A method generates input/output (IO) commands by plural different applications that execute on a host. The method prioritizes the applications by inserting different classifiers into the IO commands at a host bus adapter (HBA) located in the host. A storage device receives the IO commands and processes the IO commands according to priorities based on the classifiers for the applications.

Host computers send input/output (I/O) requests to storage arrays to perform reads, writes, and maintenance. The storage arrays typically process the requests in a fraction of a second. In some instances, numerous hosts direct large numbers of requests toward a single storage array. If the array is not able to immediately process the requests, then the requests are queued.
I/O requests received at a storage device are processed according to predefined priorities. Historically, Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) storage devices had limited information for use in prioritizing I/Os. Thus, all I/Os were processed with a same priority and quality of service (QoS).

Prioritizing input/outputs at a host bus adapter

Hewlett Packard Enterprises Development LP


A wrap has a thermal media laminate containing an array of spaced apart cells of thermal media sandwiched between a plastic film and fabric. Areas in the laminate are provided for attaching electrodes. The laminate is attached to a backing. Apertures in the laminate and backing allow passage of wire leads from the electrodes. Elastic bands with hook fasteners extend from the backing. The hook fasteners releasably attach to loop material of the backing. A TENS unit clips onto one or more of the bands. The leads attach to the TENS unit.

Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) uses electrical stimuli to stimulate nerves for therapeutic purposes. A TENS unit connects to the skin using two or more electrodes. A typical battery-operated TENS unit is able to modulate pulse width, frequency and intensity of the electrical energy supplied through the electrodes. The electrodes usually consist of a conducting gel, which may be adhesive or coated with an adhesive. A cable or lead extends from the TENS unit to each electrode. The electrodes deliver the electrical stimulus.
Heating and cooling are useful for relieving sore aching muscles and post surgical treatment. Cooling and heating wraps typically consist of a garment with pockets that contain a bulky sack containing a liquid or gel cooling or heating substance. When frozen, the sack forms a solid brick-like mass.
As both TENS and thermal therapy may benefit the same parts of the body, it is desirable to have a device that supports both and delivers electrical stimulation with heating or cooling. Unfortunately, units developed heretofore utilize bulky thermal media sacks that tend to interfere with placement and adherence of TENS electrodes. What is needed is a wrap with an integral thermal media that distributes weight and maintains its form throughout the thermal therapy, while allowing attachment of TENS electrodes and a coupled TENS unit.
The invention is directed to overcoming one or more of the problems and solving one or more of the needs as set forth above.

Thermal wrap with integral thermal media array and support for transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation


An accessible markup language specified slider control. A slider control which has been configured for rendering in a content browser in accordance with the present invention can include a script controlled slider track; a markup language specified text input field; and, coordination and control logic coupled both to the slider track and the text input field to harmonize a position of the slider track and a value specified in the text input field. The markup language specified text input field and the script controlled slider track can be defined in a DHTML document. Moreover, the coordination and control logic further can include a coupling to browser settings for the content browser to selectively enable and disable the slider track based upon the browser settings.

1. Statement of the Technical Field
The present invention relates to processing a dynamic markup language document specified computer program and more particularly to an accessible slider control defined within a dynamic markup language specified computer program.
2. Description of the Related Art
Prior to the popularization of the Internet and the subsequent implementation of the World Wide Web ("the Web"), software publishers typically distributed computer applications via storage media such as a computer diskette or compact disc. Initially, such stand-alone computer applications included underlying program logic, data storage and, optionally, a user interface. Recently, given the popularization of the Internet and the Web, it is no longer reasonable to presume that computer applications are distributed exclusively via disk medium. Rather, in many cases, conventional computer programs are distributed electronically via the Internet. More importantly, however, in many cases computer applications are no longer distributed as stand-alone executable programs. Rather, many computer applications are distributed as markup language specified, browser based applications which can include a collection of hypermedia documents such as Web pages which can be viewed in hypermedia content browsers such as Web browsers.
In the case of a markup language specified computer program, users can interact with the underlying program logic not through a traditional GUI, but through a GUI provided by GUI elements embedded in a hypermedia document displayed in a content browser. Specifically, conventional markup can specify a user interface and corresponding logic which can be processed and rendered through use of a content browser. Content browsers, in turn, can process display attributes embedded in markup to properly format content also contained within the markup. Notable variants of the content browser include the venerable Web browser, as well as the more recent extensible markup language (XML) browser. Regardless of the type of browser, all conventional markup processors are preconfigured to parse and interpret attribute tags embedded in markup.
Markup language defined applications often have the need to present a user interface control in which a bounded range value must be specified. Slider controls which generally are well-known in the art, often are applied to control the specification of a bounded range in a GUI. In the prototypical slider control, a graphical control point can slide along a "track" that has both starting and ending points which correspond to the bounds of a valid entry range. Accordingly, given the clear importance of the slider control, though static markup languages do not provide a built-in mechanism for a slider control, dynamic forms of markup languages have been able to emulate the slider control.
Concurrently with the development of markup language defined applications, for more than ten years, computer scientists and engineers have addressed the accessibility of the computer program user interface—particularly for the benefit of those end users unable to interact with a computer program utilizing conventional means such as a mouse or keyboard. Presently, several assistive technologies have been widely distributed, usually in concert with the distribution of an operating system, to provide one or more alternative user interface mechanisms for the purpose of enhanced accessibility. Examples of assistive technologies include an audio user interface such as a screen reader.
Assistive technologies have proven to be highly successful among visually challenged computing end users. Yet, assistive technologies have not yet adapted to the underlying changes in respect to the modem form of the computer program. Specifically, whereas in a conventionally distributed computer program, assistive technologies like the screen reader can be easily enabled, markup language specified computer programs have not yet enjoyed the comprehensive integration of assistive technologies. In particular, dynamic implementations of markup languages and scripting aspects of markup languages, such as the popular dynamic hypertext markup language (DHTML) cannot always support important aspects of assistive technologies such as precise user interface element focus establishment.
In fact, it is well known that DHTML specified applications defining certain, complex user interface widgets cannot support accessible tabbing across constituent elements. Consequently, heretofore the specification of a slider control in a dynamic markup language cannot also enjoy the accessibility provided by assistive technologies. Accordingly, applications developers often must choose between providing a technically simplified albeit accessible markup language specified application, and providing a technologically advanced DHTML specified application which lacks desired accessibility features.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Accessible markup language defined slider control

International Business Machines Corporation


A digital broadcast receiver includes: a receiver that receives a broadcast signal of a physical channel in digital broadcasting; a current position detector that detects a current position; a current region determiner that determines, as a current region, a region to which the current position belongs; a receivability determiner that controls the receiver to determine whether the broadcast signal of the physical channel can be received; a storage unit that stores receivable area information indicating a receivable area where the broadcast signal of the physical channel can be received; and an updating unit that, when the receivability determiner determines that the broadcast signal can be received, obtains, out of the stored receivable area information, receivable area information for the current region indicating a receivable area in the current region, and performs an update process to update the receivable area information for the current region based on the current position.

While a digital broadcast receiver receives a broadcast signal of a physical channel, if it moves from a receivable area of the physical channel to an unreceivable area of the physical channel, it becomes unable to receive the broadcast signal of the physical channel, which had been received normally. Thus, a conventional digital broadcast receiver is configured so that a user manually operates the digital broadcast receiver to perform a channel scan to detect physical channels receivable at the current position, and selects, from among the physical channels, a physical channel providing the same program as the currently viewed program.
However, it is troublesome for the user to be required to perform such manual operation, and it is not always possible to start such operation immediately when the broadcast signal becomes unreceivable. Thus, the conventional digital broadcast receiver is inconvenient for the user.
Patent Document 1 discloses a digital broadcast receiver that does not require the above-described manual operation and has a function of automatically selecting a broadcast signal. The digital broadcast receiver includes a channel scan controller that, in a channel scan in which a first tuner/demodulator performs channel selection for program viewing and a second tuner/demodulator sequentially selects physical channels, detects physical channels receivable by the second tuner/demodulator, and a broadcast area map generator that generates a broadcast area map including a receivable physical channel, broadcast service information regarding broadcast content of the physical channel, and a current position. The digital broadcast receiver can generate a broadcast area map indicating a receivable area of each physical channel, and automatically switch to another physical channel receivable at the current position.

Digital broadcast receiver and information updating method therefor


A clip, the clip attaches to a standard golf tee. The clip provides alignment to the target, the clip reduces the resistance normally created by a tee when a ball is hit off of a standard golf tee. The clip normally snaps off the cup of a standard golf tee when a golf ball is hit. By allowing the clip to snap off the cup of a standard golf tee, resistance is reduced.

