Techniques for tracing the real-time operation of software for the purposes of testing, debugging, or performance analysis are disclosed. Diagnostic instrumentation for generating records containing details of software operation is incorporated in the software by inserting calls to diverse macros or inline functions. Each macro takes an argument specifying both a subsystem and a category of instrumentation within the subsystem. Based on the specified subsystem and category, the instrumentation can be included or excluded from the compiled object code and, if included, can be dynamically enabled at run-time. Disabled instrumentation does not result in a function call, but only a single, inline “if,” thereby reducing overhead. One macro accepts both software parameters and a custom format specifier describing how the parameters should be displayed. However, the parameters are not formatted during logging, nor is the format specifier included in the record. Instead, the formatting is performed when displayed.

Software development is expensive, and a large proportion of the cost is in testing and debugging, followed by support and maintenance of the delivered product. Real-time software presents a peculiar challenge to test, debug, and support, since it typically operates in an environment where it must service multiple, diverse events, occurring with unpredictable sequence and timing, within rigorous time constraints. Testing and debugging is often most easily done, and for some tests and problems may only be done, in the real-time environment in which the product is designed to operate. Certain tests or performance analyses of the software are best, or are required to be, performed while the software is fully operating in the complete system context, and under severe stresses. The most difficult to find problems may manifest themselves only in such an environment.
Complicated software is naturally divided into subsystems depending on functionality, and typically there is an "assignment" of software developers to specific subsystems, such that certain of those developers are familiar with a given subsystem, but not familiar with others. Each test, debug, or support effort may involve one or a few subsystems out of many. A special class of problems involves "wild writes." A wild write occurs when one subsystem in the software incorrectly writes into a region of memory often unrelated to its own operation. This could cause a different and unrelated subsystem that uses the now-corrupted memory to exhibit unusual or "impossible" behavior.
Support of a product after it is delivered often requires solving problems that arise only in a particular customer's application. Often, such support, or support of later enhancements to the software, faces the added difficulty that it must be done by personnel who were not involved in the original software development and may not even be able to consult with those who were.
Additionally, the processors on which real-time software programs run are typically kept very busy performing the required processing tasks. They typically have only a small proportion of idle time available, or a small margin in certain real-time critical paths, in which to perform other desirable functions such as diagnostic services. This situation is caused by marketplace pressures to produce the lowest-cost hardware solution, together with the human tendency to optimistically underestimate the size and complexity of the final software product.
Testing, debugging, and supporting real-time software can be aided by tools that provide diagnostic information about the operation of the software. Some tools, such as in-circuit emulators, require external hardware to be connected to the system under test. These tools are often costly and time consuming to setup and use, and impractical or impossible to use on a product that is in active use at a customer's site.
Some tools require halting the operation of the software, or at least a thread of control, in order to obtain more detailed diagnostic information, such as the values of various software parameters at specific points during operation. However, the very nature of real-time software precludes the kind of halting that is required to gather the needed information in many cases.
Some tools require software to be instrumented by a utility during an automated addition to the software build process. The utility may generate files for use by other tool utilities that interpret and display the diagnostic information logged by the automatically generated instrumentation. Because at least most of the instrumentation is automatically generated, and does not appear in the software source files, interaction with the instrumentation on an operational software package at run-time (e.g., to specify events upon which the log should be started or stopped) may require using a tool utility that provides a sophisticated graphical user interface (GUI). This type of tool frees software developers from the work of instrumenting their software. There is also the option of leaving expensive diagnostic instrumentation out of the delivered product. The effort to develop and support such tools is large, and significant training is necessary to use them. They may also limit a developer's capability to add custom instrumentation to the software, and increase the effort needed to do so. Gathering diagnostic information from a particular instrumented software load may require obtaining the unique files generated for that specific software load by the instrumentation utility.
Some tools enable developers to easily add instrumentation to their software which will log the diagnostic information of interest in a user-specified format and with explanatory text, and do so in real-time. An example of such a tool would be the C/C++ "printf" utility. With a single line of instrumentation, a developer specifies the data to be logged, along with the formatting and accompanying explanatory text. After formatting the data accordingly, the resultant, formatted record is logged, either in some kind of storage directly accessible by the processor, or by transmitting the formatted record over an interface to be logged by another piece of equipment. These tools are hampered in their ability to provide much of the desired diagnostic information, for several reasons. The formatting step is relatively expensive of processor real-time compared to the amount of processor real-time to get to the next event which generates information of interest. Also, the directly accessible storage is relatively small compared with the desired volume of information. If larger storage has been provided for direct access by the processor, it not only adds to the cost of every product, but also typically has a slower interface, and takes longer to log the same information. Where the formatted records are transmitted over an interface to a separate piece of equipment to be logged, the bandwidth of the interface is much less than the desired logging rate, and the transmission takes additional processor real-time. Further, the presence in the software load of the many format specifiers themselves occupies precious, directly accessible storage space.
To make such tools more useful, some have incorporated means by which the instrumentation may be divided into various categories, wherein the individual categories can be separately enabled to log diagnostic information, while disabled instrumentation adds only the lesser overhead of a function call that does little more than test for enabled status before returning. In this way, a much larger amount of instrumentation can reside in the software, and the user chooses to enable only those categories that are most critical to providing the diagnostic information needed for a particular task. Nevertheless, much compromise is typically necessary for accommodating limitations in processor real-time, storage space, and/or interface bandwidth. If necessary, this diagnostic instrumentation can also be completely left out of the delivered product, while still leaving it in the software source code for building into versions intended for the lab only, by simply defining the instrumenting function name(s) as null macros. However, if that is done, then the familiar tools, previously relied upon, are no longer available when providing customer support and/or when trying to find any tough problems that managed to elude detection until after the product was delivered.


A hog ring fastening device includes a body member, a main pneumatic cylinder attached to the body member, a first swing member supported for turning on the body member, a push means supported on the first swing member, a feed pneumatic cylinder fixed to the first swing member and connected to a port of the main pneumatic cylinder, a second swing member supported for turning on the body member so as to be in contact with the free end of the piston rod included in the feed pneumatic cylinder, a feed means supported on the second swing member, a spring seat fixed to the body member, a compression spring extended between the spring seat and the first swing member, and an extension spring extended between the first and the second swing member.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a hog ring fastening device, such as a C ring fastening device.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a conventional C ring fastening device, jaws are turned by a main pneumatic cylinder, a feed pneumatic cylinder is attached to a body member, air discharged from the main pneumatic cylinder is supplied to the feed pneumatic cylinder, a feed member is mounted on and linked by a one-way clutch to the piston rod of the feed pneumatic cylinder, and the feed member is positioned so as to be in contact with a C ring strip loaded on a magazine.
The feed pneumatic cylinder drives the feed member to feed the C rings loaded on the magazine to a fastening position.
In some cases, this C ring fastening device cannot feed the top C ring of the C ring strip to the fastening position with reliability because the feed member does not push the C ring strip in a feed direction toward the fastening position after the feed member has completed feeding the C ring strip.


A method of policing network traffic based on congestion on a flow-based programmable switch, such as an OpenFlow switch is provided. The method polices congestion-causing flows in a network by detecting congestion at a flow-based programmable switch on the network. Once congestion has been detected, the method identifies one or more flows that are causing the congestion at the flow-based programmable switch, and penalizes the flows that were identified as causing congestion. A flow-based programmable switch including a data plane having input ports, output ports, and forwarding rules that map packets received on an input port to an output port based on a packet matching a rule in the forwarding rules is also described.

Congestion-based network traffic policing is a promising network resource control paradigm that accounts for user traffic in the event of network congestion. It has been argued, for example in B. Briscoe, "Flow Rate Fairness: Dismantling a Religion", ACM Computer Communications Review, 37(2), 63-74 (April 2007), that flow rate fairness, which has been used in the past, is not a reasonable mechanism for resource allocation and accountability of network resources. Instead, it is suggested that a cost-based mechanism would provide a better resource allocation paradigm, in which "cost" means the degree to which each user's transfers restrict other transfers, given the available network resources. The metric that has been suggested for measuring this cost is the volume of network congestion caused by each user. A network traffic policing mechanism based on congestion offers a net-neutral way for network operators to manage traffic on their networks.
There have been several proposals for implementing congestion-based network traffic policing. For example, Re-ECN is a proposal that has been made in the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) Congestion Exposure (CONEX) Working Group. As will be discussed in greater detail below, Re-ECN, or re-feedback of explicit congestion notification provides a feedback mechanism through which packets expose the congestion that they expect to cause. Unfortunately, implementing Re-ECN would require protocol extensions both at end hosts and at the IP level. In order to deploy such protocol extensions, numerous vendors of network equipment and software would need to support such extensions, which makes wide scale commercial deployment of these technologies unlikely, at least in the near future.
Another congestion-based policing proposal has been put forward by Comcast. This proposal is detailed in IETF RFC 6057: Comcast's Protocol-Agnostic Congestion Management System, which can be found at http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6057. The Comcast proposal provides a mechanism for congestion management that is protocol agnostic and that requires no modifications to the communication stack. The system monitors users' network usage, and dynamically decides when congestion has occurred and which user traffic should be throttled. Unfortunately, the system proposed by Comcast seems to have a number of drawbacks, as will be discussed in greater detail below. First, while it is mentioned that the system may be applicable to other types of networks, as described, the system is relatively specific to the broadband service architecture used by Comcast. Also, the Comcast proposal attempts to determine congestion based on a volume at a customer or line level, rather than looking at the "cost"—i.e. congestion volume—on a flow level.

