An attachment for placement between a test specimen and a remote clip gage extensometer providing improved fracture toughness tests of materials at elevated temperature. Using a cylindrical tube and axial rod in new relationship, the device transfers the displacement signal of the fracture toughness test specimen directly to a clip gage extensometer located outside the high temperature furnace. Virtually frictionless operation is assured by having the test specimen center one end of the rod in one end of the tube, while the clip gage extensometer arms center the other end of the rod in the other end of the tube. By providing positive control over both ends of both rod and tube, the attachment may be operated in orientations other than vertical.

The standard method for measuring linear displacement during room temperature fracture toughness tests is a clip gage extensometer instrumented with strain gages. The displacement is measured to allow the energy input into the specimen to be calculated. Also, periodic partial unloadings are made during the test. The slope of the load versus displacement curve is used to calculate the length of the crack throughout the test. This technique is referred to as the unloading compliance method.
For testing at elevated temperatures, the strain gages used within a clip gage extensometer would be destroyed. One solution to the problem of high temperature fracture toughness tests is to use a capacitance gage which can operate inside the furnace. The purpose of the attachment is to convey the linear displacement information from the deforming test specimen to an electrical sensor located out of the elevated temperature region. The type of sensor used with the prior art attachments is frequently, though not always, a linear variable differential transformer (LVDT).

Clip gage attachment for frictionless measurement of displacement during high-temperature mechanical testing


A computer-implemented method for building an atlas includes providing a volume data for a plurality of bones, segmenting, individually, the plurality of bones from the volume data, storing locations of a plurality of voxels for each of the plurality of bones, wherein each of the plurality of bones is registered with a dedicated list of locations, wherein the locations are locations in a coordinate system of the volume data, selecting one or more of the plurality of bones, forming a selected structure, and rendering the selected structure in the coordinate system of the volume data according to the dedicated list of locations of each of the plurality of bones in the selected structure, wherein a rendering is displayed by a display.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to medical image analysis, and more particularly to a system and method for an interactive skeletal atlas from volume data.
2. Discussion of Related Art
With the development of multi-slice Computed Tomography (CT) scanners, Computer Aided Diagnosis (CAD) methods have been developed to provide functionalities that make the reading of the volume data more convenient and effective.
An example of anatomy of interest is the thoracic cage including the complete lung area and a portion of the lower abdomen. The thoracic cage provides mechanical support and protection to the chest cavity that contain important organs. Further, the ribs and vertebras are also prone to diseases. There are physically disabling diseases such as osteoporosis and spine stenosis that affect millions of people; Ribs and vertebras are also common sites of metastasis, the detection of which will completely change the cancer staging and treatment of a patient.
The thoracic cage is composed of pairs of ribs, the spine and the sternum. The rib and vertebra structures are highly ordered and symmetrical, and we observed that each pair of ribs roughly forms a plane. The shapes and structures of the thoracic cage are highly complex and variant, making observation through the 2-dimensional (2D) axial slices difficult. For example, as shown in FIG. 1A-B, the rib planes make large angle with the axial plane, and the physician can only see cross-sections of the ribs in the axial plane. It is difficult for the physicians to know which rib has the observed pathology, and rib counting is a tedious job. The complexity of the vertebra makes it even hard to imagine the shape and pathology through the viewing of 2D axial slices.
Therefore, a need exists for a system and method for an interactive atlas from volume data.

Interactive atlas extracted from volume data


A productivity measuring, modeling and illustrating system receives input data pertaining to the productivity of an organization to generate various productivity views using a productivity maturity model. The productivity maturity model is based on suggested actions for increasing the productivity which are received in the input data. The productivity maturity model computes various productivity gains and provides productivity levels for the productivity levers associated with the organization. Various productivity views generated to display the productivity information include a summary view that displays the productivity gains and productivity levels using different filters.

Productivity measures output and not outcomes. However, in many instances it is more difficult to measure output than outcomes. Also, the outcomes are commonly measured while measuring productivity may be more complicated. Myriad of tools are currently in use for measuring productivity of different departments in an organization. The productivity data from the different departments is stored in different formats in various data sources associated with the tools. Therefore, each department may have its own metrics and methodologies for measuring productivity which may be different from those of the other departments in the organization.

Productivity measurement, modeling and illustration system


A golf ball retriever (10) is provided including a shaft (12), a resilient wire (14) having a first end (18) and a second end (20) substantially parallel to the shaft (12), and a retaining member (16) holding the first end (18) and the second end (20) to the shaft (12). The resilient wire (14) has at least two loops (30) and (31) formed therein spaced at a distance slightly smaller than the diameter of a golf ball. The flexibility of resilient wire (14) allows the golf ball to squeeze through the loops (30) and (31) utilizing a minimal amount of force. The golf ball sits cradled between the loops (30) and (31) and can be easily extracted by slightly shaking the shaft to provide enough force for the golf ball to push through the loops (30) and (31).

The prior art contains numerous types of golf ball retrievers for picking up golf balls from various locations. However, these prior art retrievers have suffered from various shortcomings which have severely restricted their widespread commercial acceptance. Many retrievers cannot pick up a golf ball in confined areas, such as holes and crevices, or from mud, sand, or murky waters. Some retrievers require that the retriever be precisely placed on the golf ball, relying on a trigger mechanism or cup device to grasp the golf ball. Other retrievers must be forcefully pushed on the golf ball which requires that the golf ball be on a relatively hard surface. Still other retrievers require manual extraction of the golf ball from the retriever. Many retrievers are expensive to manufacture and difficult to assemble and disassemble. Other difficulties involve positioning the retriever relative to the golf ball. Such positioning is accomplished by utilizing the end of the retriever as an aiming device. In many instances, the end of the reliever may be difficult to see due to where the golf ball is located. When stored within a golf bag, most retrievers can become entangled with other items within the bag causing the retriever to lose its functionality.
From the foregoing, it may be appreciated that a need has arisen for a golf ball retriever which is easy to manufacture and assemble, can be easily positioned relative to the golf ball, can grasp the golf ball in various retriever positions, and requires no manual intervention to extract the golf ball from the retriever. A need has also arisen for a retriever that can pick up a golf ball from confined areas or from mud, sand, or murky waters and can be stored without becoming entangled with other items within the bag.


A method, apparatus and computer program product for authenticating a pharmaceutical product is provided. The method includes receiving an identifier and a quantity for the pharmaceutical product and receiving a photonic signal from the pharmaceutical product, wherein the photonic signal includes a frequency and amplitude. The method can further include searching for the identifier and quantity that was received in a predefined list comprising identifier-quantity pairs, wherein a frequency and amplitude corresponds to each identifier-quantity pair. The method can further include matching the identifier and quantity that was received to a first identifier-quantity pair in the list. The method can further include storing a record indicating that the pharmaceutical product is counterfeit if the frequency and amplitude of the photonic signal does not match the frequency and amplitude corresponding to the first identifier-quantity pair.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to pharmaceuticals, and more particularly to the authentication of pharmaceuticals.
2. Description of the Related Art
Counterfeit pharmaceuticals are one of the most critical issues facing the pharmaceutical industry today. The World Health Organization estimates that 5-8 percent of worldwide trade in pharmaceuticals is counterfeit. Counterfeit pharmaceuticals are products manufactured without the authorization and supervision of the trademark holder and may contain contaminants or incorrect amounts of active ingredients. While purchases made over the Internet or from other countries are the most likely to be counterfeit, even a local pharmacy can unwittingly be carrying the illicit items. Packaging and distribution of counterfeit pharmaceuticals are sophisticated global operations, with a complex network of wholesalers who buy and sell medicines. Counterfeiters further use forged paperwork and packaging to slip counterfeit pharmaceuticals into commerce to be shipped to legitimate pharmacies nationwide.
With regard to counterfeit pharmaceutical production, several countries are emerging as sources of great concern. Products may be concealed among shipments of similar items from the source countries and entered into the U.S. economy in international freight. A further problem with counterfeit pharmaceuticals is the fact that many counterfeit pharmaceutical products come from illegal operations with very poor controls and may contain ingredients that could be harmful. A recent report released by the Centre for Medicines in the Public Interest projected counterfeit drug sales to reach $75 billion in 2010, a 92 percent increase from 2005. The report estimates counterfeit drug sales will grow 13 percent a year through to 2010, compared to just 7.5 percent estimated annual growth for global pharmaceutical commerce. In addition to counterfeiting, there is also an ongoing problem of product diversion as well as the reintroduction of expired products into the supply chain.
Liability issues, consumer confidence, and brand erosion costs are driving pharmaceutical manufacturers to adopt technologies to combat this growing global problem. Over the past year, various systems of "track and trace" technologies and product authentication technologies have debuted for applying both bar codes and radio frequency identification (RFID) tags to preserve product integrity. Many pharmaceutical companies have conducted RFID trials that aim to keep fake drugs out of U.S. commerce, but the technology has significant limitations. An RFID tag attached to drug containers can be used as a tracking device for the container, not as a mechanism for securing the pharmaceutical product inside the container. Thus, RFID tags cannot provide assurance to users that the pharmaceutical product is authentic, the RFID tag only provides a record of authentication of the pharmaceutical product's journey through the supply chain.
Therefore, there is a need to improve the processes of the prior art and more particularly for a more efficient way for authenticating legitimate pharmaceuticals.

