One or more endpoints may be registered with a gateway at a premises. The gateway may include local physical interfaces for communicating with a first subset of the endpoints. The gateway may further include Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) proxy servers for communicating with a second subset of the endpoints. Incoming communications to the premises may be routed by the gateway to one or more of the endpoints via the local physical interfaces or the SIP proxy servers. One or more endpoints may initiate outgoing communications via the local physical interfaces or the SIP proxy servers.

Many types of wireless and wired mobile devices allow a user to connect that device to a local network. Once joined to a local network, the device can then communicate with a wide area network such as the global Internet or other wider area data network through the local network. In some cases this allows the device to communicate using a more reliable network and/or using a network having a higher data throughput. In many cases, however, it may be difficult for the device to fully utilize other services in the local network.

Obtaining services through a local network


The invention relates to the field of compounds, especially peptides or polypeptides, that have thrombopoietic activity. The peptides and polypeptides of the invention may be used to increase platelets or platelet precursors (e.g., megakaryocytes) in a mammal.

This invention relates to compounds, especially peptides, that have the ability to stimulate in vitro and in vivo production of platelets and their precursor cells such as megakaryocytes. Before discussing the nature of the inventive compounds, the following is provided as a background regarding two proteins that have thrombopoietic activity: thrombopoietin (TPO) and megakaryocyte growth and development factor (MGDF).
The cloning of endogenous thrombopoietin (TPO) (Lok et al., Nature 369:568-571 (1994); Bartley et al., Cell 77:1117-1124 (1994); Kuter et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 91:11104-11108 (1994); de Sauvage et al., Nature 369:533-538 (1994); Kato et al., Journal of Biochemistry 119:229-236 (1995); Chang et al., Journal of Biological Chemistry 270:511-514 (1995)) has rapidly increased our understanding of megakaryopoiesis (megakaryocyte production) and thrombopoiesis (platelet production).
Endogenous human TPO, a 60 to 70 kDa glycosylated protein primarily produced in the liver and kidney, consists of 332 amino acids (Bartley et al., Cell 77:1117-1124 (1994); Chang et al., Journal of Biological Chemistry 270:511-514 (1995)). The protein is highly conserved between different species, and has 23% homology with human erythropoietin (Gurney et al., Blood 85:981-988 (1995)) in the amino terminus (amino acids 1 to 172) (Bartley et al., Cell 77:1117-1124 (1994)). Endogenous TPO has been shown to possess all of the characteristics of the key biological regulator of thrombopoiesis. Its in vitro actions include specific induction of megakaryocyte colonies from both purified murine hematopoietic stem cells (Zeigler et al., Blood 84:4045-4052 (1994)) and human CD34+ cells (Lok et al., Nature 369:568-571 (1994); Rasko et al., Stem Cells 15:33-42 (1997)), the generation of megakaryocytes with increased ploidy (Broudy et al., Blood 85:402-413 (1995)), and the induction of terminal megakaryocyte maturation and platelet production (Zeigler et al., Blood 84:4045-4052 (1994); Choi et al., Blood 85:402-413 (1995)). Conversely, synthetic antisense oligodeoxynucleotides to the TPO receptor (c-Mpl) significantly inhibit the colony-forming ability of megakaryocyte progenitors (Methia et al., Blood 82:1395-1401 (1993)). Moreover, c-Mpl knock-out mice are severely thrombocytopenic and deficient in megakaryocytes (Alexander et al., Blood 87:2162-2170 (1996)).
Recombinant human MGDF (rHuMGDF, Amgen Inc., Thousand Oaks, Calif.) is another thrombopoietic polypeptide related to TPO. It is produced using E. coli transformed with a plasmid containing cDNA encoding a truncated protein encompassing the amino-terminal receptor-binding domain of human TPO (Ulich et al., Blood 86:971-976 (1995)). The polypeptide is extracted, refolded, and purified, and a poly[ethylene glycol] (PEG) moiety is covalently attached to the amino terminus. The resulting molecule is referred to herein as PEG-rHuMGDF or MGDF for short.
Various studies using animal models (Ulich, T.R. et al., Blood 86:971-976 (1995); Hokom, M.M. et al., Blood 86:4486-4492 (1995)) have clearly demonstrated the therapeutic efficacies of TPO and MGDF in bone marrow transplantation and in the treatment of thrombocytopenia, a condition that often results from chemotherapy or radiation therapy. Preliminary data in humans have confirmed the utility of MGDF in elevating platelet counts in various settings. (Basser et al., Lancet 348:1279-81 (1996); Kato et al., Journal of Biochemistry 119:229-236 (1995); Ulich et al., Blood 86:971-976 (1995)). MGDF might be used to enhance the platelet donation process, since administration of MGDF increases circulating platelet counts to about three-fold the original value in healthy platelet donors.
TPO and MGDF exert their action through binding to the c-Mpl receptor which is expressed primarily on the surface of certain hematopoietic cells, such as megakaryocytes, platelets, CD34+ cells and primitive progenitor cells (Debili, N. et al., Blood 85:391-401 (1995); de Sauvage, F.J. et al, Nature 369:533-538 (1994); Bartley, T.D., et al., Cell 77:1117-1124 (1994); Lok, S. et al., Nature 369: 565-8 (1994)). Like most receptors for interleukins and protein hormones, c-Mpl belongs to the class I cytokine receptor superfamily (Vigon, I. et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 89:5640-5644 (1992)). Activation of this class of receptors involves ligand-binding induced receptor homodimerization which in turn triggers the cascade of signal transducing events.
In general, the interaction of a protein ligand with its receptor often takes place at a relatively large interface. However, as demonstrated in the case of human growth hormone bound to its receptor, only a few key residues at the interface actually contribute to most of the binding energy (Clackson, T. et al., Science 267:383-386 (1995)). This and the fact that the bulk of the remaining protein ligand serves only to display the binding epitopes in the right topology makes it possible to find active ligands of much smaller size.
In an effort toward this, the phage peptide library display system has emerged as a powerful technique in identifying small peptide mimetics of large protein ligands (Scott, J.K. et al., Science 249:386 (1990); Devlin, J.J. et al., Science 249:404 (1990)). By using this technique, small peptide molecules that act as agonists of the c-Mpl receptor were discovered (Cwirla, S.E. et al., Science 276:1696-1699 (1997)).
In such a study, random small peptide sequences displayed as fusions to the coat proteins of filamentous phage were affinity-eluted against the antibody-immobilized extracellular domain of c-Mpl and the retained phages were enriched for a second round of affinity purification. This binding selection and repropagation process was repeated many times to enrich the pool of tighter binders. As a result, two families of c-Mpl-binding peptides, unrelated to each other in their sequences, were first identified. Mutagenesis libraries were then created to further optimize the best binders, which finally led to the isolation of a very active peptide with an IC50=2 nM and an EC50=400 nM (Cwirla, S.E. et al., Science 276:1696-1699 (1997)). This 14-residue peptide, designated as a TMP (for TPO Mimetic Peptide), has no apparent sequence homology to TPO or MGDF. The structure of this TMP compound is as follows:
SEQ ID NO: 1Ile Glu Gly Pro Thr Leu Arg Gln Trp Leu Ala AlaArg Alaor SEQ ID NO: 1IEGPTLRQWLAARAusing single letter amino acid abbreviations.
Previously, in a similar study on EPO mimetic peptides, an EPO mimetic peptide (EMP) was discovered using the same technique (Wrighton, N.C. et al., Science 273:458-463 (1996)), and was found to act as a dimer in binding to the EPO receptor (EPOR). The (ligand)2/(receptor)2 complex thus formed had a C2 symmetry according to X-ray crystallographic data (Livnah, O. et al., Science 273:464-471 (1996)). Based on this structural information, a covalently linked dimer of EMP in which the C-termini of two EMP monomers were crosslinked with a flexible spacer was designed and found to have greatly enhanced binding as well as in vitro/in vivo bioactivity (Wrighton, N.C., et al., Nature Biotechnology 15:1261-1265 (1997)).
A similar C-terminal dimerization strategy was applied to the TPO mimetic peptide (TMP) (Cwirla, S.E. et al., Science 276:1696-1699 (1997)). It was found that a C-terminally linked dimer (C—C link) of TMP had an improved binding affinity of 0.5 nM and a remarkably increased in vitro activity (EC50=0.1 nM) in cell proliferation assays (Cwirla, S.E. et al., Science 276:1696-1699 (1997)). The structure of this TMP C—C dimer is shown below:

In another aspect of the present invention, the tandem dimers may be further attached to one or more moieties that are derived from immunoglobulin proteins, referred to generally as the Fc region of such immunoglobulins. The resulting compounds are referred to as Fc fusions of TMP tandem dimers.
The following is a brief background section relating to the Fc regions of antibodies that are useful in connection with some of the present compounds.
Antibodies comprise two functionally independent parts, a variable domain known as "Fab", which binds antigen, and a constant domain, known as "Fc" which provides the link to effector functions such as complement fixation or phagocytosis. The Fc portion of an immunoglobulin has a long plasma half-life, whereas the Fab is short-lived. (Capon, et al., Nature 337:525-531 (1989)).
Therapeutic protein products have been constructed using the Fc domain to attempt to provide longer half-life or to incorporate functions such as Fc receptor binding, protein A binding, complement fixation, and placental transfer which all reside in the Fc region of immunoglobulins (Capon, et al., Nature 337:525-531 (1989)). For example, the Fc region of an IgG1 antibody has been fused to CD30-L, a molecule which binds CD30 receptors expressed on Hodgkin's Disease tumor cells, anaplastic lymphoma cells, T-cell leukemia cells and other malignant cell types. See, U.S. Pat. No. 5,480,981. IL-10, an anti-inflammatory and antirejection agent has been fused to murine Fcγ2a in order to increase the cytokine's short circulating half-life (Zheng, X. et al., The Journal of Immunology, 154: 5590-5600 (1995)). Studies have also evaluated the use of tumor necrosis factor receptor linked with the Fc protein of human IgG1 to treat patients with septic shock (Fisher, C. et al., N. Engl. J. Med., 334: 1697-1702 (1996); Van Zee, K. et al., The Journal of Immunology, 156: 2221-2230 (1996)). Fc has also been fused with CD4 receptor to produce a therapeutic protein for treatment of AIDS. See, Capon et al., Nature, 337:525-531 (1989). In addition, interleukin 2 has been fused to the Fc portion of IgG1 or IgG3 to overcome the short half life of interleukin 2 and its systemic toxicity. See, Harvll et al., Immunotechnology, 1: 95-105 (1995).
In spite of the availability of TPO and MGDF, there remains a need to provide additional compounds that have a biological activity of stimulating the production of platelets (thrombopoietic activity) and/or platelet precursor cells, especially megakaryocytes (megakaryopoietic activity). The present invention provides new compounds having such activity(ies), and related aspects.