The present invention relates to a clip that attaches to the tip of a standard golf tee.
The inventor of the present invention enjoys playing golf, yet he is not a professional. He realized that often, when he hit the ball off a standard golf tee, his shots would somewhat deviate from the intended target. The reasons his shots would deviate are twofold: first, because of the resistance caused by his golf club hitting the golf tee; and second, because of his stance not being square with the line of the intended target. In addition, he also realized that when he hit the golf tee upon hitting the ball, the distance the ball traveled was reduced. This caused him to ponder how to improve the standard golf tee so that when a ball was hit off a golf tee the head of the golf club would hit the ball prior to hitting the golf tee and at the same time provide guidance for the correct stance to be inline with the intended target. By having an arrow on the golf clip pointing toward the intended target and hitting the ball prior to hitting the golf tee, resistance caused by the tee would be minimized and direction to the target would be improved, thereby eliminating deviations normally associated with using a standard golf tee and in turn increasing the distance the ball would travel.
The inventor first decided to change the existing design of current golf tees so that the stem of standard golf tees and the cup of the tees would not be linearly aligned. He realized that he had to place the cup a certain distance from the central axis of the stem. By doing this he would increase the probability of hitting the golf ball prior to hitting the stem of the tee. The problem with this design was that when he hit the ball off the tee, the tee was also impacted, thereby breaking or lifting the tee off the ground and causing resistance.
This is when the inventor realized that the ideal modification to a golf tee was not to change the design of the tee, but to add a removable clip to a standard golf tee. The clip would have to be designed to easily come off the tee when a ball is hit.
The inventor further realized that if he could place a pointing arrow on the golf clip that he could use the golf clip as a means for aligning his shot prior to setting up before the tee.
An object of the present invention is to provide a clip that attaches to a standard golf tee that will provide alignment to the target and reduce some of the deviation created when a golf ball is hit off a standard golf ball tee.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a clip that attaches to a standard golf tee that will increase the distance a ball travels by reducing the resistance normally created when a golf ball is hit off a standard golf tee.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a clip that attaches to a standard golf tee that will allow a user to align his shot prior to setting up before the tee.
Other objects of the invention will become apparent in view of the following description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings.


A transceiver for exchanging data with a transmission channel using any of the 100BaseT2, 100BaseTX, or 100BaseT4 standards, which includes a receive circuit for receiving analog data from the transmission channel. The receive circuit includes a first switch and a first analog-to-digital converter coupled to the first switch. The receive circuit further includes a second analog-to-digital converter coupled to the first switch. There is further included a second switch coupled to the first analog-to-digital converter and to the second analog-to-digital converter. The analog data is switched by the first switch into the first analog-to-digital converter and the second analog-to-digital converter to allow the first analog-to-digital converter and the second analog-to-digital converter to support sampling requirements of any of the 100BaseT2, the 100BaseTX, or the 100BaseT4 standards.

The present invention relates to methods and apparatus for data transmission. More particularly, the invention relates to architectures and techniques for implementing a common transceiver design that enables data transmission in any of the three standards: 100BaseT2, 100BaseTX, and 100BaseT4.
In modern data networks, e.g., computer networks, there exist multiple standards for data transmission. There are, for example, currently three standards for transmission of 100 Megabits per second (Mbps) over copper twisted pairs up to a length of 100 meters in an Ethernet Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Detection (CSMA/CD) local area network. These standards are 100BaseT2, 100BaseT4, and 100BaseTX. Each of these standards has its advantages and disadvantages. For example, the 100BaseTX standard permits the use of lower cost circuitry over more expensive wiring while the 100BaseT2 standard requires more complex and thus expensive circuitry over cheaper wiring. The 100BaseT4 standard is generally thought of as being somewhere in the middle. The physical level interface for each standard is thus different, and therefore a physical device (PHY) that supports one of the standards is not inter-operable with a device that supports another standard.
At the start of a channel link, a common protocol, termed "auto-negotiation," is initiated in order to identify the nature of the standard that is supported by the device at the other end of the transmission channel. By way of example, auto-negotiation may be performed between a network "hub" and the network interface card (NIC) of a terminal, which is attempting to communicate with the hub, to ascertain the standard with which the network interface circuitry communicates. If the devices at opposite ends of the channel are not compatible, a link is either not possible, or more practically, the link may be "negotiated" down to a 10BaseT interface, which is a 10 Mbps link.
FIGS. 1 and 2 are prior art illustrations showing respectively the transmission architecture associated with the 100BaseT2 standard and a typical transceiver architecture therefor. Referring to FIG. 1, the 100BaseT2 standard typically employs only two pairs of copper wires, 102 and 104. Over each pair, data transmission takes place at full-duplex, with a bit rate of about 50 Mbps, a baud rate of about 25 Mega bauds per second (MBps). The analog-to-digital (A/D) sampling rate (e.g., on A/D 106 or 108) is about 75 Mega samples per second (Msamples/sec), as is the digital-to-analog (DAC) sampling rate (e.g., on DAC 110 or 112). The sampling rate, as is known, may represent any integer multiple of the baud rate.
FIG. 2 shows the 100BaseT2 transceiver architecture from one end of the channel link. The 100BaseT2 standard employs digital processing techniques, implemented by DSP block 114 in FIG. 2, to compensate for, among others, cable distortion and to perform cross-talk suppression. For each of the full-duplex twisted pair links, the physical device (PHY) dedicates one Digital to Analog Converter (DAC), one transmit filter (Tx filter), one Analog to Digital Converter (A/D), and one receive filter (Rx filter). The transmit and receive filter pairs (Tx/Rx filter pairs) for channels 102 and 104 are shown in FIG. 2 as Tx 116/Rx 118 pair and Tx 120/Rx 122 pair, respectively. As mentioned earlier, the A/Ds and DCs typically sample at 75 MHz, and the signals in the analog filters contain components up to around 25 MHz. In the DSP block the device may also contain two Echo/Near End Cross-Talk Cancellers and Two Equalizers (conventional and not shown in FIG. 2). This digital circuitry also operates typically at 75 MHz. Transformers 124 and 126 are employed to conform the data to the requirements of the standard, which is a conventional technique. Note that a 100BaseT2 transceiver has two of each analog circuit elements required to perform receive and transmit.
FIGS. 3 and 4 are prior art illustrations showing respectively the transmission architecture of the 100BaseTX standard and a typical transceiver architecture therefor. Referring to FIG. 3, the 100BaseTX standard also employs only two pairs of copper wires, 132 and 134. Over each pair, data transmission takes place at only half-duplex, with one pair carry data from master to slave and the other from slave to master. The bit rate is about 100 Mbps, and the baud rate is typically about 125 Mega bauds per second (MBps), which includes coding required for DC control and other signaling functions. The A/D sampling rate (e.g., on A/D 136) is typically at the baud rate, i.e., about 125 Msamples/sec, as is the DAC sampling rate (e.g., on DAC 140).
FIG. 4 shows the 100BaseTX transceiver architecture from one end of the channel link. The 100BaseTX standard also employs digital processing techniques, illustrated in FIG. 4 as DSP block 144, to also compensate for, among others, cable distortion. Since the environment in which the 100BaseTX standard is employed is typically less harsh than that associated with the 100BaseT2 environment, e.g., there is typically lower cross talk and little, if any, echo, the set of DSP functions in DSP block 144 is typically less complex than those implemented in DSP block 114 of the 100BaseT2 architecture. However, the higher sampling rate (i.e., 125 Msamples/sec versus 75 Msamples/sec) requires higher performance A/Ds and DACs in the conventional 100BaseTX implementation.
FIGS. 5 and 6 are prior art illustrations showing respectively the transmission architecture of the 100BaseT4 standard and a typical transceiver architecture therefor. Referring to FIG. 5, the 100BaseT4 standard employs four pairs of copper wires, 160, 162, 164, and 166. On pairs 164 and 166, the transmission is full duplex, and is half duplex on pairs 160 and 162. The bit rate is about 33.33 Mbps, and the baud rate is typically about 25 Mega bauds per second (MBps). The A/D sampling rate (e.g., on A/D 170, 172, or 174) is typically at 50 Mega samples/sec, as is the DAC sampling rate (e.g., on DAC 176, 178, or 180).
FIG. 6 shows the 100BaseT4 transceiver architecture from one end of the channel link. The 100BaseT4 standard also employs digital processing techniques, implemented in FIG. 6 by DSP block 182, to also compensate for, among others, cable distortion and to perform cross-talk suppression. The 100BaseT4 standard employs more pairs of wires at a lower baud rate than the 100BaseT2 standard, and the impairments are less severe than those seen in the 100BaseT2 implementation. Consequently, the set of DSP functions in DSP block 182 is typically less complex than those implemented in DSP block 114 of the 100BaseT2 architecture.
In the prior art, a transceiver is typically custom designed to transmit and receive in only one of the three standards. In other words, a given transceiver, such as that illustrated in one of FIGS. 2, 4, and 6, is not inter-operable with devices, hubs, or network interface cards (NIC) that adhere to a different standard or multiple standards. Consequently, it is typically necessary to design, manufacture, stock, and support different transceivers for different standards. Additionally, when transceivers are implemented as integrated circuits, the prior art custom approach involves a substantial chip die size overhead. By way of example, to implement 100BaseT2 and 100BaseTX, the prior art custom approach would require 50% more die size, and in order to implement 100BaseT4 with 100BaseT2 and/or 100Base TX, the prior art would require 80% to 100% more die size. As can be appreciated, this approach involves a substantial amount of design and manufacturing effort and expense.
In view of the foregoing, there is desired a common denominator transceiver architecture and methods therefor that support all three 100 Mbps standards: 100BaseT2, 100BaseTX, and 100BaseT4. To reduce manufacturing and implementation costs, the common denominator transceiver architecture and methods therefor preferably allow, with minor modifications, circuits of the common denominator transceiver architecture to be reused when implemented to support different standards.

