A process is disclosed which incorporates implantation of a carbon cluster into a substrate to improve the characteristics of transistor junctions when the substrates are doped with Boron and Phosphorous in the manufacturing of PMOS transistor structures in integrated circuits. There are two processes which result from this novel approach: (1) diffusion control for USJ formation; and (2) high dose carbon implantation for stress engineering. Diffusion control for USJ formation is demonstrated in conjunction with a boron or shallow boron cluster implant of the source/drain structures in PMOS. More particularly, first, a cluster carbon ion, such as C16Hx+, is implanted into the source/drain region at approximately the same dose as the subsequent boron implant; followed by a shallow boron, boron cluster, phosphorous or phosphorous cluster ion implant to form the source/drain extensions, preferably using a borohydride cluster, such as B18Hx+ or B10Hx+. Upon subsequent annealing and activation, the boron diffusion is reduced, due to the gettering of interstitial defects by the carbon atoms.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of semiconductor manufacturing and more particularly to a method for implantation of carbon-containing clusters into a substrate for stress engineering and diffusion control to improve the characteristics of
2. Description of the Prior Art
The Ion Implantation Process
The fabrication of semiconductor devices involves, in part, the formation of transistor structures within a silicon substrate by ion implantation. As disclosed by Sferlazzo et. al. in U.S. Pat. No. 5,497,006, ion implantation equipment includes an ion source which creates a stream of ions containing a desired dopant species, a beam line which extracts and accelerates the ions from the ion source by means of an extraction electrode, and forms and focuses the ion stream into an ion beam having a well-defined energy or velocity, an ion filtration system which selects the ion of interest, since there may be different species of ions present within the ion beam, and a process chamber which houses the silicon substrate upon which the ion beam impinges; the ion beam penetrating a well-defined distance into the substrate. Transistor structures are created by passing the ion beam through a mask formed directly on the substrate surface, the mask being configured so that only discrete portions of the substrate are exposed to the ion beam. Where dopant ions penetrate into the silicon substrate, the substrate's electrical characteristics are locally modified, creating source, drain and gate structures by the introduction of electrical carriers: such as, holes by p-type dopants, such as boron or indium, and electrons by n-type dopants, such as phosphorus or arsenic, for example.
A recent development in semiconductor processing is the incorporation of mechanical stress to enhance transistor performance. This stress is generated by including atoms of elements other than silicon into a lattice structure. The successful process to date has been the incorporation of Ge atoms into the source and drain regions of a PMOS transistor. Inclusion of Ge atoms into a silicon substrate forms a SiGe alloy, which has a compatible lattice structure with the Si lattice. However, the Ge atoms are larger than the Si atoms, resulting in a larger lattice constant for the SiGe alloy, which can be controlled by the amount of Ge included. By forming this alloy material in the source and drain region of a PMOS transistor, the larger lattice therein places the channel region under compressive stress, which enhances the hole mobility and increases the performance of the PMOS transistor. The inclusion of Ge atoms only works for PMOS transistors because compressive stress is detrimental to the electron mobility and degrades the performance of an NMOS transistor.
Prior Art Ion Sources
Traditionally, Bernas-type ion sources have been used in ion implantation equipment. Such ion sources are known to break down dopant-bearing feed gases, such as BF3, AsH3 or PH3, for example, into their atomic or monomer constituents, producing the following ions in copious amounts: B+, As+ and P+. Bernas-type ion sources are known as hot plasma or arc discharge sources and typically incorporate an electron emitter, either a naked filament cathode or an indirectly-heated cathode. This type of source generates a plasma that is confined by a magnetic field. Recently, cluster implantation ion sources have been introduced into the equipment market. These ion sources are unlike the Bernas-style sources in that they have been designed to produce "clusters", or conglomerates of dopant atoms in molecular form, e.g., ions of the form Asn+, Pn+, or BnHm+, where n and m are integers, and 2≦n≦18. Such ionized clusters can be implanted much closer to the surface of the silicon substrate and at higher doses relative to their monomer (n=1) counterparts, and are therefore of great interest for forming ultra-shallow p-n transistor junctions, for example in transistor devices of the 65 nm, 45 nm, or 32 nm generations. These cluster sources preserve the parent molecules of the feed gases and vapors introduced into the ion source. The most successful of these have used electron-impact ionization, and do not produce dense plasmas, but rather generate low ion densities at least 100 times smaller than produced by conventional Bernas sources. For example, the method of cluster implantation and cluster ion sources has been described by Horsky et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 6,452,338 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,686,595 hereby incorporated by reference. The use of B18H22 as an implant material for ion implantation of B18Hx+ in making PMOS devices is disclosed in Horsky et al. in pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/251,491, published as U.S. Patent Application Publication No. US 2004/0002202 A1, hereby incorporated by reference.

System and method for the manufacture of semiconductor devices by the implantation of carbon clusters


A technique for routing data frames in a telecommunications backhaul network (100) is provided. The telecommunication backhaul network (100) includes a plurality of points and links between the points so that at least two different routes for communicating data frames between a pair of end points is provided. A first end point (102) routes data frames that belong to a communication tunnel between the first end point and second end point (104) on a first route (106), which includes one or more intermediate points (100). At least some of the data frames include a continuity check message. The first end point reroutes data frames belonging to the communication tunnel to a second route that is different from the first route (106), if certain data frames including the continuity check message are lost in the network (100). As to a method aspect of the technique, at least one of the links of the first route are switched to a reduced link capacity. At least a portion of the data frames including the continuity check message are dropped in response to the reduction in link capacity by at least one of the intermediate points (110) of the first route (106).

For a network component accessing an end point of a network or subnetwork, availability and capacity of a network connection to another end point in the network are important characteristics of the network connection, independent of a physical routing path used in the network for providing the network connection. Availability refers to the degree to which the network connection is in a specified state of operation, such as the existence of network connectivity with a specified capacity. Capacity refers to the bit rate provided by the network connection. Adaptive Modulation (AM), for example in a link using microwave equipment, is an efficient tool to increase the link capacity. However, the availability of the increased link capacity is often reduced.
For example, a microwave link is planned for a small Bit Error Rate (BER) at a low modulation level during major part of its operation time, resulting in approximately 99.999% availability of the link. Adaptive modulation means that in good radio conditions, the microwave channel is able to provide significantly higher capacity with lower availability of approximately 99.995% to 99.9% by using increased modulation levels. The used modulation level thus depends on current radio channel conditions. Automatic switching between the modulation levels provides the highest available link capacity for the current radio channel conditions.
The advantage of adaptive modulation can be utilized efficiently in networks carrying both services with "strict guarantees", which services typically need moderate but guaranteed bandwidth with high availability, and "best effort" services, which can utilize significantly higher link capacity but can tolerate service degradation. Examples for services with strict guarantees include services with Guaranteed Bit Rate (GBR), voice services and video call services. The availability required by services with strict guarantees can be 99.999%. Data communication services are often best effort services.
If a double-connected network is deployed, e.g., using microwave links, it is possible to protect the services carried by the lowest modulation level when the link capacity is going down to zero by using a protection switching mechanism. The protected traffic is rerouted to an alternative path, which does not contain the failed link. Herein, "failed" and "fault" refer to the outage of network connectivity.
Typical services, for example in the context of telecommunication, can tolerate only a very short time of outage and/or capacity degradation. Consequently, a restoration time is limited, for example to 50 ms. Achieving the short restoration time implies an even more rapid fault detection.
Conventional techniques for achieving the short restoration time use the fault detection mechanism described in the Recommendation ITU-T Y.1731 ("OAM Functions and Mechanisms for Ethernet based Networks") of the International Telecommunication Union as published in July 2011 and the standard document IEEE 802.1ag ("IEEE Standard for Local and Metropolitan Area Networks") for Connectivity Fault Management (CFM) as part of the Ethernet OAM Architecture for Operations, Administration and Maintenance (OAM).
To detect a fault between Maintenance End Points (MEPs), continuity check messages are periodically exchanged between them, which messages are referred to as Continuity Check Messages (CCMs) in the Recommendation ITU-T G.8031/Y.1342 or Continuity Check (CC) messages in networks using Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS). The fault is indicated to the MEP by the loss of one or more continuity check messages.
Conventional techniques using continuity check messages, including the Ethernet OAM mechanism and the MPLS mechanism, can only handle the case when the capacity of a link, e.g., a microwave link, is going down to zero. A microwave link capacity degradation, which can violate a guaranteed bit rate or a minimum bit rate of a service, is not detected. For example, the volume of GBR services can be higher than the capacity provided by the lowest modulation level of adaptive modulation. In this case, the service is degraded or collapses, when the adaptive modulation switches to a certain modulation level, since the required bandwidth is not available anymore. However, the fault-handling mechanism is not activated, because the link capacity is not zero and the continuity check messages are not lost.
In the context of the Ethernet OAM mechanism, it has been proposed to additionally use the number of dropped CCMs as an indicator of a degree of degradation. The number of lost CCMs, however, depends on other parameters, such as the number of links between the MEPs and a priority level of the CCMs. Thus, the number of lost CCMs is an unreliable indicator for capacity degradation.
A further solution proposed in the context of the Ethernet OAM mechanism extends the standard Ethernet OAM architecture by using a notification message in addition to the CCMs. However, sending and processing the notification message requires amendments beyond the standard architecture at multiple places throughout the network and causes additional signaling through the network. Furthermore, due to the additional time for transmitting and interpreting the notification message, the restoration time does not meet certain Quality of Service (QoS) requirements.