A system and process for concentrating hydrocarbons in a bitumen feed comprising bitumen, water and solids. The system comprises an inclined plate separator, a hydrocarbon cyclone and a centrifuge. The inclined plate separator separates the bitumen feed into a first overflow stream and a first underflow stream, the first overflow stream having a first bitumen concentration greater than that of the first underflow stream. The hydrocarbon cyclone separates the first underflow stream into a second overflow stream and a second underflow stream. The centrifuge separates the second overflow stream into a third overflow stream and a third underflow stream, the third overflow stream having a third bitumen concentration that is greater than that of the third underflow stream.

Oil sands deposits are found in over seventy countries throughout the world. However, a substantial portion of these deposits are located in the Alberta oil sands. In fact, Alberta's oil sands deposits contain the largest known reserve of oil in the world. The vast quantities of oil in these deposits creates a tremendous incentive to develop and improve upon techniques and systems for recovering them.
Oil sands are a geological formation, which are also known as tar sands or bituminous sands. Oil sands deposits are primarily composed of solids (generally mineral components such as clay, silt and sand) plus bitumen and water. The bitumen content typically constitutes up to about 21 wt. % of the bitumen-bearing formation material, with the remainder of the formation material composed of about 70 to 85 wt. % solids and about 4 to 10 wt. % water. The solids content typically includes clay and silt ranging from about 5 to 50 wt. %. Technically speaking, the bitumen is neither oil nor tar, but a semisolid form of oil which will not flow toward producing wells under normal conditions, making it difficult and expensive to produce.
Oil sand deposits are mined using strip mining techniques or persuaded to flow into producing wells by techniques such as steam assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) or cyclic steam stimulation (CSS) which reduce the bitumen's viscosity with steam, solvents or a combination of steam and solvents.
In order to produce an appropriate quality of bitumen-based product for use by a refinery, the hydrocarbons in the bitumen-bearing formation material removed from oil sands deposits need to be concentrated. Concentrating the hydrocarbon content of a bitumen-bearing material (also known as bitumen recovery) is typically carried out through primary and secondary treatment processes that are well known in the art.
In conventional primary treatment facilities, the bitumen-bearing formation material is processed to produce a bitumen-enriched froth stream, which typically has a bitumen content of about 50 to 60 wt. %, a solids content of about 10 to 15 wt. % and a water content of about 30 to 40 wt. %. The bitumen-enriched froth stream that is produced through primary treatment is typically transported to a secondary treatment facility to increase its hydrocarbon concentration further in order to make it suitable for processing by an upgrader or specialized refinery facility. In order to make use of the bitumen-enriched froth stream in an upgrader or refinery, secondary treatment facilities process the stream in order to produce a hydrocarbon-rich product having a hydrocarbon concentration typically in the range of at least about 90% to 97% wt. % or more. Various techniques may be used to enhance the hydrocarbon concentration of the bitumen-enriched froth stream produced by primary treatment processes, examples of which can be found in Canadian Patent Nos. 873,854, 882,667 and 2,400,258.
Although various treatment processes exist to produce a bitumen-enriched product suitable for use by an upgrader or refinery, there continues to be a need for further treatment processes and systems that offer enhancements or alternatives to the manner in which a bitumen-enriched froth stream from primary treatment is processed.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

System and process for concentrating hydrocarbons in a bitumen feed


An apparatus, method and computer program product for modifying a surface of a component is provided. In use, a surface of a component is translated relative to at least one jet for a period of time to form a plurality of features thereon.

Many industries have a need for components that have a surface texture or surface form. For example, performance of semiconductor process chamber components, medical implant components, and aerospace components may be enhanced by applying a surface texture. Presently, there is not a cost effective method to generate a surface texture or morphology on components or parts which cannot be modified by methods such as grinding, machining, or other common manufacturing processes.
There is thus a need for addressing these and/or other issues associated with the prior art.

Apparatus, method and computer program product for modifying a surface of a component


A vertical oscillation circuit includes a self raster discriminating circuit for selectively outputting a vertical sync signal and a vertical flyback signal; a vertical flyback pulse generator for determining the duty of the vertical flyback signal; a pulse level pull up for receiving the duty-determined pulse, thereby inverting its phase and shifting its level; a V-HOLD stage for receiving a vertical hold signal, and then outputting a pulse in accordance with a horizontal cycle; a vertical linearity stage for outputting a vertical linearity control signal; a vertical size control stage for outputting a vertical size control signal; a vertical oscillation stage for receiving a vertical hold control signal, vertical linearity control signal, and vertical size control signal respectively output from the V-HOLD stage, vertical linearity stage, and vertical size control stage, and generating a ramp pulse while controlled by the phase-inverted and potential level shifted pulse output from the pulse level pull up; and a vertical position control stage for controlling the DC level of the vertical oscillation ramp pulse to thereby change vertical position.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vertical oscillation circuit for a display and more particularly, to a vertical oscillation circuit which is made with a plurality of separate devices, for a display.
2. Description of the Related Art
The driver circuits used in a display tend to be formed as one chip, with the development of semiconductor design and manufacturing technologies. Especially, the display's vertical oscillator, which generates a vertical oscillation pulse in order to control the vertical deflection operation, uses an integrated circuit (IC) comprised of one-chip.
In a one-chip vertical oscillation circuit for generating a vertical oscillation pulse, it is hard to find the cause of malfunctions which could possibly occur and it is hard to troubleshoot such malfunctions. To correct such malfunctions, the circuit must be shipped back to the manufacturer, which involves a loss in time, i.e., down time. Additionally, the one-chip vertical oscillation circuit is susceptible to noise.

Vertical oscillation circuit for display device


If a traveling speed of a carriage calculated by a speed converter is larger than an estimated speed in a deceleration section, braking is conducted by a braking method corresponding to a manipulated variable generated by a drive control unit. Owing to this type of braking, the traveling speed is reduced to the estimated speed. At this time, braking is conducted corresponding to an error between a target speed and the traveling speed, or an error between a speed (corresponding to an error between a current position of the carriage and a target stop position) and the traveling speed. Therefore, even if a braking force required for braking differs depending on individual variability of the carriage control device or operative condition of the carriage, braking can be conducted with a suitable braking force.

(1) Field of Invention
This invention relates to a device and a method for controlling motor operation.
(2) Background Art
In order to conduct recording with a printer wherein a carriage runs across a recording medium, it is necessary to accelerate the carriage up to specific speed, and after moving the carriage across a section above the recording medium at the specific speed, the carriage needs to be promptly decelerated so as to stop at a predetermined target stop position, that is a position wherein minimum acceleration distance for return movement is maintained. Alternatively, the carriage needs to be decelerated so as to stop at a position located slightly further than the target stop position and besides a nearest possible position to an onset of a permissible section for stoppage.
Simply by reducing rotational speed of a motor that drives the carriage after the carriage enters a deceleration section, the traveling speed of the carriage may not be sufficiently lowered due to inertia. For this reason, combinations of braking methods, such as regenerative braking, reverse rotation braking (plugging) and short-circuit braking, have been conventionally used to stop a carriage at a target stop position or at a nearest possible position to an onset of a permissible section for stoppage, that is slightly further than the target stop position.
In the case where the traveling speed of the carriage is reduced by this braking method, the traveling speed of the carriage may be reduced more than necessary due to braking effect, and the carriage may stop before reaching the target stop position (that is, the carriage may undershoot). Nevertheless, a motor is controlled in a manner so that the carriage initiates moving again from the position where the carriage has stopped, and the carriage eventually reaches the target stop position. In respect of the movement of the carriage, there is no problem with this operation. However, time required for the carriage to reach the target stop position becomes long, since the carriage stops once and then initiates the movement again.
In order to solve this problem, Japanese Unexamined Publication No. 57-43888 discloses a technique wherein the traveling speed of the carriage is once reduced from a normal traveling speed (a steady speed v1) to a constant speed (a low speed v2) by braking the carriage, when the carriage (carrier) enters a deceleration section. After moving the carriage for a predetermined distance (up to a predetermined position P) at the reduced speed (v2), braking is again conducted to reliably stop the plant (carrier).

