Embodiments of this application provide a data compression method, including: performing first processing on π/2-binary phase shift keying BPSK modulated data with a length of M, to obtain first frequency domain data with a length of M, where the first processing includes Fourier transform, and M is an even number; performing second processing on second frequency domain data with a length of Q, to obtain time domain data, where data in the second frequency domain data is included in the first frequency domain data, Q is a positive integer, M is greater than Q, Q is greater than or equal to M/2, and the second processing includes inverse Fourier transform; and sending the time domain data on one time domain symbol.

Based on a market demand, in a wireless communications system, for example, a long term evolution (LTE) or fifth generation (5G) mobile communications system, internet of things (IoT) communication is proposed. The IoT communication may be machine to machine (M2M) communication, machine type communication (MTC), or massive machine type communications (mMTC). The IoT communication may allow communication between terminal devices, or may allow communication between a terminal device and a network device without human intervention. For example, application scenarios of the IoT communication may include a smart grid, industrial automation control, a wireless sensor network, a smart home appliance, a smart water meter, a shared bicycle, and the like.


The present invention provides a foamed molded article production method that can produce polycarbonate resin foamed blow-molded articles, etc. Which are good over a wide range of densities. The present invention is a method for producing a foamed molded article including extruding a foamable molten resin, formed by kneading a polycarbonate resin, a polyester resin in an amount of 5 to 100 parts by weight per 100 parts by weight of the polycarbonate resin and a foaming agent, from a die to obtain a foamed parison, and molding the foamed parison in a softened state in a mold. The polyester resin is a polyester copolymer containing diol component units, 10 to 80 mol % of which are glycol component units each having a cyclic ether structure, and dicarboxylic acid component units.

As a method for obtaining a hollow foamed molded article, there has been hitherto developed a method, so called foam blow molding method, which includes melting and kneading a thermoplastic resin and a foaming agent in an extruder, extruding the obtained foamable molten resin through a die to obtain a foamed parison having a foamed layer, sandwiching the foamed parison in a softened state between molds, blowing a pressurized gas into the parison to mold the parison into a shape conforming to the inner shape of the molds.
The thus obtained hollow foamed molded article has generally a lighter weight and better thermal insulating property as compared with non-foamed hollow molded articles. Because of these properties, hollow foamed molded articles made of a polypropylene resin as a base resin are used as, for example, air conditioner ducts for automobiles.
Although polypropylene resins have excellent balance between their heat resistance property and mechanical strength, they are ill-suited for certain applications, especially applications in which they are used in a position near high temperature heat sources or applications in which they are used for refrigerators. In such applications, there is a demand for materials having high mechanical strength over a wider temperature range.
Polycarbonate resins, on the other hand, have higher heat resistance and better mechanical properties in a low temperature environment as compared with polypropylene resins and, additionally, exhibit self-extinguishing property.
As compared with general-use resins, such as polystyrenes, which are generally used in extrusion foaming, polycarbonate resins show a higher melt viscosity and a lower melt tension at a temperature suitable for foaming in the extrusion stage and, therefore, are inferior in foamability. In a molding method, such as foam blow molding, in which a foamed parison in a softened state is molded in a mold (such a method is hereinafter occasionally referred to as "foamed parison molding"), it is necessary that the foamed parison should maintain its softened state and keep its cell structure without causing excessive drawdown until it has been molded in the mold. Therefore, a resin used in the foamed parison molding is required to have a higher quality of foamability than that required in ordinary extrusion foaming.
Hitherto, foamed blow-molded articles in which a polycarbonate resin having foaming characteristics that are not good is used as a base resin have an expansion ratio of as low as about 1.3.
In this circumstance, Patent Document 1 proposes the use of a polycarbonate resin having a specific melt tension for the purpose of obtaining a foamed blow-molded article having a lower apparent density than conventional articles without causing cell breakage or drawdown of the foamed parison.
Patent Document 2 discloses a method in which a mixture of a crosslinking agent, such as a carboxylic anhydride, and a mixed resin containing a polycarbonate resin and polyethylene terephthalate is extruded and foamed. By so doing, a cross-linking structure is introduced into the polyethylene terephthalate dispersed in the polycarbonate resin, melt characteristics of the mixed resin, such as melt viscosity, so that melt tension and elastic property, are changed to a state suited to extrusion foaming, thereby enabling to produce an extruded foamed product.

Method for producing polycarbonate resin foam molded article


A storage device and method for performing a self-refresh operation are disclosed. In one embodiment, a storage device determines that the self-refresh operation needs to be performed. In response to that determination, the storage device performs the self-refresh operation by reading data from the memory and writing the data back to the memory without transferring the data outside of the storage device.

Many modern consumer-grade storage devices, such as universal serial bus (USB) flash drives, incorporate multi-level cell (MLC) NAND devices as a storage medium in order to increase the storage capacity of the devices by increasing the amount of information that can be stored per cell. For example, some MLC memories store two-bits per cell, providing four analog levels (typically using a floating gate FET)) or three-bits per cell, providing eight analog levels (sometimes referred to as a three-level cell (TLC)). Additionally, the geometry of NAND cells is constantly being reduced in size (known as die shrink) in order to increase the densities of these devices.
A negative consequence of this increase in density is that data retention (the amount of time a memory cell will hold its data without being refreshed) is drastically reduced. This can especially be a problem for USB devices when used for long-term storage of data (e.g., photos). Because these devices effectively become "read-mostly" or "read-only" devices, there is not much, if any, opportunity to refresh the stored data, which can result in the stored data becoming unreadable over time.
A typical user may learn of this data retention problem only after trying to read data and getting an error indicating that the data is un-readable. Sophisticated users may recognize this problem in advance and either backup the stored data on a secondary device or manually refresh the stored data on the memory device by copying the data off of the memory device and onto a host (e.g., a computer) and then re-writing the data from the host back onto the memory device. However, this refreshing process may not refresh all of the data on the memory device, such as important file indexes and meta data that is normally not seen by the end user. So, even if a user is sophisticated enough to know that data stored on the memory device should be refreshed, the refreshing process may be inconvenient for the user and may not even be complete. Also, the user would need to remember to perform this manual refresh process, which the user may forget about if the memory device is treated as a long-term storage device that is not used very often.
More-sophisticated storage devices, such as solid-state drives (SSDs), can contain an operating mode that monitors the error rates and data retention characteristics of the drive but, in most cases, require some host write or read activity to trigger the measurements that would trigger refreshing portions of the drive.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Storage device and method for performing a self-refresh operation


A chloride ion fluorescence detection method and device, and a use thereof. The chloride ion fluorescence detection method utilizes chloride ions to influence luminescence characteristics of some photoluminescent substances to change the emission spectrum of the photoluminescent substances. The concentration of the chloride ions is detected through two processes comprising the fiber surface film forming and test liquid preparation of a fluorescent reagent sensitive to the chloride ions and measurement of information of fluorescence peak wavelengths or intensities. The method can be applied to the online assessment of the corrosion environment of steel bar concrete or the measurement of chloride ions in a laboratory.

1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to the technical field of photoelectric measurement, and more particularly to a method of fluorescence measurement of chloride ion, its device and use thereof.
2. Description of Related Arts
At present, there are different methods of chloride ion measurement. Existing method includes titration method with silver nitrate, ion chromatography method, volumetric method with silver nitrate solution, and etc. However, these methods have to be performed in a laboratory and cannot be used for on-site measurement. In addition, the testing object suitable for measurement is restricted. There is no practical and effective measurement method for chloride ion under specific conditions. For example, there is no such effective measurement method for chloride ion in reinforced concrete, the existence of chloride ion will have erosion effect on the reinforced concrete and adversely affect the durability of the reinforced concrete.
Accordingly, there is still room for improvement and development for the existing method of chloride ion measurement.

Chloride ion fluorescence detection method and device, and use thereof


A base member has an elongate bore, a base end, a distal end, an elongate inner sleeve extending from the base end to the distal end, a generally frusto-conical outer surface having a larger diameter adjacent to the base end and a reduced diameter at the distal end, and a radially extending flange attached to the base end of the inner sleeve. The outer surface of the inner sleeve has axially spaced protrusions positioned along its length. An outer sleeve extends around the inner sleeve, has an annular base portion positioned axially adjacent to the flange, and a plurality of finger portions attached to the base portion and distributed in mutually opposing relationship circumferentially about the inner sleeve and extending from adjacent to the base end of the inner sleeve to the distal end of the inner sleeve. The finger portions are movable radially relative to the inner sleeve and have frusto-conical inner surfaces generally conforming to the outer surface of the inner sleeve. The outer sleeve has a distal end adjacent to the distal end of the inner sleeve that is sufficiently radially flexible to allow a hose end to be inserted on the inner sleeve. The inner surface of the finger portions also has axially spaced protrusions that are axially offset relative to the protrusions of the inner sleeve. The protrusions of the outer sleeve are urged between the protrusions of the inner sleeve when the distal end of the outer sleeve is urged toward the distal end of the inner sleeve. The outer sleeve further has an outer surface that is threaded axially. The base of the inner sleeve has a groove that receives a lip on the base end of the outer sleeve for anchoring the outer sleeve axially relative to the inner sleeve. A clamping nut is mounted on the outer sleeve and has an inner bore that is matingly threaded with the outer surface of the outer sleeve, for urging the finger portions toward the inner sleeve when a hose end is positioned on the inner sleeve, thereby clamping the hose end to the inner sleeve.

