An image recording apparatus for electrostatically forming a latent image on an image carrier by driving optics in response to multi-level image data. Before the start of an actual image recording operation, a latent image in the form of a test pattern having a plurality of tones is formed on the image carrier by pulse width modulation. A table for correcting image data is generated on the basis of sensed surface potentials of the test pattern. A semiconductor laser included in the optics is driven such that the tone data and the latent image potential remains in a constant relation.

The present invention relates to an electrophotograpic image recording apparatus and, more particularly, to an image recording apparatus of the type driving optics in response to multi-level image data to electrostatically form a latent image on an image carrier.
An electrophotographic image recording apparatus such as a copier or a laser printer has optics or an image reader for reading an image to be recorded. Image light representative of the read image scans a photoconductive element, or image carrier, to electrostatically form a latent image thereon. A developing unit develops the latent image to produce a toner image. The toner image is transferred to a paper sheet, or recording medium, and then fixed on the sheet by a fixing unit. Regarding a photograph or similar halftone image, it has been customary for an image processing section incorporated in this type of apparatus or a host computer to produce quasi-halftone image data from two-level data by use of a dither method or a density pattern method. The apparatus drives the optics in response to such quasi-halftone image data to thereby form an electrostatic latent image on the photoconductive element. Specifically, while the writing operation of the optics is based on two levels per pixel, halftone is rendered by adequately distributing pixels on which a toner deposits and pixels on which it does not deposit. The density is determined by the ratio of the pixels with a toner to the entire pixels. This kind of approach is successful in reducing the volume of image data and, therefore, in promoting efficient image transfer and storage. However, an increase in the number of tones directly translates into a decrease in resolution and undesirably highlights particular patterns in a reproduction. It is therefore difficult to enhance reproducibility in both of two different kinds of image areas, i.e., a character or similar area that needs high resolution and a photograph or similar area that needs faithful representation of tones.
Another conventional approach for rendering halftone consists in varying the exposing level of a semiconductor laser included in the optics in multiple steps by power modulation or varying the emission time thereof in multiple steps by pulse width modulation. If this kind of approach can control the tones of an image, the problem discussed above will be eliminated. However, the number of exposing levels available with the power modulation scheme, i.e., the modulation of a current for driving the laser is limited. Specifically, the relation of the optical attenuating characteristic of the photoconductive element and the laser drive current to the emission intensity is apt to change due to the changes in ambient conditions and deterioration of the photoconductive element, etc. Then, when a great number of exposing levels are set, the relation between the tones of input image data and the tones of a latent image to be formed on the photoconductive element will be noticeably changed. On the other hand, when the emission time is changed in multiple steps by modulating the pulse width, the potential of a latent image changes, resulting in the same phenomenon as stated in relation to power modulation. This prevents the image recording characteristic from being unconditionally determined and thereby renders the reproducibility of tones unstable.
There has also been proposed a method which measures the intensity of a laser beam issuing from a semiconductor laser and feeding back the measured intensity to the current which drives the laser. However, with a conventional apparatus implemented with this method, it is difficult to measure a tone represented by a particular amount of exposure. This kind of scheme would fail to suppress the fluctuation of optical attenuation characteristic, also resulting in an unstable recording characteristic. While Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication Nos. 204741/1989 and 204743/1989 each shows and describes a control method relying on tone correction, they are not of the type detecting the image forming conditions of an image recorder and, therefore, not capable of eliminating the problems stated above.


A new and distinct cultivar of Chrysanthemum plant named ‘Yobonnie’, characterized by its compact, upright and outwardly spreading plant habit; freely branching habit; dense and full plant habit; uniform and freely flowering habit; daisy-type inflorescences with elongated oblong to ligulate-shaped ray florets; dark red-colored ray florets; and natural season flowering about September 14th in the Northern Hemisphere.

The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Chrysanthemum plant, botanically known as Chrysanthemum×morifolium, commercially grown as a garden Chrysanthemum and hereinafter referred to by the name 'Yobonnie'.
The objective of the breeding program is to create new garden type Chrysanthemum cultivars having inflorescences with desirable inflorescence forms, attractive floret colors and good garden performance.
The new Chrysanthemum originated from a cross-pollination made by the Inventor in March, 2002, in Salinas, Calif. of the Chrysanthemum×morifolium cultivar Hot Salsa, disclosed in U.S. Plant Pat. No. 11,918, as the female, or seed, parent with the Chrysanthemum×morifolium cultivar Yonatasha, disclosed in U.S. Plant Pat. No. 13,907, as the male, or pollen, parent. The new Chrysanthemum was discovered and selected by the Inventor as a single flowering plant within the progeny of the stated cross-pollination in a controlled environment in Alva, Fla. in October, 2002.
Asexual reproduction of the new Chrysanthemum by vegetative cuttings was first conducted in Alva, Fla. in January, 2003. Asexual reproduction by cuttings has shown that the unique features of this new Chrysanthemum are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations.


An apparatus for acquiring and holding minimum size liquid samples with predetermined pathlength and methods using the same.

There are many use environments, the fields of medical research and pharmaceutical development being examples, where it is necessary to accurately acquire fluid samples with volumes that may be as small as a few nanoliters. In these same fields, it is also often desirable to measure optical characteristics of the acquired fluid samples. Such optical characteristics include, for example, the ability of a sample to absorb light.
For instance, UV-Visible Spectrophotometry may be used to characterize the chemical composition of a liquid sample (in solution or suspension phase) using the absorbed spectra of the sample. The light absorbance of a sample depends on the pathlength L of light passing through the sample, as well as on the concentration of light absorbers (e.g., biomolecules, cells, etc) in a sample solution and the wavelength (λ) of light being used to characterize the sample. The wavelengths of UV-Visible light span from 200 nm to 800 nm, while ultraviolet wavelengths range from 200 to 400 nm.
UV-Visible spectrophotometry provides a convenient analysis technique to determine the concentration, purity, and integrity of a biological sample without requiring additional sample preparation other than acquiring a sample. UV-Visible Spectrophotometry measurements depend on the light source (UV lamp), the sample and sampling technique. Most biological samples absorb electromagnetic radiation at wavelengths ranging from 200 nm to 800 nm, mostly 230, 260 and 280 nm. For a DNA or RNA sample in aqueous phase, one unit of absorbance 1 Å measured at a λ 260 nm and a pathlength of 10 mm is equal to 50/(40) ng/μl concentration.
Most biological samples are highly concentrated for downstream processing (such as microarray spotting or protein sample preparation for mass spectrometers). The absorbance of such samples can be above the saturation limit for typical spectrophotometers if the pathlength is about 10 mm. While the sample concentration range can be extended by diluting the sample, diluting sample requires additional laboratory work and can result in errors. Other approaches are needed to extend the sample concentration range that can be evaluated by the instrument.
Sampling techniques used in conventional UV-Visible Spectrophotometers include utilizing a cuvette with an optical window and fixed optical pathlength that holds a sample in a semi-closed way, direct measurement of liquid sample in a sample container (e.g., a well) along with a real-time pathlength measurement, and using a cuvetteless sample held in semi-free space between optical fibers which define a light path from a light source to a detector.
The cuvette-based sampling technique is widely used in conventional UV-Visible spectrophotometers. Generally, a sample is pipetted into a cuvette that has either a 10 mm or 2 mm path length. This technique is very limited for most biological samples since cuvettes typically used generally require a minimum 10 μl sample, which is problematic for valuable biological samples which may be present in limiting quantities, such as samples of protein or nucleic acids. A cuvette made of quartz or silica is expensive so it is typically reused after cleaning and drying. Further, adding 10 μl of sample with a pipette into a cuvette sometimes produces an air-bubble interface in the light path that can cause measurement error or void measurements. Additionally, a pathlength of 2 mm or 10 mm limits the sample concentration that may be measured to 1000 ng/μl for DNA/RNA sample due to the limited dynamic range of absorbance of most spectrophotometers.
Direct UV-Visible spectrophotometry measurement of liquid samples also suffers from limitations, such as the need to determine pathlength and adjust sample concentration. Pathlength depends on the sample well dimensions and sample volume. The determination of pathlength requires use of instruments such as level detectors or position sensors. For a pathlength ranging from 2 mm to 10 mm or above, the workable range of sample concentration for a spectrophotometer measurement becomes limited. For an example, for a DNA sample, if the pathlength is 10 mm, one unit of absorbance is equal to 50 ng/ul concentration (OD), and the upper limit of detection is typically 250 ng/μl if the upper limit absorbance of the spectrophotometer is 5. In this case, sample dilution is required for a sample concentration greater than 250 ng/μl. Sample dilution for multiple well plate measurements can be a complex laboratory operation.
Cuvetteless sampling also suffers from drawbacks. For example, in cuvetteless sampling, typically a narrow beam of light is directed to a sample stage that consists of a 1-2 μl liquid droplet suspended between two multi-mode optical fibers, one source-side fiber which provides light from a light source to the droplet and a detection-side fiber that guides light from the droplet to appropriate detection optics. The close proximity between the source-side and detection-side fibers allows enough of the light cone emanating from the source-side fiber to be collected by the detection-side fiber after passing through a liquid sample.
Cuvetteless instruments typically require a clamping surface that can be wetted with sample to avoid an air-bubble interface. Carry-over contamination is not completely removed with a simple wiping-off of the clamping surface. Adding a small amount of sample (1 μl) to the center of the clamping surface is also a complicated lab technique.
In summary, existing sampling techniques used in the conventional UV-Visible Spectrophotometers generally require too much sample, provide insufficient confidence in the sample application technique, may result in carry-over contamination, and may require pathlength determination and/or dilution of sample, over a range of solution concentrations.

