An apparatus is described in which the temperature of a semiconductor laser (or other device) can be set to a desired value by using the heat generated by the laser itself in conjunction with an adjustable thermal impedance heat sink to effect the desired temperature rise.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to temperature control of devices by primarily passive mechanisms, for example as may be used to adjust the wavelength of a semiconductor laser by changing its temperature.
2. Background and Relevant Art
Semiconductor lasers have been tuned in wavelength through controlled variation in temperature. Two common means of changing the temperature are thermoelectric coolers and resistive heaters. Thermoelectric coolers typically use the Peltier effect. This device can either heat or cool depending on the direction of the electrical current flowing through the Peltier elements. A resistive heater is a resistor which converts electrical current to heat.
In either case, the method of temperature variation consumes considerable electrical power. In the case of a thermoelectric cooler, the Peltier effect has limited efficiency and the electric power consumption required for cooling is typically several times the power consumed in the laser. When the thermoelectric cooler is used as a heater, it is approximately as efficient as a resistor. While heating can then be more power efficient than cooling, it is still necessary to supply significant electrical power. This is so because it is in general not desirable to operate the laser at high temperatures. To avoid such operation, the laser is generally mounted in such a way that the thermal impedance to an appropriate heat sink is small. In consequence, to obtain a significant additional temperature rise from a heater which is located in proximity to the laser, it is necessary to generate heat of an order of magnitude that is significantly greater than is generated by the laser. If the heater is located downstream of the laser with respect to the heat flow, the situation is even worse, for in that case the thermal impedance to the heat sink is even smaller and more heat must be generated to effect the same temperature rise.
The additional power that must be provided for temperature tuning may not be acceptable in situations where power consumption is important, for example if the device is operated from a modest sized battery for a significant length of time.
Besides, the issue of power consumption, it may not be physically convenient to deploy the heater in proximity to the laser. If cost is a serious consideration and high volume standard parts such as Compact Disk (CD) lasers are desirable to be used, it may be necessary to break open the packaging to add the heater. Thus, there is a need for approaches that would enable the laser to be temperature tuned, without disturbing the packaging in which it may be readily purchased.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,371,753 discloses an apparatus in which the thermal impedance of a laser diode heat sink varies during the turn-on cycle of the laser. The variation is accomplished through use of a metal structure and an air-gap, which metal structure by virtue of its dimensions is open while the laser is warming up, and closes when the temperature has reached the range of desired values. The closure is accomplished by virtue of reversible deformations arising from temperature changes such as may be obtained with shape-memory alloy metals. While this approach can allow the laser to reach a specific temperature range, there is no means by which the temperature that is ultimately reached can be varied significantly or controlled precisely. The thermal impedance is not adjustable during device operation. It is fixed during fabrication of the device and this, in turn, fixes the temperature range.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,243,404 discloses a laser module that can be tuned over a temperature range and different temperature ranges can be selected during fabrication. The temperature range is selected by inserting spacers of known thermal impedance between the laser and the ultimate heat sink such that the laser temperature can be made to rise by a fixed known amount above ambient. Then, a secondary control mechanism such as a thermoelectric cooler can adjust the laser temperature over a range in the vicinity of the base laser temperature. In this approach, the thermal impedance (and therefore the base laser temperature) is selected at the time of device fabrication and is afterwards fixed. The temperature cannot then later be further adjusted through variations in the thermal impedance and this approach depends on previously described cooling or heating schemes, with their consequent inefficiencies, to accomplish the required temperature adjustments during device operation.
Thus, there is a need to control the temperature of devices, such as semiconductor lasers, in a manner that consumes less energy than current approaches.

Temperature tuning the wavelength of a semiconductor laser using a variable thermal impedance


A device for low temperature bend-testing of a test piece is disclosed. The device of the present invention comprises fixed and movable units. The fixed unit includes a base which includes at least one substantially vertical stanchion. A tank for holding a volume of low temperature liquid, such as liquid nitrogen, is secured to the base. The movable unit includes a support and a pin. The support structure includes an arch portion and at least one projection. The test piece under test is supported by supports included in the arch portion. The pin is slidably mounted in the structure so as to be displaceable in a direction perpendicular to the test piece when supported by the supports. The device also includes means making the fixed and movable units operable together to permit the test piece to be bend-tested in the tank.