Motor control device and motor control method


A cam gear driving apparatus of a VCR which can drive a cam gear by a relatively lower starting torque and has spur gears used as a driving gear and a cam gear so that it is easy to adjust tolerance. The cam gear driving apparatus has a driving source for generating power, the driving source having a driving shaft which has a plurality of protrusions at a position adjacent to a distal end, a support for supporting the driving section, the driving section being attached at one end thereof to a base and being connected at an other end thereof with a cam gear shaft, the driving shaft of the driving source extending through the support, a driving gear for rotating a cam gear, the driving gear being rotatably supported by a boss mounted in the base, and a power transfer section for transferring power generated by the driving source from the driving source to the driving gear.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information recording and reproducing apparatus, such as a video cassette recorder (hereinafter referred to as VCR), and more particularly to a cam gear driving apparatus driving a cam gear which operates a pinch roller assembly, a cassette loading mechanism for loading a cassette on a main base, and a tape loading mechanism for bringing a tape into contact with a head drum.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In general, an information recording and reproducing apparatus such as a VCR records video signals and audio signals on a magnetic tape which is driven through a driving system or reproduces video signals and audio signals from the magnetic tape. The VCR is divided into three types; .beta., VHS, and 8 mm according to the width of the tape on which an information is recorded. The tape is wound on a supply reel and a take-up reel provided within a cassette. When the cassette is inserted into the cassette inserting port and is mound on the VCR deck, a tape loading mechanism positions the tape from the cassette into a driving position.
The tape wound on the supply reel is drawn by a capstan and a pinch roller so as to be wound on the take-up reel. These heads are disposed between the supply reel aid the take-up reel, so that the three heads erase, record, and reproduce signals by making contact with the tape during a driving of the tape.
At this time, since the capstan and the pinch roller carry out the driving of the tape in a correct direction, the capstan an pinch roller have to rotate at a constant velocity; otherwise the heads can not record information onto the tape correctly and can not reproduce information recorded onto the tape, Also, the capstan and the pinch roller sustain a force, for example a tape tension which draws the tape, in order to maintain an equilibrium with the supply reel so that the heads can make stable contact with the tape and thereby prevent damage of the tape.
In general, operations of the cassette loading mechanism, the tape loading mechanism, and the pinch roller assembly, etc. are established by a cam gear. The cam gear has an upper cam and a lower cam respectively formed on an upper surface and a lower surface thereof, in which the upper cam is connected with the pinch roller assembly, the lower cam is connected with a relay plate assembly, and teeth of the cam gear are engaged with a front loading rack. Also, the cam gear has a mode switch operating gear at the upper surface thereof, which operates a mode switch.
FIG. 1 is a plan view of a VCR deck assembly on which is mounted a cam gear driving apparatus 10 according to the conventional art, and FIG. 2 is a perspective view of cam gear driving apparatus 10 according to the conventional art. Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, a cam gear driving apparatus 10 according to the conventional arm includes a loading motor 40, which is supported by a supporting member 30 attached at a side of a base 20, for generating power, a driving pulley 44 mounted on a rotating shaft 42 of the loading motor 40, a driven pulley 48, which is supported by supporting member 30, for receiving power transferred through a bolt 46 front driving pulley 44, and a worm 50, which is connected at one end thereof to driver pulley 44 and is engaged with a cam gear 60, for rotating cam gear 60.
In cam gear driving apparatus 10 according to the conventional art as constructed above, when loading motor 40 is operated, a driving force is transmitted through driving pulley 44 connected to rotating shaft 42, belt 46, and driven pulley 48 to worm 50. Accordingly, cam gear 60, which is engaged with worm 50, rotates so that the pinch roller assembly, the relay plate assembly, and the front loading rack which are respectively connected to the upper cam, the lower cam, and the teeth of cam gear 60, are operated by cam gear 60.
However, there is a problem in that since cam gear driving apparatus 10 transmits the driving force of loading motor 40 through driving pulley 44, belt 46, and driven pulley 48 to worm 50, a slip may be created between driving pulley 44 and belt 46 or between driven pulley 48 and belt 46, so that a relatively high starting torque is needed to drive cam gear 60.
Also, there are other problems in that a precise finishing of teeth or worm 50 and cam gear 60 is necessary, and it is difficult, to adjust a tolerance in the assembly of worm 50 and cam gear 60.

Cam gear driving apparatus of a video cassette recorder


There is provided an exposure method that includes the steps of forming a phase shift mask having a desired pattern and a cyclic dummy pattern overlaid onto the desired pattern, a part of the desired pattern to be resolved by effects of the dummy pattern being thicker than the dummy pattern's line width, illuminating the phase shift mask by using illumination light having a peak near or on an optical axis in an intensity distribution to transfer the desired pattern onto the exposure plane by projecting light having passed through the phase shift mask onto the exposure plane.

The present invention relates generally to exposure, and more particularly to exposure apparatuses and methods, device fabricating methods, and devices fabricated from an object to be exposed or a target object. The exposure apparatus and method are used to fabricate various devices including semiconductor chips such as ICs and LSIs, display devices such as liquid crystal panels, sensing devices such as magnetic heads, and image pick-up devices such as CCDs, as well as minute contact hole patterns used for micromechanics. Here, the micromechanics is technology for applying the semiconductor IC fabricating technique for fabrications of a fine structure, thereby creating an enhanced mechanical system that may operate at a level of micron.
A photolithography process uses an exposure apparatus to transfer a mask pattern onto a photosensitive material (resist) which is applied to a silicon wafer, glass plate, etc. (simply called "wafer" hereinafter), and includes steps of an application of resist, exposure, development, etching and a removal of the resist. For the exposure in this series of steps, resolution, overlay accuracy and throughput are three important factors. The resolution is the minimum size for a precise transfer. The overlay accuracy is precision in overlaying multiple patterns on a wafer. The throughput is the number of sheets processed per unit of time.
The fabrication of a device using the lithography technique has employed a projection exposure apparatus that uses a projection optical system to project a pattern drawn on a mask or reticle (these terms are used interchangeably in this application) onto a wafer, thereby transferring the pattern. The projection optical system enables diffracted beams from the pattern to interfere on a wafer and forms an image. The normal exposure enables 0-th order and ±1st order diffracted beams (namely, three beams) to interfere with each other.
Mask patterns include an adjacent and cyclic line and space (L & S) pattern, an adjacent and cyclic contact hole pattern, and isolated contact holes that are non-adjacent and isolated, but to transfer a pattern with high resolution, it is necessary to select optimal exposure conditions (such as illumination conditions, exposure light amounts, etc.) in accordance with kinds of patterns.
The resolution R of a projection exposure apparatus is given by using a wavelength λ of a light source and the number of apertures NA in a projection optical system in the following Rayleigh equation:
                    R        =                              k            1                    ×                      λ            NA                                              (        1        )            where k1 is a constant determined by a development process and others. In a normal exposure case, k1 is approximately 0.5-0.7.
The recent demand for highly integrated devices have increasingly required minute patterns to be transferred or high resolution. Although the above equation shows that the higher numerical aperture NA and decreased wavelength λ would be effective for the higher resolution, improvements of these factors have already reached the limit at the current stage. Thus, it is difficult for normal exposure to form a pattern of less than 0.15 μm onto a wafer. Accordingly, it has been suggested to employ the phase shift mask technology that enables two beams out of those diffracted beams which have passed through the pattern to interfere with each other, thus forming an image. The phase shift mask reverses by 180° phases of adjacent light-transmitting portions on it, and cancels out the 0-th order diffracted beam, thus enabling two ±1st order diffracted beams to interfere with each other and forming an image. Use of this technique would decrease k1 in the above equation down to substantially 0.25, thus improving the resolution R and forming a pattern of less than 0.15 μm onto a wafer.
However, although the conventional phase shift mask technique may be effective for such a simple pattern as a cyclic L&S pattern, it has had a difficulty in exposing an isolated pattern and an arbitrarily complicated pattern with high exposure performances (i.e., with high resolution, overlay accuracy, and throughput). In particular, the recent semiconductor industry has been shifting its production to a system chip which includes highly value-added and various types of patterns, and thus it has become necessary to form more than one kind of contact hole pattern on a mask.
On the other hand, as is disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 11-143085, it is conceivable to use double exposures (or multiple exposures) with two masks to expose different kinds of patterns separately, but the conventional double exposures require two masks and incur many practical disadvantages: That is, this approach results in an increased cost and lowered throughput because of two exposure steps, as well as requiring high overlay accuracy for two mask exchanges.
Therefore, it is an exemplary object of the present invention to provide an exposure method and apparatus that can expose mask patterns with high resolution and without exchanging the mask, the mask patterns, with a minute line width (e.g., less than 0.15 μm), which include a mixture of various patterns ranging from an L&S pattern to an isolated and a complicated pattern.


The present invention describes a process for preparing isopropylidene bis(cyclopentadienyl)zirconium dichloride comprising the steps of: (a) reacting acetone and cyclopentadiene in the presence of sodium methoxide or sodium ethoxide so as to form 2,2-dicyclopentadienylpropane; and (b) reacting said 2,2-dicyclopentadienylpropane with zirconium(IV) chloride in the presence of n-butyl lithium so as to form isopropylidene bis(cyclopentadienyl) zirconium dichloride.

The polymerization of olefins such as ethylene and propylene for manufacturing thermoplastics or norbornene-containing polymers often uses transition metal compounds, particularly metallocene compounds as a polymerization catalyst. Such polymerization catalysts have been diversely modified and studied over the last decades.
For example EP 0 035 242 A discloses a process for the polymerization of ethylene and propylene in the presence of a catalyst system comprising (a) a compound containing a transition metal such as cyclopentadienyl compound and (b) an aluminum containing of the aluminoxane type.
Furthermore, European patent application EP 0 129 368 A discloses a catalyst comprising (a) derivatives of mono, bi and tricyclopentadienyl coordinatinon complexes with a transition metal and (b) an alumoxane for preparing polyolefins of controlled molecular weight.
Also known are metallocene compounds using a substituted and unsubstituted cyclopentadienyl ligand system (EP 0 316 155 A), a substituted and unsubstituted indenyl ligand system (U.S. Pat. No. 5,840,664 A; EP 0 485 823 A) or a fluorine ligand system with heteroatom substituents (EP 0 577 581 A).
In addition, EP 0 416 815 A and U.S. Pat. No. 5,096,867 A disclose heteroatom substitution in mono-cyclopentadienyl metallocene useful for the polymerization of olefin.
However, there is continuous interest in producing metallocene compounds with high yield in a more effective way.
As is generally known in the art, bridged and substituted bis-cyclopentadienyl ligands are suitable for use as starting compounds in the process for producing a metallocene catalyst for the polymerization of olefin.
The traces of 2,2-dicyclopentadienylpropane to be used as a ligand have for the first time been observed by P. Kronig, M. Slongo, M. Neuenschwander in Makromol. Chem. 1982 (183) 359 in an attempt to polymerize 6,6-dimethylfulvene.

