A reliable, cost effective system and method are disclosed for exchanging fluid-filtration filters associated with electrical discharge machines (EDMs) and other applications. The basic system comprises a housing to receive the filter, the housing having a top that opens and a bottom cap with an interior inlet fitting coupled to a supply line carrying fluid to be filtered. A pair of opposing swing arms, each having one end pivotally connected to a filter cabinet or other suitable base and another end pivotally connected to an opposing side of the housing, facilitate a first state, wherein the housing and filter are vertically oriented with the bottom opening of the filter sealed against the fitting for filtering operation, and a second state, wherein the housing is pivoted such that the top is oriented downwardly allowing the filter to disengage from the fitting and slide out of the housing.

Prior art systems used to filter machine tool working fluids conventionally include an electric motor driven pump, one or more dirty side tank(s) for collecting the contaminated working fluid, a filter, a clean side tank or compartment, and (usually) a second pump to return the clean filtrate back to one or more machine tools. Representative systems are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,276,824 to Carruthers and U.S. Pat. No. 4,282,094 to Mitchell.
The industrial coolant filtering systems in U.S. Pat. No. 4,865,724 to Brandt et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,417,849 to McEwen et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 6,485,634 to Warren et al. share these characteristics. Also described in the prior art are auxiliary and/or portable filter systems for recycling machine tool working fluids such as U.S. Pat. No. 4,361,488 to White et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 5,417,851 to Yee.
Wire EDMs (Electrical Discharge Machines) require the filtration of large volumes of the working fluid, in this case deionized H2O. The filtration systems of many wire EDMs share the basic configuration of such continuous loop filtration systems. The basic features include a dirty side pump, a dirty side tank, a filter, a clean side tank, and a clean side return pump.
To properly size the filtration requirements, a unique plumbing arrangement has evolved for EDMs. The flow path of the EDM fluid in a typical wire EDM is shown in FIG. 1. Most of the filtration systems of major wire EDM manufacturers are plumbed inside-outside, that is, the dirty fluid enters the filter thru an orifice in the end cap and exits, once filtered, thru the filter media and down the sides of the element. An advantage of this system is that contaminants are contained inside the dirty filter. At change-out, minimal spillage of dirty water occurs which would foul the clean side.
To accommodate the amount of water necessary to keep the wire EDM functioning, fairly powerful pumps are utilized. This requires high burst strength vessel(s) to encapsulate the pleated filter element(s).
The metal or high strength plastic components (end caps and wrappers) necessary to this approach are both expensive and heavy. The filter element disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,935,457 to Kita et al. is of this type.
What is needed is a more user-friendly, less expensive filtration approach for wire EDMs and other fluid-filtration applications.

Economical filter changing apparatus and method for electrical discharge machines and other applications


This invention provides an automated adaptive method for identity verification of claimants that attempt to get access into a resource by responding to a sequence of identifiers. The sequence has a specified maximal length and the identifiers are partitioned into multiple groups where identifiers in the same group are correlated and identifiers in different groups are not correlated. The method guarantees that an impostor will be accepted with a probability that does not exceed a specified parameter and that a legitimate claimant will be rejected with a probability that does not exceed a different specified parameter. The method also computes the probabilities that a legitimate claimant, or an impostor, will terminate an interrogation session with an inconclusive result, which would necessitate further manual interrogation. The method is adaptive as the conditional probabilities of an impostor's responses change throughout a session of interrogation.

Today, businesses often rely on customers that access an automated resource in order to receive information, services or products. When a claimant requests access to a resource, he/she must respond to a sequence of questions about information related to a legitimate claimant, called identifiers. The resource has in storage in a trusted, previously-created database the correct responses to each of these identifiers for each legitimate claimant. Identifiers are partitioned into multiple groups, where identifiers in the same group are correlated and identifiers in different groups are regarded as being independent. For example, the identifiers may include just one voice sample, analyzed through voice recognition techniques. This identifier is likely to be regarded as being independent of any other identifier and therefore would be a group by itself. A different group may include dynamic personal identifiers such as last hotel stayed in, last sport event attended, and last show seen, where the dependence among these identifiers reflects the likelihood of a potential impostor having observed these activities by the legitimate claimant or person. Yet another group may include information on personal documents such as driver license number and multiple credit card numbers, and so forth, where the dependence among these identifiers reflects the possibility of a potential impostor having acquired the person's wallet. Some identifiers, such as voice samples or fingerprints, could be treated as providing more reliable identifiers, whereas others, such as credit-cards, do not offer the same degree of certainty, owing to the possibility of stolen or fraudulent cards.
A claimant is probed with a sequence of identifiers. The claimant's response to a single identifier is either a match, a no-match, or ambiguous. A match means the response matches the information in the database, a no-match means that it does not match the response in the database, and ambiguous means that a determination cannot be made of whether the response is a match or a no-match. The latter may occur, for example, when responding to a voice recognition identifier due to noise on the communications line. The probing session terminates either with accepting the claimed identity, thus granting the claimant access to the resource; or with rejecting the claimed identity, thus denying access to the claimant; or with terminating the session inconclusively, thus sending the claimant to further manual interrogation, typically conducted by call center personnel.
L. T. Honarvar, B. R. Witte, S. C. Fatigante, and G. L. Harless, in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/224,564, filed Aug. 21, 2002, entitled "User Authentication System and Methods Thereof", provide a system and method that use multiple groups of identifiers customized for each claimant. An identity is verified based on scoring methods, where a claimant may receive points for each match and lose points for each no-match. Although such scoring methods are very flexible, these methods do not provide quantified guarantees regarding the probabilities of erroneously accepting an impostor or erroneously rejecting a legitimate claimant. Also, these methods do not provide a quantified probability of terminating a session inconclusively.
The present invention provides an adaptive method that would be implemented on an automated system, with quantified performance guarantees, subject to the accuracy of the estimates of the basic probabilities that serve as inputs to the method. Specifically, a potential impostor would be erroneously accepted with a computed probability that does not exceed α (where α is a specified parameter, for example, α=10−6), and a legitimate claimant would be erroneously rejected with a computed probability that does not exceed β (where β is a specified parameter, for example, β=10−5). Moreover, the number of identifiers used in an identity verification session is limited to S (where S is a specified parameter, for example, S=8). Thus, if after probing S identifiers, a claimant cannot be reliably accepted or rejected, the session terminates inconclusively. The method computes the probabilities that a session for a legitimate claimant would grant access, deny access, or terminate inconclusively, and the probabilities that a session for an impostor would grant access, deny access, or terminate inconclusively. These probabilities depend on the specified values of the parameters α, β and S, and facilitate designing the access control for a resource with the appropriate balance among these parameters. These probabilities also provide guidelines for whether better identifiers, with better differentiation between a legitimate claimant and an impostor, are needed. The method is adaptive as the sequence of identifiers probed during a session depends on the responses provided by the claimant. Moreover, an impostor's conditional probabilities of responding with a match or a no-match are recomputed after each response for all correlated identifiers.