There already exist a certain number of devices for the bending testing of test pieces and which mainly include a test piece support structure secured to a base and provided with two rollers on which the test piece extremities are laid, and a pin sliding with respect to one portion of the base perpendicular to the test piece on which it is pressed halfway between the supports. It is then possible to conduct conventional tests for measuring the force on rupture or measure bending according to the force applied to the pin.
Some of these devices are completed by a chamber surrounding the test piece and the pin, this making it possible to test in special conditions the temperature, atmosphere, etc., but tests conducted at extremely low temperatures require that the test piece be immersed into a cryogenic liquid, such as liquid nitrogen, which poses new problems in this field as it becomes difficult or impossible to measure the bending of the test piece by conventional methods with stress gauges or with direct reading, the use of the cryogenic fluid rendering handlings of the device as being scarcely practical. If, for example, it is desired to carry out several successive tests, it is impractical to on each occasion empty the liquid contained in the chamber so as to fill it again as soon as the test piece is replaced.

Device for testing test pieces bending in an ambient cryogenic environment

Aerospatiale Societe Nationale Industrielle


A back cover with an anti-theft function is for containing a monitor body cooperatively with a front frame and includes a reinforcement rib structure and a cover body having an anti-theft hole. The reinforcement rib structure is formed on an inner side of the cover body facing the monitor body and includes a first ring-shaped rib disposed around the anti-theft hole, a second ring-shaped rib disposed around the first ring-shaped rib, two longitudinal ribs, and four transverse ribs. The two longitudinal ribs extend respectively from a top end and a bottom end of the first ring-shaped rib to the second ring-shaped rib along a center longitudinal axis of the first ring-shaped rib. The four transverse ribs extend respectively from two sides of the first ring-shaped rib to the second ring-shaped rib along a center transverse axis of the first ring-shaped rib in a symmetrical arrangement.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a back cover and a display monitor thereof, and more specifically, to a back cover with an anti-theft function and a display monitor thereof.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In general, a display monitor usually has an anti-theft function for preventing being taken away or stolen arbitrarily. The conventional anti-theft design is to form an anti-theft hole on a back cover of the display monitor for a user to insert an anti-theft key into the anti-theft hole, so that the display monitor could be locked on an installation platform (e.g. a wall mount or a table) for anti-theft. Furthermore, in practical application, a reinforcement metal sheet (e.g. an iron sheet) is additionally fixed on an inner side of the back cover corresponding to the anti-theft hole by a hot melting process for further increasing the structural strength of the anti-theft hole. In such a manner, the aforesaid design could effectively prevent the display monitor from being taken away by other person violently pulling the anti-theft key to break the anti-theft hole.
However, since the aforesaid reinforcement design needs an operator to manually position the reinforcement metal sheet at a right position corresponding to the anti-theft hole during the hot melting process, it would cause a time-consuming and strenuous manufacturing process so as to greatly increase the manufacturing cost of the display monitor in the anti-theft design. Furthermore, the aforesaid reinforcement design usually causes the reinforcement metal sheet to fall out of the back cover due to poor melt quality, so that the loose reinforcement metal sheet could hit the internal components of the display monitor to cause damage of the internal components or make annoying sound.

Back cover with anti-theft function and display monitor thereof


A data processing apparatus, a data processing method and a computer program product are disclosed. In an embodiment, the data processing apparatus comprises: a processor comprising a plurality of parallel lanes for parallel processing of sets of threads, each lane comprising a plurality of pipelined stages, the pipelined stages of each lane being operable to process instructions from the sets of threads; and scheduling logic operable to schedule instructions for processing by the lanes, the scheduling logic being operable to identify that one of the sets of threads being processed is to be split into a plurality of sub-sets of threads and to schedule at least two of the plurality of sub-sets of threads for processing by different pipelined stages concurrently.