Apparatus and methods for evaluating an optical property of a liquid sample


In a Fast Fourier Transform method, the elements of Fast Fourier Transform are arranged as a two-dimensional square and stored in areas of an array whose number of lines is twice that of columns. Positions of the columns having bit reversed column numbers are exchanged and the elements are linear vector stored so that the initial element of a column is always one position lower than the previous one. Then, the elements of such linear vector stored array are rearranged through exchange of columns having elements with bit reversed numbers and movement of the columns fully upward to made them flush.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for Fast Fourier Transform on a computer system provided with a vector functional unit, and particularly relates to a Fast Fourier Transform method characterized by its rearrangement process where elements with certain element numbers and other elements with numbers obtainable by reversing the bits of the above element numbers exchange their positions.
2. Description of the Prior Art
FIG. 4A is a diagram to show the procedure and data flow for execution of ISOGEOMETRIC type fast Fourier transform. FIG. 4B is a diagram to illustrate the expression method used in FIG. 4A.
The letter n is the number of data. Referring to the figure, the circles on the ends of each stage indicate the data and its order (position order) on the memory, the left end circles represent the input data and the right end circles indicate the output data.
In the first stage, the vector V1 consisting of the data at Positions 1 to 4 and the vector V2 consisting of the data at Positions 5 to 8 are subjected to vector addition V1+V2, and the results are stored at Positions 1 to 7 with intervals of one position (shown with solid line in the figure). Vector subtraction V1-V2 is also calculated, and the results are, after they have been multiplied by the rotation factor, stored at Positions 2 to 8 (with intervals of one position). In stages 2 and 3, similar processing is performed for vectors V1 and V2, with the rotation factor updated for each stage.
In ISOGEOMETRIC type Fast Fourier Transform shown in FIG. 4A, data needs to be converted at the last or first stage of the processing as shown in FORTRAN statement of (1) below(Reverse binary expression). In other words, elements of Fast Fourier Transform are required to have their positions exchanged with those occupied by the elements having bit reversed element numbers. EQU DO 10 I=1,N EQU 10 A(I)=B(IND(I)) (1)
where N is the size of the data to be rearranged, an array B is the data to be rearranged (input), and an array A is the rearranged data (output). The array IND is the data to define the rearrangement. The array IND(I) has values obtained by expressing (I-1) in binary notation, reversing their bits and then adding 1. This is called "Reverse binary expression". FIG. 5 shows a case where N=32.
It is proposed to execute data rearrangement as described above using a vector functional unit. FIG. 6 is a block diagram to show the configuration outline of a vector functional unit. In the figure, the reference numeral 10 indicates a main memory, 2-1 to 2-4 indicate memory access controllers, 30 is a vector register and 40 is an operation pipeline. An actual main memory 10 has, for example, 512 banks, but the main memory 10 in the figure is provided with four banks only for easier understanding. The memory access controller 2-i (i may be 1, 2, 3 or 4) reads data out of the bank i and writes data to the bank i. The vector register 30 has a plurality of element storing areas.
FIG. 7 is a diagram to illustrate the processing for reverse binary expression of the formula (1) using a vector operation device. The array B existing on the main memory 10 is read out according to IND (I), and loaded to the vector register 30 in order. The first element of the array B is written to the first element storing area, and the 17th element of the array B is stored to the second element storing area of the vector register 30. Thereafter, other elements are also stored according to FIG. 5. After loading the array B to the vector register 30, the vector data in the vector register 30 are stored to the area assigned to the array A in the main memory 10. The I-th element of the vector register 30 is written to the I-th element storing area of the array A.
In a conventional rearrangement for reverse binary expression as above, there occurs severe competitions of banks (bank conflicts) during the loading of input data from the main memory 10 to the vector register 30.
Consider a vector functional unit with four banks. It will have memory bank conflicts as shown in FIG. 8 when N=32. In FIG. 8, an element data has a width of 8 bytes, and a bank has a width of 8 bytes. Other circles mean that the applicable bank is hit. In the example of FIG. 8, each bank is hit for eight times. Frequency of memory bank conflicts is in proportion to the increase in the number of data N, and in inverse proportion to the increase in the number of banks. The frequency of memory bank conflicts IB is expressed by the formula below. EQU IB=N/(IC.times.BANK)
where N is the vector length which can be expressed as 2.sup.n, BANK is the number of banks in the memory, and IC is the value obtained by dividing the bank width by the element data width. Such memory bank conflicts result in deteriorated performance of the ISOGEOMETRIC type Fast Fourier Transform. This is why the ISOGEOMETRIC type Fast Fourier Transform is said to be an algorithm not suitable for a vector functional unit.
FIGS. 9A and 9B illustrate a Fast Fourier Transform example where 16 elements 0 to 15 are rearranged through exchanging the positions of the elements having bit reversed element numbers. FIG. 9A shows an original array and FIG. 9B shows an array after element rearrangement. Elements are rearranged by non-linear vector loading/storing.
Specifically, in order to rearrange the elements 0 to 15 whose element numbers are 0 to 15 in FIG. 9A through exchanging the positions of the elements having bit reversed element numbers, the bit reversed numbers 0000, 1000, 0100, . . . 0111, 1111 corresponding to the element numbers 0000, 0001, 0010, . . . . 1110-1111 are stored in an array, which is used in non-linear vector loading and linear staring for a new array as shown in FIG. 9B.
As shown in FIG. 9B, vectoring is used in the rearrangement of the elements having bit reversed element numbers through non-linear vector loading and linear storing.
Some computer systems are provided with exclusive instructions for determination of bit reversed element numbers.
Thus, processing for reverse binary expression of the elements in Fast Fourier Transform tends to cause, due to bank conflicts, a deteriorated performance of the entire Fast Fourier Transform. Besides, element rearrangement using non-linear vector loading and linear storing can be made only at a low speed and is susceptible to bank conflicts, which impairs the processing efficiency of Fast Fourier Transform. In addition, in the case of a system provided with exclusive instructions for determination of bit reversed element numbers, the hardware costs much.

Element rearrangement method for fast Fourier transform


The invention provides olive-derived hydroxytyrosol. According to one aspect of the invention, vegetation water is collected from olives. Acid is added to stabilize the vegetation water and prevent fermentation. The mixture is incubated to allow oleoeuropein to convert to hydroxytyrosol, and then fractionated to separate hydroxytyrosol from other components. The hydroxytyrosol is useful as a natural anti-bacterial, anti-viral and fungicidal product for agricultural and pest control applications. In addition, it is useful as a therapeutic and anti-oxidant for a variety of health purposes.

A high amount of dietary fat has been implicated in the development of several diseases (Owen et al., 2000c). Atherosclerosis (Kuller, 1997) and coronary heart disease (Gerber, 1994), as well as cancer of the breast (La Vecchia et al., 1998), prostate (Chan et al., 1998), ovary (Risch et al., 1994), and colon (Armstrong and Doll, 1975) have each been associated with elevated dietary fat. However, evidence indicates that it is not only the amount, but also the type of dietary fat that is important in the etiology of some cancers (Bartsch et al., 1999).
Olive oil, the principal fat component of the Mediterranean diet, has been associated with a lower incidence of coronary heart disease (Owen et al., 2000b; Parthasarathy et al., 1990; Mattson and Grundy, 1985) and certain cancers (d'Amicis and Farchi, 1999; Braga et al., 1998; Martin-Moreno et al., 1994). Several laboratories have reported that the hydrolysis of the olive oil phenolics oleuropin and other family members lead to small phenolic components with strong chemoprotective activity (Owen et al., 2000a; Manna et al., 2000). In particular, the olive oil phenolic hydroxytyrosol prevents low density lipoprotein (LDL) oxidation (Visioli and Galli, 1998), platelet aggregation (Petroni et al., 1995), and inhibits 5- and 12-lipoxygenases (de la Puerta et al., 1999; Kohyama et al., 1997). Hydroxytyrosol has also been found to exert an inhibitory effect on peroxynitrite dependent DNA base modification and tyrosine nitration (Deiana et al., 1999), and it counteracts cytotoxicity induced by reactive oxygen species in various human cellular systems (Manna et al., 2000). Finally, studies have shown that hydroxytyrosol is dose-dependently absorbed in humans following ingestion, indicating its bioavailability (Visioli et al., 2000).
Conventionally, olive oil production involves crushing olives, including the pits, to produce a thick paste. During this procedure, the crushed olives are continuously washed with water, a process known as "malaxation." The paste is then mechanically pressed to squeeze out the oil content. In addition to providing olive oil, the pressing also squeezes out the paste's water content. Such washing and pressing steps yield a considerable amount of water, referred to as "vegetation water."
Both the pit and the pulp of olives are rich in water-soluble, phenolic compounds. Such compounds are extracted from olives during malaxation, according to their partition coefficients, and end up in the vegetation water. This explains why various phenolic compounds, such as oleuropein and its derivatives, produced in olive pulp, can be found in abundance in vegetation waters. Similarly, a number of monophenolic compounds, such as tyrosol and its derivatives, produced in olive pits, are also abundant in vegetation waters.
Because of the strong chemoprotective activity of hydroxytyrosol, it is desirable to develop a method which produces an aqueous olive extract with a high percentage of hydroxytyrosol.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method of obtaining a hydroxytyrosol-rich composition from vegetation water


A method for setting one or more breakpoints within executable program code of an embedded device is described. The method comprises copying at least one area of non-volatile memory (NVM) of the embedded device, comprising at least one instruction at which a breakpoint is to be set, into at least one area of overlay memory replacing within the overlay memory the at least one instruction at which a breakpoint is to be set with a breakpoint operation code, and enabling a mapping of the at least one area of NVM, comprising the at least one instruction at which a breakpoint is to be set, to the at least one area of overlay memory during execution of the program code within the embedded device.