This approach was proven by I. E. Nifant'ev, B. V. Ivchenko, M. V. Borzov in Organometallic Chemistry in the USSR 5 (6) 1992, 673-674; Metalloorganicheskaya Khimiya 5, 1992, 1371-1373 using NaOH as a base catalyst and THF as the solvent yielding 82% of 2,2-dicyclopentadienylpropane.
EP 2 380 918 A also discloses a method for producing an a-olefin polymer suitable for use in a lubricating oil with the same route yielding 19% of 2,2-dicyclopentadienylpropane.
I. E. Nifant'ev, V. L. Yarnikh, M. V. Borzov, B. A. Mazurchik, V. I. Mstyslaysky, V. A. Roznyatovsky, Y. A. Ustynyuk Organometallics 1991, 10, 3739-3745. and I. E. Nifant'ev, K. A. Butakov, Z. G. Aliev, I. F. Urazovskii Organometallic Chemistry in the USSR 4 (6) 1991, 622-624; Metalloorganicheskaya Khimiya 4, 1991, 1265-1268 disclose a method involving a similar synthesis of 2,2-dicyclopentadienylpropane, however, with the aid of a phase transfer catalyst triethylbenzylammonium chloride (TEBA) in varying amounts yielding 58% and 85% isolated product respectively.
In addition, a metallation step as a next step yielding 35% and 39% of the isolated product has been reported by I. E. Nifant'ev, K. A. Butakov, Z. G. Aliev, I. F. Urazovskii in Organometallic Chemistry in the USSR 4 (6) 1991, 622-624; Metalloorganicheskaya Khimiya 4, 1991, 1265-1268 and K. Black, H. C. Aspinall, A. C. Jones, K. Przybylak, J. Bacsa, P. R. Chalker, S. Taylor, C. Z. Zhao, S. D. Elliott, A. Zydord, P. N. Heys J. Mater. Chem. 2008 (18) 4561-4571, respectively. The product was separated from LiCI by extraction from pentane and purified by subsequent recrystallization from pentane.

As described above, there have been many studies on metallocene compounds as a catalyst for producing olefin polymer and processes for producing the same. Despite the progress which has been described hitherto, there still is room left for improving a process for producing metallocene catalysts. In particular, in order to establish the synthesis route that can easily be scaled up, it is essential to have a reproducible synthesis route and process. Besides being reproducible a production process is sought that is efficient in the conversion of starting materials, in the usage of solvents and catalysts, and in the number of synthesis steps, i.e. a process that is economic.

Process for producing isopropylidene bis(cyclopentadienyl)zirconium dichloride


A wearable sound box apparatus is disclosed. In one embodiment, the disclosed sound box apparatus may include a wearable element having both ends thereof extended to form two sound box accommodating areas. The wearable element may be structurally hollow, allowing for a printed circuit board (PCB), a battery, and a reflection tube to be placed therein. A sound unit placed within each of the sound box accommodating areas may be electrically connected to the PCB through a signal line. When the sound unit operates, sound waves from the sound unit are reflected within the wearable element and corresponding inverted sound waves are transmitted out of the wearable element by the reflection tube.

1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a wearable sound box apparatus; in particular, to a wearable sound box apparatus with reduced-sized sound boxes (sound unit accommodating areas) on both sides in order to achieve better low-frequency performance.
2. Description of Related Art
The conventional sound box apparatus typically is of larger size or occupies a larger space compared with earphones, which gradually replace the sound box apparatus for the playback of music. The conventional earphones generally rely on amplifiers inside to output sound waves. Since the earphones are placed around the contour of the ears and may be too close to eardrums, soft tissues of the ears may suffer from hearing damages after going through lengthy usage periods. The above problem may be solved if a portable sound box apparatus could be utilized.
However, integrating the conventional sound box apparatus into the portable sound box apparatus in wearable form without sacrificing the characteristics of the sound box apparatus could be challenging. For example, one wearable element has been employed to be in connection with two sound boxes. With the sound box requiring some space for the sound waves to reflect/bounce, such space and the surface from which the reflected/bounced sound waves are outputted are often in the proximity (for instance, the space for the sound waves to reflect is placed behind the surface from which the bounced sound wave are outputted). Even so, when the space for the sound waves to bounce is too small corresponding sounding performance may not be satisfactory. On the other hand, if the space for the sound waves to bounce is too large carrying such sound box apparatus may become burdensome.
One potential solution to the above problem as disclosed in the present disclosure may take advantage of the space within the wearable element connecting the two sound boxes.


A dedicated memory area is provided on a microprocessor system for storing a customizable system interrupt service routine, processor state data at the time of interruption and a halt indicator indicating the CPU was interrupted from a halt state. The dedicated memory area is normally not mapped as part of the main memory space, thereby keep it inaccessible to the operating system and applications. An unmaskable system supervisor interrupt having higher priority than all other maskable and unmaskable interrupts is added to the CPU interrupts. The halt state indicator is set by the added interrupt of the CPU is in a halt state at the time of interruption. A RESUME instruction is added to the CPU instructions to provide recovery of the CPU to the state before it was interrupted. The Halt instruction is re-executed by the RESUME instruction if the halt state indicator remains set at the time of restoration. As a result, a system integrator or OEM may provide transparent system level interrupts with automated halt state restart that will operate reliably in any operating environment, and be relieved of the burden of managing halt state restart.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of microprocessor architecture. In particular, the present invention is a method and apparatus for providing transparent system interrupts with automated halt state restart.
2. Background
In the co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/594,278, filed on Oct. 9, 1990, assigned to the assignee of the present application, Intel Corporation, entitled Transparent System Interrupt, a method and apparatus for providing transparent system interrupts is disclosed, which has particular application to microprocessor architecture. The method and apparatus disclosed in the co-pending U.S. patent application solves the problem inherent in prior art microprocessors, particularly those that have a protected mode as well as a real mode of operation, of the inability of a system integrator or original equipment manufacturer (OEM) to provide transparent system interrupts.
Transparent system interrupts are system-level interrupts that may not be relocated or overwritten by any operating system or application, thereby allowing a system integrator using the microprocessor to provide system-level interrupts that will operate reliably in any operating environment. Under the preferred embodiment disclosed in the co-pending U.S. patent application, a transparent system interrupt is invoked by the assertion of an electrical signal at an external pin of the central processing unit (CPU) chip of a microprocessor-based chip set.
Upon assertion of the electrical signal at the external pin of the CPU chip, the CPU maps a normally unmapped dedicated random access memory (RAM) area where the transparent system interrupt service routine is stored as a pre-determined area of the main memory space, saves the current CPU state into the dedicated RAM space, and begins execution of the transparent system interrupt service routine. The transparent system interrupt routine typically comprises instructions that are unique to a particular application of the transparent system interrupts to the system in which the CPU chip is installed. Recovery from the transparent system interrupt is accomplished upon recognition of an external event that invokes a "Resume" instruction causing the CPU to be restored to exactly the same state that existed prior to the transparent system interrupt.
An important application of the transparent system interrupts is to power management functions, whereby the processor and/or other system devices may be effectively shut down during periods of non-use and then re-started without the need to go through a power-up routine. This function is particularly useful in connection with battery-operated computers where power conservation is a primary concern. Thus, for example, if a computer operator is interrupted while working with an application program, the system may be powered down to conserve battery life. When the operator returns to use the system, it is restored to the same point in the application program as if the system had been running throughout the intervening period of time. The operator need not take any action to save application program results prior to the interruption, nor reload the application program when returning to use the computer.
Under the co-pending U.S. patent application, the transparent system interrupt does not provide any specific support for interrupting the CPU during the halt state. Therefore, the transparent system service routine with application specific instructions has the responsibility for checking to determine if the CPU was interrupted during a halt state. If the CPU was interrupted during a halt state, the transparent system service routine has the further responsibility for fixing up the appropriate registers of the CPU state saved in the dedicated memory space, so that when the Resume instruction is executed to restore the CPU state, the CPU will either re-enter the halt state or continue execution with the next instruction as desired by the transparent system interrupt.
The manner in which a transparent system interrupt service routine can determine whether the CPU was interrupted during a halt state is microprocessor dependent. For the exemplary "i386.TM.SX" CPU based microprocessor system discussed in the co-pending U.S. patent application, the transparent system interrupt service routine determines whether the CPU was interrupted during a halt state by polling an input-output (I/O) register. The approach of having the transparent system interrupt service routine be responsible for restarting the CPU from an interrupted halt state has at least two disadvantages:
1) the burden of re-starting the CPU at a halt state or continued execution at the next instruction is placed on the transparent system interrupt service routine, and
2) the manner in which the CPU is restarted after it was interrupted from a halt state is microprocessor dependent.

Transparent system interrupts with automated halt state restart


A method for displaying visual information on a display screen of a computer, comprising the steps of scaling the visual information to produce a scaled representation to fit on the display screen the scaled representation containing the entire content of the visual information; selecting a region of interest within the scaled representation; applying a transformation to the scaled representation to improve the visual detail in the region of interest; and, displaying the transformed presentation on the display screen.