Authentication of pharmaceuticals using molecular computational identification

International Business Machines Corporation


A method for generating data explanations in a recursive cortical network includes receiving a set of evidence data at child feature nodes of a first layer of the recursive cortical network, setting a transformation configuration that directs messaging of evidence data and transformed data between layers of the network, performing a series of transformations on the evidence data according to the transformation configuration, the series including at least one forward transformation and at least one reverse transformation, and outputting the transformed evidence data.

Despite advances in computer vision, image processing, and machine learning, recognizing visual objects remains a task where computers fail in comparison with the capabilities of human. Recognizing an object from an image not only requires recognizing the image in a scene but also recognizing objects in various positions, in different settings, and with slight variations. For example, to recognize a chair, the innate properties that make a chair a chair must be understood. This is a simple task for a human. Computers struggle to deal with the vast variety of types of chairs and the situations in which a chair may be present. The problem is even more challenging when considering the problem of detecting multiple objects in a scene. Models capable of performing visual object recognition must be able to provide explanations for visual datasets in order to recognize objects present in those visual datasets. Visual object recognition is a specific case of a more general problem in artificial intelligence: pattern recognition (and its inverse, pattern generation). Pattern recognition is a problem in other fields and mediums outside of image processing such as speech recognition, natural language processing, and other fields. Thus, there is a need in the artificial intelligence field to create new and useful methods for generating data explanations for neural networks and related systems. This invention provides such new and useful methods.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Systems and methods for generating data explanations for neural networks and related systems


The present disclosure relates an interface unit having an input for receiving an input voltage from an electrochemical measuring probe; a first transistor; a first operational amplifier; a second transistor; and a second operational amplifier. The first operational amplifier is arranged to provide a variable tension to a first source terminal of the first transistor, in accordance with a comparison between a reference voltage and a second resistor voltage, in order to control an operating point of the first transistor.

The monitoring and control of industrial processes, for example in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries, in the textile industry, in the food and beverage industries, in the processing of paper and cellulose, or in the fields of water processing and waste water treatment, is based on the measurement of process variables that are determined by means of suitable measuring probes.
According to "Process Measurement Solutions Catalog 2005/06", Mettler-Toledo GmbH, CH-8902 Urdorf, Switzerland, pages 8 and 9, a complete measuring system contains (e.g., consists of) a housing, a measuring probe, a cable and a measurement converter (also called a transmitter). By means of the housing, the measuring probe is brought into contact with the process that is to be measured or monitored, for example by immersing the probe in the process material and holding it there. The measuring probe serves to measure specific properties of the process. Measurement signals are sent through the cable to the transmitter, which communicates with a process control system and converts the measuring signals into readable data. The measuring probes are selected depending on the process material properties that are to be measured.
There are numerous situations in which the measuring probe can be exposed to high temperature, commonly 140° C. (degree Celsius) and above. For example, in a pharmaceutical, medical or industrial food production context, the measuring probe may be in contact with materials or products that should not be contaminated by infectious agents. Consequently, it is often necessary to sterilize the measuring probe using an autoclave. In an exemplary use case, during its entire life span, a measuring probe goes through the autoclaving process between 30 and up to 100 times. Measuring probes, such as ion-sensitive measuring probes, are known to carry a current through their sensing element, which is inherent to their functional principle. The higher the temperature, the lower the resistance of the sensing element. For example, the glass resistance of the sensing element in a pH measuring probe decreases drastically as the temperature reaches and exceeds 100 degree Celsius.
In order to amplify the voltage of the measuring signal to a suitable level, it is known to couple the output of the sensing element of the measuring probe to an input stage circuit provided with an operational amplifier. Such solutions are disclosed for example in U.S. Pat. No. 7,177,127 B2, EP 2861975 B, EP 0 922 955 A2 or Ryan Edwards: "Ion Selective Electrode Interface—Sparky's Widgets", 21 Apr. 2017, as retrieved from the Internet URL https://www.sparkyswidgets.com/portfolio-item/ion-selective-electrode-interface/ on April 2018. Under normal operations, when the input stage circuit is switched on, the impedance of the input stage circuit is at a high level. By contrast, when the input stage circuit is switched off and/or is in an unpowered state, the impedance of the input stage circuit falls to a low level, for example, less than 1 kOhm (kΩ). When the input stage circuit is switched to zero current flow, which is often done during a high temperature process, the residual current rises between the sensing element and the input stage circuit, due to the low impedance of the operational amplifier, the input stage being in unpowered state. The current flowing through the sensor element increases drastically and may reach hazardous levels, causing very slow signal drifts and lasting damages to the sensor element.
At high temperatures above 100 degree Celsius, this issue is compounded by the sensible decrease of isolating characteristics of the semiconductors used in the operational amplifier for electrostatic discharge protection. In this context, the electrostatic discharge protection diode found in the operational amplifier may even cause short circuits.
These issues are even more critical for sensing elements that are provided with an active voltage source, such as a solid-state pH sensor.
A partial solution to connect an active sensing element to an input stage circuit of a measuring system while mitigating the above-mentioned current leakage issues, are known from EP 1 010 249 B1. However, these kinds of input stages do not allow connection of a probe delivering a sensing voltage varying according to a wide range of values, known to be between 0.25 and 5.5 Volt, without introducing significant saturation and/or distortion issues into the output signal. Moreover, the known input stages are subject to electronic component manufacturing variation, introducing measurement errors.
Thus, there is a need for an improved interface unit for coupling the output voltage of a sensor element of a measuring probe, for example a potentiometric measuring probe such as an ion-sensitive measuring probe, to the input of the measuring system for processing the output voltage into measurements, the output voltage of the sensor element varying over a wide range of values, for example, between 0.25and 5.5 Volt, and in which current flowing through the sensor element is particularly low, for example, lower than 1 pA, in particular when temperature reaches a high level, for example, from 100 degree Celsius, and/or when the input stage circuit is in an unpowered off state, especially if the sensing element is provided with an active voltage source, such as a solid-state pH sensor, while preserving the accuracy of the measurements affected negatively by the combination of high temperature and the lower impedance of the input stage circuit.
The entire contents of the documents mentioned herein are incorporated by reference in their entireties.

Interface unit for coupling a probe to a measuring system


Provided herein are compounds, pharmaceutical compositions comprising such compounds, and methods of using such compounds to treat diseases or disorders associated with HDAC1 and/or HDAC2 activity.

A biological target of current interest is histone deacetylase (HDAC) (see, for example, a discussion of the use of inhibitors of histone deacetylases for the treatment of cancer: Marks et al. Nature Reviews Cancer 2001, 7, 194; Johnstone et al. Nature Reviews Drug Discovery 2002, 287). Post-translational modification of proteins through acetylation and deacetylation of lysine residues plays a critical role in regulating their cellular functions. HDACs are zinc hydrolases that modulate gene expression through deacetylation of the N-acetyl-lysine residues of histone proteins and other transcriptional regulators (Hassig et al. Curr. Opin. Chem. Biol. 1997, 1, 300-308). HDACs participate in cellular pathways that control cell shape and differentiation, and an HDAC inhibitor has been shown to be effective in treating an otherwise recalcitrant cancer (Warrell et al. J. Natl. Cancer Inst. 1998, 90, 1621-1625).
Eleven human HDACs, which use Zn as a cofactor, have been identified (Taunton et al. Science 1996, 272, 408-411; Yang et al. J. Biol. Chem. 1997, 272, 28001-28007. Grozinger et al. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 1999, 96, 4868-4873; Kao et al. Genes Dev. 2000, 14, 55-66. Hu et al. J. Biol. Chem. 2000, 275, 15254-15264; Zhou et al. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci U.S.A. 2001, 98, 10572-10577; Venter et al. Science 2001, 291, 1304-1351) and these members fall into three classes (class I, II, and IV) based on sequence homology to their yeast orthologues (O. Witt et al. Cancer Letters, 2009, 277, 8-21). Class I HDACs include HDAC1, HDAC2, HDAC3, and HDAC8, and are referred to as "classical" HDACs, which implies a catalytic pocket with a Zn2+ ion at its base.
There remains a need for preparing structurally diverse HDAC inhibitors, particularly ones that are potent and/or selective inhibitors of particular classes of HDACs and individual HDACs.

Piperidine derivatives as HDAC1/2 inhibitors


Provided is a projection video display device with which precision of location of each component of the optical engine and the projection optical assembly is maintained and display video quality not impaired even if exterior force is sustained. A projection video display device comprises an optical engine (2) which projects light which is emitted from a light source (21) upon a liquid-crystal panel (231) and forms a video, and a projection optical assembly (3) which projects an enlargement of the video which is emitted from the optical engine (2). The projection optical assembly (3) and the optical engine (2) are configured to be anchored to a common base (4) which retains these in an integrated manner, with the common base (4) being attached to the casing of the device.

Projection video display devices such as a liquid crystal projector irradiate a display element such as a liquid crystal panel with light emitted from a light source such as a mercury lamp, and enlarges and projects a video formed by the display element with a projection lens onto a screen. The configuration of an optical system of the device includes an optical unit from irradiation with light emitted from the light source on the liquid crystal panel to formation of the video (hereinafter, referred to as an optical engine) and a projection optical system which enlarges and projects the video formed by the liquid crystal panel with the projection lens. In an optical engine of a color video display device, three liquid crystal panels for three primary colors (RGB) as display elements, a color separation system for irradiation light, and a color synthesis system for respective video colors are provided. Moreover, for adjusting a video-displaying position on the screen, a lens shifting mechanism is provided in the projection optical system which can move a projection lens in a direction perpendicular to an optical axis.
The optical engine and the projection optical system are positioned with respect to each other and are accommodated in a case of the device. In a conventional accommodating method, as described in Patent Literature 1, for example, respective components of the optical engine including the light source are accommodated and arranged in a light guide as an optical components case, and the light guide is fixed to the case of the device. The projection optical system is configured to be joined and fixed to an outgoing end portion of the light guide.