A low-cost, compact and low-profile imaging lens with relatively high brightness, which provides a wide field of view (full field of view: about 90 degrees) and corrects aberrations properly. Designed for a solid-state image sensor, it includes elements arranged in the following order from an object side to an image side: an aperture stop, a first positive (refractive power) lens, a second negative lens having a concave image-side surface, a third positive lens having a convex image-side surface, a fourth lens as a meniscus double-sided aspheric lens having a convex object-side surface near an optical axis, a fifth negative lens as a double-sided aspheric lens having a concave image-side surface near the optical axis, and a conditional expression (1) below is satisfied:|r1|>|r2|  (1)                where        r1: curvature radius of the object-side surface of the first lens        r2: curvature radius of the image-side surface of the first lens.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to imaging lenses which form an image of an object on a solid-state image sensor such as a CCD sensor or a C-MOS sensor used in a compact image pickup device and more particularly to imaging lenses which are built in image pickup devices mounted in increasingly compact and low-profile mobile terminals such as smart phones, mobile phones and PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants), and game consoles and information terminals such as PCs.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, there has been a tendency that image pickup devices mounted in mobile terminals such as smart phones provide high resolution to cope with an increase in the number of pixels. Also, the imaging lenses built in these image pickup devices are required to provide high resolution, compactness, low-profileness (thinness) and high brightness. In addition, wide-angle cameras capable of capturing an image of an object in a wide range are expected to be used in a wider range of application fields than before. For example, the need for compact monitoring cameras and security cameras has been increasing, and recently robot vacuum cleaners in which a camera controllable remotely by a smart phone is mounted and eyeglass type head-mounted displays with cameras have been developed, rapidly. The imaging lenses of the image pickup devices mounted in these products are strongly expected to provide not only high performance and compactness but also a wider field of view or wider viewing angle than the conventional imaging lenses.
However, if the photographic field of view is particularly widened, a problem may arise that correction of aberrations on the peripheral portion is very difficult and high optical performance is not ensured. Therefore, it is difficult to realize an imaging lens which meets the needs for high resolution, compactness, and low-profileness and also the demand for a wider field of view.
The imaging lenses described in the following Patent Documents 1 to 3 are known as imaging lenses intended to meet the needs for a wider field of view and higher performance.
JP-A-2009-075141 (Patent Document 1) discloses an imaging lens in which elements are arranged in the following order from an object side: a negative first lens having a concave surface on an image side; a positive second lens having a convex surface on the image side; an aperture stop; a third lens as a plano-convex lens having a flat surface on the object side or a biconvex lens having a surface with a large absolute value of curvature radius on the object side; and a cemented lens with positive composite refractive power, composed of a fourth lens and a fifth lens.
JP-A-2010-271541 (Patent Document 2) discloses an imaging lens in which elements are arranged in the following order from an object side to an image side: a first lens as a biconvex lens with positive refractive power; a second lens with negative refractive power having a concave surface on the image side; a third lens as a meniscus lens with positive refractive power having a convex surface on the image side; and a fourth lens as a double-sided aspheric lens with negative refractive power having a concave surface on the image side near an optical axis.
JP-A-2010-026434 (Patent Document 3) discloses an imaging lens intended to be compact and correct various aberrations properly, in which elements are arranged in the following order from an object side: a positive first lens, a positive second lens, a negative third lens, a positive fourth lens, and a negative fifth lens.
The imaging lens described in Patent Document 1 provides high brightness with an F-value of 2.0 and also achieves a wide field of view of about 90 degrees through its first lens with negative refractive power. However, its total track length is about 18 mm, so it cannot meet the needs for compactness and low-profileness. Furthermore, since all the lens surfaces are spherical, it is difficult to correct aberrations and achieve high imaging performance. In fact, the disclosed aberration diagrams indicate that spherical aberrations are serious. Furthermore, since all the lenses are made of glass material, it is difficult to reduce cost.
The imaging lens described in Patent Document 2 has a total track length of about 5.4 mm and the ratio of the total track length to the diagonal length of the effective imaging plane of the image sensor is about 0.9. This suggests that the imaging lens is relatively low-profile. Also, the maximum field of view is in the range from about 70 degrees to 75 degrees, so it provides a relatively wide field of view but it cannot meet the recent demand for a wider field of view. In addition, its F-value is about 2.8, so it cannot be said to provide sufficient brightness to cope with a compact, high-pixel image sensor.
The imaging lens described in Patent Document 3 provides high brightness with an F-value of 2.0 to 2.5 or so and has an ability to correct various aberrations properly. Since it is composed of five constituent lenses, it is advantageous in correcting various aberrations but disadvantageous in terms of compactness and low-profileness. Its total track length is as long as about 7.8 mm and the ratio of total track length to maximum image height is about 1.1. The maximum field of view is about 62 degrees. Therefore, the imaging lens described in Patent Document 3 also does not meet all the above recent needs.
As mentioned above, in the related art, it is difficult to provide the required high resolution, compactness and low-profileness and also meet the demand for a wide field of view.


A method for allowing authentification of a bulk liquid e.g. petrol or another mineral oil based product, comprises introducing into the liquid a small amount of a chemiluminescent substance. Samples for authentification are subjected to the conditions required to trigger the chemiluminescent reaction and monitored for chemiluminescent emission.

This invention relates to a method for monitoring the levels of chemical marker compounds and an assay kit enabling the monitoring to be carried out under field or laboratory conditions. The invention is particularly, but not exclusively, directed towards the detection of added chemicals in liquid products, especially in oil based products such as petroleum.
Chemical additives are important constituents of oil based products such as petroleum, diesel oil and lubricating oils. The additives are generally designed to impart favourable and occasionally unique properties to the product such that their absence or a reduction in their concentration may result in a significant loss of performance. These additives are normally introduced at a central distribution point into products which may be distributed on a world wide basis. Since product performance is dependent on the presence of appropriate levels of the additives in the final product as it is retailed, a system for demonstrating their presence at any point in the distribution chain is required.
A second, but equally important consideration, relates to the problem of counterfeiting. Products which are perceived to have favourable properties over rival products will be imitated for reasons of commercial gain. They may not, for example, enjoy the benefits of the correct additives but may be sold as to imitate visually the better product. In such a situation, the ability to distinguish the genuine product from imitations is highly desirable.
Accurate identification of oil based products is also important since litigation can be brought as a consequence of accidents and spillages. In these situations, the presence of a marker substance which can identify or alternatively exclude a particular manufacturer or distributor can be of extreme value.
In summary, the presence of readily identifiable marker substances in oil based products could contribute significantly to several aspects of quality assurance in the oil and petroleum industry. Up to now, it appears that no simple procedure has yet been devised to provide such a system.
Fuel additives are frequently beneficial to the performance of the product at extremely low concentrations. However, their incorporation into fuels at such low concentrations means that they are not readily detected by conventional analytical procedures. Even in situations where the additive can be detected by sophisticated physical/chemical techniques, there is the problem that samples must be taken to a central laboratory for analysis which may be tedious and time consuming.
One recent approach has been to make use of the fact that many organic compounds are immunogenic so that immunological assay methods can be applied to their detection (see for example EP-A-0327163). Though these methods do possess inherently high sensitivities, they are not intrinsically simple to perform and therefore do not lend themselves to analysis in the field. Moreover, they involve the use of monoclonal antibodies which may lack the stability of simple chemicals, again restricting the site or scope of application. This approach relies on subjecting a small sample to an assay procedure to quantify the additive compound of interest; there is no suggestion of introducing a chemical marker to the bulk product or along the distribution chain at source which is subsequently triggered possibly many weeks later several steps down the distribution chain to allow analysis or detection thereof.
We have developed a radically different approach which uses an independent substance which has some unique, easily detected property and which can be added to the fuel at source or along the distribution chain as a marker along with the additives. The marker should possess certain characteristics. Firstly, it should partition into the organic phase so that contact with water, as might occur for example in a storage vessel, will not cause substantial partitioning into the aqueous phase. Secondly, the marker compound should remain stable in the fuel for several weeks without substantial alteration of its detection characteristics. Thirdly, the marker compound should be reproducibly detectable at extremely low concentrations, partly for reasons of cost but also to ensure that it does not itself interfere with the performance of the fuel. The marker compound should be detectable quantitatively with a simple detection system. Finally, neither the fuel itself or any other additive should interfere significantly with the behaviour of the marker under normal analytical conditions.