Automated adaptive method for identity verification with performance guarantees


This invention provides a process to tremendously reduce the bulk volume of contaminants obtained from an effluent stream produced subsurface remediation. The chemicals used for the subsurface remediation are reclaimed for recycling to the remediation process. Additional reductions in contaminant bulk volume are achieved by the ultra-violet light destruction of halogenated hydrocarbons, and the complete oxidation of hydrophobic fuel hydrocarbons and hydrophilic hydrocarbons. The contaminated bulk volume will arise primarily from the disposal of the toxic metal ions. The entire process is modular, so if there are any technological breakthroughs in one or more of the component process modules, such modules can be readily replaced.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to subsurface decontamination or remediation, and more particularly, to the separation of toxic metal ions, hydrophilic hydrocarbons and hydrophobic fuel and halogenated hydrocarbons from a primarily cationic flocculent, ethanol and water effluent stream.
2. Description of Related Art
The National Research Council (NRC) (1994) published a book entitled, "Alternatives to Groundwater Cleanup" that summarized the current state of the art in removing subsurface contaminants. In summary, the NRC arrived at the following conclusions. Current and developing technologies are cost-effective in remediating coarse-grained sediments (CGS) such as sands and gravels, but ineffective in removing contaminants from fine-grained sediments (FGS). The reason for the inability of present and developing technologies to remediate the FGS is primarily the very low hydraulic conductivity of FGS that effectively stops the flow of flushing fluids such as water, air and steam from penetrating the FGS and flushing contaminants away. In contrast, the CGS have hydraulic conductivities that are many orders of magnitude greater than that of FGS. Thus, advection can readily flush contaminants from such CGS.
In the copending, commonly assigned patent application, Ser. No. 08/495,294 entitled "A Nontoxic Chemical Process For In Situ Permeability Enhancement And Accelerated Decontamination Of Fine-Grain Subsurface Sediments", fully incorporated herein by reference, a method for remediating contaminated FGS is described in which safe cationic flocculents (CF) such as gypsum, ferric hydroxide, or aluminum polyhydroxide and organic solvents (OS), such as ethanol, are injected into both the subsurface saturated or groundwater zone and in the unsaturated or vadose zone to alter the FGS fabric to produce a flocculated and/or cracked material whose hydraulic conductivity is vastly increased. Both the CF and OS produce this desired result by collapsing the negative double layer surrounding the water saturated clay particles.
The organic solvent that should be considered in the subsurface remediation process should be chosen to have the following characteristics: It should not be prohibited by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from being introduced to the subsurface, must be relatively inexpensive, must have a viscosity similar to water, must have a high boiling temperature and must be soluble in water. Furthermore, the following classes of chemicals should be either miscible or highly soluble in this organic solvent: hydrophilic hydrocarbons, and the hydrophobic fuel and halogenated hydrocarbons. This organic solvent should have a dielectric constant considerably lower than that of water. An example organic solvent that meets all the above characteristics is ethanol. The process in this invention is not limited to a specific organic solvent such as ethanol provided the replacement OS meets regulatory requirements and meets or exceeds these desired characteristics listed above.
The example organic solvent, ethanol has the distinct advantage in that sorbed hydrophobic contaminants readily partition into ethanol, the hydrophobic hydrocarbon contaminants are either completely miscible or highly soluble in ethanol, and hydrophilic contaminants are readily miscible in it.
In addition, clayey bodies that constitute FGS are intrinsically negatively charged due to the persistence of the negative double layer in water saturated clays. In the unaltered state, toxic metal ions such as the radioactive series as well as substances like As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Pb, Hg, etc., cations are attached to the clay bodies. Random perturbations in the ground water flow may dislodge such contaminants, providing a continuing source of pollution for many years, even though the high hydraulic conductivity soils have been remediated.
The alteration of the clayey fabric of the FGS due to the introduction of cationic flocculents (CF), a suitable OS like ethanol, and water-and OS soluble chelates will mobilize the following contaminants: toxic metal ions, hydrophobic fuel and halogenated hydrocarbons, and hydrophilic hydrocarbons that will be extracted from the subsurface.
The economic viability of the copending patent application referred to above, that deals specifically with remediating contaminated fine-grained sediments, depends highly upon contaminated bulk reduction, since the proper disposal of contaminants is very expensive. The bulk reduction is accomplished by a special combination of existing technologies to achieve the stated goal of contaminant bulk reduction.
In current technologies dealing with the remediation of contaminated subsurfaces, the following processes are typically observed in treating the contaminant effluent stream:
1. Removal of soil particles form the effluent stream.
2. The removal of hydrocarbons by a combination of processes:
A. Air-stripping the readily volatilized hydrocarbons, and PA1 B. Adsorption of contaminants onto an activated carbon bed.
3. Ultra-violet light destruction of halogenated hydrocarbons.
4. Purification of the groundwater for reinjection.
5. Purification of the vapor phase stream.

Separation of toxic metal ions, hydrophilic hydrocarbons, hydrophobic fuel and halogenated hydrocarbons and recovery of ethanol from a process stream

The Regents of the University of California


A method of manufacturing a raised source/drain semiconductor device is disclosed. When the shallow junction technique is applied, over etching of the source/drain regions during contact etching and salicide processing will lead to current leakage. The invention provides a method which comprises depositing a buffer conductive layer above the substrate and removing a portion of this layer to form buffer conductive blocks on the source/drain regions which increase the thickness of source/drain regions.

The present invention relates to semiconductor devices and a process for their manufacture. The invention is illustrated by an example with regard to the manufacture of a raised source/drain MOSFET, and more particularly to the manufacture of an improved shallow junction MOSFET. However, it will be recognized that the invention has a wider range of applicability. For example, the invention may be applied in the manufacture of other semiconductor device such as CMOS, EPROM, logic circuits to raise the height of their doped regions for the convenience of forming the contact hole and salicide process.
Methods of manufacturing metal-oxide semiconductor field effect transistors (MOSFET) are well know in the art. For economic reasons, the smaller the dimension of the device, the more circuits can be formed in one chip and more devices can be made in one wafer. The current trend in the semiconductor industry has evolved to increase the dimension of the wafer used to manufacture the devices and to reduce the dimensions of the device.
During research on miniaturization, consideration was given to narrowing the gate width of the MOSFET. If all the design conditions are kept the same but the gate length is decreased, the channel (the distance between the source and drain) will overlap with the depletion regions of the source and drain which will lead to the short channel effect and increase sub-threshold current Id. See FIG. 1A.
The Sub-threshold Current is defined as the current passing the channel from drain to source when the gate voltage is smaller than the threshold voltage. In the other words, the sub-threshold current is the current when the MOSFET is "Off".
The motions or movement of the carriers in a semiconductor circuit can be separated into two modes; the drifting and the diffusion modes. The former is caused by the electrical field; and the latter is related to the temperature of the carriers. In a N type MOSFET, the motion of carriers is under the drifting mode when the gate voltage is higher than the threshold voltage and when the applied gate voltage is lower than the threshold voltage, the situation will change to the diffusion mode. By the nature of the carrier motion, the NMOS can be seen as a npn Bipolar Junction Transistor (BJT) having the structure "source-channel-drain" whose PN Junction between source and channel is under forward bias and the junction between channel and drain is under reverse bias so that the NMOS acts as a npn BJT. The electrons will flow from source to drain. The sub-threshold current Id is the sum-up of these electrons.
FIG. 1B shows the curves of Id related to gate voltage. It can be seen that with the decline of channel length, the sub-threshold current Id will increase. When the channel length is less than 1 um, the sub-threshold current will have a huge growth because more electrons are injecting from the source into the channel. This situation allows the operation mode of NMOS to approach or equal the active mode, even the gate voltage is smaller than the threshold voltage which means that the gate electrode has lost the ability to act as a control switch.
A highly concentrated doped substrate is used to solve the problem by limiting the depletion region diffusing into the channel. Another method for reducing the sub-threshold current is to minimize the cross section area of the channel for the scaled relationship between Id and the area which leads to the new diffusion technique: Shallow Junction MOSFET Manufacture.
Although the use of a shallow junction will solve the problem, other disadvantages happen during contact hole forming and salicide processing. Unavoidably, the source/drain regions are attacked during the contact hole etching and salicide formation. For the ultra shallow junction, over etching will cause a concave bowl in the junction which allows the contact plug to be closer to the junction edge which leads to a current leakage increase. Moreover, it may etch through the junction and destroy the transistor.
The most focused approach is to deposit a buffer conductive layer on the source/drain regions to increase the thickness so that the selective epitaxial growth (SEG) process was shown to form a raised source/drain device. The SEG process was carried out under reaction conditions at 600.about.650 degrees centigrade with 1.about.2 SCCM Si2H6 gas discussed in the paper, "RA High-Performance 0.1 um CMOS with Elevated Salicide using Novel Si-SEG Process" by Hitoshi Wakabayashi & Toyoji Yamamoto & Toru Tatsumi & Ken'ichi Tokunaga & Kakao Tamura & Tohru Mogami and Takemitsu Kunio, IEDM, 1997.
The SEG process offers a method to fabricate raised source/drain regions, but the equipment used in the SEG process is not readily available, it is not mass produced equipment so that most IC-Fabricators do not have this SEG equipment. From the above, it is seen that a raised source/drain regions MOSFET manufacturing process with mass production capability is desired in the deep sub-micro semiconductor technique. Further, once the shallow junction technique is applied to various kinds of devices such as CMOS, Flash and EEPROM, a process for raising doped regions will also be needed.

Process for manufacturing semiconductor devices having raised doped regions


A method and an arrangement for protecting a frequency converter in a system comprising a motor and a frequency converter supplying it via a bipolar or multipolar supply connection, the arrangement comprising first connecting means adapted to couple poles of the supply connection mutually substantially into short-circuit in response to a detection of a fault in the frequency converter.

