A venting aperture is formed in an upper wall of a casing, a gas-permeable membrane supporting body is mounted to the casing so as to communicate between the venting aperture and an external portion through a communicating aperture, and a gas-permeable membrane is disposed so as to shut off the communicating aperture. A cylindrical protective wall is disposed so as to protrude integrally from the casing so as to surround the gas-permeable membrane supporting body. A leading edge region of an external surface of the protective wall is formed so as to have an inclined surface in which a wall thickness gradually decreases from a root end toward a leading edge, and a groove having a groove direction in a direction of projection of the protective wall is formed so as to extend from a root of the protective wall to a leading edge and so as to communicate between an internal portion and an external portion of the protective wall.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic control apparatus in which an electronic control device is housed inside a sealed casing in an automobile, a motorcycle, an outboard motor, etc.
2. Description of the Related Art
In an electronic control apparatus of this kind, when used under conditions in which a temperature difference inside and outside the casing is great, for example, there has been a risk that the air inside may expand or contract, thereby deforming the casing and leading to damage to a seal portion. Thus, conventionally, a preventive construction has been adopted in which an air vent is formed in a surface of the casing, and a gas-permeable membrane that shuts off passage of liquids and permits passage of gases is disposed so as to cover the air vent. By adopting this preventive construction, if a temperature difference arises inside and outside the casing, air flows through the gas-permeable membrane, an activity called "breathing", preventing buildup of pressure differences due to expansion and contraction of the air inside the casing, whereby deformation of the casing is prevented preemptively and damage to the seal portion does not occur.
However, one problem has been that if water, etc., adheres to the gas-permeable membrane and freezes, the gas-permeable membrane may lose permeability and become unable to breathe.
In view of this situation, an electronic control device has been proposed in which an air vent is formed in the casing, a gas-permeable membrane that shuts off passage of liquids and permits passage of gases is disposed so as to cover the air vent, a hood is disposed so as to be aligned generally horizontally so as to cover a vicinity of the gas-permeable membrane, an auxiliary air vent is opened though a peripheral wall below the hood, and a protective wall is disposed around the hood so as to be aligned generally horizontally. (See Patent Literature 1, for example.)
In the conventional electronic control apparatus described in Patent Literature 1, the protective wall is formed so as to have a cylindrical shape, an inner surface of an upper peripheral wall is formed so as to have an inclined shape sloping downward inside, and grooves are opened in a lower peripheral wall. Thus, even if water, etc., flows over wall surfaces of the protective wall from outer surfaces of the upper wall to inner surfaces thereof, the water, etc., flows down and inward over an inner surface of the inclined shape, and then flows downward inside the protective wall, and is discharged externally by the grooves. In this manner, the problem of the gas-permeable membrane losing permeability due to water, etc., accumulating inside the protective wall, adhering to the gas-permeable membrane, and freezing is prevented from arising.
Patent Literature 1: Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-332871 (Gazette)
An electronic control apparatus of this kind is made with a view to preventing deterioration in permeability of the gas-permeable membrane resulting from water, etc., that has entered inside the protective wall as a main objective, and no consideration has been given to problems such as tools, etc., contacting the protective wall and causing damage to the protective wall during mounting.
Specifically, the casing is generally mounted to a boss portion of an engine, for example, by fastening it with bolts, etc. Mounting of the casing is work in an environment surrounded by machinery, and tools such as spanners, wrenches, etc., employed in the fastening of the bolts may strike the protective wall.
In conventional electronic control apparatuses, the protective wall is disposed upright on a surface of the casing, and an outer peripheral surface is formed so as to have a cylindrical shape that is perpendicular to the surface of the casing. Thus, one problem has been that the outer peripheral surface of the protective wall takes the mechanical shock when tools strike the protective wall without mediation, damaging the protective wall, and in the worst cases, damaging the casing.
Damage to the protective wall may lead to exposure of and damage to the hood, and in the worst cases, the gas-permeable membrane may be damaged. If the casing is damaged, the seal on the casing may be lost.


A method, system and program product for determining a number of concurrent users being served by a system at a given point-in-time is provided. The method includes running, at a pre-determined point-in-time, a collection script for collecting user data from one or more target systems, the user data collected including a number of concurrent users logged into each of the target systems at the pre-determined point-in-time. The method further includes generating one or more electronic transmissions for transmitting the user data collected, loading the one or more electronic transmissions generated into a monitoring system, and creating an output file containing the user data. Further, the loading step includes parsing the user data loaded, storing the user data collected and parsed into a database and updating the stored user data. Moreover, the method includes transmitting the output file from the monitoring system to one or more monitoring system clients.

In today's business environment, organizations and/or businesses utilize various types of servers for various purposes, such as, electronic mail (e-mail), storage, applications, etc. As demands increase, so does the stress and load placed on the servers that support such organizations and/or businesses. Often, outages are caused by servers that have reached a maximum threshold for stress and load capacity. This leads to downtime that can have a tremendous impact on an organization and/or business. As such, there is a need for an efficient way to manage servers, so that large amounts of stress are not placed on these servers and so that the servers have not reached maximum capacity as far as stress and load.

Method, system and program product for determining a number of concurrent users accessing a system

International Business Machines Corporation


A fuse box includes a semiconductor substrate having a fuse region, and a lower line in the fuse region that has a first region and a second region. An upper line is placed on the upper part of the lower line to overlap the first region. A fuse is placed on the upper part of the upper line, and connects electrically to the second region of the lower line and the upper surface of the upper line. A lower interlayer insulating layer is interposed between the lower line and the upper line, and an upper interlayer insulating layer is interposed between the upper line and the fuse. The fuse is formed on the upper interlayer insulating layer. Both ends of the fuse connect electrically to the second region of the lower line and the upper line, respectively, through fuse holes penetrating the lower and upper interlayer insulating layers.