A hydroponic plant growth station having a growing board with a plurality of holes arranged in at least one vertical column of holes, a nutrient delivery channel disposed beneath the column of holes, and a supply of nutrient to the delivery channel.

Indoor cultivation of fruits, vegetables, flowers and ornamental plants is an increasingly popular method of producing living plants, whether for the horticulturist, hobbyist or professional nursery operator. Hydroponic plant growth systems have been introduced which typically use an open-topped outer container for holding a liquid combination of water and plant growing nutrients and an open-topped inner container for holding an inert growing medium. Plant roots are grown in the medium. The inner container includes openings at its lower end to allow liquid to enter the growing medium and to drain from it. Automatic systems, generally requiring submersible pumps and hydraulic pumping systems, maintain the correct amount of growing nutrient. The inert growing medium typically includes clay pellets, sand, gravel, perlite, vermiculite, or the like. Alternately, in more complex and difficult to control aeroponic applications, plant roots are suspended in air and are fed constantly with a nutrient-rich mist.
During hydroponic growing, it is important that the delivery of the liquid nutrients to plant roots not exceed a maximum level, nor should the plant roots be deprived of nutrient and allowed to dry for too long a period of time. If over-watering occurs, the plant may die or have its growth inhibited from root rot. Allowing the roots of the plant to be dry for too long results in dehydration and starving the plant. Thus, an accurate method of delivering controlled amounts of liquid nutrient to the roots of a plant within a planter is desirable since it has been discovered that plant growth may be enhanced if periods of root saturation are followed by periods of root dryness.
Furthermore, to control the expenses of nutrient supply to plant roots and minimize the effort in re-cycling nutrient, it is advantageous to concentrate the nutrient delivery only within the area of root growth as opposed to spreading nutrient over a larger area encompassing areas not having root growth activity. Known nutrient supply systems do not have the commercial advantages of the combination of these provisions as provided by the present invention.
Hydroponic systems provided by the present invention may be used by commercial growers to control and deliver specific doses of moisture and nutrients so that herbs, in particular, have optimum flavor and consumer appeal. Hydroponically grown herbs, including basil, tarragon, arugula, mint, chilies, and the like, are therefore, excellent candidates as the commercial demand for such herbs is strong throughout the years, independent of growing season. However, since the taste of a plant is determined by the elements absorbed through its leaves and roots, it is desirable that such edible plants be produced in sheltered or enclosed environments free of pesticides, herbicides and artificial fertilizers. The expense of producing and maintaining a enclosed environment is impacted significantly by the space required within a hydroponic growing system. There is thus a further need for compact plant growth systems so that a relatively high plant growth density within a sheltered environment may be obtained.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,965,962 discloses a hydroponic culture system comprising angle panels having holes for supporting plants with roots projecting through the holes, and a hydroponic solution spraying mechanism. A plant cultivation structure made from angle panels in rows, the top edges of adjacent angle panel rows connected with canopies to form substantially triangular-sectioned spaces between the adjacent angle panel rows.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,557,885 discloses a hydroponic planter having a tank storing the mixture of water and nutrients and a sight glass for gauging the proper water level range. Compressed air is used to draw water into the bottom of the tube and lift it to the top of the tube where it is discharged into a planted pot. Water and nutrient solution trickles down through an inert growing medium and drains from the bottom of the pot back into the storage tank.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,168,664 discloses a hydroponic planter having an outer container and an inner liner. The liner includes a central inverted cup-shaped reservoir for a liquid nutrient solution. The outer wall of the liner includes slots extending substantially above the height of the reservoir, to provide aeration of the roots of plants growing in the planter. A liquid level indicator shows when to add nutrient solution to the planter, and indicates when too little, sufficient or too much nutrient solution has been added.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,965,962 discloses a hydroponic planter having angle panel members with holes for supporting plants with roots projecting through the holes. A hydroponic solution spraying mechanism is moveable along the longitudinal direction of the panels. The spraying system provides a uniform spraying over the entire insides of the panels and not concentrated in the plant rooting areas.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,753,036 discloses a hydroponic planter having an upper surface with an opening for a plant, and a side surface having a opening to pass the rootstock of the plant. Each of the planters receives predetermined amounts of water and porosity grain fillers, such as foaming brick stones, and plants are set throughout or in part of the planters.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,704,818 discloses a hydroponic planter having frustoconical shell-like members with openings in the walls through which plants grow. A matrix of water permeable material is provided throughout each shell like member into which the plants are inserted. Liquid nutrient is introduced near the top of the rooting matrix so that with this design, nutrient is spread throughout the matrix and not concentrated in the plant rooting areas.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,419,842 discloses a hydroponic planter having a closed lower chamber for receiving a liquid nutrient solution and a top open-ended upper chamber for receiving filler material and the desired plant. A nutrient supply pipe extends downwardly into the lower chamber so that nutrient solution may be fed in a continuous cycle from the lower chamber to the upper chamber and back again.
Some of the above described operations generally use large amounts of floor space per single plant, thereby requiring expensive efforts to provide a large controlled environment free of pesticides, herbicides, etc., suitable for use in a commercial hydroponic growing operation. To minimize over- and under-watering, various gauges and carefully controlled watering or spraying devices have been developed. These systems fail to concentrate the nutrient supply in the plant rooting area and generally provide a nutrient supply in a uniform pattern over an entire plant growing area, creating either waste or the need to re-cycle an inordinate amount of nutrient.
In view of the foregoing, it is therefore believed to be advantageous to provide a hydroponic growing station having a simple nutrient delivery system having a concentrated nutrient delivery system in a compact design allowing for a cost-effective enclosed plant growing environment. An important improvement over the art provides nutrient only near plant roots thereby optimizing growing efficiencies, so that herbs, in particular, may be delivered to consumers without excessive costs. A further need within the industry is the ability to provide an optimum amount of growing illumination for different plant species, without the wastes of overlapping or non-illuminated areas.

Hydroponic growing station with intermittent nutrient supply


Described herein are various technologies pertaining to generating and modifying a file for an entity, wherein the file includes a file record, and further wherein the file record includes binary data and a schema that is usable to hydrate a record based upon the binary data. The file is modified by appending file records to one another, where file records optionally correspond to different record creation systems. Described herein are also various technologies pertaining to locating a record in the file.

Oftentimes, with respect to electronic record creation systems, records about an entity are formatted and stored in such a manner that the records are unable to be retrieved and deciphered unless a computing system has a record creation system utilized to create the records installed thereon. In a specific example, electronic health record (EHR) systems generate data about patients, and such data tends to be retained in silos. For instance, a patient may make an emergency room visit, and a hospital system that operates the emergency room may use a first EHR system to generate and store patient records. Sometime thereafter, the patient may visit an orthopedic surgery center, where the center utilizes a second EHR system to generate and store patient records. Conventionally, a healthcare worker at the orthopedic surgery center is unable to access the records about the patient generated and stored by the first EHR system. Instead, the healthcare worker must contact the hospital that operates the emergency room, whereupon the hospital will provide a summary of a patient record of interest to the healthcare worker at the orthopedic surgery center (presuming that the patient consented to the sharing of the patient record).
Further, using current technology, it may be difficult to acquire data about a patient from a patient record generated by a single EHR system. More specifically, aggregate results of EHR system databases that are developed over long periods of time often leads to bifurcation of data entries within a patient record (generated or stored via the EHR system) due to the gradual pace of change, feature alterations, bug fixes, loss of platform support, employee turnover at EHR system vendors, and so forth. Therefore, in an example, a patient record may be stratified across different records in the EHR system database of the hospital; hence, to retrieve data for a patient from the EHR system, multiple queries may need to be executed over multiple databases of the EHR system, which is computationally expensive and time consuming.
Moreover, when an end user is navigating to different parts of the patient record within a graphical user interface (GUI) of the EHR system, time consuming screen refreshes may be required, as only portions of the patient record are being pulled from one or more databases based upon a location of the end user in the GUI.
This paradigm of record generation and storage, where data is retained in individual silos, is relatively inefficient and may be detrimental to the patient. For example, during the aforementioned emergency room visit, a healthcare worker in the emergency room may have performed a blood test on the patient, wherein the blood test results (e.g., "normal" or "abnormal") are based upon the values of ten separate blood parameters. A surgeon at the orthopedic surgery center may be interested in a particular one of those parameters; for example, iron count in the blood of the patient. Conventionally, however, the EHR system at the hospital is configured to generate a summary rollup of the blood test results (which may be based upon multiple portions of the patient record retrieved from different databases of the EHR system at the hospital), where the summary rollup may indicate that the blood test results are "normal." The summary rollup, however, does not include the detail desired by the surgeon. Hence, the surgeon may order another blood test to be performed on the patient, which can be costly and generally undesired by the patient.