A frequency converter is a device typically used to control a motor. FIG. 1 shows an example of a frequency converter connection. The frequency converter 20 is typically composed of two converters, a rectifier 21 and an inverter 22, between which is provided a direct voltage or a direct current intermediate circuit 23. The rectifier 21 and the inverter 22 may also be located physically separately, and one rectifier may supply a plurality of inverters via a common intermediate circuit 23. An example of a rectifier 21 is a diode bridge, which obtains its supply 40 from an alternating current source 10, which is for instance a 50 or 60-Hz alternating current network, and an example of an inverter 22 is an inverter bridge implemented by means of transistors (e.g. IGBT, Insulated-gate Bipolar Transistor) or other semiconductors. An inverter 22 is typically used to adjust the power transferred from the intermediate circuit 23 of the frequency converter to a motor 30. Accordingly, in the figure, the supply connection 50 between the inverter 22 and the motor 30 is for instance a three-phase alternating current connection, although the figures show the connection with one line for the sake of clarity. The control of the motor 30 with the inverter can be implemented reliably in such a manner that the motor implements accurately the desired speed or torque instruction, for example.
The frequency converter 20 typically comprises a protective diagnostics in case of internal malfunction of the frequency converter, which operate in such a manner that for instance when one branch of the semiconductor of one phase of the inverter 22 cannot be turned off (the branch shorts or gets erroneously continuous ignition regardless of the control), the diagnostics of the frequency converter detect the fault and stop the frequency converter.
The problem in the above-described arrangement is that the motor 30 is able to supply magnetization energy, i.e. what is known as reverse power via the branch of the faulty phase and the zero diodes of the other phases to the fault point, i.e. the short-circuit in the inverter 22, whereby, at worst, the semiconductor module may explode and cause great damage in the frequency converter. For example, the IGBT semiconductor module may be destroyed in said manner even during a time of less than 10 ms depending on the properties of the motor, the type of the semiconductors in the frequency converter, the voltage of the intermediate circuit 23, the output frequency at the fault moment and the position of the rotor of the motor 30 at the fault moment, for example.

Method and arrangement for protecting a frequency converter


An apparatus and method for accelerating food product in order to cause the product to be stretched aligning the fibers of the product.

Current forming technology relies on high pressure, speed and complicated material flow pathways which produce a product lacking in quality. High pressure works the meat cells, the higher the pressure the more massaging or squeezing of the meat cells takes place. High speed combined with a complicated flow path massages and works the meat product, releasing myosin/actin from the cells causing the muscle fiber to bind together and contract (protein bind). The contraction takes place during high heat application as in cooking. The action of the meat fiber is to contract in length, this contraction combined with protein bind not only shortens the muscle fiber which if not controlled causes odd cook shapes but a rubber like texture with a tough bite.
In muscle, actin is the major component of thin filaments, which together with the motor protein myosin (which forms thick filaments), are arranged into actomyosin myofibrils. These fibrils comprise the mechanism of muscle contraction. Using the hydrolysis of ATP for energy, myosin heads undergo a cycle during which they attach to thin filaments, exerting a tension, and then depending on the load, perform a power stroke that causes the thin filaments to slide past, shortening the muscle.
Muscle fibril structure is measured from micrometers to several millimeters in length. These fibril structures are bundled together to form muscles. Myofibril proteins are the largest group and probably more is known about these proteins than any other. In muscle cells actin is the scaffold on which myosin proteins generate force to support muscle contraction. Myosin is the major protein that is extracted from the muscle cells by mechanical means.
An important purpose of tumbling and massaging is to solubiliize and extract myofibril proteins to produce a protein exudate on the surface of the meat. The exudates bind the formed pieces together upon heating. Binding strength also increases with increased massaging or blending time. This is due to increased exudate formation on the surface of the meat. Crude myosin extraction is increased with increased blending time.
Grinding/chopping utilizes the concept of rupturing the cell to release protein. This mechanical chopping or shearing takes place at the shear/fill plate hole. This process extracts actin and myosin from muscle cells.
Mixing, utilizes friction and kinetic energy to release protein extraction. Fill hole shape and spacing can cause dead spots and turbulence in the meat flow. This change of direction is a form of mixing and massaging. This is another process, which extracts actin and myosin from muscle cells.
Massaging takes place almost anywhere meat comes in contact with processing equipment and is moved or has a change of direction via pressure. This is also a procedure which involves extracting actin and myosin from muscle cells.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Fiber orienting technology for a breather plate


pK-matched buffers, each containing two effective buffering components: one weak base and one weak acid which have similar pKa at 25° C. (within 0.3 pK units). On agarose gels, the buffers in various concentrations were tested for separation of double-stranded DNA fragments with various DNA markers, agarose gel concentrations, and field strengths. Mobility was inversely proportional to the logarithm of molecular weight. The buffers provided high resolution without smearing at more dilute concentration than is possible with standard TAE (Tris/Acetate, pH 8.0) or TBE (Tris/Borate, pH 8.3) buffers. The buffers were also tested in 7M urea denaturing LongRanger™ sequencing gels and in non-denaturing polyacrylamide SSCP gels. The pK-matched buffers provide good separation and high resolution, at a broad range of potential pH values. In comparison to TAE and TBE, pK-matched buffers provide higher voltage and current stability, lower working concentration, more concentrated stock solutions, and lower current per unit voltage, resulting in less heat generation.

Since Tiselius pioneered electrophoretic separation of human serum albumin, a-, β- and γ-globulin in 1937, electrophoresis of biological molecules has been critical to biomedical research (1). Electrophoretic analysis has become more sophisticated, specialized and useful as new types of electrophoresis are developed (2,3). McDonell et al. and Southern offered detailed descriptions of standard agarose gel electrophoresis and its use for DNA analysis (4,5). Pulsed-field agarose gel electrophoresis is an alternative for separation of very large DNA fragments up to 2000 kb (6). Another important application is polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis for separation of small DNA segments, such as dideoxy sequencing analysis (7,8) and SSCP analysis (9–11).
Electrophoresis of nucleic acids in agarose and polyacrylamide gels is generally performed with TAE or TBE buffers. These buffers perform well in many applications, but certain limitations exist. A key limitation is buffering capacity which determines the working concentration and, in turn, determines the rate at which electrophoresis can occur without distortions due to heating. Limiting buffer capacity may require a change of buffer when long electrophoresis times are required, e.g., in mutation scanning using restriction endonuclease fingerprinting or SSCP. TAE buffer cannot be used for sequencing gels because of its low buffering capacity and TAE has a relatively low solubility, such that the maximal stock solution is 20× (2,3). Typically, laboratories that perform sequencing or SSCP-type mutation scanning prepare large volumes of stock solution.

pK-matched running buffers for gel electrophoresis


A backplateless silicon microphone and a wire protection method for improved impact resistance are disclosed. A circular diaphragm is surrounded by a circular spring having a plurality of slots and perforations to facilitate air damping reduction, release of in-plane stress, and improve out-plane flexibility. Anchored at a substrate, the circular spring holds the silicon microphone suspended over a backside hole in the substrate but allows the diaphragm to vibrate perpendicular to the substrate. A microphone variable capacitor is formed between the perforated spring and substrate. Slot size is minimized to prevent particles from entering an underlying air gap. A plurality of “n” bonding pads near the outer edge of the circular spring are connected by “n/2” bonding wires that serve as a stopper to restrict an upward motion of the diaphragm. The bonding wires may cross each other to enable lower loop height for more effective resistance to impact.

In the fast growing consumer electronic product market, there is increasing competition not only in product functionality but also in product reliability performance. For hand held electronic gadgets, the impact proof requirement is becoming more and more stringent. It is not unusual now to require a hand held device like a mobile phone to survive the impact from a 5000 gram weight and/or a free drop from a height of 1.5 meters to a steel plate, a process that can be repeated up to 10 times during a test.
Another electronic device that is also tested under similar conditions, a backplateless silicon microphone, was previously disclosed in a Silicon Matrix Pte Ltd patent application S106-002 and features a movable diaphragm which is supported at its edges, corners, or center by mechanical springs that are anchored to a conductive substrate through rigid pads. In addition, there are stoppers formed above perforated plate extensions of the diaphragm that restrict large movements in a direction perpendicular to an underlying backside hole and thereby minimize breakage. However, the stopper components complicate the fabrication process and there may be a compatibility issue between the stopper and the silicon membrane to which it is attached. Therefore, an improved silicon microphone design is desirable that features a structure to prevent device breakage from strong impact and can be made by a method that does not add complexity to the fabrication process or result in compatibility issues between various components.