1. Field of the Invention
This disclosure relates to a semiconductor device, and more particularly, to a fuse box of a semiconductor device and a fabrication method thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
Semiconductor devices (chips) formed on a semiconductor substrate are electrically tested prior to an assembly process. As a result, the semiconductor devices may be classified as either "good" chips or "bad" chips. In the case where bad chips malfunction due to at least one bad cell, the bad cell can be replaced with a redundant cell by a repair process.
The repair process includes a step of cutting some fuses using laser beam irradiation such that the redundant cell has the address of the bad cell in a writing mode and a reading mode.
The fuses are generally formed of bit lines, which data is transmitted through, at the same time. Further, the bit lines are typically formed under metal lines. Particularly, a semiconductor device such as DRAM has cell capacitors interposed between the metal lines and the bit lines. Therefore, the total thickness of an interlayer insulating layer stacked on the upper part of the fuses may be greater than 1 μm.
FIG. 1A is a plan diagram showing a fuse box formed according to the conventional art.
Referring to FIG. 1A, a fuse box 60 includes several fuses 15 aligned in line, a guard ring 47 having a plate line 25 for defining the area of the fuse box 60, a contact hole 40 and an upper metal line 45, and a window 55 formed in the fuse box 60.
The fuse box 60 includes the window 55 for opening the fuses 15, which are formed at the central region of the fuse box 60. The window 55 allows the fuses 15 to be effectively cut by the laser beam. The plate line 25 is formed of a conductive layer.
However, as the integration density of semiconductor devices increase, the pitch of the fuses 15 gradually decrease. In this case, when a selected fuse in the fuse box 60 is cut by the laser beam, other fuses adjacent to the selected fuse may be damaged. To solve the above problem, the pitch of the fuse 15 should be increased.
To increase the pitch of the fuses 15, the area of the fuse box 60 containing the fuses 15 is increased, resulting in a decrease of the integration density in the semiconductor device.
FIGS. 1B to 1D are cross-sectional diagrams taken along the line I-I′ of FIG. 1A for illustrating a fabrication method of the conventional fuse box.
Referring to FIGS. 1B to 1C, a first insulating layer 10 is formed on a semiconductor substrate 5, and a plurality of fuses 15 are formed on predetermined regions of the first insulating layer 10 to be parallel with each other. The fuses 15 are typically formed of a conductive layer such as a tungsten polycide layer. Then, a second insulating layer 20 is formed on the whole surface of the semiconductor substrate having the fuses 15. Next, conductive layer patterns 25a, 25b are formed on the second insulating layer. The conductive layer patterns 25a, 25b are formed from the same doped polysilicon layer as the plate line of FIG. 1A, and are referred to as the first and the second conductive layer patterns, respectively.
A third and a fourth insulating layer 30, 35 are formed sequentially on the whole surface of the semiconductor substrate 5 having the conductive layer patterns 25a, 25b. And the third and fourth insulating layers 30, 35 are etched in sequence to form a contact hole 40, which exposes the top surface of the first conductive layer pattern 25a. Then, an upper metal line 45 is formed on the semiconductor substrate 5 having the contact hole 40. The upper metal line 45 buries the contact hole 40 and is formed on the top surface of the fourth insulating layer 35 to overlap the contact hole 40. At this time, the upper metal line 45 is electrically connected to the first conductive layer pattern 25a through the contact hole 40. The first conductive layer pattern 25a and the upper metal line 45 together with the contact hole 40 form a guard ring 47 as shown in FIG. 1A. A fifth insulating layer 50, such as a passivation layer, is formed on the whole surface of the semiconductor substrate 5 having the upper metal line 45. The fifth insulating layer 50 includes at least one layer. As a result, several insulating layers may be stacked on the fuses 15, making it increasingly difficult to cut the fuses 5 using the laser beam.
Referring to FIG. 1D, a window 55 is formed inside the guard ring 47 by sequentially etching the fifth insulating layer 50, the fourth insulating layer 35, the third insulating layer 30, the second conductive layer pattern 25b, and a portion of the second insulating layer 20. Accordingly, the remaining portion of the second insulating layer 20 has a predetermined thickness that is sufficient to partially absorb the energy applied to the fuses 15 by the laser beam. However, the thickness of the second insulating layer 20 covering the fuses 15 may be non-uniform throughout the whole surface of the semiconductor substrate 5. This is caused by a non-uniform etching ratio that occurs over the whole surface of the semiconductor substrate 5 during an etching process for forming the window 55.
In particular, the thicker the second to fifth insulating layers 20, 30, 35, 50 are, the less uniform the etching ratio becomes. It is generally difficult to make the thickness of the second insulating layer 20 remaining on the fuses 15 uniform over the whole surface of the semiconductor substrate 5. As a result, it is difficult to expect a successful repair process.
U.S. Application Publication No. 2002/0014680 to Isao Tottori discloses fuses in a semiconductor device and a method of manufacturing the same. According to 2002/0014680, a metal fuse formed inside a fuse box of the semiconductor device is connected to the source and drain regions of a gate formed on a semiconductor substrate. Thus, the metal fuse is formed of metal lines that are connected from the semiconductor substrate to the fuse being cut by the laser beam.
The metal lines are formed by the connection of tungsten (W) layers and aluminum (Al) layers, and the cutting of a metal fuse is done by using a current applied to the semiconductor device.
The use of current avoids both the attack of adjacent fuses from the conventional laser beam, and also the phenomenon where the metal fuse is not cut due to the non-uniform thickness of an insulating layer covering the fuses on predetermined regions of the semiconductor device.
Unfortunately, the above structure having the metal lines may increase the production cost of the semiconductor device by using at least one additional metal layer, and the direct contact of metals with the semiconductor substrate may increase the chances of metal contamination to the semiconductor device, causing the performance of the semiconductor device to deteriorate.
Embodiments of the invention address these and other disadvantages of the conventional art.

Fuse box of semiconductor device and fabrication method thereof


Devices and methods for sterilizing lumens involve a booster that is attached to the lumen. In preferred embodiments, the contact area between the lumen and the booster enhances the penetration of an antimicrobial agent to the contact area.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the sterilization of medical devices. In particular, this invention relates to systems, methods and devices for sterilizing lumens.
2. Description of the Related Art
Articles such as medical instruments are normally sterilized before use. There are many methods of sterilizing medical equipment, including heat treatment and chemical methods. Heat sterilization is normally performed with steam. Some equipment cannot withstand either the heat or the moisture from steam treatment. As a result, chemical sterilization is now commonly used.
Chemical sterilization uses a sterilizing fluid such as hydrogen peroxide, ethylene oxide, chlorine dioxide, peracetic acid, formaldehyde, or a combination thereof. A plasma may be induced to enhance the sterilization process. Although chemical sterilization is normally highly effective, it may not be as effective with medical devices having long, narrow tubes, or lumens. It is difficult for the sterilizing agent to completely penetrate and sterilize these long narrow tubes. In order to enhance the penetration of the sterilizing agent down the entire length of the lumen, several methods and several forms of apparatus have been developed to flow sterilizing agent through the length of the lumen, enhancing the effectiveness of the sterilizing treatment.
For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,410,492 and 4,337,223 describe an apparatus and a method for sterilizing lumens in which the lumen is placed in a socket connected to a circulating pump. The pump circulates the sterilizing gas through the lumen. Although the method is effective in sterilizing the lumen, the commercial apparatus uses ethylene oxide as a sterilant, and sterilization requires times of about 2–3 hours. Ethylene oxide is toxic. Additional aeration time is needed to remove the residual.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,580,530 describes a method for delivering sterilizing agent through long, narrow lumens. The lumen is inserted into an adaptor connected to a vessel containing hydrogen peroxide. The vessel is called a booster. The lumen, adaptor, and booster are placed in a sterilization chamber. When the sterilization chamber is evacuated during the sterilization procedure, the hydrogen peroxide in the booster vaporizes and passes through the lumen, sterilizing the interior of the lumen.
An apparatus and a method for delivering sterilizing agent directly into long, narrow lumens is described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,943,414, 5,580,530 and 5,733,503. The lumen is inserted into an adaptor connected to a small vessel containing hydrogen peroxide. The adaptor and the vessel which contains the hydrogen peroxide are called the booster. The lumen, vessel, and adaptor are placed into a sterilization chamber. When the sterilization chamber is evacuated, the hydrogen peroxide vaporizes and passes through the lumen, providing the necessary hydrogen peroxide to the interior of the lumen. Although effective, the method has some disadvantages. First, in some forms of the apparatus, the booster must be "activated" manually by piercing a septum to make the hydrogen peroxide liquid accessible. Second, the booster is used only once before it is discarded. Third, the product has a limited shelf life. The storage and shipping conditions may affect the shelf life of the product.
In each of these sterilization methods, the lumen is held by a connecting device, a socket in the case of U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,410,492 and 4,337,223 or a truncated cone adaptor when using the method of U.S. Pat. No. 5,580,530. In all of these methods, there are areas of contact between the device and the lumen in the area where the lumen attaches to the connecting device. It is difficult for the sterilizing agent to penetrate into these contact areas. There is a need for an apparatus and a method of enhancing the penetration of sterilizing gas or vapor into these contact areas more effectively to allay any potential concerns about incomplete sterilization.
There are also contact areas between the parts of medical devices having two or more pieces. It is difficult to sterilize the contact areas between the parts which make up the medical device. There is a need for a method and an apparatus for enhancing the penetration of sterilant into the contact areas between the pieces which make up the medical device.
There is also a need for a method of sterilizing lumens which does not require the use of a booster with limited shelf life. Further, there is a need for a method which utilizes an apparatus which is reusable, to reduce costs.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


