A multilayer ceramic capacitor includes a plurality of ceramic dielectric layers, a plurality of inner electrode layers and and external electrodes. The ceramic dielectric layers includes barium titanate crystal grains having pores inside. The inner electrode layers are between the ceramic dielectric layers. The external electrodes are electrically connected to the inner electrode layers. The barium titanate crystal grains each have a core-shell structure which include a core and a shell around the core. The the pores are mainly formed in the cores.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to multilayer ceramic capacitors and particularly to a multilayer ceramic capacitor including ceramic dielectric layers mainly composed of barium titanate crystal grains having pores therein.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, size-reduction and higher capacitance are increasingly required for multilayer ceramic capacitors for use in small, high-performance electronic devices such as cellular phones. Therefore, reducing the thickness of and increasing the number of ceramic dielectric layers and internal electrodes to be stacked has been pursued. Such a multilayer ceramic capacitor includes ceramic dielectric layers and internal electrode layers each 3 μm or less in thickness, and the number of layers stacked is 100 or more. In order to reduce the cost required to increase the number of layers to be stacked, the internal electrode layers of a small, high-capacitance multilayer ceramic capacitor are usually composed of a base metal, Ni rather than a known material, Ag—Pd.
In such a multilayer ceramic capacitor including many thin layers, a finer barium titanate powder is being used to achieve a further thickness reduction of ceramic dielectric layers. Thus, various processes for obtaining finer barium titanate powder have been devised. The dominant process for preparing a barium titanate powder has been a solid phase process in which a barium carbonate powder and a titanium oxide powder are used as the raw materials. However, recently, wet processes for preparing barium titanate powder such as a hydrothermal synthetic process and a coprecipitation process are put into practice to replace the solid phase process. Especially, the hydrothermal synthetic process is known as a process for fine, highly tetragonal barium titanate powders.
Barium titanate powders prepared by the hydrothermal synthetic process are mixed with various additives such as a glass component and an anti-reducing agent and the resulting mixture is fired in a reducing atmosphere. Numerous pores are formed in all parts of barium titanate crystal grains, such as near the grain surface and in the center region of the grain (see FIG. 8). A multilayer ceramic capacitor having ceramic dielectric layers sintered using such barium titanate powders has low reliability in a highly accelerated life test involving application of DC voltage at high temperature.


A radio base system (1000) is multi-path-connected to a plurality of mobile terminal devices to transmit/receive signals. When a communication channel establishment request is sent from one of the plurality of mobile terminal devices, a control unit (80) detects the presence or absence of a mobile terminal device to which a communication channel is already connected for each of a plurality of slots. When channel allocation has to be performed by path multiplexing on the mobile terminal device which has sent the channel establishment request, control unit (80) permits channel establishment in accordance with a result of detection of an error detecting unit (56).

In recent years, in a mobile communication system (such as a Personal Handyphone System: hereinafter abbreviated as PHS) which is being rapidly developed, to efficiency of utilization of frequencies of radio waves, PDMA (Path Division Multiple Access) in which, by spatially dividing the same time slot of the same frequency, mobile terminal devices of a plurality of users can be multi-path connected to a radio base system has been proposed.
FIG. 6 is a channel allocation diagram in various communication systems of frequency division multiple access (FDMA), time division multiple access (TDMA) and path division multiple access (PDMA).
Referring to FIG. 6, FDMA, TDMA and PDMA will be briefly described. FIG. 6(a) shows the FDMA. Analog signals of users 1 to 4 are frequency-divided and transmitted on radio waves of different frequencies f1 to f4 and signals of users 1 to 4 are split by frequency filters.
In the TDMA shown in FIG. 6(b), digitized signals of respective users are split by time-division on a predetermined time (time slot) unit basis and sent over radio waves of different frequencies f1 to f4 and, signals of respective user are split by a frequency filter and time synchronization among a base station and mobile terminal devices of the users.
In contrast, in the PDMA method, as shown in FIG. 6(c), one time slot of the same frequency is also spatially divided to transmit data of a plurality of users. The number of path-multiplexing and the number of time-division multiplexing shown in FIG. 6(c) are illustrative. According to the configuration of a system, the values are changed.
Specifically, the PDMA (Path Division Multiple Access) method is a method of generating a directivity pattern for each of a plurality of mobile terminal devices in different directions by using an adaptive array device having directivity for both transmission and reception, thereby performing multiplexing communication by sharing carrier waves of one frequency at the same time.
The adaptive array device is constructed by a plurality of antennas fixedly mounted and has a feature in that directivity of the plurality of antennas as a whole is created by adjusting the amplitude and the phase of a transmission/reception signal of each of the antennas.
A radio base station for connecting a plurality of mobile terminal devices by path multiplexing are constructed by using adaptive array devices. The radio base station calculates a weight factor as an adjusting amount of the amplitude and phase with respect to a reception signal per antenna with respect to each mobile terminal device in order to split signals of the mobile stations from the reception signals on which communications of the plurality of mobile terminal devices are multiplexed.
The radio base station compares a signal obtained by multiplexing a reception signal of each antenna with a weight factor of the corresponding antenna and adding the resultant values with a reference signal and adjusts the weight factor so as to minimize the difference between the resultant signal and the reference signal. As the reference signal (unique word signal: UW signal), signal waveform data corresponding to a known fixed bit pattern included in a signal of a control channel or traffic channel is used.
By repeating the adjustment, the radio base station calculates a weight factor for each antenna with respect to each mobile terminal device as an object of path multiplexing, multiples a reception signal of each antenna on which signals of a plurality of mobile stations are multiplexed with the weight factor, and adding the resultant values, thereby separating the signal of each mobile station. At the time of transmission, a signal obtained by multiplying a transmission signal with a weight factor calculated at the time of reception on the antenna unit basis is sent from each antenna, thereby generating a directivity pattern in the mobile terminal device direction.
The path multiplexing technique is written in "Path Division Multiple Access (PDMA) Mobile Communication Method" (IEICE Technical Report RCS93-84 (1994-01), pp 37-44).
A radio base station determines whether communication by path multiplexing is proper or not with respect to a mobile terminal device which is already performing communication and another mobile terminal device newly requesting allocation of a communication channel as follows.
The radio base station calculates response vectors of the two mobile terminal devices as described above, and calculates a correlation value between the calculated two response vectors. The response vector is information regarding the direction in which a mobile station exists, and the correlation value of response vectors is an index indicating closeness of the directions of the two mobile stations.
When the calculated correlation value is larger than the threshold value, the two mobile stations exist almost in the same direction, so that it is impossible to separate the signals of the mobile stations from each other on the basis of the difference between the directivity patterns. In this case, the radio base station determines that multiplexing is improper between them.
The radio base station measures field intensities of signals from the two mobile terminal devices and calculates the ratio between the measured two field intensities. When the calculated field intensity ratio is larger than the threshold value, even when a best directivity pattern is formed, the intensity ratio between the signals is higher than a gain ratio of an adaptive array device. Consequently, it is determined that the signals cannot be properly separated from each other. In this case, the radio base station determines that path multiplexing is improper for them.
When there is no available time slots used for time-division multiplexing communication at the time of allocating a communication channel to a new mobile terminal device, the radio base station for connecting a plurality of mobile terminal devices by also using the time-division multiplexing method makes determination of whether the path multiplexing is proper or not on the time slot unit basis. In a time slot which is not used by a mobile station determined improper to be subjected to path multiplexing with a new mobile station, a communication channel is allocated by path multiplexing.
In such a manner, the radio base station performs path multiplexing only on a set of mobile terminal devices adapted to path multiplexing communication. Further, during the path multiplexing, the directivity pattern of the adaptive array device is made follow the direction in which each mobile terminal device exists, thereby preventing interference and maintaining proper communication quality.
According to the above-described method, at the time of allocating a communication channel to a new mobile station by path multiplexing, the radio base station determines whether the path multiplexing is proper or not by comparing the correlation value of response vectors of a new mobile terminal device and a mobile terminal device already performing communication or the ratio between field intensity of a signal received from a new mobile terminal device and field intensity ratio of a signal received from a mobile terminal device already performing communication with a corresponding threshold value. For the method of determining whether path multiplexing is proper or not, a threshold of DDR (intensity ratio of desired waves from two users), the difference value of reception timings, or the like can be also used.
However, in the case where a reception error generates in a user already performing communication in a slot on which multiplexing is newly performed, it is expected that sufficient precision of a weight vector generated in an adaptive array process of a radio base cannot be obtained. Therefore, in the case where directivity control of the adaptive array is not sufficient in such a state, interference removing capability deteriorates and, as a result, a gain necessary for multiple communication cannot be obtained. It causes a problem such that the characteristics of a down-link communication from the base station deteriorate.
The present invention has been achieved to solve the problems and an object thereof is to provide a radio base station system, a channel allocating method and a channel allocation program capable of assuring predetermined communication quality between a radio base station and a mobile terminal device by improving precision of determining whether path multiplexing is proper or not.