Silicon microphone with enhanced impact proof structure using bonding wires


An information processing system capable of appropriate precise access control is provided. The information processing system of this invention includes an access controller capable of data transmission/reception, and a computer system connectable to a network via the access controller. The computer system includes an acquiring unit for acquiring user identification information for identifying a user, and application identification information for identifying an application which accesses the network, and an adding unit for generating an IP address on the basis of the acquired user identification information and application identification information, and adding the IP address to data to be transmitted via the application. The access controller includes an access control unit for controlling access to the network on the basis of the IP address added to the transmitted data.

With the spread of the Internet, the Internet infiltrates into people's lives, and at the same time negative factors such as damages caused by inappropriate information or computer viruses increase. In particular, a reduction in productivity and the problem of security management resulting from personal use of the Internet in enterprises are beginning to be pointed out in recent years. Examples are inappropriate access to Web sites during work time and an information leak by mail from inside companies to the outside. Also, in schools and the like, it is becoming necessary to limit Internet access, e.g., conceal harmful information on WWW (World Wide Web) from students or block unsolicited bulk mail and spam mail.
To solve such problems, techniques which limit Internet access by Internet filtering, i.e., software, conventionally exist. Representative techniques are a URL (Unique Resource Locator) check method and a rating/filtering method. In the former method, a URL list indicating permission or rejection of access to each URL is formed, and a URL requested by a user is compared with the URLs in the list, thereby controlling access to resources. In the latter method, Web pages are rated in accordance with predetermined standards, and access is controlled with reference to the result of rating.
Unfortunately, both the conventional techniques control access at a terminal which uses the Internet, i.e., perform the control by using URLs and external resources regardless of a user who uses the Internet.
Accordingly, it is impossible to control access for each user who uses the terminal or for each application, and set details of this access control.

Network address generating system, network address generating apparatus and method, program and storage medium


A method and apparatus for separating air in which a compressed and purified air stream is cooled in a main heat exchanger. Thereafter, the compressed and purified air is separated in a distillation column system to produce product streams. The product streams warm within the main heat exchanger by indirectly exchanging heat with the compressed and purified air stream. One or more of the product streams is distributed to a plurality of vortex tubes at successively warmer temperatures so that warm and cold streams produced thereby become successively warmer and one or more of the warm streams has a temperature warmer than that of said compressed and purified air stream upon its introduction into said main heat exchanger. All but the warm stream(s) having the warmer temperature are recycled back to said main heat exchanger to participate in the indirect heat exchange and heat is rejected by discharging said warm stream(s) so that heat is rejected at the warmer temperature and refrigeration is produced.

The present invention relates to a method and apparatus in which compressed and purified air is cooled in a main heat exchanger and is then separated in a distillation column to produce a product stream that warms within the main heat exchanger. More particularly, the present invention relates to such a method and apparatus in which one or more of the product streams is distributed to a plurality of vortex tubes operated at successively warmer temperatures so that at least one of the vortex tubes produces a warm stream at a temperature warmer than the compressed and purified air upon its introduction into the main heat exchanger to generate refrigeration.
Air is separated by a variety of well-known cryogenic rectification processes. In such processes, the air is compressed and then purified to remove moisture, carbon dioxide and hydrocarbons. The compressed and purified air is then cooled within a main heat exchanger before being introduced into a distillation column system. The distillation column system can be a single column designed to produce nitrogen as a tower overhead or one in which the air is introduced into an intermediate location thereof so that an oxygen product is also produced as a column bottoms. Another common distillation column system is a double column having higher and lower pressure columns associated with one another in a heat transfer relationship. The higher pressure column produces nitrogen as a tower overhead which is in part condensed to reflux both the higher and lower pressure columns. The column bottoms produced in the higher pressure column is introduced into the lower pressure column for further refinement to produce an oxygen product.
Since all of the systems discussed above operate at cryogenic temperatures, the main heat exchanger and distillation column system must be insulated from the environment by an external structure known as a cold box. Nevertheless, there is heat leakage through the cold box and also warm end losses due to the temperature of the incoming air. As a result, any low temperature rectification process must be refrigerated in order for the process to remain in heat balance. To this end, refrigeration is generated by expansion machines such as turboexpanders. Either part of the incoming air or vaporized liquid bottoms or nitrogen may be heated and then expanded to a low temperature. Refrigeration is generated because energy is dissipated from the system as shaft work. For instance, the turboexpander can be connected to an electrical generator or an energy dissipative oil brake.
Turboexpanders and expansion machines, however, add expense and complexity to any air separation plant. As will be discussed, the present invention provides a method and apparatus for separating air does not use expansion machines such as turboexpanders and thus, produces a simpler and more cost effective plant than has been considered in the prior art.


A writing instrument is disclosed having a tubular shaft. A grip is provided having a contoured surface for facilitating manual gripping of the writing instrument. The grip is axially aligned with, and attached to one end of, the shaft. A marking mechanism is also provide for producing marks. The marking mechanism is, axially aligned with, and has a first end attached to an end of, the grip opposite the shaft.

There are numerous types of manual writing instruments such as fountain pens, ball point pens, mechanical pencils, felt tip markers, etc. Each is typically held in one hand while producing marks on a piece of paper. Herein, a writing instrument is said to have a tubular shaft with a marking mechanism connected to one end of the shaft for producing marks. Examples of marking mechanisms include a pen point (e.g., ball point) connected to a cylindrical ink cartridge which extends in a direction opposite to the pen point within the tubular shaft and a pencil lead (actually a cylindrical graphite stick) having a pencil point at one end thereof for producing marks on a writing surface such as a paper sheet.
In a typical manual grip of a conventional writing instrument, the portion of the shaft of the writing instrument near the marking mechanism is rested on the side of the top knuckle of the third finger. Simultaneously, pressure is applied with the index finger at approximately +120.degree. rotation about the shaft from the middle finger, and with the thumb at approximately -120.degree. rotation about the shaft from the middle finger. Often, in order to produce satisfactory marks, or simply by virtue of the writing style of the operator, heavy pressure is transmitted from the hand gripping the writing instrument to the marking mechanism portion which contacts the writing surface. This tends to transmit strain to the fingers and wrist of the operator, particularly if the writing instrument is used over long periods of time. This strain can also produce callouses in on the fingers, particularly the middle finger.
It is an object of the present invention to overcome the disadvantages of the prior art.


Techniques are described herein that are capable of generating a compliance data model for information technology (IT) control. The compliance data model is capable of capturing data from technologies (e.g., software programs, file systems, etc.) and/or developers of those technologies for determining compliance of the technologies with regulations. The compliance data model may be used to automate generation of artifacts. Each artifact is machine-readable code that includes instructions regarding how to implement a control. A control is a software container that is associated with one or more elements, such as a control objective, a control activity, a control activity test, etc. The artifacts are usable by management systems to obtain data regarding installed technologies, settings of the technologies, configurations of the technologies, events that are being utilized by the technologies, etc. The management systems may use the data to generate reports regarding compliance of the technologies with the regulations.

Organizations often expend substantial resources to manually determine a state of compliance of their assets (e.g., information, technology, processes, people, etc.) in pursuit of their goals and mission. For instance, organizations often use human developers to manually perform operations, such as (1) interpreting authority documents (e.g., SoX, PCI, and other regulations) to determine controls that are applicable to an asset; (2) interpreting whether a control applies to an asset; (3) determining how to apply the control to targeted assets; (4) determining how to test integrity of an application of the control; and (5) generating test results to validate proper implementation of the control. Accordingly, substantial time, manual effort, and hard-learned expertise regarding compliant use of the organization's information technology (IT) environment is traditionally used to determine the state of compliance.
Developers traditionally expend substantial effort to extract knowledge from technology because the developers lack guidance and face a vast unstructured body of data to find, interpret in a control context, and stay abreast of as technology, practices, and authority documents evolve. The manual aspect of conventional techniques for determining compliance often causes such techniques to be relatively inefficient. Moreover, conventional techniques typically determine compliance one authority document at a time, leading to further inefficiency. Furthermore, the inefficiencies of conventional techniques are often compounded by relatively high error rates, trial failures, expensive experts to assist in performing the compliance techniques, and/or multiple iterations to successfully implement such techniques.

