An integrated electronic circuit having probe indentations filled by a hard covering substance. The integrated circuit device results from a process of manufacture including forming a substrate comprising a plurality of functional components of the electronic circuit, creating a plurality of conductive layers on such substrate to form an electric contact region with high hardness equal to or greater than a first hardness value of about 300 HV, contacting the electric contact region with a probe thereby causing an indentation. In an embodiment, the process further comprises, after the test run, creating a covering conductive layer on at least one part of the electric contact region contacted by the probe to fill the indentation.

Electronic circuits are generally tested to verify their proper operation; this is often of the utmost importance to ensure a high quality of the production process of the electronic circuits. Tests may be performed on each electronic circuit at different levels of the corresponding production process: for example, a test process called EWS (Electrical Wafer Sort) is performed on the electronic circuits included in a corresponding wafer of semiconductor material, before the individual portions of the wafer on which there are integrated the electronic circuits are diced into individual chips and embedded in respective packages. Such test includes measurements performed on each electronic circuit by automatic test equipment, known as ATE. Such test apparatus is provided with a probe card, which substantially includes a printed circuit board comprising a plurality (typically, hundreds, or even thousands) of probes of conductive material for contacting corresponding conductive pads of the electronic circuits to be tested. During the test, the probe card is positioned in correspondence of a group of electronic circuits of the wafer so that the probes mechanically contact their pads (operation that in jargon is defined as probing); this provides an electrical connection between the test apparatus and the pads of such electronic circuits, which allows the test thereof. The same operations are repeated in succession on each group of electronic circuits of the wafer until all the electronic circuits formed therein have been tested.
In order to ensure that a proper probing procedure has been performed between each probe and the corresponding pad, typically before or after the test, a (manual or automatic) checking operation is carried out which consists of detecting and analyzing a probe mark left by the probe on the pad during the probing operation.
Being able to detect the presence and the arrangement of the probe marks allows first determining the correct alignment and centering between the probes of the probe card on the pads of the electronic circuits under test; in this way, it is possible to reconfigure the parameters of the probing so as to reduce the risk of damage of a passivation layer around the pad caused by a not totally accurate probing. Moreover, such risk is, in modern applications, very considerable, since the number of pads within a same electronic circuit is higher and higher, while their sizes and their relative separation distances are smaller and smaller.
Moreover, the analysis of the probe mark allows determining a correct and uniform pressure exerted by the probes of the probe card on the pads of the electronic circuits, so as to be able to act on the parameters of the probing in order to have a low and uniform contact resistance during the test.
However, in recent applications, the test EWS has drawbacks connected to the impracticality to impossibility of being able to perform such checking operation.
In fact, because of growing demands, especially in automotive applications, of electronic circuits capable of operating in adverse conditions (e.g., high temperatures), the pads (and the corresponding electric connections between the pads and respective terminals of the package) of such electronic circuits are more and more frequently formed by different materials with respect to those traditionally used (such as copper and aluminium). For example, US patent application No. US 2005/0073057, which is incorporated by reference, proposes a multi-layer pad structure having a high hardness property; such property is achieved by using a conductive material with high hardness (e.g., nickel or alloys thereof), possibly covered by a thin protective layer of conductive material that is relatively soft (e.g., palladium or alloys thereof).
The greater hardness of such pads with respect to the materials traditionally used for making the probes results, during the probing, in that the pad is not scratched by the respective probe; in this way, the probe mark is difficult to detect to undetectable, so that it turns out to be very difficult, if not practically impossible, to perform the checking operation of the probing. This involves a difficulty to substantial impossibility to act on parameters of the probing, with consequent increase during the test of the cases of breakage of the passivation layer, and loss of electric yield (due to a high and heterogeneous contact resistance between each probe of the probe card and the corresponding pad), which imply possible false test failures, and correspondingly a reduction in the process yield with consequent increase of the production costs of the electronic circuits.
At the same time, the difficulty/impossibility of leaving the probe mark may be due in part to the mechanical properties of the specific type of probe used for testing. In this regard, various types of probes are commercially available, such as cantilever, MEMS and vertical probes, but their use does not provide satisfactory results in certain situations, making them in practice not always effectively usable.
Typically during the probing it may happen that such probes cause an excessively deep probe mark on the pad such to uncover some layers thereof that, once exposed to the external environment, may be subject to chemical and/or physical changes. This happens for example in the case of nickel, which oxidizes if the palladium protective conductive layer formed thereon is removed, and of copper, which oxidizes if the aluminium protective conductive layer formed thereon is removed. For example, in the case of nickel, it may be experienced the removal of palladium after the use of probes that have a high hardness or after repeated probing actions of the probe on the pad.
In addition, an excessively deep probe mark on the pad typically causes a loss of yield during the assembly operations that connect, for example by welding of wire bonding, the pad of the electronic circuit and the terminals of the corresponding package, as in such situation the welding is not effective; in particular, the effectiveness of the welding is compromised both for geometrical reasons (a highly non-planar surface, such as that obtained in response to an excessively deep probe mark, may not allow a good adhesion), and for reasons of lack of compatibility of the materials involved in the welding (e.g., nickel generally has poor adhesion properties with different materials).


A method, apparatus and system for the communication of services in an optical access network includes transmitting services to customer premises using a passive optical downstream link and receiving services from said customer premises using an active optical upstream link. In an embodiment of the present invention, services from a central office are communicated to customer premises using a passive means for splitting an optical signal, and services from customer premises intended for the central office are communicated to the central office using active components including at least one receiver, a switch and a transmitter.

With broadband access services being desired and accepted by more and more end users, the challenges of devising economically feasible optical access networks for providing broadband services to end users becomes increasingly important. Currently, typical Fiber-to-the-Home (FttH) systems deploy optical packet networks (e.g., Asynchronous Transfer Mode or Ethernet) that may substantially be characterized according to two main approaches, namely; Active Optical Networks (AONs) that utilize active fiber sites in the field, and Passive Optical Networks (PONs) that make use of a fully passive outside plant fiber.
AONs make use of relatively simple transceivers and switches using technology that originates from optical (e.g., Ethernet) data networks that, due to their volumes, are relatively inexpensive. Powered equipment in Access Concentrators in such networks is required to bridge restrictive transmission distances. The availability of power in the field also allows for different services, such as mobile telephony and wireless access, to be supported. However, such active equipment involves remote installation and the amount of components and the power they consume directly translates into maintenance requirements and high down-times that ultimately lead to additional operational expenses.
To avoid the presence of active components in the field, substantially all of the multiplexing and switching equipment of an AON may be located within a Central Office of the network. Such a network is known as a Point-to-Point network. An additional advantage of these networks is that they provide a dedicated physical medium to each subscriber, allowing for almost any change or upgrade. However, such a network consumes a considerable amount of power and space within the Central Office. In addition, for supporting existing analog services, such as broadcast television and radio, in such systems either complex optical multiplexers or expensive encoders must be installed within the Central Office and decoders must be installed in user (customer) equipment.
To overcome the problems associated with AONs, PONs were developed. By using passive tree-and-branch fiber infrastructures the amount of equipment at a Central Office may be reduced. In addition, broadcast services may be simply implemented, including analog broadcast service which may be supported by means of coarse wavelength division multiplexing. However, in current PONs complex and expensive asynchronous transmission technology and equipment is required in the upstream direction of communication. In addition, the use of passive power splitters/combiners in such networks limits the aggregate bandwidth that may be made available to users.

Method, apparatus and system for the communication of services in an optical access network


Proteins having fibrinolytic and coagulation-inhibiting properties which are linked at the N- and/or C-terminal end of the plasminogen-activating amino acid sequence to a thrombin- or factor Xa-inhibiting amino acid sequence. The proteins, which are produced by genetic engineering, are useful as thrombolytic agents.