Radio base system, channel allocation method and channel allocating program


A smart commenting platform that receives a plurality of content segments from users and extracts important attributes that among the plurality of content segments. The system presents to users multiple content segments and their respective attributes at the same time in a visually engaging manner. The attributes are dynamically weighed and displayed for users to easily review and efficiently provide commentary on. The system is capable of visually linking common attributes which promotes a better understanding of multiple concepts without having to navigate to multiple websites. The system allows users to easily add opinions, comments, and observations to topical matters. The system also allows users to customize the interface to their preference.

Since its inception, the internet has been a conduit for people to share information, ideas, and opinions with each other. Currently, there are various websites that allow people to share information with each other, and allow those people to view and comment on the respective website. These platforms are lackluster in that the display is minimal and does not provide users with a unique visualization of other people's ideas, observations, or insights. As a result, users are unable to easily view contrasting opinions regarding topical matters. A solution is desired that displays information in a way as to help educate users on other people's ideas, observations, insights, or important facts regarding highly topical matters.


Two plastic pieces such as a handle and a container are welded together using an ultrasonic horn. Protrusions serving as energy directors are arranged on one piece in a substantially circular array, in a starburst design. A hole or cavity is formed at a central axis of the circular array so that the amount of energy concentrating at inner ends of the energy directors will not create a burned spot or a hole in the container. The ultrasonic energy at the inner ends of the protrusions is concentrated at the smaller inner area defined by the inner ends of the protrusions to first melt inner ends of the protrusions and then the entire protrusions.

Molded plastic parts have becoming increasingly popular, due at least in significant part to their low production cost. Hence, often, one or more components of an assembly are formed of molded plastic. In assembling a final product it is often necessary to fasten the molded plastic parts to other components to produce the final product.
The present invention is of particular use to molders of plastic parts, such as molded plastic shells or bodies, who desire to attach another plastic member to the body and/or to assemblers who desire to attach a first plastic material member to a second plastic material member. The present invention will be described in connection with an illustrated embodiment wherein a hollow, plastic container e.g., made of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic has a thin wall to which it is desired to secure a separate handle e.g., of PET or of a polycarbonate plastic in the shape of a loop, but is not limited to these examples. When lifting or pouring liquid from the container, the user may insert his fingers into the loop and grip the outer portion of the loop. When making such containers it may be desirable to be able to use handles of a different thickness or a shape that would be difficult to mold integrally with the container or of a different material than the container material. Some plastics such as PET are most desirable for containers, such as bottles or drinking cups, because of its clarity, crystalline appearance, toughness, etc.; but PET may be a difficult material to which to attach handles when using conventional attaching techniques. The present invention is not limited to PET material because for many other plastic objects, such as for the PET container piece, it is desired to provide a good attachment between the first plastic piece and a second plastic piece such as a handle. While ultrasonic welding of plastic pieces together is well known, the piece shapes are not specifically designed to direct or concentrate the ultrasonic energy to achieve the initial energy direction and concentration to cause a good integral bond between the pieces. In these instances, one will find the PET plastic is usually not directly molded into its final shape by an injection molding as are many other containers such as, for example, polyethylene plastic containers. Rather, the PET plastic is first injection molded into a small preform which is then blown into the final enlarged container shape. With such preforms, often it is not economically feasible to have a handle thereon to be blown into a larger size or to attach a separate handle thereto using conventional techniques. Often for larger sizes of PET containers, e.g., a three liter container, it is desirable to attach a handle for ease in pouring the contents from the container.
The present invention is also directed to applications where, heretofore, one or more plastic pieces have been secured together by metallic screws and it is desirable to eliminate the metallic screws and to secure the members together using an improved plastic fastening system. In other instances, pieces have been heat staked together and it is desired to replace heat staking of components together with a better plastic fastening system than a heat staking system.

Ultrasonic energy directing attachment of plastic parts to one another


An animating system converts a text-based document into a sequence of animating pictures for helping a user to understand better and faster. First, the system provides interfaces for a user to build various object models, specify default rules for these object models, and construct the references for meanings and actions. Second, the system will analyze the document, extract desired information, identify various objects, and organize information. Then the system will create objects from corresponding object models and provide interfaces to modify default values and default rules and define specific values and specific rules. Further, the system will identify the meanings of words and phrases. Furthermore, the system will identify, interpolate, synchronize, and dispatch events. Finally, the system provides interface for the user to track events and particular objects.

In many situations, a person wants to convert a text-based document into a cartoon for several reasons. The first reason is to help people to understand and remember better. Before the invention of radio and television, people received a great portion of their knowledge from reading magazines, newspapers, and books. With the advance of technology, now people can access information faster by seeing a movie, watching a television, tuning to a radio station, and listening to a tape. However, reading text-based materials is still one of the major accessing methods to acquire information related to technology and science. There are some shortcomings to access information by reading a text-based document directly. While reading a text-based document, many people usually transfer written sentences into verbal sentences, and then further transfer sounds to meanings. This understanding process is not direct and therefore is not very efficient. Also by reading a text-based document to acquire information, many people use their visual organs only, ignore their other organs, and therefore waste their capabilities. A person can understand and remember better if the person can access voice, image, as well as text simultaneously.
The second reason is to help kids to learn. Many children do not like books that contain text only. Instead, they love books with pictures for important characters, they love storybooks with pictures for major events better, and they love animating cartoons even more. During watching an animating cartoon or movie with dialogue or caption displayed, children can learn how to pronounce words and sentences. However, usually it takes a lot of time, effort, and cost to make a cartoon for kids. Due to the cost of making a cartoon, many children books have no corresponding cartoons yet.
The third reason is to help people to learn language effectively, enhance vocabulary quickly, and describe event precisely. A communication process consists of an encoding process for describing an event in proper sentences and a decoding process for understanding the event from these sentences. Many people have no problem to recognize the meanings of many words in sentence, but they have difficulty to use them in their writing and have more difficulty to use them in their daily conversations. One of the possible reasons is that they have not obtained enough training on how to use these words. Usually people have received many comprehension practices by reading books, magazines, and newspapers from their school times to their social activities. Relatively people have received fewer narrative exercises particularly after they left school. Therefore, they have learned how to understand the meanings of many words in sentence but they have failed to learn how to describe an event precisely by using proper words. With text converted into voice and image, not only people can remember better, but also people can establish a connection among words, pronunciations, and meanings, and learn how to describe events effectively and naturally. Watching a cartoon generated from a document, people can describe in documents about what they observed and heard. The newly generated documents will expose people's observation capability, writing vocabulary, word-handling capability, as well as organization capability. By comparing the documents with the original document, people can learn faster on how to organize information and how to present information. Through a comparison process, people may be able to find the differences on organizations, to discover the reasons for certain approaches in the original document, and to notice what missed, what wrong, what improper, and what unnecessarily repeated in their documents. People can also understand why specific words used in the original document instead of ones used by them, aware the subtle difference of similar words, and increase the capability to select right words for describing properly.
Therefore, it is desirable to convert a text-based document into an animating cartoon so that people can use more organs to participate in learning, have more funs, enhance their vocabulary, improve their sensibility on words, and learn to describe precisely.


Often used to reduce the RC delay in integrated circuits are dielectric films of porous organosilicates which have a silica like backbone with alkyl or aryl groups (to add hydrophobicity to the materials and create free volume) attached directly to the Si atoms in the network. Si—R bonds rarely survive an exposure to plasmas or chemical treatments commonly used in processing; this is especially the case in materials with an open cell pore structure. When Si—R bonds are broken, the materials lose hydrophobicity, due to formation of hydrophilic silanols and low dielectric constant is compromised. A method by which the hydrophobicity of the materials is recovered using a novel class of silylation agents which may have the general formula (R2N)XSiR′Y where X and Y are integers from 1 to 3 and 3 to 1 respectively, and where R and R′ are selected from the group of hydrogen, alkyl, aryl, allyl and a vinyl moiety. Mechanical strength of porous organosilicates is also improved as a result of the silylation treatment.