In the field of embedded signal processing systems, it is common to use breakpoints to control an execution of code using an external debug tool, whereby a breakpoint is an intentional stopping or pausing position in program code, typically positioned within the code for debugging purposes. Breakpoints provide a means of acquiring information about a program during its execution. There are two types of breakpoints that are typically supported by debug tools currently available within the industry; software and hardware breakpoints.
Hardware breakpoints can be set for instructions and data stored within both non-volatile memory (NVM) and volatile memory, but require dedicated hardware resources, for example hardware comparators and breakpoint address registers, to be provided within the embedded system. Accordingly, hardware breakpoints are typically limited in terms of the quantity of breakpoints that may be set. Due to the cost & resource impact of implementing hardware breakpoints, previous generations of microcontroller designs have typically been limited to around four hardware breakpoints being able to be set. The next generation of embedded systems are pushing the number of hardware breakpoints available to eight, at the expense of the extra hardware resources that are required.
Software breakpoints can only be set for instructions and data stored within a volatile memory. For software breakpoints, a debug tool typically replaces the instruction corresponding to the address at which the breakpoint is to be set with an instruction that alerts, say, the central processing unit (CPU) of the embedded system to the breakpoints, and, thus, the CPU (or dedicated debug hardware) is able to signal to the external debug tool. The quantity of software breakpoints is effectively unlimited, which provides an advantage over hardware breakpoints.
However, non-volatile memory, such as Flash memory, cannot readily be overwritten on an instruction level resolution without seriously impacting the application under test. For example, for some applications a breakpoint operation code may comprise, say, all '0' values. For Flash architectures in which memory cells may be set to '0' on say, a one-bit resolution, setting such breakpoints may be simply implemented by overwriting an instruction with a breakpoint operation code (i.e. setting all the memory cells for that instruction address to '0' values. However, as is well known in the art, in order to 'clear' any memory cell within a Flash memory array (i.e. to reset a memory cell to a '1' value for the above example), it is necessary to clear an entire flash page of memory cells, and to subsequently re-write the entire flash page back in to memory to restore any data stored within that flash page. Thus, clearing any breakpoint would require an entire flash page to be cleared and re-written.
For applications in which the breakpoint operation code comprises anything but all '0' values for the above flash example, it would also be necessary to clear and re-write an entire flash page to set a breakpoint.
Another problem with setting software breakpoints within flash memory is that, if the flash memory is implemented with error correction code (ECC) functionality, overwriting an instruction within the memory with a breakpoint may cause an ECC failure. As a result, software breakpoints are typically not able to be used for NVM based code.
Significantly, the majority of embedded systems typically use 'on-chip' flash memory for program storage, thereby forcing the inclusion of hardware logic to implement hardware breakpoints for debugging. As such, the use of breakpoints for debugging such flash based code is inherently limited in terms of the quantity of breakpoints that may be set.
In addition, the cost in terms of hardware resources for enabling hardware breakpoints is becoming increasingly significant with the technology trend towards using multi-core systems, where a memory area is often shared between multiple processing cores (e.g. CPUs). For such multi-core systems, in order to set a breakpoint on a given address within an area of shared NVM memory, it is necessary for breakpoint hardware to be provided for each processing core.

Method for setting breakpoints, and an integrated circuit and debug tool therefor


A fluid drop system for an aircraft for use in firefighting is described The preferred embodiment uses electronic control circuitry coupled with a hydraulic controller that opens and closes the fluid tank's door panels to rate-control fluid drops based on fluid volume remaining in the tank. The circuitry produces a command generated drop rate profile based upon manual drop rate and drop fraction selector controls. It does so by constant comparison of the instantaneous volume of fluid remaining in the tank with a predetermined, desired instantaneous remnant volume in accordance with a defined, declining-volume profile, e.g. one defining a constant drop rate. A stabilized feedback control circuit ensures that, at any instant of time, the opening in the tank's door panels releases a volume of fluid that will maintain the remnant tank volume equal to the desired tank volume. Such variable forces on the fluid as inertia, acceleration, declining mass and splashing automatically are compensated for by the feedback-based fluid drop rate control circuitry. External variables such as aircraft groundspeed, heat intensity, etc. may be taken into account, thereby to render highly controllable and accurate fluid drops for effective and efficient fire fighting operations.

The present invention relates generally to fluid drop systems for use in aircraft. More particularly, the invention concerns such a system that includes a fluid-fillable tank having openable/closeable door panels and fluid volume sensor, an operator's panel for selecting a drop rate and volume and a controller responsive to the sensor and the panel for controllably opening and closing the door panels to release the fluid, e.g. for fire-fighting. An alternative system further includes an aircraft groundspeed sensor and the controller also is responsive thereto yet to control fluid release in relation to actual groundspeed.
Known aircraft fluid drop systems control door panels by incrementally opening them to release fluid, based upon the level of fluid remaining within the tank. Due to numerous unaccounted for variables, e.g. mechanical linkages and their associated response delays, fluid inertia at the start of drops, and fluid mass changes, fluid sloshing within the tank and changes in the groundspeed of the aircraft during drops, known drop systems are notoriously incapable of accurately controlling the fluid drop rate. In demanding applications such as firefighting, such inaccuracies result in great inefficiencies in terms of ground coverage by the very limited volume of water and fire retardant mixture that can be airlifted by such aircraft. Variation in aircraft groundspeed is entirely unaccommodated by prior art systems and is exacerbated by the increasing use of helicopters, which are capable of turning and banking relatively quickly to avoid hazards such as intense heat, trees and utilities.
The use of fluid level or pressure (head) within the tank as a basis for rate controlling the release of fluid is particularly susceptible to producing inaccurate fluid drop rates. Primarily, this is because level or head control assumes that the behavior of fluid in the tank is static. In fact, fluid within the tank is subject to many dynamic forces including inertia; acceleration due to gravity; fluid sloshing; aircraft acceleration; and mechanical linkages and their relatively slow responses to control stimuli. Such forces are variable and generally act upon the fluid release system throughout its operation even during a fractional tank volume fluid drop. One seemingly desirable solution to the problem would be to use a flow rate sensor associated with the tank, but such is not possible due to the relatively long openings, e.g. more than eight feet, defined by the door panels of known drop tanks.
The present invention in its preferred embodiment uses sophisticated electronic control circuitry to rate control fluid drops based on fluid volume. It does so by constant comparison of the instantaneous volume of fluid remaining in the tank with a predetermined, desired instantaneous remnant volume in accordance with a defined, declining volume profile. In accordance with the preferred embodiment described and illustrated herein, the operator panel permits a user to select one of three different, constant drop rates, e.g. 75, 300 or 700 gallons/second (gps), and one of four different drop fractions, e.g. 25, 50, 75, or 100%. Of course, more, fewer or different drop profiles, rates and fractions, within the spirit of the invention, readily may be accommodated.
These and additional objects and advantages of the present invention will be more readily understood after a consideration of the drawings and the detailed description of the preferred embodiment.


A backend server process monitor operates application servers accessing resources on backend servers. The monitor tracks failures, latency and errors at an interval. A method includes monitoring a plurality of resource requests from the application sever to a backend server and determining whether each of the plurality of resource requests was completed successfully and within a specified latency by the backend server. Errors on a server are tracked and the method includes notifying an application on the application server that a problem exists with the backend server.

Large scale Internet applications are generally provided by service providers through a series of application and data servers. As demand for the service increases, service providers desire to increase the capacity of their systems while maintaining a manageable environment. Providing large scale applications causes unique problems in monitoring the health of the application and data servers. In particular, multiple-tier applications where the front end tier is accessible to the general public pose an even more unique problem as there is no upper bound to the amount of load that can be exercised by the public on the system.
Large scale internet application developers have encountered resource problems when the load on the overall system becomes very large. In come cases, the load on the system can become so large that it begins to magnify itself and leads to generalized failures to users across the service. This can exhibit itself in multiple ways. One faulting component can destabilize the entire environment. Large levels of load can expose bugs (from application to operating system to hardware) that are only caused under these conditions. Multiple faulting components can destabilize the entire environment.
Most operating systems and servers provide the ability to monitor events in some fashion. Perhaps most familiar are operating system event monitors which check operating system events and provide feedback to a system administrator. Generally, application servers make requests—read, write, DNS and the like—to other servers in large scale application environments. Some such environments support event monitoring between the servers and include the ability to report on inter-server events.
Improvements in providing large scale application services provide benefits to users.