Disclosed herein is a method of manufacturing two or more gun barrels, the method comprising: machining (103) a single metal block to form a barrel preform having the outer shape of at least a first gun barrel and a second gun barrel; drilling (105) a first hole through the first gun barrel to form a first barrel bore; and drilling (107) a second hole through the second gun barrel to form a second barrel bore. Advantages include the barrels being integrally attached to each other and so a soldering operation to attach the barrels to each other is avoided.

Guns have many sporting applications. For example, shotgun shooting is a multi-event Olympic sport that is growing in popularity. Competitive rifle shooting is also a well established sporting activity.
The least powerful guns used in competitive shooting are airguns. These fire a pellet that is powered by compressed air. The range of a fired pellet is typically 30 m or less, and so airguns are only suitable for short range shooting.
Guns with longer ranges fire ammunition powered by gun powder. A shotgun fires cartridges in which a plurality of pellets are fired in a spread pattern from the gun. Shotguns are typically used for shooting targets in the air at a range of about 50 m. Rifles fire a single bullet and have a much longer range than shotguns. For example, a .308 Winchester rifle may hit a target 1000 m away.
Shotguns are typically provided with two barrels. In an over-and-under configuration, one barrel is directly above the other in use. In a side-by-side configuration, the barrels are horizontally adjacent to each other in use. Shotguns with more than two barrels are also known, as are rifles with a plurality of barrels.
The accuracy of a gun, in particular shotguns and rifles that are required to operate at relatively long ranges, is a critical performance measure.
For every gun, a factor that influences its accuracy is the straightness, and smoothness, of the gun barrel. The accuracy of a shot, and the consistency of the placement of the shot, both improve as the straightness and smoothness of a barrel are increased.
The usability of a gun is also highly influential on its accuracy. In particular with shotguns, a gun with a large perceived recoil requires the user to compensate for the effect of the recoil with their shooting technique. A large perceived recoil is also unpleasant for the user and requires the user to recover from the recoil prior to firing the gun again.
In known manufacturing techniques of guns with more than one barrel, each barrel is formed separately. Each barrel is formed by drilling a single hole through a metal block and then forming the outside of the barrel, for example, by turning the barrel on a lathe. The two formed barrels are then soldered together with the barrels spaced apart by a central rib.
A problem with such known manufacturing techniques is that the soldering operation heat treats the metal barrels and thereby degrades their straightness. This reduces the accuracy of each barrel.
A further problem is that the rib imposes a minimum spacing of the barrels. To compensate for the reduced accuracy introduced by the barrel spacing, the barrels are angled towards each other. This is necessary to ensure that, for a particular aim of the gun, projectiles fired from each barrel will be fired into the same position at a pre-determined distance from the gun. However, the angling of the barrels towards each other increases the perceived recoil from the gun. since the angling of the barrels imparts a sideways momentum on the butt of the gun after the gun has been fired.
Accordingly, a number of problems exist with gun barrels for multi-barrelled guns that have been manufactured according to known techniques.

Engineering Technologies & Manufacturing LTD.


A wheel system with bidirectional input and one-way output includes a unidirectional transmission device respectively installed between a first driving rotating directional input wheel set and a bidirectional input shaft, between a first driving rotating directional output wheel set and a constant rotating directional output rotation part, and between the constant rotating directional output rotation part and the bidirectional input shaft, thereby preventing the first rotating direction transmission wheel set from being coupled to and generating a power transmission dampening effect while being driven in the second driving rotating direction.

1. (a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an improved bi-directional output, one-way output wheel system, applied in a power system driven by a manual force or engine or electric motor or fluid motor; through controlling the changing of the rotating direction of an input shaft, the bi-rotating directional input and constant rotating directional output wheel system capable of preventing the first direction transmission wheel set from idling and thereby serving as a load that dampens reverse rotation of the wheel system so that the wheel system generates an output with the same or different speed ratio while being rotated in different input rotating directions. The wheel system is characterized in that: a unidirectional transmission device is respectively installed between a first driving rotating directional input wheel set and a bidirectional input shaft, between a first driving rotating directional output wheel set and a constant rotating directional output rotation part and between the constant rotating directional output rotation part and the bidirectional input shaft, thereby preventing the first rotation direction transmission wheel set from being coupled to and providing an additional load that dampens power transmission when the input shaft is being driven in the second reverse driving rotating direction.
2. (b) Description of the Prior Art
In a conventional bi-rotating directional input and constant rotating directional output wheel system, while being operated in one of the two bi-rotating input directions, the wheel set in another input direction is still driven, the disadvantages is that a part of the wheel set generates idle rotation which provides a drag on the input shaft and thereby dampens transmission of power to the output shaft.

Bi-directional input, one-way output wheel system


A communications apparatus which ensures a predetermined communication quality even when an external environment changes dynamically, and enhances a throughput for overall system, thereby achieving favorable transmission efficiency. A communications apparatus having a receiver and a transmitter and carries out sending/receiving by use of a pulse train is provided with a communication environment measuring section to measure a communication status based on an output from the receiver. The transmitter is configured such that it transmits a transmission signal, in which the transmission rate of data to be transmitted and the pulse energy have been controlled in association with each other, according to a result of the measurement.

In an impulse radio communication system, for example, communications are generally carried out by use of a pulse signal. In "Impulse radio: how it works", Win, M. Z.; Scholtz, R. A, IEEE Communications Letters, February 1998, Volume: 2 Issue: 2 (hereinafter, referred to as "Non-patent document 1"), there is disclosed a communications system of PPM (Pulse Position Modulation) method, which modulates a Gaussian Monocycle Pulse at a pulse position. Such communications method as described above, which uses a pulse train, carries out transmission of information by sending and receiving intermittent energy signals, unlike an ordinary signal transmission using a continuous wave.
When a pulse constituting the pulse train has an extremely narrow pulse width, a signal spectrum thereof may cause a larger frequency band, thereby dispersing energy of signal, compared to the ordinary communications using the continuous wave. Consequently, the signal energy in each frequency becomes very minute, and communications can be carried out without interference with other communications system. Therefore, it is possible to share the frequency band.
However, assuming a case of wireless communications, for example, external environment around wireless equipment is constantly changing due to movement of the communications apparatus, shifting of an object and/or a person, and the like. Therefore, there has been a problem that a communication quality is forced to be varied in accordance with the external environmental change.
In order to ensure a good communication quality even in the case where the communication environment is deteriorated, there is disclosed a method which measures a communication environment and based on the result thereof it controls a transmission power, as disclosed in the Japanese unexamined patent publication No. 2003-51761 (hereinafter, referred to as "Patent document 1") and the specification in U.S. Pat. No. 6,539,213 (hereinafter, referred to as "Patent document 2").

Communications apparatus, communications system, and communications method


A fiber mixture according to the invention comprises fibers A comprising a polymer A containing a thermoplastic polyurethane elastomer and fibers B comprising a thermoplastic polymer B other than the thermoplastic polyurethane elastomer, said thermoplastic polyurethane elastomer having a starting temperature for solidifying of 65° C. or above as measured by a differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) and containing 3.00×106 or less polar-solvent-insoluble particles per g counted on a particle size distribution analyzer, which is based on an electrical sensing zone method, equipped with an aperture tube having an orifice of 100 μm in diameter. An elastic nonwoven fabric comprises the fiber mixture.

Elastic nonwoven fabrics made from thermoplastic polyurethane elastomers (hereinafter "TPU") proposed so far have been used in applications including garments, hygiene materials and materials for sporting goods due to their high elasticity, low residual strain and superior breathability.
JP-A-2002-522653 addresses the characteristic "sticky" nature of the thermoplastic elastomers as one of the problems encountered in spunbonding the elastomers into nonwoven fabrics. It has been pointed out that turbulence in the air can bring filaments into contact and they can adhere to one another in the spunbonding. The "stickiness" has been proven to be especially troublesome during rolling up of the webs. Further, JP-A-2002-522653 mentions breakage and elastic failure of the strand during extrusion and/or stretching.
These problems are solved by a strand that comprises at least two polymers, one is more elastic than the other, with the less elastic polymer constituting at least a portion of the peripheral surface of the strand. Specifically, Example 10 of JP-A-2002-522653 demonstrates production of a spunbonded web using TPU to constitute the core of filament and a liner low-density polyethylene (hereinafter "LLDPE") to constitute the sheath. It is read, "the bonded web became manageable and could be wound up and subsequently unwound". However, if fibers become thin in the above production, filament breaking occurs so that attempts to obtain nonwoven fabrics having desired fiber diameters will fail.
JP-A-9-291454 discloses elastic nonwoven fabrics, having excellent drape, comprising a conjugate fiber comprising a crystalline polypropylene and a thermoplastic elastomer. It discloses an elastic nonwoven fabric which comprises a concentric sheath-core conjugate fiber made up of 50 wt % of a urethane elastomer as the core and 50 wt % of a polypropylene as the sheath (Example 6). The disclosure extends to an elastic nonwoven fabric which comprises a conjugate fiber made up of 50 wt % of a urethane elastomer and 50 wt % of a polypropylene to show a six-segmented cross section (Example 8). These nonwoven fabrics are capable of about 75% elastic recovery after 20% elongation and have excellent drape. However, they are still insufficient in elastic properties for applications such as garments, hygiene materials and materials for sporting goods.
JP-A-2002-242069 discloses nonwoven fabrics comprising a mixture of two kinds of fibers made from two different polymers. It is described that such nonwoven fabrics have superior touch and elastic properties attributed to combined characteristics of the different materials. However, it does not provide a specific disclosure on polyurethane elastomers. As Comparative Example 4 in this specification will illustrate, inferior elastic properties, rough touch and in addition bad spinnability are encountered even when the nonwoven fabrics are produced from a fiber mixture containing a polyurethane elastomer fiber and a polypropylene fiber.