Display screens are the primary visual display interface to a computer. One problem with these visual display screens is that they are limited in size, thus presenting a challenge to user interface design, particularly when larger amounts of information is to be displayed. This problem is normally referred to as the "screen real estate problem".
Well known solutions to this problem include panning, zooming, scrolling or combinations thereof. While these solutions are suitable for a large number of visual display applications, these solutions become less effective where the visual information is spatially related, such as maps, newspapers and such like. In this type of information display, panning, zooming and/or scrolling is not as effective as much of the context of the panned, zoomed or scrolled display is hidden.
A recent solution to this problem is the application of "detail-in-context" presentation techniques to the display of large surface area media, such as maps. Detail-in-context presentation techniques take on many forms and are useful for displaying large amounts of information on limited size computer screens, and are becoming more important with the increased use of hand held computing devices such as personal digital assistance (PDA's) and cell phones.
Now, in the detail-in-context discourse, differentiation is often made between the terms "representation" and "presentation". A representation is a formal system, or mapping, for specifying raw information or data that is stored in a computer or data processing system. For example, a digital map of a city is a representation of raw data including street names and the relative geographic location of streets and utilities. Such a representation may be displayed visually on computer screen or printed on paper. On the other hand, a presentation is a spatial organization of a given representation that is appropriate for the task at hand. Thus, a presentation of a representation organizes such things as the point of view and the relative emphasis of different parts or regions of the representation. For example, a digital map of a city may be presented with a region magnified to reveal street names.
Detail-in-context presentations allow for magnification of a particular region of interest (the "focal region") in a representation while preserving visibility of the surrounding representation. In other words, in detail-in-context presentations focal regions are presented with an increased level of detail without the removal of contextual information from the original representation. In general, a detail-in-context presentation may be considered as a distorted view (or distortion) of a portion of the original representation where the distortion is the result of the application of a "lens" like distortion function to the original representation. A detailed review of various detail-in-context presentation techniques may be found in a publication by Carpendale, Marianne S. T., titled "A Framework for Elastic Presentation Space" (Burnaby, British Columbia: Simon Fraser University, 1999)) and incorporated herein by reference.
One shortcoming of current Electronic Presentation Space (EPS) graphics technology and detail-in-context presentation methods is that they are computationally inefficient. Considerable computer processing is required to distort a given presentation so as to produce a detail-in-context "lens", and to move the lens through the data with adequate performance to provide an acceptable level of interactivity to the user.
Another shortcoming lies in the level of accuracy of magnification that these methods provide, since detail-in-context methods such as those described in Keahey's NonLinear Magnification (Keahey, T. Alan, Nonlinear Magnification (Indiana University Computer Science, 1997)) require an interative approach to transform a data representation into a detail-in-context presentation at a given desired magnification.
A need therefore exists for a method and system that will allow for the effective implementation of EPS graphics technology for the online and electronic presentation of printed media. Consequently, it is an object of the present invention to obviate or mitigate at least some of the above-mentioned disadvantages.


The invention relates to a wheel suspension, which has at least one transverse link and one wheel carrier. The wheel carrier has a connecting element, through which a bolt extends, for connecting to the transverse link. The connecting element has a stop on a limb which is assigned to a bolt head, with the bolt head having a counterstop which corresponds to the stop.

Wheel suspensions of are known, with a spring link as a transverse link being connected with its connecting end to the wheel carrier. In this example, the wheel carrier may be a fork-shaped design at its connecting element, with bores being arranged in each of its fork limbs, through which is inserted a threaded bolt. The threaded bolt may project beyond the fork limbs in each instance so that a nut can be screwed onto the projecting free ends, such that the spring link is sufficiently fastened or clamped between the two fork limbs by screwing the nuts onto each projecting free end of the threaded bolt.
A key disadvantage of this known type of wheel suspension involves the connection of the spring link to the wheel carrier by means of the insertion of the bolt and screwing at both sides. This process is extremely time-consuming and expensive, and requires a multiplicity of components to be used.
DE 101 08 686 A1 relates to a fastening arrangement of a cardanically pivotable first component of a motor vehicle, in particular of a telescopic shock absorber, to a second component with a defined fastening plane, in particular to a link of a wheel suspension of the motor vehicle. The first component can be fastened to the second component by means of a fastening eye and a rubber-metal sleeve bearing which has a bearing bolt and fastening lugs which are formed thereon. In order to compensate a fastening plane running obliquely with respect to the bearing central axis, the fastening lugs are aligned asymmetrically with respect to the bearing bolt.
DE 197 20 639 A1 likewise discloses a bearing arrangement for a pivotable component, in particular for a link of a wheel suspension for motor vehicles, having a component-side bearing sleeve, having a bearing bolt which projects through the bearing sleeve and has fastening points at the end side, and having a resiliently elastic bearing element which is situated between said bearing sleeve and bearing bolt. At least one of the end-side fastening points is a screw which projects into the bearing bolts and has an eye-shaped head.
DE 38 03 802 discloses a wheel suspension for a driven front axle of a motor vehicle having a stabilizer which is held on the body side and which is connected to a wheel carrier by means of a joint with a hanger and by means of a further joint. The hanger is composed of a curved arm which, between the joints, encompasses a free space for a transversely running wheel driveshaft which runs with a spacing to the arm in the vertical and longitudinal direction. The arm is aligned in the vehicle longitudinal direction. The wheel-carrier-side joint is situated above the wheel rotational axis in a steering axis which is formed by an upper spring strut support bearing and a lower transverse link bearing.
DE 39 09 942 A1 discloses a wheel suspension for the front wheels of a motor vehicle having an upper and a lower transverse link which are articulatedly mounted on a wheel carrier, and having a spring-damper element which is connected to the upper transverse link and is supported on the vehicle body. The spring-damper element is supported between the upper and the lower transverse link on a bearing lever in a bearing. The bearing lever is pivotably held on a transverse link and is guided by means of a control lever which is mounted on the body side.
EP 0 312 711 B1 discloses a wheel suspension for a motor vehicle, in particular a transverse link axle having a damper and spring strut, which is supported at the body side and is connected to an upper transverse link, with an intermediate member being arranged between the wheel carrier and the upper transverse link and fixedly connected to the damper and spring strut. On the one hand, a link is arranged between the intermediate member and the wheel carrier, wherein on the other hand, a bearing arrangement is arranged between the intermediate member and the transverse link. The link and the bearing arrangement are spaced apart from the damper and spring strut axis and are arranged approximately in a plane which is aligned approximately perpendicularly with respect to the damper and spring strut axis.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,819,202 is concerned with a suspension system of a motor vehicle having a wheel camber and toe-in adjustment.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,875,703 and EP 0 312 997 B1 are concerned with a double link suspension which has a transverse stabilizer. The wheel suspension comprises a wheel carrier, a lower transverse link and an extension element which, with a first end, is connected so as to be moveable relative to an upper section of the wheel carrier, with the suspension additionally comprising an upper transverse stabilizer and a shock absorber, with the transverse stabilizer being connected to the extension element.
DE 198 OS 810 A1 discloses a connection element for connecting a torsion stabilizer to a component of a vehicle wheel suspension, with the connection element transmitting forces, and permitting angular movements, between the torsion stabilizer and the component. A first ball joint arrangement is fixedly connected to a second ball joint arrangement. A first end of the first ball joint arrangement is connected to the torsion stabilizer, with the other end being fixedly connected to the one end of the second ball joint arrangement. The other end of the second ball joint arrangement is connected to the component of the wheel suspension.
Although the previously mention patents are solutions, what is needed is a an improved wheel suspension using simple means in such a way that it can be produced in a more cost-effective, simple, and space-saving manner.


A handheld, portable tubing cutter driveable by a handheld power drill is provided. The tubing cutter includes a support cylinder having distal and, proximal ends. The proximal end of the support cylinder is adapted to engage the drill chuck of an ordinary handheld power drill. A cylindrical cutting head, known in the art, is removably connected to the distal end of the support cylinder. The longitudinal axis of the support cylinder is aligned with, and parallel to, the longitudinal axis of the tubing to be cut. Once the cutting head is placed on the tubing to be cut and the support cylinder is connected to the cutting head, the device is actuated and operates with a minimized working profile.

The present invention pertains generally to the field of plumbing hand tools. More particularly, the present invention provides a portable motorized tubing cutter for quickly and efficiently cutting off the ends of copper stub-outs, for example. The cutting tool of the present invention has a minimized working profile allowing the tool to be used in confined or tight spaces. The tool can also be used to cut tubing other than copper tubing.
Various cutting tools are known in the prior art for cutting copper and other tubing. Motorized cutting tools are known which are driveable by handheld drills, as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,351,587. However, that cutting tool requires the user to tighten a knurled knob or head 18. Knob 18 extends radially away from the longitudinal axis of the tubing being cut. Such a tool is difficult to operate in tight and/or confined spaces such as beneath a bathroom sink or beneath a kitchen sink.
The prior art also includes various power driven handheld tubing cutters which extend radially outwardly from the longitudinal axis of the pipe a considerable distance to provide for either a power supply and/or a handhold for the user. Such devices include U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,903,980; 6,202,307; 5,315,759 and 4,953,292.
There is clearly a need for tubing cutters with a minimized "working profile" to allow the cutter to operate in confined or tight spaces. This need increases as building square footage increases in cost and as plumbing lines must be placed closer to walls, fixtures and other plumbing lines.
The present invention satisfies the aforementioned need and provides a handheld motorized tubing cutter having a minimized "working profile." The phrase "working profile," as used herein, refers to the radially extending distance from the longitudinal axis of the tubing to be cut that is required to provide adequate clearance for the tool and/or the hands of the user operating the tool. The tool of the present invention provides a "working profile" that is less than half of the "working profile" required by other known motorized tubing cutters.
As described below, the present invention is a small, rugged, portable tubing cutter which is driveable by an ordinary handheld power drill. The cutter includes in a first embodiment a cutting head and a separate support cylinder. The support cylinder is directly connected to an ordinary handheld power drill. The cutting head, in the first embodiment, is a separate handheld tool built according to the embodiment shown in FIGS. 13-15 of U.S. Pat. No. 5,903,980, which patent is incorporated in its entirety herein by reference as though set forth in full. The small handheld cutting head is opened and placed on the stub-out and then closed. The cylindrical housing of the present invention is then slid over the cutter head. A beveled surface inside the cylindrical housing grips the cutting head. The handheld drill is then actuated and the end of the copper stub-out is cut quickly and cleanly.
A primary object of the invention is to provide a reliable, sturdy and motorized tubing cutter having a minimized "working profile" for use in tight or confined spaces for cutting copper stub-outs and other tubing.
Another object of the invention is to provide a tubing cutter wherein the cutter is automatically aligned to produce a clean cut perpendicular to the axis of the pipe being cut and wherein the resulting cut is free of burrs.
Further objects and advantages will become apparent from the following description and drawings wherein:

Handheld portable tubing cutter drivable by handheld power drill and having a minimized working profile


An example distribution and outage management system can include: a processor; and memory encoding instructions which, when executed by the processor, causes the system to: provide a supervisory control and data acquisition module programmed to manage infrastructure elements of a distribution network; provide a geographic information system module programmed to manage spatial aspects of the distribution network; provide a distribution and outage module programmed to incorporate data from the supervisory control and data acquisition module and data from the geographic information system module to create a data management and outage model; and render an interface depicting the data management and outage model.

Natural gas is a safe and efficient energy source typically used for heating and cooking. The gas is distributed from a source through a network of pipes to a desired destination such as a house, where it is then combusted. The network must be managed to provide safe and reliable delivery of the gas.
The demand for gas fluctuates over time. For example, during the winter months, the demand for gas can be significant in colder climates, where it is used to heat structures. The ability to manage the distribution of the gas can be a significant challenge, particularly when shutoffs and outages occur.


A personal dressing device/valet having dressing aids, comprising a pair of end caps, and an intermediate element having at least one compartment, and having opposite ends, and at least one of the end caps being removably securable to one of the opposite ends. One of the end caps of the pair of end caps having a clamping mechanism comprising a pair of jaws for assisting in fastening a bracelet to one's wrist; and the at least one end cap having another dressing aid selected from the group consisting of a zipper pull, button threader, emory board, magnifying glass and combinations thereof.

Heretofore in the marketplace, most if not all personal "dressing tools" generally performed a single function, such as the Zipper Pulls of the Oct. 5, 1993 U.S. patent to Leonardz, U.S. Pat. No. 5,249,832 which includes a one-half inch pipe like rigid handle with a weighted 90.degree. pipe elbow bent at an end thereof and having a magnetized element adjacent an end hook for aiding in precluding a zipper from becoming disengaged from the hook during use in the zipping and unzipping process. U.S. Pat. No. 2,900,205 granted to Cirone on Aug. 18, 1959 discloses a few embodiments of a zipper pull, and all employ a long handle with an arm disposed at right angles thereto at one end. One device employs a finger element of a slide fastener having a spring-loaded slide for use in gripping a zipper pull. Another side actuator is the heavily weighted zipper pull of U.S. Pat. No. 3,249,977, granted May 10, 1996 to Cloud, Jr. While these devices may function adequately, they are generally large and clumsy, usually more complicated and not lightweight nor small enough to fit in small pouch of one's pocket or pocketbook. Another well known single functioning tool is the "Bracelet Buddy" bracelet fastening aid, trademarked and made and sold by Papernik Productions, Inc. of 115 Kisco Avenue, Mt. Kisco, N.Y. 10549. This device while a small and handy to use, is limited to the sole function of aiding one in putting on a bracelet. See for example, the six inch long clasp clamp and jewelry clasp, respectively advertized in two Miles Kimbell catalogs on page 30 (year 1991, item no. 0520-23) and on page 57 (year 1994, item no. 505206); and also my U.S. Design Pat. No. 363,042 patented on Oct. 10, 1995, and U.S. Pat. No. 3,242,540 granted on Mar. 29, 1966 to Michell, as well as the large and clumsy bench type Bracelet Fastening Tools of U.S. Des. Pat. No. 323,132 granted on Jan. 14, 1992 to Gernnan and U.S. Pat. No. 2,926,875 granted on Mar. 1, 1960 to Hoyte.
Other known dressing accessories are button threaders which are similar in design to a "needle threader" wherein a loop or wire-like frame is used to feed or thread one element (thread or button) through a hole in another element (needle or garment).


Described herein are functionalized garments that can be worn on the torso of a subject and can be configured with varying zones or areas of compressions and can provide increased signal-to-noise ratios and reduced motion artifacts in areas while allowing a substantially unimpeded freedom of motion.

Facile integration of electronics represent the most difficult challenge and greatest opportunity facing wearable technologies today, particularly for garment-based electronic designs. This can be addressed by applying macro-scale strategies for innovative materials design and manufacturing to solve the trade-off issues that exist between textile and device performance in the field of electronic textiles (e-textiles). Prior development has produced a garment made of multiple panels with individual properties and functionality. Assembling this garment, however, is challenging due to sewing multiple panel sections and integrating electrical components and connections.


A semiconductor device and a method for forming the same can block a moving path of electrons between neighbor buried gates. A semiconductor device includes a device isolation film formed to define an active region over a semiconductor substrate. The semiconductor device also includes a plurality of buried gates formed over the active region, and a barrier film formed between neighboring buried gates from the plurality of buried gates.

Embodiments relate to a semiconductor device and a method for forming the same, and more particularly to a semiconductor device for blocking a moving path of electrons between neighboring buried gates, and a method for forming the semiconductor device.
As the size of semiconductor devices continues to shrink, a recessed wordline or buried wordline structure in which a semiconductor substrate is etched in a manner that a recess is formed in the semiconductor substrate, has recently been proposed to improve refresh characteristics.
Application of the recessed wordline or buried wordline structure to semiconductor devices, has resulted in a reduction in the size of wordline area. However, the semiconductor device may operate abnormally due to the occurrence of an RC delay. In order to solve the abnormal operation of the semiconductor device, a wordline is generally formed of a metal material.
However, assuming that the wordline is formed of metal, a work function of the wordline is changed, so that electrons may become trapped onto the surface of Si/SiO2 material of the semiconductor substrate according to on and off operations of the wordline, and then released from the Si/SiO2 surface.
Specifically, electrons trapped onto the semiconductor substrate start motion when a neighbor gate or a passing gate is repeatedly turned or off, such that data of an off-state magnetic cell is changed to another.
According to the phenomenon described above, data stored in the off-state cell may be changed according to repetition of the on/off operation of neighboring wordlines, such that defective semiconductor devices occur, resulting in reduction of reliability of the semiconductor devices.

Semiconductor device and method for forming the same


The contact node comprises at least two metallized contacts coupled with conductive paths arranged on surfaces of connection layers made on the base of a dielectric material and mutually aligned and interconnected electrically and mechanically by conductive binding material. The contact node is a joint between a contact made in the form of a metallized pad coupled with a conductive path on the surface of the underlying connection layer and a respective contact made in the form of a metallized hole in a dielectric material layer.