Traditional microprocessors issue and execute single instructions one after the other. The instructions typically perform a single operation on two scalar values, producing a result. Single-issue variants issue one instruction per clock cycle, which is then processed by one of the execution units. Execution units typically include at least an adder, a multiplier, a load/store unit, and a branch unit. Processors such as these run a single program thread at a time, and belong to the group of single threaded processors, although an operating system may create the illusion of multiple simultaneous threads by configuring the processor to switch between threads at a certain interval. Although these kinds of processors have low performance, they also have a small silicon area, and therefore a reasonable performance per silicon area. There are processor variants which issue and execute multiple instructions at the same time. These multiple-issue variants kinds of processors have low performance, they also have a small silicon area, and therefore a reasonable performance per silicon area. There are processor variants which issue and execute multiple instructions at the same time. These multiple-issue variants look ahead in the instruction stream to find instructions that can be processed in parallel by the different execution units. To increase performance, a processor may also have multiple instances of selected execution units. This results in fast execution of each program thread. However, dependencies between instructions in a thread limit the number of instructions that can be executed in parallel, leaving execution units unused, and the logic required to extract the parallel instructions requires a significant amount of silicon area and power. The routing logic to route values to and from the execution units is also significant. The result is poor efficiency, measured in performance per silicon area and performance per watt.
One type of processor that can achieve a higher performance per silicon area is known as Single Instruction Multiple Data (SIMD Processor). This type of processor operates on fixed width vectors rather than scalar values. Each instruction performs its operation on multiple scalars at a time, using vectorized execution units that are constructed from an array of scalar units arranged in separate lanes. SIMD Processors can be single-issue or multiple-issue. However, the programmer or source language compiler often cannot express the operation to be performed using vectors, in many cases utilizing only one lane of the vectorized execution units.
Another type of processor that can achieve a higher performance per silicon area is known as Very Long Instruction Word Processor (VLIW Processor), where each instruction describes the operation of all the execution units in the processor. In this way, all the execution units can operate every cycle, without the need for multiple-issuing hardware.
The simplest Multiple-issue, SIMD and VLIW processors run a single thread at a time, and may therefore be referred to as single threaded processors. Coherent Vector Threaded Processors are a kind of processor which is similar to SIMD processors in that multiple parallel registers are hardwired to multiple parallel execution units arranged in lanes, but where each lane executes a separate program thread. The bandwidth required for instruction fetch is lower than for the other types of processors since multiple threads execute the same instruction from the instruction fetch unit. Parallelism is achieved by executing multiple threads in lock-step, so the simplest form of single issue instruction sequencer is sufficient for good performance and efficiency, though Coherent Vector Threaded Processor architectures with multiple-issue and VLIW are also possible. The threads start out at the same program location, but may branch to multiple different locations, an event known as divergence. During divergence, each one or more threads branch to the same program location. The processor can issue instructions for only a limited number of divergent threads simultaneously, but will prioritize which thread to issue instructions for so that the threads end up at the same program location again, an event known as reconvergence. These processors typically enforce such reconvergent execution over a fixed number of threads, known as a warp or wavefront.
Although these processors provide useful data processing functionality, they each have their own shortcomings. Accordingly, it is desired to provide improved data processing techniques.


An optical sensor system including a semiconductor substrate; a self-mixing interferometry (SMI) sensor formed on the semiconductor substrate and including a semiconductor laser having a resonant cavity; and an array of photodetectors formed on the semiconductor substrate. The SMI sensor is configured to generate an SMI signal responsive to a retro-reflection of electromagnetic radiation emitted by the semiconductor laser and received into the resonant cavity. The array of photodetectors is configured to generate a set of angular-resolved scatter signals responsive to a scatter of the electromagnetic radiation emitted by the semiconductor laser.