Hose systems, such as drip irrigation systems require many connections between a hose and another hose or a fixture. As used herein, the term hose is referred to generically as encompassing any form of piping, hose or tubing, with the structure of the embodiment of the invention designed consistent with the materials of the hose that is being coupled. Drip systems in particular are used in a wide variety of applications and layouts, making it unreasonable to provide hoses of fixed lengths for use in assembling such systems. These systems also typically use flexible hoses of various sizes which must also be connected together.
Drip systems are usually constructed by building the system in the field or area in which it is used, and once it is constructed is left in position, or moved very little. It is thus desirable to construct them in what may be referred to as a single, permanent configuration. It is important that the connections be quick and easy to make, and that the connectors or couplers be relatively simple to make and use, yet capable of withstanding physical stresses. Conventional couplers use a very simple friction fit that is subject to failure from excessive fluid pressure in the system, or from the application of excessive forces during handling or use.


A cosmetic product is provided for delivery of skin actives through adhesive strips which concurrently remove keratotic plugs from skin pores. The product is a strip including a flexible substrate sheet onto which a composition containing an adhesive polymer is deposited. The composition is essentially a polymer of anionic, cationic, nonionic, amphoteric or zwitterionic variety which increases in tackiness upon being wetted, with wetting occurring just prior to application onto the skin thereby enhancing the composition's adhesivity. Skin agents delivered through the adhesive strip include vitamins, herbal extracts, alpha- and beta-hydroxycarboxylic acids, ceramides, anti-inflammatories, antimicrobials, vasoconstrictors, zinc salts and mixtures thereof. The strips are sealably enclosed within a pouch for purposes of moisture protection.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention concerns adhesive strips applied to the skin for removing keratotic plugs from pores and concurrent delivery of skin benefit agents.
2. The Related Art
A variety of vehicles exist for delivery of actives to the skin. These vehicles may be lotions, creams, pads, sprays and even masks. Some are leave-on systems while others are intended as short-lived wash-off products. Those who practice cosmetic arts know the critical role that vehicles perform in delivering actives effectively to skin.
Delivery is not the only concern. Some types of actives are degraded by the vehicle. For instance, ascorbic acid, also known by its common name of Vitamin C, is a very unstable substance. Although readily soluble in water, rapid oxidation occurs in aqueous media. Solubility of ascorbic acid has been reported to be relatively poor in nonaqueous media, thereby preventing an anhydrous system from achieving a significant level of active concentration. Derivatives have been produced with greater stability than the parent component. See U.S. Pat. No. 5,137,723 (Yamamoto et al.) and U.S. Pat. No. 5,078,989 (Ando et al.). A two-pack approach has been developed where Vitamin C powder and other ingredients are separately packaged in different containers with mixing just prior to use. See U.S. Pat. No. 4,818,521 (Tamabuchi). Water compatible alcohols such as propylene glycol, polypropylene glycol and glycerol have been used as co-carriers alongside water to improve stability. See U.S. Pat. No. 4,983,382 (Wilmott and Znaiden).
Vitamin C is just one example of difficult to formulate cosmetic ingredients. Many other types of vitamins, herbal extracts and alpha- or beta-hydroxycarboxylic acids have one or more properties which render them sensitive to certain types of delivery vehicles.
Masks have been employed to deliver herbal extracts to the face. Among the extracts have been glycyrrhizinic acid, .alpha.-bisabolol, azulene, yarrow, coltsfoot, sage, myrrh, rosemary and others. See U.S. Pat. No. 5,614,201 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,482,710, both to Slavtcheff et al. These mask products are reported to eliminate pimples, blemishes and the redness of acne. Unfortunately delivery via masks requires the presence of significant amounts of water which may adversely react with moisture sensitive ingredients. Extended drying times are also necessary for evaporation of water from the applied mask material. Finally, masks have relatively low adhesivity. These products are insufficiently sticky to effect "rip-off" of pore plugs and accumulated dead skin cells which otherwise would be barriers or at least hindrances to the penetration of the cosmetic actives.
Within the last two years, cleansing pore strips have entered commerce in a number of countries. Products such as Kao Biore.RTM. and Pond's.RTM. Cleansing Pore Strips are sheets of an adhesive coated flexible band-aid shaped strip which when wetted have sufficient adhesivity to remove keratotic plugs from skin pores. The strips are left on the skin for approximately 15-30 minutes to allow adhesive polymer to penetrate the pores. Removal of the strip rips away the plugs as well as a layer of skin. These products do not contain any skin benefit agents. In fact, the whole concept behind the strips is removal rather than deposition.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a delivery system for vitamins, herbal extracts and hydroxycarboxylic acids which assists penetration of these actives into the human skin.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a delivery system for vitamins, herbal extracts and hydroxycarboxylic acids which does not interfere or degrade the active during storage.
These and other objects of the present invention will become more readily apparent through the following summary, detailed discussion and examples.

Delivery of skin benefit agents via adhesive strips


A foldable brush for a cosmetic container includes a first brush body having a receiving hole, and a second brush body inserted into the receiving hole of the first brush body, wherein the first brush body includes a first brush including a lot of hair as a cosmetic brush; a first brush support for fixing the first brush and maintaining a fixing state of the first brush such that the first brush does not come off the first brush support; a guide body having a semi-cylindrical shape and a receiving hole, and connected to the first brush support; guide holes formed in both side surfaces of the guide body and having an L-shape; and a temporary fixing stopper formed in a lower end portion of the guide body and having a protrusion shape, and wherein the second brush body includes a second brush including a lot of hair as a cosmetic brush; a second brush support for fixing the second brush and maintaining a fixing state of the second brush such that the second brush does not come off the second brush support; a supporting body having a cylindrical shape, one side connected to the second brush support and an opposite side having a hemispherical shape; sliding hinge pins formed in both side surfaces of the supporting body and coupled to the guide holes of the first brush body such that a rotation of the supporting body is supported; and temporary fixing grooves formed in upper and lower portions of the supporting body, respectively and coupled to a temporary fixing stopper of the first brush body to allow the second brush to be maintained in a folded or unfolded state.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a foldable brush for a cosmetic container, and more particularly, to a foldable brush for a cosmetic container in which two brushes having mutually different types are folded or unfolded with respect to each other and one brush is inserted into an inserting hole formed in the other brush to allow the brushes to be easily maintained in the folded or unfolded state, so that the foldable brush is easily carried and conveniently used.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, there are various types of cosmetics and makeup tools used to wear color makeup.
The makeup tools are manufactured according to cosmetics such that the cosmetics are suitably used.
Although there is a makeup tool which may be put in a cosmetic case among the makeup toots manufactured to be suitably used according to cosmetics, a makeup tool, which is used for a cosmetic applied onto skin through touch, such as face powder used to allow a face to look bright, blusher used to allow a face to look colorful as well as better, or eye shadow applied on the eyelids to add dimension to one's eye, has a size which is not suitable to be put in a cosmetic case since the makeup tool is used to apply makeup in a large area.
Thus, the makeup tools are used suitably to cosmetics and are kept in their cases according to the sizes.
As described above, when a makeup tool is kept in a separated keeping case, since a size of the keeping case is large, it is difficult to carry the keeping case when going out. In addition, since the keeping cases are used individually, the cost is increased.
Specifically, since a makeup artist engaging in an occupation of makeup uses many various kinds of brushes, he requests more simply portable makeup brushes.
Meanwhile, to solve the above problems, Korean Utility Model Registration No. 20-0442172 discloses a portable makeup brush by which a user can carry various sizes of brushes. Looking into the technical characteristics of the portable makeup brush, as shown in FIG. 1, the makeup brush is used for wearing makeup by allowing the brush to touch skin after getting a powder type cosmetic on the brush and has various sizes. The makeup brush 10a or 10b includes a brush body 11a or 11b having a keeping groove 12a or 12b in which a small size of makeup brush 10b or 10c is kept.
However, it is difficult to use two makeup brushes at the same time.
That is, although separated makeup brushes are provided, since a small makeup brush is embedded in a large makeup brush, it is inconvenient to separate the embedded makeup brushes from each other for use.