High performance microprocessor, microcontroller and communication chips require very high speed interconnects between the active transistor devices which are used to perform the various functions such as logical operations, storing and retrieving data, providing control signals, and the like. With progress in the transistor device technology leading to the present ultra large scale integration, the overall speed of operation of these advanced chips is beginning to be limited by the signal propagation delay in the interconnection wires between the individual devices on the chips. The signal propagation delay in the interconnects is dependent on the RC product wherein, R denotes the resistance of the interconnect wires and C represents the overall capacitance of the interconnect scheme in which the wires are embedded. Use of copper instead of aluminum as the interconnect wiring material has allowed the reduction of the resistance contribution to the RC product. The current focus in the microelectronics industry is to reduce interconnect capacitance by the use of lower dielectric constant (k) insulators in building the multilayered interconnect structures on chips.
One prior art method of creating interconnect wiring network on such small a scale is the dual damascene (DD) process schematically shown in FIGS. 1a to 1g. Referring to FIG. 1a, In the standard DD process, an inter metal dielectric (IMD), shown as two layers 1110, 1120 is coated on the substrate 1100. The via level dielectric 1110 and the line level dielectric 1120 are shown separately for clarity of the process flow description. In general, these two layers can be made of the same or different insulating films and in the former case applied as a single monolithic layer. A hard mask layer or a layered stack 1130 is optionally employed to facilitate etch selectivity and to serve as a polish stop. The wiring interconnect network consists of two types of features: line features that traverse a distance across the chip, and the via features which connect lines in different levels of interconnects in a multilevel stack together. Historically, both layers are made from an inorganic glass such as silicon dioxide (SiO2) or a fluorinated silica glass (FSG) film deposited by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD).
Referring to FIG. 1b and FIG. 1c, in the dual damascene process, the position of the lines 1150 and the vias 1170 are defined lithographically in photoresist layers 1500 and 1510 respectively, and transferred into the hard mask and IMD layers using reactive ion etching processes. The process sequence shown in FIGS. 1a through 1d is called a "line-first" approach. After the trench formation, lithography is used to define a via pattern 1170 in the photoresist layer 1510 and the pattern is transferred into the dielectric material to generate a via opening 1180, as illustrated in FIG. 1d. The dual damascene trench and via structure 1190 is shown in FIG. 1e after the photoresist has been stripped.
As shown in FIG. 1f, the recessed structure 1190 is then coated with a conducting liner material or material stack 1200 that serves to protect the conductor metal lines and vias and serve as an adhesion layer between the conductor and the IMD. This recess is then filled with a conducting fill material 1210 over the surface of the patterned substrate. The fill is most commonly accomplished by electroplating of copper although other methods such as chemical vapor deposition (CVD) and other materials such as aluminum or gold can also be used. The fill and liner materials are then chemical-mechanical polished (CMP) to be coplanar with the surface of the hard mask and the structure at this stage is shown in FIG. 1f. A capping material 1220 is deposited as a blanket film, as is depicted in FIG. 1g to passivate the exposed metal surface and to serve as a diffusion barrier between the metal and any additional IMD layers to be deposited over them. Silicon nitride, silicon carbide, and silicon carbonitride films deposited by PECVD are typically used as the capping material 1220. This process sequence is repeated for each level of the interconnects on the device. Since two interconnect features are simultaneously defined to form a conductor inlaid within an insulator by a single polish step, this process is designated a dual damascene process.
In order to lower the capacitance, it is necessary to use lower k dielectrics such as PECVD or spin-on organo-silicates which have k values in the 2.5 to 3.1 range instead of the PECVD silicon dioxide based dielectrics (k=3.6 to 4.1). These organosilicates have a silica like backbone with hydrogen and/or organic groups such as alkyl or aryl groups attached directly to the Si atoms in the network. Their elemental compositions generally consist of Si, C, O, and H in various ratios. The C and H are most often present in the form of methyl groups (—CH3). The primary function of these methyl groups is to add hydrophobicity to the materials. A secondary function is to create free volume in these films and reduce their polarizability. The k value can be further reduced to 2.2 (ultra low k) and even below 2.0 (extremely low k) by introduction of porosity in these insulators. For the purpose of brevity, these ultra low k and extreme low k materials will be referred to collectively as very low k materials in this document.
Although a tunable range of k values is possible with this set of very low k materials, there are several difficulties in integrating these materials with copper interconnects by the dual damascene process described above or by any other variation of the dual damascene process. The chief difficulty is that the organosilicate-based materials are very sensitive to plasma exposures because of the relative ease of oxidation or cleavage of the Si-organic group linkage (for example, Si-methyl) which results in formation of silanol (Si—OH) groups in the film through a potential reaction with moisture in the ambient environment. Silanols absorb water and hence increase the dielectric constant and the dielectric loss factor of the film significantly, thus negating the performance benefits expected from the very low k films. They also increase the electrical leakage in the film and thus create a potentially unreliable interconnect structure. Since reactive ion etch and plasma etch are key steps required in the formation of the dual damascene trench and via structure as described above, and in the removal of photoresists used in patterning the very low k materials, it is very difficult, if not impossible, to avoid plasma damage of this class of films during a prior art dual damascene integration.
Several attempts have been made to minimize the loss of hydrophobicity in the low k films using non-oxidizing resist strip plasmas consisting of some or all of He, H2, N2, CO etc. However, it must be noted that none of these plasma chemistries completely succeed in preventing the loss of hydrophobicity of the very low k materials. This is especially the case for porous low k materials which have a very large surface area and are easily susceptible to damage during the resist strip processes.
Another method to prevent the low k material from losing its hydrophobicity and its dielectric properties is the use of fluorinated or non-fluorinated organic polymer based low k materials such as Dow Chemical's SiLK™ dielectric, Honeywell's Flare™ and other polyimides, benzocyclobutene, polybenzoxazoles, aromatic thermoset polymers based on polyphenylene ethers; and chemical vapor deposited polymers such as poly paraxylylene which are not susceptible to damage during traditional process plasma exposures associated with the dual damascene processing. However, these materials do not possess the other properties required of a low k dielectric film such as a low thermal expansion and small pore sizes.
Another problem facing the successful integration of organosilicate-based porous materials is that they are very fragile mechanically due to their low elastic modulus, fracture toughness and hardness which often lead to failures in CMP, dicing and packaging operations. The mechanical strength of these resins depends on both the void volume as well as their chemical structure. Their mechanical strength decreases with increasing porosity as well as increasing cage-like structure of the siloxane backbone. Since it is imperative that a low dielectric constant be maintained, it is very difficult to decrease the void volume while maintaining the same mechanical strength.
Several methods (Padhi et al., J. Electrochem. Soc., 150 (1), G10-G14, (2003), and United States patent application publication US2004/0087135 A1 of Canaperi et al., assigned to the same assignee as that of the present invention) have been proposed to handle porous organosilicate materials with weak mechanical strengths but most of these methods are difficult to implement due to the fact that these methods either involve a nonstandard process flow or a nonstandard tool. Therefore they are expensive to implement in production.
In the literature on porous silica based films, (For example, Prakash et al., Nature, 374, 439, (1995)), surface modification to introduce hydrophobic end groups during film formation is accomplished by means of a wet chemical treatment wherein the silylating agent (Tri-methyl chloro silane—TMCS) is introduced into the porous network by means of a low surface tension carrier solvent. Such a reaction, called silylation, is feasible for films that are in the process of forming since there is a great deal of free volume and an abundance of silanols that would otherwise condense and bridge. Thus far, it is not clear whether a similar reaction can be performed on fully formed films which, even after exposure to process chemistries that damage the film, have fewer silanols than the films that are in the process of forming. There have been studies published by Chang et. al., (J. Electrochem Soc., 149, 8, F81-F84, 2002) where an attempt has been made to recover the hydrophobicity and the carbon content of the porous OSG film after damage using hexamethy disilazane (HMDS) as the silylating agent. However, it is clear from their results that HMDS in any medium is unable to recover, completely, the properties of the porous OSG film. Similarly, TMCS is not completely effective at recovering the dielectric properties either. Both HMDS and TMCS are monofunctional silylating agents with the ability to attack only a single isolated silanol group per molecule on the surface and pore wall of the low k material. However, organosilicate based low k materials have two distinct types of silanols which are classified as follows (Gun'ko et al., J. Colloid and Interface Sci 228, 157-170 (2000)): The first type of silanol is the non-hydrogen bonded silanol which in itself consists of, (1) completely non-interacting single silanols (also called isolated silanols) which do not have any neighboring silanols nearby, (2) very weakly interacting silanols, and (3) weakly and non-interacting geminal silanols (also called disilanol). The second type of silanol is the hydrogen bonded silanol. Most monofunctional silylation agents attack and replace the isolated silanols readily, but generally do not attack the other two types of non-hydrogen bonded silanols as readily. The primary reason for this is that steric hindrance prevents the simultaneous capture of more than one silanol with a monofunctional silylating agent readily. Additionally, it is also important to use a silylating agent with the most reactive functionality to readily silylate the surface and pore walls of the low k material without releasing a byproduct of the reaction that is corrosive.
Hu et al., (J. of Electrochem. Soc., 150 (4) F61-F66 (2003)) have also published a study where they examine the efficacy of dimethyldichloro silane (DMDCS) as a silylating agent to recover the properties of low k materials. However, in their study, they report that dimethyldichloro silane forms a monolayer on the top surface of the film and does not penetrate the bulk of the porous low k material. Thus, unless the appropriate silylating medium as well as conditions for the silylation are used, it is difficult to recover the bulk dielectric properties of the low k material. Additionally, the byproduct of any chlorine based silylating agent such as dimethyldichloro silane and TMCS is hydrogen chloride, which is corrosive and cannot be used in interconnect structures that contain copper.

Recovery of hydrophobicity of low-k and ultra low-k organosilicate films used as inter metal dielectrics

International Business Machines Corporation


A display device having an input function includes: a display panel; a touch panel disposed on a front side of the display panel; and a flexible substrate connected to the touch panel and bent toward a back side of the display panel, wherein the touch panel includes a first light-shielding film and a second light-shielding film at portions facing a part of the flexible substrate.

In recent years, a display device having an input function provided with a touch panel has been widely used for an electronic device such as a mobile phone, a smart phone, a game terminal, or a copier (for example, see Patent Literature 1). Such a display device having an input function includes, for example, a display panel, a touch panel disposed on a front side of the display panel, and a backlight disposed on a back surface side of the display panel. The touch panel is connected to a flexible substrate, and this flexible substrate is bent toward a back side of the backlight.
In the display device having an input function, for example, light from the backlight is emitted to the touch panel through the display panel. In this case, the flexible substrate connected to the touch panel may be visible to a user through the touch panel.