Generating a compliance data model for IT control


A hybrid connector jack assembly for use in association with an electronic device comprising an audio jack component and a coaxial connector jack component. The audio jack component is coupled to an electronic circuit and has a proximal end and a distal end, an elongated opening extends from the proximal end to the distal end. It is structurally configured to receive a male audio connector. The coaxial connector jack component positioned at the distal end of the audio jack component and accessible through the elongated opening of the audio jack component. This allows for the insertion of a coaxial cable through the audio jack component and into operative engagement with the coaxial connector jack component.

1. Field of the Disclosure
The disclosure relates in general to connector jacks associated with electronic devices, and more particularly, to a hybrid connector jack for an electronic device. The hybrid connector jack is configured for receipt of a coaxial connector or an audio connector (such as a tip, ring, sleeve connector) through the same opening.
2. Background Art
Electronic devices increasingly allow for the use of an outside audio source or an outside audio speaker. Such devices include mobile phones which are configured with a conventional audio jack of the type that accommodates common audio connectors which are commonly referred to as a tip, ring, sleeve connector or configuration (differing types include, but are not limited to TRS, TS and TRRS connectors) in a 2.5 mm or 3.5 mm size. While other connectors are available, these tend to be the most commonly utilized connectors for audio transmission between the mobile device and an outside speaker and/or microphone.
Additionally, many devices have a coaxial connector jack typically spaced apart from the audio jack and configured for the attachment of a coaxial connection. For mobile phones, such a coaxial connection comprises an RF connection that is commonly utilized, for example, for an outside antenna. These coaxial connector jacks are often found on the back of a mobile phone. As these coaxial connector jacks are exposed, when not in use, coaxial connector jacks are typically covered with a grommet or a plug.
Problematically, with electronic devices including greater features in ever smaller sizes, it has become difficult to provide enough space on the body of the electronic devices for an audio jack much less another jack, such as a coaxial connector jack. Thus, many electronic devices have removed the coaxial connector jack which lessens the versatility and applicability of a number of electronic devices.
Even when provided, additional parts are required for the requirement of a grommet or plug to cover the coaxial connector jack. Furthermore, additional assembly time is required to assemble the grommet or plug. Finally, due to the shallow nature of the coaxial connector jack, the plug is often lost, leaving the coaxial connector core or outer shield susceptible to damage.

Hybrid connector jack for an electronic device


A scheduler for a set of data packet storage devices (e.g., FIFOs) implements a scheduling algorithm embodied in a look-up table (LUT) that identifies the next FIFO to select for service based on the current status of the FIFOs. In one embodiment, in addition to a memory device used to store the LUT, the scheduler has (1) a latch adapted to store and forward the LUT output and (2) an extractor that implements a finite state machine that determines (1) when to enable the latch and (2) when to forward the identification of the next FIFO to select for service to the set of FIFOs. Using a LUT enables relatively complicated scheduling algorithms to be implemented for relatively large numbers of FIFOs without significantly increasing the execution time of the scheduler.

In recent years, many communications systems have moved away from time-division multiplexed (TDM) systems to higher-speed, and more-flexible, packet-based systems. These packet-based systems often include elements that switch and translate packets of data between numerous different communications protocols. This processing often relies on FIFO buffers to store and forward data packets. Often a different FIFO is used to buffer data from each independent communication channel in order to prevent blockage by packets from other channels. Since many high-speed packet protocols support multiple independent data channels, the task of efficiently inserting and extracting packets into and out of these buffers can be challenging. This is because, with several FIFOs in the system, determining which FIFO to service next, and how to service it, may depend on several variables, including information on which FIFO is currently being serviced, as well as a scheduling algorithm that might depend on each of the other FIFO's status information (e.g., data available status) and the status of the service process (e.g., extracting packets).
The function of determining which FIFO to service next is typically implemented using a finite state machine (FSM)-based device referred to as a FIFO scheduler. In programmable, hardware-based solutions, such as field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) and the like, FIFO schedulers are implemented using FSMs that use combinatorial feedback logic. Typically, the more FIFOs that need to be scheduled and/or the more complicated the FIFO scheduling algorithm, the more complex the combinatorial feedback logic needed to implement the FSM of the FIFO scheduler. In order to keep the size and the execution time delay associated with FSM implementation and operation, respectively, at acceptable levels, either the number of FIFOs or the complexity of the FIFO scheduling algorithm is limited or both. This imposes undesirable constraints on such hardware-based solutions, often resulting in less-than-optimal implementations.

Table-based scheduler for FIFOs and the like


A laminar article with good barrier properties to oxygenated and hydrocarbon compounds is prepared by blending a polyolefin with about 2 to 39% of a melt blend of a nylon and a polyvinyl alcohol component, using an alkylcarboxyl-substituted polyolefin as a compatibilizer.

Laminar articles of a polyolefin and a condensation polymer are described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,410,482 to Subramanian. In particular such laminar articles derived from a polyolefin and nylon have been found to be useful as containers for liquid hydrocarbons, including fuel tanks for motor vehicles. Recent changes in gasoline technology have led to the addition of oxygenated compounds, such as methanol, to an ever increasing proportion of the hydrocarbon fuels now marketed. The loss of a fuel mixture of oxygenated compounds and hydrocarbons by diffusion through the walls of a container with a laminar structure of polyolefin and nylon has in general been found to be sufficiently great as to be unacceptable from an environmental standpoint.
Similar laminar articles in which the nylon barrier resin has been replaced with polyvinyl alcohol or ethylene/vinyl alcohol copolymers have been disclosed in European Patent Application 0015556. These laminar structures have also been found to provide an inadequate barrier towards hydrocarbons containing oxygenated compounds.
Thus a need exists for improved containers for the storage of mixtures of hydrocarbons and oxygenated compounds, such as gas tanks and cans.

Process of making laminar articles of a polyolefin and a nylon/polyvinyl alcohol blend


Embodiments of the present invention generally provide an inactivated chimeric virus vaccine and/or immunogenic composition for the treatment or prevention of viral infection. Further, various other embodiments of the present invention generally relate to methods of preventing and treating virus infection in such animals with the inactivated vaccine and/or immunogenic composition. Other embodiments comprise methods of preparing a vaccine or immunogenic composition for the treatment or prevention of viral infection in such animals.