Systems for creating and modifying a file for an entity, and systems for locating records in the file


An apparatus is disclosed having a first wedge having a first side and a second side oriented at some angle relative to the first side, and a second wedge glidably connected to the first wedge, having a first side and a second side oriented at some angle relative to the first side. The first wedge glides relative to the second wedge to stop the door before the door stop reaches a maximum length of travel.

Door stops are devices used to hold a door open or closed. There are several types of door stops including attachable and stand-alone ones.
Attachable door stop devices are mounted or otherwise affixed to a wall, floor or door. One example of an attachable door stop is a stopping mechanism, usually a short metal bar capped with rubber or other high friction material and attached to a hinge.
When the door is to be kept open, the bar is swung down so that the rubber end touches the floor. However, the hinge is permanently mounted on the door. If the door is an exterior door and the door stop is used to keep the door open, the exterior surface of the door (i.e., the face) will have a door stop mounted thereon. If the face is a decorative face, a door stop may give the door an undesirable look.
Stand-alone door stop devices may be as primitive as a rock or a brick. Generally, stand-alone door stops are preferred as they are easy to install and relatively inexpensive. To hold a door open or closed, it can be as easy as placing a heavy object behind or in front of the door. These stops are predominantly improvised. Wedges made of wood, rubber, plastic and other materials are another approach to holding a door open. The wedge is kicked into position and the compressibility of the material is used to try to create enough friction to keep the door from shutting. A problem with prior art wedge designs is that if the angle of the wedge is too steep, the door will push the wedge out of the way due to the hardness and/or low friction coefficient of the floor. Also, if the floor is slick or has dust or debris on it, the wedge may slide. Furthermore, these door stops must be in a certain orientation to work. Furthermore, these door stops cause damage to floor and door from the friction of insertions. Removal of same can often time split the door laminate from the door frame.
Some prior art attempts to keep doors open or closed rely on the weight of the object. The weight may damage the floor and a person may be injured by accidentally striking the object, such as with a toe.
In some settings a floor may be covered with carpet, linoleum, tile, or some other surface. In this type of setting a problem that arises is that the floor may deform. For example, plush carpet may be compressed. If a prior art wedge is used, the maximum thickness of the wedge may be small enough that the door may compress the wedge into the carpet and then pass over the wedge, rendering it useless.
In addition to keeping a door from closing, door stops are also commonly used to prevent a door from opening past a certain angle. Doors that open too wide may damage walls when a doorknob contacts the wall, or may damage the hinges by overextending their range. The most common form of door stop for this purpose is to have a device permanently mounted to either the floor, the door, or a wall so that the door or some feature on the door contacts the door stop before the door can do any damage to the door or wall. A prior art approach involves drilling a hole in the floor and setting a pin in the hole to anchor a door stop with a rubber face. When the door swings open, the door contacts the rubber face in a relatively elastic collision that absorbs some of the momentum, but the remaining inertia is transferred to the pin. Over time, the pins can break or damage the surrounding concrete or other flooring material and must be replaced. Also, the hinges may be damaged by the vibration.
Furthermore, in the case of commercial or automatic return doors, almost all of these door stops will not operate unless they are wedged into place with considerable force, further increasing the likely hood of damage to the door or floor. If the door is even slightly bumped, the door stop is unseated and will not stop the spring loaded force of the door, particularly on smooth surfaces.
Simple wedge door stops almost all use a single hardness material that makes contact with the door and the floor resulting in an approach that may be the worst of both worlds. The surface making contact with the floor is often too rigid or hard to conform to the surface of the floor and provide desirable gripping power or surface tension of softer materials. The upper side making contact with the door is generally not of a high enough hardness to facilitate effective durability of the product, resulting in a short life product that at best is challenging and limited in use. A simple wedge design such a wood block eventually turns into a sandpaper block as dirt, sand and debris particles are through friction embedded in the surface giving the erosive effect of a glacier on a mountain with a door stop against smooth floors.


A modular wall system for use in trade shows includes an upstanding column having a surface, a panel having an end, and a connecting bracket for detachably connecting the end of the panel to the column. The connecting bracket includes male and female interengageable parts, where the female part is attached to the end of the panel and the male part is attached to the surface of the column. The female part includes a slot extending in a direction along the length of the surface of the column. The slot includes opposing outwardly inclined sides. The male part includes opposing sides corresponding in shape to the slot sides and received within the slot to connect the end of the panel and column.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to modular structures or petitions, and more particularly to a modular wall system for use in exhibitions, trade shows and the like configured for maximum design flexibility, ease of assembly and disassembly and simplicity in packing and shipping.
2. Description of the Related Art
Important features of display booths for exhibitors attending trade shows and exhibitions are display booth design flexibility, particularly with respect to the ability to create a large variety of different booth configurations and the ease of assembly and disassembly of the display booths. It is also important that the display booths have sufficient structural integrity to be used safely during the show and the ability to be transported efficiently between uses. Further, it is desirable that booth technologies offer a wide choice of new and useful accessories, which can be used to further customize the booths.
Standard wall systems for display booths feature either hard wall structures, or pipe and drape technologies. Hard wall systems require specialized assembly tools to open, close and/or adjust the components and are required to install accessories. Ladders are necessary to install the required top beams and headers of the system. Multiple sized crates are required for shipping and storing the system. Loading and unloading requires the use of dollies and overall the parts of the system are bulky and heavy making the components extremely difficult to pack, load and unload. In order for the system to provide custom designs, shop drawings are required.
Standard pipe and drape systems are advantageous over the hard wall systems in that they do not require specialized assembly tools. However, this type of pipe and drape system requires multiple spotting of the bases and posts. Shipping requires heavy carriers in various sizes, resulting in large cargo loads and high transportation costs. Moreover, the pipe and drape type systems do not provide for accessories and have shown to be very unstable.
It is, therefore, a primary object of the present invention to provide a modular wall system for use in exhibitions, trade shows and the like configured for maximum design flexibility, ease of assembly and disassembly, and for simplicity in packing and shipping.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a modular wall system for creating various uniquely designed exhibition booths one or more stories high utilizing only three main parts including columns, wall panels and headers.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a uniquely structured interengageable and detachable connecting means for securing wall panels and headers to columns without the need for assembly tools.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a universal column structure interengageable with wall panels and headers to create a large variety of different booth configurations, designed for multiple side use and extending one or more stories in height.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a unique fabric covering for the wall panels and headers, separated on both sides to eliminate shadows created by objects hanging within the booth.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a fabric covering having a zipper and stretchable fabric making it easy to replace, remove and re-install over the panels.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a fabric covering that stretches over the frame members of the wall panel and makes it easy to adjust and manipulate the covering and frame members underneath.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a modular wall system, which can be reconfigured for on-site design modifications in a quick and efficient manner.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a carrier for the modular wall system designed to be stored during transportation to maximize truck cargo space while decreasing loading and reloading time at events.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a carrier that is easily delivered to the show room floor and efficiently transported up and down the show room aisles before assembling and after dismantling of the booth.
It is another object of the present invention to provide wheeled carriers specially designed for uniquely stacking columns therein.
It is another object of the present invention to provide wheeled carriers specially designed for uniquely stacking headers therein.
It is another object of the present invention to provide wheeled carriers specially designed for uniquely stacking wall panels therein.
It is another object of the present invention to provide means for concealing electrical wires within the modular system.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a modular wall system including a variety of interengageable accessories for displaying products in an esthetically pleasing and professional manner.

Modular wall system for exhibition booths


The present invention provides methods and kits for predicting transplant rejection or tolerance. Methods for predicting the probability of cardiac allograft rejection via profiling of peripheral blood gene expression are also provided.

Organ transplantation is a viable therapy for improving the quality of life in people with end-stage organ failure. Progress has been made in using bone marrow, kidneys, hearts, and livers from unrelated individuals, though transplant rejection remains a persistent problem. Another limiting factor in clinical transplantation is the persistent shortage of organs. For example, of the 265,000 patients with end-stage kidney disease in the U.S., only 5-6% will receive a transplant. Hepatitis C virus-related liver diseases is another source of increasing demand for liver transplants, whose incidence is on the rise with predictions reaching increases of at least five-fold in the next decade.
Typically, organ donors are heart-beating cadaver donors (HBD), which unfortunately, represent a supply source remaining relatively constant for the past ten years.
Organ rejection is a product of the immune system of the recipient, which recognizes the transplant as foreign tissue and develops immune reactivity, culminating in rejection of the transplanted/grafted tissue. Attempts to tolerize recipients to transplant tissue have not met with much success to date.
Early detection of transplant rejection affords the possibility of aggressive immunosuppressive therapy for preventing transplant rejection. Methods for predicting transplant tolerance are clearly desirable for both diminishing potentially, the amount/duration of immunosuppressive therapy in successful recipients, and increasing the likelihood of successful transplantation in a particular recipient with respect to a given donor.
With the limited donor-pool, the criticality of donor choice and the clinical and economical consequences of transplant rejection, it is apparent, that new and inproved methods for predicting the probability of transplant rejection are greatly needed.