It is known that permanent connections provide a high reproducibility, quality and reliability of an electronic equipment. In the microelectronics equipment designs, most of permanent connections are formed by joining pairs of contact into contact nodes during producing operations (soldering, welding, spraying, galvanic build-up etc.)
At the moment the requirements to provide a speed performance and miniaturization become increasingly crucial in creating and manufacturing the modern electronic equipment.
The promising direction of development is to create the equipment on the base of housing-less components, including LSIC, in the form of multichip modules which are characterized by a high component mounting density, interconnection topology optimization and increase of the speed performance of the MCM equipment.
In that connection, efforts of many microelectronics equipment designers' are directed to develop multilayered connection structures with high interconnection density with a reliable contacting of conductors being in adjacent connection layers as well as methods for joining housing-less components, and first of all, multi-lead LSIC chips to mounting contacts of multilayered connection structure as a part of the MCM.
One of the almost insurmountable obstacle for obtaining the high interconnection density in the MCM multilayered substrates is in the forming of a great number (several thousands) of reliable contact nodes having identical features and connecting the conductors from different connection layers into single topology of the multilayered structure.
Other, no less hard problem is to joining reliably and reproducibly the contact pads of LSIC chips to respective contact pads of the multilayered MCM structure.
The chips of modern LSICs (for example, Pentium chips) have dimensions exceeding 1 sq. cm, more than 400 contact pads and clock operating frequencies greater than 400 MHz. An assembling of such chips into a single MCM node with chips of Cash memory is a very actual problem. Actuality of this problem would only increase with developing the microelectronics equipment manufacture and LSIC element base.
The contact node as a component of the MCM multilayered connection structure could be a combination of at least two metallized contacts, for example, in the form of coaxially jointed metallized holes made in two adjacent connection layers interconnected electrically and mechanically.
The contact node for mounting a LSIC chip as a component of the MCM also could be represented by a combination of two aligned contacts one of which being on a chip surface and a respective contact being on the MCM mounting layer. The contacts are interconnected by a conductive structure, which could be, depending on forming method, as follows:                a wire welded to the contacts;        a jumper formed on the dielectric material film and welded to the contacts;        a tinned protrusion previously formed on one contact and soldered to another one.
Variety contact node designs for mounting the chips could be divided into following types (Ma3yp A.  p. πpoeccI cBapK  πak B πpo3BocTBe πoyπpoBoHKoBIx πpopoB. M.: "Pao  cB3", 1991. C. 38-39—Mazur A. et al. Welding and soldering processes in manufacturing the semiconductor devices. Moscow: "Radio and Sviaz", 1991. Pp. 38-39).
Type 1 is characterized by an arrangement of contacts being connected (one contact on the chip surface, other one on the mounting surface) in different parallel planes. In so doing, the contacts are faced by working surfaces to one side and connected by extended intermediate elements, for example, by wire welded to the contacts.
Type 2 is characterized by an arrangement of contacts in one plane. The contacts are also connected by extended intermediate elements which are beam connectors.
Type 3 is similar to Type 1, the contact pads are also arranged in the parallel planes, but faced to each other with their working surfaces. The intermediate element of extended type is a beam on the polyimide film.
It is necessary to note two main disadvantages of above mentioned types of the contact nodes:                a utilization of defect-forming producing operations (welding);        a non-group character of main assembling operations (forming every contact node individually and sequentially, with two weldings for every contact node).
Type 4 is similar to Type 3, but the contacts are mutually aligned, whereby the intermediate element has a minimal extension and is made in the form of protrusion having the bump or ball form previously formed on the chip contact. A connection of the contacts is performed by soldering.
An advantage of the Type 4 contact node is a group character of preliminary and assembling operations (assembling all contact nodes simultaneously).
Main disadvantages are as follows:                the impossibility to perform direct visual and electrical control of process and results of the contact node assembling due to the fact that the chip turned by its "face" (and all contact pads) to the substrate covers all aligned respective contact pads on the substrate;        the lack of natural exit for working waste of assembling (for example, the flux) from a very narrow gap between the substrate and chip due to substantial capillary forces in this gap;        the lack of effective methods for withdrawing the working waste of assembling from the gap between the substrate and chip, which leads to degradation phenomena in the chip during its exploitation and to decreasing in a reliability of the chip operation.
The contact node used in assembling the polyimide connection layers into multilayered operation plate is known, consisting of two contacts in adjacent layers which contacts are made in the form of metallized holes which with form, together with metallized holes of other layers, the matrix of through channels piercing all plate layers throughout. After coaxial alignment and jointing, all pairs of contact through holes are interconnected by the method of vacuum soldering (πaHoB E.H. OcoeHHocT copK cπea3poBaHHIx C Ha a3oBIx MaTpHIx KpcTaax. M.: "BIcaKoa", 1990. C. 33-34. Panov E. N. The peculiarities of assembling the specialized LSIC on basic matrix chips. Moscow: "Vysshaya Shkola", 1990. Pp. 33-34).
However, such construction of the contact node leads to greater expenditure of usable plate area for through channel matrix, which decrease sufficiently the interconnection spreading density, lead to increase number of plate layers and number of soldered joints, i.e. decrease the manufacture adaptability of the plate and increase its cost while degrading reliability characteristics.
The closest to the present invention by the technical essence and achieved result during its utilization is the contact node including two contacts, one of which contacts is made in the form of metallized tinned protrusion having a bump or ball form on a contact pad of LSIC chip, and the second contact is in the form of metallized contact pad coupled with conductors on a mounting surface of a connection structure. After their aligning, the contacts are interconnected electrically and mechanically by means of a conductive binding structure (MopKoB O.C. TexHooπ πoyπpoBoHKoBIx πpopoB  3eMKpoeKTpoHK. M.: "BIca Koa", 1990. C. 38-40—Moryakov O. S. Technology of semiconductor devices and microelectronics items. Moscow: "Vysshaya Shkola", 1990. Pp. 38-40).
Such contact node design is characterized by:                great technological difficulties in forming protrusions of complex form and structure and uniform by height on the contact pads of the LSIC chips having a multiplicity of leads (500 contacts and over);        utilizing the defect-forming producing operations and processes in forming 3D protrusions on the LSIC contact pads;        the impossibility to perform direct visual and electrical inspection of the process and results in assembling a great number of contact nodes placed in a very narrow gap between the substrate and the chip;        great difficulties in withdrawing the working waste, being formed during the process of soldering the contact nodes, from the gap between the chip and substrate, which effects negatively on the reliability of connections.


In an illustrative embodiment, methods and systems for automatically labeling unstructured data include accessing unstructured data representing data entry and analyzing the unstructured data by applying natural language processing to a text component of the unstructured data to obtain a set of term counts of words and/or phrases identified in the text component. Analyzing may include applying at least one clustering algorithm to the set of term counts to determine a term cluster, identifying a preexisting term cluster most closely matching the term cluster, and applying, to the unstructured data, a predefined label corresponding to the preexisting term cluster. The unstructured data may be analyzed to obtain formatting counts of formatting elements, and a formatting cluster may be determined and applied to match to a preexisting formatting cluster, thus deriving a predefined label corresponding to the preexisting formatting cluster.

Complex insurance claims have historically been monitored manually, resulting in oversights and errors that can lead to financial loss, reduction in customer satisfaction, and frustration for processing agent teams. Because of the overwhelming amount of information, oversight and review of the claims process by supervisors of processing agents has typically been spotty, and selection of which individual claims to review has involved the supervisor's subjective belief, or intuition, on which claims are most likely to lead to complications and/or loss as well as coarse objective measures such as reserve amount or review checklists. The claims financial improvement opportunity of an average insurer is typically 8-12% of claims loss and allocated loss adjustment expenses (ALAE) costs, depending on the line of business. However, to date, insurers have had limited strategies or knowledge on how to reduce financial improvement opportunity. The inventors recognized a need for automated, objective analysis of claims handling, while the claims are still being processed, to identify potential monetary or customer satisfaction losses and to activate automatic and/or manual interventions to stem or avert loss.

Automatically labeling data using natural language processing


An apparatus and method for generating an output signal that tracks the temperature coefficient of a light source are provided. A light source temperature coefficient tracking mechanism (e.g., a current source circuit) that generates an output signal, which tracks the temperature coefficient of the light source (e.g., temperature coefficient of a light emitting diode (LED)) is provided. A proportional to absolute temperature current source circuit (PTAT current source circuit) generates a first signal. A complimentary to absolute temperature current source circuit (CTAT current source circuit) generates a second signal. The output signal that tracks the temperature coefficient of the light source is based on the first signal and the second signal.

Optocoupler systems include a first circuit and a second circuit that are electrically isolated from each other. The first circuit includes a light emitting diode (LED) that is coupled to a LED current source. The first circuit is optically coupled to a second circuit. The second circuit includes a photodiode (PD). For example, the LED emits light, which impinges on the photodiode, causing a current through the photodiode (e.g., a photodiode current). The second circuit also includes a transimpedance amplifier circuit is coupled to the photodiode to generate an output voltage signal that is based on the photodiode current. The second circuit also includes a current source that generates a reference current. Typically, the photodiode current is compared with the reference signal, and this comparison is utilized to generate the output voltage signal.
Although the reference current is typically not dependent on temperature (i.e., relatively constant across temperature differences), the photodiode current changes or varies with respect to temperature. This temperature dependence causes the following unwanted and undesirable traits or attributes to the output voltage signal: 1) pulse width variation at different temperatures, and 2) pulse width distortion across temperature.
FIG. 6 illustrates several waveforms that represent various signals generated by a prior art optocoupler system, where the pulse width of the output voltage signals varies across different temperatures. It is noted that a first waveform 610 represents a reference current that is relatively fixed across temperatures.
A first waveform 620, a second waveform 630, and a third waveform 630 represent a photodiode current at different temperatures (e.g., cold temperature, room temperature, and hot temperature). An exemplary temperature range is from −40 degrees Celsius to +125 degrees Celsius. For example, the second waveform 620 represents the photodiode current signal at cold temperature (e.g., −40 degrees Celsius). The third waveform 630 represents the photodiode current signal at room temperature. The fourth waveform 640 represents the photodiode current signal at hot temperature (e.g., +125 degrees Celsius).
A fifth waveform 650, a sixth waveform 660, and a seventh waveform 670 represent output voltage signals generated by the prior art opto-coupler system at different operating temperatures. For example, the fifth waveform 650 represents the output voltage signal at room temperature. The sixth waveform 660 represents the output voltage signal at cold temperature (e.g., −40 degrees Celsius). The seventh waveform 670 represents the output voltage signal at hot temperature (e.g., +125 degrees Celsius).
As can be appreciated, the pulse width of each of the output voltage signal waveforms 650, 660, 670 is different and dependent upon temperature. It is noted that the propagation delay from off-state to on-state and on-state to off-state can be different due to asymmetric triggering at cold temperature and at hot temperature. The different propagation delays further causes pulse width distortion across the entire temperature range.
Based on the foregoing, there remains a need for an apparatus and method for generating an output signal that tracks the temperature coefficient of a light source that overcomes the disadvantages set forth previously.

Apparatus and method for generating an output signal that tracks the temperature coefficient of a light source

Avago Technologies ECBU IP (Singapore) Pte. Ltd.


A method for forming a metallic glass, which comprises a step of subjecting a metallic glass to a rough forming by die casting, to prepare a roughly formed article, and a step of heating the roughly formed article to a temperature region corresponding to an undercooled liquid thereof, followed by subjecting the heated article to warm press forming.