This invention relates to proteins having fibrinolytic and coagulation-inhibiting properties, which are linked at the N- and/or C-terminal end of the plasminogen-activating amino acid sequence to a thrombin- or factor Xa-inhibiting amino acid sequence, to plasmids for producing these polypeptides, and to thrombolytic agents which contain a polypeptide of this type as their active ingredient.
There are several serious diseases which are caused by the occlusion of arterial or veinous blood vessels. These thrombotic diseases include coronary thrombosis, cerebral thrombosis, pulmonary embolism, deep veinous thrombosis and peripheral arterial occlusion diseases Due to the occlusion of the blood vessels the supply of oxygen to the corresponding tissue and the exchange of nutrients and metabolites are interrupted, so that irreversible damage to the organ or tissue concerned may result.
The occlusion of a blood vessel caused by a thrombus mainly occurs at an arteriosclerotic lesion comprising fibrin, thrombocytes and erythrocytes under the action of various enzymes of the blood coagulation system. Within the enzyme cascade of the coagulation system, factor Xa and thrombin play a prominent role. Factor Xa, as a constituent of the prothrombinase complex, converts prothrombin to thrombin. Thrombin can activate all the important enzymes of the coagulation system, can induce the aggregation of thrombocytes and can lead to the formation of a fibrin network by the conversion of fibrinogen to fibrin (Furie and Furie in New Engl. J. Med. 326, 800 (1992)).
The formation of thrombuses is restricted by physiological anticoagulants, for example antithrombin III, activated protein C and tissue factor pathway inhibitor. Once formed, thrombuses can be re-dissolved by the action of plasmin occurring naturally in the body. Plasmin is formed from an inactive proenzyme, plasminogen, which is proteolytically activated by plasminogen activators. The thrombolysis due to plasmin is utilised therapeutically, by treating patients with thrombotic diseases, particularly patients with acute coronary thrombosis, with plasminogen activators. Streptokinase, APSAC (an isolated plasminogen streptokinase activator complex), double-chain urokinase (UK), recombinant single-chain urokinase (recombinant prourokinase) and tissue plasminogen activator (t-PA) are currently available for this therapy (Collen and Lijnen in Blood 78, 3114, (1991)). The following are under development: bat plasminogen activators (Gardell et al. in J. Biol. Chem. 264, 17947 (1989); EP 383 417), staphylokinase (Schlott et al. in Bio/Technology 12, 185 (1994) ; Collen and Van De Werf in Circulation 87 1850 (1993)), the recombinant tissue plasminogen activator BM 06.022 (Martin et al. in J. Cardiovasc. Pharm. 18, 111 (1991)) and the t-PA variant TNK-t-PA (Keyt et al. in Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 91, 3670 (1994)).
Streptokinase, a protein of haemolytic streptococci, activates human plasminogen, in that it forms a complex with plasminogen and thereby converts the plasminogen into an active conformation. This complex itself converts free plasminogen to plasmin, which then in turn cleaves the plasminogen bound to streptokinase. Staphylokinase, a protein obtained from Staphylococcus aureus, also acts similarly, but possesses a higher fibrin specificity compared with streptokinase. APSAC, a compound of streptokinase and human plasminogen which is produced in vitro, is a further development of streptokinase. Due to a chemical modification of the active center of the plasminogen, APSAC has a biological half-life which is longer than that of streptokinase.
Urokinase is a human protein which can be obtained in two forms as a proteolytically active protein from urine; high molecular weight urokinase (HUK) and low molecular weight urokinase (LUK) (Stump et al. in J. Biol. Chem. 261, 1267 (1986)). HUK and LUK are active forms of urokinase, i.e. double-chain molecules. Urokinase is formed as single-chain urokinase (prourokinase) in various tissues and can be detected in small amounts as a proenzyme in human blood (Wun et al. in J. Biol. Chem. 257, 3276 (1982)). As HUK, the activated form of prourokinase has a molecular weight of 54 kilodaltons and consists of 3 domains: the amino-terminal growth factor domain, the kringle domain and the serine protease domain (Guenzler et al. in Hoppe-Seyler's Z. Physiol. Chem. 363, 1155 (1982); Steffens et al. in Hoppe-Seyler's Z. Physiol. Chem. 363, 1043 (1982)). Although prourokinase and plasminogen are present as proenzymes, prourokinase is capable, due to its intrinsic activity, of transforming plasminogen into active plasmin. However, this plasminogen activator does not attain its full activity until the plasmin formed has itself cleaved the prourokinase between .sup.158 lysine and .sup.159 isoleucine (Lijnen et al. in J. Biol. Chem. 261, 1253 (1986)). The production of urokinase in Escherichia coli by genetic engineering was first described by Heyneker et al. (Proceedings of the IVth International Symposium on Genetics of Industrial Microorganisms 1982). Unglycosylated prourokinase (saruplase) is produced using a synthetic gene (Brigelius-Flohe' et al. in Appl. Microbiol. Biotech. 36, 640 (1992)).
t-PA is a protein with a molecular weight of 72 kilodaltons which is present in blood and in tissue. This plasminogen activator consists of 5 domains: the amino-terminal finger domain, the growth factor domain, kringle domain 1, kringle domain 2 and the serine protease domain. Like prourokinase, t-PA is converted into the active, double-chain form by a plasmin-catalysed cleavage between kringle domain 2 and the serine protease domain, i.e. between .sup.275 Arg and .sup.276 Ile. In vitro studies and the results of experiments on animals indicate that t-PA binds to fibrin and its enzymatic activity is stimulated by fibrin (Collen and Lijnen in Blood 78, 3114 (1991)). The fibrin specificity of t-PA should prevent the formation of plasmin in the entire blood system, resulting not only in the decomposition of fibrin decomposed but also in the decomposition of fibrinogen. A systemic plasminogen activation such as this as well as the extensive decomposition of fibrinogen are undesirable, since this increases the risk of haemorrhage. It has been shown in therapeutic practice, however, that the expectations derived from pre-clinical studies as regards the fibrin specificity of t-PA are not fulfilled. High doses, which result in systemic plasminogen activation despite this fibrin specificity, have to be infused due to the short biological half-life of t-PA (Keyt et al. in Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 91, 3670 (1994)).
r-PA and TNK-t-PA are variants of t-PA which possess improved properties. In r-PA (BM 06.022) the first three t-PA domains, i.e. the finger domain, the growth factor domain and the first kringle domain, have been deleted, so that the shortened molecule only contains the second kringle domain and the protease domain. r-PA is produced in Escherichia coli by genetic engineering and is not glycosylated. Compared with t-PA, r-PA has a longer biological half-life and more rapidly leads to reperfusion. It has been shown in experiments on animals that r-PA applied as a bolus is just as effective as a t-PA infusion (Martin et al. in J. Cardiovasc. Pharmacol. 18, 111 (1991)).