Flaviviruses are small, enveloped, positive-strand RNA viruses that are of concern in many medical and veterinary settings throughout the world. West Nile virus (WN, or WNV), for example, which is a member of the flavivirus family, is the causative agent of WN encephalitis, an infectious, non-contagious, arthropod-borne viral disease (In Virology, Fields (ed.), Raven-Lippincott, New York, 1996, pp. 961-1034). The virus has been found in Africa, western Asia, the Middle East, the Mediterranean region of Europe, and, recently, in the United States. Mosquitoes become infected with the virus after feeding on infected wild birds, and then transmit the virus through bites to humans, birds, and animals, such as horses, sheep, cattle, and pigs.
West Nile virus is an emerging infectious disease. West Nile virus was first isolated in Uganda in 1937. Today it is most commonly found in Africa, West Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. However, it made its first recognized appearance in the United States in 1999. By 2004, the virus had been found in birds and mosquitoes in every state except Alaska and Hawaii.
Other well-known diseases caused by flaviviruses include yellow fever, Japanese encephalitis, Dengue, and Saint Louis encephalitis. Flavivirus infections are commonly transmitted by ticks and/or mosquitoes.
The primary hosts for West Nile are only mosquitoes and birds. Other animal species, such as humans, and animals, such as horses, sheep, cattle, and pigs, and the like are thought only to be incidental hosts that become infected when an infected female mosquito bites the incidental host.
People who contract West Nile virus usually experience only mild symptoms including fever, headache, body aches, skin rash, and swollen lymph glands. If West Nile virus enters the brain, however, it can cause life-threatening encephalitis or meningitis. Life-threatening cases primarily occur in the elderly. Recent studies have shown that West Nile virus can be transmitted through blood transfusions and organ transplants. Some health experts also believe it is possible for West Nile virus to be transmitted from a mother to her unborn child, and through breast milk.
There are many development projects for West Nile virus vaccine approaches, including live chimeric vaccines (which combine genes from more than one virus into a single vaccine), naked DNA vaccines, and vaccines containing cocktails of individual West Nile proteins, and the like. However, there is no approach making use of an inactivated chimeric vaccine.
Flavivirus proteins are produced by translation of a single, long open reading frame to generate a polyprotein, which undergoes a complex series of post-translational proteolytic cleavages by a combination of host and viral proteases to generate mature viral proteins. The virus structural proteins are arranged in the polyprotein in the order C-prM-E, where "C" is capsid, "prM" is a precursor of the viral envelope-bound M (membrane) protein, and "E" is the envelope protein. These proteins are present in the N-terminal region of the polyprotein, while the non-structural proteins (NS1, NS2A, NS2B, NS3, NS4A, NS4B, and NS5) are located in the C-terminal region of the polypeptide.
In 2003, human clinical trials of a West Nile live, attenuated virus vaccine were begun by Acambis (Cambridge, Mass.). The Acambis live, attenuated vaccine is based on a vaccine already used for preventing yellow fever, a disease caused by a different flavivirus.
One Acambis live, attenuated vaccine contains genes from two different viruses, yellow fever and West Nile, and is an example of a chimeric virus. This Acambis live, attenuated vaccine comprises a Yellow Fever virus with a few genes replaced with genes for surface proteins of West Nile virus.
Details of making this live, attenuated chimeric Acambis vaccine are provided, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,962,708 and 6,696,281 and Chambers et al., J. Virol. 73:3095-3101, 1999, which are each incorporated by reference herein in their entirety. Further methods of use and diagnostics for the Acambis live, attenuated chimeric vaccine are provided in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,682,883 and 6,878,372, which are each incorporated by reference herein in their entirety.
The results of such live, attenuated vaccines have proven successful and trials continue. However, certain risks may accompany the use of a live, attenuated virus vaccine. These risks are even more pronounced for immuno-compromised subjects, the elderly subjects, pregnant subjects, and other subjects with a weakened or stressed immune system. Quite often, live, attenuated virus vaccines have been demonstrated to be either under-attenuated (cause disease) or over-attenuated (fail to immunize). It is also possible for an optimally-attenuated live virus vaccine to revert to a virulent (disease-causing) form through mutation. However, it should be noted that the YF-WN from Acambis has shown no indication of reversion to virulence. There are additional concerns with live attenuated vaccines. For example, live Dengue viruses are also sensitive to heat, making it difficult and costly to maintain the vaccine in some tropical and subtropical countries where the vaccine may be needed most. Accordingly, a vaccine is needed in the art for safely treating and/or preventing flavivirus infections, such as West Nile, in subjects with these or other similar risks. Particularly for those who are immune compromised or other subjects most at risk.
However, the state of the art is that an inactivated chimeric virus vaccine is undesirable and would not be effective. U.S. Pat. No. 6,432,411 reported that efforts to make killed flavivirus vaccines have met with limited success. Primarily the studies were limited by the inability to obtain adequate virus yields from cell culture systems. Virus yields from insect cells are generally in the range of 104 to 105 pfu/ml, well below the levels necessary to generate a cost-effective killed vaccine. Yields from mammalian cells including LLC-MK2 and Vero cells were higher, but the peak yields, approximately 108 pfu/ml from a unique Vero cell line, are still lower than necessary to achieve a truly cost-effective vaccine product.
Accordingly, the art teaches away from the use of inactivated flaviviruses as viable vaccine candidates. Moreover, there is no teaching of an inactivated chimeric vaccine for treating or preventing any flavivirus infection.


A computer-implemented method and mechanism represents system management information for components of a system as instances of managed object classes. A plurality of tables are provided with at least one table including instance entries for instances of physical object classes representing physical entities. Attribute entries for attributes of the physical object classes are mapped to instance entries in the tables. The allocation of attributes to attribute entries can be effected so as to mirror a class inheritance hierarchy. Also, attributes of logical object classes representing logical entities are mapped to the tables to represent associations between the physical object classes and the logical object classes.

This invention relates to the representation of class associations within a class inheritance hierarchy.
A collection of resources or components within a system can typically be represented as a hierarchy of objects. Such a representation can be helpful for management, for example for remote management of part or all of the system.
The Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) provides a means for monitoring and managing systems remotely via a network. More information on SNMP can be found in RFC2576 and RFC2578 from the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). Nodes of a system managed under SNMP have an associated SNMP agent that interfaces with a management interface at the node via the SNMP protocol and exposes portions of the node's management interfaces to SNMP managers on the network. The representation of this information is defined in a Management Information Base (MIB) specified using a notation known as the Structure of Management Information, the definition of version 2 of which may also be obtained from the IETF.
The system/devices that are represented by the MIB are viewed as a collection of managed objects, each of which may be said to be of a given object class. The attributes of multiple instances of such a class are generally represented within the MIB using SNMP tables.
The Telecommunications Management Network (TNM) network management model defines a class hierarchy of such managed object classes. However, SNMP does not provide a mechanism for presenting instances of classes from within such an inheritance hierarchy. SNMP tables do not provide a structure whereby the hierarchical relationships can be represented. A consequential disadvantage of this is that the conventional tabular approach of SNMP provides for only limited extensibility, and the structure of the tables is inflexible.
A co-pending U.S. application Ser. No. 09/796,931, filed Feb. 28, 2001, assigned to the present assignee, describes a computer-implemented method and apparatus that can represent system management information for components of the system as instances of object classes within a defined inheritance hierarchy. The class inheritance hierarchy can include multiple levels below an object class including at least a first level below the object class and a second level below the first level. A first level object class at the first level can form an instance of the class and a second level object class at the second level can form an instance at the first level object class. Each instance of an object class can have an attribute with a value representing a characteristic of that instance of the object class. The method and apparatus can involve populating a plurality of tables, the tables being allocated to respective object classes at the multiple levels. The tables can be populated with instance entries for instances of the object classes to which the tables are allocated. The instance entries in the tables can be populated with attribute entries for an attribute of the object classes. The allocation of attributes to the attribute entries can be effected so as to mirror the class inheritance hierarchy. Attributes common to multiple instances of a predetermined object class can be held in the table for that object class. This approach can be applied throughout the object hierarchy. The class can be represented in a Management Information Base (MIB) table with the classes at lower levels in the hierarchy being represented by respective extension tables. The extension tables are typically sparsely populated enabling the representation of the hierarchy with MIB extension tables spread across an appropriate number of MIBs to accommodate the classes required.
Although the method and apparatus described in U.S. Ser. No. 09/796,931 can provide a table-based representation of classes within a defined class inheritance hierarchy that is flexible and extensible, it is directed to the management of a collection of managed objects, each of which relates to a physical entity within that defined class inheritance hierarchy. The remains a need, however, to address, in a flexible and extensible manner, the provision of a management structure that can accommodate logical and physical managed entities, wherein the logical entities may be realized by one or more physical entries.

Apparatus and method for associating classes


Disclosed is a recording apparatus for editing data and recording a file which is an editing result. The apparatus is configured by a file generating section for generating a file and a recording section for recording the file which is generated by the file generating section, in a recording medium. The file is composed of a management information block and a data block. The management information block has at least an image management track for storing management information necessary for reproducing image data with respect to each predetermined unit reproducing time, an identifier of the image management track, and a display control track for storing management information of display control data which is composed of a display position of an image which corresponds to the image data. The data block is capable of storing data which is managed by the management information block.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to recording apparatus and method, reproducing apparatus and method, recording and reproducing apparatus and method, and a program, and in particular, relates to recording apparatus and method, reproducing apparatus and method, recording and reproducing apparatus and method, and a program which are configured in such a manner that it is possible to easily edit and reproduce a display position of image data.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventionally, as a multimedia-compatible file format, QuickTime (trademark) file format (hereinafter, referred to as QT format) has been widely known.
In this QT format, actual data due to images (moving images and still images) or sounds is collected up and blocked, and in addition, separately from these actual data blocks, management information for managing actual data is collected up and blocked. Hereinafter, the suchlike block is referred to as Atom, and Atom, in which actual data is collected up, is referred to as Movie Data Atom, and Atom, in which management information is collected up, is referred to as Movie Atom.
In Movie Atom, a track (Atom), which is composed of a hierarchical structure for collecting up and managing management information with respect to each attribute, is formed. Concretely speaking, in case that media data is configured by image data and sound data, in Movie Atom, a video track and an audio track are formed, respectively, and corresponding actual data of Movie Data Atom is managed by each track, respectively.
In QT format in which information of actual data is managed in this manner, on the occasion of displaying image data (Graphic data) such as JPEG (Joint Photographic Expert Group) and PNG (Portable Network Graphics), in order to specify its display position, as shown in Non-Patent Document 1, matrix information in tkhd (Track Header) Atom of a video track for managing image data has to be set up to a predetermined value.
Non-Patent Document 1: "QuickTime File Format", P211, P212, [online] Mar. 1, 2001, U.S. Apple Computer Inc., [searched on Jul. 21, 2004], Internet <http://developer.apple.com/documentation/QuickTime/FileFor matSpecification-data.html>
However, since this tkhd ATM can simply specify one way for all reproducing time of a video track, for example, in case of desiring to change a display position of image data by time, or, in case of desiring to display the same image data at different display positions simultaneously, etc., it becomes necessary to prepare video track files to the number of display positions. On this account, there was such a problem that entire Movie Atom, in which management information is collected up, is enlarged, and recording and reproducing processing of a file becomes complex.
The invention is made in view of the suchlike circumstances, and enables to easily edit and reproduce a display position of image data.