Application server external resource monitor


A wireless communication system which is reconfigurable to accommodate varying traffic density is provided by using a flexible optical interface between a base station controller and several base stations. Communication between the base station controller and the base stations is provided over an optical fiber. The fiber carries several communication channels in both directions using wavelength multiplexing. The bandwidth between the base station controller and a particular base station is varied by increasing or decreasing the number of wavelengths used to communicate with the base station. Varying the bandwidth provides the ability to adjust the capacity to carry voice and/or data between the base station controller and the base station. As a result the number of radio frequency carrier frequencies assigned to a base station can be varied to support varying radio frequency traffic density throughout the wireless network.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a wireless communication network; more specifically, a wireless network with a reconfigurable infrastructure.
2. Description of the Related Art
Traffic densities serviced by wireless systems are often not constant during the day: e.g., in a city environment users living in the residential areas need a certain amount of interactive services in the morning (reading their e-mail, select breakfast news highlights, etc.), use more interactively during working hours at their business location (industrial region, or commercial sites in the city center), and want interactivity for their leisure time at home in the evening (internet games, etc.). So both the location and the nature of the interactive services needed changes during the day. Current wireless networks are not laid out to respond to these changes in traffic density. At certain moments, "hot spots" may occur in the network, i.e. traffic demands which locally exceed the fixed wireless capacity available, leading to rejection of calls and thus of revenues.
Current wireless systems are divided into regional areas called cells. Each cell uses one or more dedicated microwave carrier frequencies, with each frequency carrying a limited number of (voice or data) connections. The microwave carrier frequencies available in a wireless network are usually assigned among the cells in such a way that adjacent cells use different frequencies, in order to avoid interference problems. A common network structure consists of hexagonal cells 10 with the transmit/receive antenna in the middle, arranged in a cluster 12 containing seven cells. FIG. 1 shows the layout of such a cluster. By repeating this structure, a large geographical area can be covered. This fixed configuration is not sufficiently responsive to changing traffic densities.

Dynamic reconfiguration of a wireless network using flexible wavelenght multiplexing


Disclosed is a method for controlling the shapes of FM-AM mixed halftone dots on the multi-bit depth imaging apparatus. In the prior art, since the reproduction of the shapes of the dots in various gradations is absolutely based on the theory of random error diffusion and is influenced by the dynamic controlling output mechanism for the multi-bit dots, it is hard to assure the controllability of the shapes of the dots in a certain gradation. Based on the prior art, the dynamic statistic algorithm with adjacent output gray levels is introduced to assure the controllability of the shapes of the dots and solve the problem of random change of the shapes of the dots due to the randomicity of the error diffusion. According to the disclosed method, the features of the multi-bit imaging apparatus can be achieved fully in light of the requirements of the dots on the basis of the original method for multi-bit FM-AM mixed screening using error diffusion based on dual-feedback. The effect of FM-AM mixed halftone screening can be achieved under low resolution with controllable shapes of the dots. The problem of granular sensation can be solved during the practical output of the mixed halftone dots so as to assure the smooth effect of the gradations.

The hard copying for image duplication generally relates to the screening and plate-making technology for printers and the advanced printing and plate-making device. The screening technology used for duplicating an image with hard copying is also called the digital image halftone technology. The digital image halftone technology comprises amplitude-modulation (AM) screening and frequency-modulation (FM) screening. The amplitude-modulation screening technique is also called ordered dithering of gathered dots, characterizing in that, the colored points in a produced halftone image are gathered in pairs geometrically to form clusters of colored regions called dots. Since the technology controls the size of the dots to represent the gray level of the original image, the dots are called amplitude-modulation dots.
For the mixed screening technology based on the FM and AM screens in the prior art, the applicants have filed a Chinese Patent Application "method for frequency-modulation screening using error diffusion based on dual-feedback" (Application No. 200510068127.8, published on Sep. 14, 2005), wherein the disclosed technology is mainly based on a general algorithm for generating dots on the single-bit or multi-bit depth imaging apparatus. During the output of dots using the practical apparatus, since the reproduction of the shapes of the dots in various gradations using conventional methods is absolutely based on the theory of random error diffusion, it is hard to assure the controllability of the shapes of the dots in a certain gradation. Furthermore, the shapes of multi-bit dots are hard to control due to the influence of a dynamic controlling output mechanism for multi-bit dots on the multi-bit depth imaging apparatus, so that the shapes and features of the output multi-bit dots do not possess the features which the multi-bit dots should possess, such as the increasing uniformity of the gradations. During the practical output, some problems (such as the incompatibility of the size of dots and the granular sensation in the whole image) arise to impact the quality of the output image.
Since the FM-AM mixed halftone dots output by the multi-bit depth imaging apparatus possess the feature of size of the AM dots, the change of the size of the dots in various gradations is similar to that of the AM dots. That is, the sizes of the dots increase with the enhancement of the gradation. In the low-density zone, the dots are independent on and separate from each other In the medium-density zone, the sizes of the dots increase and some of the dots are overlapping to each other so that independent dots and overlapping dots coexist. The randomicity impacts the features of the dots in the two density zones so as to result in different features in shape of different dots and a series of problems of quality of output dots. Thus, for the quality of multi-bit mixed dots, the main problem is how to control the compatibility of the shapes of dots in the low-density and medium-density zones.

Method for controlling the shapes of FM-AM mixed dots on a multi-bit depth imaging apparatus

Peking University Founder Group Co., Ltd.


A toothbrush having a pressure sensor. In one embodiment, the invention can comprise a body comprising a handle portion and a head portion having a basin; a cleaning assembly comprising: a head plate; a plurality of tooth cleaning elements, each of the plurality of tooth cleaning elements comprising a cleaning portion extending from a front surface of the head plate and a base portion extending from a rear surface of the head plate; the base portions of the plurality of tooth cleaning elements melted together to form a melt matte adjacent the rear surface of the head plate; the head plate of the cleaning element assembly positioned in the basin and connected to the head portion; a pressure sensor adjacent a rear surface of the melt matte; and an indicator operably coupled to the pressure sensor for generating a user perceptive signal upon the pressure sensor sensing a pressure that exceeds a predetermined threshold.

Daily toothbrushing has long been considered the most effective way to prevent the accumulation of bacteria on a person's teeth and gums. While toothbrushing is generally effective in cleaning the tooth surfaces, its effectiveness is greatly reduced if the force applied during brushing is inadequate. Furthermore, vigorous brushing of the teeth with excessive force can cause damage to a user's teeth and/or gum tissue. Thus, during an oral care session, a user may want to be alerted that they are brushing their teeth too hard.
Toothbrushes with pressure sensors of various types are known. However, known toothbrushes with pressure sensors are inadequate for several reasons. For example, some known toothbrushes with pressure sensors require an enlarged handle in order to accommodate the electrical circuitry required to alert a user as to the excessive brushing pressure. Other toothbrushes with pressure sensors require the incorporation of additional bulky structures in the head of the toothbrush in order to activate the pressure sensor. These known toothbrushes having pressure sensor devices can be expensive to manufacture and uncomfortable to use.
Therefore, a need exists for a toothbrush having a simplified pressure sensor mechanism that can easily alert the user that the user is brushing his or her teeth with excessive pressure.

Oral care implement having pressure sensor and method of forming the same


The transport apparatus is provided with a path that extends past a plurality of article transferring locations, a plurality of article transporting vehicles that run on the path, a travel driving means provided on each of the article transporting vehicles for controlling movement of the article transporting vehicle, and a ground-side controller for managing operation of the plurality of article transporting vehicles by managing the travel driving means, wherein the ground-side controller is capable of transmitting run command information and stop command information, relating to each of the article transporting vehicles, to their corresponding travel driving means, and wherein the travel driving means drives and stops the article transporting vehicles based on the run command information and the stop command information from the ground-side controller.

The present invention relates to transport apparatuses having a plurality of article transporting vehicles that travel on a path extending past a plurality of article transferring locations.
The above-described transport apparatus can be used, for example, in an automated warehouse. An improvement in the transport capacity can be achieved, for example, when a plurality of article transporting vehicles are led to travel back and forth on a linear path having two ends, so that the plurality of article transporting vehicles carry articles to a plurality of article transferring locations.
Such transport apparatuses are conventionally configured such that two article transporting vehicles are provided, wherein each of the two article transporting vehicles is provided with travel driving means for drivably running the article transporting vehicle and a vehicle-side controller for controlling the operation of the travel driving means, to control the driving and the stopping of the article transporting vehicle, and wherein the two drive-side controllers control the travel driving means while communicating information on, for example, a running status of the other article transporting vehicle, between themselves (see JP 2002-175117A, for example).
In the above-described conventional transport apparatus, the travel driving means operates while the drive-side controllers communicate information on, for example, the running status of their article transporting vehicles, and thus it is necessary to operate the travel driving means with consideration to the communications between the drive-side controllers.
More specifically, the travel driving means operates after the communications between the drive-side controllers, and thus a time lag for the time taken for the communications between the drive-side controllers is generated before the travel driving means operates. Therefore, it is necessary to manage the operation of the plurality of article transporting vehicles with consideration to this time lag.
For example, if managing the operation of the plurality of article transporting vehicles such that the vehicle-to-vehicle distance between the article handling vehicles is equal to or greater than a set vehicle-to-vehicle distance, then it is necessary to set the set vehicle-to-vehicle distance to be larger by a distance that is equivalent to the time lag taken for communications between the vehicle-side controllers, and thus there is a risk of a loss of transport capacity when articles cannot be transferred at the same time to two article transferring locations at which the article transporting vehicles are in proximity to each other.