Mixed fiber and stretch nonwoven fabric comprising said mixed fiber and method for manufacture thereof


A system and method for an improved surgical workflow development includes creating and editing a modifiable module used to direct a medical procedure through a sequence of images and functions included in the module. A plurality of users may review and/or evaluate the module to determine what, if any, edits to the module are required. Evaluations of the module may include a research evaluation, a cadaver evaluation or a clinical evaluation. A scripting tool may be used to create or edit the module, where the scripting tool includes a computer programming software application. The module may be stored on a computer-readable memory accessible by a plurality of computers and/or display devices connected to a network. In this way, the system and method provide for rapid dynamic development of surgical workflows contained in modules.

The present invention generally relates to loadable modules usable in a surgical procedure. In particular, the present invention relates to a system and method for the utilization of plug-ins in a surgical workflow.
Medical practitioners, such as doctors, surgeons, and other medical professionals, often rely upon technology when performing a medical procedure, such as image-guided surgery or examination. A tracking system may provide positioning information for the medical instrument with respect to the patient or a reference coordinate system, for example. A medical practitioner may refer to the tracking system to ascertain the position of the medical instrument when the instrument is not within the practitioner's line of sight. A tracking system may also aid in pre-surgical planning.
The tracking or navigation system allows the medical practitioner to visualize the patient's anatomy and track the position and orientation of the instrument. The medical practitioner may use the tracking system to determine when the instrument is positioned in a desired location. The medical practitioner may locate and operate on a desired or injured area while avoiding other structures. Increased precision in locating medical instruments within a patient may provide for a less invasive medical procedure by facilitating improved control over smaller instruments having less impact on the patient. Improved control and precision with smaller, more refined instruments may also reduce risks associated with more invasive procedures such as open surgery.
In medical and surgical imaging, such as intraoperative or perioperative imaging, images are formed of a region of a patient's body. The images are used to aid in an ongoing procedure with a surgical tool or instrument applied to the patient and tracked in relation to a reference coordinate system formed from the images. Image-guided surgery is of a special utility in surgical procedures such as brain surgery and arthroscopic procedures on the knee, wrist, shoulder or spine, as well as certain types of angiography, cardiac procedures, interventional radiology and biopsies in which x-ray images may be taken to display, correct the position of, or otherwise navigate a tool or instrument involved in the procedure.
Several areas of surgery involve very precise planning and control for placement of an elongated probe or other article in tissue or bone that is internal or difficult to view directly. In particular, for brain surgery, stereotactic frames that define an entry point, probe angle and probe depth are used to access a site in the brain, generally in conjunction with previously compiled three-dimensional diagnostic images, such as MRI, PET or CT scan images, which provide accurate tissue images. For placement of pedicle screws in the spine, where visual and fluoroscopic imaging directions may not capture an axial view to center a profile of an insertion path in bone, such systems have also been useful.
Current image-guided surgery or examination systems operate with modules that present a surgical workflow to doctor(s) or surgeon(s) performing a medical surgery, procedure or examination. The modules present relevant information to doctors and surgeons necessary for a successful surgery, procedure or examination. The modules are loaded onto the image display within the doctor or surgeon's view. The modules then provide a series of instructions and guides to assist the doctor or surgeon through the procedure. Typically, the modules consist of a series of images and text.
Current modules are created through a very costly and time-consuming process. For example, a third party vendor may desire to create a new module providing for image guidance during surgery for a new hip implant created and sold by the vendor. The vendor must first meet and confer with the party that creates and provides the image guidance modules. The two parties must establish a project plan for the design, implementation and certification of the image guidance module. Typically, the vendor presents its requirements for the image guidance module for the new hip implant to the module creator. Once the module creator receives the vendor's requirements, the module creator creates a software prototype for the image guidance module.
The module prototype is generally created from the ground up. That is, modules for new applications are currently created with no established software platform on which to build new modules. Therefore, the module creator must expend a considerable amount of time and effort building the new prototype module from the ground-up.
In addition, current modules are not easily modified or combined to adapt to changes in any one of procedures or devices. For example, current modules are not easily modified to include an improved medical device. Instead, the entire module must be re-created to account for relatively minor changes in the improved medical device.
Once the prototype is created, the vendor and creator work with doctors and surgeons to work out any errors or "bugs" with both the procedure contained in the module, or with the actual software employed by the module. Both the vendor and module creator must ensure that the module not only employs the proper procedure for inserting the new hip implant into patients of varying ages, sizes and genders, for example, but that the module also functions on varying platforms. The creator hands the prototype off to various doctors and surgeons. The doctors and surgeons then, according to their own time constraints and schedules, evaluate the prototype. The various doctors and surgeons, again on their own schedules, hand the evaluated prototype back to the creator with their feedback. The creator and vendor then again work to eliminate any errors or bugs present in the module before handing the improved prototype back off to doctors and surgeons for their review and feedback. This cycle can involve considerable time and resources, with a limited ability to monitor and "push" the progress of the prototype evaluation. Moreover, during the evaluation of the prototype, the vendor and creator are unable to make any additional fixes or improvements to the module until the doctors and surgeons have completed their evaluations.
After repeated doctor and surgeon evaluations and fixes by the vendor and creator, the creator releases a clinical version of the module software. The vendor submits the module to clinical evaluation by additional doctors and surgeons. Typically the module is used on human cadavers to evaluate the "real world" application of the module. Again, during the clinical evaluation, the vendor, creator, doctors and surgeons work together to remove any errors or bugs contained within the module, both in the procedures employed by the module and in actual programming errors. However, after the module is submitted for clinical evaluation, the vendor and creator are unable to make any additional fixes or improvements to the module until the clinical evaluation has completed.
After clinical evaluation, the module is again handed back to the creator and vendor to remedy any errors or problems encountered during clinical evaluation. Once the module is corrected, the module is again handed to doctors and surgeons for additional clinical evaluation. Again, during the clinical evaluation, the vendor and creator are unable to make any additional fixes or improvements to the module until the clinical evaluation has completed. Eventually, the cycle of clinical evaluation terminates and the module is ready for commercial release.
However, even before the module is ready for commercial release, the vendor and module creator must balance and manage several application schedules into a single release. For example, for the vendor's new hip implant, several modules may apply to the procedure of implanting the hip, tracking the location of the hip during the procedure and aligning the hip once it is implanted. Each application and its associated modules must be built from the ground up, as described above. The vendor and module creator must balance all of these application schedules (including all of their respective prototype and clinical evaluation schedules) in order to schedule a single release of the product. Typically, due to scheduling difficulties occurring during prototype and clinical evaluations, the vendor and module creator are unable to release the product along with the associated modules at their preferred time. For example, the vendor and module creator can miss a preferred trade show.
Thus, current procedures for creating and implementing modules for new applications are wasteful, both in cost and time. The many hand-offs during prototype and clinical evaluations result in delayed releases of new products and modules. In the highly competitive medical products and services industries, a delayed release in a new application can be extremely costly to the late-coming vendor.
Moreover, the handing-off of module prototypes and clinical module versions from the vendor/creator to doctors/surgeons makes the incorporation of changes requested by doctors and surgeons considerably more time-consuming. For example, currently doctors and surgeons can request changes to a developing module, but must make these requests through the proxy of the module developers. Such a process is inherently time-consuming.
Thus, a need exists for a system and method for an improved surgical workflow development. Such a system and method can provide for the utilization of a plug-ins in a surgical workflow module to decrease the amount of time and cost required for module creation, evaluation and validation. Moreover, such a system and method can provide for open and ready access to modules for a plurality of users from remote locations. Such open access can reduce the amount of time required for module scripting and evaluation, as multiple hand-offs are not required.

System and method for improved surgical workflow development


The flash memory system according to the embodiment of the present invention is characterized by programming a selected page in a quantization signal generating operation, providing a reference read voltage to a selected word line connected to the selected page, A flash memory for generating a flash memory; And a memory controller for receiving a quantized signal from the flash memory and generating a response using the quantized signal, wherein the memory controller receives an challenge from a host and the flash memory performs the quantized signal generation.