The t-PA variant TNK-t-PA differs from natural t-PA on three counts: the replacement of .sup.103 threonine by asparagine, due to which a new glycosylation site is formed; the replacement of .sup.117 asparagine by glutamine, due to which a glycosylation site is removed, and the replacement of the sequence between .sup.296 lysine and .sup.299 arginine by four successive alanine units. The combination of these three mutations results in a polypeptide with a higher fibrin specificity and a longer biological half-life compared with natural t-PA. Moreover, TNK-t-PA is considerably less inhibited by PAI-1 than is natural t-PA (Keyt et al. in Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 91, 3670 (1994)). Results obtained from experiments on animals in which a precursor of TNK-t-PA was used indicate that TNK-t-PA is suitable for bolus application (Refino et al. in Thromb. Haemost. 70, 313 (1993)).
Bat plasminogen activator (bat-PA) occurs in the saliva of the Desmodus rotundus bat. This plasminogen activator, which has meanwhile also been synthesized by genetic engineering, has an even more pronounced fibrin specificity than t-PA and in tests on animals has exhibited improved thrombolysis with an increased biological half-life and reduced systemic plasminogen activation (Gardell et al. in Circulation 84, 244 (1991)).
In the treatment of thrombotic diseases, plasminogen activators are generally administered together with an anticoagulant substance, for example heparin. This results in improved thrombolysis compared with treatment with a plasminogen activator only (Tebbe et al. in Z. Kardiol. 80, Suppl. 3, 32 (1991)). Various clinical results indicate that, in parallel with the dissolution of thrombuses, an increased tendency towards coagulation occurs (Szczeklik et al. in Arterioscl. Thromb. 12, 548 (1992) Goto et al. in Angiology 45, 273 (1994)). It is assumed that thrombin molecules which are enclosed in the thrombus and which are released again when the clot dissolves are responsible for this. Moreover, there are indications that plasminogen activators themselves also accelerate the activation of prothrombin and thus act in opposition to thrombolysis (Brommer and Meijer in Thromb. Haemostas. 70, 995 (1993)). Anticoagulant substances such as heparin, hirugen, hirudin, argatroban, protein C and recombinant tick anticoagulant peptide (TAP) can suppress this increased tendency towards re-occlusion during thrombolysis and can thus enhance the success of lysis therapy (Yao et al. in Am. J. Physiol. 262 (Heart Circ. Physiol. 31) H 347-H 379 (1992); Schneider in Thromb. Res. 64, 667 (1991); Gruber et al. in Circulation 84, 2454 (1991); Martin et al. in J. Am. Coll. Cardiol. 22, 914 (1993); Vlasuk et al. in Circulation 84, Suppl. II-467 (1991).
One of the strongest thrombin inhibitors is hirudin from the Hirudo medicinales leech, which consists of 65 amino acids. There are various iso-forms of hirudin, which differ as regards some of their amino acids. All iso-forms of hirudin block the binding of thrombin to a substrate, for example fibrinogen, and also block the active center of thrombin (Rydel et al. in Science 249, 277 (1990); Bode and Huber in Molecular Aspects of Inflammation, Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, 103-115 (1991); Stone and Hofsteenge in Prot. Engineering 2, 295 (1991); Dodt et al. in Biol. Chem. Hoppe-Seyler 366, 379 (1985). In addition, smaller molecules derived from hirudin are known, which also act as thrombin inhibitors (Maraganore et al. in Biochemistry 29, 7095 (1990); Krstenansky et al. in J. Med. Chem. 30, 1688 (1987); Yue et al. in Prot. Engineering 5, 77 (1992)).
The use of hirudin in combination with a plasminogen activator for the treatment of thrombotic diseases is described in U.S. Patent No. 4,944,943 (=EP 328,957) and U.S. Pat. No. 5,126,134 (=EP 365,468). The use of hirudin derivatives in combination with a thrombolytic agent is known from International Patent Application WO 91/01142.
Hirullin is a protein containing 61 amino acids which is isolated from the Hirudo manillensis leech. Hirullin is identical to hirudin as regards its action and inhibitor strength, but differs very considerably from hirudin as regards its amino acid sequence. It has also proved possible to derive smaller molecules from hirullin, which are very good thrombin inhibitors (Krstenansky et al. in Febs Lett. 269, 465 (1990)).
In addition, thrombin can also be inhibited by a peptide which is derived from the amino-terminal sequence of the human thrombin receptor (Vu et al. in Nature 253, 674 (1991)). The thrombin receptor contains a thrombin-binding sequence, with an adjacent cleavage site for thrombin, in the extracellular, amino-terminal region. This sequence can inhibit thrombin provided that the cleavage site is masked by the replacement of .sup.42 serine by .sup.42 phenylalanine.
Antistasin and TAP are inhibitors of factor Xa. Antistasin is a protein from the Haementeria ghiliani leech, which contains 119 amino acids but has no homology of sequence with hirudin (Tuszynski et al. in J. Biol. Chem. 262, 9718 (1987); Nutt et al. in J. Biol. Chem. 263, 10162 (1988) ; Condra et al. in Thromb. Haemostas. 61, 437 (1989)). The recombinant production of antistasin has been described by Han et al. in Gene 75, 47 (1989).
TAP is a protein containing 60 amino acids from the Onithodoros moubata tick, which can also be produced by genetic engineering. TAP binds reversibly to factor Xa and thus acts in opposition to the formation of thrombin. The efficacy of TAP has been proved to be similar to that of hirudin or heparin in various thrombosis models (Vlasuk in Thromb. Haemost. 70, 212 (1993); Schaffer et al. in Circulation 84, 1741 (1991)).
Phaneuf et al., in Thromb. Haemost. 71, 481 (1994), describe a complex which results from a fortuitous chemical linking of streptokinase and hirudin. The plasminogen-activating capacity of this streptokinase-hirudin complex is less than that of unmodified streptokinase by a factor of 8, however.
As noted above, plasminogen-activating amino acid sequences contain various domain sites which are well known and are described in the literature.
Urokinase and prourokinase comprise the following domains:
______________________________________ Domain Amino Acids Included ______________________________________ Growth Factor Domain amino acids 1 to 43 Kringle Domain amino acids 50 to 131 Serine Protease Domain amino acids 158 to 411 ______________________________________
See Guenzler et al., "The Primary Structure of High Molecular Mass Urokinase form Human Urine; The Complete Amino Acid Sequence of the A Chain", Hoppe-Seyler's Z. Physiol. Chem., 363, 1155-65 (1982); Steffens et al., "The Complete Amino Acid Sequence of Low Molecular Mass Urokinase from Human Urine", Hoppe-Seyler's Z. Physiol. Chem., 363, 1043-1058 (1982).
Tissue plasminogen activator comprises the following domains:
______________________________________ Domain Amino Acids Included ______________________________________ Finger Domain amino acids 4 to 50 Growth Factor Domain amino acids 50 to 87 Kringle 1 Domain amino acids 87 to 176 Kringle 2 Domain amino acids 176 to 262 Serine Protease Domain amino acids 276 to 527 ______________________________________
See Collen et al., "Thrombolytic and Pharmacokinetic Properties of Human Tissue-Type Plasminogen Activator Variants Obtained by Deletion and/or Duplication of Structural/Functional Domains, in a Hamster Pulmonary Embolism Model", Thrombosis and Haeomostasis, 65, (2), 174-180 (1991).
Bat-plasminogen activator comprises the following domains:
______________________________________ Domain Amino Acids Included ______________________________________ Finger Domain amino acids 1 to 43 Growth Factor Domain amino acids 44 to 84 Kringle Domain amino acids 92 to 173 ______________________________________
Serine Protease Domain amino acids 189 to 441 See Gardell et al., "Isolation, Characterization, and cDNA Cloning of a Vampire Bat Salivary Plasminogen Activator", Journal of Biological Chemistry, 264, (30), 17947-952 (1989).