A device configured to compress a tensor including a plurality of cells includes: a quadtree generator configured to generate a quadtree searching for a non-zero cell included in the tensor and extract at least one parameter value from the quadtree; a mode selector configured to determine a compression mode based on the at least one parameter; and a bitstream generator configured to generate a bitstream by compressing the tensor based on the compression mode.

The inventive concept relates to a device and method of compressing data, and more particularly, to a device and method for compressing a tensor by using parameters of a quad tree method using a neural network.
A neural network is implemented with a computational architecture that models a biological brain. Because a neural network processor performs a large amount of computations on large input data, fast processing, storing, and reading of data are required.
The concept of a tensor is used in a neural network structure. The tensor is a generalized expression method of a vector, and one tensor may include a plurality of weights and feature maps. The neural network may use the tensor as a basic processing unit of computation, storage and/or compression.

Compressing device and method using parameters of quadtree method


An evaluation system models water usage within a region. The evaluation system provides a graphical representation of various water system components. Each water system component has a model describing its water balance and parameters for customizing the model for an instance of the water system component. The evaluation system receives indications of water system components within the region along with connections between the water system components. The evaluation system receives values for parameters of the water system components. The evaluation system then calculates the water demand of the region by calculating the water balance of each water system component within the region based on the models for each water system component and the connections between the water system components. The evaluation system provides a cost-effective solution to manage water usage within the region.

In many water use environments, water users would like to optimize various water usage criteria. For example, in an agricultural environment, a farmer may want to irrigate a field to maximize profit by decreasing water cost and increasing crop yield. As another example, a golf course owner may want to increase water use efficiency to minimize the course's demand for water and still keep an acceptable turf quality. To optimize water usage, a water user needs to be aware of the various factors that can affect the costs and efficiency of water usage. For example, the cost of water may increase during the summer months when supply is short. In such a case, a farmer may want to irrigate a field just before the summer months begin.
To optimize overall water usage of a region, the needs of many different water users may need to be considered. For example, if a region has different farm and non-farm water uses with different water demands that vary over time, then the optimization of water usage for the region should consider all the demands on the supply. In addition, the water usage of one water user may affect the water usage of another water user. For example, if a farmer places a high demand on water of a certain supply during a certain time period, then a downstream farmer may not be able to satisfy their demand from that same supply or an ecosystem demand to maintain minimum flows and levels may be violated.
It is currently difficult to assess and evaluate the various water usage supply and demand options. It would be desirable to have an effective way to analyze water supply and demand to optimize water usage criteria such as water cost and water use efficiency.

Method and system for evaluating water usage


Method and system for performing a namespace operation in a distributed file system. The file system is disposed on a plurality of partition servers, and each partition server controls access to a subset of hierarchically-related, shared storage objects. Each namespace operation involves a namespace object and a target object that are part of the shared storage objects. Namespace operations received at each partition server are serialized. In response to an unlink namespace operation, a reference in the namespace object to the target object is removed, and after removal the target object is modified in accordance with the unlink operation. In response to a link operation, the target object is modified consistent with the link operation. After modification of the target object, a reference to the target object is inserted in the namespace object.

A partition-based approach to achieve high scalability for access to distributed storage services is currently being explored. The partition-based approach addresses the inherent scalability problems of cluster file systems, which are due to contention for the globally shared resources. In a partition-based approach, the resources of the system are divided into partitions, with each partition stored on a different partition server. Shared access is controlled on a per-partition basis.
All implementations of partition-based distributed storage services must maintain namespaces, which generally are distributed and reference objects that reside in multiple partitions. A namespace provides a mapping between names and physical objects in the system (e.g., files). A user usually refers to an object by a textual name. The textual name is mapped to a lower-level reference that identifies the actual object, including a location and object identifier. The namespace is implemented by means of directories, which are persistent files of (name, reference) pairs.
The requirement for consistency of the namespace can be formalized in terms of four properties:                1. One name is mapped to exactly one object.        2. One object may be referenced by one or more names.        3. If there exists a name that references an object, then that object exists.        4. If an object exists, then there is at least one name in the namespace that references the object.
Changes to the global namespace take the form of one of two classes of operations: link operations that insert a reference to an object, for example, a newly created object; and unlink operations that remove a reference to an object. Any of the above operations potentially spans more than one server in a distributed system. The server containing the directory (or "namespace object") and the server containing the referenced object may be physically separated.
Some systems presently use 2-phase commit to implement distributed namespace operations. However, to provide recoverability in the event of system failure during a namespace operation, atomic commitment protocols perform synchronous logging in the critical path of the operations, thereby incurring considerable overhead.
In addition to the overhead, atomic commitment protocols lock system resources across all the sites involved in an operation for the duration of the multi-phase commit, thereby increasing contention for resources such as free block lists and block allocation maps. Atomic commitment protocols also follow a conservative approach for recovery from failure: in the presence of failure, incomplete operations are typically aborted rather than attempting to complete the operation.
A system and method that address the aforementioned problems, as well as other related problems, are therefore desirable.

Namespace management in a distributed file system

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


A device and method in a provisioning unit of secure provisioning of a virtual machine on a target platform having a specific configuration is provided. The method comprising: receiving (404) a public binding key from the target platform (107), the public binding key being bound to the specific configuration, encrypting (410) a virtual machine provisioning command using the public binding key, and sending (412) the encrypted virtual machine provisioning command, to the target platform (107). By the provided device and method secure provisioning of a virtual machine on a target platform is enabled.

In the past years, there has been a strong move in the field of computing services towards usage of virtualization technologies. Virtualization allows the running of unmodified legacy applications on hardware platforms. This is realized through on-the-fly translation from one hardware instruction set to another with the assistance of a so-called hypervisor or Virtual Machine Monitor (VMM). A VMM runs in a so called "most privileged mode" in a computer system running a virtual machine and has full control over vital system resources. A VMM-based system does not only allow instruction translation, but increased system utilization as multiple Virtual Machines (VMs) can run simultaneously on a single powerful hardware platform, opening for different business models. This implies, for example, that existing services can rather easily be migrated into large computing clusters, often referred to as "the cloud".
One drawback of this new flexibility is that it creates increased security risks. Systems which previously were physically isolated from each other, might run on the same machine which may entail unwanted interaction beyond control between VMs running simultaneously on the same hardware. Further, the VMM is exposed to threats both from external and internal sources. If the VMM is compromised this could affect the whole system.
Examples of VMM solutions are VMW are, Xen and KVM. Differences in underlying technology of the VMMs provides differences in the operation and performance of for example the above mentioned VMMs.
VMW are is a VMM with the ability of running directly on server hardware without requiring an additional underlying operating system. VMware software provides a completely virtualized set of hardware to the guest operating system and uses the CPU to run code directly whenever possible and a dynamic re-write code process called "binary translation" when the code needs to be migrated to a different CPU architecture.
Xen is a VMM that allows several guest operating systems to execute on the same computer hardware concurrently. On most CPUs, Xen uses a form of virtualization known as paravirtualization, meaning that guests run a modified operating system using a special hypercall API instead of certain architectural features.
KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine) is a VMM that uses the Linux operating system's kernel in order to virtualize a system, which gives good performance since user-space drivers can be avoided.
Many virtual machine platforms have a Trusted Platform Module (TPM), which is a special purpose hardware module. The TPM enables secure generation of cryptographic keys, protected computation and shielded storage. The TPM includes capabilities such as Remote attestation, Binding and Sealing. Remote attestation creates a secure signature over the current platform configuration in the form of signed hash values. This allows a remote third party to verify if trusted or untrusted software has been installed on the platform. Binding and sealing enables the usage of a particular private unique RSA (Rivest, Shamir and Adleman) key to be restricted to a certain platform state. The state is determined through the current values in the so-called Platform Configuration Registers (PCRs) in the TPM. The PCRs stores hash values of the software blocks that have been loaded into the platform. The RSA key is a private and public key pair is generated within the TPM or transferred to the TPM at production. The public RSA key may be used by third parties to Encrypt data such that access (through restricted usage of the corresponding private key) to the data is restricted to the platform being in the configuration in which the binding key was created. The TPM is further disclosed in "Trusted Platform Module overview", released by Trusted Computing Group (http://www.trustedcomputinggroup.org).
Virtualization technologies as such can provide secure isolation and protect different VMs that run on a shared platform while being isolated from each other, but the isolation as well as other security properties of the system can only be guaranteed as long as a trusted VMM version is in use and trusted VMM configurations are in place.
From the view of a service provider, who runs services as VMs on virtual platforms, the provider would like to be ensured that virtualization software and configurations of the platforms are trusted and that a particular service (in the form of a VM) is bound to run only on the trusted platform with the trusted configurations.
In previously known virtual machine systems it is not certain that all security critical component including the VMM are trusted prior to launching a service or provisioning a virtual machine on a platform.