Recording apparatus and method, reproducing apparatus and method, recording and reproducing apparatus and method, and program


A filter element comprises a filter media and a restriction indicator device. The restriction indicator device comprises an attachment portion and a movable portion. The attachment portion is attachable to a portion of the filter assembly. The movable portion is movable relative to the attachment portion between a non-buckled position and a buckled position. The movable portion moves from the non-buckled position to the buckled position once a predetermined pressure drop between an upstream side and a downstream side of the movable portion of the restriction indicator device is met.

After a certain amount of use, filter elements need to be replaced. However, in many conventional filter assemblies, it is typically very difficult to determine when the filter element needs to be replaced. Many filter elements do not have any pressure sensor or restriction indicator to indicate when the filter element should be replaced. Instead, the users simply replace the filter element on a regular basis, without testing for restriction, which may cause the filter element to be prematurely replaced, well before the end of the life of the filter element, since the user has no way of knowing the actual restriction and pressure drop across the filter element. Visual inspection of the amount of contaminant on the filter surface of the filter element is not reliable.
Some conventional filter elements include conventional restriction indicator devices that are typically placed downstream of the filter element and the filter assembly housing. These conventional restriction indicator devices are relatively expensive, take up a significant amount of space, and require a pressure port to be built or integrated into the filter assembly or downstream ducting. Furthermore, such conventional restriction indicator devices cause the filter assembly (in particular the housing of the filter assembly) to be substantially more complex and complicated (due to a large number of components and additional fittings and mold complications). Additionally, such conventional restriction indicator devices require at least periodic resetting.
Some conventional restriction indicator devices use a spring mechanism mounted on a fitting on the outlet tube of an air filter assembly. These conventional restriction indicator devices are typically reusable and require the user to reset the device at each filter replacement. Additionally, such devices are relatively expensive and require additional fittings to be added to the filter housing, thereby adding cost and complexity.

Restriction indicator device for filter assembly


An electrical connector assembly (1) comprises a male connector (10) and a female connector (30). The male connector has an elongate first insulative housing (12) and a plurality of male contacts (20) and the female connector has an elongate second insulative housing (31) and a plurality of female contacts (40). Each male contact has a mating portion (22) that can simultaneously contact a first and a second mating portions (44), (42) of the female contact such that a steady and liable electrical connection therebetween is established.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the art of electrical connectors, more particularly to electrical contacts of electrical connector assemblies for improving the performance of electrical connection therebetween.
2. Description of the Related Art
A connector assembly generally includes a male and a female connector mounted respectively on two spaced PC boards and adapted to mate with each other for mechanical and electrical interconnection therebetween. Each male and female connector commonly includes a miniature and elongate insulative housing that is manufactured by injection molding. The housing of the male connector is apt to deform in a lateral direction as a result of the remnant stress acting thereon. However, the level of deformation at both ends of the housing is different with the level of deformation at a middle portion of the housing. Therefore, side walls of the housing are inclined not to be planar. In such case, electrical contacts defined in the housing correspondingly offset from its correct positions such that the normal force between certain male contacts of the male connector and the female contacts of the female connector may become insufficient when the male connector and the female connector are mated. As a result, a reliable electrical connection between the male connector and the female connector cannot be assured.
Therefore, an object of the invention is to provide an electrical connector assembly wherein male contacts of a male connector can establish a stable contact with corresponding female contacts of a female connector for preventing an unstable electrical connection therebetween.
According to an aspect of the invention, an electrical connector assembly in accordance with the present invention comprises a male connector and a female connector. The male connector has an elongate first insulative housing and a plurality of male contacts defined therein. Each male contact has a mating portion retained in the first housing and a tail portion bent vertically from the mating portion and extending out from the first housing. Each female connector has an elongate second insulative housing and a plurality of female contacts defined therein. Each female contact has a base portion extending outside of the second housing, and a first and second mating portions bent vertically and extending upwardly from the base portion, respectively. The first and second mating portions are approximately parallel with each other and define a space therebetween for receiving the mating portion of the male contact therein. Thus, the mating portion of the male contact contacts with both the first and the second mating portions of the female contact such that a stable and liable electrical connection therebetween is established.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the present invention will be drawn from the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment of the present invention with attached drawings, in which:


Microfluidic methods and systems for detecting levels of microorganisms via Mie forward light scattering. The systems and methods of the present invention can be customized so as to optionally maximize scatter from the particle immunoagglutination and minimize that of the sample matrix, e.g., via selection of parameters particle diameter d, wavelength of incident λ, and/or scatter angle θ. Methods feature providing beads conjugated with an antibody specific for the microorganism, mixing beads with a sample to form a first mixture; providing a control mixture; irradiating the mixtures with incident light; detecting forward light scattering scattered by the first mixture at a first angle with respect to the incident light and forward scattered light scattered by the control the same first angle with respect to the incident light; determining I and I0 from the light scattering; comparing I with I0; and determining a level of the microorganism.

Illnesses caused by foodborne pathogens range from mild gastrointestinal infections to life-threatening hemorrhagic colitis, haemolytic uremic syndrome, and thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura. Outbreaks of foodborne pathogens have recently increased in fresh produce. Conventional detection methods often require sample preparation (cell lysis and filtration) and concentration (cell culturing), which can be time consuming.
The present invention features methods and devices (e.g., microfluidic methods and microfluidic devices) for detecting microorganisms via Mie scattering. The devices may be hand-held and highly portable. As used herein, the term "microorganisms" includes bacteria, archaea, protists, fungi, microscopic plants (e.g., algae), microscopic animals (e.g., plankton), and viruses. For example, an embodiment wherein a device detects a microorganism includes a device that detects a bacteria or a virus, etc. The devices of the present invention may quantify increased light scattering due to immunoagglutination (e.g., immunoagglutination in a sample in the device).
Any feature or combination of features described herein are included within the scope of the present invention provided that the features included in any such combination are not mutually inconsistent as will be apparent from the context, this specification, and the knowledge of one of ordinary skill in the art. Additional advantages and aspects of the present invention are apparent in the following detailed description and claims.