Predictors of transplant rejection determined by peripheral blood gene-expression profiling

The Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania


Apparatuses, systems, methods, and computer program products are disclosed for a dynamic communications session controller. An identity module is configured to masquerade as a session endpoint to a session controller for a communications protocol using one or more network interfaces. An endpoint selection module is configured to dynamically select a destination for a session intended for a masqueraded session endpoint, based on information from one or more destinations. A routing module is configured to maintain and/or direct connectivity for a session with at least a selected destination using a communications protocol.

Although phone calls and other communications are just as important to businesses as ever, if not more so, communications are becoming increasingly mobile and increasingly on personal devices. Most businesses, however, still rely on wired desk phones and a one to one assignment of a desk phone to an individual employee. Mobile phones are often personal devices, with personal data, and are often insecure. Some users, therefore, may use and carry two mobile phones, one for personal matters and one for business matters.
Some phone systems may blindly forward calls, or use a centrally administered follow me or find me feature with a list of different phone numbers, ringing them each according to some predefined algorithm. Such phone systems typically follow a predefined list, or algorithm, regardless of the situation or external circumstances.
For example, if a user has setup a follow me list including a desk phone extension and a mobile phone number, the phone system will call both numbers when the user receives a phone call, even if the user is operating a vehicle, performing a surgery, in a library, or the like. Even ringing the user's desk phone while the user is out of the office may be unnecessarily bothersome to coworkers.


A process for preparing a dialkylester of a naphthalenedicarboxylic acid comprising directing a liquid phase reaction mixture comprising a low molecular weight alcohol, a naphthalenedicarboxylic acid, a dialkylester of a naphthalenedicarboxylic acid, and a polyethylene naphthalate containing material, at a given temperature and pressure through series arranged reaction zones and subsequently removing a product comprising a dialkylester formed by the reaction of the naphthalenedicarboxylic acid and the polyethylene naphthalate containing material with the low molecular weight alcohol from a reaction zone. This invention is also directed to a process for preparing a purified dialkylester of a naphthalenedicarboxylic acid comprising a series of crystallization and distillation steps, and combinations thereof.

The diesters of naphthalenedicarboxylic acids are useful for preparing a variety of polymeric materials such as polyesters or polyamides. One particularly useful diester is dimethyl-2,6-naphthalenedicarboxylate (DM-2,6-NDC). DM-2,6-NDC, for example, can be condensed with ethylene glycol to form polyethylene naphthalate (PEN), a high performance polyester material. Fibers and films made from PEN have considerably improved strength and superior thermal properties relative to, for example, polyethylene terephthalate. For this reason, PEN is an exceptional material for preparing commercial articles such as thin films which can be used, for example, for the manufacture of magnetic recording tape and electronic components. Additionally, because of its superior resistance to gas diffusion, and particularly to the diffusion of carbon dioxide, oxygen and water vapor, films made from PEN are useful for manufacturing food containers, especially the so-called "hot fill" food containers. PEN is also useful for preparing high strength fibers which can be used to manufacture tire cord, for example.
In order to prepare high quality PEN suitable for commercial use, it is necessary to start with purified DM-2,6-NDC. The purified DM-2,6-NDC must be low in color, substantially free of organic and inorganic impurities, and low in particulate matter.
DM-2,6-NDC is most readily prepared by the esterification of 2,6-naphthalenedicarboxylic acid (2,6-NDA) with methanol. The 2,6-NDA is conveniently prepared by the oxidation of a 2,6-dialkyl- or 2-alkyl-6-acyl naphthalene compound using molecular oxygen and catalyzed by a catalyst comprising cobalt, manganese and bromine components. During this oxidation reaction, impurities such as 6-formyl-2-naphthoic acid (FNA), trimellitic acid (TMLA) and various brominated compounds are produced. Although in some instances it would be desirable to use 2,6-NDA directly for the preparation of PEN because of its high melting point (>300° C. with decomposition) and extremely low solubility in ordinary solvents, 2,6-NDA is extremely difficult to purify to acceptable levels by standard purification techniques such as distillation and recrystallization. These difficulties in purifying 2,6-NDA are partially overcome by converting 2,6-NDA to its dimethyl ester, DM-2,6-NDC. DM-2,6-NDC can be distilled and it can be recrystallized from solvents such as methanol or from one or more aromatic solvents. However, even though DM-2,6-NDC can be purified by treatments such as distillation or recrystallization, purifying DM-2,6-NDC to a purity acceptable for use in the aforementioned manufactured articles remains a problem in the art. For example, the FNA produced during the oxidation of dialkylnaphthalene is incorporated (as a methyl ester) into DM-2,6-NDC during the esterification of 2,6-NDA and is very difficult to remove or reduce to acceptable low levels. In particular, cobalt and manganese oxidation catalyst metals used for the preparation of 2,6-NDA are also typically carried over into the esterification reaction as impurities. This is because a certain amount of the oxidation catalyst metal is complexed tightly to TMLA and other oxidation by-products and is not removed in the oxidation mother liquor when the oxidation mother liquor is separated from the solid 2,6-NDA. Catalyst metals cause problems in the downstream operations used for purifying the DM-2,6-NDC by, for example, causing a thickening of the distillation bottoms and plugging of the distillation column. These catalyst metals must be removed prior to the distillation of DM-2,6-NDC.
Finally, particulate contamination in the DM-2,6-NDC must be eliminated or reduced to very low levels. Particulate contamination in the DM-2,6-NDC causes particulate contamination in PEN made from the DM-2,6-NDC. These particulate contaminants render the PEN unsuitable for manufacturing the thin, high-strength film used to prepare, for example, recording tape. These particulate impurities, which range in size down to below 1.5 microns, can arise from a variety of sources. For example, they may be oxidation catalyst particles. They may also be derived from filtering and drying operations where DM-2,6-NDC is dissolved in a solvent, recrystallized, separated from the recrystallization mother liquor by filtration and dried to remove excess solvent. Inevitably, a considerable amount of particulates contaminate the DM-2,6-NDC product in these processes. Regardless of the source, particulate contamination in the DM-2,6-NDC product is undesirable.
PEN or certain materials made from PEN can generate a relatively high rate of "scrap" or off-specification material. This material can be judged to be scrap for various reasons, including failure to meet color specifications, failure to meet molecular weight or intrinsic viscosity specifications, improper crystallinity, high diethylene glycol content, contamination by extraneous materials, heels from equipment drainage, and/or any other defect which would prohibit using the affected PEN in finished goods. Due to the high value of the contained naphthalate fraction in PEN, however, it is uneconomical to simply discard off-specification PEN. Thus, there is a need in the art to economically and conveniently reclaim the naphthalate value of PEN while simultaneously satisfying the stringent purity requirements of the final DM-2,6-NDC product.

Recycling polyethylene naphthalate containing materials in a process to produce diesters


A multilayer adhesive construction and method for production of said construction are provided. The construction comprises a facestock, a barrier layer on the facestock, and an adhesive layer on the barrier layer. The barrier layer comprises a pressure-sensitive adhesive which inhibits the migration of mobile species such as oils, resins, tackifiers, or plasticizers from the adhesive layer into the facestock or from the facestock into the adhesive layer. This migration of mobile ingredients often manifests itself as swelling or hardening of the facestock which, in turn, leads to wrinkling of the adhesive construction and general loss of adhesion. The multilayer adhesive construction of the invention thus improves adhesion and the appearance of the label by inhibiting wrinkling and/or staining.

A pressure-sensitive adhesive (PSA) construction generally comprises a facestock and at least one layer of pressure-sensitive adhesive on the facestock, as well as a release surface. If they are to be used together, the pressure-sensitive adhesive and the facestock must not excessively adversely affect one another. The existence of adverse chemical or physical reactions between the facestock and the adhesive layer reduces the stability of the construction, and may effectively prevent an otherwise desired combination of materials.
For example, rubber-based adhesive compositions are known to form good adhesive layers, which can adhere to a wide variety of substrates. However, polyolefinic materials--often used in film facestock--are generally not suitable with a wide range of rubber-based pressure-sensitive adhesives, because of swelling which occurs over time when the two are adjacent to one another. This swelling manifests itself as wrinkling of the adhesive construction and/or a loss of adhesion. To avoid the problems associated with swelling, manufacturers, especially those who use polyolefinic facestocks, are often forced to use acrylic-based adhesives.
It has been found that the swelling is caused by the migration of mobile ingredients from the rubber-based adhesive layer to the facestock. The mobile ingredients include organic molecules, such as oils, liquid resins, and tackifiers, which are often added to the rubber-based polymer during manufacture to impart desired adhesive or other properties to the composition. Certain of these relatively mobile ingredients have an affinity for polyolefinic facestock material and, if so, may migrate to the facestock. The resulting swelling of the facestock, ingredients into the facestock, leads to wrinkling of the adhesive construction and/or loss of adhesion.
Under certain circumstances, migration may also occur between mobile species contained in a facestock and an underlying adhesive layer. For example, many polyvinylchloride (PVC) facestocks contain liquid plasticizers. These mobile ingredients may migrate, over time, into an adjacent layer of adhesive. Migration of mobile ingredients from a facestock into an adhesive layer may also lead to a loss of pliability or contraction of the facestock, and a concurrent loss of adhesion, as discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,547,852 issued to Burke.
Thus, it is desirable to develop pressure-sensitive adhesive constructions which minimize or prevent migration of species between facestock and underlying adhesive layers, so that facestocks may be used with a wider variety of adhesive formulations, and retain a useful product stability.