Touch panel, display device having input function, and electronic device


Providing a background noise generator in a digital receiver to produce a small, controlled amount of background noise in the audible output of the receiver to provide an indication to the operator of the continued operation of the receiver. A small amount of noise is generated, either separately or in the RF portion of the receiver, and introduced into the receiver, either in the audio portion or the digital portion, as background noise to provide the ambience of a standard receiver.

In digital receivers, received RF signals are converted to extract a digital signal which is supplied to a vocoder portion of the receiver to supply an audio output dependent upon the received input signal. During periods when either a very weak or no RF signal is received there is no audio output from the receiver. This lack of output creates a very poor ambience for the operator, since the operator does not know if the receiver has malfunctioned, no signal is being sent, or there is no audio being sent.
Some manufacturers have attempted to solve this problem by supplying a light on the control panel of the receiver which provides a limited indication of the operation or system acquisition of the receiver. One of the problems with this solution is that the operator must continually watch the control panel. This is not a practical solution, especially when the operator may be doing some other function while operating the receiver.

Operation indicative background noise in a digital receiver


A composition comprising a whole grain with hydrolyzed starch. Although the starch can shift from relatively higher molecular weight moieties to relatively lower molecular weight moieties during hydrolysis, the relative proportions of the principal anatomical components of the caryopses of the grain—the starchy endosperm, germ and bran—remain approximately the same as evinced, for example, by the weight percentages and relative mass ratios of starch, fat, protein, dietary fiber, beta-glucan, and sugar in the composition. Additionally, the whole grain composition can be a powder, for example, a flour, and the whole grain composition can be granulated to a desired size to provide a powder that is highly dispersible in liquid. When gelatinized, hydrated and dispersed in a liquid, the whole grain with hydrolyzed starch can have a lower viscosity, grittiness, and graininess compared to the same variety of whole grain with unhydrolyzed starch.

Products comprising at least a portion of a grain can be desirable for nutritive and/or fiber content. However, these products can also have undesirable mouthfeel characteristics for some consumers. For example, such products can be too viscous, gritty, or result in a thick coating on the mouth upon consumption. Furthermore, products comprising grain that have better mouthfeel can be modified in a way that lacks certain nutritive or fiber-related components or benefits that would otherwise be present.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Whole grain composition comprising hydrolyzed starch


The subject disclosure relates to employing automatically configuring a device based on a set of policies. In an aspect, disclosed is a system comprising an identification component that identifies a device requiring setup based on a set of identification data. In another aspect, the system includes a comparison component that compares the set of identification data to a set of reference data stored in a reference database. In yet another aspect, the system can include a transmission component that transmits a set of policy data to the device based on a subset of reference data determined to correspond to the device.

Traditionally, consumers whom purchase new products, devices, electronics, or other out of the box items must setup such item such that it is operable and ready for execution. Often this setup process can include performing software setup activities that require making software ready for execution. This setup process is tedious for a user in that they often must create an account, setup a Wi-Fi connection, setup payment account or wallet, select a country of origin, setup a preferred login mechanism (e.g., touch, facial recognition, password/passcode entry, etc.), setting up other services, establishing settings (e.g., for analytics, uses, etc.), and perform other setup activities.
Performing such setup tasks can become a nuisance to users in that it wastes time, effort, and comprises several redundant steps. Furthermore, many of the setup processes require a user to complete extra steps that increase the time required to use and enjoy the device for its intended purpose. Accordingly, innovations, technologies and solutions are needed to overcome such issues existent with setup processes for products, devices, electronics, or other out of the box items


A protection valve includes: an input chamber into which air is introduced; a plurality of output ports through which air is discharged; and safety valves which open in response to a pressure increase on a primary side or close in response to a pressure decrease on a secondary side, the safety valves including a safety valve PV21 and a safety valve PV23. An air flow path from the input chamber is branched into a first branch line and a second branch line, and a time lag-creating valve having an opening pressure higher than the safety valve PV21 is provided at a upstream of the safety valve PV23 in the second branch line, so that the safety valve PV23 can open with a time lag after the safety valve PV21 opens, regardless of the difference between the opening pressures of the safety valves PV21 and PV23.

In a vehicle in which air pressure is used to operate a service brake, parking brake, clutch, suspension, or another auxiliary machine, a protection valve as disclosed in any of Patent Literatures 1 to 5 is used in order to enhance the reliability of the air system.
The conventional protection valves all include an input port for compressed air, output ports from which air is discharged, and safety valves corresponding to the output ports. The circuit configuration of a conventional protection valve is described below with reference to FIG. 13. FIG. 13 is a circuit diagram of a protection valve (which is hereinafter referred to simply as "valve") 110 disclosed in Patent Literature 1.
In FIG. 13, the valve 110 includes an inlet 111 connected to a pressure source, an outlet 113 connected to a first main brake circuit 112, an outlet 115 connected to a second main brake circuit 114, an outlet 117 connected to a spring brake circuit 116, and an outlet 119 connected to an auxiliary machine circuit 118.
A first valve 120 is provided between the inlet 111 and the outlet 113. Similarly, a second valve 121 is provided between the inlet 111 and the outlet 115, a third valve 122 is provided between the secondary side (outlet) of the first valve 120 and the outlet 117, and a fourth valve 123 is provided between the secondary side (outlet) of the second valve 121 and the outlet 119. Check valves 132 and 133, which permit a flow only from an inlet to an outlet, are provided in the middle of the connection passages 130 and 131 connecting the third valve 122 and the fourth valve 123 to the first valve 120 and the second valve 121, respectively.
The valve 110 is provided with a first bypass line bypassing the first valve 120, and the first bypass line is provided with a check valve 125 which permits a flow only from an inlet to an outlet and a throttle valve 126. Similarly, the valve 110 is provided with a second bypass line bypassing the second valve 121, and the second bypass line is provided with a check valve 128 which permits a flow only from an inlet to an outlet and a throttle valve 129.
The inlet 111 and the outlet 117 for the spring brake circuit is communicated with each other via a passage 134, and a check valve 135 which permits a flow only from the outlet 117 for the spring brake circuit to the inlet 111 and a throttle valve 136 are provided in the passage 134.
According to the valve 110, if the first main brake circuit 112 fails and air leaks therefrom when the vehicle is left undriven for a whole day and night, for example, the air reserved in the air tank of the spring brake circuit 116 reaches the inlet 111 via the check valve 135 and the throttle valve 136 in the passage 134. The air is then discharged from the failed first main brake circuit 112 via the first throttle valve 126, the check valve 125, and the outlet 113.
In this case, the pressure in the spring brake circuit 116 becomes too low to supply air necessary to release the spring brake to the air chamber of the spring brake device. As a result, the vehicle cannot be started even when the driver performs a spring brake releasing operation. Accordingly, a safety problem can be eliminated because the spring brake cannot be released until the second main brake circuit 114 becomes functional after the start of the engine (start of the pressure source).


A web site server provides collaborative web page navigation feature for a group of user terminals. The location information of the web pages are relayed to all following terminals of the group, while a leading terminal of the group is navigating through the web pages by using its web browser. Each of the following terminals has a web navigation synchronizer. Upon receiving the web page location information, the web navigation synchronizer updates its respective web browser and activates the browser to locate web pages according to the web page location information.

The present invention relates generally to a method and apparatus for getting access to web sites by a group of users.
It is known that users can retrieve information from World Wide Web sites (or web sites) via the Internet. The basic current model for retrieving information from web sites is user initiated information searching. A person uses web browser software to request a web page from a web server software to locate the information relating to that web page. Very much like finding desired Internet bulletin boards, the person seeking information actively searches for it. One of the unique features of this model is the notion of xe2x80x9chyper-text,xe2x80x9d or links, embedded in web pages that have been retrieved. This feature enables the person in search for information to xe2x80x9cnavigatexe2x80x9d from one web page to another. The tremendous popularity of World Wide Web sites and Internet attests to the effectiveness of this model.
However, with the current model, the information search heavily depends on individual""s knowledge, experience, skills, and expertise. Unless a group of people physically gathers around a single PC screen, the information retrieved from web sites is limited to the person who is navigating. If the information retrieved needs to be shared within a group of people, the person who has conducted the information search relays them the web page addresses that contain the information. The group of people then retrieve the information according to the web page addresses. Clearly, such an approach for sharing navigation experience and information among a group of people is slow, inconvenient, inefficient, and prone to errors.
Therefore, it is desirable to propagate network navigation experience and information among a group of people who are geographically dispersed.
To enable the propagation of network navigation experience and information among a group of people who are geographically dispersed, there is a need for a method and apparatus to track and synchronize the network navigation with convenience, efficiency, and accuracy.
The present invention meets this need.
In one aspect, the invention provides a method for locating information from a plurality of information repositories via a network for a group of terminals. The method comprises the steps of:
(a) via the network, locating an information section in one of said information repositories by one of said group of terminals;
(b) at said one terminal, collecting location information of said information section; and
(c) via the network, sending said location information from said one terminal to the other terminals of said group of terminals.
In another aspect, the invention provides a method for locating information via a network for a group of terminals, the group of terminals being able to get access to an information repository via the network. The method comprises the steps of:
(a) via the network, receiving a request from one of said group terminals, to locate an information section in said information repository;
(b) collecting location information of said information section at the side of said information repository; and
(c) via the network, sending said location information from said one terminals to the other terminals of said group of terminals.
The present invention also provides corresponding apparatus or system for the respective aspects mentioned above.