Proteins having fibrinolytic and coagulation--inhibiting properties


Systems, methods, and computer-readable media are provided for controlling the distribution of data packets to intermediate buffers, such as Virtual Output Queues (VOQs) of a group of nodes. A method, according to one implementation, includes a step of detecting traffic congestion metrics associated with an egress port of a destination node grouped in a set of related nodes in a network. Each of the related nodes includes a dedicated buffer device. Based on the detected traffic congestion metrics, the method further includes the step of distributing data packets, which are intended for transmission to the egress port of the destination node, intermediately to the dedicated buffer device of one or more of the related nodes.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a data center 10 where switches 12L, 12A, 12S within the data center 10 are arranged in a conventional Clos network configuration. The data center 10 may include a plurality of racks 14, where each rack 14 may include a Top of Rack (TOR) leaf switch 12L and a plurality of servers 16. Each leaf switch 12L within the rack 14 may include a plurality of internal ports 18 for connection with the respective servers 16. In this arrangement, servers 16 within a single rack 14 may communicate with each other via the directly-connected leaf switch 12L. For instance, communication from one server to another within a single rack 14 may include a first hop from a first server to the leaf switch 12L and a second hop from the leaf switch 12L to a second server.
The Clos network in this data center 10 includes a first layer 20 (e.g., "leaf" layer) of leaf switches 12L that are arranged within the racks 14. Furthermore, the Clos network includes a second layer 22 (e.g., "aggregation" layer) of aggregation switches 12A and a third layer 24 (e.g., "spine" layer) of spine switches 12S. The Clos arrangement includes a first set of links 26 between the leaf switches 12L and the aggregation switches 12A and a second set of links 28 between the aggregation switches 12A and the spine switches 12S.
The portions of a telecommunications network that are typically incorporated within data centers, enterprise networks, Local Area Networks (LANs), High Performance Computing (HPC) environments, or other well-defined network environments are usually built with a highly-structured architecture. Some examples of highly-structured architectures that are frequently used within modern data center networks include Fat Tree, Clos, Dragonfly, Slim Fly, and B-Cube. These highly-structured network architectures are easy to visualize, can be built from smaller building blocks, provide high bisectional bandwidth, etc.
In addition to the overall network, the internal structure of traditional spine switches 12S and aggregation switches 12A is based on systems having a multi-stage Clos architecture. There are many examples of such systems in the industry. A typical configuration may be based on integrated circuits that include fully-featured Ethernet switches, which are deployed at a client-facing "edge" and provide packet processing (e.g., deep buffering, scheduling, shaping, prioritization, etc.) and framing packets into standard size cells. An example of the integrated circuits includes Jericho System-on-Chip (SoC) switch-router chips from Broadcom. A centralized fabric is composed of much simpler fabric element switches, which only support a very simple standard-size cell forwarding and minimal buffering.
The SoC switch-router chips also implement a Virtual Output Queue (VOQ) function, whereby a transmitter (TX) port indicates the amount of traffic that is buffered to a particular receiver (RX) destination port, and the RX maintains a record of such requests and issues TX credits to make sure that the RX port is not oversubscribed. Thus, the RX controls traffic injection into the system, while most buffering occurs at the TX side. The architecture is based on Clos configuration, such that a centralized switch fabric is deployed on day one of establishing a data center. Since each path is the same length, cells are forwarded via random paths (e.g., Equal-Cost Multi-Path (ECMP) routing) without controlling flow paths. Also, there may be a cell order reassembly at the RX ports.
The Clos-based configuration with VOQ buffering may be simple to operate, follows well-accepted industry standards, and may be efficient when fully filled. However, it also has a number of drawbacks. First, the centralized switch fabric of the Clos system must be deployed on day one, regardless of the number of client connections. Also, depending on the overall system port count, the system may include several layers of fabric element switches that are required, with a large fraction of ports (i.e., which increases the cost, size, and power being consumed) for internal scale-out interconnect.
Another drawback is that packets in the Clos system are buffered exclusively at the ingress to the large composite switch. Therefore, sufficient memory and memory bandwidth must be allocated to deal with local ingress packet congestion. Ingress memory must be sized such that each individual ingress location can fully deal with local congestion.
Clos type multi-layer fabrics need some redundancy and may have resilience limitations, depending on how many centralized elements are deployed and in what configuration. Lower cost configurations generally have reduced resilience to failures. Also, Clos configurations have lower throughput, higher latency, higher cost, and higher power compared to flat networks described with respect to the embodiments defined below. Also, longer Clos cables require more expensive Active Optical Cables (AOCs), instead of Direct Attach Cables (DACs). Existing products force a single physical mode for their fabrics: 100% on PCB traces or 100% on cables, not both.
Furthermore, it is common that data traffic can experience congestion at an egress port of a node in the network. For example, congestion may be the result of "incasting" in which an excessive amount of traffic is directed to a single egress port (e.g., User-Network Interface (UNI) port, client-facing port, receiving port, destination port, etc.) of a node. Congestion (e.g., incasting) is common in data centers and WAN cross-connects, switches, routers, etc.
Taking the case when ingress ports and egress ports have an identical bandwidth, a designated full-bandwidth transmission between a single ingress (source) port and a single egress (destination) port typically does not present any problems since moderately deep output queues (at or near the egress port) are able to take adequate care of statistical irregularities of packet arrival after the packets traverse the network.
However, problems may arise during incasting situations when several ingress ports (e.g., Network-Network Interface (NNI) ports, network-facing ports, transmitting ports, source ports, etc.) try to send too much traffic to a single egress port within a certain time period such that the excessive traffic may overwhelm an output buffer associated with the single egress port. Other incasting problems may arise as a result of an ingress port transmitting an excessive amount of data to the egress port in a burst (i.e., within a short time frame). For example, such a burst of high-volume data might overwhelm an already-loaded egress port.
A first existing approach to mitigating this problem includes reducing the rate of transmission over the network. A second existing approach includes storing surplus data in high-capacity (multi Gigabyte) high-bandwidth memory (HBM) at the transmitter or ingress port. However, these approaches may be either inapplicable to the data center environment or may be costly and inefficient. Therefore, there is a need to overcome these deficiencies in the known solutions.
Several conventional congestion prevention techniques rely on different control algorithms for their implementation. Some of them, which may be configured to possess the original source of data to be transmitted, have the ability to throttle down the transmission rate of the original data to be transmitted, as described in "DCQCN+: Taming Large-scale Incast Congestion in RDMA over Ethernet Networks," 2018 IEEE 26th International Conference on Network Protocols, p. 110. A control loop in this example includes detection of congestion (or a condition that is near congestion) at the egress site and sending feedback requesting Proportional-Derivative (PD) congestion control to the senders. The PD congestion feedback request may include both the excess of the desired queue occupancy and its rate. The senders reduce the transmission rate linearly with the received feedback. This approach requires access to the original source of data to be transmitted and control of the data transmission rate, which often is not an option in data centers.
Other existing approaches store excess packets at an ingress site in corresponding Virtual Output Queues (VOQs) when incasting occurs. For example, incasting may refer to a "many-to-one" situation where traffic congestion results from an excessive data transport from multiple ingress ports of a node (e.g., switch, router, etc.) to a single egress port. Besides the need for expensive and power-hungry high capacity HBM, which may be empty most of the time, the control loop may include a complicated credit request/credit grant exchange, as described in "Stardust: Divide and Conquer in the Data Center Network," 16th USENIX Symposium on Networked Systems Design and Implementation, p. 141. Ingress sites accumulate packets over a time window and request permission to send these to the egress sites. The egress site maintains a record of such requests from all ingress sites, determines its ability to handle egress, and sends corresponding "send permission grants" to appropriate ingress sites. This procedure prevents overload of both the egress sites and the internal switch network and provides packet delivery fairness. However, this procedure is done at the expense of complex request/grant message passing as well as corresponding communication time delays.
The existing approaches to prevent congestion that utilize rate-based transmission control may be implemented in data centers as Data Center Transmission Control Protocol (DCTCP), Data Center Quantized Congestion Notification (DCQCN), DCQCN+, just to name a few. These systems are adapted to constantly exchange Explicit Congestion Notifications (ECNs) and Congestion Notification Packets (CNPs) between senders, switches, and receivers to diagnose and evaluate congestion conditions. The sender increases/decreases its sending rate according to the congestion condition. These approaches explicitly operate at Layer 3 and imply the access to and control of the source of the original data to be transmitted to rate control source data.
The conventional systems include a number of shortcomings. For example, the rate-based congestion control schemes explicitly imply the access to and control of the source of the original data to be transmitted to execute the Proportional-Derivative (PD) transmission data rate actuation without any loss of data. This is possible if the transmission site is in full possession of the data to be transmitted, as if it is in permanent storage at the site. However, this situation does not commonly occur in large composite switches, where client interfaces are usually re-transmitting data originated somewhere else. Hence, these approaches may not be feasible in many cases.
Local buffering at the transmission site is burdened by the need for expensive and power-hungry high-capacity (e.g., multi-Gigabyte) High-Bandwidth Memory (HBM), which would normally be empty and idle most of the time. The implementation of the local VOQ buffering is also overburdened by a complicated system of administering the release of packets stored in VOQs, which may involve the constant exchange of requests for packet release and grants to release them between the senders and receivers. These complex and cumbersome systems are overburdened with meticulous processing and sequential communications, causing both processing and communication delays and reducing the data throughput.
Therefore, there is a need to provide a data center architecture and large composite switch architecture that is able to overcome the drawbacks of the conventional systems. Also, data centers and large composite switches may benefit by having a way to gradually grow or scale to different internal network sizes based on current demand and the number of services being offered to customers.

Controlling distributed buffers in a network to manage data packets


An electrical test buzzer is adapted for insertion into an output receptacle and used to test for the presence of electricity at the output receptacle. The electrical test buzzer includes an audible alarm, a transformer, held in a housing, and a pair of contact prongs. The contact prongs are inserted into a respective output receptacle causing the buzzer to sound a high pitched alarm when electricity is present at the receptacle. When no electricity is present at the receptacle no circuit is formed and the alarm does not sound.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the testing of output receptacles and, more particularly, to determine whether an output receptacle or bare wires are "live".
2. Description of the Prior Art
Testers for determining whether a wire or output receptacle are well known. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,027,074 dated Jun. 25, 1991 discloses a device for testing the individual conductors of a multiconductor cable. Pulses are transmitted through each conductor. These pulses are monitored, processed and displayed. U.S. Pat. No. 4,816,746 dated Mar. 28, 1989 discloses a device which is connected to an existing electrical circuit to determine the presence of power across a pair of conductors. A switch is included to allow an alarm to sound when either power is present or when power is not present. U.S. Pat. No. 4,870,343 dated Sep. 26, 1989 discloses a device for detecting the presence of a high voltage. U.S. Pat. No. 4,734,651 dated Mar. 29, 1988 discloses a device for determining the electrical continuity between the terminals of a multi-contact electrical connector and the cores of insulated leads connected thereto. U.S. Pat. No. 3,514,552 discloses an apparatus for checking the connection of wires within a circuit.
It is frequently desirable to determine if an electrical outlet or loose wires are "live", as in the case of attaching a fixture, without the possibility of injury from attempting to work with such "live" wires. If one attempts to attach a fixture to a set of bare wires there is a strong possibility of electrocution should those wires be "live". A need exists, therefore, for a safe and effective way of determining whether an output receptacle or bare wires are "live" before working with them and for determining which circuit breaker switch is appropriate for turning off the flow of electricity to the receptacle or wires.
The foregoing is accomplished by the unique electrical test buzzer of the present invention as will be made apparent from the following description thereof. Other advantages of the present invention over the prior art also will be rendered evident.

Apparatus for detecting a completed electrical circuit at an electrical output receptacle


Electrolytic solutions containing organic additive(s) selected from a described class of additives (e.g., 4,6-dihydroxypyrimidine) reduce overall applied electrical potential of electrolytic cells and/or reduce gas formation at the anode(s) or increase copper production rate. Benefits include reducing overall power consumption and reducing acid mist during electrolytic processes.