There is provided a railing post adaptor for a roof support apparatus. The roof support apparatus comprises an elongate member having a plurality of longitudinal sides. The railing post adaptor comprises a roof support apparatus connector for securing the railing post adaptor to the roof support apparatus. The roof support apparatus connector comprises a first connection portion arranged to engage, in use, with a first set of the plurality of longitudinal sides, and a second connection portion, movably mounted to the first connection portion and arranged to engage, in use, with a second set of the plurality of longitudinal sides, the second set being different from the first set. The roof support apparatus connector further comprises a railing connection portion extending from the roof support apparatus connector for detachably securing a proximal end of a railing post to the roof support apparatus via the railing post adaptor. The first set and the second set each comprise at least two longitudinal sides. The first connection portion and the second connection portion are together configured to substantially prevent rotation of the railing post adapter about a longitudinal axis of the elongate member by engagement with the first set and second set of longitudinal sides.

In many locations around the world, some buildings are built having a roof formed from corrugated roof sheets. The roof is typically a pitched roof. Many of these corrugated roofs are fragile and formed from concrete-fibre corrugated roof sheets which can deteriorate over time. The corrugated roof sheets are fixed to purlins which run longitudinally along the roof pitch of the building. The troughs in the corrugated roof sheets are arranged to run transverse to the direction of the purlins. The roof also typically comprises rafters which run transverse to the direction of the purlins and support the purlins in the roof structure. Therefore, a single trough in a corrugated roof sheet will be fixed to several purlins. However, the corrugated roof panels themselves are not designed to support the weight of a person and falls onto a roof panel can cause the roof panel to fail, sending the person and broken parts of the roof panel down through the roof. The typical spacing between adjacent purlins is greater than would be necessary to provide a safety structure to prevent a person falling through the roof. Falls from height can be fatal.
It is known to use a trellis mat resting on spars to prevent falls through fragile concrete-fibre roofs. FIG. 1 shows a roof support system of the prior art. A corrugated roof comprises a plurality of purlins 102 having affixed thereto a corrugated roof sheet 104. The corrugated roof sheet 104 is undulated in a direction parallel to the roof purlins 102 such that each trough 105 of the corrugated roof sheet 104 runs transverse to the roof purlins 102 and crosses multiple purlins 102. A height of the undulations forming the troughs 105 is typically from 35 millimetres to 100 millimetres, though most corrugated roofs have an undulation height of 60-70 millimetres. The troughs 105 typically run up a slope of the roof where the roof is pitched to allow rainwater to run off the roof down the troughs 105. The roof support system comprises a plurality of spars 106 which must be installed in a plurality of the troughs 105. The spars 106 are typically not installed into every trough 105 as this is not necessary. The spars 106 have a height such that the spars 106 extend above an uppermost point of the peaks between troughs 105. The spars 106 have a length exceeding the spacing between purlins 102 and are each supported by a plurality of purlins 102. A trellis mat 108 rests directly on the spars 106. The trellis mat 108 is not designed to be a work platform. If an operative falls in the direction of the corrugated roof sheet 104 from a safe work platform (for example a valley between two corrugated roof sections), the trellis mat 108 transfers the weight of the operative to the roof purlins 102 through the spars 106. The fragile corrugated roof sheet 104 is not relied on to provide any of the bracing force against the fall. In this way, the roof support system prevents falls through roofs. To set up the system on a corrugated roof, an operative must first carry all the required spars 106 and trellis mats 108 onto the roof. The operative must then place a spar 106 at regular intervals along the roof. If the spars 106 are placed too far apart, then the trellis mat 108 may fail when a person falls onto the trellis mat 108. If the spars 106 are placed too closely together, then additional spars 106 will be required and the roof support system can take longer to assemble and disassemble. Furthermore, the spars 106 must be positioned carefully to ensure that they stay upright in the trough 105. If the spars 106 fall over, the weight of a person on the roof support system may cause the fragile roof panel to break, sending debris falling from the roof, even though the person would be prevented from falling. It will be appreciated that it is possible to set the systems up incorrectly without proper training because it is possible to space the spars 106 at a separation distance which is greater than the minimum safe separation distance.
The present invention provides at least an alternative to solutions of the prior art.


A speech therapy device configured to be placed in a mouth of a speaker. The speech therapy device includes a first bite plate and a second bite plate disposed opposite the first bite plate. The speech therapy device further includes at least one connecting member disposed between the first bite plate and the second bite plate. A method for using the speech therapy device is also provided.

Speech is the vocalized form of human communication. Spoken words are created out of the phonetic combination of a limited set of vowels and consonants. Millions of children and adults worldwide are affected by language disorders such as speech sound disorders or articulation disorders, for example. Articulation disorders are based on a difficulty in learning to physically produce the intended phonemes, or a difficulty making sounds. For instance, a child or adult suffering from an articulation disorder may make a /w/ sound when an /r/sound is intended.
Often, articulation disorders are a result of incorrect placement and/or tension of the tongue in a mouth of a speaker. The speaker may find it difficult to visualize the correct location of the tongue and, as a result, speech therapy devices may be particularly helpful to orient the tongue of the speaker properly within the mouth of the speaker.
Speech-Language Pathologists specialize in helping speakers overcome language disorders such as articulation and speech sound disorders. Various treatments aimed at optimizing articulation of individual sounds or minimizing errors in the production of sound patterns are often used by Speech-Language Pathologists. For example, Speech-Language Pathologists may demonstrate to speakers how to produce a sound correctly, teach speakers to recognize which sounds are correct and incorrect, and/or have speakers use various speech therapy devices to practice producing sounds in different words.
Speech therapy devices may be used to help in the pronunciation of certain vowels and/or consonants. Typically, a speech therapy device is positioned in the mouth of the speaker and the speaker practices pronouncing the sound or words containing the sound that is the subject of the articulation disorder of the speaker. As non-limiting examples, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,867,770, 5,169,316, and 5,257,930 show common elements and features of the prior art. The entire disclosure of each of the above-mentioned patents is hereby incorporated herein by reference. Speech therapy devices currently available, however, are often expensive. Additionally, speech therapy devices are often difficult to use, time consuming, and ineffective.
It would be desirable to have a simple, efficient, cost effective speech therapy device to be used by children and adults suffering from a language disorder, specifically, an inability to correctly pronounce the /r/ sound.