Use of pressure-sensitive adhesive as a barrier coating


A data I/O system comprises a plurality of storage devices and a controller which controls the storage devices. In the data I/O system, the controller further includes a read/write unit, responsive to the subsequent receipt of a read request and a write request, for reading data stored in the storage devices and writing data in the storage devices, a logical volume management unit for mapping between a logical image of the data storage of a host processor (logical volume) and an actual space in the storage devices, a volume management unit for managing an active primary production volume (P-VOL) and second multiple mirror volumes (S-VOL) created as mirror images of the primary volume, and an S-VOL restoring unit for restoring the data of a first S-VOL with the data of a second S-VOL depending on the type of an error that happens in the first S-VOL.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a data I/O system and a method of controlling the data I/O system, and specifically relates to a technology to ensure availability of a secondary mirror volume in which a copy of data of a primary volume is written.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, storage systems that manage rapidly increasing data assets have played a vital role in an enterprise information infrastructure. In an increasing social demand for the storage like this, the storage system requires very high availability such that 24-hour-a-day, 365-day-a-year nonstop safety operations are possible. Therefore, the recent storage systems have adopted various technologies to improve the availability of the main transaction processing, such as a mechanism to backup data and a mechanism (replication) to copy data for data analysis or development/testing with no impact on main transaction processing (for example, see U.S. Pat. No. 6,101,497). In the above replication, data stored in a volume (primary volume) applied to main transaction processing is copied to another volume (secondary mirror volume), and this secondary mirror volume is used in various secondary transaction processing such as data backup, data analysis, and development/testing. Thus, it is possible to minimize the influence of the secondary transaction processing on the main transaction processing, which also improves the availability of the main transaction processing.
The aforementioned replication technology can basically improve the availability of the primary volume used in the main transaction processing but does not take into consideration availability of the secondary mirror volume. However, actual transaction processing often requires the availability of the secondary mirror volume used in the secondary transaction processing. For example, a content of the secondary mirror volume is sometimes corrupted by a bug inherent in a program, a hardware error, and the like in the transaction processing such as data analysis and development/testing. In such a case, a mechanism is required to simply and quickly recover the secondary mirror volume. In recovery of the secondary mirror volume, the content of the secondary mirror volume is not always restored to an expected content even if data of the primary volume is copied to the secondary mirror volume. The content of the primary volume at the time of copying could have been already updated, and the content after restored does not always agree with the content of the secondary mirror volume before corrupted.

Data I/O system using a plurality of mirror volumes


A loop simulator is provided for testing radar altimeter systems. Several accurately calibrated delay lines and attenuation elements can be switched into and out of the signal path. Using these elements, the loop simulator can be configured to provide several common tests for radar altimeters. Switching of the various elements is controlled by a microprocessor, which determines the appropriate configuration based upon a mode input, and automatically switches the correct elements into the signal path. The controller automatically compensates for attenuation of the various elements.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to radar test equipment, and in particular to a radar altimeter loop simulator. Still more particularly, the present invention relates to a testing system for simulating time delay and signal attenuation associated with multiple test conditions.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The typical radar altimeter contains a transmitter which sends out RF energy via an antenna which is bounced off the surface of the earth and returns to a receiver in the radar altimeter. Such altimeters typically use either pulse or continuous wave signals to determine altitude. The receiver uses the returned RF signal to measure the time delay between the transmitted signal and the associated return signal arriving at the receiver, and calculates the altitude of the radar altimeter with respect to the earth.
To facilitate ground testing of the altimeter for calibration or trouble-shooting, the output of the altimeter is coupled to an altitude loop simulator via a cable. The simulator includes a plurality of delay lines which simulate different altitudes. The altimeter output is coupled to one of these delay lines through manual switching of the signal path. The delayed signal is then coupled back into the receiver. Other simulations such as direct antenna leakage and open loop signals are performed by switching signal attenuation elements and signal terminations within the test fixture. An example of such a test device is the Sperry Radio Altimeter Test Set, part number T322967.
Precise calibration of radar equipment such as radar altimeters requires the delay lines to be carefully tailored, thus adding significantly to their cost. Also, each individual delay line must be calibrated in order to determine its attenuation if altimeter sensitivity is to be measured.
Depending upon the specific manufacturer's test procedure and on the particular test desired, various delay lines, terminations, and attenuations must be manually switched into the simulator loop path. The overall attenuation of the various elements is usually not known, so that altimeter sensitivity cannot be accurately determined.
It would be desirable to provide a loop simulator for testing radar altimeters which can be easily reconfigured to allow various tests to be performed. It would be further desirable to provide such a simulator which can be used with either pulse modulated or continuous wave radar altimeters.


A process for manufacturing a dry instant-noodles product comprising steaming or boiling noodle strings that have been cut out of a dough, transporting said strings on a net conveyor, and applying air, an inert gas or a mixture thereof to said strings from both above and below so as to expand and dry them; wherein the air, inert gas or mixture thereof is controlled to have an elevated temperature of 100.degree.-200.degree. C. and supplied from a separate high-pressure compartment at high speed through spray nozzle tubes provided both above and below said net conveyor.

This invention relates to a method of drying noodles and, more particularly, to a method by which steamed noodles are allowed to expand and dehydrate rapidly within a short time with process air, inert gas (e.g., N.sub.2, He or CO.sub.2) or mixtures thereof that are delivered at high temperature and speed from spray nozzle tubes.
Three well-known drying methods are currently employed in the instant-noodles products and they are by frying, by drying with hot gases and by drying with superheated steam. As for the second drying method which uses hot gases, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 44260/1977 teaches a process in which steamed noodles prepared by known procedures are treated with hot gases at elevated temperatures of about 150.degree. C. for a short period of time. Since the noodles to be dried by this method are placed in a specified quantity on a net conveyor, even a hot gas heated to as high as about 150.degree. C. is incapable of dehydrating the interior of the noodles although their surface may be dehydrated quickly. If the drying is continued for a sufficient time to completely dehydrate the interior of the noodles, their surface will be scorched.
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 86642/1979 teaches a method in which a sealed drying chamber is supplied continuously with steamed noodles, which are expanded to foam with a hot gas of high water content that has been heated to 105.degree.-180.degree. C. and which is recirculated for blowing against the strings of noodles at a rate of 2-10 m/sec. This method which uses the recirculating hot gas of high water content will cause smaller degrees of discoloration and scorching than the ordinary drying method using heated gases at high temperatures. On the other hand, the hot gas of high water content is simply circulated within the sealed drying chamber, so the thermal efficiency of the method on steamed. or boiled noodles is far from being satisfactory and, in addition, the high water content of the hot gas permits the noodles to be expanded to foam by a limited degree.
Japanese Patent Publication No. 44731/1979 teaches a process for producing dry noodles which comprises adjusting the water content of steamed or boiled strings of noodles to about 8-25% and treating them with a hot gas steam at about 120.degree.-250.degree. C. for about 5-90 seconds. According to the disclosure in this reference, if the water content of the steamed or boiled strings of noodles is adjusted to more than 25%, their interior is dehydrated insufficiently to achieve quick drying. This would be due to the inefficient contact of the steamed or boiled strings of noodles with the heated gas stream. It is therefore desired to develop a drying method by which heated gases can be applied uniformly not only to the surface but also to the interior of steamed or boiled strings of noodles having a specified thickness while assuring high efficiency to achieve rapid drying of the noodles so that they are expanded to foam within a short period of time. On the other hand, the rapid expansion and foaming of noodles by drying with heated gases at elevated temperatures is said to accelerate the oxidation of flavor, coloring matter, oils and vitamins in the noodles, thereby damaging their characteristic flavor and color, as well as vitamins and other nutrients.