User traffic accountability under congestion in flow-based multi-layer switches


A rotary motor includes a rotor and at least one stator. The rotor has a shaft. The stator has an iron core and a coil wound around the iron core. A cross section of the iron core perpendicular to the shaft has a long axis and a short axis, and the rotor is disposed on an extension line of the long axis.

Field of Invention
The present invention relates to robot arm technology. More particularly, the present invention relates to a rotary motor, a power apparatus, and a robot arm.
Description of Related Art
The rotary motor is the main power source in electromechanical systems. FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a traditional rotary motor. The rotary motor 10 includes a rotor 20 and a stator 30. The rotor 20 includes a magnet 22 and a shaft 24. The stator 30 includes an iron core 32 and a coil 34. The iron core 32 is in the form of an annulus, and the rotor 20 is located in the central cavity of the annular iron core 32. Thus, the rotary motor 10 is typically rectangular or a circular.
However, in the configuration of an electromechanical system, if the installation space for the rotary motor is neither rectangular nor circular, in use, limitations will be encountered with respect to the shape of the rotary motor, such that the utilization of the equipment space cannot be optimized.

Power apparatus having plural rotary motors


The present invention relates to novel bifunctional agents possessing antioxidant and antiarrhytmic activity, methods for the synthesis of the same and their applications in treating ischemia-reperfusion injury, as well as a variety of disorders related to free radicals and/or arrhythmias. These bifunctional drugs should preferentially segregate in the membrane and produce their antiarrhytmic effects while, at the same time, help in protecting the membrane lipids by scavenging free radicals. The present invention comprises compounds represented by Formula (I), wherein R1, R2, R3, R4, R5 are further defined

The majority of life threatening ventricular arrhythmias occur in patients suffering from ischemic heart disease. Reperfusion (reoxygenation) of the ischemic heart tissue and administration of antiarrhythmic drugs, follow the case of myocardial infarctions. However the use of antiarrhythmic drugs to suppress arrhythmias and prevent sudden cardiac death has limited success (Woosley R. L. "Antiarrhythmic drugs" Annu. Rev. Pharmacol. Toxikol. 1991, 31, 427).
Accumulated evidence suggests that the injury sustained by the heart, following a case of acute myocardial ischemia occurs during reoxygenation. It is believed that the biochemical changes occurring during the ischemic period produce a burst of active oxygen species (AOS) when molecular oxygenation is reintroduced (McCord J. M. "Oxygen-derived free radicals in postischemic tissue injury" N. Engl. J. Med. 1985, 312, 159). These oxygen radicals include superoxide (*O2−) which is a precursor of several more toxic radicals such as hydroxyl radical (*OH). It is postulated that these free radicals react with the phospholipid components of myocardium. Such reactions affect the selective permeability of cell membranes and are related to the development of life threatening ventricular arrhythmias and/or fibrillation. Under normal conditions cells are protected from such reactions by various enzymes and by some small molecules which are normally involved in cellular redox reactions. However, these biochemical processes are inadequate during hypoxic conditions. Treatment with antioxidants such as α-tocopherol has been shown to reduce membrane related alterations resulting from ischemia and reperfusion (Massey K. D., Burton K. P. "α-Tocopherol attenuates myocardial membrane-related alterations resulting from ischemia and reperfusion" Am. J. Physiol. 1989, 256, H1192).
Accordingly, it would be advantageous to develop bifunctional agents which will act as antiarrhythmic antioxidants. These bifunctional drugs should preferentially segregate in the membrane and produce their antiarrhythmic effects while, at the same time, help in protecting the membrane lipids by scavenging free radicals.
Thus the pharmacophore backbone of structural analogs of vitamin E and key features responsible for the antiarrhythmic properties of class I or class III antiarrhythmics were combined in one molecular scaffold. Lipophilic features have been incorporated in order to achieve favorable partitioning in the myocardial membranes.
The molecular design also has taken into account all available information on structure activity relationships for optimal antiarrhythmic activity with minimal undesirable effects.

Bifunctional agents possessing antioxidant and antiarrhythmic activity

Uni-Pharma Kleon Tsetis Pharmaceutical Laboratories S.A.


Electrically conductive thermoplastic polymer composites of particulate thermoplastic polyester polymers, electrically conductive components (carbon nanofibers, graphene nanoplatelets, and/or conductive metal nanoparticulates), processing aids such as plasticizers, thermal stabilizers, etc., as well as nanoscopic particulate fillers such as nanoscopic titanium dioxide, etc., the electrically conductive components being distributed substantially uniformly in the composite to form an electrically conductive network. Also, methods for preparing thermoplastic polymer composites, a system for collecting extruded filaments prepared from thermoplastic polymer composites as a coil of filament, as well as method for tempering articles formed from thermoplastic polymer composites to increase the degree of crystallinity of the thermoplastic polymers and thus their mechanical strength properties.

Additive manufacturing (also commonly referred to as three-dimensional (3D) printing) may create physical objects, structures, articles, etc., based upon a computer-controlled program which instructs the 3D printer how to deposit successive layers of extruded material which may then fuse together to form the printed article, device, component, object, structure, part, etc. Fused deposition modeling (FDM), also referred to herein as fused filament fabrication (FFF), is one such additive manufacturing process. Other 3D printing techniques may include selective laser sintering (SLS) techniques, inkjet printing techniques, etc. When using an electrically conductive thermoplastic composite in the form of a filament, pellet, powder, etc., such 3D printing techniques may form, create, etc., printable electronics such as circuitry and power sources which may then, for example, be incorporated directly into functional printed architectures such as articles, devices, components, parts, etc.

Thermoplastic polymer composites and methods for preparing, collecting, and tempering 3D printable materials and articles from same


A card connector is disclosed that includes a first housing configured to have a first card inserted thereinto to be attached thereto; a second housing configured to have a second card inserted thereinto to be attached thereto, the second housing being provided on the first housing; and multiple contact members for the second card combined with the first housing by insert molding, the contact members each having, at a first end, a contact arm part to come into contact with a terminal of the second card, and at a second end, a lead terminal part to be soldered to a pad on a board, wherein the contact arm parts are placed inside the second housing with the intermediate portions thereof fixed to part of the second housing.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to card connectors and methods of assembling the same, and particularly to a memory card connector that is incorporated in electronic apparatuses such as digital cameras to allow a memory card to be attached thereto and a method of assembling the memory card connector.
2. Description of the Related Art
Electronic apparatuses such as digital cameras, portable audio apparatuses, cellular phones, and electronic copiers have a memory card connector incorporated therein and are used with a memory card having a built-in semiconductor memory device being attached to the memory card connector.
Currently, there are multiple kinds of memory cards such as Memory Stick (trademark), Memory Stick Duo (trademark), SD Memory Card (trademark), and MMC (MultiMedia Card) (trademark). With commercial availability of multiple kinds of memory cards, memory card connectors have been commercialized that allow selective attachment of any kind of memory card. This type of memory card connector is mounted on a printed circuit board with its lead terminal parts soldered to corresponding pads on the printed circuit board.
Memory card connectors of this type are divided into those having a single memory card insertion slot common to multiple kinds of memory cards and those having an upper memory card insertion slot and a lower memory card insertion slot. The latter memory card connectors have an advantage over the former memory card connectors in that more kinds of memory cards are attachable.
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a structure of a conventional memory card connector 1 of the latter type.
The memory card connector 1 has the structure where an upper housing 5 in which contact members 6 are provided by insert molding is stacked on and fixed to a lower housing 2 in which contact members 3 are provided by insert molding. The memory card connector 1 is mounted on a printed circuit board 10 with lead terminal parts 3a and 6a thereof being soldered to corresponding pads 10a and 10b, respectively, on the printed circuit board 10. (See, for example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2005-50792.)
In this memory card connector 1 having a two-tier structure, variations in the arrangement of the lead terminal parts 6a of the contact members 6 of the upper housing 5 result from variations in the contact members 6 themselves together with assembly error in attachment of the upper housing 5 onto the lower housing 2. In some cases, the variations increase so that some lead terminal parts 6a may be out of contact with the corresponding pads 10a of the printed circuit board 10 when the memory card connector 1 is mounted on the printed circuit board 10.
Further, as described above, there are multiple kinds of memory cards at present. The method of detecting the attachment (attached state) of a memory card to a memory card connector differs depending on the type of the memory card. One method is to detect the attachment of a memory card through contact of a predetermined one of the terminals of the memory card with a corresponding contact in the memory card connector. The other method is to detect the attachment of a memory card by causing a switch provided in the memory card connector to operate by a side of the memory card pressing the switch. The former method is employed for Memory Stick (trademark) and Memory Stick Duo (trademark), and the latter method is employed for SD Memory Card (trademark) and MMC (MultiMedia Card) (trademark).
FIGS. 2A and 2B are diagrams for illustrating attachment of a memory card to a conventional memory card connector.
FIG. 2A shows a conventional memory card connector 1a without its cover.
Referring to FIG. 2A, an SD memory card 20 has a knob 23 provided in a recess 22 on an X2-side surface 21 thereof to be slidable between a write inhibit (write protect) position P1 and a write enable position P2.
Accordingly, the memory card connector 1a to which the SD memory card 20 is attached has an internal switch for detecting the attached SD memory card 20, which is not graphically illustrated but is usually placed at the bottom (Y1) side of the memory card connector 1a, and an internal switch 9 for detecting the position of the knob 23 of the attached SD memory card 20.
The switch 9 includes a fixed terminal 11 and a movable terminal 12. The movable terminal 12 has a U-shaped part 12a in the middle and a projection part 12b at its Y2 end.
Referring to FIG. 2B, when the SD memory card 20 is inserted into and attached to the memory card connector 1a with its knob 23 being set to the write enable position P2, the movable terminal 12 is bent by having its U-shaped part 12a pressed by the knob 23, so that the projection part 12b comes into contact with the fixed terminal 11 to turn on the switch 10. (See, for example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2001-167844.)
In general, in a switch having a movable terminal and a fixed terminal, a foreign object may be sandwiched between the movable terminal and the fixed terminal to cause poor contact. In the above described switch 9, it is desirable to ensure as long a wiping distance of the projection part 12b rubbing and moving on the surface of the fixed terminal 11 as possible in order to avoid poor contact due to sandwiching of a foreign object between the projection part 12b of the movable terminal 12 and the fixed terminal 11.
In the case of the above-described switch 9, however, the wiping direction is the Y1 direction perpendicular to the X2 direction in which the U-shaped part 12a is pressed, so that the wiping distance is extremely short. Therefore, it is difficult to increase the reliability of the switch 9, that is, the reliability of the memory card connector 1a.