A photo mask includes a transparent substrate and a mask pattern. The mask pattern is disposed on the transparent substrate. The mask pattern includes a blocking portion for blocking light and a transmitting portion for transmitting the light. The transmitting portion is adjacent to the blocking portion. The blocking portion includes a first blocking layer, a photo guide layer and a second blocking layer. The first blocking layer is disposed on the transparent substrate. The first blocking layer transmits a portion of the light. The first blocking layer includes a plurality of blocking patterns including a first blocking material. The photo guide layer is disposed on the first blocking layer. The photoguide layer guides the transmitted portion of the light to a side surface of the photoguide layer. The second blocking layer reflects the transmitted portion of the light.

1. Field
Example embodiments relate generally to photo masks, and more particularly to photo masks for manufacturing thin film transistor substrates and methods of manufacturing the photo masks.
2. Description of the Related Art
A liquid crystal display ("LCD") apparatus is an example of a flat panel display ("FPD"), which has recently been broadly used. Other examples of the FPD include, but are not limited to, a plasma display panel ("PDP") and an organic light emitting display ("OLED").
The LCD apparatus applies voltages to molecules of liquid crystal to adjust arrangements of the molecules thereby changing optical characteristics of a liquid crystal cell such as birefringence, optical activity, dichroism and light scattering to display an image.
The LCD apparatus includes a LCD panel displaying an image. In the LCD panel, a wire pattern is formed to include metal, and the wire pattern is formed by an exposure process and an etching process using a mask.
Recently, as a width of the wire pattern has reduced, a width of a photo pattern for forming the line pattern has also reduced. However, it is difficult to form the pattern below the resolution limit of a general exposure machine.
In order to reduce the width of the photo pattern, it can be considered to apply a high photosensitive photoresist and enhance the limit resolution of the exposure machine. However, a process cost may increase according to an excessive use of the exposure machine. Accordingly, in order to reduce the process cost, enhancement of exposure efficiency in an exposure process and a lifespan of the exposure machine are required.

Photo mask and method of manufacturing the same


In a pattern writing method for writing a pattern on a substrate by the use of projection patterns output from a mirror device including two-dimensionally arranged micromirrors, exposure is implemented by ON/OFF controlling each micromirror and partly overlapping the projection patterns from the mirror device at least in a one-dimensional direction, thereby accurately controlling the exposure of intermediate amounts of light.

Generally, in an exposure process on manufacturing a semiconductor integrated circuit, it is necessary to write a circuit pattern on a wafer applied with a resist by the use of a mask (it may also be called a reticle) with the circuit pattern written thereon (which is called pattern exposure), and a system therefor is called an exposure system or an exposure apparatus. However, there is also an exposure system for directly writing a circuit pattern on a wafer without using a mask (this system is called a maskless exposure system).
On the other hand, in order to fabricate a mask, it is necessary to deposit, on the surface of a quartz plate or the like which will serve as a substrate of the mask, a chromium film or the like for shielding that is patterned to allow exposure light to pass through a pattern corresponding to an intended circuit pattern or an object circuit pattern. This chromium film or the like is patterned by pattern exposure and a system therefor is called a mask writing system. The technique of the mask writing system is generally electron-beam writing using an electron beam and a system therefor is called an electron-beam writing system (hereinafter referred to as an EB writing system).
In addition to the EB writing system, there is also an alternate mask writing system (sometimes called a laser-beam writing system), which has been manufactured and sold as a product and which is based on a technique that performs pattern writing (i.e. pattern exposure with respect to a mask substrate coated with a resist) by the use of laser light in the ultraviolet region (hereinafter abbreviated as ultraviolet laser light).
As the writing system of this type, there has conventionally been proposed a laser-beam writing system that uses a reflector display element (a mirror device called a digital micromirror or the like) having a large number of micromirrors arranged two-dimensionally and performs pattern writing on a mask substrate by irradiating ultraviolet laser light onto the reflector display element and by controlling reflected light into a pattern. This laser-beam writing system can expose a partial pattern of a circuit pattern at one time and therefore has a high processing speed, as known in the art. Description is given about this, for example, in Proceedings of SPIE, Vol. 4186, PP. 16-21 or U.S. Pat. No. 6,428,940.
According to the above-mentioned documents, the conventional laser-beam writing system uses the mirror device composed of about one million (about 500×about 2000) micromirrors each of which has a size of about 16 microns. This is projected onto the mask substrate at a reduced size of 1/160 through a reduction-projection optical system. As a result, a pattern corresponding to each micromirror becomes a square with a side of 0.1 microns, i.e. 100 nm. On the other hand, when writing a mask, the minimum size in design is generally small like 1 to 4 nm, which is called a minimum grid. Therefore, in order to realize a pattern shape that is far smaller than the mirror-projected pattern with the side of 100 nm, it is performed to change an amount of light irradiated onto a pattern to be projected. For example, according to the foregoing document, the amount of light is changed in 64 levels (using intermediate amounts of light), thereby adapting to a minimum grid of 1.56 nm being 1/64 of 100 nm.
In the conventional technique of adapting to the minimum grid having the size smaller than the reduction-projected pattern of each micromirror by the use of the intermediate amounts of light as described above, a deflection angle of each micromirror in the mirror device is controlled, thereby changing the intensity of laser light to be projected. In this connection, if exposure is performed by moving the micromirror to be projected (i.e. scanning the mask substrate) per minimum grid of 1.56 nm, the scan speed is reduced to 1/64 while the number of scan times increases 64 times, and therefore, a writing time is extremely prolonged like 64×64 times. That is, it is essential to use the intermediate amounts of light in order to shorten the writing time in the laser-beam writing system.

Pattern writing system and pattern writing method


According to one embodiment, a substrate holding apparatus includes a main unit and a plurality of first support units. The main unit has a major surface. The main unit has a plate configuration. The first support units are disposed on the major surface. Each of the first support units includes a suction-holding unit capable of holding a substrate by suction. The suction-holding unit is movable along a first direction perpendicular to the major surface and a second direction parallel to the major surface.

A pattern transfer apparatus that transfers a prescribed pattern onto a substrate (a semiconductor wafer) is used in a semiconductor lithography process. The pattern transfer apparatus includes a substrate holding apparatus that attachably and removably holds the substrate. In the semiconductor lithography process, it is desirable to increase the precision (called the overlay precision hereinbelow) in the case where a new pattern is transferred onto a pattern that is already formed in the substrate. Distortion of the substrate is one factor that reduces the overlay precision. In the substrate holding apparatus and the pattern transfer apparatus, it is desirable to appropriately adjust the distortion of the substrate.

Substrate holding apparatus, pattern transfer apparatus, and pattern transfer method


A probe for measuring a cathodic protection condition of a buried steel structure includes: a steel electrode; a reference electrode; and a coupon fabricated of a conductive material. The steel electrode, the reference electrode and the conductive coupon are positioned in an ionically conductive medium in proximity with each other and are isolated from direct electrical contact with each other.