Methods and apparatus for a common denominator transceiver design for data transmission


A transfer element for transferring the position of an implanted dental implant body to a master model including at least one element that can be fixed in an impression material for transferring the axial or rotational position of the implant to a dental impression. The invention aims at enhancing the transfer element to enable easy impression making and high precision during transfer of the vertical position of the implant in addition to ensuring anti-rotational blocking. The transfer element includes a core (2) that may be connected to the implant body, and a guide sleeve (4), and the core (2) and the guide sleeve (4) are provided with mutually engaging, corresponding positioning elements (22, 23; 24, 25).

The invention relates to a dental transfer element.
EP-A-0 727 193 discloses such a transfer element the guide sleeve of which can be connected by means of a core to the implant body previously implanted in the jaw bone. In the area of its coronal end, the implant body has a recess with guide faces aligned axially in parallel in the manner of a hexagon for anti-rotational blocking of a construct that can be connected to the implant body to which a superstructure, a crown or the like, can be fixed. When implant-supported superstructures, crown constructs or the like are created using a master model, a precise transfer of the axial as well as the circular implant position is very important. Corresponding to the hexagonal guide faces, the core is therefore also provided with hexagonally arranged positioning elements formed as outer surfaces aligned in parallel at the end of the core, which engage with the implant body. In other respects the core is essentially arranged within the guide sleeve, which in its area facing the coronal end of the implant body has further positioning elements corresponding to the positioning elements of the core. These further positioning elements are formed as interior hexagonal surfaces. Production of the further positioning elements of the guide sleeve formed as interior surfaces is quite costly. Very close tolerances must be met to permit the transfer of the angular position of rotation of the implant body to a master model by means of the guide sleeve and the impression material. Even slight differences or gaps between the hexagonal interior surface of the guide sleeve and the hexagonal outer surface of the core, which would normally be within tolerance, lead to a significant deviation in the rotational position of the guide sleeve. Despite high-precision production of the interior hexagonal surfaces of the positioning elements of the guide sleeve, transfer errors of the angular position of rotation are difficult to avoid in practice.
WO-A 93/20774 discloses such a transfer element whose core also has positioning elements in the form of hexagonal surfaces, which engage with a hexagon of the implant body. The core, which is capable of axial displacement within the guide sleeve, comprises an axially parallel flattened area, which fits against an axially parallel flattened interior surface of the guide sleeve. In other respects the outer surfaces of the core and the interior surfaces of the guide sleeve fitting against them are cylindrical. In this embodiment, too, the production of said flattened interior surfaces of the guide sleeve is quite costly and even slight deviations due to manufacturing tolerances cause a considerable angle error in the transfer of the angular position.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,758,161 discloses an insert element, which may be connected with the implant body. The insert element comprises a shaft, which may be inserted into an axial recess of the implant body and anchored therein, particularly with dental cement. The insert element further comprises a head for fastening a crown or superstructure. Said head has radial grooves, a constriction and a flattened area for defined localization of the crown or superstructure.
Based thereon, it is the object of the invention to ensure a simple impression procedure while nevertheless obtaining great precision in the transfer of the angular position. The handling in the dental practice and in the laboratory is also to be improved.
This object is attained by the invention as described and claimed hereinafter.
The transfer element according to the invention is distinguished by its functional construction, serves as a repositioning aid, and ensures with great precision the molding and transfer of the implant position in axial, radial and circumferential direction. The transfer element has two parts comprising on the one hand a core and on the other hand a guide sleeve with mutually corresponding positioning elements for a reciprocal positive-locking, defined fixation in circumferential as well as axial direction. The core is hollow on the inside so that a retaining screw can be guided through it, and it can be axially inserted into the sleeve. The positioning elements, which are advantageously formed as a radial projection and a radial recess, respectively, readily assure an exact mutual alignment. The core has a simple contour and/or geometry and is not costly to produce. The core is partly cylindrical and may be pushed into the sleeve. To take the impression, particularly with an open scoop, the core and the sleeve can be fixed to the implant body implanted into the jaw by means of the retaining screw. When the impression is taken with the open scoop, which is perforated in the implant region, the head of a correspondingly long retaining screw is guided through the perforation. After the scoop is removed, the transfer element remains in the impression and does not need to be repositioned. The core at its one end is advantageously provided with the positioning element and at its diametrically opposite end with the anti-rotational blocking element, particularly in the form of a hexagon, which may be engaged with a corresponding anti-rotational blocking element in the implant body.
The transfer of the circular and axial implant position to the master model by means of the transfer element is thus ensured, and a significantly improved overall accuracy of fit of the superstructure is achieved. The sleeve according to the invention extends up to the gum region and the axial end face fits directly against the axial front face of the implant body, with the end face and front face having substantially the same outside diameter. The axial length of the guide sleeve is at least 50%, particularly at least 65% of the axial core length. On its outer surface the sleeve has at least one constriction, recess, retention element or the like to ensure exact positioning in the impression material. The retention elements to secure the rotational position and/or the axial position in the impression material can advantageously be in the form of flattened areas arranged on the outer surface and produced particularly by milling, or in the form of longitudinal grooves or blind holes or the like. The constriction or recess is advantageously provided approximately in the center of the axial longitudinal extension of the sleeve. The part facing away from the implant body has a substantially cylindrical or approximately conical outer contour, the tip of which is also located on the side facing away from the implant body. The part of the sleeve facing toward the implant body has an outer contour corresponding to the dental construct element in the passage area of the gums and/or the corresponding gum former.
Further developments and specific embodiments of the invention are set forth in the following description.

Transfer element for transferring the position of a dental implant to a dental model


A frequency converter converts a first current signal having a first frequency into a second current signal having a second frequency different from the first frequency. The frequency converter includes an adder and a switching circuit. The adder adds the first current signal and a reference current signal to output a third current signal. The switching circuit passes only that portion of the third current signal larger in magnitude than a threshold current to output the second current signal.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a radio-frequency wireless circuit and more specifically to a frequency converter for use with low supply voltages.
2. Description of the Related Art
Up to now, much progress has been made in microstructuring semiconductor devices including transistors. In particular, the gate length of transistors used in CMOS (complementary metal oxide semiconductor) devices has been shrunk to less than 0.1 μm. MOS transistors having a gate length of this order have a frequency characteristic which exhibits a very fast response and are therefore very useful devices for implementing next-generation radio-frequency communications systems.
As for bipolar transistors, a SiGe heterojunction-based transistor has been developed, which exhibits a fast response and high drivability and is also promising for next-generation radio-frequency ncommunications systems.
These fast devices however attain high-speed performance at the cost of their ability to withstand high voltages. For example, with MOS transistors, reducing the gate length results in an improvement in high-speed performance but is accompanied by a reduction in the thickness of the gate oxide, thus degrading their breakdown characteristics. With bipolar transistors, on the other hand, reducing the thickness of the base region results in an improvement in their high-speed performance but accompanied by a degradation in their breakdown characteristics. With both MOS transistors and SiGe bipolar transistors, the breakdown voltage of devices that can realize high-frequency characteristics is lowered to values of the order of 1 to 2 V. Devices using circuit configurations adapted for a supply voltage of 3 V and hitherto used in radio communications systems may therefore be short of resistance-to-voltage capability. For this reason, the power consumption of the devices will increase. It is desirable that the power consumption of circuits particularly used in portable wireless terminals be as low as possible; otherwise, the conversation time of the terminals will be reduced considerably.
As described above, where use is made of high-speed transistors having low withstand voltages, it is required to set the circuit supply voltage lower than the withstand voltages of the transistors. To this end, it is required to devise a circuit configuration which is different from conventional ones and can be operated from a low supply voltage. In addition, to adapt to portable wireless terminals, it is necessary to reduce the power consumption of circuits used therein.

Frequency converter having low supply voltage


A pressure swing adsorber (PSA) air prepurifier includes at least a first adsorber and a second adsorber and a controller for controlling air feed to the first adsorber and the second adsorber. The invention is a "realtime" method for controlling cycle times for each adsorber and includes the following steps. During a determined time period, flow is measured to an adsorber that is coupled to an air inlet. An actual totalized flow to the on-line adsorber is accumulated, based upon the measured flow values. During this time, air feed conditions (e.g., temperature, pressure, relative humidity) are monitored and periodically, a maximum totalized flow to the adsorber is calculated, determined, at least in part, based upon the monitored air feed conditions. Periodically, the actual totalized flow value is compared to a current calculated maximum totalized flow value and upon a predetermined relationship therebetween being reached, the on-line adsorber is decoupled from the air inlet and another adsorber is coupled thereto. The method for controlling cycle times for each adsorber also will take into consideration: variations in load demand, purge to feed ratio and upsets which occur on switching of adsorber beds.