Card connector and method of assembling same


A method and device for limiting the degassing of tritiated waste issued from the nuclear industry are provided. The method reduces an amount of generated tritiated hydrogen (T2 or HT) and/or tritiated water (HTO or T2O) including at least one piece of tritiated waste from the nuclear industry. The method includes placing the package in contact with a mixture including manganese dioxide (MnO2) combined with a component that includes silver; and placing the package in contact with a molecular sieve.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention concerns a method and device for processing waste issuing from the nuclear industry. It relates more particularly to a method and device for limiting the degassing of tritiated waste produced by nuclear reactions.
2. Description of the Related Art
Tritium (T or 3H) may be present in several types of nuclear reactor. In the majority of fission reactors, it may for example be produced by the ternary fission of uranium (U) and plutonium (Pu) as well as in neutron reactions between boron (B) and lithium (Li). In addition, in fusion reactors, tritium is used as a fuel. That is the case of Joint European Torus (JET) reactors, for International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactors (ITER) and (Demonstration Power Plant (DEMO reactors) designed to succeed the ITER reactor. In these reactors, the fusion reaction from deuterium (D or 2H) and tritium (T or 3H) is governed by Equation (1):D+T→42He+01n+17.6 MeV  (1)
One of the properties of tritium, just like the other isotopes of hydrogen, is its ability to penetrate through materials, which contaminates them. This property makes tritiated waste very specific since both the radioactive elements and the degassing must be taken into account in the management of the waste. Moreover, tritium may be present in two gaseous forms, tritiated hydrogen (HT or T2) and tritiated water (HTO or T2O). It should be noted that tritiated hydrogen (HT or T2) is much more mobile than tritiated water (HTO or T2O), even in vapour form. Tritiated hydrogen (HT or T2) also has a very small size. Its great mobility and its small size promote its diffusion even through the finest porosities, passing for example through rubber and diffusing in the majority of types of steel and concrete. Trapping tritiated hydrogen (HT or T2) is therefore made particularly complex.
With the development of fusion reactors, the quantity of tritiated waste will thus increase significantly. There consequently exists a particularly great need consisting of sizing an effective method of detritiation and limitation of degassing, in particular at ambient temperature and atmospheric pressure. The reduction in the quantity of tritiated hydrogen produced by a package of waste must be sufficiently effective to satisfy the existing acceptability criteria of warehousing and storage centres, so that these packages comprising tritiated waste can be included in the existing warehousing and storage centres.
One solution has been proposed and is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,464,988. This patent proposes a device for storing and transporting tritiated water contained in a gas. The device comprises an external drum and an internal drum placed inside the external drum. Inside the internal drum is a disposable molecular sieve intended to be loaded with tritium. The device also comprises entry and exit diffusers as well as a catalytic hydrogen recombiner. A protective and thermal insulation material is arranged in each space available between the two drums. The catalytic hydrogen recombiner converts the tritiated hydrogen into tritiated water, which can then be trapped by the molecular sieve in solid form with a view to storage and transportation thereof.
This device affords a solution for trapping tritiated water in gaseous form. Trapping tritiated hydrogen (HT or T2) does however prove to be more complicated because of the smaller size and greater mobility of this gas compared with tritiated water in gaseous form. In addition, this solution is based on a particularly complex drum requiring numerous specific items of equipment that require specific maintenance. For example, the use of a catalytic recombiner requires a heating device and therefore maintenance of the system. In addition, human intervention is necessary for regularly changing the molecular sieve saturated with tritiated water.
The complexity of this solution tends to make its cost relatively high and its reliability limited.
There therefore exists a need consisting of proposing a simple and effective solution for limitation of the degassing of tritiated hydrogen (T2 or HT) and tritiated water (HTO or T2O), this solution also having to make it possible to reduce the maintenance and human intervention requirements. The solution must also be effective over several hundreds of years.
The objective of the present invention is to describe such a solution.

Device for limiting the degassing of tritiated waste issued from the nuclear industry


A desired current through a carbon nano tube (CNT) element of a CNT memory device can be controlled by a wordline voltage, and a voltage on the CNT common node can be held constant. The common node can be constant at a source voltage if a p-channel metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) is used in the CNT memory device, or the common node can be constant at a supply voltage if an n-channel MOSFET is used in the CNT memory device.

Most modern electronic devices include a power source, components for storing data, components for processing data, components for receiving user input, and components for delivering user output. It is desirable for such electronic devices to have long battery life, powerful processing capabilities, and large amounts of data storage, but at the same time, it is also desirable for electronic devices to maintain small and lightweight form factors. To meet these conflicting demands, it is desirable for the components of these devices to become smaller with better performance.
It is generally desirable for memory components, for example, to store more data in a smaller space with faster read and write operations. Current types of non-volatile memory include electro-mechanical hard drives where read/write heads read and write data from and to a series of rotating disks. Other types of non-volatile memory include solid state memories that use transistors and other devices (e.g., capacitors, floating gate MOSFETs) to store data without any moving parts and with faster read and write access.

Carbon nanotube memory cell with enhanced current control


A method for manufacturing a synthesis gas, which makes it possible to procure CO2 inside a synthesis gas-manufacturing plant utilizing the Fisher-Tropsch reaction system, thereby enabling the synthesis gas to be cheaply manufactured by way of the Fisher-Tropsch reaction system without being restricted by the location of CO2 gas source such as an ammonia plant, the synthesis gas comprising a molar ratio of H2/CO suited for synthesizing gasoline, kerosene and gas oil. This method comprises the steps of, feeding a steam-mixed natural gas to a reformer provided with a combustion radiation portion for burning a fuel, the reformer being heated by the combustion radiation portion, recovering carbon dioxide from a combustion exhaust gas generated at the combustion radiation portion, and adding the carbon dioxide to the steam-mixed natural gas at a location on an upstream side of the reformer.