A component is provided for use in a turbine comprising: a substrate formed from an alloy, and an erosion resistant protective structure mechanically coupled to a portion of the substrate for protecting the substrate portion from erosion caused by a fluid. The erosion resistant protective structure may be formed from a shape memory alloy.

U.S. Pat. No. 7,300,708, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein, discloses affixing a shape memory alloy structure to a turbine component. The '708 patent teaches that the shape memory alloy can be affixed to the turbine component by processes such as "brazing, extrusion, explosion bonding, hot-isotactic-pressing (HIP), cladding, laser processes, plasma transfer arc processes, ion plasma deposition, forging, fusion welding, vacuum plasma spraying, thermally spraying, friction-stir welding," see column 7, lines 56-60. The '708 patent further teaches that the shape memory alloy can be formed as an insert and/or a coupon, which can then be attached to the turbine component, see column 7, lines 60-63. It is believed that all of the described processes in the '708 patent involve substantial addition of energy in the form of heat to the shape memory alloy structure or the shape memory alloy structure and the turbine component. The resulting temperatures can be substantially above ambient temperature. This may necessitate additional processing steps to correct possible adverse effects of the high temperature on the properties of the shape memory alloy structure and/or the turbine component.

Process for applying a shape memory alloy erosion resistant protective structure onto an airfoil of a turbine blade


A circuit is provided for transferring a signal from a fast clock domain to a slow clock domain. The circuit includes a fast clock domain configured to receive an input signal and, responsively, transfer an intermediate signal. The circuit also a slow clock domain configured to receive the transferred intermediate signal from the fast clock domain and, responsively, generate an output signal. The circuit further includes a first synchronizer disposed in the slow clock domain and a second synchronizer disposed in the fast clock domain. The first synchronizer, operating with a slow clock, is configured to receive the intermediate signal and, responsively, provide the output signal as a transferred signal which is synchronized to the input signal. The second synchronizer, operating with a fast clock, is configured to receive a feedback signal from the first synchronizer for acknowledging synchronization of the output signal to the input signal.

Digital circuits may include multiple clock domains having different frequencies. When the signals cross from one clock domain to another clock domain, the signals need to be synchronized. If the signals are not synchronized, signal values may be indeterminate when sampled by the other clock domain due to metastability.
FIG. 1 depicts a conventional circuit for synchronizing signals from one clock domain to another clock domain. As shown at FIG. 1, two D-type flip-flops ("double register") are each clocked by the receiving clock domain. The synchronizer shown at FIG. 1, however, is limited to synchronizing signals where the clock frequencies of the sending and receiving clock domains are approximately the same or when the sending clock domain is slower than the receiving clock domain.
FIG. 2 depicts a timing diagram illustrating the results of signals sent and received using the conventional circuit of FIG. 1 when the sending clock domain is faster (i.e. on the order of 2× or more) than the receiving clock domain. As shown at FIG. 2, both the sending and receiving logic use the rising edges of their clocks to generate and sample the signal crossing from one clock domain to the other.
When the sending clock domain is faster than the receiving clock domain, signals of short duration that are sent by the faster sending clock domain may be missed entirely by the slower receiving clock domain, resulting in an unreliable transfer of data or control signals from the fast clock domain to the slower clock domain. Further, the simple synchronizer in FIG. 1 does not provide means for the sending logic to determine when it is safe to generate a new signal to be sent to the receiving logic. Accordingly, there is a need for more efficient and accurate synchronizing logic.

Apparatus and method for transferring a signal from a fast clock domain to a slow clock domain


The present invention provides systems and methods for improving overall profitability, and/or longevity of one or more businesses within an industry, by analyzing their position(s) within one or more market segment. In doing so, it is contemplated that the systems or methods may include managing sales (e.g. competition and/or volume, or otherwise) within one or more market segments of an industry. Of the many available applications, the present invention may be particularly suited for the automotive industry, or other similar types of industries.

In a broad scope, the Hershman-Herfindahl Index (HHI) has been used to statistically gauge the overall level of competition level of various industries over an entire economy, for a given region or otherwise.
However, in contrast, many businesses within an industry (e.g. manufacturing, sales, or otherwise) use extensive research, which is generally time consuming, to acquire data regarding the existing competition within its industry and their overall exposure to that competition. In doing so, economists are often used to conduct such research and use various modeling techniques and calculations to measure and forecast the competition of the particular business within that industry.
In view of the extensive research time and cost, there exists a need for a cost effective and potentially more accurate system and/or method to allow individual businesses to analyze their competition level, and optionally their sales volume, of one or more product or services, or all products or services, within that industry and/or within market segments of the industry. In doing so, business or brand manufactures and/or parent companies (or otherwise) may use this analysis to improve profit margins and/or sales revenue by discontinuing underperforming products, product brands, and/or services and initiating manufacture of new products, product brands, and/or services that may be more profitable. This may reflect positively on the brand manufacture and/or parent company within the specific industry.
In one example, within the automotive industry, it may be desired to analyze one or more market segments (e.g. brand manufacturers, parent companies of brand manufactures, vehicle types or otherwise) to determine how a specific segment (e.g. a specific brand manufacturer, parent company of the brand manufacture, vehicle type) compares to other specific segments of the same company and/or competitors. This may be achieved, through the present invention, by comparing the competition and/or sales volume of the specific segments. Based on the performance of the specific segments, strategies can be formulated, and hypothetically tested, to determine how the specific segments may improve or digress, over time, given a change in products and/or services offered. In determining performance of the specific segments, potential changes may be considered to improve profit margins and/or sales revenue or the specific segments, brands and/or parent companies of the brands.
In view of the foregoing, it is an object of the present invention to provide improved and/or cost effective methods and systems for allowing businesses to improve their overall profitability, and/or longevity within an industry, by analyzing their position within one or more market segment.

Managing sales and/or competition within an industry


In one embodiment, a method includes generating, by a computer system, a search-engine query from stored identity-theft nomenclature. The method also includes querying, by the computer system, at least one search engine via the search-engine query. Further, the method includes crawling, by the computer system, at least one computer-network resource identified via the querying. In addition, the method includes collecting, by the computer system, identity-theft information from the at least one computer-network resource. Additionally, the method includes processing, by the computer system, the identity-theft information for compromised personally-identifying information (PII).