A leg support device for an invalid walker of the type having an upright frame structure with handle portions positioned so as to be gripped by the user when standing or walking and having a plurality of downwardly projecting legs, such leg support device being selectively mountable in a variety of vertically related positions to accommodate the physical requirements of the user and capable of achieving a variety of structural configurations so that the leg support device may be mounted to a variety of invalid walkers having different angular orientations between the legs and having different distances between the legs.

The present invention relates broadly to ambulatory aids for disabled, post-operative or injured people who need additional support and stability in moving about or standing, and more particularly, to an invalid walker and a leg or leg support device mountable thereon. Such devices are generally referred to herein by the term leg support device, but it is expressly understood that such term includes devices used to support the leg, foot, and ankle of the user. Currently, invalid walkers generally have an upright frame structure with four downwardly projecting legs, and on the upper portion of the frame structure, handles are provided for gripping by the user. The user stands within the confines of the frame structure, gripping the handle portions, so as to utilize the frame structure for support and stability while standing or walking.
Typical invalid walkers require the user to support himself or herself solely by the gripping handles utilizing the user's arms. Problems arise with amputees or persons with leg, ankle, or foot injuries who must support the injured area with the upper torso, allowing the affected leg to hang free. Generally, when a leg support device has been offered, it has been offered in a fixed position, restricting its use and the walker to which it is applied. The aforementioned amputees or disabled persons with leg, ankle, or foot injuries could easily be faced with a leg support device that is worse than no support device at all, as for example where it is located at a disadvantageous position, causing either discomfort or impossibility of use due to its fixed mounting position.
For example, Tosto, U.S. Pat. No. 3,596,668, discloses a leg support device mounted in the open frame structure of an invalid walker. The leg support of Tosto, however, is mounted to two cross-members in the walker frame and is thereby effectively in a fixed position relative to the cross member of the walker frame. The leg support device of Tosto is incapable of height adjustability, and it does not readily adapt itself for use with a variety of walkers having different frame and leg construction.
Moreover, if a person were in temporary need of additional leg support and utilized the walker with the leg support device fixed in position, once the need passed, the user would be forced to change walkers. Conversely, if the user of a walker suddenly required leg support, that user would again be forced to change walkers. Further, suppliers of invalid walkers would have to keep two kinds of walkers; those with leg supports and those without leg supports to satisfy the demand for each type.


Briefly, according to the invention, a receiver (100) for receiving a carrier signal MSK (minimum shift keying) modulated with a bit stream of a digital information signal (302) is disclosed. The receiver (100) comprises a quadrature demodulator (128) for providing baseband quadrature demodulated signals (306 and 308). The quadrature demodulated (128) is coupled to an EXOR (126) for providing a decoded bit stream of the digital information signal (312) thereby avoiding complex decoder circuits. The quadrature demodulator (128) includes a pair of mixers (106 and 108) for quadrature mixing the received carrier signal and a pair of filters (114 and 118) for filtering the outputs of the mixers (106 and 108). The filters (114 and 118) are coupled to a pair of limiters (116 and 120) for limiting the filtered signals.

The ever increasing demand for digital transmission channels in the radio frequency (RF) band presents a potentially serious problem of spectral congestion and is likely to cause severe adjacent and co-channel interference problems. This has, in recent years, led to the investigation of a wide variety of techniques for solving the problem of spectral congestion. A modulation scheme known as minimum shift keying (MSK) addresses the spectral congestion problem effectively. MSK is a well known modulation technique to those skilled in the art. For more details on modulation and demodulation of MSK signals refer to Digital Transmission of Information by Richard E. Blahut.
In non-coherent detection of MSK modulated signals base band detection can be used. This technique uses a zero IF receiver including a quadrature demodulator for recovering the modulating digital information signal. Usually the I (in-phase) and Q (quadrature) channels are fed directly into a digital signal processing (DSP) where the demodulation and decision process is performed. The use of DSP increases the cost of the receiver and requires considerable space. As spectrally efficient as MSK has been, its wide spread use in high quantity production receivers such as pagers, has not yet been implemented due to the high cost of required DSP circuits. It is therefore clear that a need exists for a means to recover MSK signals without sacrificing receiver cost and space efficiency.

Non-coherent quadrature demodulation of MSK signals


A water dancing speaker is disclosed. The water dancing speaker comprises a housing assembly, a liquid spraying device, a liquid spraying power supplying device, a liquid column steering device, a driving device and an audio device. The housing assembly is formed with an exhibiting cavity, a partition cavity and an audio cavity, and the liquid spraying device can produce a liquid column. The water dancing speaker of the present disclosure can produce liquid columns that vary rhythmically with the audio characteristics of the played tracks, which improves the ornamental effect of the speaker.

Water dancing speakers of the prior art have relatively simple shapes and functions, and the fountain spraying device thereof can only spray liquid columns of a single style upwardly in response to the change of music rhythms, so the fountain spraying effect is unsatisfactory and the ornamental value is insufficient. Meanwhile, users cannot set the fountain spraying effect exhibited by the water dancing speakers according to their own preferences, so the water dancing speakers have poor extensibility and cannot satisfy various requirements of the users.

ATAKE DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY (SHENZHEN) CO., LTD.


A safety cage improves the safety of workers servicing tanker vehicles having top side hatches. A part or parts of the cage can be repositioned to permit the hatch cover to be opened and then can be returned to a safety enhancing position.

Loading tanks of transport trucks is a hazardous and dangerous task. To prepare the tank for loading, it is necessary for a worker to open the hatch or hatches on the upper surface of the tank. The upper surface of the tank is typically cylindrical and often slippery causing frequent slips and falls by workers. Further, the worker must access the top surface again after the tank is loaded to close the hatch or hatches on the tank. Because of these hazardous conditions, it is known in the art to use safety cages to protect the workman, such as the one disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,216,741.
Most safety cages in the art are ineffective in providing fall protection for transport trucks such as dry bulk transport trucks. The typical standard operating procedure for loading dry bulk transport trucks is to open the hatch at one location, drive the truck to a loading station for loading, and then close the hatch at the second location or return the truck to the original or another location suitable for closing the hatch. The hatch cover is normally hinged on a horizontal axis extending in the longitudinal direction of the tank and truck. When the hatch cover is opened, it is desirable to pivot the hatch cover to a fully open position in which the top of the cover rests on the upper part of one lateral side of the tank. If the side railing of a safety cage is spaced laterally outward a sufficient distance to permit the hatch cover to be fully opened, the side railing is positioned too far laterally to prevent the worker from falling. It also may be too far away to be used by the worker as a grab bar to regain balance or to stop a fall. Conversely, if the side railing of a safety cage is spaced laterally inward a sufficient distance to prevent the worker from falling, the hatch cover is not permitted to be fully opened.


A device using a single external resistor for battery charging applications and a software current feedback control loop for use with the external resistor is described. For instance, a single resistor can be used to determine the charge electrical current level being used to charge a battery. The determined level from the single resistor can be used in a feedback loop to set the charge electrical current level and to determine if there is an over current condition requiring the charge current be shut down.

Processing devices, for example, microcontrollers, are widely used in the industry as control elements in many solutions. Most microcontrollers are general in purpose, and are designed for use in a wide variety of applications. One such application is battery charging. Rechargeable batteries are used in many applications to power a variety of electronic devices (e.g., cell phones, laptop computers, personal digital assistants (PDAs), small electronic devices, and the like). Battery charging functionality may be realized on or using a microcontroller, for example, programmable system on a chip device (e.g., a PSoC® device manufactured by Cypress Semiconductor Corporation of San Jose, Calif.), which allows designers to build very small portable devices and to fit the electronics into a small battery package.
Certain types of batteries, for example, Lithium-based (Li+) batteries, are very sensitive to the charge voltage, current and discharge time. Therefore, they require a protective circuit. The protective circuit protects the battery from overcharge and over-discharge, and limits the load and charge current to safe values.
In one conventional programmable system on a chip device, separate resistors are utilized in the protective circuit for selecting the battery charger's charging current and its over-current shutdown level. On disadvantage of such a configuration is that it requires the use of additional pins on the device. Another disadvantage is that the system has to be pre-programmed for a particular charging current, thereby, no flexibility is provided.

Method and apparatus for using an external resistor for charging applications


The present invention is directed to compositions and methods for improving hearing parameters in a human (including hearing volume, hearing range and word recognition) by reversing or inhibiting damage to cochlear cells caused by toxic byproducts of oxygen metabolism. In a preferred embodiment, a pharmaceutically acceptable composition containing insulin-like growth factor one (IGF-1) and human growth hormone (HGH), or their derivatives in a 5:2 ratio by weight, is topically administered every three days in a dosage of 0.1 to 2 mcg per kilogram of body weight. The composition directly penetrates the inner ear and cochlea to provide greater regulation of sodium and potassium levels in the delicate sound-detecting hair cells. In accordance with the present invention, mean word recognition was improved by nearly 39 percent, hearing volume was improved by up to 40 dB, and the hearing range was improved above 6,000 Hz.