This application is based upon and claims the benefit of priority from the prior Japanese Patent Applications No. 2000-160510, filed May 30, 2000; and No. 2000-251158, filed Aug. 22, 2000, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
This invention relates to a method of manufacturing a synthesis gas to be employed for the synthesis of gasoline, kerosene and gas oil by way of the Fisher-Tropsch reaction system.
Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. 6-184559 discloses a method of synthesizing gasoline, etc. wherein a synthesis gas containing hydrogen (H2) and carbon monoxide (CO) is manufactured at first from natural gas, and this synthesis gas is then employed for synthesizing gasoline, etc. by way of a GTL (Gas to Liquid) process according to the Fisher-Tropsch reaction system. In this method, natural gas containing methane as a main component is introduced together with steam into a reformer provided with a reforming catalyst, and the reformer is heated up to a predetermined temperature to allow mainly hydrocarbons contained in the natural gas to react with the steam, thereby manufacturing the synthesis gas.
However, since the composition of synthesis gas produced by this method is constituted by H2:CO:CO2=5:1:0.5 (molar ratio), the content of hydrogen gas becomes surplus for the synthesis of gasoline, etc. Namely, in the Fisher-Tropsch reaction system where a cobalt catalyst is employed, an optimum molar ratio between H2/CO is 2. Whereas, when an iron catalyst is employed in the Fisher-Tropsch reaction system, an optimum molar ratio between H2/CO is 1 to 2.
Under the circumstances, there is disclosed in FIGS. 3 and 4 of Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. 6-184559 a reaction system for manufacturing a synthesis gas, which comprises a reformer system consisting of a convection reformer, a self-heating reformer (a partial oxidation furnace) and a convection reformer heater; a carbon dioxide stripper disposed on a downstream side of the reformer system; and a Fisher-Tropsch reactor disposed on a downstream side of the carbon dioxide stripper.
According to this reaction system, the convection reformer is heated by making use of heat generated from the convection reformer heater, and then, a natural gas mixed together with steam is fed together with carbon dioxide that has been separated and recovered from a synthesis gas (to be explained hereinafter) to the convection reformer, thereby allowing part of mainly methane of the natural gas and the carbon dioxide to be reacted with the steam, thus performing a reforming reaction. Thereafter, the resultant reformed gas, the natural gas and oxygen are fed to the self-heating reformer to cause mainly hydrogen gas contained in the reformed gas to burn so as to heat the gaseous mixture up to a temperature which is suited for the reaction between mainly methane contained in the reformed gas and the steam, thereby generating a synthesis gas.
The heat of this synthesis gas is then recovered at the convection reformer heater, thereby enabling the heat to be utilized a heating source for the convection reformer. The synthesis gas after it has been subjected to the aforementioned heat recovery is then fed to the carbon dioxide stripper in which carbon dioxide contained in the synthesis gas is separated and removed from the synthesis gas so as to obtain a gas having a predetermined molar ratio of CO/H2, the resultant gas being subsequently fed to the Fisher-Tropsch reactor. Part of carbon dioxide that has been recovered is allowed to be mixed with the natural gas at a location on an upstream side of the convection reformer, and the rest of the carbon dioxide is allowed to be discharged outside the system.
However, the invention disclosed in the aforementioned Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. 6-184559 is accompanied with a problem that since the convection reformer is heated by making use of the heat from the convection reformer heater, only an insufficient quantity of heat is available for reforming the aforementioned steam-containing natural gas at the convection reformer, so that only part of methane in the natural gas can be reformed. Because of this, the reformed gas from the convection reformer is fed to the self-heating reformer (a partial oxidation furnace) so as to cause the hydrogen gas in the reformed gas to burn using the oxygen that has been fed to the self-heating reformer, thereby heating the gaseous mixture up to a temperature required for generating a predetermined synthesis gas.
As a result, a large quantity of oxygen is required to be fed to the self-heating reformer. Since oxygen is generally produced in an oxygen plant where oxygen is isolated from air atmosphere through a low temperature treatment, the employment of a large quantity of oxygen leads not only to the consumption of enormous quantity of energy but also to an increase in scale of plant, thereby increasing the manufacturing cost of the synthesis gas.
On the other hand, there is also disclosed a method of manufacturing a synthesis gas in xe2x80x9cChemical Engineering Progressxe2x80x9d, Wang; August 1987, pp.46-53. More specifically, the production of oxoalcohol through a reaction of olefin with a mixed gas comprising hydrogen and carbon monoxide at a ratio of H2/CO=1 to 2 is described in the left column page 49 of the publication.
This publication also discloses the manufacture of synthesis gas containing hydrogen and carbon monoxide at a ratio of H2/CO=1 to 2 in the right column page 49 of the publication as Method 4A wherein, on the occasion of feeding a desulfurized natural gas to the steam reformer, carbon monoxide is added from outside the system (for example, from a neighboring ammonia plant) to the natural gas so as to allow a reaction to take place among the natural gas, steam and carbon dioxide. Although this method is advantageous for the reason that the production of hydrogen in an excessive ratio can be minimized without necessitating the addition of oxygen as described in the right column lines 8-11 page 49 of the publication, this method is disadvantageous mainly because it requires a CO2 source (for example, a neighboring ammonia plant). Therefore, the aforementioned Method 4A is useless except where a CO2 source such as an ammonia plant is located in the neighborhood.
Therefore, an object of this invention is to provide a method for manufacturing a synthesis gas, which makes it possible to procure CO2 inside a synthesis gas-manufacturing plant utilizing the Fisher-Tropsch reaction system, thereby enabling the synthesis gas to be cheaply manufactured by way of the Fisher-Tropsch reaction system without being restricted by the location of CO2 gas source such as an ammonia plant, the synthesis gas containing hydrogen gas and carbon monoxide at a molar ratio of H2/CO which is suited for synthesizing gasoline, kerosene and gas oil.
Another object of this invention is to provide a method of manufacturing a synthesis gas comprising hydrogen gas and carbon monoxide at a molar ratio of H2/CO which is suited for synthesizing gasoline, kerosene and gas oil by way of the Fisher-Tropsch reaction system, wherein a carbon dioxide-containing natural gas is fed to a reformer and then the resultant reformed gas is introduced from the reformer into the partial oxidation furnace so as to allow hydrogen in the reformed gas to burn through a reaction thereof with oxygen that has been fed to the partial oxidation furnace, the method being featured in that it is capable of minimizing the quantity of feeding oxygen to the partial oxidation furnace thereby making it possible to miniaturize an oxygen plant for producing oxygen.
Namely, this invention provides a method of manufacturing a synthesis gas containing CO and H2, which is suited for use in synthesizing gasoline, kerosene and gas oil by way of the Fisher-Tropsch reaction system; the method comprising the steps of;
feeding a steam-mixed natural gas to a reformer which is provided with a combustion radiation portion for burning a fuel, the reformer being designed to be heated by the combustion radiation portion;
recovering carbon dioxide from a combustion exhaust gas generated at the combustion radiation portion; and
adding the carbon dioxide to the steam-mixed natural gas at a location on an upstream side of the reformer, thereby allowing a reforming reaction to take place to obtain a synthesis gas containing CO and H2 at a molar ratio of H2/CO=1 to 2.5, which is suited for use in synthesizing gasoline, kerosene and gas oil.
In the method of manufacturing a synthesis gas according to this invention, carbon dioxide may be recovered from the synthesis gas produced in the reformer, the resultant carbon dioxide being allowed to recirculate in a region on an upstream side of the reformer.
In the method of manufacturing a synthesis gas according to this invention, the process of recovering carbon dioxide from the synthesis gas may be performed by making use of the same absorbent solution as employed in the process of recovering carbon dioxide from the combustion exhaust gas employed for heating the reformer. The process of recovering carbon dioxide from the synthesis gas may be performed using an amine-based absorption solution or a potassium carbonate-based absorption solution, while the process of recovering carbon dioxide from the combustion exhaust gas may be performed using alkanol amine which is minimal in deterioration other than monoethanol amine absorbent solution which is conventionally employed.
In the method of manufacturing a synthesis gas according to this invention, a preliminary reformer may be arranged at an upstream of the reformer, the natural gas to which steam has been added is supplied to the reformer via the preliminary reformer, the carbon dioxide recovered from the combustion exhaust is fed to a passageway connecting the reformer and the preliminary reformer.
In the method of manufacturing a synthesis gas according to this invention, the step of adding the carbon dioxide to the steam-mixed natural gas may be performed by arranging a moistening device at a posterior stage of the reformer, introducing a synthesis gas from the reformer into the moistening device, heating the moistening device with waste heat of the synthesis gas, feeding natural gas and water to the moistening device, and adding steam to the natural gas in the moistening device.
In the method of manufacturing a synthesis gas according to this invention, a purging gas containing carbon dioxide may be circulated in a region on an upstream side of the reformer, the purging gas is produced in the Fisher-Tropsch reaction system on the occasion of synthesizing gasoline, kerosene and gas oil by way of the Fisher-Tropsch reaction system by making use of a synthesis gas produced in the reformer.
This invention also provides an alternative method of manufacturing a synthesis gas containing CO and H2, which is suited for use in synthesizing gasoline, kerosene and gas oil by way of the Fisher-Tropsch reaction system; the method comprising the steps of;
feeding a steam-mixed natural gas to a reformer which is provided with a combustion radiation portion for burning a fuel, the reformer being designed to be heated by the combustion radiation portion;
recovering carbon dioxide from a combustion exhaust gas generated at the combustion radiation portion;
adding the carbon dioxide to the steam-mixed natural gas at a location on an upstream side of the reformer, thereby allowing a reforming reaction to take place; and
introducing a reformed gas from the reformer into a partial oxidation furnace simultaneous with an introduction of oxygen into the partial oxidation furnace, thereby allowing the reformed gas to react with the oxygen to obtain a synthesis gas comprising Co and H2 at a molar ratio of H2/CO=1 to 2.5, which is suited for use in synthesizing gasoline, kerosene and gas oil.
In this alternative method of manufacturing a synthesis gas according to this invention, carbon dioxide may be recovered from the synthesis gas produced in the partial oxidation furnace, the resultant carbon dioxide being allowed to recirculate in a region on an upstream side of the reformer.
In this alternative method of manufacturing a synthesis gas according to this invention, the process of recovering carbon dioxide from the synthesis gas may be performed by making use of the same absorbent solution as employed in the process of recovering carbon dioxide from the combustion exhaust gas discharged from the combustion radiation portion of the reformer. The process of recovering carbon dioxide from the synthesis gas may be performed using an amine-based absorption solution or a potassium carbonate-based absorption solution, while the process of recovering carbon dioxide from the combustion exhaust gas may be performed using alkanol amine which is minimal in deterioration other than monoethanol amine absorbent solution which is conventionally employed.
In this alternative method of manufacturing a synthesis gas according to this invention, a preliminary reformer may be arranged at an upstream of the reformer, the natural gas to which steam has been added is supplied to the reformer via the preliminary reformer, the carbon dioxide recovered from the combustion exhaust is fed to a passageway connecting the reformer and the preliminary reformer.
In this alternative method of manufacturing a synthesis gas according to this invention, the step of adding the carbon dioxide to the steam-mixed natural gas may be performed by arranging a moistening device at a posterior stage of the reformer, introducing a synthesis gas from the reformer into the moistening device, heating the moistening device with waste heat of the synthesis gas, feeding natural gas and water to the moistening device, and adding steam to the natural gas in the moistening device.
In this alternative method of manufacturing a synthesis gas according to this invention, it is preferable to feed a carbon dioxide-mixed oxygen to the partial oxidation furnace. Further, steam may be fed to the partial oxidation furnace.
In this alternative method of manufacturing a synthesis gas according to this invention, a purging gas containing carbon dioxide may be circulated in a region on an upstream side of the reformer, the purging gas is produced in the Fisher-Tropsch reaction system on the occasion of synthesizing gasoline, kerosene and gas oil by way of the Fisher-Tropsch reaction system by making use of a synthesis gas produced in the partial oxidation furnace.
Additional objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objects and advantages of the invention may be realized and obtained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out hereinafter.