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to the field of identity theft and more specifically, but not by way of limitation, to data mining of personally-identifying information found on the Internet.
2. History of Related Art
Identity theft is a mounting concern in commercial transactions. This is particularly true in remote commercial transactions such as, for example, Internet-shopping transactions, that involve little or no direct personal contact between a consumer and a goods or services provider (GSP). It is commonplace for personally-identifying information (PII) to be compromised and utilized for identity theft such as, for example, in a remote commercial transaction. PII, as used herein, refers to information that can be used to uniquely identify, contact, or locate an individual person or can be used with other sources to uniquely identify, contact, or locate an individual person. PII may include, but is not limited to, social security numbers (SSN), bank or credit card account numbers, passwords, birth dates, and addresses. PII that has been obtained by or made available to a third party without proper authorization is referred to herein as compromised PII.
PII can be compromised in a myriad of ways. For example, record keeping for entities such as, for example, healthcare, governmental, financial, and educational institutions, is increasingly and sometimes exclusively electronic. Electronic record keeping introduces new risks for which the entities are frequently ill-equipped to handle. For example, PII is often compromised via stolen hardware, inadequate security procedures, security breaches, or employee carelessness or misconduct.
Another way that PII is frequently compromised is via "phishing." Phishing is the process of attempting to acquire PII by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication. A common example of phishing is a fraudulent email that is made to appear as though it originates from a valid source such as, for example, a national bank. The fraudulent email may incorporate a uniform resource locator (URL) that re-directs its audience to a false website that appears to be a legitimate website for the valid source. In actuality, the false website may be a front for stealing PII as part of a spurious transaction. For example, the false website may request "confirmation" of PII such as, for example, a credit card number or a username and password. The PII may then be stored for later improper use such as, for example, identity theft in a remote commercial transaction.
At least 182,395 instances of phishing were recorded during 2009, as reported by antiphishing.org. This is a forty-two percent increase over a number recorded in 2008. More than 10,745 malicious domains were registered in 2009, which is an increase of fifty-two percent over 2008. Sometimes, a misleading link such as, for example, the URL for the false website described above, may actually originate from a legitimate website but cause traffic to be redirected to an illegitimate website. This type of scam is known as "pharming."
Legislation to curb efforts to compromise PII are largely ineffective. For example, phishing and pharming activities originate from areas around the globe and are thus often protected from prosecution by a particular jurisdiction. Additionally, once PII is compromised, distribution of the compromised PII may be difficult or impossible to prevent. Web sites and forums dedicated to exchanging compromised PII are increasing rapidly in number. Some of these web sites and forums exchange compromised PII though email or secure direct uploads and downloads.
Identity theft resulting from compromised PII is costly to victims and companies alike. The Identity Fraud Survey Report created by Javelin Strategy & Research reported that in 2009 victims averaged a personal cost of $373 and 21 hours of time to resolve identity-theft issues. The annual cost of identity theft currently exceeds $200 billion worldwide. In addition, as a result of new legislation and litigation resulting from compromised PII, companies stand to suffer from lower profit margins, damaged credibility due to negative customer experiences, and eroded brand value. Identity theft also looms as a threat to the advancement of promising consumer-driven, self-service, and cost-savings technologies.

System and methods for identifying compromised personally identifiable information on the internet


A method of computing a cryptographic key to be shared between a pair of correspondents communicating with one another through a cryptographic system is provided, where one of the correspondents receives a certificate of the other correspondents public key information to be combined with private key information of the one correspondent to generate the key. The method comprises the steps of computing the key by combining the public key information and the private key information and including in the computation a component corresponding to verification of the certificate, such that failure of the certificate to verify results in a key at the one correspondent that is different to the key computed at the other correspondent.

Public key cryptography is used to permit secure communication between a pair of correspondents and to permit authentication of a message originating at one of the correspondents. In a public key cryptosystem each correspondent utilizes a private key and a public key related to the private key by a mathematical function. The mathematical function presents a "difficult" mathematical problem to ensure that a private key of a party cannot be obtained from the corresponding public key. Such problems include the difficulty in factoring the product of two large primes, as used in RSA cryptosystems, and the intractability of the discrete log problem over a finite field as used in the digital signature algorithm (DSA). Discrete log systems are widely used and a particular adaptation of such a system makes use of points of an elliptic curve defined over a finite field. Such systems, referred to as elliptic curve cryptosystems (ECC), offer high levels of security at smaller key sizes than other systems.
Where messages are to be exchanged securely, the public and private keys are used in particular protocols referred to generally as key agreement protocols to establish a shared key between the correspondents without disclosing the respective private keys. The shared key can then be used to encrypt and decrypt messages between the correspondents.
Elliptic curve public-key key agreement protocols typically include the following steps:                Key contributions. Each party randomly generates a short-term (ephemeral) public key, from a private key that is a random integer and a seed point to provide a point representing the ephemeral public key and communicates the corresponding ephemeral public key to the other party (but not the private key). In addition, it may communicate its long-term static public key.        Key establishment. Each party computes the shared key based on the static and ephemeral keys it received from the other party and based on the static and ephemeral private keys it generated itself. Due to the properties of the elliptic curve, both parties arrive at the same shared key.        Key authentication. Each party verifies the authenticity of the long-term static key of the other party, to obtain evidence that the only party that may be capable of computing the common key is, indeed, its perceived communicating party.        Key confirmation. Each party evidences possession of the common key to the other party, usually by communicating a message authentication check value over the strings corresponding to the key contributions communicated by either party. This confirms to each party the true identity of the other party and proves that that party successfully computed the common key. This step may be done as part of the key agreement protocol or subsequently through the use of the shared keys.
The key authentication step is typically carried out independently of the other protocol steps described above and usually involves checking the validity of a certificate that vouches for the authenticity of the binding between a party and its private key by means of the corresponding public key. The separate key authentication step allows more flexibility (e.g., in the use of a certificate), but comes at significant cost, since the online computational cost of the key agreement protocol is dominated by the sum of the cost of the key authentication step and the cost of the key computation during the key establishment step.
The certificate is essentially a trusted party's signature of the public key of the correspondent together with the other information such as the name of the issuing party and the name of the certificate holder. In all ECC system, signatures are usually performed and verified using the ECDSA protocol although other signature protocols may be used. By way of example. ECDSA signature generation operates on the domain parameters of the ECC, a private key di, and a message m which, in the context of a certificate, will include the public key of the correspondent. The outputs are the signature (r,s), where the signature components r and s are integers, and proceeds as follows.                1. Select a random integer kεR [1,n−1], n being one of the domain parameters.        2. Compute kG=(x1,y1) and convert x1 to an integer x1 where G is a point on an elliptic curve E and is one of the domain parameters.        3. Compute r= x1 mod n, wherein if r=0, then go back to step 1.
4. Compute e=H(m), where H denotes a cryptographic hash function whose outputs have a bit length no more than that of n (if this condition is not satisfied, then the outputs of H can be truncated).                5. Compute s=k−1 (e+αr) mod n, where α is a long term private key of the signer. If s=0, then go back to step 1.        6. Output the pair (r,s) as the ECDSA signature of the message m.
ECDSA signature verification operates on several domain parameters, a long term public key Q where Q=αG, the message m, and the signature (r,s) derived above. ECDSA signature verification outputs a rejection or acceptance of the signature and proceeds as follows.                1. Verify that r and s are integers in the interval [1,n−1]. If any verification fails then a rejection is returned.        2. Compute e=H(m).        3. Compute w=s−1 mod it.        4. Compute u1=ew mod n and u2=rw mod n.        5. Compute R=u1G+u2Q=s−1 (eG+rQ) (from 3 and 4 above)        6. If R=∞ then the signature is rejected.        7. Convert the x-coordinate x1 of R to an integer x1; compute v= x1 mod n.        8. If v=r then the signature is accepted, if not then the signature is rejected.
It will be appreciated that other signature generation and verification steps may be used such as ECGDSA and that certain steps to confirm the integrity of the signature are sometimes omitted.
Therefore, to authenticate the public key of the correspondent i.e. the message III which contains the public key of the correspondent and other information it is necessary to verify the signature on the certificate.
Subsequent to authentication, it is usual to confirm that the key of each party is indeed the same. During execution of a key agreement protocol between two parties A and B, party A establishes the key KA, while party B establishes the key KB. Key confirmation consists of A evidencing knowledge of KA to B by conveying some quantity ƒ(KA) where ƒ is some publicly known function, to B, who will compare tills to his own computed value ƒ(KB) and accept only if these values match (and vice versa). The function ƒ is such that if ƒ(KA)=f(KB), then with overwhelming probability KA=±KB and a common key has been established.
As noted above, the key authentication step adds significant computational load to the key agreement protocol. It is therefore an object of the present invention to obviate or mitigate the above disadvantages.