Coherent optical sensing, including Doppler velocimetry and heterodyning, can be used to obtain spatial information for a target. Example targets include objects, surfaces, particles, and so on. Example spatial information includes presence, distance, velocity, size, surface properties, particle count, and so on. Coherent optical sensing can sometimes be used to obtain spatial information for a target with optical wavelength resolution, at quantum limit signal levels, and with considerably lower photon energy than time-of-flight optical sensing methods. Coherent optical sensing can also limit interference from external aggressors such as ambient light or light generated by light sources of other optical sensing systems.
Semiconductor lasers integrated with wafer-level or wafer-bonded photodetectors enable coherent optical sensing using a monolithic sensor structure. For example, a semiconductor laser may generate and emit electromagnetic radiation from a resonant cavity of the semiconductor laser, receive returned (e.g., reflected or scattered) electromagnetic radiation back into the resonant cavity, self-mix the generated and returned electromagnetic radiation within the resonant cavity, and produce a self-mixing interferometry (SMI) signal that can be used to determine spatial information for a target. However, due to the retro-reflective nature of the SMI optical path, a likely angular incoherence of backscattered electromagnetic radiation, a likely small optical aperture and field of view of the semiconductor laser, and a possible high absorption of received electromagnetic radiation by the target, only a small amount of the electromagnetic radiation emitted by the semiconductor laser may be returned to the semiconductor laser's resonant cavity (i.e., the optical power of the returned electromagnetic radiation may be a small fraction of the optical power of the emitted electromagnetic radiation (sometimes less than 1 parts-per-million (ppm)).
In demanding sensing applications, such as particulate matter detection, surface profiling, and so on, the low optical power of electromagnetic radiation returned to a semiconductor laser's resonant cavity, along with the presence of noise, makes it difficult to make accurate or high resolution characterizations of a device's environment and/or the relationship of a device to its environment.

Hybrid interferometric and scatterometric sensing using in-plane sensors


Crosstalk is suppressed low even when one surface of a multi-layer board seats a semiconductor integrated circuit of the BGA type and peripheral circuit components. Of a plurality of BGA bumps arranged on the back surface of a semiconductor integrated circuit chip, those BGA bumps (such as a high-frequency signal pin) to which peripheral circuit components need be mounted right close are arranged outer-most, and peripheral circuit components are then mounted right close to these BGA bumps. The BGA bumps one tier inner from the outer-most BGA bumps, which are to be used as grounding terminals, are connected with a wide inner-layer grounding wire pattern. Those BGA bumps (such as a logic control signal pin) to which peripheral circuit components need not be mounted right close are disposed further inward and connected with an inner-layer wire pattern which is located even deeper down from a front layer. This makes the grounding pattern held between the signal wire pattern and the control wire pattern and ensures isolation between these wire patterns, whereby it is possible to suppress leakage of a signal which could cause crosstalk.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor device which can seat a high-frequency semiconductor integrated circuit and the like at a high density and electronic equipment using such a semiconductor device.
2. Background Art
Portable electronic equipment such as a mobile telephone is equipped with diversifying functions, e.g., the equipment comprises a display of a large size so as to display images, pictures and the like, the equipment incorporates a memory card, etc. A concurrent and major shift on mobile telephones is that most of them are of the folding type. In this circumstance, a printed board needs be thinner when mounted inside. To add to the difficulty, a large-size display, a key board and the like on one surface of the printed board make it increasingly hard to mount other components on this surface of the printed board.
In connection with a high-frequency semiconductor integrated circuit used in a mobile telephone, a package of the QFP type is advantageous in requiring only fewer pins which helps size reduction, and this type of package has an improvement that the back surface of the package comprises a common plate for grounding. FIG. 10 shows a structure which uses a package of the QFP type. In FIG. 10, denoted at 1071 is a semiconductor integrated circuit chip sealed in QFP, denoted at 1072 are terminals of QFP, denoted at 1073 is a grounding plate of QFP, denoted at 1074 is a multi-layer mounting board, denoted at 1075 is a front-layer grounding pattern, denoted at 1076 are peripheral circuit components, and denoted at 1077 are through holes. As shown in FIG. 10, while the semiconductor integrated circuit chip 1071 of QFP is mounted within a chip mounting area 1071A on the front layer of the board 1074, since the grounding pattern 1075 needs be disposed on the front layer of the board 1074 in an area which corresponds to the grounding plate 1073 of the chip 1071, signal wires must be all led out from outside the pins (terminals 1072). This necessitates a void space where no component can be mounted, which is a disadvantage that the mounting area increases.
Noting this, among endeavors to reduce the size of a package, some high-frequency semiconductor integrated circuits for use in mobile telephone have started to use a chip size package (CSP) of the ball grid array (BGA) type instead of a package of the QFP type, for the purpose of reducing the mounting area. A package of this type achieves a small mounting area, as external peripheral components are mounted on the both surfaces of a mounting board as shown in FIG. 8. In FIG. 8, denoted at 861 is a semiconductor integrated circuit chip, denoted at 862 is a multi-layer mounting board, denoted at 863 are peripheral circuit components to be mounted on a front layer, and denoted at 864 are peripheral circuit components to be mounted on a back layer. With the peripheral circuit components 864 mounted on the back side of the mounting surface of the semiconductor integrated circuit 861 within the back layer, it is possible to realize mounting that the wires are short and less intersect with other wires (See Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Gazette No. 2003-204163 and Japanese Patent Gazette No. 3507300.)
However, even in the case of a CSP of the BGA type described above, it is becoming difficult to mount other components on one surface as explained earlier. Owing to this, as shown in FIG. 9, where a key board 966 is disposed on the back surface and mounting on the both surfaces is therefore impossible, it is necessary to mount the components 965, which used to be mounted on the back surface (and which correspond to 864 shown in FIG. 8), to wires which have been pulled up to the front layer using interconnections, through holes, etc. This complicates signal wires, leading to inconveniences and problems such as crosstalk.