Senescence is the condition or process of deterioration with age, including progressive, multi-system organ degradation or "cell drop-out" which is the apoptosis or disappearance of cells and consequent shrinkage of the body's organs. Such organ shrinkage is seen in autopsies on the aged. For example, the human brain can decrease from an average weight of 1,500 grams in a young human adult to 1,000 grams or less in a human of advanced age. A brain that has decreased in size (the senescent brain) is highly forgetful, is unable to memorize new information and cannot react quickly to external stimulae. Shrinkage with age is also found in other human organs such as the cochlea, heart, liver, kidneys, lymph nodes, skeletal muscles and vertebrae. Such shrinkages often correspond to the accumulation of peroxidized, free radical products seen as brown-yellow age pigment (lipofuscin). Other corresponding changes that are associated with aging are hearing loss, wrinkled skin, depleted fat deposits, fewer dermal melanocytes, brittle bones, low infection resistance, poor exercise tolerance and lack of reproductive ability. Sixty-three percent of Americans age 70 and above suffer from sensorineural hearing loss, a disease of aging.
At the cellular level, sensorineural hearing loss means inadequate DNA repair leading to disordered and/or nonexistent cell replication, loss of mitotic control factors in the nucleus and cytoplasm including disordered nuclear cytoplasmic exchange, and permanent closing of microcirculatory capillary beds, especially in human cochlea, resulting in focal cell drop-out and loss of cell and organelle membrane function. This progressive cellular process affects all organs and tissues throughout the body and its etiology and pathogenesis must therefore involve a universal and fundamental aspect of cell physiology. Aging of the human cochlea and the mammalian organism as a whole must be examined at the cellular level because changes of individual cells affect changes in individual body organs and changes in individual body organs affect the organism as a whole. For example, death or dysfunction of a critical bodily organ, such as the heart, will result in the death of the body as a whole.
In any study on aging two distinct types of cells must be considered: normally dividing cells and post-mitotic cells. Normally dividing cells are those of the skin, hair and gastrointestinal tract, for example. While thousands of such cells die daily, they are continually replaced. Their replacement is with nearly exact replicas until the time of aging or senescence begins. This time begins in the mid-twenties in man. The second cell type, i.e. post-mitotic cells, are those that make up the cochlea, heart, brain, and central nervous system, for example. Generally speaking, post-mitotic cells do not divide or reproduce. Mammals are born with a fixed number of post-mitotic cells that lose function and die daily throughout a mammal's life span. Death of a mammal occurs when a critical number of post-mitotic cells lose function or die in a critical organ, e.g. the brain.
Biomedical gerontological research has provided some theories regarding the metabolic course of events, which leads to the inevitable loss of function, deterioration, destruction, apoptosis, and death of mammalian cells. One theory relates to mammalian cellular metabolism's reliance on oxygen metabolism. By "oxygen metabolism" is meant the burning of oxygen in the cells' energy factories (mitochondria) together with foods such as fatty acids to produce adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the cell's energy source. Production of ATP occurs continually through enzymatically controlled chemical reactions. Unfortunately, these chemical reactions are not 100% efficient. For example, in the bacteria, E. coli, these reactions are only approximately 84% efficient. As one moves up the scale of evolution, these reactions become increasingly more efficient.
Most hearing loss cases are caused by the aforementioned degradation or functional impairment of the approximate 15,000 hair cells in the human cochlea. Unfortunately, scientists do not believe that human and mammalian hair cells are capable of proliferation after an infant's birth because they are considered postmitotic (see e.g., Ruben R J, 1967, Development of the inner ear of the mouse: a radio-autographic study of terminal mitoses. Acta Otolaryngol. Suppl. 220 pp. 221-244). There are two cell types, i.e. the normally dividing cells and post-mitotic cells. Normally dividing cells are able to reproduce and replace damaged cells. On the other hand, post-mitotic cells are sometimes repaired with hormones after bombardment with toxic oxygen byproducts of oxygen metabolism. Such bombardment often reduces their function, damages their DNA and/or kills them outright. This is a steady-state, linear aging process until damage to DNA and cellular defensive enzymes becomes so great that the aging process acquires an endogenous, accelerating character.
The long term, lifetime effects of this endogenous toxic chemical bombardment can also be exemplified in the progressive loss of hearing, and the wrinkling and hardening of the skin and arteries with age. The cochlear interior and skin and arteries consist of supportive material called collagen and elastin. Collagen is the major protein of the white fibers of connective tissue, cartilage and bone. Elastin, or elastic tissue, is the major connective tissue protein of elastic structures such as the large blood vessels, the skin, and the cochlea. Elastin enables these structures to stretch, and then resume their original shape and size. Collagen and elastin contain fibers internally linked together by chemical bonds called "imide bonds". It is theorized that mammalian aging involves the oxidation of these imide bonds to "amide bonds". In the skin, cochlea, and arterial collagen and elastin of mammals, as more and more amide bonds are formed, the collagen and elastin fibers become increasingly less elastic and flexible. In man, it is known that these fibers harden at a rate of approximately 7% per decade after the age of maturity (approximately mid-twenties). This means that the arterial-vascular system in the ear and systemically has a theoretical life span of approximately 140 years before becoming 100% rigid.
Free radical pathology mechanisms seem to be involved at key points in the etiology and pathogenesis of hearing loss, cancer, occlusive atherosclerosis and wrinkling of the skin. Free radical pathology ensues largely from free radical and oxidation products that negatively affect cell membranes, collagen, elastin, immune functions, microcirculation, nucleic acids and regulatory proteins such as insulin-like growth factor one. Scientific studies have shown that this mechanism progresses from inciting factors to free radical pathologic reactions that damage organelles, cells and tissues resulting in aging and disease. Aging seems to affect simultaneously all cells, tissues and organs throughout the body in an insidious, progressive pattern whose pathogenesis and etiology therefore are thought to involve a fundamental and universal aspect of cell physiology.
The clinical significance of toxic free radicals and oxidative agents generated endogenously in living cells has been documented in various scientific and medical publications. An association between these toxic agents and aging has been observed. It is therefore desired that compositions and techniques be provided for reversing hearing loss and inhibiting or reversing aging of the human cochlea and thereby improving various hearing parameters. Such methods desirably include systemic treatment of humans to inhibit aging of the entire body as well as non-invasive treatment, e.g., to inhibit or reverse hearing loss in sensitive cochlear hair cells.

Composition and method for improving sensorineural hearing


A composite hard mask is disclosed that enables sub-100 nm sized MTJ cells to be formed for advanced devices such as spin torque MRAMs. The hard mask has a lower non-magnetic metallic layer such as Ru to magnetically isolate an overlying middle metallic spacer such as MnPt from an underlying free layer. The middle metallic spacer provides a height margin during subsequent processing to avoid shorting between a bit line and the MTJ cell in the final device. An upper conductive layer may be made of Ta and is thin enough to allow a MTJ pattern in a thin overlying photoresist layer to be transferred through the Ta during a fluorocarbon etch without consuming all of the photoresist. The MTJ pattern is transferred through the remaining hard mask layers and underlying MTJ stack of layers with a second etch step using a C, H, and O etch gas composition.