An inkjet recording apparatus has a structure in which, when a recording-interruption operation of a recording head such as discharge-recovery processing is performed during an image-forming operation, a recording downtime is measured, and the recording head is heated in accordance with the length of a recording downtime so as to prevent occurrence of differences in optical densities and colors of an image before and after the recording-interruption operation.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to inkjet recording apparatuses, and more particularly, it is related to an inkjet recording apparatus having a mechanism for correcting an uneven density when a recording operation of a continuous image is interrupted and is then resumed.
2. Description of the Related Art
An inkjet recording apparatus for recording an image by discharging ink towards a recording medium (recording material) such as a sheet of paper, a sheet of cloth, a plastic sheet, or an overhead projector (OHP) sheet on the basis of image data (recording data) is widely used as a recording apparatus having a function of a printer, a copying machine, or a facsimile machine, or as a recording apparatus (a printing apparatus) serving as an output device of a combined electronic device including a computer and a word processor, a workstation, or the like.
In order to meet a variety of requirements for recording media composed of new materials, in recent years, there has been developed a recording apparatus in which recording media composed of materials such as cloth, leather, unwoven cloth, and metal, other than normal recording media such as sheets of paper (including a thin sheet of paper and a sheet of converted paper) and thin plastic sheets (including an OHP sheet) are used.
Since the majority of the foregoing inkjet recording apparatuses are of a so-called serial scan type in which an image is recorded while a recording head performs scanning operations a plurality of times in a direction (main-scan direction) intersecting with the forwarding direction (the sub-scan direction) of a recording medium, and have a reduced size of a recording head unit and a low cost structure, a large number of inkjet recording apparatuses have been commercialized from various manufacturers.
In such an inkjet recording apparatus of a serial scan type, when a recording operation is performed, ink mist produced when ink is discharged from a recording head, splash mist produced due to an impact occurring when discharged ink reaches a recording material, or the like sometimes accretes on a discharge-port surface of the recording heads. Accordingly, there is a risk in that discharge ports of the recording heads are clogged with the accreted ink mist, thereby leading to a failure in discharging ink.
In order to solve the above problem, the foregoing recording apparatus is constructed such that the ink mist accreted around the discharge ports is wiped and removed by providing a wiping blade composed of a rubber-like elastic member such as polyurethane rubber and by moving the recording heads in a state in which the wiping blade abuts against the discharge-port surface of the recording heads. Such a discharge-recovery operation is called a wiping operation.
Also, since an image is formed by selectively discharging ink from the plurality of discharge ports of the recording heads during the recording operation, some of the discharge ports formed at the fronts of nozzles of the recording heads may remain in contact with the air without ink being discharged therefrom. In such nozzles, since ink in the nozzles gets evaporated and dried, and thus has an increased viscosity, the amount of discharged ink decreases and a discharge speed of ink decreases, thereby sometimes causing a discharge failure such as a wrong discharge direction. In order to remove the evaporated and dried ink having an increased viscosity, the discharge failure is prevented from occurring by discharging ink, unrelated to the recording operation, from the nozzles of the recording heads towards an object other than a recording medium. Such a discharge-recovery operation is called a preliminary discharge operation.
Also, when the recording operation of each recording head is continuously performed for a long time, the temperature of the recording head increases due to the heat stored when recording ink is discharged, which causes gas in a form of a bubble to be mixed in an ink holder (common ink chamber) or the like placed in the vicinity of the nozzle of the recording head. When the bubble is inflated to a certain extent, the bubble sometimes prevents ink from being fed to the nozzle, and resultantly from being normally discharged. In order to solve the above-mentioned problem, a cap composed of rubber or the like is disposed so as to abut against the discharge-port surface of the recording heads (i.e., the surface in which the discharge ports of the recording heads are formed), so that bubbles together with ink remaining in the vicinities of the nozzles are forcefully sucked and discharged via the cap. Such a discharge-recovery operation is called a sucking operation.
By performing such a discharge-recovery operation of the recording heads before or after an image-forming operation, or during a standby time midway through the image-forming operation and before the start of the subsequent scanning operation, ink is normally discharged from the recording heads, thereby preventing degradation of image quality and thus always forming a high-quality image.
In the meantime, when an image-forming operation such as a long-banner printing operation for forming an image in a large area is performed, sometimes it is required to perform such a discharge-recovery operation in order to always form a high-quality image even when the recording operation is interrupted midway through the image-forming operation.
More particularly, since thermal energy for continuously discharging recording-ink for a long time is supplied to the recording heads, the temperatures of the recording heads during the recording operation such as the long-banner printing operation are higher than those immediately after the start of the recording operation.
Accordingly, when the wiping operation serving as the foregoing discharge-recovery operation is performed during a standby time midway through the recording operation and before the start of the subsequent scanning operation, since no thermal energy is continuously supplied to ink during the wiping operation, and also the temperatures of the recording heads midway through the recording operation are higher than an ambient temperature around the inkjet recording apparatus, the temperatures of the recording heads immediately after the resumption of the recording operation are lower than those before the discharge-recovery operation due to heat radiation during the discharge-recovery operation.
Likewise, when the preliminary discharge operation serving as the foregoing discharge-recovery operation is performed during a standby time midway through the recording operation and before the start of the subsequent scanning operation, although thermal energy is supplied to ink during the preliminary discharge operation, since the amount of thermal energy continuously supplied to the recording heads is smaller than that during the image-forming operation, thermal radiation during the discharge-recovery operation has a large influence on the temperatures of the recording heads, and hence the temperatures immediately after the resumption of the recording operation are lower than those before the discharge-recovery operation.
Also, when the sucking operation serving as the foregoing discharge-recovery operation is performed during a standby time midway through the recording operation and before the start of the subsequent scanning operation, since no thermal energy is continuously supplied to the recording heads during the sucking operation, and also, in addition to heat radiation during the discharge-recovery operation, the sucking operation causes ink in an ink-feeding path for feeding ink to the recording heads to flow into the recording head, the recording heads are cooled down, whereby the temperatures of the recording heads immediately after the resumption of the recording operation are further lower than those before the discharge-recovery operation such as the wiping operation, or the preliminary discharge operation.
Unfortunately, such known discharge-recovery operations have the following problems which must be solved. A temperature of ink in the inkjet recording heads is very important to maintain the amount of the ink discharged from the recording heads constant. That is, a viscosity and a surface tension of the ink vary in accordance with the temperature thereof, thereby causing the amount of discharged ink to vary.
In order to solve the above problem, when the discharge-recovery operation of the recording heads is performed during a standby time midway through the image-forming operation and before the start of the subsequent scanning operation so as to normally discharge ink from the recording heads, to prevent degradation of image quality, and thus to always form a high-quality image, the ink temperatures of the recording heads immediately after the resumption of the image-forming operation become lower than those before the discharge-recovery operation, thereby decreasing the amount of discharged ink and thus decreasing an optical density of the image.
In addition, in the case where the recording operation is performed by transferring a large amount of image data to the inkjet recording apparatus with image-data transfer means such as an interface as in the case of the long-banner printing operation, when the recording operation is performed under a printing configuration in which the transfer rate of the image data is lower than the recording speed of the inkjet recording apparatus, sometimes it is required to temporally interrupt the recording operation until the image data is transferred to a host device and then to resume the recording operation after the finish of transferring the image data. On this occasion, since the length of a downtime of the recording operation depends on a processing speed of a CPU of the host device connected to the inkjet recording apparatus, a specification of the interface, and the amount of recording image data, a decrease in an optical density due to decreases in the temperatures of the recording heads caused by heat radiation during the downtime of the recording operation and a printing interruption of the recording heads is not uniquely determined but varies greatly depending on a user configuration.
Also, since the foregoing decrease in the optical density during the printing interruption takes place in mutually adjacent image-forming regions before and after the printing interruption, even a slight decrease in the optical density is significantly noticeable with respect to an actually printed image, thereby degrading image quality.
Meanwhile, in order to remove a strain caused by an ink drop accreted on the discharge-port surface of the recording heads, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 6-328723 has disclosed a technique with which the discharge-port surface is cleaned by making ink in the nozzles to overflow towards the discharge-port surface, and then the temperatures of the recording heads are returned to those immediately before cleaning the discharge-port surface.
Although a recording apparatus according to the above-mentioned technique has a structure in which, after the discharge-port surface is cleaned, the temperatures of the recording heads are returned to those immediately before cleaning the discharge-port surface by recording-head heating means, unfortunately, due consideration has not been given to affects of the interruption of the recording operation and the length of the downtime of the recording operation, other than the above cleaning operation of the recording heads, on the optical density of an image.