Corrosion of metal is a well-known phenomenon, and occurs when the metal gives up electrons by electrochemical reactions with its surrounding environment. Such corrosion can be prevented by forcing electrons into the metal from an external power source so as to deliberately lower the potential of the metal relative to its environment.
One commonly used approach to achieve this is impressed current cathodic protection, whereby an electromotive force (EMF) is used to provide electrons directly to a metal structure in its operating environment. This results in a "polarized potential" of the metal structure relative to the operating environment, which prevents the metal structure from serving as a source of electrons that would otherwise be required for the electrochemical reactions to proceed.
In the case of buried steel structures, such as pipelines, industry standards typically require measurement of the polarized potential as a way of inferring the corrosion condition of the structure. However, the corrosion condition can be difficult to determine accurately using the polarized potential alone. One reason for this is that, under aerated electrolytic conditions, the polarized potential has only a weak correlation with cathodic protection current density, suggesting a decoupling between the polarized potential and the corrosion prevention mechanism.
When cathodic protection current is applied to a steel structure, current is transferred across the structure/electrolyte interface (namely, the interface between the exposed steel surface and the surrounding soil) by one or more reduction reactions, depending on the environmental conditions at the interface and the magnitude of the current density. For steel, the common reduction reactions are:H++e−→H°  (1)2H2O+O2+4e−→4OH−  (2)2H2O+2e−→H2+2OH−  (3)
Equation (1) describes hydrogen ion reduction in either an unaerated environment or a low pH environment; equation (2) describes dissolved oxygen reduction in an aerated environment; and equation (3), also known as the "hydrogen line", describes the electrolysis of water. The reduction reactions described by equations (1) to (3) result in an increase in the concentration of OH− ions at the structure/electrolyte interface, and a proportionate increase in pH. The relationship between the polarized potential of steel and pH can be illustrated by a potential-pH diagram, shown in FIG. 1.
When steel is polarized by a cathodic protection current in the negative direction, the polarized potential cannot normally be forced more negative than 80 mV past the "hydrogen line", along which the electrolysis of water and the evolution of hydrogen gas occur. Increasing the cathodic protection current density results in an increase in pH, whereby an increase in a single pH unit generally requires a disproportionately larger increase in cathodic protection current density. When the polarized potential of steel, E, resides on the hydrogen line, the polarized potential and the interfacial pH are linearly related by the following equation:E=−316 mVcse+(−59 mV×pH)  (4)
As will be understood, when the polarized potential resides on the hydrogen line, the pH value at the interface between the exposed steel surface and the soil may be calculated using the pH-potential difference calibration curve described by equation (4), and using the measured potential difference as the polarized potential, E.
However, in aerated electrolytic environments, the polarized potential and interfacial pH are not linearly related, because the structure/electrolyte potential does not meet the hydrogen line until the cathodic protection current density exceeds the limiting current density for oxygen reduction, iL. This situation was illustrated by cathodic polarization tests carried out in simulated groundwater solutions, in "Fundamental Processes of Cathodically Protecting Steel Pipelines", Gas Research Conference Proceedings (1983), authored by Thompson and Barlo. FIG. 2 shows the results of these tests.
Argon saturation of electrolytic environments is known to remove dissolved oxygen to yield a unaerated electrolytic environment, in which the structure/electrolyte potential is linearly related to the logarithm of applied current density. This linear relationship is the hydrogen line. As can be seen in FIG. 2, increasing the structure/electrolyte potential by 100 mV requires a disproportionately large increase in cathodic protection current density. A comparison of this data with FIG. 1 indicates that there is a direct proportional relationship between pH and the logarithm of current density, similar to the linear relationship between polarized potential and interfacial pH along the hydrogen line.
For an aerated condition of 20% O2 (where 100% O2 would be equivalent to about 8 ppm of dissolved oxygen), the polarized potential is known to not indicate the interfacial pH until the limiting current density for oxygen reduction (iL) is reached at a current density of about 10−4 A/cm2. The limiting current density is known to increase with increasing dissolved oxygen concentration in the electrolyte.
Achieving consistently accurate measurements for all electrolytic environments experienced by a pipeline would provide greater confidence to regulators, insurers and the general public that the pipeline operator's structural integrity efforts are effective.
It is therefore an object at least to provide a novel apparatus for measuring a cathodic protection condition of a buried steel structure, and a method.

Apparatus for measuring a cathodic protection condition of a buried steel structure, and method


An image sticking prevention circuit for a display. The image sticking prevention circuit comprises a diode, a first capacitor, a transistor, and a second capacitor. The first terminal of the diode is coupled to a first voltage terminal of a voltage converter. The first capacitor has a first terminal coupled to the second terminal of the diode and a second terminal coupled to a first fixed potential. The transistor has a first terminal coupled to the first terminal of the first capacitor, a second terminal coupled to the first terminal of the diode and the first voltage terminal of the voltage converter, and a third terminal coupled to a second voltage terminal of the voltage converter and a gate driver circuit. The second capacitor has a first terminal coupled to the third terminal of the transistor and a second terminal coupled to a second fixed potential.

The invention relates to an image sticking prevention circuit and, in particular, to an image sticking prevention circuit for a display power-off mode.
As shown in FIG. 1, a conventional liquid crystal display (LCD) 100 comprises a voltage converter 140, a gate driver circuit 110, a data driver circuit 120, and a pixel array 150. The pixel array 150 comprises a plurality of gate lines 112, a plurality of date lines 122, and a plurality of pixel driving circuits 130. The pixel driving circuit 130 comprises a driving transistor 132, a storage capacitor 134 and a liquid crystal cell 136. A gate and a source of the driving transistor 132 are respectively connected to one of the gate lines or data lines. When the gate drive circuit 110 raises a voltage of the gate line 112, the driving transistor 132 is turned on and a data signal on the data line 122 is transmitted to a drain of the driving transistor. Thereby, the data driver circuit 120 sends the data signal to the storage capacitor 134 via the data line 122 and the driving transistor 132. After the data signal is loaded into the storage capacitor 134, the gate driver circuit 110 decreases the voltage of the gate line 112 to its former level such that the liquid crystal cell 136 generates an image according to the data signal before the next data signal is loaded. However, when the LCD 100 enters a power-off mode, the data signal still remains in the storage capacitor 134, generating a residual image.
A conventional solution shifts the current to voltage (I-V) curve of the transistor 132 (as shown in FIG. 2) to the left such that a threshold voltage of the transistor 132 is close to 0V. Thus, the transistor 132 is turned on even if a gate voltage of the transistor 132 is close to 0V. As a result, the data signal stored in the storage capacitor 134 is released to the data line 122. Image sticking is thus prevented, but current leakage is a major concern due to the decreased threshold voltage.

Image sticking prevention circuit for display device


A device (1) is described for disconnectably connecting cable wires to a contact plate (2). The contact plate contains a through opening (9) and, in use, one of the cable wires to be contacted is urged into contact with the edges of that opening (9). The cable wire is moved by a thrust piece (3) which also contains a through opening (24) and which is moved relative to the through opening (9) in the contact plate by means of a screw element.

Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a device for disconnectably connecting cable wires to a contact plate, and particularly to such a device designed to engage two different cable wires in a housing of electrically non-conductive material, preferably plastics material, wherein one of the cable wires to be contacted can be brought into contact with the contact plate, preferably, by means of a screw element.

Device for disconnectably connecting cable wires


Various embodiments provide transistors and methods for forming the same. In an exemplary method, a substrate can be provided. A gate structure can be formed on the substrate. A stress layer can be formed in the substrate on both sides of the gate structure. Barrier ions can be doped in the stress layer to form a barrier layer in the stress layer. The barrier layer can have a preset distance from a surface of the stress layer. An electrical contact layer can be formed using a portion of the stress layer on the barrier layer by a salicide process. The electrical contact layer can contain a first metal element. The first metal element can have a resistivity lower than a resistivity of a silicidation metal. The barrier layer can prevent atoms of the first metal element from diffusing to a bottom of the stress layer.

With rapid development of semiconductor fabrication technology, semiconductor devices are being developed toward a direction of higher component density and higher degree of integration. As the most basic semiconductor device, transistor is widely used nowadays. Therefore, with the increase of component density and degree of integration of semiconductor devices, the gate size of a transistor is becoming smaller than before. However, when the gate size of the transistor becomes smaller, short-channel effect can occur in the transistor and leakage current can thus be generated. Electrical properties of the semiconductor device can eventually be affected.
Conventionally, performance of semiconductor devices is mainly improved by increasing carrier mobility. When the carrier mobility is increased, the drive current in a transistor is increased, and the leakage current in the transistor is accordingly decreased. A key element to improve the carrier mobility is to increase stress in the channel region of the transistor. Thus, increasing the stress in the channel region of the transistor can improve the performance of the transistor.
An existing method to improve the stress of the channel region of a transistor is as follows. A stress layer is formed in the source region and the drain region of the transistor. The stress layer of a P-type metal-oxide-semiconductor (PMOS) transistor is made of silicon-germanium (SiGe). Because SiGe and silicon have the same crystal structure, i.e., a "diamond" structure, and the lattice constant of SiGe is greater than the lattice constant of silicon at room temperature, a lattice mismatch thus exists between the silicon and the SiGe. Therefore, the stress layer can provide a compressive stress in the channel region, and accordingly improve the performance of the carrier mobility in the channel region of the PMOS transistor. Correspondingly, the stress layer of an N-type metal-oxide-semiconductor (NMOS) transistor is made of silicon carbide (SiC). Because the lattice constant of SiC is smaller than the lattice constant of silicon at room temperature, a lattice mismatch thus exists between the silicon and the SiC. Therefore, the stress layer can provide a tensile stress in the channel region, and accordingly improve the performance of the NMOS transistor.
FIG. 1 depicts a cross-sectional view of an existing transistor with a stress layer. As shown in FIG. 1, the transistor includes a substrate 100, a gate structure 101 on the surface of the substrate 100, and stress layers 102 in the substrate 100 at both sides of the gate structure 101. The sidewall of the stress layer 102 has an angle (i.e., a vertex angle). The angle extends toward within the substrate 100 at the bottom of the gate structure 101. The sidewall of the stress layer 102 has a "Σ" shape with respect to the surface of the substrate 100.
The transistor further includes a source region and a drain region (not shown) within the stress layer 102 and the substrate 100 at both sides of the gate structure 101. The transistor further includes conductive plugs 103 on the surface of the stress layers 102, to be electrically connected to the source region and the drain region. When the transistor is a PMOS transistor, the stress layer 102 is made of SiGe. When the transistor is an NMOS transistor, the stress layer 102 is made of SiC.
However, in such existing transistor having a stress layer, the improvement of the carrier mobility in the channel region is still limited. Thus, the capacity of the transistor for suppressing leakage current is limited. The disclosed methods and structures are directed to solve one or more problems set forth above and other problems.