A PUF device is a device having a physically unclonable function and may be used in a user authentication system. The user authentication system requires a detection device for detecting an external attack to protect data or key from the external attack. When an external attack is detected, the user authentication system responds to the external attack in a manner of blocking a power or stopping the operation of a circuit. However, additional cost is incurred to use the detection device and a side-channel attack may be encountered. Thus, a key is not separately stored and a circuit or a logic playing a role such as fingerprint authentication is implemented to be used as a key. A PUF device is representatively used in this technology.
Even though internal circuits have the same internal configuration, wire delay or gate delay occurs according to a process of implementing the internal circuits, causing a minute difference in their characteristics. A PUF device uses a difference in operation characteristics. Since the PUF device uses a delay difference according to a process, physically cloneable circuits having the same output cannot be implemented even if the PUF device is opened. A PUF device circuit may be classified as a ring oscillator type using a delay loop and an arbiter type using a switching circuit. A PUF device may be implemented using these two types together.
A conventional PUF device generates a single response for a single challenge. Since the conventional PUF device has a one-to-one challenge-response pair (CRP), it may be vulnerable to an external attack. That is, less randomness for a single challenge causes the conventional PUF device to encounter many problems to solve for use in a user authentication system.
The present disclosure has been made to solve the above-mentioned technical problems, and it is an object of the present disclosure to provide a flash memory system that has a strong defense against an external attack by enhancing randomness for a challenge and a method of generating a quantized signal thereof.

Flash memory system and method of generating quantized signal thereof

KOREA INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY


A method of selecting component values for an analog circuit includes identifying a cost function that evaluates similarity between an approximate frequency response function and a preferred frequency response function for at least one characteristic of the functions, determining the approximate frequency response function of the analog circuit based on an approximate component value, and changing the approximate component value based on a determined magnitude of similarity between the preferred frequency response function and the approximate frequency response function for the at least one characteristic. An impedance matching apparatus includes a mismatch detection circuit that produces a difference between source and load impedances, a match network controller that produces a control value based on the difference, and a reconfigurable varactor match network including at least one stub mounted varactor having a capacitance controlled by the control value to match the source and load impedances.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of broadband wireless radio frequency (RF) communications, and in particular to a reconfigurable impedance match circuit, which may be used in broadband wireless devices and a method for selecting component values for analog circuits.
2. Discussion of the Background
In the past decade the need for broadband communications has increased rapidly. With this increased need the inadequacies of current systems has become apparent. In order to increase performance much research has been done on different modulation schemes and codecs, different antennas, and transmission circuits. An often overlooked but potentially highly limiting factor in the bandwidth performance of a system is the impedance match between important elements in the system.
Conventional impedance matching solutions are often accomplished in a static sense. For example, the impedances of transmission circuits and antennas may be calculated at design time and a static matching case may be built into the design. However, this approach may not adequately account for significant circuit element impedance changes that may occur during the life of the system, which may invalidate the static matching case.
For example, a cellular phone antenna may have clearly defined impedance parameters in its nominal state to which the static matching structure may be designed. If the user were to place a hand over the antenna during operation, the reactive impedance of the antenna would greatly change. In order for the transmission system to function correctly it must radiate a certain amount of energy. Since the antenna impedance is now changed, much of the energy is reflected back to the transmission circuit from the antenna, resulting in a lower radiated energy from the antenna. Since the cellular phone needs to radiate a certain amount of energy and less is now being radiated due the impedance mismatch, the phone reacts by increasing the output from the transmitting circuit, resulting in a an efficiency decrease, which may not be prevented when using a static matching network.
Reconfigurable matching networks can be changed if a certain matching case is no longer valid. In recent years there has been quite a bit of interest in circuits utilizing MEMS (Micro-Electromechanical Systems) technology. MEMS devices often use switches and capacitors in a matching network to change the performance of a periodic structure.
J. Papapolymerou, et al., "Reconfigurable Double-Stub Tuners Using MEMS Switches for Intelligent RF Front-Ends," IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory and Techniques, vol. 51, no. 1, January 2003, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, describes a simple two stub impedance matching network using MEMS that may have interesting properties. This double stub tuner can be configured to match a fairly wide range of loads. Reconfiguring the structure is accomplished by capacitive loading of the two stubs in the matching network. The amount of capacitive loading is determined by a bank of capacitors, selectively picked using MEMS switches. A problem with this approach lies in the aspect that a discrete set of loads can be matched. The greater the desired matching load, the larger the capacitor bank and number of required switches. Additionally the operation of the circuit may be restricted to a narrow bandwidth, estimated to be 10%-15% using λ/2 resonators, with bandwidth defined as the 3 dB attenuation point.
Later, Y. Lu, et al., "A MEMS Reconfigurable Matching Network for a Class AB Amplifier," IEEE Microwave and Wireless Components Letters, vol. 13, no. 10, pp. 437-439, October 2003, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, used the same double stub tuner approach as discussed in Papapolymerou to design a matching network for use in a power amplifier system. Since it was essentially the same circuit as proposed in Papapolymerou, the impedance matching structure proposed by Lu may also suffer from low bandwidth and discrete tuning limitations.
Hunter et al., "Electronically Tunable Microwave Bandpass Filters," IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory and Techniques, vol. MTT-30, no. 9, pp. 1354-1360, September 1982, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, describes an electronically tunable bandpass filter, which can be used as an impedance matching network. Further, Hunter describes a 5% band-pass filter having the pass band constrained to the 3 dB attenuation points. The physical realization described in Hunter includes a comb-line filter on microstrip with varactor diodes loading the ends of short circuited fingers. However, the structure of Hunter has narrow bandwidth and poor insertion loss properties (nearly 6 dB). The varactor diode in Hunter has a limited range of capacitance, which affects the reconfigurable nature of the circuit. Makimoto et al., "Varactor Tuned Bandpass Filters Using Microstrip-line Ring Resonators," IEEE MTT-S Digest, pp. 411-414, 1986, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, describes a reconfigurable band-pass filter implementation having a combination of varactor diodes and ring resonators. Makimoto mentions altered coupling between resonators but does not describe such an implementation.
Thus, conventional reconfigurable networks may rely on the user having particular advanced knowledge regarding a mismatch between load and source. In addition, it may be desirable for users to have a straightforward method for determining adjustments of the reconfigurable network needed to account for a load mismatch. Unfortunately, conventional solutions may not adequately provide methods to detect and use information regarding source and load impedance disparity.
Mingo, et al., "An RF Electronically Controlled Impedance Tuning Network Design and Its Application to an Antenna Input Impedance Automatic Matching System," IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory and Techniques, vol. 52, no. 2, pp. 489-497, February 2004, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, presents a high frequency front end system operating at 390 MHz, including an impedance matching network connected to a coupler that detects a mismatch in impedance, and an algorithm to correct the detected mismatch. However, the impedance matching network of Mingo uses a discrete tuning method much like earlier MEMS devices. Instead of MEMS switches, however, p-i-n diodes were used to activate different banks of capacitors, limiting a resulting system to function over discrete loads. Furthermore, the device described by Mingo has a narrow bandwidth, and Mingo fails to describe a detailed scheme for detecting the mismatch between source and load
Thus, Mismatches in the impedance characteristics between the source and load of many broadband applications are an often overlooked but limiting factor in the performance of a broadband system. To correct for mismatches in impedance, transformers and matching circuits are classically used. In general, impedance matching components are developed for a static sense and function only with non-varying source and load impedances. If the impedance of either the source or load changes, however, the efficiency and bandwidth characteristics can suffer as a result.

Apparatus and method of selecting components for a reconfigurable impedance match circuit

The Arizona Board of Regents on Behalf of the University of Arizona


A method and associated system of producing an advertising campaign of a product for an online marketplace seller including, under control of one or more processors configured with executable instructions, generating a single keyword advertising campaign of the product; collecting data on the single keyword; executing a machine learning component of an adaptive machine learning platform to generate a machine learning component output based at least in part on the data on the single keyword; generating a behavioral curve or table relating to an advertisement bid value and a cost per click value based at least in part on the machine learning component output; generating sales goal(s) of the product for the online marketplace seller on the online marketplace; generating an optimized advertisement bid value based at least in part on the sales goal(s) and the behavioral curve or table; and generating an optimized advertising campaign therefrom.