Cryogenic air separation plants require a source of clean, dry air for sustained and safe operation. This means that the moisture and carbon dioxide in the plant feed air must be removed to a very low level. Such removal reduces the problem of heat exchangers becoming plugged with ice and solid carbon dioxide, an occurrence which can prematurely cause plant shutdown. Further, any hydrocarbons contained in the feed air need also to be removed.
Feed air can be cleaned of contaminants by adsorption. Thermal swing adsorption (TSA) and, more recently, pressure swing adsorption (PSA) systems have been used for contaminant removal. TSA air prepurifier systems used in air separation plants have relatively long cycle times (measured in hours) and blowdown losses between cycles are thus relatively insignificant. By contrast, PSA cycle times are relatively short (measured in minutes) and their more frequent blowdowns represent a relatively significant loss of pressurized feed air. In addition, during cycle changes there is an accompanying upset in the process. This upset requires a finite amount of time to counteract, causing further losses in efficiency.
The design of a PSA prepurifier system is generally based upon given conditions for a particular application or, more specifically, a given air separation plant under design. The design conditions are conservatively chosen so that a desired rate of product can be produced under most of the expected ambient conditions. A fixed time cycle is generally chosen to fit these conditions as closely as possible. Naturally, the actual conditions of operation will vary, day to night, day to day, and season to season.
All of these variations affect the performance and efficiency of operation of the PSA prepurifier. The cycle time can be adjusted somewhat from time to time.
However, in actual practice this is frequently not done or just overlooked. Thus the design of the system will often provide for larger beds than would actually be required for a normal or average day. A certain amount of the bed will thus remain unused for many cycles. This results in higher capital cost and also in higher operating costs because of a higher frequency of cycling, with greater blowdown losses.
The use of PSA air prepurifiers for cryogenic air separation plants is well established. As indicated above, prepurifier cycle times are generally fixed and are based on assumptions regarding ambient and equipment parameters. Thus, calculations of adsorptive capacity based on total air flow and keyed on the breakthrough of carbon dioxide are used to determine cycle time for a particular application. Further, to be conservative, the calculations are based on an assumption of the hottest day temperature. Such calculations result in a fixed cycle time during which only a portion of the adsorptive capacity of the bed is used. Once the fixed cycle time was established, it thereafter remained constant.
An example of a timed-cycle PSA system may be found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,042,994, Smolarek, J., "Improved Control of PSA Operations". The Smolarek process uses a variable volume nitrogen product storage vessel that is monitored to determine variations in demand. The cycle is adjusted during periods of reduced demand to maintain the desired product purity and pressure with power reduction and energy savings being achieved under turndown conditions.
Another example of a time-controlled PSA system is found in U.S. Pat. No. 4,810,265, Lagree et al., "Pressure Swing Adsorption Process for Gas Separation". This is an improved PSA process which enables the more readily adsorbable component of a feed gas to be economically recovered, e.g. nitrogen from air. The more readily adsorbable component is used as a copurge at an upper adsorption pressure and less readily adsorbable component is used for countercurrent purge at a subatmospheric desorption pressure and for initial repressurization in a countercurrent backfilling step. The sequence of operations is time-controlled.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,258,056, Shirley, A. I., "PSA System with Product Turndown and Purity Control" describes a control system which maintains a desired purity while adjusting for changes in product demand in a PSA system. A sensing device detects a change in product gas demand, the signal from which is compared to a standard which then varies the feed rate of the gas entering the system.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,725,293, Gunderson, J., "Automatic Control for Pressure Swing Adsorption System" describes a PSA system which uses a constant cycle time and a control system to modify air input flow to insure that the produced nitrogen contains only a preselected range of impurity (consisting essentially of oxygen) and to keep the output flow of nitrogen relatively high.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,693,730, Miller,G. Q., "Pressure Swing Adsorption Product Purity Control Method and Apparatus" describes a method for automatically controlling product purity in a PSA process, thus preventing impurity breakthrough as feedstock changes. The process senses a characteristic of the effluent from concurrent depressurization and takes corrective action. Among suitable corrective actions are: 1) adjusting adsorption step time to control impurity loading of each bed; 2) adjusting the concurrent depressurization termination pressure to control impurity breakthrough at the product end of each bed and/or 3) adjusting the amount of purging gas received by each bed to control the extent of regeneration.
EPA 250235, Armond, J. W. et al., "Improvements in and Relating to PSA Oxygen Generating System" describes a system which senses oxygen concentration at the outlet of adsorption beds, while producing oxygen. An oxygen sensor output, located close to the outlet of each bed, varies with time as a function of the exhaustion of a bed. The control system monitors the oxygen concentration with time to determine the time to switch beds.
Accordingly, it is an object of the invention to provide an improved method for control of the cycle time of a PSA air prepurifier.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a method for control of the cycle time of a PSA air prepurifier wherein substantially continuous control is exerted in dependence upon inlet air feed parameters.
It is a still further object of the invention to provide a method for control of the cycle time of a PSA air prepurifier which enables a maximal use of adsorbent beds during cycle times.

Method for operation of an air prepurifier which takes into account inlet air conditions


A cast raw sheet for a capacitor film, prepared by heating and melting a polypropylene resin and extruding the resin from a T-die, wherein the polypropylene resin has: a weight average molecular weight, determined by gel permeation chromatography, of 100,000 or more and 500,000 or less; and a molecular weight distribution Mw/Mn of 7 or more, the resin contains 97% by mass or more of an isotactic component that is an extraction residue obtained by sequential extraction, and the cast raw sheet contains a β-form in a proportion of 1% or more and less than 20%, the proportion being determined by X-ray diffraction intensity.

Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an oriented capacitor film having a high voltage resistance, an extremely thin film thickness, and an excellent processing suitability for winding elements or the like, and also relates to a cast raw sheet available for producing the capacitor film.
Description of the Related Art
A biaxially oriented polypropylene film has been widely used as a raw film for industrial application such as a packaging film. Moreover, the biaxially oriented polypropylene film has also been used as a dielectric film for a capacitor, because the biaxially oriented polypropylene film has a particularly high humidity resistance in addition to excellent electronic properties such as a high voltage resistance and low dielectric loss characteristics, these properties being advantageous in capacitor applications.
When the biaxially oriented film is used as a capacitor film, the surface thereof is required to be finely roughened in moderation so as to improve the following properties: processing suitability for winding elements at the time of producing a capacitor; sliding properties of the film at the time of processing the film; and oil impregnation properties when the film is applied to an oil-impregnated capacitor (see Patent Document 1: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication No. S 51-63500, pages 2-4).
As methods for finely roughening the surface, various methods such as mechanical methods such as an embossing method or sandramie method, chemical methods such as a chemical etching method using solvents, methods of drawing sheets in which dissimilar polymers are blended or copolymerized, or sheets in which a β-form is formed, have been conventionally proposed (see, for example, Patent Document 1).
According to "Introduction to high polymer under polarizing microscope" attributed to Hiroshi Kuriya, published by AGNE GIJYUTSU CENTER, page 131, 2001, polypropylene resins usually have crystal polymorphism such as α-form, β-form, or the like.
The β-form has a low density, a low melting point, and other different physical properties, in comparison to the α-form. When a molten polypropylene resin is crystallized within a particular temperature range, the β-form is generated. When this β-form is drawn at the vicinity of the melting point thereof, a spherulite of β-form transfers to a spherulite of α-form with a density different from that of β-form. The density-difference between these crystal forms generates fine unevenness on the film surface. When the surface is roughened by this method, impurities such as additives are not required to be added to the resin. Accordingly, this method is advantageous in forming extremely fine unevenness without deteriorating electric characteristics thereof.
When the surface is roughened by the β-form, how the generation of the β-form is controlled at the time of producing a sheet is technically important. As for the generation of the β-form, Patent Documents 2 to 4 (Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication No. 2004-2655, pages 3 to 7; Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication No. 2004-175932, pages 4 to 8; Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication No. 2005-89683, pages 5 to 7), for example, disclose that a sheet with a high β-form proportion can be produced from a polypropylene resin obtained by polymerization using a particular catalyst, the polypropylene resin having a certain range of melt flow rate, molecular weight, and molecular weight distribution.
In addition, as for the preparation of an oriented polypropylene film with a roughened surface, Patent Document 5 (Japanese Patent Publication No. 3,508,515, pages 2 to 3) discloses a manufacturing technique in which a polypropylene raw resin with a particular stereoregularity is used to control the content of β-form in a cast raw sheet to a particular content or more.
However, such a surface roughening generally has the disadvantage of inviting a degradation of voltage resistance, although the surface roughening is essential to enhance the processing suitability. In contrast, demand for an industrial capacitor has increased, and a request for a capacitor with a higher voltage resistance is very strong in the market. In addition to this request, further enhancement of the electric capacity is also requested.
The voltage resistance can be enhanced by increasing the smoothness of the surface, or making a polypropylene resin have high stereoregularity and crystallinity in accordance with Patent Document 6 (Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication No. H 8-294962, pages 2 to 3), for example.
However, high crystallinity causes deterioration of the extensibility and causes the film to be easily torn at the time of drawing, which is unfavorable for manufacturing the film.
On the other hand, a dielectric film is required to be thin so as to enhance the electric capacity of a capacitor while maintaining a constant volume. In order to produce such a thin film, the extensibility of a resin and a cast raw sheet is required to be enhanced. However, the enhancement of the extensibility is generally incompatible with the enhancement of the voltage resistance, that is, crystallinity enhancement, as described above.
Thus, a capacitor film and a raw sheet thereof satisfying the following three characteristics required by the market: (1) processing suitability for producing a capacitor (roughened surface), (2) high voltage resistance (smoothed surface, high crystallinity), and (3) high electric capacity (high extensibility for producing an extremely thin film) have not been provided till now.