Magnetoresistive Random Access Memory (MRAM), based on the integration of silicon CMOS with MTJ technology, is a major emerging technology that is highly competitive with existing semiconductor memories such as SRAM, DRAM, Flash, etc. A MRAM device is generally comprised of an array of parallel first conductive lines on a horizontal plane, an array of parallel second conductive lines on a second horizontal plane spaced above and formed in a direction perpendicular to the first conductive lines, and an MTJ element interposed between a first conductive line and a second conductive line at each crossover location. A first conductive line may be a word line while a second conductive line is a bit line or vice versa. Alternatively, a first conductive line may be a bottom electrode that is a sectioned line while a second conductive line is a bit line (or word line). There are typically other devices including transistors and diodes below the array of first conductive lines as well as peripheral circuits used to select certain MRAM cells within the MRAM array for read or write operations.
An MTJ element may be based on a tunneling magneto-resistance (TMR) effect wherein a stack of layers has a configuration in which two ferromagnetic layers are separated by a thin non-magnetic dielectric layer. An MTJ stack of layers may be formed in a so-called bottom spin valve configuration by sequentially depositing a seed layer, an anti-ferromagnetic (AFM) pinning layer, a ferromagnetic "pinned" layer, a thin tunnel barrier layer, a ferromagnetic "free" layer, and a capping layer on a substrate.
The AFM layer holds the magnetic moment of the pinned layer in a fixed direction. The pinned layer has a magnetic moment that is fixed in the "y" direction, for example, by exchange coupling with the adjacent AFM layer. The free layer has a magnetic moment that is either parallel or anti-parallel to the magnetic moment in the pinned layer and is preferably made of NiFe because of its reproducible and reliable switching characteristics as demonstrated by a low switching field (Hc) and switching field uniformity (σHc). The tunnel barrier layer is thin enough that a current through it can be established by quantum mechanical tunneling of conduction electrons. The magnetic moment of the free layer may change in response to external magnetic fields and it is the relative orientation of the magnetic moments between the free and pinned layers that determines the tunneling current and therefore the resistance of the tunneling junction. When a sense current is passed from the top electrode to the bottom electrode in a direction perpendicular to the MTJ layers, a lower resistance is detected when the magnetization directions of the free and pinned layers are in a parallel state ("1" memory state) and a higher resistance is noted when they are in an anti-parallel state or "0" memory state.
In a read operation, the information stored in a MRAM cell is read by sensing the magnetic state (resistance level) of the MTJ element through a sense current flowing top to bottom through the cell in a current perpendicular to plane (CPP) configuration. During a write operation, information is written to the MRAM cell by changing the magnetic state in the free layer to an appropriate one by generating external magnetic fields as a result of applying bit line and word line currents in two crossing conductive lines, either above or below the MTJ element. In certain MRAM architectures, the top electrode or the bottom electrode participates in both read and write operations.
Generally, the purpose of the capping layer is to protect underlying layers in the MTJ during etching and other process steps and to function as an electrical contact to an overlying conductive line. In the fabrication of MRAM devices, ion beam etching (IBE) is often used to create MTJ cell arrays. However, IBE typically produces sloped sidewalls on the MTJ cell such that the top surface (capping layer) has a smaller width than the bottom surface (seed layer). A sloped profile can not only lead to electrical shorting issues but also limits further reduction of linewidth and makes it impossible to manufacture a very high density IC device as is required for applications such as spin torque MRAM. Spin transfer (spin torque) magnetization switching is described by J. Sloneczewski in "Current-driven excitation of magnetic multilayers", J. Magn. Materials V 159, L1-L7 (1996), and by L. Berger in "Emission of spin waves by a magnetic multiplayer traversed by a current" in Phys. Rev. Lett. B, Vol. 52, p 9353. The difference between a Spin-RAM and a conventional MRAM is only in the write operation mechanism. The read mechanism is the same.
A better approach to create a well defined three dimensional micro feature is by reactive ion etch (RIE) where a chemical reaction enables easy removal of by-products formed through the interaction of gaseous reactants and the materials to be removed. In the current MRAM fabrication process, a heavy metal such as Ta is deposited on top of a MTJ stack of layers, and acts both as a hard mask for the etching of the MTJ stack and also as an interlayer conduction channel to the top bit line as described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,060,194 which is represented by the process flow in FIGS. 1a-1d. Referring to FIG. 1a, a partially formed MRAM cell 1 is shown in which a photoresist layer 7 is patterned above a Ta hard mask 6 and a MTJ stack of layers 3-5 formed on a bottom electrode 2. In FIG. 1b, the photoresist pattern is transferred through the Ta hard mask to form a hard mask feature 6a followed by removal of the photoresist layer. In FIG. 1c, the hard mask feature 6a serves as an etch mask for transferring the hard mask pattern through the underlying MTJ stack to form a MTJ cell made of layers 3a-6a. There is a certain amount of Ta thickness loss in the hard mask feature 6a that may also be considered as a capping layer in the MTJ cell. In FIG. 1d, a first insulation layer 8 is shown between adjacent bottom electrodes 2 and a second insulation layer 9 is deposited adjacent to the MTJ cell comprised of layers 3a-6a, and planarized with some further Ta thickness loss in the hard mask layer 6a before a bit line 10 is added in a subsequent step. In some cases, the thickness of hard mask layer 6a (FIG. 1d) may be too small and electrical shorting occurs between the bit line 10 and the lower layer 3a of the MTJ cell. For example, MTJ layer 3a may represent a composite comprising a seed layer, AFM layer, and pinned layer while MTJ layer 4a is a tunnel barrier, MTJ layer 5a is a free layer, and hard mask layer 6a may function as a capping layer.
For sub-micrometer sized MTJ cells, a single Ta hard mask may not be a problem. However, as the MTJ cell/pitch dimensions shrink to about 100 nm or less as required for spin torque MRAMs, the MTJ shapes generated by a RIE process may not be able to withstand subsequent CMP processing and bit line via (BLV) etching and often result in device failure due to electrical shorting between the lower portion of the MTJ cell and bit line. In the example depicted in FIG. 2a, the top surface of capping layer 53 in a conventional MTJ cell is seen from a top view and has a typical elliptical shape after a patterning and etching sequence is used to form an opening for a subsequently deposited bit line in a second insulation layer 58 above the capping layer 53. The capping layer 53 and underlying portions of the MTJ cell (not shown) are surrounded by a first insulation layer 54 that is coplanar with the capping layer except for a region adjacent to the capping layer 53 which is a depression 56. The depression 56 is formed in the first insulation layer 54 because of the preceding RIE step that etches the dielectric material in the first insulation layer 54 at a faster rate than the capping layer 53. In order to clear dielectric material from the top surface of the capping layer 53, the surrounding region of first insulation layer 54 is overetched. From a cross-sectional view in FIG. 2b taken from the plane 59-59 in FIG. 2a, sidewalls 57 along the MTJ cell are partially uncovered by the preceding RIE etch. The upper layer 53 may be a composite made of a lower free layer and upper capping layer while the middle layer 52 is a tunnel barrier and the lower layer 51 may be a composite having a seed layer/AFM/pinned layer configuration formed on a bottom electrode 50. FIG. 2c shows that after a bit line 55 is deposited to fill an opening in a second insulation layer formed on the first insulation layer, the metal in bit line 55 also fills the depression adjacent to the sidewalls 57 (FIG. 2b) and makes contact with a portion of the lower layer 51 below the tunnel barrier and thereby causes an electrical short in the device.
Fabrication of MTJ cell dimensions of about 100 nm or less requires a thin photoresist layer (<3000 Angstroms) to ensure an adequate process latitude when imaging small MTJ features on a hard mask that will later be transferred through the hard mask and a MTJ stack of layers. It is well known that an aspect ratio (thickness/width of a pattern feature) of about 3:1 or less is preferred to avoid pattern collapse during image development. However, a thin photoresist layer requires a thin Ta hard mask layer to guarantee that the hard mask pattern will be completely formed before the photoresist etch mask is consumed during the etch transfer step. Unfortunately, a thin Ta hard mask leads to potential issues of electrical shorting as mentioned previously and limits the amount of etch time available to transfer the hard mask pattern through the MTJ stack of layers because the hard mask erodes during the pattern transfer process. Thus, other alternatives besides a simple Ta hard mask are necessary when fabricating MTJ cells having an easy axis or hard axis dimension of about 100 nm or less.
One alternative described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,001,783 is a bilayer hard mask consisting of an upper dielectric layer made of SiO2, silicon nitride, silicon carbide, or the like, and a lower heavy metal layer (Ta) that contacts the free layer in the MTJ stack of layers. The MTJ fabrication sequence is represented in FIGS. 3a-3d. In FIG. 3a, a partially formed MRAM 11 is depicted in which a photoresist layer 18 is patterned above a bilayer made of an upper dielectric layer 17 and a lower metal layer 16. The bilayer is formed on a MTJ stack of layers consisting of a lower first magnetic layer 13, a middle tunnel barrier 14, and an upper second magnetic layer 15. In FIG. 3b, the photoresist pattern is transferred through the dielectric layer to form a dielectric layer pattern 17a. After the photoresist is removed, a second etch step (FIG. 3c) transfers the dielectric layer pattern through the lower metal layer to form a metal pattern 16a. Thereafter, in FIG. 3d, the pattern is transferred through the MTJ stack of layers to form a MTJ cell comprised of etched layers 13a-15a on a bottom electrode 12. In this process flow, the dielectric layer 17 acts as a sacrificial layer to prevent excessive etching of the Ta hard mask 16 during the final etch of the MTJ stack of layers. However, this approach usually employs chlorine based chemicals to achieve a high etch selectivity between the bilayer materials SiO2 and Ta. Chlorine based chemicals can lead to device corrosion. Furthermore, the requirement for a sufficiently thick hard mask between the bit line and MTJ free layer is not met because the dielectric layer 17 is sacrificed and electrical shorting is still a possibility because of the thin lower metal layer 16. Therefore, a new MTJ hard mask design is needed to allow a thicker hard mask layer to avoid electrical shorting without compromising the photolithography process latitude required when printing sub-100 nm features.
Additional references were found during a routine search of the prior art. In U.S. Pat. No. 6,984,529, a patterned hard mask is oxidized to form an oxide surface before etching the underlying MTJ stack of layers to form a MTJ element.
In U.S. Pat. No. 7,252,774, a passivation layer such as Ta or TaN is patterned on a MTJ stack of layers followed by wet etching or RIE etching to remove at least the upper layer in the MTJ stack.

Composite hard mask for the etching of nanometer size magnetic multilayer based device


Systems, methods and articles of manufacture for are provided for analyzing user behavior in real time by ingesting telemetry data related to a streaming media application; feeding the telemetry data to a machine learning model (MLM) that produces a User Experience (UX) command based on the telemetry data and prior telemetry data received from the content streaming application; selecting content items to provide to the client device based on the telemetry data; determining, based on the telemetry data, whether the client device has sufficient free resources to receive the UX command and the content items in a current time window while providing a predefined level of service; when client device has sufficient free resources to receive the UX command and the content items, encapsulating the UX command with the content items in a content stream; and transmitting the content stream to the client device.