Semiconductor device and electronic equipment using the same

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


The present invention relates to a polymer nanoparticle injection formulation composition containing rapamycin with improved water solubility, and more specifically, to an injection formulation composition containing rapamycin wherein water solubility is improved by solubilizing rapamycin having low water solubility with polymer nanoparticles, a preparation method thereof, and an anticancer composition for a combined use with radiotherapy.

Rapamycin (molecular formula: C51H79NO13, molecular weight: 914.2), also known as sirolimus, is a macrolide lactone-based compound. It has an immunosuppressive activity and so has been commercialized as a transplant rejection inhibitor (Rapamune) for organ transplant patients. As well as for inhibiting the organ transplant rejection, rapamycin can be used for treating pulmonary inflammation, systemic lupus erythematosis, immunoinflammatory skin disorders including psoriasis, immunoinflammatory bowel disorders, ocular inflammation, restenosis, rheumatoid arthritis, etc.
Recently, it has been reported that in addition to the function of the immunosuppressive agent, rapamycin has the function of an anticancer agent which acts as an inhibitor of mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) to induce apoptosis and destroy cancer cells thereby. However, since rapamycin has a very low solubility in water (1 to 2 μg/ml), it shows a very low absorption rate upon oral administration and has a great variance in bioavailability between individuals.
Rapamune tablet has been introduced as a formulation containing rapamycin. This tablet comprises excipients including sucrose, lactose, polyethylene glycol 8000, calcium sulfate, microcrystalline cellulose, povidone, poloxamer 188, glyceryl monooleate, etc. In addition, Rapamune oral solution comprises Phosal 50 PG (phosphatidyl choline, propylene glycol, mono-glyceride, di-glyceride, ethanol, soy bean fatty acid, ascorbyl palmitate) and polysorbate 80, with 1.5 to 2.5% of ethanol content.
When Rapamune oral solution is orally administered to human patients, the absolute bioavailability is about 14%. When Rapamune tablet is orally administered, the absolute bioavailability is relatively higher by about 25% as compared with the oral administration Rapamune oral solution. However, both formulations show low absolute bioavailability below 20% and this is due to the low solubility of rapamycin in water.
Therefore, various attempts have been made to formulate rapamycin using various solubilization techniques. U.S. Pat. No. 5,559,121 discloses a capsule formulation composition containing a solution of rapamycin wherein rapamycin is dissolved in a mixed solution comprising polysorbate 80 surfactant, N,N-dimethylacetamide, and either lecithin or phospholipid. U.S. Pat. No. 5,616,588 discloses an injectable aqueous solution of rapamycin wherein rapamycin is dissolved in an aqueous solution of propylene glycol at a concentration of 0.1 to 4 mg/ml, without containing non-ionic surfactant. However, the known injectable aqueous solutions of rapamycin have a poor stability as an aqueous solution and thus should be administered within a short period of time. No injectable formulations are commercially available at present.
Korean Patent No. 0160957 discloses a composition for inhibiting organ or tissue transplant rejection, which comprises rapamycin in an effective amount for inhibiting mammalian organ or tissue transplant rejection. However, in this patent, rapamycin is used together with oils such as olive oil, alcohols, propylene glycols, and polyethylene glycols and surfactants such as Cremophor EL and polysorbate 80.
As a technique for solubilizing poorly soluble drugs, U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,322,805 and 6,616,941 disclose a polymeric micelle using an amphiphilic block copolymer in which a hydrophilic polyethylene glycol (A) block and a hydrophobic polylactide (B) block are combined in the form of an A-B type diblock. However, no specific examples to solubilize rapamycin with said polymeric micelle have been provided therein.