Inkjet recording apparatus and recovery control after interruption of its recording operation


Provided is a liquid crystal device including: a plurality of data lines and a plurality of scanning lines which cross each other; switching elements which are provided in correspondence with intersections between the data lines and the scanning lines; pixel electrodes connected to the switching elements; pixels configured in correspondence with the pixel electrodes; an image display region configured by the plurality of pixels; a first substrate having at least the switching elements; a second substrate which faces the first substrate; and liquid crystal interposed between the first substrate and the second substrate, wherein light incident from the first substrate is modulated by the liquid crystal, a light-shielding film is provided on a light incident side of at least the switching elements of the first substrate, and at least a portion corresponding to the image display region of the second substrate includes only a transparent layer which transmits light incident to the liquid crystal.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a liquid crystal device and a projector.
2. Related Art
Projectors have come into widespread use in homes. Accordingly, a spatial light modulation device of a projector having low cost, long life span and capable of producing images of high brightness is desired to be obtained. A representative example of the spatial light modulation device is a liquid crystal device. A known example of a liquid crystal display is an active matrix type liquid crystal device having thin-film transistors TFTs as pixel switching elements. In this liquid crystal device, when light is irradiated onto a channel region of the TFT provided in each of a plurality of pixels provided in the liquid crystal device, a light leakage current occurs due to excitation by the light and thus the characteristics of the TFT are changed. Accordingly, the TFTs are protected by light-shielding films provided on a TFT array substrate and an opposite substrate (see, for example, JP-A-2-64690).
Generally, in the liquid crystal device mounted in the projector, the opposite substrate on which the TFTs are not formed is disposed toward a light source. The light-shielding film of the opposite substrate blocks the light emitted from the light source and prevents the light from directly entering the TFTs provided at the opposite side thereof. The light-shielding film provided on the TFT array substrate prevents returning light from entering the rear surface of the TFTs. Accordingly, the TFTs are doubly protected.
Since such light-shielding films can be seen as thin black lines in regions between the projected pixels, surface roughness is increased and thus display quality deteriorates when displaying a moving image. Since the TFTs are shielded from light by the light-shielding film provided doubly, it can be difficult to obtain sufficient brightness. This tendency is more pronounced in an image formed by rows of pixels each having a small size in recent devices due to progress of manufacturing technology, compared with other existing devices in which the size of the pixel is sufficiently large compared with that of the light-shielding film.


The present disclosure relates to a technique for maintaining communication established between a mobile node (20) and a home network (100) of the mobile node (20). A method embodiment comprises the step of: determining whether the mobile node 20 has moved to a foreign network (120) different from the home network (100); wherein, when it is determined in the step of determining that the mobile node (20) has moved to the foreign network (120), the method embodiment further comprises the steps of: signalling, by the mobile node (20), a foreign address assigned by the foreign network (120), to a home agent (10) of the home network (100); and maintaining the communication between the mobile node (20) and the home network (100) by establishing communication between the mobile node (20) and the home agent (10) of the home network (10) for transmission of Data Link Layer (“DLL”) frames through an Internet Protocol (“IP”) based network (140), wherein the mobile node (20) is addressed by the home agent (10) by means of the foreign address assigned by the foreign network (120).