Selling goods through online marketplaces is becoming an increasingly important activity for retailers. The share of Internet sales in the total retail commerce space is continuously growing. E-commerce retailers, i.e., retailers that sell mainly through the Internet, face numerous challenges in managing their businesses, with one such challenge being obtaining a balanced ratio for every Universal Product Code (UPC) between advertising expenditure of an advertising campaign and the actual sales achieved through this campaign.
There are many aspects to consider regarding this balancing ratio, as the process of advertising is composed of at least some of these four basic steps:                1. Launching a campaign for a UPC through a search engine based on a list of words automatically generated by the marketplace, i.e., an automatic campaign. While a word is the most commonly-used target, a product target may also be utilized in connection with the present system and method disclosed herein. This list of words in the automatic campaign is proposed by the marketplace using its metrics and algorithms and are intended to catch the attention of potential customers looking for that particular UPC. The retailer bids a predefined maximum value to pay per click—the CPC or cost per click—and stipulates a maximum daily value to spend for the duration of the campaign.        2. Analyzing the results of that campaign regarding the number of impressions and clicks for each word, the CPC, and the number of clicks per sale, if any. The actual CPC, which almost always is smaller than the bid, is also informed daily by the marketplace during the advertising campaign.        3. Refining the campaign by bidding a maximum value to pay for each click of selected words (e.g., keywords) from the aforementioned list of words.        4. Balancing the campaign by adjusting the bid value for each word towards the actual CPC to reduce the Advertising Cost of Sales (ACoS), which is the ratio in percentage points of advertising expenditure to the revenue from actual total sales value, for that UPC while maintaining an acceptable number of sales.
One of the main problems of this process is that it is unknown upfront which words, phrases, or expressions will effectively produce a sale. Additionally, this process of selecting words, phrases, or expressions, i.e., refining, is typically performed manually by individuals analyzing word lists informed by the online marketplace, which is expensive, time-consuming, and demands a heavy amount of skilled manpower.
Search engines usually charge per click, so that its goal is to launch an automatic campaign with the broadest set of words related to the UPC, as it does not know in advance which word will attract the attention of the customer. For instance, for the UPC "Pet Stairs," a click can be obtained, among others, through the words "Pet," "Stairs," "Pet Stairs," "Dog stairs," "Cat stairs," "Stairs for pets," etc. The retailer is charged for every click, receiving information from the search engine on the word or phrase that generated the charged click.
The broadness of automatic campaigns makes them expensive, so it is desirable, for the sake of economy, to keep them as simple as viable, continuously selecting from the list of clicked words those most promising regarding sale generation, e.g., keywords.
In sequence, the seller launches a specific advertising campaign in the marketplace using that selected list of words, placing a bid (maximum CPC value acceptable to pay) on each of the selected keywords. The marketplace proceeds with a word auction, selecting from the bids (and other metrics related to the seller) the one that will appear in the first place for the customers and returns to the seller with the actual charged value per click for the bid keyword. Appearing before competitors increases the chance of achieving a sale.
The other metrics being equivalent per marketplace criteria, it is obvious that the higher the bid, the higher the chance for the bidder to appear in first place. However, one point to keep in mind is that the higher the bid, the higher the ACoS, such that the difficulty of the decision-making process is to find the fair bidding—the one click cost that balances the extra advertising spending with an adequate increase in sales revenue.
Bidding higher can increase sales, but can also lead to a smaller profit, as the ACoS will be higher and there is no linear relationship between increase in ACoS and increase in sales revenue. It is possible that the net income and the gross margin may become even smaller.
On the other hand, saving on advertising spending by reducing the bid on the marketplace auction can have a great impact on the sales speed and revenue, leaving a smaller profit, reducing the number of sales, and ultimately reflecting adversely on ratings and reviews.
Optimization of the process of designing an advertising campaign, with all its subtleties and mutual influences between intervening factors, is a challenging process. It demands a great deal of attention from the seller, as the purpose is not only to simply guess the fair value for the bid, but also to consider all the involved factors and to come to a fair bidding price—the one that increases the net revenue with as little influence on the gross margin as possible. This optimization for one product in the seller's portfolio on a daily basis demands a lot of work, attention, and skill, and manually performing this optimization daily for hundreds or thousands of products in the seller's portfolio is almost impossible.

Systems and methods for optimization of capital allocation for advertising campaigns in online-based commerce


The present invention provides thermostable polypeptides related to Arabidopsis Rubisco Activase polypeptides. Nucleic acids encoding the polypeptides of the invention are also provided. Methods for using the polypeptides and nuclei acids of the invention to enhance resistance of plants to heat stress are encompassed.

Ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (Rubisco) is an important enzyme in the photosynthetic process. This enzyme incorporates CO2 into plants during photosynthesis. Atmospheric oxygen competes with CO2 as a substrate for Rubisco, giving rise to photorespiration and making Rubisco the rate-limiting step in photosynthesis.
Rubisco Activase (RCA) is a protein that catalyzes the activation of Rubisco, which in turn, regulates photosynthesis by initiating photosynthetic carbon reduction and photorespiratory carbon oxidation. The Rubisco Activase enzyme catalyzes the release of ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate (RuBP) from Rubisco. This newly unoccupied site on Rubisco is now free to bind the CO2 and Mg2+ activators in order for photosynthesis to proceed. Rubisco Activase is also responsible for releasing sugar phosphate inhibitors from Rubisco and restores Rubisco catalytic activity. Thus, if Rubisco Activase is impaired, Rubisco remains inactive and photosynthesis slows.
Rubisco Activase is thermo-labile and thus has decreasing activity with increasing temperatures. As a result, the photosynthetic process slows due to the lack of Rubisco activation. The Rubisco Activase enzyme denatures under increased temperatures, thus rendering the enzyme unable to convert inactive Rubisco to the active form. Arabidopsis contains two RCA isoforms, the short thermolabile (RCA1) and the long relatively thermostable (RCA2) forms that are generated by alternative splicing of pre-mRNA (Werneke, et al., (1989) Plant Cell 1:815-825).
Crop plants grown in hot climates could benefit from increasing photosynthetic levels. Accordingly, if the rate limiting step in photosynthesis could be made more heat tolerant, crop plants could more easily grow in these climates.

Rubisco activase with increased thermostability and methods of use thereof


A roller pad printer for printing on an associated object includes a frame, a flat cliché operably mounted to the frame for receiving and a resilient roller pad operably mount to the frame for rolling contact, at a first location and in a first direction along the cliché, to receive ink transferred from the cliché. The roller pad is adapted for rolling contact with the object, at a second location and in a second direction, to transfer the ink from the roller pad to the object.

The present invention relates to pad printers. More particularly, the present invention relates to a roller or roll-on pad printing system.
Pad printing systems are used to apply high quality print, e.g. indicia. Pad printing systems use a deformable pad which receives ink, transferred as an image, from a cliché plate. The plate has an etching or engraving of the indicia formed therein. The image is transferred from the pad to the item into which the indicia is applied.
There are two principal types of pad printers: standard pad printers that use a flat printing plate cast called a cliché, and rotary pad printers that use a drum shaped cliché. In the standard pad printer, a flat cliché plate has the image to be printed etched into the plate. Ink is applied to (and wiped from) the cliché, and the pad is brought into contact with, e.g., pressed into, the cliché until the ink is transferred onto the pad. The pad is then brought into contact with the item to transfer the print onto the item. Both the inking motion (transferring ink from the cliché to the pad) and the printing motion (transferring ink or decoration from the pad to the item) are linear motions.
The rotary pad printer uses a drum-shaped cliché to present ink to a synchronized, counter rotating cylindrical roller pad to transfer ink from the cliché to the pad roll. The roller pad is then moved across the item surface to transfer the ink/decoration to the item.
While both of these methods function very well for printing or decorating certain items or types of items, they do have their drawbacks. For example, traditional (linear motion) pad printing is not effective when printing large areas of ink or when printing images that are very long.
The rotary printer is large and can be costly to manufacture and operate, for example, to manufacture the rotating and counter rotating drum arrangements and the drum-shaped cliché. In addition, rotary printers operate using an 'open ink well', which exposes the ink to atmosphere, resulting in more rapid viscosity change due to solvent evaporation, and increased opportunity for ink contamination. Moreover, rotary printers operate on a continuous basis, which is not always a cost effective and efficient manner of operation.
Accordingly, there is a need for a printing system that provides the flexibility of a rotary printer with the ease of use and design of a traditional linear motion pad printer.

Roller pad printer and method for printing


An auto ignition composition is provided that contains a sugar and/or carboxylic acid such as DL-tartaric acid as a first fuel; a binder; and an alkali or alkaline earth metal chlorate such as potassium chlorate as a first oxidizer. Alkali metal perchlorates such as potassium perchlorate may also be included as a second oxidizer. The composition(s) is typically contained within a gas generating system such as an airbag inflator or seat belt assembly, or more broadly within a vehicle occupant protection system. The compositions may also be applied to the insides of military armament.

Explosive devices including gas generators, military ordnance or artillery shells, and other munitions pose a mass detonation hazard in the event of a fire onboard a sea-going vessel or in a storage facility such as a warehouse or a magazine. It is an ongoing challenge to actuate these devices prior to the temperature exceeding the point of detonation or explosion.
Auto-ignition materials in automotive air bag inflators or on military ordnance, for example, allow the respective device to safely deploy or actuate in the event of a fire. By including an auto-ignition composition the likelihood of a safety hazard resulting from the bursting of an inflator is substantially reduced.
Accordingly, most inflators or gas generators for vehicle occupant protection systems, for example, typically include an auto-ignition composition juxtaposed next to a discrete booster composition. In the event of a fire, the auto-ignition composition ignites to thereby ignite the booster composition which thereby ignites the main gas generant. As such, the fire hazard is substantially mitigated.
Yet another challenge is to apply the auto-ignition composition on or within the respective device to permit quick ignition of the composition and subsequent actuation of the primary propellant or gas generating composition within the respective device.
Yet another challenge is to ensure the thermal stability and integrity of the composition when aged in severe environments for long periods of time.
Yet another challenge is to provide a composition that will self-ignite over a wide range of temperatures by tailoring the constituents therein.