Method of manufacturing a synthesis gas to be employed for the synthesis of gasoline, kerosene and gas oil


The method consists in: i) making a series of recordings of the density of the gas at regular time intervals during a nighttime period by means of a temperature-compensated pressure sensor fixed on the outside of the envelope and communicating with the gas via a duct formed through the thickness of the envelope; ii) processing the density recordings of the gas acquired during the nighttime period in hourly intervals, each hourly interval giving rise to an hourly mean value for the density of the gas; iii) processing the hourly mean values obtained at the end of each hourly interval to give a daily mean value for the density of the gas at the end of the nighttime period; and iv) determining the leakage rate from the envelope by taking the difference between mean densities obtained at the ends of two different nighttime periods.

In known manner, the leakage rate is calculated from the density of the gas contained inside the envelope, where density is itself determined by a temperature-compensated pressure sensor. It should be observed that compensation can also be performed by a temperature sensor that is distinct from the pressure sensor. Nevertheless, a single sensor simplifies assembly.
The temperature compensated pressure sensor must be fixed to the outside wall of the envelope in order to avoid the risk of an electric arc being stuck between the envelope and the circuit breaker under the effect of the high voltage, and it must have a pressure detector and a temperature detector that are in communication with the gas via a duct passing through the thickness of the envelope.
The temperature as measured must be as close as possible to the temperature of the gas. FIG. 1 shows how the density .rho. of the gas varies as a function of temperature T for a given pressure P. At a temperature T, the gas has density .rho.. If the sensor picks up a temperature T+.DELTA.T that differs from T by uncertainty .DELTA.T (which is positive in the example of FIG. 1), then the compensation performed on the pressure P will lead to a density .rho.-.DELTA..rho. that is erroneous having uncertainty .DELTA..rho. (which is negative in the example of FIG. 1).
To detect and track over time the evolution of any leak of gas from the envelope of the circuit breaker, the measurement uncertainty associated with the density sensor must be negligible compared with any reduction of density due to a leak.
An annual leakage rate of the order of 1% is assumed during testing performed on site. Although the sensor used has density measurement stability of the order of 0.2% over a year, differences of several percent have been observed between daily averages of density.
Tests have shown that sunshine and heating of the electrical apparatus constitute two major sources of uncertainty in determining density. As a function of the amount of sunshine and of the electrical current flowing through the apparatus, the envelope is subjected to daily variations of temperature. These variations give rise to temperature differences between the gas and the detector, since they response differently to the thermal influence of the envelope at the communication duct formed through its thickness.

Method of monitoring a leakage rate from the envelope of high voltage electrical apparatus


A cosmetic applicator body including a cylindrical hollow body configured to contain a volume of cosmetic material, a first nib roller cooperatively engaged at a first end, and a second nib holder cooperatively engaged at a second end.

In applying cosmetic products to the eyes, many people find it difficult to get a symmetrical geometric shape, such as a 'flick/wing' at the end of their eyes using a conventional eyeliner. Other eyeliner devices use a single geometric shaped stamp, such as a triangle at the end of a pen shaped device. The user them must dip the geometrically shaped end into a separate container of an ink cosmetic material and then apply the cosmetic material by stamping it on the desired location around the periphery of the eye. Using conventional products is inconvenient and potentially messy operation.
As can be seen, there is a need for an apparatus and method for symmetrically applying an eye cosmetic product to their eyes, while avoiding the inconvenience of a dipping operation.


An electric device which includes a first component carrier structure with a first magnet structure and a first connection structure, and a second component carrier structure with a second magnet structure and a second connection structure. The first magnet structure and the second magnet structure are configured such that upon attaching the first component carrier structure and the second component carrier structure to one another the first connection structure is connected to the second connection structure, holding the first component carrier structure and the second component carrier structure together by an attracting magnetic force between the first magnet structure and the second magnet structure.

In the context of growing product functionalities of component carriers equipped with one or more electronic components and increasing miniaturization of such components as well as a rising number of components to be mounted on or embedded in the component carriers such as printed circuit boards, increasingly more powerful array-like components, packages or electric devices having several components are being employed, which have a plurality of contacts or connections, with ever smaller spacing between these contacts. At the same time, component carriers shall be mechanically robust and electrically reliable so as to be operable even under harsh conditions. Also, a short connection path in a vertical direction between different components or component carriers is advantageous.

Component carrier structures connected by cooperating magnet structures

AT&S Austria Technologie & Systemtechnik Aktiengesellschaft


A high frequency electrical signal control device comprises a transmitter for generating a high frequency electrical signal, a receiver, a transmission line for propagating the electrical signal, and a structure for radiating the electrical signal propagated through the transmission line to the space or receiving a signal from the space. The degree of coupling of the electrical signal between the space and the transmission line provided by the structure can be variably controlled.

In recent years, there has been developed a nondestructive sensing technique using an electromagnetic wave (its frequency is in a range of 30 GHz to 30 THz) ranging from a millimeter wave to a terahertz wave. As for a technique using the electromagnetic wave having this frequency band, there are developed a technique for carrying out imaging using a safe penetrative inspection system instead of an X-ray system, and a technique for obtaining an absorption spectrum or a complex permittivity of the inside of a substance to evaluate a bonding state of atoms, or concentration or mobility of carriers. In addition, as for a technique using a millimeter wave, there is developed a position sensing technique for a collision safety radar having a frequency in 70 GHz band.
For example, as for a two-dimensional imaging system, there is a proposal example in which a system is configured with a millimeter wave generator, an antenna for radiating the millimeter wave, a reception element, a propagation path for the millimeter wave, and the like being used as discrete components (refer to Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-050908). This system is shown in FIG. 8. This system is designed such that a millimeter wave 116 is radiated from a sinusoidal millimeter wave generator 102 to the space through an antenna 112, and the millimeter wave 116 having an intensity distribution is received by an electro-optic crystal 110 having light reflecting film 111 and directed by reflectors 109 through wave plates 107 and 108 to be read with a laser beam from a laser 104. The system also includes sinusoidal wave generators 101 and 103. At this time, a phase difference in the millimeter wave caused on the basis of a difference in permittivity of a specimen object 113 is detected by utilizing a synchronism wave detection technique and polarization beam splitter 106, photodiode 105, computer 114 and lock-in amplifier 115 to obtain penetrative imaging excellent in an S/N ratio.
On the other hand, as for the position sensing technique, an on-vehicle millimeter wave radar is in a progress of being developed for the purpose of measuring a distance between a forward vehicle and a backward vehicle. As for a proposal example thereof, there is a transmitter-receiver which is constructed in the form of a module as shown in FIG. 9 using a non-radiative dielectric line (NRD) (refer to Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-022424). In this example, a millimeter wave outputted from a millimeter wave oscillator provide in an unmovable portion 232 is propagated through an NRD 221 to reach a primary radiator 213 provided in a movable portion 231 through a circulator 219 and couplers 212 and 211 to be received by a horn antenna (not shown) provided above the primary radiator 213. In this connection, the movable portion 231 is moved to be adapted to carry out the scanning for a radiation directional angle of the millimeter wave. After received by the same horn antenna, the millimeter wave is mixed with a millimeter wave which is obtained by a coupler 221 through the branch of a part of the millimeter wave from the oscillator, in a coupler 223 through the circulator 219. The module also includes transmission line 222 having termination devices 220. In such a manner, the millimeter wave concerned is received. From the foregoing, the millimeter module capable of making a detection direction variable is constructed.

High frequency electrical signal control device and sensing system


An enzymatic catalyst in the granular form which is non-dispersible in water comprising an inner core provided with a coating which coating comprises an enzymatic material characterised in that the coating has a thickness of from 30 to 400 microns and the ratio of the size of the core to the thickness of the coating is from 2 to 20. A method for the preparation of the catalyst and the use of the catalyst in the conversion of 2-hydroxy-4-methylthio butyronitrile to ammonium 2-hydroxy-4-methylthio butanoate is also claimed.

Compositions comprising immobilised cells having enzymatic activity are known, for example in European Patent No. 0089165 which discloses a composition wherein a coating comprising E. coli which is fixed by means of a cross-linked polymer is on an inert carrier. This composition is used to prepare L-aspartic acid. European Patent Application No. 0297912 also discloses a biologically active material which comprises a coated particle wherein the coating comprises a the biological material and a cross-linked polymer.


