one of 512 different codes for the CPICH 20, which are broken into 64 code groups, each having 8 respective codes. The coding of the PSCH 16p is common across all base stations, and can thus be used for slot 14 synchronization. Although the coding of the SSCH 16s changes on a slot 14 by slot 14 basis, the sequence pattern of code change of the SSCH 16s is determined by the code group into which the code used for the CPICH 20 lies. That is, there are 64 code sequence patterns for the SSCH 16s to follow, each of which corresponds to a particular code group associated with the code used for the CPICH 20. By correlating the received CCH signal 10 with all possible SSCH 16s code sequences and identifying the maximum correlation value, it is possible to learn the code group of the CPICH 20, and to obtain frame 12 synchronization. This is due to the fact that the SSCH 16s changes according to a predefined sequence, the starting sequence of which is known and which is sent at the beginning of every frame 12, thus enabling frame synchronization. Once the code group of the CPICH 20 is learned, it is possible to obtain the primary scrambling code used by the cell by performing symbol-by-symbol correlation over the CPICH 20 with all eight of the codes in the code group identified for the CPICH 20. Once the primary scrambling code used by the base station has been identified, system and cell specific broadcast channel (BCH) information can be read.
Based upon the above, cell searching is thus typically broken into the three following steps:
Step 1: Slot synchronization.                Utilize the PSCH 16p to perform slot synchronization. This is typically done with a matched filter (or similar device) that is matched to the PSCH 16p that is common to all base stations. Slot timing is obtained from peaks in the matched filter output.
Step 2: Frame synchronization and code group identification.                The slot timing obtained in step 1 is used to correlate the SSCH 16s with all possible SSCH code sequences. The maximum correlation identifies the code group of the CPICH 20. The SSCH 16s having the first SSCH code sequence identifies the start of a frame 12.
Step 3: Scrambling code identification.                Symbol-by-symbol correlation is performed on the CPICH 20 for all eight codes within the code group identified in step 2. The maximum correlation value identifies the primary scrambling code of the base station.
Please refer to FIG. 4. FIG. 4 is a simple block diagram that illustrates cell synchronization for a prior art UE 30. Of course, the UE 30 will contain many more components than those shown in FIG. 4, which is restricted to the present discussion. The UE 30 includes a transceiver 39 and a synchronization stage 38. The transceiver 39 receives broadcasts from a base station (not shown) and passes broadcast data to the synchronization stage 38 in a manner familiar to those in the art of wireless devices. The synchronization stage 38 includes a stage 1 31, a stage 2 32 and a stage 3 33. The stage 1 31 performs the slot synchronization of step 1 discussed above. Results from stage 1 31 are passed to stage 2 32, which performs the frame 12 synchronization and code group identification of step 2. Results from stage 2 32 are then passed on to stage 3 33, which performs the scrambling code identification of step 3. Stage 1 31 includes a peak profiler 34. The peak profiler 34 contains the primary synchronization code 35 that is common to all base stations, and generates peak profile data 36 that is obtained by matching the primary synchronization code 35 against the PSCH 16p received from the transceiver 39. The profile data 36 holds data for a predetermined number of chips, and as the PSCH 16p repeats with every slot 14, it is common to hold enough data to cover an entire slot 14, i.e., 2560 chips. The chip in the profile data 36 having the highest peak profile is assumed to mark the PSCH 16p, and is thus used as the PSCH path position 37. This is illustrated in FIG. 5, which is an example graph of peak profile data 36 (not to scale). Stage 1 31 notes that in the profile data 36 a maximum valued peak occurs at chip number 1658. The PSCH path position 37 would thus hold a value indicative of the peak path position at chip 1658. The PSCH path position 37 is forwarded to stage 2 32 as the slot 14 synchronization point. Utilizing the slot 14 position marked by the PSCH path position 37, stage 2 32 performs step 2 outlined above to generate a code group value 32g. Stage 2 32 will also generate a slot number 32s, which indicates the number of the slot 14 in its respective frame 12 that was marked by the PSCH path position 37. As there are fifteen slots 14 in a frame 12, the slot number 32s could be a value that runs, for example, between zero and fourteen. In this manner, frame 12 synchronization is performed. Finally, the results from stage 2 32 are passed on to stage 3 33, which subsequently performs step 3 to generate a primary scrambling code 33p for the CPICH 20. A verification stage 38v can be used to verify the results obtained from stage 3 33, and typically involves a process similar to that performed in stage 3 33, but with stricter correlation parameters that are performed over more frames 12.
Typically, two types of cell searching is done: an initial cell search when the UE 30 is first turned on, and a target cell search when the UE 30 is attempting to identify local base stations. In an initial cell search, the UE 30 attempts to find a base station having the best reception, and thus will choose the maximum peak present in the profile data 36. However, in a target cell search, successively smaller peaks are checked, passing through stage 1 31, stage 2 32 and stage 3 33 to obtain the corresponding primary scrambling codes of these other base stations. This process is both time consuming and power intensive. In a target cell search, the prior art synchronization stage 38 will examine the "n" highest peaks in the profile data 36. For example, the six highest peaks may be checked, and respectively run through the synchronization stage 38. A drawback to this, though, is that multi-path components are also found. For example, in FIG. 5, the peak a chip number 1661 may be a multi-path component of the peak at path position 1658. Running a multi-path component through the three stages of the synchronization stage 38 consumes both time and battery power.