There are a variety of electrolytic processes that use gas-evolving electrode(s), such as copper electrowinning, zinc electrowinning, manganese electrowinning, electrogalvanizing, copper foil production, metal finishing, and metal recovery. In these processes, the rate of metal deposition is proportional to the current, but significant energy is expended owing to an over-potential at the gas evolving anode. The application of an electrical potential across the electrodes causes the movement of ions in the electrolyte and the movement of electrons from the anode to the cathode to complete the electrical circuit. This flow of electrons is accomplished by the removal of electrons from the anode with the supply of electrons at the anode provided by negatively charged anions, such as chloride, or reducing agents in the electrolyte solution.
Some anions, such as sulfate, are not discharged directly from aqueous solutions, so completion of the circuit in this instance requires the use of a reducing agent as the source of electrons. The potential required for the discharge of this reducing agent is dependent on the reversible (equilibrium) potential of that particular species. In a sulfuric acid/copper sulfate electrolyte for example, using an insoluble lead/lead oxide anode, water is the primary source of electrons for completion of the circuit with the subsequent evolution of oxygen gas.
In practice, the actual voltage required to produce gas evolution at the anode is considerably higher than just the equilibrium potential. This difference is called the overvoltage, and is caused by the irreversible reaction of the formation of oxygen bubbles on the surface of the anode. This overvoltage can increase the operating potential of the cell by as much as 1 volt, depending on the specific electrode array in use. Since energy consumption in electrolytic processes is directly proportional to the operating potential of the cell, lowering the cell voltage will have a significant impact on the energy consumption and corresponding manufacturing costs related to these electrolytic processes.
Reducing the energy requirement of the electrolytic cell is also desirable. There have been attempts to reduce the overall energy requirement of the electrolytic process. For example, the oxidation potential at the anode of an electrowinning cell has been decreased by using titanium anodes coated with a layer containing platinum metals (i.e., "dimensionally stable anodes" (DSA)) instead of lead/lead oxide anodes. But DSA anodes are relatively expensive.
Inorganic materials have previously been added to electrowinning processes to reduce the overall cell voltage in addition to reducing oxygen gas byproduct, thus reducing acid mist. For example, an Fe(II)/Fe(III) couple, combined with sulfur dioxide to reduce Fe(III) to Fe(II), was used to decrease cell voltage from 2.00 V to 0.94 V and also to reduce acid mist. But these effects were only seen using the DSA anodes, not with the more prevalent lead/lead oxide anodes. (See, S. P. Sandoval et al., "A Substituted Anode Reaction for Electrowinning Copper," Proceedings of COPPER 95-COBRE 95 International Conference, Volume III—Electrorefining and Hydrometallurgy of Copper, edited by W. C. Cooper, et al., pp. 423-435).
Another problem inherent with the use of gas-evolving anodes is that gas is produced, which agitates the electrolyte solution and may cause acid mist. Acid mist may be harmful to the health of the electrolytic process workers. Another problem with some electrolytic processes is the amount of electrical potential or energy required, and the related expense.
An electrolytic process generally takes place in an electrolytic cell. An electrolytic cell typically comprises at least one anode and at least one cathode. The anode(s) and cathode(s) (or electrodes) are in contact with an electrolyte solution. Gas-evolving anodes are insoluble in the electrolyte solution. A highly pure metal is deposited on a cathode.
During these electrolytic processes, metal is reduced at the cathode(s) and oxidation occurs at the insoluble anode(s). Gas bubbles may be formed at the anode(s) and may rise upwardly toward the electrolyte solution surface and burst, thereby forming a mist aerosol of finely dispersed electrolyte droplets. This mist, or aerosol, then typically spreads throughout the area where the electrolytic cells are operated, sometimes called the tank house. The composition of the mist is dependent on the composition of the electrolyte solution, and typically contains sulfuric acid and metal salts. The acid mist is corrosive to equipment and may be a health hazard. The acid mist may cause extreme discomfort to the skin, eyes, and respiratory systems of tank house workers.
Thus, various methods have been used to either contain or inhibit the generation of acid mist by electrolytic cells. But no method is completely satisfactory.
One common method used to address the problem of acid mist is to use a powerful ventilation unit to remove contaminated air from a tank house. The air is then circulated through a scrubber to remove contaminants before it is either recirculated or released into the environment. This method consumes a lot of energy and is not very effective at removing the acid mist.
Another common attempt to suppress acid mist formation has been to use mechanical interference devices. Common examples of mechanical interference devices are layers of floating plastic balls, beads, discs, rods etc., in the electrolyte solution. These devices create a surface where gas bubbles can burst less violently and also provide a surface where the acid mist from the bursting gas bubbles may be collected and drained back into the electrolyte solution.
Another method of addressing the acid mist problem has been to apply certain fluorochemical surfactants to form a "foam blanket" on the surface of the electrolyte solution, to reduce the electrolyte solution's surface tension, and to reduce the intensity of acid mist breakout. (See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,484,990 and 5,468,353). But a uniform thickness of the foam blanket can be difficult to maintain. Acid mist may escape in areas where the foam is too thin. Also, the foam layer may become too thick and thus interfere with the electrical contacts of the cell.
Other attempts to reduce acid mist generation have included providing a fabric screen or some kind of a cover over the electrode plates where the plates extend above the surface of the electrolyte solution. (See, for example, WO/0065 131). These attempts, however, have been ineffective in preventing acid mist generation.

Electrolytic processes with reduced cell voltage and gas formation


Process for manufacturing an alkali metal aluminosilicate of zeolite P type wherein a sodium silicate solution and a sodium aluminate solution are continuously added together in a first reacting zone in the presence of zeolite P seeds, to produce a first mixture said mixture being continuously transferred from this first reacting zone to a second reacting zone, the resulting product being eventually filtered, washed and dried.

While the utility of zeolite P in detergent formulations has been acknowledged, for example in European Patent Application 0384070 (Unilever), they must be manufactured by a commercially effective process in order to become available on the market place. Thus, while the properties of a material may make it a useful commercial commodity, its manufacture has to be optimised for large scale production. The zeolite P class includes a series of synthetic zeolite phases which may be in cubic configuration (also termed B or P.sub.c) or tetragonal configuration (also termed P.sub.1) but is not limited to these forms. The structure and characteristics of the zeolite P class are given in "Zeolite Molecular Sieves" of Donald W Breck (published 1974 and 1984 by Robert E Krieger of Florida USA). The zeolite P class has the typical oxide formula: EQU M.sub.2/n O.Al.sub.2 O.sub.3.2.0-5.00 SiO.sub.2.5H.sub.2 O.
M is an n-valent cation which for this invention is an alkali metal, that is lithium, potassium, sodium, caesium or rubidium with sodium and potassium being preferred and sodium being the cation normally used in commercial processes.
Thus sodium may be present as the major cation with another alkali metal present in a minor proportion to provide a specific benefit.
In EP-A-384,070 is disclosed a process for manufacturing zeolite P having a silicon to aluminium molar ratio not exceeding 1.33 wherein a sodium aluminate solution, having a Na.sub.2 O:Al.sub.2 O.sub.3 molar ratio from 1.4 to 2.0, is mixed with a sodium silicate solution, having a SiO.sub.2 :Na.sub.2 O molar ratio from 0.8 to 3.4, at a temperature from 25.degree. C. to boiling point and with vigorous stirring to give a gel having the following composition: EQU (2.3-7.5)Na.sub.2 O, (1.75-3.5)SiO.sub.2, Al.sub.2 O.sub.3, (80-450)H.sub.2 O.
The gel is then aged for 0.5 to 10 hours at a temperature above 70.degree. C., the crystalline sodium aluminosilicate thus formed being then washed and dried.
This process, with such a gel composition, even though being suitable for producing zeolite P on a bench scale, can't always be directly transposed to industrial scale.
In EP-A-565,364 is disclosed a process for industrial production of P zeolite having the oxide formula EQU M.sub.2/n, Al.sub.2 O.sub.3, (1.8-2.66)(preferably 1.90-2.10)SiO.sub.2, yH.sub.2 O
wherein y is the water content, comprising the steps of:
i. a sodium aluminate solution having a temperature of at least 25.degree. C. is mixed with a sodium silicate solution at a temperature of at least 25.degree. C. in a stirred vessel in the presence of a slurry of P zeolite seed to form a gel having the composition, Al.sub.2 O.sub.3 :(1-3.5)(preferably 1.80-2.2)SiO.sub.2 :(1.2-7.5) (preferably 1.5-5)Na.sub.2 O: (25 to 450) (preferably 40 to 150) H.sub.2 O PA1 ii. ageing the gel at a temperature above about 25.degree. C. with stirring to maintain solids in suspension for a period of least about 0.1 hour, and PA1 iii. separating the P zeolite product, washing and drying. PA1 i. The form of the zeolite which was produced was established using standard XRD method. PA1 x being at least 1.8 PA1 y being the water content, PA1 wherein a sodium silicate solution and a sodium aluminate solution are continuously added together in a first reacting zone in the presence of zeolite P seeds, to produce a mixture having the general formula: EQU 3.0-5.0Na.sub.2 O, 2.2-7.5SiO.sub.2, Al.sub.2 O.sub.3, 75-450H.sub.2 O
Even though satisfactory, this process is a batch process and there is therefore a need for a continuous process for the production of zeolite P.