One aspect of the present invention relates to an implantable medical device comprising a surface coated with a polyelectrolyte multilayer, wherein said surface is glass, metal, plastic, polymer, or fiberglass. Another aspect of the present invention involves a method of preparing a PEM-coated implantable medical device, comprising the step of applying a film to a surface of an implantable medical device, wherein said film comprises a polyelectrolyte multilayer and said surface is glass, metal, plastic, polymer, or fiberglass. Another aspect of the present invention involves a method of reducing the wear between two contacting materials, comprising the step of moving a first material in contact with a second material in an environment, wherein a first surface of said first material is in contact with a second surface of said second material, wherein said first surface, said second surface, or both is coated with a polyelectrolyte multilayer, thereby decreasing the wear of said first material, said second material, or both compared to the wear in the absence of said polyelectrolyte multilayer.

Over the past several decades, much investigation has been focused on understanding the mechanisms of friction, particularly as arising with respect to two contacting sliding surfaces. The causes of friction between sliding surfaces is discussed, for example, in the article "The Genesis of Friction" by N. P. Suh and H. C. Sin, WEAR, 69 (1981) 91-114. In general, the friction coefficient is not an inherent material property, but is composed of three principal components: one due to the deforming asperities (roughness) of the surface, another due to plowing of the surface by wear particles, and another due to adhesion. Further study has shown that the significance of wear effects can be severe for many materials, such as plastic materials, wherein interfacial wear debris is generated between the two contacting surfaces. The presence of interfacial debris has been shown to have significant adverse effects on the friction coefficient as well as on other related wear behavior. For example, the interfacial wear debris derived from polymer-based materials can contribute appreciably to the total friction coefficient.
Attempts to reduce the coefficient of friction and maintain a constant coefficient of friction between two substrates have been reported. One approach involves applying a lubricant, or grease-like substance between the sliding surfaces. Although such approaches work well in some instances, in many applications the presence of such lubricants, either separately or incorporated in the material itself, cannot be tolerated since they may introduce undesired contaminants or other undesired physical characteristics into the process or device in which the sliding surfaces are used. For example, the use of lubricants in food processing, photocopying, or orthopedic applications is not constructive owing to contamination concerns. Hence, it is desirable that a technique be developed for avoiding the use of lubricants while still maintaining a substantially constant coefficient of friction over a reasonable length of time, particularly where deleterious amounts of wear debris are generated during use.
The need for external lubricants may be reduced or eliminated by the use of polymeric contacting components. Polymeric contact components may be fabricated by applying a film of polymeric material to the surface of a substrate. Alternatively, polymeric components may be manufactured by injection molding to form intricately shaped components such as gears, cams, bearings, slides, ratchets, pumps, electrical contacts and prostheses. Polymeric contacting components provide an economical and essentially maintenance free method to reduce friction between two sliding contacting surfaces. Components formed from polymeric compounds have greater shock and vibration dampening, reduced weight, enhanced corrosion protection, decreased running noise, decreased maintenance and power use, and allow increased freedom of component design over non-polymeric components.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,174,358 discloses toughened thermoplastic compositions having a polyamide matrix resin and at least one branched or straight chain toughening polymer. The polymer may be elastomeric or thermoplastic. Examples of suitable toughening polymers include synthetic and natural rubbers such as styrene/butadiene rubber, isobutylene, isoprene, natural rubber, ethyl acrylate, butyl acrylate rubbers, etc.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,371,445 discloses tribological systems of plastic/plastic pairings in which at least one of the partners is a plastic containing polar, cyclic compounds. The cyclic part of the molecule on at least one side may be coupled directly to an atom of Group V or Group VI of the Periodic Table or the ring may contain atoms of Group V or VI. An optional auxiliary sliding partner may be formed from a polyalkylene. A partner may consist of several materials, such as a mixture of two or more of polyethylene, polypropylene, polyisobutylene, polystyrene, polytetrafluoroethylene and polyvinylidene chloride.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,987,170 discloses a styrene resin composition including styrene polymer, dimethylsilicone oil and a maleic anhydride monomer or a maleic anhydride-styrene copolymer. The styrene polymer may be modified with a rubber-like polymer, such as polybutadiene, styrene-butadiene copolymer, butadiene-acrylonitrile copolymer, ethylenepropylene-diene terpolymers and butadiene-acrylate copolymers.
One class of polymers that could be used to improve sliding properties and increase wear resistance between two sliding contacting surfaces is polyelectrolyte multilayers (PEMs). These polymers may be prepared using a layer-by-layer assembly technique introduced by Decher. See Decher, G.; Hong, J.-D. Makromol. Chem., Macromol. Symp. 1991, 46, 321-327; Decher, G.; Hong, J.-D. Ber. Bunsenges. Phys. Chem. 1991, 95, 1430-1434; and Decher, G.; Hong, J. D.; Schmitt, J. Thin Solid Films 1992, 210/211, 831. This approach, which utilizes electrostatic interactions between oppositely charged polyion species to create alternating layers of sequentially adsorbed polyions, provides a simple and elegant means of depositing layer-by-layer sub-nanometer-thick polymer films onto a surface using aqueous solutions. Lvov, Y. M.; Decher, G. Crystallography Reports 1994, 39, 628-647; Ferreira, M.; Rubner, M. F. Macromol. 1995, 28, 7107-7114; and Tsukruk, V. V.; Rinderspacher, F.; Bliznyuk, V. N. Langmuir 1997, 13, 2171-2176. Recently, PEMs have been used in electroluminescent LEDs, conducting polymer composites, assembly of proteins and metal nanoparticle systems, thin film optoelectronic devices, and nanostructured thin film coatings. See Decher, G. Science 1997, 277, 1232; Tian, J.; Wu, C. C.; Thompson, M. E.; Sturm, J. C.; Register, R. A.; Marsella, M. J.; Swager, T. M. Adv. Mater. 1995, 7, 395; Baur, J. W.; Kim, S.; Balanda, P. B.; Reynolds, J. R.; Rubner, M. F. Advanced Materials 1998, 10, 1452-1455; Ferreira, M.; Cheung, J. H.; Rubner, M. F. Thin Solid Films 1994, 244, 806-809; and Ariga, K.; Lvov, Y.; Onda, M.; Ichinose, I.; Kunitake, T. Chemistry Letters 1997, 125-126. Despite the significant interest in polyelectrolyte multilayer films, the tribological properties of these materials have not been thoroughly investigated. Consequently, the present invention reveals that polyelectrolyte multilayer films display a significant capacity for wear prevention, thereby helping to solve the longstanding problem of reducing wear associated with movement along two surfaces.
Surface engineering, via thin organic films offers the potential for wear reduction in total joint replacement prostheses. Orthopedic implants, with metal-on-plastic configurations, have employed an ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) bearing surface for almost four decades. The life of the implant is limited by the wear of UHMWPE; the wear debris induces bone resorption through a biological reaction, causing implant loosening, and necessitating a revision surgery. Currently, no satisfactory procedures have been determined to combat the wear problems of orthopedic implants comprising UHMWPE. Therefore, it would be highly desirable to develop a highly durable polymeric film that could be used to coat joint replacement prostheses.
Surface modification has also received a large amount of attention in the case of micromotors, gear trains, mechanical relays, valves, and other devices in MEMS. See S. Sundararajan and B. Bhushan, Micro/nanoscale tribology of MEMS materials, lubricants and devices, in: B. Bhushan (Ed.), NATO advances study institute on fundamentals of tribology and bridging the gap between the macro- and micro/nano scales, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Keszthely, Hungary, 821-850, 2000. The factors impeding reliable operation of these devices include wear of the silicon-based materials, high friction forces, and stiction between the mating surfaces. See K. Komvopoulos Wear 1996, 200, 305-327. A number of organic coatings have been studied with respect to friction, stiction, and wear reduction in these devices, including Langmuir monolayers (See V. V. Tsukruk, V. N. Bliznyuk, J. Hazel, D. Visser and M. P. Everson Langmuir 1996, 12, 4840-4849), self-assembled monolayers (See S. Sundararajan and B. Bhushan, Micro/nanoscale tribology of MEMS materials, lubricants and devices, in: B. Bhushan (Ed.), NATO advances study institute on fundamentals of tribology and bridging the gap between the macro- and micro/nano scales, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Keszthely, Hungary, 821-850, 2000; and V. DePalma and N. Tillman Langmuir 1989, 5, 868-872), and polymer films with layered architectures. See D. Julthingpiput, H. Ahn, D. Kim and V. V. Tsukruk Tribology Letters 2002, 13, 35-40 and A. Sidorenko, H. Ahn, D. Kim, H. Yang and V. V. Tsukruk Wear 2002, 252, 946-955. Most of these coatings require either an intricate protocol for assembly, or a large density of functional groups by which they can covalently bind to the substrate. Release of corrosive by-products, and polymerization of precursor molecules leading to particulate formation, are some examples of other problems encountered during processing of these films. See R. Maboudian, W. R. Ashurst and C. Carraro Tribology Letters 2002, 12, 95-100 These issues are not encountered during processing of PEMs. Consequently, PEMs may present a facile solution to the tribological issues facing MEMS.