Transistor and method for forming the same

SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURING INTERNATIONAL (SHANGHAI) CORPORATION


An information handling system AC-to-DC adapter provides a low DC power output on initial application of an AC power input. The low DC power output supports communication between the adapter and the information handling system of adapter identification information. The information handling system confirms a proper connection with the adapter and sends an authorization to the adapter to output a high DC power output. The adapter monitors the connection with the information handling system to disable the high DC power output if not needed, such as if the information handling system is disconnected from the adapter or reaches a fully charged battery state.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to the field of electrical power supply, and more particularly to a system and method for power application to an information handling system.
2. Description of the Related Art
As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
Information handling systems typically operate with alternating current (AC) power supplies that convert AC current into direct current (DC) for use by the components within the system. Desktop information systems typically have the power supply integrated internally in a housing so that a user need only plug the system into an AC socket and the power conversion occurs automatically. Portable information handling systems typically have an internal but removable battery that supplies DC power and an external power AC adapter that receives power from an AC socket, converts the power to DC and provides the DC power to a port of the information handling system. The AC adapter charges the battery and also provides external power to operate the system when the adapter is plugged in. AC adapter power supplies often have varying power capabilities and, if a system draws more power than the adapter is capable of delivering, the adapter may be damaged. To reduce the risk of damage, information handling systems attempt to identify the type of adapter in use and limit the power drawn from the adapter if the adapter has a limited capability. For instance, when an AC adapter is plugged into an information handling system, the information handling system sends a short pulse on the ground as an identification signal. The AC adapter responds with an identification code sent serially on the ground that identifies the type of adapter. If the AC adapter has limited power capacity, the information handling system throttles its performance, such as by inhibiting battery charging and processor speed, so that the power draw remains within the adapter's capacity.
Although AC adapter identification prevents excessive draw by an information handling system from an AC adapter, it does not actually affect the power output by the adapter itself. Thus, from the time that the AC adapter is plugged into an AC socket, the adapter is enabled to output DC power at its capacity. If, for instance, power and ground are inadvertently shorted on the output, damage to the system of shock to the user could occur. Also, with a large amount of current available from the adapter, an in-rush condition can occur when the adapter is plugged into the information handling system, potentially damaging the sensitive components within the information handling system. Indeed, the AC adapter is often itself built with sensitive and expensive components that are susceptible to damage. These more sensitive and expensive components are used so that power conservation standards are met. For instance, when an AC adapter is plugged into an AC socket but not an information handling system, the draw from the socket is required by government standards to be less than one Watt. Reduced idle power consumption requires higher performance components within the AC adapter.

System and method for power application to an information handling system


An architecture for a magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM) storage cell 300 with reduced parasitic effects is presented. An additional runs of metal laid in parallel to both the wordline 310 and the bitlines 320 of the MRAM device provide a write wordline 345 and a write bitline 355 are separated from the wordline and the bitline by a dielectric layer 340 and 350 provides electrical isolation of the write currents from the magnetic stacks. The electrical isolation of the write wordline 345 and bitlines 355 reduces the parasitic capacitance, inductance, and resistance seen by the wordline and bitlines during the write operation. The wordline 310 and bitlines 320 remain as in a standard MRAM cross-point array architecture and is dedicated for reading the contents of the MRAM storage cell.

This invention relates generally to semiconductor memory devices, and particularly to cross-point array architecture for magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM) storage devices.
Semiconductor devices are used for integrated circuits in a wide variety of electrical and electronic applications, such as computers, cellular telephones, radios, and televisions. One particular type semiconductor device is a semiconductor storage device, such as random access memory (RAM) and flash memory. These semiconductor storage devices use an electrical charge to store information.
A recent development in semiconductor memory devices involves spin electronics, which combines traditional semiconductor technology and magnetism. Rather than using an electrical charge to indicate the presence of a binary xe2x80x9c1xe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9c0xe2x80x9d, the spin of an electron is used. An example of such a spin electronic device is a magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM) storage device, which includes conductive lines positioned perpendicular to one another in different metal layers. The place where the conductive lines intersect is known as a cross-point. In between the perpendicular conductive lines is a magnetic stack. The magnetic stack is placed at the cross-point, sandwiched between the conductive lines.
An electrical current flowing through one of the conductive lines induces a magnetic field around the conductive line. The induced magnetic field can align (or orient) the alignment (or orientation) of magnetic dipoles in the magnetic stack. The right hand rule is a way to determine the direction of a magnetic field induced by a current flowing in a particular direction. The right hand rule is well understood by those of ordinary skill in the art of the present invention.
A different current flowing through the other conductive line induces another magnetic field and can realign the polarity of the magnetic field in the magnetic stack. Binary information, represented as a xe2x80x9c0xe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9c1xe2x80x9d, is stored as different alignments of the magnetic dipoles in the magnetic stack. A current of sufficient strength flowing through one of the conductive lines is sufficient to destroy the contents of the magnetic stacks coupled to it. However, currents flowing through both conductive lines are required to selectively program a particular magnetic stack.
The alignment of the magnetic dipoles in the magnetic stack changes the electrical resistance of the magnetic stack. For example, if a binary xe2x80x9c0xe2x80x9d is stored in the magnetic stack, the resistance of the magnetic stack will be different from the resistance of the same magnetic stack if a binary xe2x80x9c1xe2x80x9d is stored in the magnetic stack. It is the resistance of the magnetic stack that is detected and determines the logical value stored therein.
It is preferable to use long runs of the conductive lines to maximize storage density. The long conductive lines permit larger storage arrays and minimizes area overhead for support logic and devices such as current drivers and sinks, switches, etc. However, long conductive lines result in significant parasitic effects such as capacitance, inductance, and resistance. By reducing parasitic effects, the following advantages may be realized: precise control of writing current, longer conductive lines, shielding of read lines, and reduced power consumption.
Because MRAM devices operate differently than traditional semiconductor memory devices, they introduce design and manufacturing challenges. A need has therefore arisen for a cross-point array architecture to reduce parasitic effects.
In one aspect, the present invention provides an architecture for a magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM) storage cell comprising a magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ), a wordline and a bitline perpendicular to the wordline, sandwiching the MTJ at their intersection, a first conductive line running parallel to the wordline, electrically separated from the wordline by a dielectric layer and a second conductive line running parallel to the bitline, electrically separated from the bitline by another dielectric layer.
In another aspect, the present invention provides an architecture for a magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM) memory array arranged in a cross-point array with a plurality of wordlines and bitlines, the memory array comprising a plurality of MRAM memory cells arranged in a cross-point array, each MRAM memory cell comprising: a magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) comprising a first and second magnetic layers separated by a non-magnetic layer, a wordline and a bitline lying perpendicular to the wordline, sandwiching the MTJ at their intersection, a first conductive line running parallel to the wordline, electrically separated from the wordline by a first dielectric layer; and a second conductive line running parallel to the bitline, electrically separated from the bitline by a second dielectric layer; and wherein subsets of MRAM memory cells are grouped together and share a common wordline and subsets of MRAM memory cells are grouped together and share a common bitline.
The present invention provides a number of advantages. For example, use of a preferred embodiment of the present invention permits precise control of the currents used to align the magnetic dipoles of the magnetic stacks. Precise control of the currents is possible due to the reduction in the parasitic effects, which in turn, reduces signal loss.
Also, the present invention provides a longer overall length for the conductive lines used in reading and writing the magnetic stacks. The longer length conductive lines allow for larger memory arrays, which in turn results in memory cells with greater density.
Additionally, the shielding of the read conductive lines allow for lower read currents to be used. Along with increased noise immunity due to the shielding, shortening of the read access time and the read cycle time can be achieved. The lower read currents also result in reduced power consumption.
Also, the present invention permits shorter read and write times due to the electrically separated architectures allowing read and write currents to be simultaneously maintained on the respective conductive lines, rather than having to switch from a read current to a write current as in other non-electrically separated architectures.

Magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM) cross-point array with reduced parasitic effects


A machine component has a wear surface along which excessive friction will develop unless the surface receives adequate lubrication. To provide lubrication for the wear surface in the absence of any other lubricating medium, the component is formed from powdered metal compacted to less than theoretical density so as to contain pores, and the pores hold oil. Even though the component is mechanically machined along its wear surface, the pores are nevertheless open at the wear surface to enable the entrapped oil to exude from the ring and lubricate that surface. During manufacture of the ring, the mechanical machining creates a Bielby layer at the wear surface, that is it smears the metal and closes the pores at that surface, but the Bielby layer is removed by electro-discharge machining This procedure erodes the Bielby layer with electrical arcs so that the pores at the wear surface are again exposed and open.