Devices and methods for detection of microorganisms via MIE scattering

THE ARIZONA BOARD OF REGENTS ON BEHALF OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA


A method and apparatus for the operation of a vehicle with a plurality of electric motors includes an electric motor assigned to each wheel of an axle of the vehicle. Attached to each of the electric motors is a shiftable transmission (at least two-speeds). Shifting of a transmission is performed as a function of the total efficiency of the particular motor when reaching a predetermined shifting point. The transmissions attached to the electric motors are shifted, delayed in time. The shifting of the transmission attached to a first electric motor is monitored and the shifting of a transmission attached to a second motor is performed only when the shifting of the first transmission is completed. No interruption of the traction force occurs in the drive system.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention concerns apparatus and methods for driving a vehicle utilizing a plurality of motors, and in particular to such apparatus and methods wherein an electrical motor is assigned to a switchable transmission and to a wheel of an axle of a vehicle.
2. Description of Related Technology
Electrical motors find increasing application today for driving vehicles, especially for driving utility vehicles in street traffic (see, for example, Wust, B., Muiller, R., and Lange, A., "An Electrical Single-Wheel Drive for the City Buses of the Future," DER NAHVERKEHR, 6/1994, Alba Fachverlag, Duisseldorf).
Electric motors have operating regions with very good efficiency and other operating regions with lower efficiency. When electrical motors, such as those described in the above article, are used in vehicles, the drive system is generally designed so that the majority of the operation takes place in the motor operating regions exhibiting an optimum efficiency. However, due to necessary rpm regions, operation in regions of lower efficiency cannot be avoided. Therefore, in various individual applications, a transmission is attached to the electric motor.
A disadvantage of some transmissions is the occurrence of an interruption of the traction force during switching (i.e. shifting gears), for example, when a claw gear is utilized. In some applications, in order to avoid such an interruption of the traction force, a more expensive transmission may be used, for example, a planetary gear with lamellar coupling or lamellar brake.
Due to an interruption of the traction force during the gear shifting or switching process, drive systems for street vehicles have utilized wheel gears with constant transmission (see, e.g., Wust, B., Muller, R., and Lange, A., "An Electrical Single-Wheel Drive for the City Buses of the Future," DER NAHVERKEHR, 6/1994, Alba Fachverlag, Dusseldorf).
Furthermore, automatic or automatically shiftable transmissions of the state of the art have not been used with electronic drives because of overly high energy use.

Apparatus and method for driving a vehicle with a plurality of motors


A RF and pulse bias tee for use with a source measure unit (SMU) includes a SMU source terminal; a SMU measure terminal; an output terminal; a SMU measure terminal pulse/RF block between the SMU measure terminal and the output terminal; a SMU source terminal high frequency block having two end nodes and an intermediate node, the end nodes being connected between the SMU source terminal and the output terminal; a RF input; a pulse/DC block between the RF input and the output terminal; a pulse input; and a DC block between the pulse input and the intermediate node.

The present invention relates to the testing of electronic components and, in particular, to the testing of components in DC, RF and pulsed regimes.
In some necessary measurements, a device may not be able to withstand continuous application of the DC and/or RF signals employed. In other cases, at minimum, the continuous application of the signals may produce heating of the device under test (DUT), resulting in measurement errors. To overcome this limitation, it is known to pulse the signals so that the average power applied is within tolerable limits.
In the typical prior art approach to making RF and DC measurements on the same nodes of the DUT, switches are included in the test path to switch the RF and DC test instruments in and out of the circuit as appropriate. In high precision measurements, this results in errors and/or calibration difficulties. This is further compounded in the case of pulsed measurements.
High precision DC test signals are typically applied/measured with source measure units (SMUs). An SMU can very accurately source a current or voltage and measure the result.


Systems and method for improving operation of a radio frequency system are provided. One embodiment describes a radio frequency system, which includes a first switching power amplifier that outputs an amplified analog electrical signal based on a first input analog electrical signal and voltage of an envelope voltage supply rail. The first switching power amplifier includes a first transistor with a gate that receives the first input analog electrical signal, a source that is electrically coupled to the envelope voltage supply rail, and a drain that is electrically coupled to an output of the first switching power amplifier; a second transistor with a gate that receives the first input analog electrical signal, a source electrically coupled to ground, and a drain electrically coupled to the output of the first switching power amplifier; and a third transistor with a gate that receives the first input analog electrical signal, a drain electrically coupled to the envelope voltage supply rail, and a source electrically coupled to an output of a second switching power amplifier.

The present disclosure relates generally to radio frequency systems and, more particularly, to switching power amplifiers used in a radio frequency system.
This section is intended to introduce the reader to various aspects of art that may be related to various aspects of the present techniques, which are described and/or claimed below. This discussion is believed to be helpful in providing the reader with background information to facilitate a better understanding of the various aspects of the present disclosure. Accordingly, it should be understood that these statements are to be read in this light, and not as admissions of prior art.
Many electronic devices may include a radio frequency system to facilitate wireless communication of data with another electronic device and/or a network. The radio frequency system may include a transceiver that outputs an analog representation of data as an analog electrical signal, which may then be wirelessly transmitted via an antenna. Since the electronic device may be separated by some distance, the radio frequency system may include an amplifier component to control the output power (e.g., strength of analog electrical signals) of the radio frequency system.
In some embodiments, the amplifier component may include a switching (e.g., class-D) power amplifier, which utilizes one or more transistors as electronic switches. In some embodiments, the switching power amplifier may amplify an input analog electrical signal to a desired output power. More specifically, the switching power amplifier may generate the amplified analog electrical signal by connecting an output to an envelope voltage (e.g., Venv) supply rail or ground based at least in part on an input analog electrical signal.
Ideally, the switching power amplifier should achieve high power efficiency (e.g., output power/DC power consumption), linearly adjust the output power of the amplified analog electrical signals, and maintain a constant phase shift between the input analog electrical signals and the output amplified analog electrical signals. However, in real-world operation, a transistor generally has parasitic capacitance, which may cause the transistor to conduct leakage current from its gate to its drain. In fact, this leakage current may affect power efficiency of the switching power amplifier, linearity of adjustments to the output power, and/or consistency of the phase shift between the input and output amplified analog electrical signals.

Radio frequency system switching power amplifier systems and methods


A method for automatically ranking database records by relevance to a given query. A similarity function is derived from data in the database and/or queries in a workload. The derrived similarity function is applied to a given query and records it in the database to rank the records. The records are returned in a ranked order.

In information or document retrieval (referred herein to as "IR"), a query is applied to a set of documents, such as books or articles, to retrieve relevant documents. Automated ranking of the results of a query is popular in information retrieval. In contrast, database queries return unordered sets of tuples, or require a ranking function to be explicitly specified by the user, e.g., using an ORDER BY clause. It is often impossible for an exploratory user (e.g., a data analyst, or a customer browsing a product catalog) to cope with large unordered result sets. Such a user may not be able to specify an explicit ranking function that is appropriate for the application.
Extracting similarity functions for ranking has been investigated in areas outside database systems. For example, similarity functions have been used for ranking in document or information retrieval. One similarity function used in information retrieval is cosine similarity. In cosine similarity for information retrieval, a document is modeled as a vector of words and the similarity is defined as the dot-product between two documents. Cosine similarity for information retrieval has been enhanced by term frequency-inverse document frequency normalization techniques, which assign different importance to words based on the frequencies of their occurrences within the document collection.
Research in web search engines has influenced ranking techniques. In particular, web search engine research has influenced the analysis of link structures and network topologies in addition to page content.
Existing systems for ranking database queries typically require additional external information, such as user input or training data. Systems referred to as MARS and FALCON employ content-based techniques for retrieval in multimedia databases. In both systems, the user can specify one or more positive examples of objects, and the system attempts to retrieve similar objects through an iterative process of relevance feedback from the user. FALCON differs from MARS in that it generalizes to any metric distance function between objects, while MARS relies on vector spaces. Both systems are primarily designed for numeric multimedia databases, and learn similarity concepts that are used for ranking through relevance-feedback from the user.
D. Wilson and T. Martinez, Improved Heterogeneous Distance Functions, Journal of AI Research, 1997 proposes distance functions for heterogeneous data (both categorical and numerical). The methods disclosed by Wilson and Martinez are mostly useful for classification applications and require the data to be accompanied with class labels.
Ranking is an important component in collaborative filtering research, especially in the design of recommender systems. In collaborative filtering, the objective is to predict the utility of items in a database to a particular user based on a database of user preferences. These methods require training data containing queries and their ranked results.
W. Cohen, Integration of Heterogeneous Databases Without Common Domains Using Queries Based on Textual Similarity, SIGMOD, 1998 discloses a query language that introduces an operator for textual attributes. The Cohen paper also uses inverse document frequency ideas from information retrieval in a non-ranking application.
Some research has been done on clustering categorical databases based on co-occurrence analysis. The idea of co-occurrence is that two values of a categorical attribute are deemed similar if they often co-occur with the same values of other attributes.
Top-K techniques exist that, given an explicit similarity (or distance) function that satisfies certain monotonic properties, the techniques efficiently retrieve the top-K tuples from a database.
There is a need for a system that automatically extracts an appropriate similarity function from a database, ranks records by relevance to a given query and returns the relevant records in a ranked order.

Automatically ranking answers to database queries