Raw sheet for capacitor film and capacitor film


Described embodiments provide a solid-state drive (SSD) including a media controller and a solid-state media. A control processor of the media controller determines a logical address, a transfer size, and map data based on the logical address and transfer size, associated with a read request received from a host device. Based on the logical address and a sequential zone defined based on one or more previous read requests, the control processor determines whether the received read request is a sequential read. A map data pre-fetch size is adjusted based on the transfer size of the received read request and whether the received read request is a sequential read. A corresponding portion of the map data is transferred from the solid-state media to a map cache coupled to the control processor, the transferred portion having a size equal to the adjusted map data pre-fetch size.

Flash memory is a non-volatile memory (NVM) that is a specific type of electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM). One commonly employed type of flash memory technology is NAND flash memory. NAND flash memory requires small chip area per cell and is typically divided into one or more banks or planes. Each bank is divided into blocks; each block is divided into pages. Each page includes a number of bytes for storing user data, error correction code (ECC) information, or both.
There are three basic operations for NAND devices: read, write and erase. The read and write operations are performed on a page-by-page basis. Page sizes are generally 2N bytes of user data (plus additional bytes for ECC information), where N is an integer, with typical user data page sizes of, for example, 2,048 bytes (2 KB), 4,096 bytes (4 KB), 8,192 bytes (8 KB) or more per page. A "read unit" is the smallest amount of data and corresponding ECC information that can be read from the NVM and corrected by the ECC, and might typically be between 4K bits and 32K bits (e.g., there is generally an integer number of read units per page). Pages are typically arranged in blocks, and an erase operation is performed on a block-by-block basis. Typical block sizes are, for example, 64, 128 or more pages per block. Pages must be written sequentially, usually from a low address to a high address within a block. Lower addresses cannot be rewritten until the block is erased. Associated with each page is a spare area (typically 100-640 bytes) generally used for storage of ECC information and/or other metadata used for memory management. The ECC information is generally employed to detect and correct errors in the user data stored in the page.
A hard disk is accessed by a host device based on a logical block address (LBA). For a hard disk write operation, old data is over-written by new data at the same physical LBA. An NVM is accessed based on a logical page number (LPN). However, each page might generally be written only once since a NAND device requires that a block of data be erased before new data is written to the block. Thus, for a NAND device to write new data to a given LBA, the new data is written to an erased page that is a different physical page than the page previously used for that LBA. Therefore, NAND devices require device driver software, or a separate controller chip with firmware, to maintain a record of logical-to-physical mappings of each LBA to the current page number where its data is stored. The mapping data might also be used to perform "garbage collection" to erase data that is "stale" or out-of-date. Further, because NVM blocks can be erased only a limited number of times before device failure, mapping data might also be employed to track failed blocks over the operational life of the NVM (e.g., over a rated number of program/erase (P/E) cycles for NAND flash).
For SSDs that store mapping data in the NVM, retrieving map data from the NVM can occur frequently under typical host workloads and, thus, negatively impact the bandwidth available to transfer actual user data to/from the NVM as the channel(s) are used to transfer the mapping data. Thus, an improved mechanism for retrieving map data from the NVM is needed.

Dynamic map pre-fetching for improved sequential reads of a solid-state media

Avago Technologies General IP (Singapore) PTE. LTD.


A semiconductor apparatus includes a pair of first and second field effect transistors formed on a semiconductor substrate. The pair of first and second field effect transistors has the same configurations except for respective gate electrode sections. The gate electrode sections include material having different respective work functions. A radiant ray sensing section is connected to the gate sections and senses a radiant ray. The radiant ray sensing section causes the pair of first and second field effect transistors to serve as a temperature sensor via the respective gate sections.

Among infrared light sensors capable of sensing an infrared light, a thermo electric conversion element is well known. Such a thermo electric conversion element detects and converts an infrared light into heat using an infrared light absorption film, thereby detecting temperature of the heat, as discussed in Japanese Patent Registration No. 2663612.
Other than the infrared light sensor, a sensor using an electric field effect transistor is typically used. Such a sensor generates a voltage (PTAT: Proportional To Absolute Temperature) in proportion to an absolute temperature, as discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid Open No. 2001-284464.
When temperature is to be detected, with high precision, using infrared light, a thermistor (TM) is typically used in addition to a thermopile provided in an infrared light sensor section to detect an ambient temperature of the infrared light sensor.
An analog signal processing circuit is necessarily used to amplify and compare two signals output from the infrared light sensor section and the thermistor (TM).
Further, the temperature sensor detects and determines temperature when the sensor counterbalances with an ambient temperature, as discussed in the Japanese Patent Application Laid Open NO. 2001-284464.
However, a problem remains unsolved in background devices.

Semiconductor apparatus and infrared light sensor


A latch system includes an actuation module having first and second actuation mechanisms. The first actuation mechanism includes a first handle coupled to a locking rod having an end slot and an oppositely disposed rod insert. The second actuation mechanism includes at least one second handle, a conversion block and an outer rod coupled together. The outer rod has an open end and a slot. At least one latch module has a retractable latch. A control cable connects the conversion block and the latch module such that rotation of the conversion block in a first direction retracts the latch. A lock is operably engagable with the end slot to selectively allow and prevent rotation of the inner rod. Selective rotation of the locking rod in the first direction rotates the conversion block. Rotation of the outer rod in the first direction rotates the conversion block without rotating the locking rod.

Hinged doors are commonly used on aircraft, such as rotorcraft including helicopters, to enable ingress into and egress from the aircraft. It is particularly important that the doors of such aircraft do not accidentally open during flight. To achieve this requirement, aircraft doors typically have a door latch system disposed within the interior of the door that secures the door in the closed position to the airframe of the aircraft. Such door latch systems commonly include locking mechanisms that can be positioned to prevent actuation of the door latch systems and thus prevent the opening of an aircraft door. These locking mechanisms serve the essential function of preventing unauthorized entry into the aircraft to protect the aircraft from unauthorized use and to protect the contents stored within the aircraft.
It has been found, however, that locking mechanisms for door latch systems of an aircraft can become a safety hazard if such locking mechanisms are engaged when emergency egress from the aircraft is required. Accordingly, a need has arisen for a door latch system for an aircraft that is operable to secure the door in the closed position to the airframe during flight. A need has also arisen for such a door latch system for an aircraft that includes a locking mechanism to prevent unauthorized access to the aircraft. In addition, a need has arisen for such a door latch system that does not prevent emergency egress from the aircraft even when the locking mechanism is engaged.

Independent internal and external door latch actuation mechanisms


An organic light emitting diode display device comprises a substrate which includes a plurality of pixel regions each having a sub-pixel region and a transparent region. In each pixel region, an active layer is disposed in the sub-pixel region. A gate electrode overlaps the active layer. A first electrode is disposed on the active layer, and contacts the active layer. A second electrode is spaced apart from the first electrode, and contacts the active layer. A first lower electrode having a first thickness is disposed in the sub-pixel region and connected to the second electrode. A second lower electrode is disposed in the transparent region on the substrate, located at a same level as the gate electrode. The second lower electrode has a second thickness that is less than the first thickness, and is transparent.

1. Field
Example embodiments relate generally to organic light emitting display devices. More particularly, example embodiments relate to organic light emitting display devices including a transparent region.
2. Description of the Related Art
A flat panel display (FPD) device is widely used in many modern electronic devices because the FPD device is lightweight and thin as compared to a cathode-ray tube (CRT) display device. Typical examples of an FPD device are a liquid crystal display (LCD) device and an organic light emitting (OLED) display device. Compared to the LCD device, the OLED device has many advantages such as higher luminance and a wider viewing angle. In addition, the OLED device can be made thinner because the OLED device does not require a backlight. In the OLED device, electrons and holes are injected into an organic thin layer through a cathode and an anode, and then recombined in the organic thin layer to generate excitons, thereby emitting light of a certain wavelength.
Recently, a transparent OLED device has been developed, which is capable of transmitting an image of an object (or a target) that is located in the rear (e.g., the back) of the OLED device by including a transparent region. Here, since the OLED device includes a transparent region, an opening ratio of pixels may be relatively reduced. In addition, since the transparent region of the OLED device only performs a light transmission function, the OLED device may operate in a high luminance mode to compensate for any reduction in image quality due to the reduction in opening ratio. As a result, a life time of the pixels of the OLED device may be reduced, and the consumption of electrical power of the OLED device may be increased.

Organic light emitting display device having a sub-pixel region and a transparent region


The present invention relates to a method for determining the kinetics of gas hydrate formation in a fluid comprising water, wherein the following stages are carried out:                a sample of the fluid is provided in form of a water-in-oil stable emulsion,        DSC measurements are performed on the sample to obtain at least one peak corresponding to the gas hydrate conversion energy in the water drops of said emulsion,        kinetic characteristics of the formation of hydrates in said fluid are deduced from the peak.