Provided is a mosaic piece having a body contour inscribed within a circle, and being formed with at least one projection having a projection contour.

It is known to make divisions of space by geometric shapes, in particular, division of such a space to be covered with identical shapes. Such a division is usually referred to as a mosaic, tiling etc. Examples of such mosaic/tiling can be covering a defined space with hexagons, triangles and even more complex shapes.
In addition, it is known to make mosaic piece for the purpose of games, especially for children (e.g. jigsaw puzzles), in which a certain image or a shape is to be formed by adjoining specific mosaic pieces to one another.


The present invention relates to Curvularia verruculosa haloperoxidases and isolated nucleic acid fragments comprising nucleic acid sequences encoding the haloperoxidases as well as nucleic acid constructs, vectors, and recombinant host cells comprising the nucleic acid sequences. The invention also relates to methods for recombinant production of the haloperoxidase. The invention further relates to compositions comprising the haloperoxidases and methods of using the compositions for killing microbial cells or inhibiting growth of microbial cells.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to Curvularia verruculosa haloperoxidases and isolated nucleic acid fragments comprising nucleic acid sequences encoding the haloperoxidases. The invention also relates to nucleic acid constructs, vectors, and host cells comprising the nucleic acid sequences as well as methods for producing the haloperoxidases. The invention further relates to methods of use of the haloperoxidases.
2. Description of the Related Art
Haloperoxidases catalyze the oxidation of a halide ion (X=Cl.sup.-, Br.sup.-, or I.sup.-) in the presence of hydrogen peroxide (H.sub.2 O.sub.2) to the corresponding hypohalous acid (HOX): EQU H.sub.2 O.sub.2 +X.sup.- +H.sup.+ .fwdarw.H.sub.2 O+HOX
If an appropriate nucleophilic acceptor compound is present, the hypohalous acid will react with the compound to form a halogenated compound. Haloperoxidases can also catalyze peroxidase reactions on certain substrates in the absence of halide ions, but the substrate spectrum is broadened in the presence of halide ions due to unspecific reactions of the substrate and the hypohalide ion.
Haloperoxidases are widespread in nature being produced by mammals, plants, algae, lichen, bacteria, and fungi. Haloperoxidases are probably the enzymes responsible for the formation of naturally occurring halogenated compounds. There are three types of haloperoxidases, classified according to their specificity for halide ions: Chloroperoxidases (E. C. 126.96.36.199) which catalyze the chlorination, bromination and iodination of compounds; bromoperoxidases which show specificity for bromide and iodide ions; and iodoperoxidases (E. C. 126.96.36.199) which solely catalyze the oxidation of iodide ions.
The first discovered haloperoxidases were determined to contain heme as a prosthetic group or co-factor. However, more recently, it has become apparent that there are numerous non-heme haloperoxidases as well. Bacterial haloperoxidases have been found with no prosthetic group. In addition, a number of other non-heme haloperoxidases have been shown to possess a vanadium prosthetic group. Haloperoxidases containing a vanadium prosthetic group ire known to include seaweed bromoperoxidases, and at least one type of fungal chloroperoxidase from Curvularia inaequalis (van Schijndel et al., 1993, Biochimica Biophysica Acta 1161:249-256; Simons et al., 1995, European Journal of Biochemistry 229: 566-574; WO 95/27046).
Haloperoxidases, like other oxidoreductases, are of current interest because of their broad range of potential industrial uses. For example, haloperoxidases have been proposed for use as an anti-microbial agent.
It is an object of the present invention to provide new haloperoxidases which can be produced in commercially useful quantities.

Haloperoxidases from Curvularia verruculosa and nucleic acids encoding same


A block fitting for an air conditioning system includes a male block portion and a female block portion. The male block portion has a first annular pilot. The female block portion has a first annular collar that receives the first annular pilot of the male block portion. The first aperture of the male block portion and the first aperture of the female block portion are substantially concentrically aligned. A first seal structure is disposed between the first annular pilot of the male block portion and the first annular collar of the female block portion. A fastener engages the male block portion with the female block portion to form a substantially fluid tight seal. One of the of the male block portion and the female block portion has a stabilizing heel formed adjacent a side surface thereof. The stabilizing heel militates against transverse dynamic loading of the seal structure in operation.

In assembly line manufacturing of vehicles, it is desirable that line fittings in air conditioning systems be secured using a power nut driver rather than using a fastening method requiring a backup wrench to counteract the torque. For this reason, peanut or block type fittings are often used.
Various refrigerants, some of which present environmental concerns, have been used in air conditioning systems for vehicles. As a result, legislation has been passed by various governmental agencies of the United States and the European Union, requiring that air conditioning systems operate with substantially no refrigerant leaks.
Seal structures with metal seal fittings suitable for installation using a power nut driver have been used to militate against leaks in the air conditioning system. Such seal structures and related block fittings are described, for example, in Assignee's U.S. Pat. No. 7,621,568 to Schroeder et al., U.S. Pat. No. 8,104,773 to Schroeder et al., U.S. Pat. No. 8,523,244 to Schroeder et al.
It has been found that, in applications where the metal seal fittings are subjected to severe vibration, for example, when used in an engine mounted discharge line, a prying action may occur. It is believed that the prying action results from transverse dynamic loads, which are applied to the seal fitting by engine roll and related vibrations in operation. Undesirably, the prying action can result in a loss of clamp load, and degradation of the resulting metal seal joint, over time.
There is a continuing need for a block fitting for metal seal structures which stabilizes the seal joint against transverse dynamic loads. Desirably, the block fitting militates against the loss of clamp load and seal joint degradation, and facilitates a use of the metal seal structures in applications where the metal seal structures may be subject to severe vibration.


A coiler drum of a reversing rolling mill includes a work portion that engages a strip of metal being processed in the reversing rolling mill. The work portion includes an inner base surface and engaging strips that extend radially outward from the base surface. When the metal strip is engaged by the work portion, the metal strip does not contact the inner base surface, which has a surface area greater than 35 percent of the work surface. The engaging strips can be formed on the coiler drum by using weld overlays, inserts into slots, or by casting the engaging strips onto the coiler drum at the time the coiler drum is cast. The engaging strips may be laterally offset from one another and have a length less than 50 percent of the axial length of the work portion. The engaging strips may also be formed from a different material than the material of the work surface of the coiler drum.

One section of a conventional continuous casting line is illustrated in FIG. 1. Initially, molten steel is supplied to a continuous caster 10 that produces a cast steel strand 12. After the strand 12 exits the caster 10, the strand 12 is cut to length with a cutter 16 to produce a series of cast slabs 18 that are discharged to a rolling table 14. Subsequent to being severed from the strand 12, each slab 18 is transversely fed into a reheat furnace 15 using a transfer machine 20.
The reheat furnace 15 brings the slab 18 to a uniform temperature to facilitate rolling. Upon exiting the reheat furnace 15, the slab 18 is transferred to an upstream end of the rolling table 14. The slab 18 is then descaled in one or more descalers 24, 26, which apply a series of high-pressure waterjets/sprays onto the surface of the slab 18 to remove scale. The slab 18 is then processed by a reversing rolling mill 28. The rolling mill 28 is typically provided with upstream and downstream coiler furnaces 30, 32. Upon reaching a desired thickness in the rolling mill 28, the intermediate product 34 (also referred to as a strip) continues downstream to further processing (not shown). Downstream processing may include shearing the ends of the intermediate product 34, cutting the intermediate product 34 to length and/or coiling the intermediate product 34 into coils.
A Steckel mill is one of the various types of rolling mills, an example of which is illustrated in FIG. 2. This type of reversing rolling mill 28 typically passes the slab 18 through rollers 36, 38 several times to reduce the slab 18 to a strip (or intermediate product) 34 having a thinner thickness. The reversing rolling mill 28 also maintains the strip 34 at a relatively high temperature so as to produce a desired steel microstructure. Because the rolling reduction typically requires more than one or more passes through the rollers 36, 38, coiler furnaces 30, 32 are typically installed in-line with the reversing rolling mill 28 to maintain the temperature of the strip 34 between passes through the rollers 36, 38. One coiler furnace 30 is upstream of the rollers 36, 38 and a second coiler furnace 32 is downstream of the rollers 36, 38.
Each coiler furnace 30, 32 includes an internal rotatable generally-cylindrical drum 44, 46, generally known as a coiler drum. In operation, the leading edge, for a particular pass, of the strip 34 emerging from the rollers 36, 38 that requires further passes through the rollers 36, 38 is directed into the nearer coiler furnace 30, 32 and wound onto its respective coiler drum 44, 46. Subsequently, the strip 34 is unwound from the coiler drum 44, 46 as the strip 34 is fed back through the rollers 36, 38 for a further pass. If further rolling in the reversing rolling mill 28 is required, after the next pass through the rollers 36, 38, the strip 34 is wound onto the coiler drum 44, 46 of the coiler furnace 30, 32 on the other side of the rollers 36, 38.
FIG. 3 illustrates a conventional coiler drum 50, and the work surface 52 of the conventional coiler drum 50 is the portion of the coiler drum 50 that contacts the plate, strip, etc. of steel. With a conventional coiler drum 50, the work surface 52 is smooth or flat. However, a problem associated with a coiler drum 50 having a smooth work surface 52 is that the work surface 52 tends to accumulate detritus matter, such as scale and other debris, from the strip or refractory from the lining of the furnaces 30, 32. This unwanted material can be reintroduced onto the strip as a surface defect that can cause of portion of the strip to be undesirably scrapped, reworked or reclassified as a lower quality product.
One solution to this problem is to add channels 64 into the work surface 62 of the coiler drum 60, as illustrated in FIG. 4. These channels 64 are cut into the coiler drum 60 continuously from one end 66 of the coiler drum to the other end 68 and allow the unwanted material to accumulate within the channels 64. The strip, however, is still in contact with about 75–85% of the original surface 62 of the coiler drum 60, and it has been determined that notwithstanding the channels 64, the detritus material still accumulates on the work surface 62 of the coiler drum 60. Thus, there is a need to provide an improved coiler drum that reduces or eliminates that amount of detritus material that is reintroduced onto a strip.