This invention relates in general to a part or machine component having a lubricated wear surface and, more particularly, to a process for providing a powdered metal machine component with a lubricated wear surface, to the machine component itself, and to a bearing having such a component.
Powdered metal machine components are rarely compacted to theoretical density, which is of course the density of the wrought metal, and as a consequence such components contain pores. Where the component carries a wear surface against which another component moves, these pores serve a very useful purpose in that they will hold a liquid lubricant and release it at the wear surface so as to minimize friction between the wear surface and the other component. Indeed, the pores may serve as a lubricant reservoir capable of supplying lubrication to the wear surface in the event the wear surface looses its normal supply of lubrication.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,601,592, granted to The Timken Company on Jul. 22, 1986, discloses a tapered roller bearing having a rib ring which is formed from powdered steel. This rib ring provides a wear surface along which the large ends of the tapered rollers move, thus preventing the rollers from being expelled from the space they occupy between the two races of the bearing. The ring holds a lubricant in its pores, and those pores are open and exposed at the wear surface. Should the bearing lose its normal supply of lubrication, the ring will release its lubricant to the wear surface and prevent failure of the bearing at this critical surface.
A powdered metal part, however, requires special preparation before its pores will release a stored lubricant at a wear surface on the part. This derives from the fact that the compaction of powdered metal into the shape desired for the part and the subsequent sintering to retain that shape does not proceed with the precision required for many parts. As a consequence, the compacted and sintered part must undergo further mechanical machining, such as grinding, to bring it to the dimensions, shape and surface finish suitable for service. The machining obliterates and closes the pores, producing a so-called "Bielby layer" which is undesirable at the wear surface, since it prevents a lubricant within the ring from being released at that surface.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,601,592 addresses this problem by recommending that the powdered metal part be chemically etched along its wear surface. This eliminates the Bielby layer and opens the pores at the wear surface so that a lubricant may be introduced into the wear ring and likewise pass out of the wear ring at the wear surface when needed. But the etchant used to remove the Bielby layer also enters the pores where it is difficult to remove and more significantly causes unwanted corrosion. Indeed, the etchant together with the grinding fluid, which is primarily water and is likewise absorbed into the pores during grinding, produces a particularly corrosive combination.
Impregnating the pores with oil before the grind would keep out most of the grinding fluid and afterwards the etchant as well, but oil inhibits etching and is likely to cause an uneven etch. Thus, the pores are kept free of oil, at least until completion of the etching.
The present invention resides in a process for removing the Bielby layer from a powdered metal machine component by subjecting the component to erosion at the surface areas where the Bielby layer is to be eliminated, preferably erosion by electro-discharge machining. The process is particularly useful for providing a powdered metal machine component, which has been mechanically machined, with wear surface against which another machine element moves, in that the pores of the powdered metal component are open at the wear surface and thus can release lubricant which is stored in the pores, so that the other element moves along the wear surface with minimal friction. The invention also resides in a machine component having a wear surface formed by the process and that component may be a rib for guiding and confining rolling elements of an antifriction bearing. Indeed, the invention further resides in a bearing having such a rib.

Method of making a machine component with lubricated wear surface


Methods and apparatus for placing and interpreting reference marks on scrollbars are disclosed. A reference mark indicates a portion of document displayed in a window on a display device. To place a reference mark, a selection of a portion of a document is received. A command to mark the selection with a reference mark is then received. A reference mark is then placed in the scrollbar, the reference mark indicating the selected portion of the document. To interpret a reference mark, a selection of a reference mark located on a scrollbar is received from an input device. The scrollbar is associated with a document. The display of the document in the window on the display device is then changed so that at least the beginning of a portion of the document indicated by the reference mark is displayed in the window on the display device.

Scrollbars are used in a variety of software applications, particularly those displayed in a so-called window that is shown on a computer display device. A window is typically able to display only a portion of a document or other file at a time. The scrollbar allows a user of the software application displayed in the window to select the portion of the document or other file to be displayed. Thus, the user is able traverse different sections of a document or other file that otherwise cannot be efficiently displayed in the window at the same time. For example, in a word processing application, a user who wishes to edit a seventy-page document would not want all seventy pages to be displayed at the same time. A scrollbar allows that user to effectively choose which portion of the document to look at by providing input to the scrollbar. Similarly, scrollbars may be used within a document as well, to show only a portion of an item in a document, such as a table or a chart, at a time. A user is again able to effectively choose which portion the item is displayed by providing input to the scrollbar. In any situation, the user provides input to the scrollbar through an input device such as a keyboard, a mouse, a trackball etc.
For example, one way of providing input to a scrollbar is to use an input device such as a mouse or trackpad to click on a movable slider displayed in the scrollbar. The movable slider corresponds to a relative position of the document as currently displayed in the window. By moving the mouse/trackpad, the movable slider correspondingly moves in the scrollbar, and the portion of the document that is displayed in the window also changes accordingly, allowing the user to view a different portion of the document. Similarly, by moving a cursor or other type of input indicator using, for example, a keyboard, to scroll through the content of a document, the movable slider in the scrollbar will correspondingly move and indicate a relative position on the document.
Scrollbars may be placed in a variety of locations in a window. For example, word processing applications and web browsers typically include two scrollbars, one placed on the right edge of the window, for scrolling up and down, and one near the bottom edge of the window, for scrolling right and left. Other applications, such as image editing applications, may place the left-right scrollbar near the top edge of the window, and still other applications, such as graphics applications, typically include two left-right scrollbars, one near the top edge of the window and one near the bottom edge, and two up-down scrollbars, one on the right edge of the window and one on the left edge of the window.


A method and system for instantiating COM components in custom contexts are proposed. The solution of the invention is based on an auxiliary component, acting as a factory (215). Whenever a client (205) needs to instantiate a new target component in a desired custom context, it calls a dedicated method exposed by the factory, passing the identifier of the target component together with information about the custom context. The factory starts execution of an additional module, operating as an impersonator (225), in a new process (230) conforming to the custom context. The impersonator then instantiates the target component in its own process. The impersonator passes a pointer for the target component to the factory (calling a further method that is exposed by the factory); the factory in turn returns that pointer to the client.

Development and maintenance of software applications are critical issues in modern data processing systems. For this purpose, several technologies have been proposed in the last years to facilitate the reuse of software code and the integration of preexisting solutions.
Particularly, in a component-based infrastructure the software applications are built combining program blocks (called components). A component consists of a self-describing object providing a well-specified set of publicly available services; in this way, multiple components can run together and each of them is able to understand and exploit the capabilities of the other components.
A typical example of a component-based infrastructure is the one conforming to the Component Object Model (COM) specification, as described at "http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/". In the COM specification, each component concretely implements predefined interfaces (consisting of abstract definitions of the supported services). The COM specification provides a versatile and completely language-independent infrastructure, which easily fits into an object-oriented program design.
Each component conforming to the COM specification is instantiated by a client requiring its services; for this purpose, the client calls a corresponding method (being exposed by a basic interface). The component can be instantiated in the process of the client (in-process), so as to run in the same environment context. Alternatively, the component can be instantiated in a different process (out-of-process) by means of a system service; in this case, the component inherits the properties of the context of the system service. However, in both cases the client cannot alter the setting of the context wherein the component runs.
The COM specification also allows selecting a desired instantiation mode for the component; the instantiation mode is chosen from a list of options that are available for the component (such as in-process or out-of-process). Even in this case, the client is bound to a set of predefined contexts.
Therefore, the client cannot instantiate the desired component in a custom context that is defined at run-time.
In other words, no support is available in the prior art for controlling the context of the components dynamically.
This problem is particularly acute for in-process components that are provided by third parties. Indeed, those components can only run in the same process of the client; as a consequence, it is not possible to customize their context in any way.

Method and system for instantiating components conforming to the “COM” specification in custom contexts

International Business Machines Corporation


A system, computer readable medium and a method for encrypting a file, the method may include retrieving the file from a storage service; segmenting the file into multiple file segments; calculating a file segment signature for each of the multiple file segments to provide multiple file segment signatures; encrypting each of the multiple file segments to provide multiple encrypted file segments by using encryption keys that are in response to the multiple file segment signatures; wherein the multiple encrypted file segments form an encrypted file; and sending the multiple encrypted file segments to the storage service.