In order to solve the problems linked with this hydrate formation risk, operators have to use water-base and/or oil-base well fluids containing additives such as hydrate formation inhibitors. The most commonly used additives are thermodynamic inhibitors whose main purpose is to challenge the temperature and/or pressure limits from which hydrates form. The most commonly used inhibitors are salts and glycols, which poses serious corrosion and toxicity problems while involving high-cost formulations. For oil-base fluids, it is possible to use emulsifying systems efficient in preventing hydrate crystal agglomeration in case of formation (dispersing surfactants or anti-agglomeration agents).
An interesting alternative to thermodynamic inhibition is the use of kinetic inhibitors that do not prevent hydrate formation and whose purpose is to delay the appearance of crystals or to slow down the crystal growth rate.
In order to anticipate hydrate formation risks, one can currently only base oneself on tests carried out with reactors or test loops on more or less simplified fluid formulations, or on model hydrates (THF or freon) allowing to work at atmospheric pressure. The main difficulty for testing formation kinetics in aqueous solutions is linked with the uncertain nature of the nucleation phenomenon that leads to non-reproducible measurements.
In order to overcome this difficulty, hydrates are formed from melting ice or hydrates are made to form by heterogeneous nucleation by adding solid particles to the solutions. At the present time there is no simple, fast and reliable method that is directly applicable, in the laboratory or on site, to real drilling fluids for temperatures close to 0° C. and under natural gas pressure.
The object of the present invention is to provide, in the laboratory or on a drilling site (mud logging cab), or on a production site, a reliable method of determining or analyzing the hydrate formation kinetics on a real well fluid by measuring the heat released upon hydrate crystallization at a given gas pressure, using the DSC (Differential Scanning Calorimetry) method. These measures will allow the operator to compare the kinetics observed with various mud formulations, containing kinetic inhibitors or not, and thus to select the mud formulation that is best suited to the drilling conditions in the case of drilling operations.
This method is in fact applicable to any type of aqueous solution (drilling fluid, cementing fluid, production fluid, production effluent) whose properties as regards gas hydrate formation kinetics have to be known in a reliable and reproducible way.
Gas hydrate formation is a crystallization process that requires a nucleation stage followed by a crystal growth stage. The nucleation process corresponds to the formation of nuclei or "critical germs" in the solution. These critical germs serve as growth sites for the future crystals. Generally, three nucleation types are considered (Mullin J. W., in: Crystallization, London, Butteworths, 1972): —homogeneous primary nucleation, which is spontaneous, —heterogeneous primary nucleation, caused by foreign particles, —and secondary nucleation induced by the crystals already formed.
Nucleation can take place only if the liquid sample breaks through a potential barrier from a thermodynamic point of view. The liquid therefore has to be cooled down below the liquid/solid equilibrium temperature, which means undercooling. Furthermore, formation of the germ being the result of local density fluctuations, the kinetic aspects must be taken into account. It appears that the lower the temperature, the higher the nucleation rate and, consequently, it is extremely difficult to observe crystallization in the neighbourhood of the equilibrium temperature. Another obvious consequence is that there is not one temperature at which crystallization is observed and that this temperature is statistically distributed. It is in fact possible to define only a more probable crystallization temperature, in the statistical sense of the term, which generally depends on the volume of the sample (Clausse D., in: Encyclopedia of Emulsion Technology, Becher P., ed., New York, Marcel Dekker, 1985, vol. 2, p. 77).
In the literature on gas hydrate formation kinetics, most authors emphasize the great experimental difficulty encountered to obtain reproducible results when they study the nucleation of hydrates from an aqueous solution. Many of them decide to overcome this problem by studying nucleation from melting ice. The stage that follows nucleation is crystal growth. The main parameters that govern this stage are the gas diffusion rate, the interfacial area, the pressure, the temperature and, of course, the undercooling degree. Several models have been developed to predict the gas hydrate formation kinetics, but there still is no satisfactory model, mainly because of the nucleation phenomena that are difficult to control experimentally and of the growth models that closely depend on the experimental set-up used (Sloan E. D., "Gas hydrate tutorial", Am. Chem. Soc., Div. Fuel Chem., 42, 2, 449-456).
Considering all these experimental difficulties relative to hydrate formation kinetics, the present invention aims to use the high-pressure DSC (Differential Scanning Calorimetry) technique on stable emulsified systems in order to study the kinetics of gas hydrate formation in drilling fluids.

Method of analyzing the kinetics of gas hydrate formation in fluids


A viewing area in a blood separation chamber is monitored for the presence of an interface region between plasma and cellular blood components. Sensed optical density values for the viewing area are compared to a calibrated threshold value to generate a time pulse output. A calibration element derives the calibrated threshold value based upon either (i) a comparison of a sensed reference optical density value in the viewing area to an expected optical density value for the reference material, or (ii) a sensed optical density value of plasma exiting the blood separation chamber, or both.

Today blood collection organizations routinely separate whole blood by centrifugation into its various therapeutic components, such as red blood cells, platelets, and plasma.
Conventional blood processing systems and methods use durable centrifuge equipment in association with single use, sterile processing chambers, typically made of plastic. The centrifuge equipment introduces whole blood into these chambers while rotating them to create a centrifugal field.
Whole blood separates within the rotating chamber under the influence of the centrifugal field into higher density red blood cells and platelet-rich plasma. An intermediate layer of white blood cells may, in some cases, form an interface between the red blood cells and platelet-rich plasma.
In conventional blood separation systems and methods, it is important to monitor the position of the interface during processing, to keep the interface and red blood cells adjacent to the interface from entering the platelet-rich plasma stream.

Interface detection and control systems and method


In one embodiment, an apparent equilibrium constant involving a clumped isotope in a gaseous sample is measured by acquiring sample spectra of portions of the gaseous sample at different pressures. An external bulb coupled to a sample cell is filled with the gaseous sample. A first portion of the gaseous sample is transferred from the external bulb to the sample cell, where it is at a first pressure. A first sample spectrum is obtained. Then, a second portion of the gaseous sample is transferred from the external bulb to the sample cell, where it is at a second, different pressure. A second sample spectrum is obtained. An apparent equilibrium constant for the clumped isotope is calculated by determining a first isotopic ratio at the first pressure, determining a second isotopic ratio at the second pressure, and taking a product of the first isotopic ratio and the second isotopic ratio.

1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates generally to isotope measurement, and more specifically to techniques for using spectrometry to measure an apparent equilibrium constant involving a clumped isotope.
2. Background Information
Isotopologues are species of a molecule that differ in the isotopic identity of one or more of their constituent atoms. For example, 14N14N, 15N14N and 15N15N are three isotopologues of a nitrogen diatomic molecule. Multiply-substituted isotopologues, commonly referred to simply as "clumped isotopes", are isotopologues that contains two or more rare isotopes. For example, 12C16O17O, 13C16O17O, and 13C16O18O are examples of clumped isotopes of carbon dioxide. By analyzing the relative abundances of these isotopes, or more specifically equilibrium constants involving clumped isotopes governing the formation of a sample, various types of useful information may be determined. Among other things, they may provide the formation temperature of the sample.
Traditionally, measurements of the relative abundances of clumped isotopes have been performed using mass spectrometers. More recently, attempts have been made to utilize instruments (e.g., isotope monitors) that include laser absorption spectrometers. FIG. 1 is a generalized block diagram of an example instrument 100. The example instrument includes a laser 110, a sample cell 120 having valved gas inlet and gas outlet ports 122, 124, and a light detector 130. A gaseous sample to be analyzed is fed into the sample cell by opening a valve of the gas inlet port 122. A laser beam 112 is then emitted from the laser 110 and enters the sample cell 120 through an entrance window 126. The laser beam 112 interacts with the gaseous sample, and may be partially absorbed by the gas. A remaining portion of the laser beam 112 emerges from an exit window 124, where it is detected by the light detector 130. The light detector converts the detected laser light to an electrical voltage.
The isotope monitor utilizes a computing system 140 that monitors the electrical voltage returned from the light detector. The computing system 140 may communicate with the laser 110 and direct it to change the wavelength of the laser beam within a given range to probe various spectroscopic lines being studied.
FIG. 2 is a plot showing species of a carbon dioxide sample measured using the example instrument of FIG. 1. The species include 12C16O16O (abbreviated "626"), 13C16O16O (abbreviated "636"), 12C16O18O (abbreviated "628"), 12C16O17O (abbreviated "627"), the clumped isotope 13C16O18O (abbreviated "638"), the clumped isotope 13C16O17O (abbreviated "637"), and the clumped isotope 12C8O18O (abbreviated "828"). While all required species are present in FIG. 2, the dynamic range is larger than desired. For example, the spectroscopic line strengths of the major species 636 and the clumped isotope 638 have a ratio of 40:1. This may present various challenges. For example, if the major specie's absorbance is constrained to less than 1 during testing to avoid saturation of optical absorbance, then 638 absorption will be constrained to be less than 2.5%. A spectroscopic line with 2.5% absorbance must be measured at extremely low noise levels (which are difficult to achieve with conventional instruments) to yield desirable levels of sensitivity. Greater sensitivity may be possible if absorbance could be constrained to a range of 0.1 to 1.0 for all required species. However, achieving more uniform absorbance among all required species presents a significant challenge.
Accordingly, there is a need for improved techniques for using laser absorption spectrometry to measure relative abundances of clumped isotopes, or more specifically equilibrium constants involving clumped isotopes.