Collaborative network navigation synchronization mechanism


A process of machining outer joint parts (11) and inner joint parts (21) of constant velocity universal ball joints, which outer joint parts (11) and inner joint parts (21) each comprise a longitudinal axis and a number of ball tracks (12), wherein the ball tracks are each arranged circumferentially in pairs (121, 122), whose central track lines are positioned in planes (E1, E2, E3, E4) extending parallel relative to one another, wherein the pairs of ball tracks (12) are machined by rotating disc tools (16) whose axes of rotation (R) perpendicularly intersect the respective longitudinal axis at a distance from one another and are held and guided coaxially relative to one another.

The initially mentioned joint parts are intended for constant velocity universal ball joints which are produced by the applicant under the designation of TBJ (Twin Ball Joints) and are described in DE 10 2004 018 721.5. In a way known in itself, these constant velocity universal ball joints also comprise an outer joint part with first ball tracks positioned in an inner guiding face for a ball cage; an inner joint part with second ball tracks formed on an outer guiding face for the ball cage; balls inserted into pairs of first and second ball tracks; as well as a ball cage which holds the balls in a common plane. The ball cage is provided with individual windows for accommodating the balls.
In the TBJ joints mentioned here, both the first ball tracks in the outer joint part and the second ball tracks in the inner joint part, in turn, are arranged in pairs, with pairs of said further type being designed in such a way that they comprise central track planes positioned in parallel planes. In this way it is possible for two balls, which are guided in such pairs and whose circumferential distance from one another along the entire track length does not change, to be held in an individual common window, i.e. the number of cage windows relative to the ball tracks can be halved.

Process of machining inner or outer joint parts with parallel pairs of tracks


There is provided a method of managing power utilization for use by a first communication system having a first communication mode and a second communication mode, for communication over a PHY connection through a cable connecting the two systems. The method comprises establishing the PHY connection with the second communication system, detecting interoperability of the two systems in the first communication mode, determining a length of the cable connecting the first communication system to the second communication system, selecting a mode based on the length of the cable, if the detecting detects interoperability of the first communication system and the second communication system in the first communication mode, selecting the second communication mode as the mode, if the detecting does not detect interoperability of the first communication system and the second communication system in the first communication mode, communicating data using the PHY connection through the cable in the mode.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to data and voice communications. More particularly, the present invention relates to network devices.
2. Background Art
Over the last several years, data transfer needs at all levels of network communication have grown dramatically. The growing demand for high data transfer capabilities in even PANs (personal area networks), fueled by ever increasing consumer desire for and reliance on electronic media access, has resulted in data transfer rate requirements for routine communications that would have been reserved for specialized communication needs in the recent past. Consequently, 10 GbE (10 gigabit Ethernet) speeds in use almost exclusively in WANs (wide area networks) and MANs (municipal area networks) only a short time ago are now used in localized datacenters as well.
The transition to 10 GbE in the datacenter or LAN (local area network) setting presents distinct challenges associated with the number of interconnects required, the highly variable length of those interconnects, and the extent to which the cabling providing those interconnects must withstand physical deformations through twisting and bending. Fiber optic cables, which have served as the backbone of 10 GbE over wider network configurations may be suboptimal choices for high speed LAN communications due to their cost and relative fragility. Copper cables, on the other hand, which have served as a staple physical medium in the lower speed 1 GbE LAN setting, consume large amounts of power at 10 GbE, restricting port density. An additional concern for 10 GbE over copper cables is latency, which can be as much as an order of magnitude greater than for optical cables.
One conventional approach to supporting 10 GbE communication in LANs is an optical cable solution, shown in FIG. 1. As seen there, networking system 100 includes communication system 108 having connection port 106, in communication with a remote communication system (not shown) through optical cable 102 having connection plug 104. In a typical optical cable solution for 10 GbE, connection port 106 may be an SFP+(small form-factor pluggable plus) module, for example, and connection plug 104 may be an LC (Lucent Connector) designed for use with an SFP+ module. In this conventional solution, connection port 106 is in communication with PHY (physical layer) device 110 supporting EDC (electronic dispersion compensation), through a 4-pin connection to circuit board 112, on which PHY device 110 is situated.
Advantages provided by the approach illustrated in FIG. 1 are low power dissipation and low latency. Despite those advantages, the drawbacks associated with the conventional approach create substantial roadblocks to widespread LAN implementation of this solution. Those drawbacks include the cost of individual fiber optic cables, which inflate overall costs very rapidly in the LAN environment, where common configurations call for port densities of up to 96 ports per device. In addition, fiber optic cables are susceptible to breakage when heavily manipulated, adding to potential costs and consumption of maintenance resources.
Another conventional approach to supporting 10 GbE communication in LANs is a copper cable solution, shown in FIG. 2. As seen there, networking system 200 includes communication system 208 having connection port 206, in communication with a remote communication system (not shown) through copper cable 202 having connection plug 204. In a typical copper cable solution for 10 GbE, connection plug 204 may be an RJ-45 type connector, for example, connected to an Ethernet port at connection port 206. In this conventional solution, connection port 206 is in communication with PHY device 210 supporting 10 GbE, through circuit board 212, on which PHY device 210 is situated.
Advantages provided by this conventional approach include low cost and the durability of copper cabling when compared to optical cables. Drawbacks associated with conventional copper cable solutions are significant as well, however. Power dissipation, which can vary with cable length, may range as high as 10 Watts for a 100 m copper cable connection. That demand for power may place too low a threshold on the number of ports that may be supported on existing datacenter chassis, resulting either in inefficient use of existing systems, or their costly replacement. Latency is also an issue for 10 GbE over copper cable, where values as high as 2.5 microseconds are seen.
Accordingly, there is a need to overcome the drawbacks and deficiencies in the art by providing network solutions that can offer cost effective, durable, and power sparing alternatives to conventional approaches to supporting 10 GbE.

Selective mode PHY device and method for managing power utilization using same


A box with a top lid hingedly attached thereto and a carrier movably disposed within an interior of the box and structured to hold cosmetic articles in a predetermined arrangement such that the cosmetic articles can be removed from within the box. A ribbon is attached to the box at one end with an opposite free distal end of the ribbon extending from the box interior. Pulling on the free end causes the ribbon to engage the carrier, forcing the carrier upwardly from a lowered, stowed position to a raised position, facilitating access to the cosmetic articles held by the carrier.

Most women use a variety of cosmetic products daily, including such cosmetic products as lipstick, rouge, blush, eyeliner, and perfume. Commonly, women will carry at least some of these cosmetic products in their purse so that they may replenish their makeup during the course of the day. In most instances, the individual cosmetic articles are carried loosely in one's purse or in a smaller cosmetic pouch which is carried in the purse. The problem with carrying cosmetics in this manner is that when it is desirous to use any one product, a woman must fumble through her purse or cosmetic pouch for the item she needs. Additionally, some cosmetic items are difficult to carry loosely in a purse without damaging the cosmetic article and/or the inside of the purse. A specific example of this is sample lipstick applicators, and particularly cotton swab applicators which are coated at one end with rouge. In this particular instance, if this type of sample lipstick applicator were carried loosely, the rouge coated end would most likely come into contact with other articles in the purse, as well as the purse, damaging both the sample applicator and anything it should happen to come in contact with.
Accordingly, in view of the problems associated with carrying various cosmetic articles, it would be of great benefit to provide a package or container which is specifically designed to contain cosmetic articles, such as swab-type lipstick applicators, in a neat, organized fashion, such that individual articles may be easily and conveniently retrieved therefrom and replaced as needed.


A sounding device of the present invention includes a grip, an actuator adjacent the grip, and a resonator adjacent the actuator. The grip is configured to be worn on one hand of a user. The actuator is configured to strike the resonator, and the resonator is configured to make a sound when struck by the actuator. A method of utilizing the sounding device includes securing the sounding device on a hand of a user by inserting a first finger of the user's hand near the thumb through the grip, and inserting a second finger of the user's hand adjacent the first finger on at least a portion of the grip. The method further includes placing the thumb on the actuator and activating the sounding device by causing the actuator to make contact with the resonator, wherein the resonator is configured to make a sound when contacted by the actuator.