Streaming applications provide digital video content to users on demand via various computing devices through the internet. The control and management of streaming applications may be affected by commands input by the viewer (e.g., play a first content item, pause a second content item, turn on captions in a third content item) and behaviors observed by the provider to provide a personalized experience to the individual viewers (e.g., a first viewer watches science fiction but not fantasy—prioritize recommending science fiction content and deprecate recommending fantasy content; a second viewer frequently pauses playback—adjust caching priorities for provisioning continent to the second viewer; a third user frequently turns on captioning—turn on captioning by default for the third user). The management of the content delivery may be managed locally to the viewer via application settings, or may be managed remotely from the viewer by a content provider.
Content providers are provided viewer behavior data in batches to manage streaming applications. Batches of data may include several elements of viewer behavior collected over various time periods. Batched data may be useful in non-real-time management of the streaming application, but are of limited use in real-time management of viewer behaviors, as those data may be received out of sync from the content stream provided to the viewer, and take significant time to process, thus lagging behind the viewer's consumption of the content.


The fluid intake rate of a tissue product having at least one hydrophobic exterior layer can be increased significantly by the addition of apertures through the hydrophobic exterior layer to the tissue product's hydrophilic interior layer. The apertures allow for fluid to be absorbed by the hydrophilic interior layer, while leaving the hydrophobic exterior layer dry to the touch. The size, number and spacing of the apertures can be controlled to manage the absorbent properties of the tissue product. In one embodiment, a three-ply tissue product has two exterior hydrophobic plies each having a plurality of apertures extending from the surface of both exterior plies through the plies to a hydrophilic interior ply.

Formulations containing polysiloxanes have been topically applied to tissue products in order to increase the softness of the product. In particular, adding silicone compositions to a facial tissue can impart improved softness to the tissue while maintaining the tissue's strength. For example, polysiloxane treated tissues are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,950,545; 5,227,242; 5,558,873; 6,054,020; 6,231,719 and 6,432,270. A variety of substituted and non-substituted polysiloxanes can be used.
While polysiloxanes are exceptionally good at improving softness, there can be disadvantages in their use. Polysiloxanes are generally hydrophobic meaning they tend to repel water. Tissue products treated with polysiloxane can be less absorbent than tissue products not containing polysiloxane. The tissue's absorbency can be further reduced by using amino-functional polysiloxanes, which tend to be more hydrophobic in nature. Increased hydrophobicity in a paper product, such as a tissue, can adversely impact the ability of the paper product to absorb liquids. Hydrophobic agents can also prevent bath tissue from becoming quickly saturated and disintegrating or dispersing when disposed of in a toilet creating problems when flushing the tissue.
Increasing the hydrophobicity of a paper product can provide various advantages. By making tissue paper hydrophobic, the fluid strike-through properties of the tissue can be improved. For example, fluids absorbed by the tissue can remain within the interior of the tissue paper and not be transferred through to the other side to wet a person's hands while using the tissue. Other methods to increase the barrier properties of tissue, such as adding sizing agents to the tissue product, can be used.
In order to increase the tissue absorbency, the hydrophobic additives can be topically applied in discrete locations on a tissue product leaving relatively large untreated areas of the product such that less than about 50 percent of the surface of the product is covered with the additive. The discrete placement of the additive on the tissue product can provide regions of hydrophobicity and hydrophilicity. The discrete placement may require a majority of the tissue's surface to not contain the additive. As a result, reduced product benefits, such as softness, are realized relative to a product having a high level of surface coverage. In addition to reduced softness benefits, such products may not achieve the desirable balance of rapid initial intake and increased strike through time. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/289,557, entitled Soft Tissue Hydrophilic Tissue Products Containing Polysiloxane and Having Unique Absorbent Properties, filed on Nov. 6, 2002, and herein incorporated by reference, describes the application of a surfactant in a patterned arrangement to enhance the absorbent properties of a hydrophobic tissue product to balance the strikethrough and absorbent rate.
As seen, there is an ongoing need to develop tissue products that have good hand protection properties yet meet the criteria for absorbency generally demanded in dry tissue products. There is also a need to manufacture these products with technologies currently available and that introduce a minimum incremental cost to the product.


A system provides a general purpose bus with programmable timing capability. As part of a microcontroller, this general purpose bus provides a mechanism for communication between general purpose peripherals connected to the bus and enables external devices to be connected with proper timing to the microcontroller. The general purpose bus controller includes programmable interface timing control logic which allows the bus cycle length for commands from a processor or other bus master to be programmed. Accordingly, memory and I/O read and write commands are customized to suit the timing requirements of peripheral devices connected externally to the microcontroller. A significant variety of peripheral devices may thus be coupled to the microcontroller without requiring additional glue logic. The general purpose bus controller further includes an echo mode which permits accesses to internal peripheral devices to be interpreted by a logic analyzer or other debugging equipment.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to bus architectures within systems, and more particularly to a general purpose bus with programmable timing capability.
2. Description of the Related Art
A bus provides a mechanism for communication between components of a system or microcontroller. A bus is essentially a collection of wires through which data may be transmitted from one part of a system to another part of the system. In a computer system, for example, a bus connects all the internal components of the computer to the central processing unit, or CPU, and to main memory.
Buses are generally thought to be made up of three elements: an address portion, or address bus, a data portion, or data bus, and a control portion, or control bus. The address bus specifies the location from where the data is either retrieved or submitted. The data bus transfers the actual data. The control bus contains control signals which coordinate activities between the sender, the receiver, and between the address and data buses as well. For example, one signal of the control bus may indicate whether the processor is currently reading from or writing to main memory. Another signal of the control bus may indicate whether an I/O port or main memory is being accessed.
A bus cycle can be viewed as a complete set of operations necessary between the address, data and control buses in order for a command to be processed in a system. Because a system may include a variety of components with different requirements, these components may run at different speeds. Buses are typically designed to run with fixed timing and a fixed protocol. Peripheral components with timing and protocols different from the bus may therefore not be connected to the bus. Accordingly, to support a particular peripheral component, a bus design typically may not support other peripheral components whose timing and protocol requirements differ.
One of the better known buses for personal computers is known as the industry standard architecture, or ISA, bus. The first ISA bus was 8 bits wide and ran at 4.77 MHz. Then, it was changed to a 16-bit data width and its clock speed was increased to 8 MHz. The desire to support devices which depend on these criteria has kept the ISA standard from improving since 1984.
Briefly, the illustrative system provides a general purpose bus with programmable timing capability. This general purpose bus provides a mechanism for communication between external components connected to the bus and other parts of the system or microcontroller. Because the general purpose bus is programmable, peripheral components with different timing and protocol requirements may simultaneously occupy the bus. Thus, for example, both ISA bus peripherals which run at 4.77 MHz and those which run at 8 MHz can be connected to the general purpose bus. Further, for embedded system designs which so desire, the general purpose bus may be programmed to emulate an ISA bus.
In one embodiment, a microcontroller includes peripheral components, such as UARTs, a watchdog timer, a real-time clock, and a programmable interrupt controller, all of which are internal to the microcontroller. These internal peripheral components are connected to the general purpose bus. Additionally, the microcontroller supports the connection of external peripheral components, also using the general purpose bus. Accordingly, the general purpose bus of the illustrative system includes an internal and an external portion.
The general purpose bus is coupled to a general purpose bus controller which includes registers for programmable timing of the bus. These registers provide the capability to program the bus cycle length for several signals which are used to communicate with external devices connected to the general purpose bus. In one embodiment, these programmable signals include eight chip selects, to support up to eight external peripheral devices. Additionally, read strobes for both memory and I/O read commands, write strobes for both memory and I/O writes, and address latch enable signals are programmable for each external peripheral component connected to the bus.
By programming the registers of the general purpose bus controller, a customized bus cycle for external peripheral components is provided. The registers enable programming of the offset, the pulse width, and the recovery time, resulting in a preferred bus cycle length for each external device. In the disclosed embodiment, the bus cycle may be as short as 90 nanoseconds or as long as 23 microseconds.
Additionally, the general purpose bus provides an echo mode which is useful for debugging. In the disclosed embodiment, the general purpose bus controller provides one programmable timing set for the external peripheral devices and one fixed timing set for the internal peripheral devices. However, when the echo mode is enabled, the internal general purpose bus cycle is echoed out on the external pins of the microcontroller, making the signal available to logic analyzer or other debugging equipment. During echo mode, accesses to internal peripheral devices utilize the programmed timing set. This ensures that no timing conflict with other external peripheral devices occurs.
By including this flexible bus in a microcontroller, external peripheral devices may be coupled to the microcontroller architecture with relative ease. In particular, embedded system designers may connect peripheral devices using no additional real estate, such as programmable array or other glue logic. Such peripheral components may include single-function chips, such as a programmable interrupt controller, or a programmable interval timer. Additionally, this flexible bus may support multi-function chips, such as a super I/O controller or a serial communications controller. For each of these peripheral components, the bus cycle may be programmed to suit the timing requirements of the external device, thus optimizing the throughput of the system.

General purpose bus with programmable timing