A spinning bristled roller assembly for the nozzle of a vacuum cleaner or other carpet cleaning apparatus. The roller assembly includes three bearings protected by a comprehensive thread guard system. The three bearing system, in combination with the structure of the tubular roller body and bearing housing provides an assembly having inherently improved balance characteristics that eliminate the prior need for dynamic balancing to ensure vibration-free operation.

a. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to vacuum cleaners and similar apparatus for cleaning carpets and other floor surfaces, and more particularly, to a bristled roller assembly for the nozzles of such apparatus that provides reduced vibration, simplified manufacture and extended product life.
b. Related Art
For the purpose of cleaning carpets and extending carpet life, the nozzles of vacuum cleaners and other carpet cleaning apparatus commonly feature spinning bristled rollers. Typically, the bristled roller assemblies are made up of the following components: a long core axle; one or two bearings or sleeve bushings which may be installed at or near opposite ends of the axle; a geared or smooth-surfaced pulley, which may be positioned at either end of the assembly or at any point in between; a belt, which may be geared or smooth, and flat, round or v-shaped depending on the pulley type; a one-piece solid or hollow bristled roller body of plastic, wood or other material; one or more thread guard elements to reduce the accumulation of hair and other fibers which would otherwise enter and jam the bearings and/or other components of the roller assembly; and an endcap at or near each end, that support the assembly for spinning rotation relative to the fixed structure of the nozzle.
The roller assemblies may be powered by electric motors, or by air-driven impellers propelled by the airflow generated by the carpet cleaning apparatus. The shaft extensions of the motors or impellers may be smooth or may feature a geared or otherwise shaped pulley for engaging one end of a belt, the other end of which is in engagement with the nozzle's bristled roller assembly.
The above-described components are typically assembled in a generally linear arrangement, and since mass-produced components are typically less than perfect dimensionally, the linear arrangements commonly result in an imbalance of the bristled roller assembly; when the roller is spinning rapidly, this imbalance tends to generate excessive vibration, which not only renders operation unpleasant, but also may lessen the life of the roller assembly and/or the other components of the nozzle assembly such as the motor. Consequently, not unlike the need to dynamically balance newly-installed tires on automotive wheels, the roller assemblies must typically be balanced dynamically, through an expensive and arguably inconsistent worker-dependent procedure, whereby small counterweights are installed in the roller in an attempt to improve balance and lessen vibration. Typically, a bristled roller assembly is considered sufficiently balanced and its vibration acceptable for product warranty if the difference in weight between an assembly's opposite ends (the spinning weight differential) is less than one gram.
Accordingly, there exists a need for an improved roller brush assembly that incorporates the features necessary for its operation but with enhanced stability and balance characteristics that reduce or eliminate the need for a separate balancing step during manufacture. Furthermore, there exists a need for such a roller brush assembly that can be manufactured quickly and economically, and that is durable, long-lasting and generally maintenance-free during use.

Triple-bearing bristled roller with comprehensive thread guard system


A solid-state power processor circuit and method is used to supply power to generate a discharge in a corona discharge pollutant destruction apparatus. The circuit uses field effect transistors (FETs) and integrated circuit devices based upon metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor (MOSFET) technology to amplify low-voltage pulse signals to high voltage levels. A resonator in the power processor circuit generates sinusoidal oscillation from the high voltage pulses, and provides the high-voltage, high-frequency electrical power necessary for corona discharge.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a power processor circuit and method for supplying power to generate corona discharge in a corona discharge pollutant destruction corona discharge reactor.
2. Description of the Related Art
Passing a pollutant bearing gas through a corona discharge site is a known method of removing the pollutants from the gas. A general review of this technique is provided in Puchkarev et al., "Toxic Gas Decomposition by Surface Discharge," Proceedings of the 1994 International Conf. on Plasma Science, Jun. 6-8, 1994, Santa Fe, N.M., paper No. 1E6, page 88. Corona pollutant destruction has also been proposed for liquids, as disclosed in application Ser. No. 08/295,959, filed Aug. 25, 1994, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,549,795, "Corona Source for Producing Corona Discharge and Fluid Waste Treatment with Corona Discharge," and assigned to Hughes Aircraft Company, now doing business as Hughes Electronics.
In one system, described in Yamamoto et al., "Decomposition of Volatile Organic Compounds by a Packed Bed Reactor and a Pulsed-Corona Plasma Reactor," Non-Thermal Plasma Techniques for Pollution Control, NATO ASI Series Vol. G34 Part B, Ed. by B. M. Penetrante and S. E. Schultheis, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, 1993, pages 87-89, brief high voltage pulses of about 120-130 nanoseconds duration are applied to the center conductor of a coaxial corona reactor through which gas is flowing. Each pulse produces a corona discharge that emanates from the center wire and floods the inside volume of the reactor with energetic electrons at about 5-10 keV. A similar system is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,695,358, in which pulses of positive DC voltage are superimposed upon a DC bias voltage to generate a streamer corona for removing SO.sub.x and NO.sub.x from a gas stream. These processes have relatively poor energy efficiencies. With the reactor geometries that have been selected, it is necessary to deliver very short pulses to avoid arc breakdown between the electrodes, and consequent damage. The pulse-forming circuit loses approximately half of the power coming from a high voltage supply in a charging resistor, and additional energy is wasted in a double spark gap. Furthermore, the capacitive load of the coaxial corona reactor must be charged; this charging energy is typically much greater than the energy that is actually used in the corona reaction, and simply decays away into heat after each pulse without contributing to the pollutant destruction.
A similar approach, but with a different reactor geometry, is taken in Rosocha et al., "Treatment of Hazardous Organic Wastes Using Silent-Discharge Plasmas," Non-Thermal Plasma Techniques for Pollution Control, NATO ASI Series Vol. G34 Part B, Ed. by B. M. Penetrante and S. E. Schultheis, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, 1993, pages 79-80, in which the corona discharge is established between parallel plates. This system also suffers from a poor specific energy due to inefficient pulse formation and non-recovery of reactor charging energy.
A pollutant destruction system using an inductor-capacitor (LC) resonant circuit for corona discharge generation is described in application Ser. No. 08/450,449, filed May 25, 1995, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,695,619, "Gaseous Pollutant Destruction Apparatus and Method Using Self-Resonant Corona Discharge," and assigned to Hughes Aircraft Company, the assignee of the present invention. The application discloses a single stage corona discharge reactor driven by an LC resonator circuit, which is efficient in converting high-voltage pulse energy to corona discharges.
High voltage pulses are very effective in destroying hydrocarbons (HC) and carbon monoxide (CO), but do not facilitate the reduction of nitrogen oxides (NO.sub.x) into diatomic nitrogen (N.sub.2) and oxygen (O.sub.2). Experiments have shown that using high voltages (up to 12 kV) may even produce some additional NO.sub.x. On the other hand, low voltage pulses are highly efficient in reducing NO.sub.x, but are very poor at oxidizing HC. Therefore, depending on the treatment desired, a wide range of voltages levels and frequencies may be required.
High voltage and high frequency electricity must be supplied to a corona discharge reactor to generate a corona discharge. The voltage required is usually in the range of about 5-20 kV, and the frequency required is usually in the range of about 5 to 15 MHz. A series resonant inverter with a feedback control loop for generating the required waveform is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,757,432. Spark gap circuits have been used for generating high voltage pulses for corona discharge, and are described in A. Mizuno et al., "NO.sub.x Removal Process Using Pulsed Discharge Plasma," IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications, vol. 31, 1995, pages 957-962, and T. Fujii et al., "Pulse Corona Characteristics," IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications, vol. 29, 1993, pages 98-102.

Power processor circuit and method for corona discharge pollutant destruction apparatus


The present invention relates to a method for transferring a thin useful layer from a donor substrate having an ordered crystalline structure to a receiver substrate. The method includes creation of a weakened zone in the donor substrate to define the layer to be transferred from the donor substrate. The crystalline structure of a surface region of the donor substrate is disturbed so as to create a disturbed superficial region within the thickness of the donor substrate, and thus define a disturbance interface between the disturbed superficial region and a subjacent region of the donor substrate for which the crystalline structure remains unchanged. Next, the donor substrate is subjected to a recrystallization annealing in order to at least partial recrystallize of the disturbed region, starting from the crystalline structure of the subjacent region of the donor substrate, and to create a zone of crystalline defects in the plane of the disturbance interface. One or several species are introduced into the thickness of the donor substrate to create the weakened zone, with the species being introduced with introduction parameters that are adjusted to introduce a maximum number of species at the zone of crystalline defects.