1. Field
Aspects of the present invention relate to a sounding or warning device and methods of using the same, and more particularly, to a single-hand-operated sounding device configured to be worn and operated on one hand of a user, and related methods of using the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
Bells and other sounding devices generally include a hollow, cup-shaped acoustic resonator that vibrates when struck with a hammer or other striking implement, making a sound. Bells range in size from small, decorative novelty bells, to large bell tower bells ranging up to several meters or yards in height and/or resonator diameter. These types of bells are commonly made of metals, though smaller-sized bells (i.e., dinner bells and novelty bells) also may be made of ceramics or glass.
Traditional handheld bells often include a handle with the resonator at one end and a grip area at the opposite end. The handle is generally made of the same material as the bell resonator, or may also be made of a different material, such as wood. These traditional handheld bells include a striking implement or hammer within the resonator cup, suspended within the bell. The handheld bell sounds by shaking the bell or otherwise causing the striking implement to strike the inside of the resonator cup of the bell with a repeated back-and-forth or up-and-down motion. These traditional handheld bells are often fairly large in size and weight. Moreover, traditional handheld bells are generally designed for infrequent use, and to be set down or otherwise have the striking implement prevented from motion within the bell when not in use (or when causing an alarming sound is undesired).
Bicycle or bike bells are a type of portable sounding device often used by bicycle riders to alert others of their presence. These types of bells must be mounted, for example, on bike handles, baskets, or other mountable surfaces for use. The operation and materials of these bells is similar to more traditional bells, including a resonator and a striking implement. Bike bells often include a lever to be wound or pulled causing the striking implement to strike the resonator and cause an alarm or sound. However, use of these bells requires mounting the device to a stable surface such that activating the striking implement does not displace the bell instead.
Bear bells are another type of bell used by some, including hikers or campers, on bear-populated areas such as backcountry trails. These types of bells are often attached to a backpack or other worn accessory and emit a sound as the person hikes or walks. These bear bells continually emit a sound as long as the person continues to move (i.e., walk). Thus, these types of bells tend to be both disruptive and impractical for other uses as they continue to sound as long as the wearer or user is in motion—thus resulting in the bell sound being a constant rather than an alert, and no longer provide an alarming or alerting function once motion ceases.
Runners, hikers, walkers, rollerbladers, skiers, snowboarders, skateboarders, and the like (collectively, "pedestrians") typically share the same sidewalks, boardwalks, trails, streets, slopes, etc., as other such pedestrians, animals, or vehicles. It is often necessary for these pedestrians to alert other pedestrians, animals, or vehicles of their presence, and to warn of any potential dangers of collision, etc. Often, vocal alerts are not possible or are not suitably audible to properly alert other pedestrians. Moreover, a vocal or verbal alert may not be universally understood by all pedestrians, animals, or vehicles. Alternatively, louder, horn-type sounds may be unnecessarily disruptive or misconstrued, possibly causing further confusion or potential danger.
Therefore, there is a need for a warning or alarming device that is mobile, versatile, lightweight, and easily operable for universally alerting others of a pedestrian's presence and approach.

Handheld sounding device and methods of use


In order to test whether a diamond has had a layer of synthetic diamond material deposited thereon, infrared radiation including radiation of wavelength substantially 7 .mu.m to 25 .mu.m preferably 7 .mu.m to 10 .mu.m emitted or transmitted by the diamond is observed, to detect differences between the compositions of different zones of the diamond.

The present invention relates to a method of and apparatus for examining a diamond. For example, the invention may be used to test whether a diamond has had a layer of synthetic diamond deposited thereon. This is of particular importance in detecting whether the diamond comprises CVD diamond material and also in locating such material if present.
The synthetic diamond material may be deposited on an uncut or part-worked natural diamond which is then worked, for example, into a round brilliant cut. Alternatively, the synthetic diamond coating may be deposited onto a fully fashioned brilliant stone after working of the stone. The thickness of the synthetic diamond material layer may be very thin--it could be in the range from 1 .mu.m to 0.1 mm.
The value of a diamond is in part dependent upon its weight. Accordingly, synthetic diamond material may be deposited onto natural gem diamonds, before or after cutting of the diamond, to increase the weight of the finished product.
However, the value of a diamond also resides in its qualities of authenticity and uniqueness and in the fact that it is an entirely natural product. Thus, a diamond that has not been enlarged by deposition of synthetic diamond material has a value over a diamond that has.
Over the years, a number of methods of synthesising diamond material have been developed. One of these methods is the chemical vapor deposition (CVD) technique, which is a low pressure technique involving deposition of synthetic diamond (referred to as CVD diamond material in this specification) onto a substrate from a gas. CVD is the method which is most likely to be used to deposit synthetic diamond onto a diamond.
A diamond artificially enlarged by deposition of CVD diamond material is referred to in this specification as a "CVD/natural diamond doublet".
CVD diamond material may be deposited on a diamond substrate. The CVD diamond material can replicate the structure of the diamond substrate (referred to "homoepitaxial growth"). The CVD/natural diamond doublet produced can be identical in appearance, density and other common physical properties to an entirely natural stone and there may be a problem in identifying such a CVD/natural diamond doublet.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a method of and apparatus for determining whether a diamond has had a layer of synthetic diamond deposited thereon.
It is desired that the apparatus should be simple and inexpensive and may be put into operation by a person with relatively little training. The method and apparatus should be capable of being operated reliably and consistently by a practiced jeweller who has no training in laboratory gemological analysis.


A method for reporting a buffer state includes: determining a logic channel or logic channel group satisfying a BSR triggering criterion; and if the determined logic channel or logic channel group corresponds to a DRB mapped by an SDAP entity, then reporting to a base station a BSR comprising a buffer of the SDAP entity mapped to the determined logic channel or logic channel group. By determining the logic channel or logic channel group satisfying the BSR triggering criterion and, when the determined logic channel or logic channel group corresponds to the DRB mapped by the SDAP entity, and reporting to the base station the BSR comprising the buffer of the SDAP entity mapped to the determined logic channel or logic channel group, the problem with reporting the buffer state of the logic channel or logic channel group when a new protocol layer is introduced can be solved.

In a Long-Term Evolution (LTE) system, User Equipment (UE) is required to report a buffer status of a logical channel, and the buffer status of the logical channel includes buffer statuses of a Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) entity and Radio Link Control (RLC) entity mapped to the logical channel.
With development of communication technologies, 5th Generation (5G) has emerged. A new protocol layer above an existing PDCP layer is introduced into a user plane of 5G New Radio (NR). In LTE, a bearer includes the configuration of a PDCP entity and a logical channel, and the configuration of an RLC entity and a logical channel, and thus they are considered as a whole. However, a service entity in the newly introduced protocol layer and a certain bearer has no uniquely determined relationship, the service entity is not part of the certain bearer, and a mapping relationship of the service entity and the certain bearer may be dynamically configured. Then, after the new protocol layer above the PDCP layer is introduced, how to report a buffer status of a logical channel or a logical channel group is a technical problem urgent to be solved.

Method and device for reporting buffer state

BEIJING XIAOMI MOBILE SOFTWARE CO., LTD.


The invention relates to a holder for an eyedropper comprising a base having a top surface, a bottom surface, and side surfaces wherein the base has at least one interface for receiving the eyedropper. There is also a support coupled to the base and extending from the bottom surface of this base. Extending out from this support is a first leg and a second leg. These legs branch apart to form a slot or support groove therebetween. There is also a track formed on the bottom surface of the base wherein the support is adjustably coupled to the track so that the support can slide along the track. At least one band can be coupled to the base. The band is allows an eyedropper to attach to the holder.

The invention relates to an adjustable holder for eyedroppers. Eyedrop dispensing devices are known in the art. In particular, eyedrop dispensers that have a base are known in the art. For example U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,508,793, 4,960,407, 4,685,906, 5,665,079, 4,134,403, 3,872,866, 3,934,590, 4,792,334, 4,973,322, and 3,058,466. Some of the problems of the above references are the complexity of design, and the lack of adjustability or accuracy in the positioning of the eyedropper to deliver eyedrops.


An extract prepared from the root barks of Morus australis Poir. and its use as an anti-bacteria agent, and use of a compound Kuwanon H having the following formula (I) separated from the extract as an anti-bacteria agent:

JP10-007555 discloses five compounds separated from an extract of tree bark of a mulberry tree such as Morus bombycis Koidz, Morus alba L., and Morus Lhou Koidz, which are mulberrofuran C, D, and G, kuwanol A and sanggenone G, and the anti-bacterial use of the five compounds against such as Staphylococcus aureus and Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).
JP56-123979 discloses two compounds, kuwanon G and H, and their use in reducing the blood pressure of a hypertensive patient, which are separated from an extract prepared from root bark of a mulberry tree such as Morus bombycis Koidz, Morus alba L., and Morus Lhou Koidz.

Medical and Pharmaceutical Industry Technology and Development Center


An improved biopsy needle assembly for efficient removal of multiple biopsy cores from a single needle penetration. The needle apparatus comprises an elongate assembly of paired sleeves with an open notch in the wall of the outer sleeve for engaging a tissue volume in the bore of that sleeve. An inner sleeve or blade member with a sharp blade edge is moveable from a retracted position to an extended position to both (i) excise the tissue volume, and (ii) function as valve means to alter the open notch between an open position and a closed position. The invention provides a looped inflow-outflow passageway system for using high-pressure fluid flows to push or expel the excised tissue from the bore in working end where the excised tissue is captured. The looped passageway system is coupled to a remote pressurization source.