The advances and reduced costs of network connected mobile devices in recent years have brought a dramatic change in user behavior. The typical user owns multiple personal devices ranging from desktop and laptop computers, notebooks, tablets, smart phones and electronic books. Consequently, there is a growing need to share data among devices, as well as to guarantee its availability despite the fact that devices may be turned off, disconnected and replaced. The penetration of such technology is rapidly increasing in organizations of all sizes. As a result, users are mixing enterprise files, documents and applications together with their personal media.
To this end, the use of cloud-based storage for sharing information between different devices and also among group of users has become a standard. Many consumer commercial offerings such as Dropbox, Box, iCloud, Google Drive and Sugarsync have gained widespread user popularity.
These services offer cloud-based storage that is connected to the devices through apps or through a browser interface. The apps present to the user a directory structure of files organized in folders similar to the appearance of native application such as MS Explorer. In certain operating systems (Windows, Apple OS X) the folder are accessed via the native file browser application. The folders on the device are synchronized with the storage on the cloud and therefore maintain a coherent file and directory state and view across all devices. In certain cases (e.g. Sugarsync) the files are uploaded to the cloud but are not necessarily automatically synchronized to all devices.
In addition to the web-storage services, there is a parallel trend of uploading unstructured data, in particular company documents, to SaaS (Software as a Service) services. New cloud-based enterprise application such as Salesforce.com, Success Factors, and Box, and consumer-based applications such as Google Docs and Gmail, are essentially independent document repositories. These new services have caused a major migration of documents from the corporate storage to web-based SaaS.
FIG. 1 illustrates enterprise based services 20 such as Salesforce 21, Jive 23 and Box 24 and others (such as 22), consumer based services 10 such as Dropbox 13, Gmail 11 and others 12, that are accessed by an enterprise system 30 that includes a database 31, access control, DLP (Data Loss Prevention), DMS (Document Management Service) and analytics modules 32-35.
This trend has caused several major problems.                a. The cloud storage resides outside the enterprise storage and management systems. It is impossible for IT managers to understand what type of data is placed in these services, track the content evolution/changes, police the access and usage of the content and prevent misplacement, duplication and unauthorized access. There may be certain organizational data that is not allowed on some or all of these services. Finally, the consumer-oriented services are easy to break-in using Phishing or password breaking, and have sharing capabilities that may cause enterprise data to be shared by mistake with unauthorized parties (inside or outside the organization).        b. Cloud storage is usually implemented as a data center level storage and therefore is expensive compared to the on-device storage. 2011 technology and prices have resulted in a 1 TB of storage for a typical home entertainment system or desktop computer, and 32 GB for a typical smart phone or a tablet. Similarly, within organizations, the data owned and shared by an employee within organization file systems and current content management systems offer even larger amounts of storage. In comparison popular cloud storage services typically offer only 2-5 GB of storage for free. Consequently, there are several orders of magnitude difference between the quantity of storage that is used and addressed by the user and the reasonably priced cloud storage solution that can be offered to that user. Even when the user does not wish to access all addressable storage but only "relevant" topical material, the current solutions are static and manual. The user needs to select which file he wants to share and move them to the cloud storage directory. This may lead to situation that the data the user would like to access is not available online.

Encrypting files within a cloud computing environment


Methods and system for determining water activity of a sample material are disclosed in which a sample material is positioned in a water activity measurement device, a plurality of water activity values of the sample material are measured at a respective plurality of points of time, with the plurality of points in time preceding an equilibrium state of the water activity of the sample material, the plurality of water activity values over time are log-transformed, a trendline of the plurality of water activity values over time is calculated, and the trendline is extrapolated to determine an extrapolated water activity value of the sample material at the equilibrium state. These methods and systems can decrease the time needed to determine the water activity of the sample by reliably predicting and estimating water activity well before equilibrium is reached in the measurement chamber.

Water activity and water potential are measures of the energy state of water in hydrated systems such as foods and soils. Knowledge of the water activity of a system is desirable to understand how the system behaves. For example, water activity affects the availability of water for plant or microbial growth and water movement in a system is due to gradients in water activity or water potential. Water activity is one of the most important measurements there is for determining whether a food or pharmaceutical product will be safe, stable, and function properly. The measurement is needed in laboratories, but also on the production floor to determine whether a product has dried sufficiently or been hydrated to the proper level.
Water activity is conventionally measured by equilibrating the water in the sample with an external surrounding phase (i.e., gas, liquid or solid) and then measuring the water activity in the equilibrated phase. When a test sample is initially positioned in a chamber of a testing instrument, the sample and its immediate surroundings are not in equilibrium, and the user must wait to obtain the water activity reading, sometimes for extended periods of time, until equilibrium is reached. Additionally, in some cases, equilibrium is difficult or impossible to reach because the chamber itself takes up water, and sample materials and other impurities in the testing chamber can slow or prevent equilibration. There is therefore a constant need for improvements to water activity measurements and instrumentation.


A cooling apparatus for an internal combustion engine includes a fan that cools a coolant by operating at least at a first drive voltage and a second drive voltage higher than the first drive voltage; and a control unit that drives the fan at the first drive voltage when a vehicle is driven at a low vehicle speed that is a vehicle speed lower than a vehicle speed threshold and a coolant temperature is higher than a fan low-voltage activation threshold.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a cooling apparatus for use in internal combustion engines.
2. Description of Related Art
Various proposals have been made regarding control of coolant temperature in internal combustion engines. For example, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 60-81422 (JP 60-81422 A) discloses a control mechanism for an automobile electric-powered fan, which is designed to increase the rotational speed of the electric-powered fan with increase in coolant temperature.
In the meantime, there has recently been proposed to control the coolant temperature for the purpose of improving the fuel efficiency by suppressing knocking. Specifically, in order to suppress knocking, the coolant temperature is controlled to be lower than a common coolant temperature to suppress knocking so that the fuel efficiency is improved. When the coolant temperature is normally set lower in this manner, the ignition timing also need be adjusted accordingly.
When such coolant temperature control is used as a measure for improving the fuel efficiency, it may possibly induce problems as follows. When a vehicle enters an idling state or low-speed traveling state, the effect of cooling a radiator by running wind is reduced. This may result in increased coolant temperature. If the vehicle is rapidly accelerated after the increase of the coolant temperature, knocking may likely occur due to the ignition timing that is adjusted according to the coolant temperature set lower than normal. When an internal combustion engine is provided with a knock control system (KCS), a learning function of the KCS is activated once occurrence of knocking is detected. When the retardation amount at a low coolant temperature is increased by the learning function, it may possibly induce deterioration of fuel efficiency performance, or deficiency in motivity performance such as slow acceleration.
The control mechanism for an automobile electric-powered fan disclosed in JP 60-81422 A is designed to control rotation of the electric-powered fan according to increase in coolant temperature. According to this technique, in which control is performed with reference to the coolant temperature, the coolant temperature might be increased at some timing due to delayed response of the coolant temperature control, making it impossible to prevent occurrence of knocking. In addition, if the fan is activated frequently in order to keep the coolant in a low temperature state as much as possible, the fuel efficiency might be rather deteriorated due to increased power consumption by the fan or increased driving resistance. Furthermore, the frequent activation of the fan may possibly cause a problem of activation noise or increase of variation range of the coolant temperature. Still further, frequent activation of the fan will reduce the lifetime of the fan itself.

Cooling apparatus for internal combustion engine


Embodiments of the present invention address deficiencies of the art in respect to software license management and provide a method, system and computer program product for authorizing customer managed software installation. In an embodiment of the invention, a method for authorizing customer managed software installation based on entitlement records can be provided. The method can include in response to a request to transfer a registered software product from an existing platform to a new platform, validating both an entitlement record and also a maintenance record for the registered software product and transferring the registered software product to the new platform only if both the entitlement record and the maintenance record validate.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of software installation and more particularly to authorizing customer managed software installation.
2. Description of the Related Art
Historically, computer programs have been distributed in disk medium—initially on tape and eventually on floppy and optical disk. Controlling the unauthorized distribution of computer software, however, has vexed the software publishing industry from the beginning. Initial efforts to combat the unlicensed use of software involved dongles and passwords. As the distribution of multi-user software has become more complex and as target platforms in target network environments constantly change, early models for software licensure management fail. Modern efforts involve centralized registration and management of end user licensing of software applications.
In furtherance of centralized registration and management of end user licensing of software applications, in today's software configuration installation environment it has been customary to use sales inventory records to establish software configuration transfer or upgrade base starting points. When a customer is first shipped their software product, inventory records are used to accurately reflect the customer number and hardware serial number for the ordered software products. Over time the customer may eventually transfer the software products to other hardware systems within the customer's enterprise.
Typically, a customer purchases a software license and receives a key to transfer the software product on a given number of hardware systems or machines. Since the customer may transfer the software product from machine to machine, it is difficult to determine what version of software is on a particular machine. Usually when a customer orders a software upgrade, there is no nexus between where the software currently resides and the validity of software license entitlement information in inventory records.
In many instances these historical records do not match the entitled product residency. This can result in a configuration starting point that does not match the customer's actual installed and entitled use of a software product, causing a nuisance to marketing teams to manually modify inventory records so they are in agreement with existing entitled software installation support on customer systems.
The problem with current methods is that when a customer purchases a single software product, any attempt to transfer the software product to another machine is prevented. Entitling a software product to a specific machine in a customer's enterprise, and restricting the software product to that specific system only fails to support a customer's ever-changing business requirements.

Software configuration based on entitlement records