Laser absorption measurement for clumped isotopes


The present invention provides compositions of ATR nucleic acids and proteins, as well as methods of using said compositions in screening assays. The invention further provides antibodies and transgenic animals based on the ATR compositions.

Control of the cell cycle is fundamental to the growth and maintenance of eukaryotic organisms, from yeasts to mammals. Cells have evolved critical mechanisms to help protect the fidelity of DNA synthesis. One important mechanism is commonly referred to as "cell-cycle checkpoint control". Cell cycle checkpoints insure that individual steps of the cell cycle are completed before the next step occurs. In response to DNA damage or a block to DNA replication, progression through the cell cycle is delayed. This allows time for the cell to repair the DNA prior to continuing through the cell cycle, thus improving genomic stability and the fidelity of DNA synthesis (Elledge (1996) Science 274: 1664–1672; O'Connell et al. (2000) Trends Cell Biol 10: 296–303).
The ability to coordinate cell cycle transitions in response to genotoxic and other stressors is critical to the maintenance of genetic stability and the prevention of uncontrolled cellular growth. Loss of a checkpoint gene leads to genetic instability and the inability of cells to deal with genomic insults such as those suffered as a result of the daily exposure to ultraviolet radiation. The loss of negative growth control and improper monitoring of the fidelity of DNA replication are common features of tumor cells. When checkpoints are eliminated (e.g., by mutation or other means), cell death, infidelity in chromosome transmission, and/or increased susceptibility to deleterious environmental factors (e.g., DNA-damaging agents) result.
Many components of the checkpoint pathways that respond to DNA damage have been identified in various species from yeast to vertebrates (Elledge (1996) Science 274: 1664–1672). The response is believed to involve sensor proteins which respond to DNA damage and/or replication stress. The sensor proteins transmit a signal (via transducer proteins) which induces one or more effects in a cell. Such effects allow the cell to appropriately cope with the DNA damage by, for example, inducing a cell cycle delay to allow time for the DNA damage to be repaired. Other possible responses of a cell to DNA damage include cell death, for example, if the DNA damage is too great to be repaired (recently reviewed in Zhou and Elledge (2000) Nature 408: 433–439).
One class of sensor proteins include Rad3/ATR proteins (Bentley et al. (1996) EMBO Journal 15: 6641–6651; O'Connell et al. (2000) Trends Cell Biol 10: 296–303; Cimprich et al. (1996) PNAS 93: 2850–2855; Keegan et al. (1996) Genes & Development 10: 2423–2437). This family of sensor proteins actually is part of a larger family of phosphoinositide kinase (PIK)-related protein kinases. This family of PIK-kinases are characterized by a C-terminal kinase domain and include ATM/Tell (Lavin and Shiloh (1997) Annu. Rev Immunology 15: 177–202; Sanchez et al. (1996) Science 271: 357–360) and DNA-PKcs (Smith and Jackson (1999) Genes & Development 13: 916–934).
Following detection of DNA damage or a replication block, a signal is transduced to effector proteins. These include Chk1 and Cds1 (Elledge (1996) Science 274: 1664–1672). However, the molecular nature of how this signal is transduced is not well understood. Based on previous work, it appears that various sensors induce cell cycle delay in response to different types of DNA damage, and that different sensors signal through different effector proteins. Additionally, extensive variability has been observed in the results obtained across species. Thus, although it appears that the general machinery for checkpoint control in response to DNA damage is evolutionarily conserved, it has remained uncertain as to whether the specific molecular mechanisms employed to accomplish these goals are also conserved.
Given the importance of proper checkpoint control in maintaining genomic stability and insuring the fidelity of DNA replication, a better understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying this process has tremendous value. Specifically, such an understanding allows for the development of rational screens for agents which can modulate checkpoint control in response to DNA damage. Such agents provide novel therapies for various proliferative disorders including all forms of cancer.
The present invention aims to address the shortcomings of the prior art. We describe the isolation and characterization of Xenopus ATR nucleic acids and proteins. The characterization of Xenopus ATR revealed insights into a specific mechanism whereby DNA damage is sensed and then transduced to induce a cell cycle delay. The present invention demonstrates that ATR phosphorylates Chk1 (e.g., Chk1 is a substrate for the ATR kinase), and that this phosphorylation is an evolutionarily conserved mechanism necessary for the cell cycle delay induced by DNA damage or a DNA replication block.
The teachings of the present invention allow, for the first time, methods of screening for agents which modulate the activity of an ATR protein in any species. Such screens will not only increase understanding of cell cycle checkpoints, but will also provide possible therapeutic agents for the treatment of proliferative disorders.

Cloning and functional assays of Xenopus ATR


Apparatus for transferring water to a bottled water dispenser preferably comprises a wand assembly, a cover assembly and a water bottle transport assembly. The wand assembly engages a neck of a non-inverted water bottle and includes a bent, rigid first conduit and a second conduit which preferably surrounds the first conduit. A flow of water from the water bottle passes along the first conduit in response to the introduction of pressurized air via the second conduit from a pressurized air source in the cover assembly. The water bottle transport assembly preferably supports the water bottle at a suitable, non-inverted angle, and includes a rigid frame supporting at least one wheel and a rotatable cradle. The cradle comprises first and second support arms configured to contactingly support the bottle, and rotates with respect to the frame during movement of the transport assembly to place the bottle at the desired non-inverted angle.

Bottled water dispensers are employed in commercial and residential settings to provide a convenient source of potable water. Such dispensers often employ a base unit with one or more spigots to dispense the water from an internal reservoir. The base unit is often further configured to receivingly support an inverted water bottle above the reservoir. In this way, water empties from the bottle into the reservoir as water is correspondingly drawn from the reservoir through the spigot(s).
While operable, there are a number of limitations associated with this type of dispenser. The first limitation is the need to physically lift and place the water bottle onto the base unit. Such water bottles are usually relatively large and cumbersome; a full, standard five (5) gallon plastic bottle of water can weigh in excess of forty (40) pounds. The effort required to lift or carry a full water bottle can be strenuous for an adult male, and may be prohibitive for many women, children, elderly or handicapped persons.
Depending on the configuration of the bottle, water can be spilled through the neck opening of the bottle during the placement process. A water bottle can also crack open if inadvertently dropped, resulting in the flow of several gallons of water onto the floor. In situations where the volume of consumed water is relatively high, there is also the need to stockpile multiple full water bottles in a central storage location, and then to carry each full water bottle from this location to the base unit as needed.
Thus, as water dispensing units continue to enjoy widespread popularity, there remains a continual need for improvements to address these and other limitations of the prior art.

Water transfer system for a bottled water dispenser


A means and method of design and installation of a pre-rotator ahead of an elbow are disclosed in order to eliminate or reduce elbow-induced turbulence in pipe flows. Experimental verification was conducted, and noise and pressure loss for flow around the elbow can be substantially reduced.

1. Field of Invention
A new flow system is invented to remove or to reduce flow separation and its induced turbulence and cavitation.
2. Description of Prior Art
Turbulence created in pipe elbows causes increased erosion, noise, vibration, and stress cracking. If an elbow is located too close to a check valve, it can cause chattering and damage to the valve seat. In the case of a nuclear power plant, it can threaten the safety of the plant. In a condenser cooling system, the turbulence causes uneven flow in the cooling water box, in turn reducing the heat transfer effectiveness. Erosion of an elbow in a wet steam line or in refinery piping carrying catalyst particulates can cause unexpected down time. In nuclear power plants, sometimes a double blanket "tee" is used to dampen the fluid impact during turns. Others have used a Vortex ball to absorb the impact energy in areas which normally have a high rate of erosion. Thickening the wall and using stainless steel 316, Titanium and Chrome-Moly are common patch-up solutions currently. Other methods of turning vanes in wind tunnels and critical flow systems are required to eliminate some of the large-scale turbulence, but small-scale turbulence still exists. The methods in prior art may make the pipe system more safe or elongate the maintenance period, but the inherent problems of elbow-induced turbulence have never been removed. This is a very complicated fluid mechanics problem which involves potential flow, compressibility, and viscous flow. The turbulence is a result of rotation of the flow by the elbow, with the law of nature trying to return to a homogenized state in a short time. The prior art "fixes" did not address the cause of the turbulence; hence, have not been very successful.


An apparatus for illustrating the operation of an Archimedes screw. Two passages (8,9) are defined which together form a single closed loop passageway. A first passage (8) is generally linear and a second passage (9) is of helical form and is connected at its ends to the ends of the first passage. The walls of the two passages are transparent such that the movement of fluid (10) can be clearly seen. The first and second passages are arranged such that if the first passage (8) is positioned at a predetermined inclination to the vertical fluid can be transferred through the second passage (9) from the lower to the upper end of the first passage by rotating the apparatus about an axis extending parallel to the length of the first passage. The second passage (9) may be in the form of a helical tube wound around the outside of a straight tube defining the first passage (8) .

The Archimedes screw is a well known device originally designed for the purpose of raising water. Such a device generally comprises a rotating broad-threaded screw or spirally bent tube positioned within an inclined hollow cylinder. The screw or tube is turned within and about the axis of the cylinder with the bottom of the cylinder immersed in the liquid to be raised and the top of the cylinder open. A portion of the liquid is then trapped between adjacent turns of the screw or tube as a result of the inclination of the supporting cylinder and the entrapped liquid is transported up the cylinder and discharged from the upper end of the cylinder.
The basic operation of the Archimedes screw has been known for thousand of years but its operation is difficult to illustrate graphically. It is an object of the present invention to provide a display apparatus which can clearly and conveniently illustrate the operation of an Archimedes screw.