A method fix forming a diffraction grating includes the steps of preparing a mold including pattern portions each having a pattern corresponding to a pattern for the diffraction grating; forming a first semiconductor layer on a substrate; forming a resin layer on the first semiconductor layer; pressing the pattern portions of the mold against the resin layer; forming the pattern for the diffraction grating in the resin layer by curing the resin layer; and forming the diffraction grating in the first semiconductor layer by etching the first semiconductor layer using the patterned resin layer. The mold includes a first base and a plurality of second bases disposed on the first base. The first base is made of a flexible material. Each second base is made of a rigid material. The second bases each include one pattern portion and are spaced apart from each other with a predetermined distance.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a mold for nano-imprinting, a method for forming a diffraction grating, and a method for producing an optical device including a diffraction grating.
2. Description of the Related Art
Instead of a known photolithography method, a nano-imprint lithography (NIL) method has been proposed to form a semiconductor optical device. In such a nano-imprint lithography method, a mold is prepared. The mold has a pattern portion in which a predetermined pattern having projections and recesses is formed. The mold is then pressed against a resin layer formed on a substrate. Thus, the pattern formed on the mold is transferred to the resin layer. The substrate is etched using, as a mask, the resin layer in which the pattern having projections and recesses is formed, and consequently the pattern having projections and recesses is formed on the substrate. In this method, when the projection of the pattern has a height comparable to a surface roughness of the substrate, part of the pattern portion of the mold is not pressed against the resin layer formed on the substrate. In other words, the pattern having projections and recesses of the mold is not uniformly transferred over the entire resin layer. As a result, the pattern having projections and recesses is not uniformly formed on the substrate.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2010-36514 discloses that nano-imprinting is conducted using a mold made of a flexible material. Since the mold deforms along the surface of a substrate even when the surface of the substrate is not flat, the pattern portion is fully pressed against the entire resin layer on the substrate. As a result, by etching the substrate using the resin layer as a mask, the pattern having projections and recesses can be formed over the entire substrate.

Mold for nano-imprinting, method for forming diffraction grating, and method for producing optical device including diffraction grating


A spoked bicycle wheel includes a rim, a hub having first and second axially spaced apart anchoring portions and a plurality of spokes connected between the rim and the anchoring portions. A first set of spokes is anchored to the first anchoring portions and a second set of spokes is anchored to the second anchoring portions. The spokes of the first set are greater in number than the spokes of the second set.

The present invention relates to a rear bicycle wheel.
FIG. 1 of the annexed drawings illustrates a rear wheel of a known type mounted on the frame of a bicycle 10 having two fork-shaped arms 12 provided at their bottom ends with seats, designated generically by 14, for fixing of a pin defining an axis 16 of transverse rotation. The rear wheel, designated as a whole by 18, comprises a rim 20 having a median plane 22 set in a central position with respect to the arms 12 and the seats 14 for attachment of the frame 10. The wheel 18 comprises a hub 24 that carries a set of sprockets 26 set coaxially with the hub 24. The rim 20 and the hub 24 are connected together by means of one first set of spokes and one second set of spokes, designated, respectively, by 28a and 28b. The spokes 28a of the first set are anchored along one side of the hub 24 adjacent to the sprocket set 26, whilst the spokes 28b of the second set are anchored to the hub 24 on the side of the latter further away from the sprocket set 26.
On account of the encumbrance of the sprocket set 26 in the direction of the transverse axis 16, the spokes 28a, 28b have a different inclination with respect to the median plane 22 of the wheel 18. In FIG. 1, the angles of inclination of the spokes 28a and 28b with respect to the median plane 22 are designated, respectively, by xcex1 and xcex2. The difference between the angles xcex1 and xcex2 is greater, the greater is the axial encumbrance of the sprocket set 26.
In traditional solutions, the fact that the spokes 28a and 28b have a different inclination with respect to the median plane 22 means that the said spokes are subjected to different tensioning forces. In particular, the tensioning force of the spokes 28a will have to be considerably higher than the tensioning force of the spokes 28b in order to keep the rim 20 centred with respect to the median plane 22 of the wheel. If the mean tensioning forces of the spokes 28a and 28b are respectively designated by Fa and Fb, in order to have correct centring of the rim 20 with respect to the median plane 22, the components of these forces in the direction parallel to the axis of rotation of the wheel must be equal and opposite to one another.
The main drawback of the known solution previously described lies in the fact that the spokes of the wheel that are adjacent to the sprocket set undergo a very high tensioning force and are much more subject to the risk of failure as compared to the spokes located on the side of the wheel opposite to the sprocket set.
The purpose of the present invention is to provide a rear bicycle wheel that is free from the aforementioned drawback.
In accordance with the present invention, the above purpose is achieved by a bicycle wheel having the characteristics that form the subject of the main claim.
The characteristics and advantages of the present invention will emerge clearly from the ensuing detailed description, which is provided purely by way of non-limiting example, with reference to the attached drawings in which:


A voltage reduction circuit is electrically inserted between between a first power supply pad and a power source voltage supplying portion of a bipolar circuit part. Receiving a control signal from a CMOS circuit part, the voltage reduction circuit reduces a power source voltage given thereto via the power supply pad, thereby producing a reduced power source voltage and outputting the reduced power source voltage to the power source voltage supplying portion of the bipolar circuit part. Hence, even though the same power source voltage is commonly supplied to the power supply pads of the bipolar circuit part and the CMOS circuit part via the same external power source pin, one of the bipolar circuit part and the CMOS circuit part receives the reduced power source voltage from the voltage reduction circuit. Thus, it is possible that a power source voltage to the CMOS circuit part and a power source voltage to the bipolar circuit part are different without increasing the number of external power source pins.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a Bi-CMOS semiconductor device.
2. Description of the Background Art
FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram of a conventional Bi-CMOS semiconductor integrated circuit device. In the conventional Bi-CMOS semiconductor device, a CMOS circuit part 2 and a bipolar circuit part 3 are mounted in a separated relation on the same semiconductor chip 1. A power source voltage supply VC of the CMOS circuit part 2 is connected through a power supply line 5 to a power supply pad 7 which is also mounted on the semiconductor chip 1. Likewise, a power source voltage supply VC of the bipolar circuit part 3 is connected through a power supply line 4 to a power supply pad 6 mounted on the semiconductor chip 1. The power supply pads 6 and 7 are commonly connected to an external power source voltage pin 10, the pad 6 being connected via a wire 8 and the pad 7 being connected via a wire 9.
This structure allows a power source voltage from the external power source voltage pin 10 to be impressed on the power supply pads 6 and 7 through the wires 8 and 9, respectively. The power source voltage thus allowed to the power supply pads 6 and 7 is then supplied to the power source voltage supplies VC of the CMOS circuit part 2 and the bipolar circuit part 3 through the power supply lines 4 and 5, respectively. In other words, the power source voltage allowed from the external power source voltage pin 10 is commonly given to the CMOS circuit part 2 and the bipolar circuit part 3 under same conditions as power source voltages for the respective circuit parts.
As heretofore described, the conventional Bi-CMOS semiconductor device as above usually comprises only one external power source voltage pin, i.e., the pin 10, for ensuring voltage to the CMOS circuit part 2 and the bipolar circuit part 3. Hence, it is a general practice that the same power source voltage from the external power source voltage pin 10 is supplied commonly to the power source voltage supplies VC of the CMOS circuit part 2 and the bipolar circuit part 3.
The bipolar circuit part 3 consumes a relatively large power source voltage. Aiming at reducing a voltage consumed at the bipolar circuit part 3, therefore, a need often arises that the bipolar circuit part 3 is driven at a lower power source voltage than a power source voltage for the CMOS circuit part 2.
Different power source voltages to the CMOS circuit part 2 and the bipolar circuit part 3 are required not only for the above purpose but also for the purpose of efficiently inspecting a semiconductor device in a burn-in test. For example, even in a semiconductor device in which both the CMOS circuit part 2 and the bipolar circuit part 3 are driven usually at 5 volts, a 7-volt power source voltage is desired for the CMOS circuit part 2. On the other hand, a voltage to the bipolar circuit part 3 is desirably around 5 volts since a 7-volt voltage often destroys the bipolar circuit part 3.
The former need cannot be satisfied in the conventional Bi-CMOS semiconductor device because its structure does not allow that the CMOS circuit part 2 and the bipolar circuit part 3 are driven by different power source voltages at the same time. As to the latter need related to a burn-in test, only one solution opens; that is, to keep the CMOS circuit part 2 inactivated while testing the bipolar circuit part 3 or vice versa. However, this approach is labor- and time-consuming.
The difficulty as above related to a burn-in test is solved by using an external power source voltage pin for each one of the CMOS circuit part 2 and the bipolar circuit part 3. However, employing a plurality of external power source voltage pins increases the number of external terminals required in the semiconductor device accordingly, thereby degrading the integration of the device. Hence, this is not a practical approach, either.