Tribological applications of polyelectrolyte multilayers


Chroma enhancement filtering may be used in high dynamic range (HDR) video. A video coding device may identify a characteristic within a picture of a video signal. The characteristic may include a spatial region, a color, a luminance, or an edge direction. The video coding device may determine a sample set that includes one or more samples associated with the characteristic. The video coding device may generate a cross-plane filter based on the characteristic and the sample set. The cross-plane filter may include a high pass filter. The video coding device may apply the cross-plane filter to a luma plane component of a sample in the sample set to determine an offset. The video coding device may add the offset to a reconstructed chroma plane component of the sample that corresponds to the luma plane component.

Video coding systems may be used to compress digital video signals. For example, video coding systems may reduce storage space consumed and/or reduce transmission bandwidth consumption associated with video signals. For example, block-based hybrid video coding systems may be used.
Digital video signals may include three color planes. The three color planes may include a luma plane, a blue-difference chroma plane, and a red-difference chroma plane. Pixels of the chroma planes may have smaller dynamic ranges than pixels of the luma plane. For example, the chroma planes of a video image may be smoother and/or have less detail than the luma plane of the video image. A chroma block of a video image may be easier to predict (e.g., accurately predict). For example, prediction of the chroma block may consume fewer resources and/or result in less prediction error.
A high dynamic range (HDR) video may offer a wider dynamic range than a standard dynamic range (SDR) video. The dynamic range of HDR video may be closer to the capacities of the human eye. Chroma artifacts in HDR video may be more visible against a brighter background than chroma artifacts in SDR video. HDR video coding may include preprocessing, coding, decoding, and/or post-processing.

Chroma enhancement filtering for high dynamic range video coding

InterDigital Madison Patent Holdings, SAS


A pickup device can detect the frequency (pit length) recorded in the recording medium, and read out data signals from the optical disk at high S/N. Further, the data read speed is considerably increased since it is possible to concurrently read data signals from the tracks. In a pickup device, a linear light beam emitted from a light source is projected onto an optical disk through a condenser lens so as to form an image thereon, which is long enough to cover three recording tracks on a recording medium. Signal light reflected on the recording medium is imaged on a photo detector consisting of an array of detecting elements, and is detected and output by and from the photo detector. A frequency analyzer unit analyzes the frequencies of the detected signals. A computing circuit calculates the output values for each analyzed frequency. Accordingly, it is possible to separate the frequencies of the recording tracks from each other.

The present invention relates to a pickup device for reproducing information recorded on an optical disk used as an optical recording medium for recording information such as video signals. More particularly, the invention relates to pickup device having an improved signal reproduction characteristic.
The optical disk based on the laser technology has been known as a large capacity recording medium for storing large lo amount of information, such as digital data signals and analog data signals, e.g., video data signals. The reproduction system for reproducing information from an optical disk which has been used prevalently is of the reflection type in which a laser beam reflected on the recording surface of the optical disk is used for data reproduction. The reason why this type of data reproduction system is widely used is that it is easy to manufacture and simple in construction, and allows reduction of the size of the drive system.
The optical disk of the reflection type is classified into an optical disk of the reproduction only type, an optical disk of the additive recording type, and an optical disk of the rewritable type. A series of pits, representative of data signals to be recorded, are spirally formed on the recording surface of the optical disk from the inner side of the disk toward the outer side. One turn of the series of pits as unit data forms one recording track. To reproduce the data of the pits, the positioning of the pickup device is carried out for each track. The term "pit" generally refers to a hole or cavity. In the description to follow, for ease of explanation, the term "pit" also means data recording modes in which data is recorded without any change in the shape of the disk, such as magnetic-optical recording mode and phase change recording mode.
FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram showing the scheme of a prior art pickup device. In the figure, reference numeral 101 designates a semiconductor laser device having a traverse single mode. The laser device serves as a point light source having a light emitting point of approximately 0.1 .mu.m in diameter. Numeral 102 represents a half mirror for separating a light beam projected onto an optical disk 100 and the reflected light beam from the optical disk 100. Numeral 103 designates an objective lens, and numeral 104 indicates a photo detector for detecting the reflected light beam. In operation, the light radiating from the laser device 101 is reflected by the half mirror 102, and is focused on the recording surface of the optical disk 100 through the objective lens 103. In this case, the wave length .lambda. of the light source and the numerical aperture NA of the objective lens 103 are selected to be .lambda./NA>0.1 .mu.m. Accordingly, the so-called "diffraction limit" acts to limit the size of the light spot on the disk to .lambda./NA.
As already described, data signals are recorded in the optical disk 100 in the form of a series of pits whose nature is optically changed. An optical disk of the type in which portions of different reflectivities is formed therein will be described. In this type of the optical disk, data signals are recorded into the disk by forming portions of different reflectivities. To form the portions of different reflectivities, coloring matter previously mixed into the record film of the disk is exposed to light, or the record film is placed to a crystalline state or an amorphous state. Intensities of the laser beams reflected from the optical disk 100 are modulated according to the different reflectivities on the optical disk 100, and are concentrated again by the objective lens 103. Part of these laser beams pass through the half mirror 102. By the astigmatism faculty of the half mirror 102, the laser beams are spread out with respect to the optical axis to have different focal positions as viewed in the vertical and horizontal directions. The photo detector 104 is located at the mid-point between the two different focal positions.
The photo detector 104 may be constructed with a quartered photo diode array, as shown in FIGS. 8A to 8C. The photo detector 104 is positioned in that at a far focal position, the light spot is shaped in cross section as shown in FIG. 8A; at a near focal position, it is shaped as shown in FIG. 8C; and at the focal position, it is shaped as shown in FIG. 8B. A difference of light intensity between the diagonal line components of light on the photo detector 104 is calculated to obtain the quantity of defocus. The focal position is controlled on the basis of the defocus quantity. In this case, the light spot projected on the optical disk 100 is not focused on the detect surface of the photo detector 104, but it is detected in a state that it is displaced by the half of the focal position difference, viz., in the so-called far field pattern. Meanwhile, in Examined Japanese Patent Publication (Kokoku) Sho-52-50131 (the first prior art document), there is disclosed a technique in which the signal is detected at the focal position. The technique is able to minimize the light spot movement on the photo detector.
A high density read method is proposed in Unexamined Japanese Patent Publication (Kokai) Sho-57-58248 (the second prior art document). In the proposal, a plurality of light sources are provided. Three recording tracks are radiated with light beams from those light sources. Far field patterns of the light sources are detected by the photo detector. The output signals of the photo detector are subtracted from one another according to the leakage rates previously measured, thereby to reduce the quantity of signal leakage such as crosstalk.
In the pickup device of the first prior art, in the case where a record density on the optical disk is increased by reducing the track-to-track distance without changing the wavelength of light from the light sources and the numerical aperture, the light spot must be influenced by changes of the reflectivities of the tracks adjacent thereto. Accordingly, when the signal is read out, much leakage from the adjacent tracks is mixed into the readout signal. This leads to degradation of S/N ratio performance.
In the second prior art document, it is necessary to form a light spot by the diffraction limit. When the track-to-track space is made to be narrower than the spot diameter, the influence by the adjacent tracks will be created. Thus, it can not be expected large effect.


A telecommunication device includes a casing, smart phone components disposed within the casing, two opposed flexible wrist grips having upper and lower surfaces, and a flexible screen disposed on the lower surfaces of the casing and the opposed flexible wrist grips and in communication with the smart phone components.

Wearable devices, including computers, smart phones and the like, have become of interest to the consumer seeking more convenience and portability.
A need exists for an improved smart phone that is wearable by a user.
Additionally, personal telecommunication devices, such as smart phones and the like, have become of interest to the consumer seeking improved audiovisual communication capability, as well as ready access to networks such as the Internet. Present smart phones, however, often include screens that are relatively small. Small screen size results in small image presentation to the user of the smart phone. Increasing screen size, however, results in increased overall size of the telecommunication device, which can lead to difficulty carrying, transporting and/or storing the device.
A need exists for an improved telecommunication device that includes a larger screen than known smart phones, without adversely corresponding overall increase in the size of the telecommunication device.


A computer architecture that provides the definition of a 20 bit signed displacement value used to form the operand storage address.

Before our invention there existed in the IBM z/Architecture (and its predecessor architectures) the existence of instruction formats having storage addressing in the form of base register plus 12 bit unsigned displacement or the form of base register plus index register plus 12 bit unsigned displacement, as incorporated in IBM's z900 mainframe servers. Generally, the computer architecture of the z900 was described in the IBM z/Architecture Principles of Operation, Publication SA22-7832-00, (incorporated herein by reference), where section 5–2 to 5–7 describes the Instructions consisting, of two major parts: an op code and the designation of the operands that participate. The instruction formats of these currently available machines are described beginning at 5–3. It will be noted that the basic instruction formats described at 5–4 and 5–5 include the RXE format described in detail also in our prior U.S. Pat. No. 6,105,126, granted Aug. 15, 2000, and entitled "Address Bit Decoding for same Adder Circuitry for RXE Instruction Format with SAME XBD location as RX Format and Disjointed Extended Operation Code."