Process for manufacturing a dehydrated instant-noodles product


An electrical connector includes a dielectric housing having a terminal-receiving cavity extending in an insertion direction. The housing includes a window in an outer wall communicating with the cavity. A terminal is insertable into the cavity in the insertion direction to a final position. The terminal includes a stop surface transverse to the insertion direction and alignable with the window when the terminal is in its final position. A terminal locking member has a locking projection adapted to pass through the window into the cavity in engagement with the stop surface on the terminal to lock the terminal in the cavity. The locking projection includes a latching portion engageable with a latch surface on the housing to latch the locking member to the housing. Therefore, the locking projection performs a dual function of locking the terminal in the housing and latching the terminal locking member to the housing.

Typical electrical connectors include housings normally of insulating material and having a plurality of cavities or passages into which male or female terminals are inserted. In a hard wired connector, each terminal normally is pre-crimped to a wire conductor and then inserted into a housing cavity where it is retained in place by a locking structure. Typically the locking structure may include resilient tangs or latch projections which engage shoulders on the housing within the cavity. Mating plug and socket housings then can be joined in order to interconnect mating male and female terminals mounted in the housings, or the housings might be joined with other terminal supporting devices.
Although connectors of the character described above have been successfully used for many years, unreliable interconnections between the terminals can occur in some instances. For example, a terminal may not be fully inserted into its housing cavity during assembly whereby the locking structure is not effective to secure the terminal in place. When the terminal is joined with a mating terminal, the incompletely mounted terminal can be pushed out of position so that the interconnection between terminals is not made. In addition, even if a connection is made initially, a terminal can subsequently work loose because of vibrations or other extraneous forces and cause a faulty or intermittent connection. Consequently, a variety of systems have been designed wherein a separate terminal locking member is employed on the connector housing to act as either a primary or a second locking means. These locking members are inserted longitudinally or laterally into the connector housing.
One of the problems with employing a separate terminal locking member on the connector housing is that separate latch means often are required to prevent the locking member from simply falling off of the housing. For instance, exterior latch arms, such as cantilevered latch arms, often are used on the locking member for embracing the housing and engaging appropriate latch bosses on the outside of the housing. Such latch means add to the overall size or envelope of the housing which often is undesirable. This increased size or envelope of the overall connector further is compounded if the connector, itself, is inserted into a shroud, for instance. Because of the exterior latch arms of the terminal locking member, the shroud becomes enlarged and increases the overall size or envelope of the overall assembly. Some connectors solve this problem by moving the latch means or arms of the TPA to the interior of the connector housing. However, this often is not a real solution, because there was insufficient room within the housing in the first instance, and the net result is that the housing, itself, is expanded to accommodate the interior latch means and, therefore, results in enlarging the connector envelope anyway.
The present invention is directed to solving the above problems by providing a unique terminal locking member which includes a locking component which performs the dual function of locking the terminal in the housing as well as latching the terminal locking member in the housing.

Electrical connector with terminal locking member


A system for processing multiple schedules, constructed in accordance with the principle of the present invention, includes an information processing system having a memory and a processor; an input device for entering user information; a display device for showing scheduling information; an interface for sending and/or receiving information from another source; and the processor enabling reconciling two schedules by building synchronized lists, from which the user may effect a reconciliation.

The present invention relates generally to the area of information processing and, more particularly, to apparatus and methods for reconciling ordinal information, especially time-based information.
Successful management of one's time is a goal that every successful professional must achieve. One's business day may be swept away in a deluge of meetings and appointments, all of which must be somehow managed. An attempt to manage this task on paper, such as with a simple wall calendar, is unworkable for all but the simplest of schedules. More likely, such unsophisticated aids to managing one's time will lead to scheduling conflicts, missed appointments, botched deadlines, and angry clients.
The first allies that professionals discovered were portable organizers, such as the Daytime™ or the Lafax™. However, an increasing number are discovering the power of personal computers for managing appointments. Several scheduling packages are available for the PC. While not as portable as paper organizers, scheduling packages offer increased flexibility in other areas. For example, one may view his or her schedule from a variety of views—by month, week, day, or priority—and attach detailed notes to appointments. Additional options available include the ability to automatically schedule a meeting for the first Monday of every other month, or display horizontal bars which graphically represent one's weekly schedule, so that free time can be quickly pinpointed. Other options include the ability to easily edit an entry, and set alarms as a reminder of important appointments.
With ever increasing emphasis on miniaturization and portability, several of the features of scheduling packages may now be found in handheld information processing devices, such as the Sharp Wizard™ or the Casio BOSS™. Being roughly the size of a handheld calculator, these electronic organizers are often carried when one is away from the office. As a tradeoff for portability, however, these devices typically forego several of the more desirable features found on desktop personal computers (e.g., full color graphics display). As a result, it is common for a professional to employ a personal computer to manage his or her time, yet carry a portable organizer when he or she is away from the office. Upon returning to the office, the information in the personal computer is then updated with the new information in the portable organizer.
Updating or reconciling two sets of information, whether between a PC and an organizer, or between two computers joined by a communication network, has never been easy. The reconciliation of scheduling information has been particularly difficult. Not only must one take into account when an event occurs, but one must also account for the duration of the event. While prior art organizers and scheduling packages are very useful for managing one's own schedule, they have thus far been inadequate for resolving two or more schedules. As a result, a user who wishes to reconcile two different schedules must rely on awkward data entry techniques to achieve the reconciliation.
What is needed is a system which allows a user of an information processing device to readily reconcile two or more schedules, or other time-based lists. The present invention fulfills this and other needs.

System and method for appointment reconciliation


A furrow tool configured to attach to a planting device includes a compressor including a neck portion and a body extending from the neck portion. A deflector is connected to the compressor. The deflector includes a top portion connected to the neck portion and an extension portion. The extension portion is located beneath a bottom side of the body and may be configured to deflect seeds. The furrow tool also includes an attachment mechanism connected to the neck portion and configured to attach to the planting device.

Mechanical seed planting devices are used to plant seeds accurately in furrows formed in a field. Planting devices are often pulled by a tractor and include multiple planting units. Each planting unit may hold seeds and may include a device to create a furrow in the ground as the tractor moves forward, and a device for closing the furrow around the seeds.
The seed placement in the furrow can affect the growth and characteristics of the plant. Often times as the seed drops from the planter into the furrow, via the seed tube, the seed may bounce. This bouncing may impact the direction and location of the seed distribution within the furrow. Additionally, as the seed may be traveling quickly through the seed tube, the seed may even bounce off of the ground at the bottom of the furrow, altering its location. The bouncing down the seed tube, or off the ground, may place the seeds on the side of the furrow or even outside the furrow. After the seed is placed within the furrow the furrow may be closed by the furrow closers. If the seeds are placed improperly (e.g., on the side of the furrow or outside the furrow completely), the seeds may not be adequately covered by soil.
Also, as seeds are deposited within the furrows even if they do not bounce out of place, they may still not be deposited at the correct depth. Often times there may be residual soil that may cause air pockets underneath the seed. Therefore, it may be desired to push or press the seed into place to better ensure that the planting depth may be accurate.
The plant depth and location affects the growth aspects of the plants. For example, improper seed placement may result in uneven plant emergence, poor strands, increase in weed population, uneven plant maturity, longer insect lift, higher susceptibility to chemical damage and lower yields.


The piston seal member is formed of a crosslinked rubber composition, the rubber composition including 100 parts by weight of an ethylene-propylene rubber, 20 to 60 parts by weight of a first carbon black, 50 to 100 parts by weight of a second carbon black, and 5 to 20 parts by weight of carbon nanofiber having an average diameter of 0.5 to 500 nm, the total amount of the first carbon black and the second carbon black being 70 to 160 parts by weight. The first carbon black has an average particle diameter of 35 to 100 nm and a DBP absorption of 50 to 200 ml/100 g. The second carbon black has an average particle diameter that is greater than the average particle diameter of the first carbon black and ranges from 60 to 500 nm and a DBP absorption of 5 to 50 ml/100 g.