This invention relates to a medical devices and techniques, and more particularly to a biopsy needle-type probe that is adapted for cutting and removing multiple tissue cores from a single needle penetration, with the tissue extraction accomplished by a looped flow of high-pressure media.
To biopsy tissue from a targeted site in the interior of a patient""s body, for example in a breast biopsy, the various prior art methods include (i) use of a biopsy needle; (ii) fine needle aspiration in a stereoatatic needle localizing assembly, or (iii) a skin incision and surgical removal of tissue from the targeted site. When using a biopsy needle, such as a True-Cut(copyright) needle, the tissue sample is often smaller than desired for biopsy purposes. Fine needle aspiration using a standard 14 Ga. needle also results in small tissue samples. Open skin incisions are undesirable due to scarring.
What is needed is a tissue cutting probe (i) that can excise and remove tissue through a very small diameter needle probe to provide a minimally invasive procedure; (ii) that can take multiple cores from a single needle penetration; (iii) that can be used manually or m conjunction with a stereotactic locking systen; (iv) that can be scaled upward in dimension to perform a stereotactic lumpectomy procedure by successive removal of tissue cores; and (v) that is inexpensive to manufacture and is therefore disposable.
The present invention comprises an elongate sleeve assembly that can be introduced into the interior of a patient""s body for excising and removing small tissue volumes in a minimally invasive procedure. The system of the invention provides a novel pressurization system that uses high positive fluid pressures to push excised tissue from the working end of a probe, in contrast to prior art systems that attempt to pull or aspirate tissue from a working end. The use of high pressure fluid flows to carry tissue along a passageway allows for a very small diameter tissue-extracting lumen. The prior art vacuum sources cannot develop sufficiently strong suction forces to move an excised tissue core within a small diameter tissue-extracting lumen.
In a preferred embodiment, the system provides an elongate needle-type member that carries a looped inflow-outflow passageway system. The distal working end of the needle assembly has a tissue-receiving opening in a wall surrounding a distalmost chamber of a passageway that receives a tissue volume pressed into the opening. A moveable blade member cooperates with the opening to excise the tissue volume captured in the tissue-receiving opening. At the same time, the blade member functions as a valve to alter the opening between a first open position and said second closed position. The looped passageway system comprises (i) an outflow passageway extending between a proximal open end (in the needle handle) and the distalmost chamber thereof, and (ii) an inflow passageway extending between an open proximal end (in the needle handle) and a distal terminus thereof that communicates with the distalmost chamber of the outflow passageway. The pressurization source is connected to the proximal end of the inflow passageway.
In operation, the needle is introduced to the targeted site and the blade member is thereafter actuated to excise tissue engaged within the tissue-receiving opening. The blade member is maintained in the second position which closes off the tissue-receiving opening. The pressurization source is then actuated which delivers a pulse of high pressure fluid flow through the looped inflow and outflow passageways to push the excise tissue from the needle into a collector at the exterior of the patient""s body. The excising and extracting steps can be repeated to obtain successive tissue cores from the targeted site with the needle only penetrating to the site once.
The present invention advantageously utilizes positive pressure media flows to transport tissue cores along a very small diameter tissue-extracting lumen, rather than using a negative pressure (vacuum) which has limited effectiveness in a small diameter lumen.
The present invention advantageously can extract multiple tissue cores from a single needle penetration.
The present invention can be coupled to a stereotactic needle localizing assembly for excising relatively large tissue volumes, as in a lumpectomy procedure.
Additional objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following description, the accompanying drawings and the appended claims.

Pressure-assisted biopsy needle apparatus and technique


The present invention relates to a new crystalline form of dapagliflozin represented by formula (I). The crystalline form has a characteristic absorption peak at about 4.318 (20.45) in an X-ray powder diffraction pattern shown by angle 2 theta and interplanar spacing (value d). It can be prepared by dissolving dapagliflozin in good organic solvents, adding poor solvents, stirring to crystallization, filtering and drying. The new crystalline form of dapagliflozin of the present invention has the following superior features: good solubility, low hygroscopicity, high stability and good preparation reproducibility.

Dapagliflozin, developed by Bristol-Myers Squibb and AstraZeneca, is used for the treatment of Type II diabetes (Na+-glucose cotransporter-2 (SGLT-2) inhibitors).
Bristol-Myers Squibb and AstraZeneca submitted an application to the European Medicines Agency (EMA) in December 2010, and the European Committee of Human Medicinal Products approved dapagliflozin for the treatment of type II diabetes in April 2012.
Bristol-Myers Squibb and AstraZeneca also submitted an application to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in December 2010, and the FDA issued a response letter requiring Bristol-Myers Squibb and AstraZeneca to provide additional clinical data in January 2012.
The chemical name of dapagliflozin is 2-chloro-5-(β-D-glucopyranosyl-1-yl)-4′-ethoxy-diphenylmethane, and the chemical structure is as follows:

Thus far, only 9 crystal forms of dapagliflozin are reported in its original patent (CN101479287), which are dapagliflozin solvates and amino acid complexes. The details are as follows:
Crys-talformDescriptionPreparation methodIaDapagliflozinTo a solution of (S)-propylene glycol, water(S)-propyleneand dapagliflozin, cyclohexane and methylglycol tert-butyl ether are added and cooled to 5° C.,monohydratethen stirred to crystallization.IbDapagliflozinTo a solution of (R)-propylene glycol, water(R)-propyleneand dapagliflozin, cyclohexane and methylglycoltert-butyl ether are added and cooled to 5° C.,monohydratethen stirred to crystallization.IcDapagliflozinDapagliflozin is dissolved in ethanol, dilutedEthanolwith water and cooled to −10 to −20° C., thendihydratestirred to crystallization.IdDapagliflozinDapagliflozin is dissolved in ethylene glycolEthylene glycolaqueous solution and crystal Ia is added, thendihydratestirred to crystallization.IeDapagliflozinDapagliflozin is dissolved in ethylene glycolEthylene glycolaqueous solution and crystal Ic is added, thendihydratestirred to crystallization.IhDapagliflozin-L-proline is dissolved in water under heating.di-L-prolineIsopropanol and a solution of dapagliflozin incomplexisopropanol are added in order to crystallize.IiDapagliflozin-L-proline is dissolved in an ethanol/waterL-prolinemixture under heating. A solution ofcomplexdapagliflozin in ethanol is added and cooledto −20° C. to crystallization.IjDapagliflozin-L-proline and dapagliflozin are heated toL-prolinedissolve in 97% ethanol/water mixture andsemihydratethen cooled to −20° C. before adding crystalIi, then stirred to obtain white solid Ij.IkDapagliflozin-L-phenylalanine is heated to dissolve in waterL-phenylalanineand a solution of dapagliflozin in ethanol iscomplexadded to obtain complex Ik.

Dapagliflozin crystalline form and preparation method thereof

Jiangsu Hansoh Pharmaceutical Group Co., Ltd.


Translation systems and other compositions including orthogonal aminoacyl tRNA-synthetases that preferentially charge an orthogonal tRNA with an iodinated or brominated amino acid are provided. Nucleic acids encoding such synthetases are also described, as are methods and kits for producing proteins including heavy atom-containing amino acids, e.g., brominated or iodinated amino acids. Methods of determining the structure of a protein, e.g., a protein into which a heavy atom has been site-specifically incorporated through use of an orthogonal tRNA/aminoacyl tRNA-synthetase pair, are also described.

Anomalous signals within proteins can be used to derive phase information for crystal structure determination by single wavelength anomalous dispersion (SAD) experiments (Hendrickson and Teeter (1981) "Structure of the hydrophobic protein crambin determined directly from the anomalous scattering of sulfur" Nature 290:107-113 and Debreczeni et al. (2003) "In-house measurement of the sulfur anomalous signal and its use for phasing" Acta Crystallogr D 59:688-696). Unfortunately, the weak anomalous signals derived from sulfur or other atoms present in proteins result in the stringent need for highly redundant data (Dauter et al. (1999) "Can anomalous signal of sulfur become a tool for solving protein crystal structures?" J Mol Biol 289:83-92), which has limited the use of in-house SAD phasing. Heavy atoms, such as U, Ba, Xe, Te, and I, have strong anomalous signals at the CuKα wavelength, but it is generally difficult to place them at precise positions in a protein.
The anomalous signal (δf″) of iodine at the CuKα wavelength typically used with in-house generators (1.5418 Å) is 6.85e−, six times of that of selenium (1.14e−) and twelve times of that of sulfur (0.56e−) (Dauter et al. (2002) "Jolly SAD" Acta Crystallogr D 58:494-506). Therefore, the selective introduction of an iodine atom into proteins can reduce the high data redundancy and high-solvent content necessary for selenium or sulfur phasing (Dauter et al. (1999) J Mol Biol 289:83-92). The genetic incorporation of heavy atoms as described herein (e.g., genetic incorporation of iodoPhe) offers a number of advantages over current approaches for introducing heavy atoms for SAD phasing. One such method involves substituting bound water molecules at the surface of the protein with either halides or metal ions by soaking the crystal in a solution containing the relevant ions (Dauter et al. (2000) "Novel approach to phasing proteins: derivatization by short cryo-soaking with halides" Acta Crystallogr D 56(Pt 2):232-237 and Nagem et al. (2001) "Protein crystal structure solution by fast incorporation of negatively and positively charged anomalous scatterers" Acta Crystallogr D 57:996-1002). Unfortunately, this approach can produce a number of low occupancy sites whose positions must be determined before phases can be derived. Another method, telluromethionine (TeMet) incorporation (Boles et al. (1994) "Bio-incorporation of telluromethionine into buried residues of dihydrofolate reductase" Nat Struct Biol 1:283-284 and Budisa et al. (1997) "Bioincorporation of telluromethionine into proteins: a promising new approach for X-ray structure analysis of proteins" J Mol Biol 270:616-623), provides a significant anomalous signal at the CuKα wavelength (δf″=6.4 e−), but is limited by the extreme sensitivity of TeMet to oxidation, toxicity to the host organism, and difficulty in achieving quantitative replacement of Met with TeMet.
Among other benefits, the present invention provides compositions and methods that overcome the above noted difficulties by enabling site-specific, high efficiency incorporation of heavy atoms into proteins. For example, by genetically encoding iodoPhe with a unique codon, tRNA, and aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase, this amino acid can be quantitatively and efficiently incorporated at any desired site in a protein. Furthermore, the substitution of large hydrophobic residues with iodoPhe, at either surface or internal sites, is likely to cause minimal perturbation of the protein structure. A complete understanding of the invention will be obtained upon review of the following.