Polymer nanoparticle injection formulation composition containing rapamycin with improved water solubility, preparation method thereof, and anticancer composition for combined use with radiotherapy


A mounting rack for pickup trucks that have a cargo bed with upstanding lateral side walls where the rack includes a pair of base forming rails adapted to be surmounted on the top fenders of the truck cargo bed, a pair of rigid frames attached centrally to the respective rails in a position upstanding from the side walls or top fenders of the truck cargo bed and at least one cross beam interconnecting the uppermost portions of the said rigid frames. The rack further includes cargo support cradles shaped like "U" shaped bail members carried by each of the rails and projecting laterally from the cargo bed of the truck to support bikes or other additional cargo.

Racks designed to carry bicycles on motor vehicles are plentiful and are found in a variety of designs and configurations but each of them possess disadvantages which are resolved by the rack of the present invention, at least with respect to pickup truck type of vehicles. Many of the racks are described in U.S. Patents, the most pertinent of which are described below.
A vehicle mounted foldable bicycle carrier is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,875,608 which utilizes U-shaped channels members to support the wheels of a bicycle however the remaining portion of the rack is markedly dissimilar to the rack of the present invention and could not be mounted in the bed of a pickup truck.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,398,763 discloses a load carrier for a motor load vehicle which is generally constructed over the sides of a light delivery van but the structure as taught by the patentee could not be used in the same manner or for the same purpose as the carrier of the present invention.
Many pickup truck bicycle racks mount inside of the truck bed and secure the bicycle front fork with the wheel removed. Bicycles and other types of cargo may, of course, be carried in the bed of a pickup truck without any rack or other support at all, but in so doing valuable space within the bed of the truck is occupied when, by utilizing the rack of the present invention, that space could be saved.
It is therefore the primary object of the present invention to provide a bicycle rack for pickup trucks which can mount at least two "race ready" bicycles without compromising the bed space for other cargo.
A second object of the invention is to provide a bicycle rack for a pickup truck which is readily accessible and does not require that the bicycle be lifted far overhead for placement into the cradling parts of the rack.
A third object of the invention is to provide a bicycle support for attachment to a truck type of vehicle which will support the bicycle by its wheels, the one constant feature of bicycle design.
Another object of the invention is to provide a bicycle support which may be collapsed or folded into an out-of-the-way position when not carrying its cargo.
A still further object of the invention is to provide a bicycle rack of the type described which, through the double usage of the novel supporting framework of the rack, a small boat or similar load can be supported over the bed without the consumption of truck bed storage space.
Another object of the invention is to provide a kind of "side saddle" mounting rack which will not interfere with rear view vision from the driver's station in the vehicle, either through a standard windshield mounted rear view mirror or side mounted mirrors but will, at the same time, afford the driver an opportunity to maintain a close watch on the cargo being transported on the rack of the present invention through the side mirrors on the vehicle.
Other and still further objects, features and advantages of the invention will become apparent upon a reading of the detailed description of a preferred form of the invention which follows.