A facility for specifying and previewing changes to a web site is described. Sets of changes to a web site are scheduled for release at a specified time. While the changes are being specified using a tool/interface, methods for showing the change as it will appear on the live web site are implemented. Inconsistencies between specified changes and changes in future releases may be identified as the changes are specified. Web page preview functionality is provided to allow any release to be viewed before publication to a live web site. The preview further allows inconsistencies between selected changes and changes in other future releases to be identified.

The Internet comprises a vast number of computers and computer networks that are interconnected through communication channels. Because it facilitates electronic communications between vendors and purchasers, the Internet is increasingly being used to conduct "electronic commerce." Electronic commerce refers generally to commercial transactions that are at least partially conducted using the computer systems of the parties to the transactions. For example, a purchaser can use a personal computer to connect via the Internet to a vendor's computer. The purchaser can then interact with the vendor's computer to conduct the transaction. Although many of the commercial transactions that are performed today could be performed via electronic commerce, the acceptance and widespread use of electronic commerce depends, in large part, upon the ease-of-use of conducting such electronic commerce. If electronic commerce can be easily conducted, then even the novice computer user will choose to engage in electronic commerce. Therefore, it is important that techniques be developed to facilitate conducting electronic commerce.
One of the fundamental aspects of electronic commerce is creation and maintenance of a useful web site through which vendors and buyers can carry out transactions. Typically, this type of web site allows vendors to display product information (e.g., product descriptions, price information, product images) and allows customers to browse for products and place and confirm orders. It may also allow customers to provide product review information and may be dynamically tailored to provide custom content for individual customers. Initially creating this type of web site can be complicated, costly and time-consuming. As with the display of physical products in a store, it is important that product information on a web site be well organized and attractively displayed so customers can easily find what they are looking for. Likewise, it is desirable to provide a system for obtaining purchase information from customers in a simple and efficient way. Once the web site is initially created, it is important that the web site is updated as new products are offered for sale and old products are sold out or discontinued. Special sales or promotions may also call for changes to the web site.
Making changes to a web site often involves careful planning to avoid inconsistencies in information presented on the site at any given time. This is especially true in the case where more than one person is authorized to update or change a web site's content. Accordingly, such changes are typically prepared in advance and then scheduled for release or publication to the live web site at a specified time. To assure quality, systems that have been developed to help vendors create and maintain web sites (i.e., content management systems) may incorporate a workflow process so that a manager can review and approve/disapprove content changes prior to release. However, review of content changes can be tedious and complex, especially when the practice of preparing releases in advance of the actual release date results in the accumulation of multiple scheduled but unreleased changes.
Where multiple unreleased changes accumulate, it is likely that changes in one scheduled release may affect changes in another scheduled release, eventually causing significant problems on the live web site. For example, a release scheduled for the fifth day of the month may delete a "toys" browse directory, and a release scheduled for the sixth day of the month may attempt to add a new child browse directory (e.g., a "dolls" browse directory) to the "toys" browse directory (which will no longer exist by the time the release is published to the live web site). Unless the problem is identified, the missing browse directory will cause errors in the live web site upon publication of the two releases. Additionally, when creating new releases, an accumulation of unreleased changes may make it difficult to visualize the effect of further changes to subsequent releases. For example, a live web site may currently advertise a sale on sweaters by displaying an image of a man's sweater along with the text "FIFTEEN PERCENT OFF ALL FALL SWEATERS." A release scheduled for the fourth day of the month may change the image of the sweater to an image of a woman model wearing a sweater. Relying on the man's sweater image currently published on the live web site, a user creates a release scheduled for the eighth of the month and changes the text to "FALL MEN'S SWEATER SALE" without changing the associated image. Unless this problem is somehow identified prior to release, the live web site will at some point contain conflicting information that may confuse or turn-away customers.
It would be desirable to have a method and associated system for preventing inconsistencies in changes to web sites, both at the time that the changes are being created and at the time the changes are being reviewed prior to release.


Systems and methods that enable query based formulation requests to an embedded historian and data acquired thereby, via employing a browser engine. Accordingly, users can browse data collected by the plurality of embedded historians based on numerous selection criteria such as for example, type of data collected, location/time of data collection, and the like. Query specific request can be inputted to the browser engine, and data that match such request can subsequently be presented to the user. Thus, history data can be viewed based on user preferences, and in a meaningful manner to such user.

Manufacturing control and monitoring modules typically produce significant amounts of data. Industrial controller produce both real-time and historical data about the status of a given process including alarms, process values, and audit/error logs. Typically, industrial controllers are special-purpose computers utilized for controlling industrial processes, manufacturing equipment, and other factory automation, such as data collection or networked systems. At the core of the industrial control system, is a logic processor such as a Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) or PC-based controller. Programmable Logic Controllers for instance, are programmed by systems designers to operate manufacturing processes via user-designed logic programs or user programs. The user programs are stored in memory and generally executed by the PLC in a sequential manner although instruction jumping, looping and interrupt routines, for example, are also common. Associated with the user program are a plurality of memory elements or variables that provide dynamics to PLC operations and programs. Differences in PLCs are typically dependent on the number of Input/Output (I/O) they can process, amount of memory, number and type of instructions, and speed of the PLC central processing unit (CPU).
In a more macro sense than the controller, businesses have become more complex in that higher order business systems or computers often need to exchange data with such controllers. For instance, an industrial automation enterprise may include several plants in different locations. Modern drivers such as efficiency and productivity improvement, and cost-reduction, are requiring manufacturers to collect, analyze, and optimize data and metrics from global manufacturing sites. For example, a food company can have several plants located across the globe for producing a certain brand of food. These factories in the past were standalone, with minimum data collection and comparison of metrics with other similar factories. In the networked world of today, manufacturers are demanding real-time data from their factories to drive optimization and productivity. Unfortunately, conventional control systems architectures are not equipped to allow a seamless exchange of data between these various components of the enterprise.
Another requirement of modern control system architectures is the ability to record and store data in order to maintain compliance with Food and Drug Administration regulations such as Regulation 21 CFR Part 11. One common solution for recording data includes providing a local recording module that often occupies a slot in a controller backplane such as a PC-Historian which is an industrial computer for the controller backplane, and employs a transitional layer to supply an indirect interface to the controller. This includes a platform that provides high speed, time series, data storage and retrieval with both local and remote control processors. The PC-Historian communicates with controllers directly through the backplane and can communicate remotely via a network interface. The PC-Historian allows archiving data from the controller to an Archive Engine which provides additional storage capabilities.
In general, imperative to factory automation are human-machine interfaces (HMIs), which can include a graphical user interface (GUI) to facilitate display of virtual software objects that represent industrial system components and/or actions. For example, such an implementation can be typically configured to allow a HMI to graphically display process points (I/O of physical devices) desirably controlled by a user. Moreover, when data from controllers and industrial modules are typically collected via embedded historians that are directly connected to the controllers, problems can arise, as such historians typically lack a suitable presentation feature to represent data into other visualization applications.