A semiconductor structure includes a semiconductor substrate having a first surface and a second surface opposite the first surface, a gate dielectric over the first surface of the semiconductor substrate, a gate electrode over the gate dielectric, a source/drain region having at least a portion in the semiconductor substrate, a dielectric layer having a first surface and a second surface opposite the first surface wherein the first surface of the dielectric layer adjoins the second surface of the semiconductor substrate, and a contact plug in the dielectric layer, wherein the contact plug extends from a bottom side of the source/drain region to the second surface of the dielectric layer.

The scaling of VLSI circuits is a constant effort. Smaller integrated circuits allow more devices to be formed in one semiconductor chip. Additionally, power consumption and performance are also improved. With circuits becoming smaller and faster, improvement in device driving current is becoming more important, which can be increased by improving carrier mobility. Among efforts made to enhance carrier mobility, forming a stressed channel region is a known practice. The performance of a MOS device can be enhanced through a stressed-surface channel. This technique allows performance to be improved at a constant gate length without adding complexity to circuit fabrication or design.
It has been well known that tensile stress can improve NMOS device performance and compressive stress can improve PMOS device performance. A commonly used method for applying stress to the channel region is to form a stressed contact etch stop layer (CESL) on a MOS device. The stressed CESL introduces a stress into the channel region. Therefore, the carrier mobility is improved. Typically, there are three factors affecting the stress that can be applied by the CESL. The first factor is the inherent stress in the CESL. Currently, inherent stresses are capped at about 2 GPa for tensile stresses and about −3 GPa for compressive stresses. The second factor is the thickness of the CESL. Thicker CESLs apply higher stresses to the channel regions. However, the thicknesses of the CESLs are limited by design rules and the critical dimension. The third factor is cutting effects, which are partially determined by how far away the CESL extends from the source/drain regions. The further the CESL extends, the smaller the cutting effects, and the greater the stresses that are applied.
Cutting effects may be caused by the formation of contact plugs. To form contact plugs, openings have to be formed in the CESLs, and thus the stresses applied by the CESLs are adversely affected. It has been found that a stress in a channel region is related to the distance between a central line of a gate electrode and the nearest edge of contact plugs. The greater the distance, the greater the stress that is applied. When the MOS devices become smaller, the distance becomes smaller, and the stress is reduced more. Such a problem is expected to worsen for future-generation integrated circuits. A semiconductor device that may overcome the previously discussed deficiencies of the prior art is thus needed.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.


An Encoder Assisted Frame Rate Up Conversion (EA-FRUC) system that utilizes various motion models, such as affine models, in addition to video coding and pre-processing operations at the video encoder to exploit the FRUC processing that will occur in the decoder in order to improve the modeling of moving objects, compression efficiency and reconstructed video quality. Furthermore, objects are identified in a way that reduces the amount of information necessary for encoding to render the objects on the decoder device.

1. Field
This disclosure is directed to a method and an apparatus for encoding video data.
2. Description of the Related Art
Video formats supporting various frame rates exist today. The following formats are currently the most prevalent, listed in order by their supported frames per second (fps): 24 (film native), 25 (PAL), 30 (typically interlaced video), and 60 (High Definition (HD) e.g. 720p). Although these frame rates are suitable for most applications, to reach the low bandwidth required for mobile handset video communications, frame rates are sometimes dropped to rates as low as 15, 10, 7.5, or 3 fps. Although these low rates allow low end devices with lower computational capabilities to display some video, the resulting video quality suffers from "jerkiness" (i.e., having a slide show effect), rather than being smooth in motion. Also, the frames dropped often do not correctly track the amount of motion in the video. For example, fewer frames should be dropped during "high motion" video content portions such as those occurring in sporting events, while more frames may be dropped during "low-motion" video content segments such as those occurring in talk shows. Video compression is content dependent, and it would be desirable to be able to analyze and incorporate motion and texture characteristics in the sequence to be coded so as to improve video compression efficiency.
Frame Rate Up Conversion (FRUC) is a process of using video interpolation at the video decoder to increase the frame rate of the reconstructed video. In FRUC, interpolated frames are created using received frames as references. Currently, systems implementing FRUC frame interpolation (hereinafter "interpolated frames") include approaches based on motion compensated interpolation and the processing of transmitted motion vectors. FRUC is also used in converting between various video formats. For example, in Telecine and Inverse Telecine applications, which is a film-to-videotape transfer technique that rectifies the respective color frame rate differences between film and video, progressive video (24 frames/second) is converted to NTSC interlaced video (29.97 frames/second).
Another FRUC approach uses weighted-adaptive motion compensated interpolation (WAMCI), to reduce the block artifacts caused by the deficiencies of motion estimation and block based processing. This approach is based on an interpolation by the weighted sum of multiple motion compensated interpolation (MCI) images. The block artifacts on the block boundaries are also reduced in the proposed method by applying a technique similar to overlapped block motion compensation (OBMC). Specifically, to reduce blurring during the processing of overlapped areas, the method uses motion analysis to determine the type of block motion and applies OBMC adaptively. Experimental results indicate that the proposed approach achieves improved results, with significantly reduced block artifacts.
Yet another FRUC approach uses vector reliability analysis to reduce artifacts caused by the use of any motion vectors that are inaccurately transmitted from the encoder. In this approach, motion estimation is used to construct motion vectors that are compared to transmitted motion vectors so as to determine the most desired approach for frame interpretation. In conventional up-conversion algorithms using motion estimation, the estimation process is performed using two adjacent decoded frames to construct the motion vectors that will allow a frame to be interpolated. However, these algorithms attempt to improve utilization of transmission bandwidth without regard for the amount of calculation required for the motion estimation operation. In comparison, in up-conversion algorithms using transmitted motion vectors, the quality of the interpolated frames depends largely on the motion vectors that are derived by the encoder. Using a combination of the two approaches, the transmitted motion vectors are first analyzed to decide whether they are usable for constructing interpolation frames. The method used for interpolation is then adaptively selected from three methods: local motion-compensated interpolation, global motion-compensated interpolation and frame-repeated interpolation.
Although FRUC techniques are generally implemented as post-processing functions in the video decoder, the video encoder is typically not involved in this operation. However, in an approach referred to as encoder-assisted FRUC (EA-FRUC), the encoder can determine if transmission of certain information related to motion vectors or references frames (e.g., residual data), may be eliminated while still allowing the decoder to autonomously regenerate major portions of frames without the eliminated vector or residual data. For example, a bidirectional predictive video coding method has been introduced as an improvement to B-frame coding in MPEG-2. In this method, the use of an error criterion is proposed to enable the application of true motion vectors in motion-compensated predictive coding. The distortion measure is based on the sum of absolute differences (SAD), but this distortion measure is known to be insufficient in providing a true distortion measure, particularly where the amount of motion between two frames in a sequence is to be quantified. Additionally, the variation in thresholds are classified using fixed thresholds when, optimally, these thresholds should be variable as the classifications are preferably content dependent.
FRUC video compression techniques, including those employing encoder enhanced information, use block-based motion prediction with translational motion models to model the motion of objects within video frames. Block-based motion prediction exploits the temporal correlation structure inherent to video signals. Translational motion modeling as used by block-based motion prediction may reduce or eliminate temporal redundancy in video signals for bodies which retain a rigid shape while going through translational motion in a plane more or less parallel to the lens of the video capturing device. The translational motional model uses two parameters per encoded block.
In motion-compensated prediction and transform coding based hybrid video compression, video frames are partitioned by conventional encoders according to use of the translational motion model, where partitions are generated in order to locate object bodies retaining a rigid shape while undergoing translational motion. For example, a video sequence of a person talking to the camera while a car passes by may be partitioned into objects including a still image representing a fixed background for the sequence, a video object representing the talking person's head, an audio object representing the voice associated with the person, and another video object representing the moving car as a sprite with a rectangular region of support. The location of the sprite on the still image may move temporally.
Unfortunately, translational model motion prediction cannot accurately predict or describe motion for objects in motion requiring more than two parameters per block. Independently moving objects in combination with camera motion and focal length change lead to a complicated motion vector field that has to be approximated efficiently for motion prediction. Consequently, the residual signal (also known as the prediction error) has considerable power and therefore video frames containing such movement are not efficient to compress. When video frames containing such objects are interpolated using block-based motion prediction, both the subjective and objective quality of the interpolated frame is low due to the limitations of the translational motion model framework to describe block motion dynamics. Furthermore, when video sequences are partitioned according to translational model motion prediction, the efficiency of algorithms which handle the interpolations of objects undergoing arbitrary motion and deformations is limited.
What is desirable is an approach that provides high quality interpolated frames at the decoder device that appropriately model moving objects while decreasing the amount of bandwidth potentially needed to transmit the information for performing the interpolation, and that also decrease the volume of calculation potentially needed to create these frames so as to make it well suited to multimedia mobile devices that depend on low-power processing.

Encoder assisted frame rate up conversion using various motion models