Cell search method suitable for initial cell search and target cell search


A method and apparatus for controlling the operation of a microwave oven, including a magnetron generating microwaves and a sensor sensing the state of air in the cooking cavity of the oven. The cooking period is determined by searching one of two data tables in accordance with a determination result after determining whether food to be cooked is included in ascending slope-type foods or descending slope-type foods. The control method and apparatus remarkably reduces a deviation in the cooking periods by distinguishing the ascending slope-type foods from the descending slope-type foods. The control method and apparatus allows the microwave oven to appropriately cook food for a period of time which substantially matches a practically required cooking period, thus providing a good cooking result.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates, in general, to microwave ovens and, more particularly, to a method and apparatus for controlling an operation of a microwave oven during a cooking process.
2. Description of the Related Art
Microwave ovens are machines which cook food with the assistance of a variety of atmospheric sensors, such as a humidity sensor, a temperature sensor and a gas sensor, in addition to a weight sensor used for measuring the weight of food to be cooked.
The microwave oven starts a cooking process when a user operates a start button, after laying food on a turntable-type cooking tray installed in a cooking cavity of the oven and selecting a desired cooking mode in an automatic cooking menu provided on a control panel. When starting the cooking process of the microwave oven, a microprocessor receives a signal outputted from the humidity sensor, and compares the signal outputted from the humidity sensor with preset reference data stored in a data storage unit, thus calculating a target cooking period so as to control a magnetron in accordance with the calculated target cooking period.
In a conventional method of controlling the microwave oven during the cooking process, a first cooking period is determined such that the first cooking period is terminated at a time when a calculated slope of a sensor output value becomes equal to a preset reference slope. A second cooking period is determined in accordance with the first cooking period and factors preset in accordance with the kind of food to be cooked. At an end of the second cooking period, the cooking process is terminated.
FIG. 1 is a graph expressing a conventional method of controlling a cooking process for microwave ovens. As shown in FIG. 1, the total time for the cooking process of a microwave oven in the conventional method consists of an initial standby period TC, a first cooking period T1, and a second cooking period T2. Thus, when the microwave oven starts the cooking process in a selected cooking mode, a fan installed in the machine room of the oven is operated for the initial standby period TC, of about 20 minutes, at an initial stage of the cooking process, thus reducing the temperature in the cooking cavity to about a predetermined temperature. The first cooking period T1 starts at a time when the initial standby period TC ends, and is terminated at another time when a calculated slope of a sensor output value becomes equal to a preset reference slope "A". The second cooking period T2 is determined in accordance with the first cooking period T1 and factors preset in accordance with the kind of food to be cooked. In a detailed description with reference to the graph of FIG. 2, the second cooking period T2 is lengthened in proportion to a length of the first cooking period T1. That is, as the first cooking period is lengthened as shown by points T1′, T1″ and T1′″ (where T1′<T1″<T1′″), the second cooking period T2 is proportionally lengthened, as shown by points T2′, T2″ and T2′″ (where T2′<T2″<T2′″). Such a relation between the first and second cooking periods T1 and T2, which is expressed by a function with an ascending slope, is determined in consideration of a weight of food to be cooked. Thus, when food must be cooked having a heavy weight during one period of time, the first and second cooking periods T1 and T2 are controlled to be lengthened since such a lengthening in the first and second cooking periods T1 and T2 is desirable while cooking most kinds of foods using the microwave oven. Data for such an ascending slope-type relation between the first and second cooking periods T1 and T2 is tabulated, and stored in the data storage unit connected to a control unit of a control apparatus. During a cooking process of the microwave oven, the control unit primarily calculates a first cooking period, and secondarily searches the data table stored in the data storage unit, based on the calculated first cooking period, thus determining a second cooking period T2.
However, the conventional method of controlling a cooking process for microwave ovens is problematic in that the second cooking period T2 determined in accordance with the calculated first cooking period may not be suitable for the cooking of some kinds of foods. Thus, when cooking some kinds of foods, such as popcorn, the second cooking period T2 determined according to the calculated first cooking period is not suitable for the cooking of the food.
The cause of the problem is closely related to the kind of food or components of the food to be cooked, in addition to the position of the food in the cooking cavity and deterioration in the microwave irradiating performance of the magnetron. For example, a substantial difference between a calculated cooking period and a practically required cooking period has been experimentally shown even when a second cooking period is determined using the ascending slope-type relation between the first and second cooking periods T1 and T2 while considering the state of food and the content of moisture in the food, in the case of cooking processes of the same kind of food. Furthermore, in the case of some kinds of foods, the second cooking T2 period may be in inverse proportion to the first cooking period T1. Therefore, an improved method of determining the precise period of time for cooking in accordance with the kinds of foods to be cooked is needed.

Method and apparatus for controlling microwave oven