The present invention relates to a piston seal member and a disc brake using the piston seal member.
A piston seal member is generally formed of a crosslinked rubber composition containing rubber as the main component. For example, a vehicular disc brake is equipped with a caliper body including a piston and a cylinder. A piston seal member is provided in a ring-shaped groove formed in the inner circumferential surface of the cylinder. In the disc brake, brake pads are pressed against a disc rotor secured on each wheel by applying hydraulic brake pressure to stop rotation of the wheel due to the friction force of the brake pads made of a friction material. The piston seal member has a role of sealing a brake fluid and a role of returning (rolling back) the piston which has moved forward due to hydraulic brake pressure. The brake pads are pressed against the disc by causing the piston to move forward in a cylinder bore by applying hydraulic brake pressure.
Specifically, the piston seal member enables the cylinder and the piston inserted into the cylinder bore to come into contact in a fluid-tight and movable manner. The piston which has moved forward due to hydraulic pressure is rolled back by the piston seal member (see JP-B-3-59291, for example). Therefore, the piston seal member is required to have toughness for securely sealing the brake fluid and elasticity for returning (rolling back) the piston which has moved forward due to hydraulic pressure.
The temperature of the caliper body of the disc brake increases during the operation due to frictional heat which occurs between the disc rotor and the brake pads. Therefore, the piston seal member is also subjected to high temperature. The piston seal member formed of a rubber composition thermally expands and exhibits a decreased modulus of elasticity at a high temperature. In this case, the amount of rollback of the piston changes due to thermal expansion and a decrease in modulus of elasticity of the piston seal member, whereby the working allowance of the brake changes. For example, the amount of stroke of a brake lever for a motorcycle disc brake changes, whereby the driver may feel that the brake operation is incorrect.
To deal with this problem, a piston seal member has been proposed which is formed of a rubber composition in which at least 100 parts by weight of carbon black is added based on 100 parts by weight of ethylene-propylene rubber (see JP-A-2004-316773, for example).
A piston seal member has also been proposed which is formed of a rubber containing at least either carbon fibers (including carbon nanofibers) or fullerene (see JP-A-2004-232786, for example).
However, a piston seal member exhibiting durability to a brake fluid at a high temperature of 200° C. or more has not yet been developed.

Piston seal member and disc brake using the piston seal member


A fishing lure assembly is disclosed which comprises a blade free to oscillate, yaw and produce a trailing wake as the fishing lure assembly is displaced through water. A weight is affixed to the fishing lure assembly, but affixed to an associated wireform where it is inferiorly disposed relative to the blade such that the blade is free to oscillate and have side-to-side action, substantially unaffected by mass and inertia of the weight. The fishing lure may be variably constructed to include one or more hooks and artificial or natural soft bait and hard bait bodies which are disposed to follow behind the trailing wake of the blade. A compound lure is disclosed wherein the weight is replaced by a jig hook.

A snag resistant fishing lure is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,726,062 B2, issued Jun. 1, 2010 to James Ronald Davis (Davis). Davis discloses a jig with an attached blade. The jig has a weight molded about the shank of a hook with an eyelet disposed to maintain the sharpened point of a hook held upright by the relative dispositions of the eyelet, weight and orientation of the point. The blade is taught to be affixed to the eyelet and be limited in oscillation by either collision of the blade with the eyelet or with the weight to which it is directly affixed. Further, the blade is taught to comprise three holes, one of which is used to securely affix the blade to the eyelet. The other two holes are taught to be used in cooperation with a clip affixed to a fishing line for the purpose of releasably affixing the fishing line of a fishing lure unit which comprises both blade and weighted fishing lure.
In modern fishing art, two primary facets of a fishing lure include lure action and ease and efficiency of casting. Oft times these two facets are in opposition in bladed lures. Action of a bladed lure is often dependent upon blade resistance (especially for an oscillating blade) as a lure is displaced through water. Such resistance is counter to efficiency in casting, especially when long distance casts are desired.

Lure fishing assembly with weighted wireform


A power management architecture for an electrical power distribution system, or portion thereof, is disclosed. The architecture includes multiple electronic devices distributed throughout the power distribution system to manage the flow and consumption of power from the system using real time communications. Power management application software and/or hardware components operate on the electronic devices and the back-end servers and inter-operate via the network to implement a power management application. The architecture provides a scalable and cost effective framework of hardware and software upon which such power management applications can operate to manage the distribution and consumption of electrical power by one or more utilities/suppliers and/or customers which provide and utilize the power distribution system. Autonomous communication on the network between IED's, back-end servers and other entities coupled with secure networks, themselves interconnected, via firewalls, by one or more unsecure networks, is facilitated by the use of an XML firewall using SOAP. SOAP allows a device to communicate without knowledge of how the sender's system operates or data formats are organized.

With the advent of high technology needs and market deregulation, today's energy market has become very dynamic. High technology industries have increased their demands on the electrical power supplier, requiring more power, increased reliability and lower costs. A typical computer data center may use 100 to 300 watts of energy per square foot compared to an average of 15 watts per square foot for a typical commercial building. Further, an electrical outage, whether it is a complete loss of power or simply a drop in the delivered voltage, can cost these companies millions of dollars in down time and lost business.
In addition, deregulation of the energy industry is allowing both industrial and individual consumers the unprecedented capability to choose their supplier which is fostering a competitive supply/demand driven market in what was once a traditionally monopolistic industry.
Network communications, such as electronic mail transport protocols, are increasingly being utilized in this dynamic market, for example, to effect communications between customers and supplier or to implement monitoring or control networks. Although email offers a robust delivery of communications there is often no guarantee of the message being communicated and real time communications is not always available. Instant Messaging protocols ("IM protocols") can also be used to transport commands or data over a network from device to another. One limitation of the IM protocols is the requirement to have an active connection to communicate between the devices. If a device only periodically connects to the network then any commands sent while the device is offline will fail due to the device not being online or no presence detected. Periodic connectivity may be handled using a store-and-forward mechanism, however, not all IM messaging systems have such a mechanism. Another limitation of most IM systems is that they do not use open source or standard protocols to communicate. In order for these IM protocols to work correctly through firewalls, changes must be made in the configuration of these intervening firewalls. In some situations the responsible entity will be unable or unwilling to make changes to the firewalls configuration for security or policy reasons. For these reasons, instant messaging is frequently specifically blocked from crossing any intervening firewalls. While many instant messaging protocols are designed to find any outgoing holes in the firewalls, many companies spend a fair amount of time disabling as many of the instant messaging protocols as possible to prevent the possibility of leaking unauthorized information into unsecured networks. A further problem is that if both IM devices are connected with secure networks, each behind a firewall, then direct communication is not possible unless one or both firewalls are specially modified to allow tunneling from external devices to the internal, protected network. The IM system must provide external servers that will proxy the IM messages in this case or communication will not be possible.
The requirements of increased demand and higher reliability are burdening an already overtaxed distribution network and forcing utilities to invest in infrastructure improvements at a time when the deregulated competitive market is forcing them to cut costs and lower prices. With these investments comes a demand for robust and reliable communications methodologies that can operate in a heterogeneous mix of secure and unsecure networks. Accordingly, there is a need for a system of transporting data between networks that operates within the restrictions created by firewalls and other network security barriers.

System and method for routing power management data via XML firewall


The invention relates to a renewable process for manufacturing ground and soil treatment compounds using plant by-products. The invention further relates to products of that process, including an anti-slip compound for use on snow- or ice-covered surfaces, and to a related fertilizer compound for improving plant growth. The described compounds primarily comprise organic by-products of timber processing operations. In addition, the invention relates to a renewable energy and resource process.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a renewable process for manufacturing ground and soil treatment compounds using plant by-products. The invention further relates to products of that process, including an anti-slip compound for use on snow- or ice-covered surfaces, or in any location where improved traction is desirable for pedestrian and traffic safety, and to a related fertilizer compound for improving plant growth. The described compounds primarily comprise organic by-products of timber processing operations. In addition, the invention relates to a renewable energy and resource process.
2. Description of Related Art
The need for anti-slip compounds is generally well-known in areas where winter weather brings precipitation and low temperatures. Ice- and snow-covered surfaces are a potential hazard for pedestrian and vehicular traffic, leading to injuries, property damage, traffic delays and blockages. In recognition of this hazard, many products have been developed to provide friction on slippery surfaces, or to melt accumulated ice or snow, or both.
One class of products that has been developed to treat ice- and snow-covered surfaces is deicers. Chemical deicers in either liquid or solid form are applied to road surfaces to melt surface ice and improve traction. While effective in removing ice, some salt-based chemical deicers are undesirable for long term use because of their corrosive properties. Furthermore, many chemical deicers have an adverse impact on the environment in which they are applied.
Another class of products that is used to treat ice- and snow-covered surfaces is abrasive materials. Substances such as sand, gravel, cinders and the like are commonly spread on ice- and snow-covered surfaces to provide improved traction for pedestrian and vehicular traffic.
Combinations of chemical deicers and abrasive materials are also well known in the treatment of snow and ice covered surfaces. U.S. Pat. No. 2,410,910 to Wait for "Material for Providing Traction" describes a method for making a traction-providing material, involving the impregnation of an insoluble porous particulate material with an aqueous salt solution. The more recent U.S. Pat. No. 5,965,058 to Janke et al. for "Deicing Composition and Method" discloses a deicing composition formed from steepwater solids, a byproduct from the wet milling of corn. In an embodiment of the '058 invention, traction-providing material such as sand or sawdust is added to the deicing composition.
The use of fertilizers to enhance plant growth is well established in modern agriculture. Myriad mixtures of beneficial soil amendments are available commercially, including those comprising primarily organic ingredients. It has been recognized for centuries that, when mixed with soil, ash provides a variety of major and minor elements necessary for plant growth. Likewise, the use of sawdust as a soil amendment or mulch is well known.

Renewable process for manufacturing ground and soil treatment compounds using plant by-products