Site specific incorporation of heavy atom-containing unnatural amino acids into proteins for structure determination


A method for resolving an erred input/output (IO) flow, the method may include (i) sending over a path a remote direct write request associated with a certain address range; wherein the path is formed between a compute node of a storage system to a storage drive of the storage system; (ii) receiving by the compute node an error message related to the remote direct write request; wherein the error message does not indicate whether an execution of the remote direct write request failed or is only temporarily delayed; (iii) responding by the compute node to the error message by (a) preventing from sending one or more IO requests through the path, (b) preventing from sending at least one IO requests aimed to the certain address range; and (c) requesting, using a management communication link, to force an execution of pending IO requests that are related to the path; and (iv) reuse the path, by the compute node, following an indication that there are no pending IO requests that are related to the path.

NVMe (Non-Volatile Memory Express) protocol is employed for accessing non-volatile storage media (SSDs—Solid State Drives, NVRAM—Non-Volatile Random Access Memory) attached via a PCI Express (PCIe—Peripheral Component Interconnect Express) bus. NVMe commands can be transported over a fabric (cloud) that provides distance connectivity to NVMe devices, using Fibre Channel or RDMA over InfiniB and, Ethernet, Converged Ethernet (known as RoCE—RDMA over Converged Ethernet). NVMe over fabric enables one computer (host) to access, over longer distances, NVM devices that are attached via PCI to another computer (target).
A host may access PCI NVM drives (also known as subsystems), that are accessible to the host over multiple paths, connecting the host to the target via the fabric.
To support parallel operation to the same drive, the NVMe standard supports up to 64K command queues within an I/O Queue, where each command queue is associated with one host accessing the device via a certain path.
Accessing the same device via multiple paths can cause race conditions that in certain circumstances may cause data corruption.


An auto-electrolyte hydrogen generating reactor having a plurality of cells. The cells are stacked in series in an electronically non-conductive housing. Each cell is separate from its neighbour by electronically conductive bipolar walls. Each cell comprises an anode with a metal whose standard oxidation potential is above that of hydrogen in the same electrolyte. There is a solid electrolyte and a cathode. The cathode is an inert electronic conductor with a surface in contact with a solid electrolyte. The surface is electrochemically catalytic for the formation of hydrogen.

The desirable characteristics of an electrochemical gas generator for a fluid dispenser are:
I. The generator should be compact, eg. with a volume less than about 10% of the fluid to be dispensed, and be capable of delivering a total volume of gas (at STP) several times (eg. 4 times) the total volume of the dispensed fluid. PA1 II. The gas production should be switchable (on/off). PA1 III. The rate of gas generation should be controllable over a wide (eg. tenfold) range. PA1 IV. The rate of gas generation should be relatively unaffected by changes in temperature. For this purpose the electronic circuit connecting the poles of the reactor may beneficially include a high resistance with a positive coefficient of resistivity, so that as temperature is increased the drop in electrolytic resistance is compensated by a corresponding increase in electronic resistance. PA1 V. Once switched on the gas generation should be spontaneous, without requiring an external source of power. PA1 VI. The unit should have a long "shelf life" (eg. one year) and should not generate gas when not switched on (ie. no self discharge). PA1 (a) Fluid dispensers as described and claimed by Graf in U.S. Pat. No. 5,547,043 and Satzinger and others. These dispensers are driven by gas, usually hydrogen, which is produced by the spontaneous reaction of a short circuited bimetal galvanic couple, for example zinc/molybdenum, with an aqueous electrolyte, for example aqueous potassium hydroxide. PA1 (b) Fluid dispensers as described and claimed by Orlitzky et al in U.S. Pat. No. 4,023,648 and Winsel in Canadian Patent 1,333,579. These dispensers are driven by a gas, usually hydrogen, produced by spontaneous reaction of metal electrodes, for example zinc/hydrogen on nickel, in a monopolar electrochemical cell with the electrodes connected and controlled through an external electronic resistance. PA1 (c) Fluid dispensers, as described by Orlitzky et al in the above U.S. Pat. No. 4,023,648 and Yang in U.S. Pat. No. 5,404,966. These dispensers are driven by gas, for example nitrogen, produced by a monopolar electrochemical cell driven by a separate battery, connected and controlled through an external electronic resistance. PA1 (d) Bipolar electrochemical hydrogen generators, such as described and claimed by Fidelman in U.S. Pat. No. 3,256,504 and Pacheco in U.S. Pat. No. 5,089,107. These generators have metal anodes, for example magnesium or aluminium, with inert cathodes connected in series with an external resistance and activated to spontaneously produce hydrogen when immersed in salt water. PA1 (e) Bipolar batteries, such as described and claimed by Bowker in U.S. Pat. No. 5,395,709 and Meadows in U.S. Pat. No. 5,527,642. In this equipment a plurality of spontaneous electrochemical cells contained in a housing is connected through bipolar walls to form a battery stack for energy generation. PA1 (f) Bipolar electrochemical reactors for hydrogen generation, for example as described by Oshima et al in U.S. Pat. No. 5,401,371. These reactors are used for the electrolysis of water to generate both hydrogen and oxygen and are driven by an external source of energy. PA1 an anode of a metal whose standard oxidation potential is above that of hydrogen in the same electrolyte; PA1 a solid electrolyte; PA1 a cathode comprising an inert electronic conductor with a surface in contact with said solid electrolyte, said surface being electrochemically catalytic for the formation of hydrogen.
Prior work in this field can be divided into five areas:
The above prior art fails to satisfy the desirable criteria set out above. For example (a) gives a compact spontaneous unit but it is not switchable. Also as it operates through an electronic short circuit it is relatively sensitive to change in temperature. The gas generators of (b) are switchable, spontaneous and controllable through an external electronic resistance. However the magnitude of the external resistance is limited by the relatively low voltage available from a monopolar electrochemical cell, for example about 0.4 volts from zinc/hydrogen. The systems of (c) are switchable and controllable through a large external resistance and so relatively insensitive to temperature. But they are not spontaneous and require external batteries for operation. For example two, 1.5 volt batteries in series may be required.
The bipolar electrochemical gas generators of (d) are spontaneous and it is claimed that they are controllable through an external resistance. However as shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,256,504 and 5,089,107 these bipolar units are not switchable or controllable but will generate hydrogen spontaneously when in contact with an electrolyte, for example salt water. This is due to electronic short circuits between anodes and cathodes in a common electrolyte. The bipolar batteries described under (e) are spontaneous and may be assembled to deliver multiples of the unit cell voltage but batteries are not required to produce gas, in fact batteries are designed to avoid gas generation. Finally hydrogen generators such as described in (f) require an external power source and produce oxygen and hydrogen at the same time.


A system for providing aircraft thrust includes a compressor, operable to take in a quantity of air, reduce the volume of the air to generate compressed air, and to deliver the compressed air to a tank. The tank is coupled to the compressor and is operable to receive the compressed air, store the compressed air, and deliver the compressed air to a nozzle mounted externally to the aircraft. The nozzle is operable to receive the compressed air and discharge the compressed air to provide thrust for the aircraft.

Aircrafts require lift to achieve flight. Fixed-wing aircraft generate lift by moving the entire craft through the air, creating a pressure differential across the wings. Rotary-wing aircraft generate lift by rotating the wings, also creating a pressure differential across the wings. To achieve lift-off, enough lift must be generated to overcome the weight of the aircraft.
To reduce reliance on long runways, military aircraft have used solid or liquid fuel rocket cartridges such as rocket-assisted take-off (RATO) or jet-assisted take-off (JATO). These cartridges are fixed to the aircraft and provide a temporary boost of thrust during take-off or landing.

Rechargeable compressed air system and method for supplemental aircraft thrust