Metallic liquid normally enters an extremely unstable state when cooled below a melting point, and is immediately crystallized to become crystallized metal. In this event, time for which a supercooled liquid can exist in an uncrystallized state where atoms are randomly arranged, i.e., a so-called "amorphous state," is estimated to be 10−5 seconds or less at a nose temperature of a continuous cooling transformation (CCT) curve. Specifically, this means that it is impossible to obtain amorphous alloys unless a cooling rate of 106 K/s or more is achieved.
However, there has recently been invented metallic glass which undergoes clear glass transition and is not crystallized even at a cooling rate of 100 K/s or less since a supercooled liquid state is extremely stabilized in a specific alloy group including a zirconium base (see, for example, The June 2002 edition of Kinou Zairyou (Functional Materials), Vol. 22, No. 6, p.p.5-9; Non-patent Document 1).
Each of these metallic glasses has a wide temperature range (supercooled liquid temperature range) in which a supercooled liquid state can be maintained. For this reason, superplastic forming by means of viscous flow can be performed on each of the metallic glasses (see, for example, The July 2002 edition of Kinou Zairyou (Functional Materials), Vol. 22, No. 7, p.p. 5-8; Non-patent Document 2) under a condition that a temperature and a time period are not reached within the temperature range causing crystallization.
Additionally, it is known that a large-shaped amorphous alloy (a bulk metallic glass) can be manufactured directly from molten metal by any one of manufacturing methods such as a water quenching method, an arc melting method, a permanent mold casting method, a high-pressure injection molding method, a suction casting method, a mold-clamp casting method and a rotating-disc fiber manufacturing method (see, for example, The June 2002 edition of Kinou Zairyou (Functional Materials), Vol. 22, No. 6, p.p.26-31; Non-patent Document 3).
Metallic glasses manufactured by these manufacturing methods can provide mechanical properties even in large sizes, which may otherwise be lacking in crystalline alloys. The mechanical properties include a high strength and a low Young's modulus and a high elastic limit, which are inherent in the amorphous state. For this reason, the metallic glasses are expected to be widely put into practical use as structural materials.
Metallic glasses are originally suitable for application to thin-wall molded articles, such as an electronic equipment cabinet, for which three-dimensional shapes realizing high strengths and light weights are favored. There are, however, problems as described below with the above described manufacturing methods of obtaining large-shaped metallic glass components.
Firstly, the permanent mold casting method has the following problems. The general permanent mold casting method is a simple method with which molten metal is simply poured into a molding cavity of a die. Therefore, depending on the shape of the component, it is difficult to avoid shape losses due to insufficient run of spreading of the molten metal, and casting defects such as cold shut and blowholes. Additionally, a cooling rate from the die is unstable, and thus it frequently occurs that part of molten metal is not turned amorphous.
Secondly, the high-pressure injection molding method has the following problems. The general high-pressure injection molding method (for example, Japanese Patent Publication No. Hei 10-296424) is capable of molding a subject into a three-dimensional shape by supplementing an insufficient run of spreading of the molten metal by high-pressure injection. However, a formation of a complicated runner as shown in FIGS. 6 to 8 in Japanese Patent Publication No. Hei10-296424 is required in order to obtain a more complicated shape where a boss, a rib and the like are further provided.
Furthermore, in order to reduce the casting defects as described above, there remains a complication where devices such as an air vent (a gas exhausting passage) and an overflow (a waste molten metal tank) have to be elaborately added.
Defective rates due to the casting defects of the die casting are generally assumed to be several percent to several tens of a percent even by using such techniques based on experiences of those who skilled in the art. This indicates that there is no technique by which casting defects can be innovatively prevented in the high-pressure injection molding method.
Thirdly, a melt-forging method has the following problem. In the melt-forging method or the mold-clamp casting method where a molten metal of a metallic glass, which has been arc melted on a water-cooled copper casting mold, then immediately forged and molded. The copper casting mold is water-cooled from a backside so as to prevent a surface of the mold from being heated to a high temperature and being melted at the time of arc-melting.
In locations of a water-cooled portion which make contact with the surface of the mold, melting is insufficient and the metallic glass is not formed. For this reason, locations not suitable for a finished article remain in the molded article, and there is a disadvantage that these parts have to be removed.
In order to avoid this problem, a forging method has been proposed (refer to Japanese Patent Translation 2003-534925). In the method, the mold and a material alloy are heated together to a temperature equal to or more than a melting point of the metallic glass, and then high-speed molding is performed on the material alloy by pressurization, by use of a mold made of silicon
Nevertheless, although this forging method is applicable to a simple shape such as a plate material, a cutting process of the mold becomes a problem in applying this method to an article having a complicated three-dimensional shape.
Furthermore, in the melt-forging method, since molding is performed by closing the mold at an instantaneous speed, it is difficult to control a thickness of a molded article with high accuracy in the order of 1 mm or less. Accordingly, there is a critical problem that the method is not easily applicable to a thin-wall or nonuniform-wall molded articles.
Fourthly, a press forming method has the following problem. For example, in Japanese Patent Publication No. Hei10-216920, shown is a method of forming a block-shaped amorphous alloy, which has been heated to a supercooled liquid temperature range, by pressing it against an occluded section of a die placed in a vacuum chamber.
In this method, it is extremely difficult to finish the amorphous alloy into a complicated three-dimensional shape where a boss, a rib, a window frame, a hole and like are provided, in a single time of press forming. Furthermore, since arrangement and removal of a heater and a cooling device are repeated, it is difficult to successively form complicated shapes requiring high measurement accuracy in short cycle times.
Consequently, in order to solve the above described problems, the present inventors advanced experiments and researches by trying various methods. They took into account a point that it is only necessary to mainly manage measurement changes due to thermal expansion and shrinkage because solidification shrinkage does not occur when a metallic glass solidifies as supercooled liquid without crystallizing from the molten metal. Accordingly, they obtained a finding that surface defects can be cleared away in the following manner. Firstly, necessary outline measurements and three-dimensional shape sections are formed by performing pre-forming by die casting in which the injection is performed at a high pressure. Then, warm pressing dies forming a cavity conforming to the outline measurements are prepared. Subsequently, a pre-formed semi-article is arranged between the dies heated to a supercooled liquid temperature range, and warm press forming is performed thereon by pressing with the dies. By this way, material surrounding surface defects remained on a surface of the pre-formed semi-article is filled into the surface defects by means of viscous flow.
In addition, they obtained the following finding. A cavity portion is formed in the warm pressing dies in a manner where the cavity portion has a gap of 1 mm or less. Accordingly, finishing forming in which viscous flow specific to the metallic glass is utilized becomes possible, and this is also suitable for a complicated shape having a nonuniform-wall or a thin-wall in three-dimension.
As a result of further continuing ardent studies based on the findings as described above, the present inventors and others reached completion of the present invention.


A method and apparatus for detecting and determining event characteristics such as, for example, the material failure of a component, in a manner which significantly reduces the amount of data collected. A sensor array, including a plurality of individual sensor elements, is coupled to a programmable logic device (PLD) configured to operate in a passive state and an active state. A triggering event is established such that the PLD records information only upon detection of the occurrence of the triggering event which causes a change in state within one or more of the plurality of sensor elements. Upon the occurrence of the triggering event, the change in state of the one or more sensor elements causes the PLD to record in memory which sensor element detected the event and at what time the event was detected. The PLD may be coupled with a computer for subsequent downloading and analysis of the acquired data.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the detection and determination of an event characteristic and, more particularly, to detecting and determining one or more characteristics of an event, such as, for example, the material failure of a monitored component.
2. State of the Art
It is often desirable to detect and determine various event characteristics associated with the physical response or reaction of a given component or material when subjected to various influences such as, for example, an application of a force or exposure to a specific environment for a given period of time. It is desirable to determine the response of such a component so as to accurately predict future behavior and to properly design systems and components which react and perform in a predictable manner.
For example, material testing is often performed to determine mechanical behavior of a specific material or a particular component configuration under specified conditions. Such behavior might include the determination of, for example, yield strength, fracture toughness, impact strength, fatigue limits, temperature-induced effects, corrosion or degradation rates, crack rate propagation or any of a number of other mechanical, material or physical properties.
In a more particular example, fracture tests are conventionally conducted to determine the fracture energy of an adhesive bond. One such fracture test is known as a tapered double cantilevered beam (TDCB) test. As shown in FIG. 1, a TDCB test involves a test specimen 100 having an adhesive bond 102 between two similarly configured tapered beams 104 and 106. A force "F" of known magnitude is applied to each beam 104 and 106 so as to pull the beams 104 and 106 in opposing directions. The resulting structure thus includes two beams 104 and 106 loaded in a cantilevered manner. The force F applied to the beams 104 and 106 is ultimately transferred into the adhesive bond 102, which is then monitored for material failure which manifests itself through propagation of a crack.
Conventional means of monitoring the adhesive bond 102 for failure include visual inspection and/or use of electronic equipment including, for example, one or more resistive-type propagation gages adhered to the location of interest (e.g., adjacent the adhesive bond 102) and electrically coupled to a data acquisition system. Such conventional means of monitoring the adhesive bond are labor intensive and, particularly when utilizing electronic equipment, involve considerable expense. Furthermore, such conventional means are not highly efficient. For example, if a testing specimen becomes unstable, a crack may propagate at a very high rate approaching the speed of sound for the given material being tested. In such a circumstance, it becomes impossible to obtain useful information about the crack propagation by way of visual inspection.
On the other hand, when using conventional electronic monitoring equipment, data is continuously collected over time and sample rates of up to several megahertz are required for accurate data acquisition. Thus, if a testing specimen fails over a period of time which is in excess of, for example, twenty minutes, the acquired data will include several billion data points for subsequent processing and analysis. Storing such a large amount of data wastes valuable memory or storage space since only a few of the collected data points are actually relevant and desirable for purposes of proper fracture analysis.
Additionally, as alluded to above, the cost associated with the equipment capable of sampling and recording such a large number of data points may often be prohibitive. For example, an individual resistive-type propagation gage may cost $300 (and isn't reusable) while the data acquisition equipment having an adequate sample rate may cost $8,000–$10,000 or more.
In view of the shortcomings in the art, it would be advantageous to provide an apparatus and method for determining event characteristics, such as, for example, acquiring data relative to a material or component failure, which is simple in its operation and configuration, highly efficient and relatively inexpensive.

Method and apparatus for detecting and determining event characteristics with reduced data collection