Computer instructions for having extended signed displacement fields for finding instruction operands

International Business Machines Corporation


An embodiment of the present invention is a technique to fabricate a device using a magnetic layer. A magnetic layer having granular magnetic particles is formed. A planar insulating layer is deposited on the magnetic layer. The planar insulating layer has a planar surface and is made of a polymeric dielectric material with gap-filling capability to fill in gaps among the granular magnetic particles.

1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the invention relate to the field of semiconductor, and more specifically, to semiconductor fabrication.
2. Description of Related Art
On-chip devices such as voltage regulators have become increasingly popular in applications requiring low power, high frequency, and efficiency. Typically, these devices use magnetic material targeted for high frequency applications. One major problem with the design of on-chip devices is degraded efficiency or power loss from eddy currents at high frequency.
Existing techniques in the fabrication of magnetic components in high frequency on-chip devices have a number of drawbacks. One technique uses a continuous magnetic layer. This technique produces a large eddy current which leads to high power loss. Another technique uses granular magnetic particles to reduce the eddy currents. However, this technique does not allow subsequent processing such as metallization. Other techniques use materials such as Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD) cobalt-zirconium-tantalum (CoZrTa) alloy or electroless Cobalt Tungsten Boron Phosphorous (CoWBP). These materials have low resistivities in the range of 100-140 μΩ·cm. The low resistivity leads to high power loss due to eddy currents.

Granular magnetic layer with planar insulating layer


The disclosure provides a high-frequency-reproducibility laser frequency stabilization method and device based on multi-point acquisition of laser tube temperature. The laser frequency stabilization device includes: a frequency stabilization control circuit. The frequency stabilization control circuit includes a polarizing beam splitter, an optical power conversion circuit, an A/D conversion circuit, a temperature measuring circuit, a microprocessor, a D/A converter and a heating film driver. The polarizing beam splitter is disposed outside any one of laser transmitting holes. The optical power conversion circuit is disposed on reflection and refraction optical paths of the polarizing beam splitter. The optical power conversion circuit, the A/D conversion circuit, the microprocessor, the D/A converter, the heating film driver and a plurality of groups of heating films are sequentially in one-way connection. Temperature sensors, the temperature measuring circuit and the microprocessor are sequentially in one-way connection.

In high-end manufacturing industries of large-scale integrated circuits, precision machine tools, aerospace equipment and the like, the positioning precision of a related workpiece bench is required to reach the nano-scale. Technologies capable of reaching the nano-scale accuracy at present include a laser interferometry technology, an electrical sensing measurement technology and the like. Compared with other nano-scale measuring technologies, the laser interferometry technology has the characteristics of high accuracy, non-contact, wide measurement range and the like, and has become a main measuring technological means in the field of ultra-precise measurement. A laser interferometry system mainly consists of a laser device, a relevant interference optical path, a signal processing board card and the like. The laser device is used as a core of the whole interferometry system, and the frequency stabilization characteristic of laser output by the laser device determines the upper limit of measuring accuracy of the whole laser interference system. The frequency stabilization characteristic includes evaluation indexes in two aspects of frequency stability and frequency reproducibility. Technical methods of improving the frequency stability of the laser device at home and abroad are relatively mature. The frequency stability of industrial grade laser devices has achieved 10−8 or higher, however, there are few measures of improving the frequency reproducibility. The frequency reproducibility is also an important index that constrains the laser device. Even for the same laser device, the output frequency will change during twice switching-on. This will cause problems of reference wavelength inconsistency, measuring accuracy decrease and the like on the whole laser interferometry system. Therefore, improving the frequency reproducibility is an urgent problem to be solved in the technical field of laser application.
According to different executing methods of adjusting cavity lengths, laser frequency stabilization methods can be divided into a water cooling frequency stabilization method, an air cooling frequency stabilization method, a piezoelectric ceramic actuating frequency stabilization method and a thermal frequency stabilization method actuated by an electric heating device and the like. The thermal frequency stabilization method is a main frequency stabilization method of a double-frequency laser device. This method uses an electric heating device as an actuator to heat a laser tube, and uses a zero point of the double-longitudinal-mode optical power difference as a frequency stabilization control point. Through corresponding control algorithms, the power of the electric heating device is adjusted, so that the cavity length of a resonant cavity changes, and the laser device finally enters a stable-frequency state. In the whole process of frequency stabilization, there are three main links that influence the frequency reproducibility of the laser device.
On one hand, the problem is brought by a temperature measuring link. For process reasons of the laser tube, particularly for a problem of nonuniform thickness of a glass shell of a homemade laser tube, the temperature conduction of the whole laser tube is anisotropic, and if integral undifferentiated heating is adopted, a temperature field inside the laser tube is non-uniform. Under the effects of heat expansion and cold shrinkage, different surface heat expansion displacement of the laser tube may be caused, and axial and radial bending of the laser tube is further caused, so that an output frequency and power are caused to shift, and it cannot be compensated by controlling the power of the electric heating device.
On the other hand, an existing thermal frequency stabilization laser device uses single-point temperature measurement to represent the integral actual temperature of the laser tube, and the temperature distribution of the whole laser tube cannot be shown. For example, there is a patent of double-longitudinal-mode laser device interlocking method and device based on thermal frequency stabilization and acousto-optic frequency shift (Chinese patent CN201410308324.1). This method cannot correctly judge the changes of temperature and cavity length of the laser tube in a frequency stabilization control process, and a frequency stabilization control error is caused. Particularly, when the laser power-on and power-off time interval in two times is short, heat inside the laser tube cannot be sufficiently radiated out, the temperature gradient is obvious, and a greater measuring error will be introduced by single-point temperature measurement. It can be known according to actual experimental measurement that for a laser tube made of ordinary glass, when the stable-frequency temperature changes by 0.1° C. every time, the frequency changes by 0.2 to 0.6 MHz, and the relative frequency shift is about 10−9. This will seriously influence frequency stabilization accuracy and frequency reproducibility.
By aiming at the two above problems, some research scholars have performed a lot of corresponding researches. In order to reduce the influence of the temperature measuring mode on the frequency reproducibility of the laser device, Agilent's HP5517 inserts a heating wire into the laser tube. On one hand, the heating wire is utilized to heat the laser tube and control the cavity length. On the other hand, according to a resistance temperature coefficient of the heating wire per se, when the temperature of the laser tube changes, the resistance change of the heating wire causes voltage at two ends of the heating wire to change. A temperature measuring circuit expresses the temperature inside the laser tube through this voltage change. The heating wire is embedded inside the laser tube, so that the mode realizes high heating efficiency and the temperature measuring mode is simple. However, due to limitation of domestic processing processes, this kind of laser tube with the embedded heating wire is difficult to realize batch production.
Harbin Institute of Technology in China proposed a double-longitudinal-mode laser device frequency stabilization method based on a thermoelectric cooler (Chinese patent CN100382398: Double-Longitudinal-Mode Laser Device Frequency Stabilization Method and Device Based on Thermoelectric Cooler). The method preheats a laser tube by using a characteristic that heating is generated when reverse current is applied onto a TEC. Then, the temperature of the laser tube is controlled by controlling the magnitude and direction of the TEC current, so that an optical power difference of two longitudinal modes of a double-frequency laser device is zero, and a stable-frequency state is finally entered. The method can reduce a preheating time of the laser device, is slightly influenced by the temperature of an external environment, and can effectively improve the problem of frequency reproducibility of the laser device caused by environment influence. But a thermal structure in such a mode has defects. Due to material limitation, the thermoelectric cooler does not have flexibility and cannot cover the surface of the whole laser tube, the heat transfer between the thermoelectric cooler and the laser tube is instable, the inside of the laser tube is not uniformly heated, and the frequency stability of the laser device is influenced.
Besides the problem of frequency reproducibility of the laser device brought by heat transfer and the temperature measuring mode, a frequency stabilization control algorithm also influences the frequency stabilization effect of the laser device. The laser device in common use mainly adopts an optical power balance method. A stable-frequency discrimination condition of the method is to judge whether the optical power difference of the two longitudinal modes is zero or not. In general cases, when the optical power difference of the two longitudinal modes is controlled to be zero, it is regarded that the laser device enters a stable-frequency state. However, in a practical frequency stabilization process, due to reasons such as optical path asymmetry, noise interference and aging of the laser tube, a condition that the optical power of the two longitudinal modes increases or decreases at the same time may occur, at this moment, the optical power difference is still zero, but the total power and the cavity length of the laser device have changed, and the frequency has drifted. Therefore, the optical power balance method as an indirect feedback quantity cannot completely avoid the occurrence of this condition, and the further improvement of the frequency stability and the frequency reproducibility is limited.
Based on the above, there are two reasons why the frequency reproducibility of the laser device is low. Firstly, temperature points are different during frequency stabilization, so that final frequency stabilization work point drift is caused. A heating wire may be embedded in a foreign laser tube, but this mode is difficult to realize due to problems of process and material cost. On the other hand, the frequency stabilization algorithm will influence the frequency reproducibility of the laser device. The existing optical power balance method uses the double-longitudinal-mode optical power difference as the reference, cannot directly reflect the frequency change, and still has the problem of frequency work point drift. Therefore, the existing laser frequency stabilization technology is difficult to improve the frequency reproducibility of the laser device under the condition of high frequency stability.

High-frequency-reproducibility laser frequency stabilization method and device based on multi-point acquisition of laser tube temperature