The present invention is related to the treatment of materials in general, and more particularly substrates for microelectronics, optics or optoelectronics. More precisely, the invention relates to a method for transferring a thin layer from a donor substrate to a receiver substrate, the method including the creation of a weakened zone in the donor substrate to delimit a layer to be transferred in the donor substrate. And as will be seen, one particularly advantageous application of the invention is its use in a SMART-CUT® type layer transfer method. According to one particular aspect, the invention also relates to a transfer method for bonding layers under advantageous conditions.
Transfer methods like those mentioned above are already known. These methods are capable of making multilayer wafers using a step of bonding the donor substrate (that includes the layer to be transferred) and the receiver substrate (onto which the layer will be transferred). The subsequent removal of an upper part of the donor substrate finalizes the transfer and forms the final multilayer wafer, that thus includes the transferred layer (for which the thickness is a few hundred Angstroms to a few microns), the layer formed by the receiver substrate (for which the thickness is typically a few hundred microns) and generally an intermediate layer between the two layers mentioned above (and for which the thickness is typically between a few hundred Angstroms and a few thousand Angstroms).
In order to transfer only a thin layer from the donor substrate to the receiver substrate, it is possible to bond the donor substrate to the receiver substrate, and to eliminate part of the donor substrate opposite the layer to be transferred (for example by grinding and/or chemical etching of the exposed face of the donor substrate). In this case, the donor substrate is entirely consumed by the transfer. It is also possible to create a weakened zone within the thickness of the donor substrate, and to bond the donor substrate to the receiver substrate and make the transfer by fracture of the donor substrate at the weakened zone, before bonding the donor substrate with the receiver substrate.
This weakened zone may be obtained by implantation of an atomic species such as hydrogen and/or rare gases such as helium (in the case of the SMART-CUT® technology) or by the formation of a porous zone (in the case of the ELTRAN® technology). Refer to "Silicon-On-Insulator Technology; Materials to VLSI", 2nd Edition by J. P. Colinge, published by Kluwer Academic Publishers, pages 50 and 51 for a more detailed description of these techniques. This type of transfer technique with the creation of a weakened zone defines the general framework of the invention.
Such substrate manufacturing techniques are typically used to form SeOI type multilayer wafers (semi-conductor on insulator), for which the most common form is SOI (silicon on insulator). When manufacturing such wafers, an insulating layer is formed on the face of the donor substrate and/or the face of the receiver substrate that are brought into intimate contact during the bonding step. This insulating layer may be obtained by treatment of one of the substrates (for example by thermal oxidation) or by deposition. The end result will be the buried insulating layer of the SeOI substrate.
More generally, these transfer techniques can be used to create all types of multilayer wafers, with or without an intermediate insulating layer. The invention is thus applicable for manufacturing all types of multilayer wafers, as will be seen later.
Fracture Zone
It is the that the invention is within the framework of transfer techniques based on fracture at a weakened zone. More precisely, the techniques concerned by the invention are techniques in which the weakened zone is created by introducing one or several species (for example hydrogen or helium) into the donor substrate. Note that in the remainder of this text, the term "species" will be used to denote all cases that arise—including cases in which only a single type of species is introduced. This "introduction" of at least one species may be done by implantation. Other techniques may also be envisaged (for example introduction of species by diffusion—particularly by exposing the donor substrate to a plasma, etc.).
It is always important to define the position of the weakened zone obtained by the introduction of species within the thickness of the donor substrate as precisely as possible. The species introduced into the donor substrate are actually distributed within the thickness of this substrate around a depth corresponding to a concentration peak, with a Gaussian distribution (as a first approximation). The fracture that follows will occur (after inputting energy in thermal or mechanical form, etc.), close to this depth corresponding to the concentration peak of the introduced species—this depth defining a maximum weakening of the substrate.
However, it is observed after the fracture that there is a damaged zone on each side of the fracture plane (and therefore on the upper part of the layer that was transferred onto the receiver substrate and onto the exposed face of the removed part of the donor substrate), and this damaged zone may extend over several tens of Angstroms. These damaged zones may be specifically treated (for example by polishing and/or heat treatment) on the final multilayer wafer or on the remainder of the donor substrate for recycling purposes. And it would be commercially useful to eliminate or at least to minimize such treatments.
Recognizing these problems, U.S. Pat. No. 6,756,286 describes methods designed to minimize the thickness of the damaged zone mentioned above, encouraging the positioning of the implanted species around predefined zones of the donor substrate (these zones may be denoted by the term "inclusions"). This document thus discloses how to:                create an inclusion zone in a substrate by depositing a layer of silicon highly doped with boron on the substrate,        then covering this layer by depositing a layer containing the layer to be transferred,        implanting hydrogen into the donor substrate thus formed, the parameters of the implantation being defined such that a maximum quantity of hydrogen is implanted at the inclusion layer formed by the layer doped with boron. The implanted hydrogen will preferably be located in this layer, due to the chemical affinity.
This technique significantly reduces dispersion of the hydrogen implanted in the thickness of the donor substrate, and after heat treatment of the fracture it is observed that the damaged zones on the surface of the multilayer wafer created and on the residual donor substrate originating from the fracture are much less significant than with a conventional implantation.
PCT published application WO2004/008514 describes a method for the formation of a weakened zone within a monocrystalline donor substrate by hydrogen diffusion. This method is aimed at forming the weakened zone faster than with existing methods for the formation of a weakened zone by diffusion (see page 5 lines 1 to 4 in WO2005/004514).
US published application US2002/0187619 describes a method for trapping metallic contaminants (see page 1 paragraph [0010] in US2002/0187619). This method includes a step of forming a weakened zone by implantation of species (typically hydrogen) into the donor substrate at a first depth. It also includes the formation of a trapping layer at a second depth.
While these methods are somewhat useful, further improvements are desired, and these are provided by the present invention.
Problems Related to Bonding
Layer transfer techniques include a bonding step during which the surfaces of two layers are brought into intimate contact. In all layer transfer techniques, the bonding quality (in particular characterized by the energy with which the two bonded substrates are bonded to each other) will have a direct impact on the final quality of the multilayer wafer obtained. Thus, the flatness of substrates to be bonded, the presence of particles or contaminants on their surfaces to be bonded, and the extent to which these surfaces are hydrophilic have a direct effect on the energy with which the two substrates will be bonded together after being brought into intimate contact.
It has generally been observed that a sufficiently thick intermediate layer called a bonding layer (typically more than 500 Angstroms thick) placed between two monocrystalline substrates to be bonded facilitates bonding and limits the formation of defects (such as blisters) at the contact interface. Refer to the article "Wafer direct bonding: tailoring adhesion between brittle materials" by Andreas Plossl, Gertrud Krauter, Materials Science and Engineering, #25, Nos. 1-2, Mar. 10, 1999 for further details about this bonding step.
When manufacturing SeOI, the insulating layer that is formed on at least one of the two substrates and that will form the buried insulation of the final multilayer wafer, also facilitates and provides a means of limiting bonding defects. This insulating layer can thus itself form a bonding layer. But there are situations in which it is required to obtain a multilayer wafer that does not include a buried insulating layer. More generally, it may be required to use an intermediate bonding layer (for which it will be noted that the addition will always require an additional step in the method). In this type of situation, it is necessary to transfer the layer directly from the donor substrate onto the receiver substrate, without an intermediate layer (regardless of whether or not it is insulating). This is the case for example when it is required to optimize thermal conduction between the transferred layer (in which the microelectronic components are formed) and the receiver substrate so as to dissipate a maximum amount of heat generated by components during their use.
This is also the case when it is required that the final result should be a wafer in which the transferred layer and the receiver substrate have separate properties without it being required to isolate them electrically. For example, wafers are also known that are formed from a layer of monocrystalline Si associated with a polycrystalline SiC support substrate through an electrically conducting interface. These wafers have been developed to offer an inexpensive alternative to monocrystalline SiC substrates, for different wafer diameters. In making this type of wafer, it is often desirable to bond the Si layer onto the receiver substrate directly.
It may also be desirable to combine a transferred layer of silicon directly onto a silicon substrate, the substrate and the layer having different crystalline orientations in order to optimize performances of transistors that could be formed in the corresponding two elements of the multilayer wafer thus formed. In this respect, refer to the publication "Mobility Anisotropy of electron in inversion layers on oxidized silicon surfaces". Physical Review, Vol. 4, N6, September 1971 for a description of the differences in the electrical characteristics of silicon depending on its crystalline orientation. It may also be envisaged to make multilayer wafers comprising a thin layer of silicon or Germanium or Silicon Germanium elastically strained in tension or in compression, directly on a solid silicon substrate.
The examples described above may require direct bonding (in other words without an intermediate layer) of two substrates with different crystalline orientations (or more generally different crystalline characteristics). This type of bonding may be problematic since the crystalline structures of the two substrates to be bonded tend to have a mutual influence after bonding, and a region would be created between the two substrates in which the crystalline structure is disturbed. Direct bonding of the two substrates with different crystalline characteristics (for example different crystalline meshes such that the crystalline lattices of the two substrates cannot be aligned) is the cause of crystalline defects that may propagate in one of the substrates, or in the two substrates. In the context of transferring a thin layer from a donor substrate to a receiver substrate to obtain a multilayer wafer, these defects can make the multilayer wafer obtained unusable for the formation of microelectronic components, particularly when they propagate within the thickness of the thin layer.
Note also that there are two main bonding families, for bonding of two substrates. So-called "hydrophilic" bonding requires cleaning operations, before the bonding operation itself, that could facilitate oxidation of the surfaces to be bonded (cleaning with SC1, SC2 type solutions, etc.). So-called "hydrophobic" bonding requires cleaning with an HF type solution. These types of bonding may undoubtedly be used to make direct bonding such as those mentioned above, but these types of bonding are relatively difficult to implement and may also generate defects that will then have to be treated specifically.
When a hydrophilic or hydrophobic bonding technique is used, some species (for example hydrogen molecules (H2) and/or water molecules (H2O) and/or other contaminants) are formed at the contact interface during the fracture heat treatment that takes place at a temperature of the order of 500° C. for a SMART-CUT® type method, while these species disappear at a temperature of the order of 900° C. The presence of these species (H2 and/or H2O and/or other contaminants) at the contact interface induces the formation of "void" type defects or "blisters" at the contact interface between the transferred layer and the receiver substrate. Therefore, a special treatment of these defects is necessary.
Thus, it appears that there is a need for allowing direct bonding of substrates (particularly substrates with different characteristics, for example crystalline). This type of bonding would thus be advantageous when implementing layer transfer techniques, particularly techniques based on fracture at a weakened zone that were mentioned above. Thus, improvements in bonding are also desired.

Method for transferring a thin layer including a controlled disturbance of a crystalline structure

S.O.I.Tec Silicon on Insulator Technologies