Layer 2 (synonymously called Data Link Layer (DLL)) is the second layer of the seven-layer OSI model of computer networking. The DLL is the protocol layer which transfers data between adjacent network nodes in a Wide Area Network (WAN) or between nodes on the same Local Area Network (LAN) segment. WANs are used to connect LANs and other types of networks together, so that users and computers in one location can communicate with users and computers in other locations. A network segment is a portion of a computer network, wherein every device communicates using the same Physical Layer (the Physical Layer is the first and lowest layer in the seven-layer OSI-model of computer networking).
The DLL provides the functional and procedural means to transfer data between network entities and might provide the means to detect and possibly correct errors that may occur in the Physical Layer. Delivery of frames by Layer 2 devices is affected through the use of unambiguous hardware (physical) addresses. A frame's header contains source and destination addresses that indicate which device originated the frame and which device is expected to receive and process it. In computer networking the term physical address is often used as a synonym of Media Access Control (MAC) address. This address is used on a network's DLL for identifying the source and destination.
The DLL is concerned with local delivery of frames between devices on the same LAN. These DLL frames do not cross the boundaries of a local network, e.g. a LAN.
However, with increasing importance of mobile communications, scenarios become increasingly important in which a user of a mobile communication terminal leaves his home local network and moves to another foreign local network. For instance, a user could start from fixed Ethernet in the office and then disconnect his laptop or mobile phone and move to the office's Wireless LAN (WLAN). When the user leaves the office, the laptop or mobile phone could start using 2G or 3G mobile data networks (e.g., Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE), High Speed Packet Access (HSPA), Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA), Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) or the like). When the user arrives home, the laptop could switch to the home WLAN.
For this scenario, it is desirable that the user's mobile communication terminal maintains connectivity when moving from one local network to the other.
One approach has been to extend the local network. So far, Layer 2 Virtual Private Network (VPN) technologies are used extensively to extend a Layer 2 network beyond its physical boundaries. Multiple tunnelling or marking mechanisms are available to create a larger logical Layer 2 network over an existing Layer 2 or Layer 3 (also called Network Layer, which is the third layer of the seven-layer OSI-model of computer networking) infrastructure. Such mechanisms include Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) mechanisms over Layer 2 networks (802.1ad), or tunnelling of Layer 2 frames over an Internet Protocol (IP) network using e.g., Layer 2 Tunnelling Protocol version 3 (L2TPv3), Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) or other protocols.
Layer 2 VPN solutions have an advantage over layer 3 VPN solutions in that they automatically support all Layer 3 protocols, implying that not only IP but also other Layer 3 protocols can run smoothly. Even though it is usually possible to rely on IP for most networking applications, configuring and managing a routed IP network may take longer and be more costly. Besides, using Layer 2 VPN solutions can make it easier to support broadcast/multicast as well. It must be noted though that the use of Layer 2 VPN also comes with an overhead because the tunnelled packets are longer due to the need to transfer Layer 2 frames (DLL frames). This overhead can be mitigated via the use of header compression.
Although there are several techniques of tunnelling Layer 2 frames over an IP network, e.g. L2TPv3 or other tunnelling methods, existing mechanisms do not provide an efficient way to support mobility for the end user when his IP address changes while maintaining Layer 2 VPN connectivity.
MOBIKE is a protocol defined at the IP layer to enable mobility for Internet Protocol security (IPsec) tunnelling which can also be used to carry Layer 2 frames (in combination with L2TPv3). MOBIKE can support mobility (including change of interface) for an end host while maintaining VPN connectivity. MOBIKE achieves this by automatically re-negotiating the security association for the IPsec tunnel to use another pair of endpoints. This can be used by an end host as it moves while being away from the home network that it connects. There is, however, a limitation of MOBIKE. That is, when the user physically connects to its home network, the IPsec tunnelling is still maintained. This means that all traffic must pass through the VPN server even when it would not be otherwise necessary since the user stays at his home network.
Tunnelling all local traffic through an IPsec tunnel via the local VPN server might be useable in certain deployments, but in general such an approach gives inferior performance and incurs additional costs due to the high load that this would cause on the VPN server. In a residential or corporate scenario, many users are stationary most of the time (connected to his/her home/corporate network), and only rarely move away (to another network). Hence, it is hard to justify tunnelling all of the traffic through the VPN server (independent of whether the user connects its mobile device to the home/corporate network or to another/foreign network) just because some users may sometimes move.

Mobile layer 2 virtual private network over internet protocol networks


A hydrostatic seal configured to be disposed between relatively rotatable components. The seal includes a base. The seal also includes a seal housing. The seal further includes a shoe operatively coupled to the base and extending axially from a forward end to an aft end. The seal yet further includes a plurality of teeth extending radially from a sealing surface of the shoe, one of the teeth being a longest tooth that extends furthest radially from the sealing surface, the axial distance from the forward end of the shoe to the longest tooth being greater than a radial distance from a radial tooth tip to the sealing surface.

Exemplary embodiments pertain to the art of gas turbine engines and, more particularly, to a hydrostatic seal having an aft tooth.
Hydrostatic seals exhibit less leakage compared to traditional knife edge seals while exhibiting a longer life than brush seals. Some hydrostatic seals may be used between a stator and a rotor within a gas turbine engine. The hydrostatic seal is mounted to the stator to maintain a desired gap dimension between the hydrostatic seal and the rotor. The hydrostatic seal has the ability to 'track' the relative movement between the stator and the rotor throughout the engine operating profile when a pressure differential is developed across the seal.
Hydrostatic seals involve motion of a spring-attached shoe whose response is based on aerodynamic forces developed between the seal shoe and a rotor surface during operation. When properly designed, the hydrostatic seal will maintain tight clearances across the operating range of the engine. At tight clearances, the flow under the seal shoe acts as a high-speed jet whose behavior can exhibit variability that can result in negative performance of the seal. In addition, for seals of longer axial length, the pressure variations downstream of the primary pack of seal teeth can result in undesirable aero-mechanical properties of the seal for a given mode.


A method of operating an engine includes starting and stopping operation of an internal combustion engine that includes a crankshaft having a bearing journal and a bearing in which the bearing journal is rotatable. The crankshaft is constantly turned when the internal combustion engine is in the non-fueled mode. An oil pump can be driven to lubricate the bearing journal and the bearing while the internal combustion engine is in the non-fueled mode to provide hydrodynamic lubrication. An engine is also disclosed.

The present invention relates to internal combustion engines and more particularly to crankshafts associated with such engines.
Repeated starting and stopping of an internal combustion engine results in substantial wear of crankshaft journals and journal bearings because the engine is not properly lubricated when rotation of the crankshaft starts. Journal bearings are ordinarily designed for full hydrodynamic lubrication. In other words, the crankshaft journal and the crankshaft journal bearings usually never make contact when the engine is running because there is a hydrodynamic oil film between them that prevents metal to metal contact. However, hydrodynamic lubrication requires oil pressure and shaft rotation. Oil pressure alone does not produce hydrodynamic lubrication but only boundary lubrication. In boundary lubrication there may be metal to metal contact and wear will occur. The inventors have recognized that, to provide hydrodynamic lubrication of a crankshaft journal and bearing arrangement, there must be both oil pressure and rotation of the crankshaft.
According to an aspect of the present invention, a method of operating an engine comprises switching the engine between being fueled and in a non-fueled mode, the internal combustion engine comprising a crankshaft having a bearing journal and a bearing in which the bearing journal is rotatable, and constantly turning the crankshaft when the internal combustion engine is in the non-fueled mode.
According to another aspect of the present invention, an engine comprises an internal combustion engine comprising a crankshaft having a bearing journal and a bearing in which the bearing journal is rotatable, and means for constantly turning the crankshaft when the internal combustion engine is in a non-fueled mode.

Internal combustion engine including crankshaft that is rotated while engine is in a non-fueled mode and method of operating an engine