A three-phase power supply (10), intended especially to supply LEDs system (20), has a system of a diode bridge rectifier which comprises rectifying diodes (101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106). The three-phase power supply (10) is additionally equipped with FETs and each of the rectifying diodes is bypassed by an FET of a rectifying unit (111, 112, 113, 114, 115, 116), respectively, which is controlled by a control system (40), comprising an analog-to-digital converter ADC 403, a digital-to-analog converter (402), a microcontroller (401), which provides a control signal to a gate of the appropriate FET through the input/output (404). Once the control system (40), in particular the microcontroller (401), detects stable power supply conditions and starts operation of elements of an LED sequencer (30), it starts at the same time to control over the FETs in the active rectifier.

1. Field of the Invention
Technical concept presented herein relates to a three-phase power supply and a system of light emitting diodes (LEDs) with the three-phase power supply, especially a system of LEDs for illuminating devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
The growing demand for energy, including electric energy, forces the use of new cost-effective solutions, including in the area of illuminating rooms, which are characterised by low power loss and high luminous efficiency, and the most well-known of these use LEDs, whose luminous efficiency exceeds even 100 lm/W, as a light source.
International application WO 2011014450 A titled "Three-phase led power supply" discloses a three-phase rectifier, supplying LEDs system.
Application US 2010164409 A1 titled "Integrally formed light emitting diode light wire and uses thereof" discloses LEDs wire having LEDs modules consisting of 3 number of LEDs and a microprocessor with pods, which control the operation of the LEDs.
Moreover, international application WO 2012142495 A1 titled "Multiple stage sequential current regulator" discloses a controller tor LEDs circuits to control a number of LEDs segments supplied by a rectified AC source. Each of the control elements das two ends, one and of which is connected to the rectified AC source, and the other and is connected to other ends of each segment of LEDs connected in series.
International application WO 2013011422 A1 titled "Light source comprising an LED strip" discloses an elongated board with LEDs, which is supplied by a DC source and comprises connected together parallel LEDs systems, connected in series.
Application US 20130181646 A1 tided "Three-phase AC to DC converter and air conditioning apparatus using three-phase AC to DC converter" discloses a three-phase AC to DC convener having a three-phase AC power supply, a three-phase rectifier bridge circuit that is connected to the three-phase AC power supply and includes rectifying devices which are connected in a bridge configuration, a three-phase full-bridge circuit that includes two serially-connected switching devices for each of three phases, the two serially-connected switching devices being connected at an output side of the three-phase rectifier bridge circuit, and includes reverse blocking diodes which are connected in parallel to the respective switching devices. Furthermore, the three-phase AC to DC converter has a reactor that connects the three-phase full-bridge circuit to the three-phase AC power supply, a smoothing capacitor connected to an output side of the three-phase full-bridge circuit, DC voltage detection means that detects an output voltage, power supply phase detection means that detects a power supply phase of the three-phase AC power supply, and pulse width modulator that outputs PWM signals which control the switching devices.
A disadvantage of the known solutions is a problem with losses of power converted into heat which must be discharged outside LEDs systems and a susceptibility to overvoltage of fluorescent lamp electrical system.

Three-phase power supply and system of LEDs with three-phase power supply


An image generating method and apparatus are provided. The image generating method irradiates a light with a predetermined wavelength to a target object at a predetermined interval, passes a light having a wavelength required to generate a color image from among lights reflected from the target object, detects color values according to the passed light, generates a depth image of the target object using color values detected during a period in which the light with the predetermined wavelength is irradiated, and generates the color image of the target object using color values detected during a period other than the period in which the light with the predetermined wavelength is irradiated. Accordingly, the image generating method can generate a depth image having high resolution while maintaining the resolution of the color image.

1. Field
One or more embodiments of the present invention relate to an image generating method and apparatus and, more particularly, to an image generating method and apparatus for simultaneously generating a color image and a depth image.
2. Description of the Related Art
A 3D image sensing technique capable of acquiring color information including R, G and B values of each pixel forming an image and depth information representing depth values of the pixels in real time and providing the color information and the depth information to a user allows the user to experience visual reality and virtual environments. The 3D image sensing technique is widely used in face tracking and face recognition fields, game fields in which a user's motions are recognized, digital camera fields, control fields in which an air bag system is controlled according to the position or body size of a passenger, navigation fields and so on.


A protection system providing a crash barrier for an occupant of a vehicle having a header when the vehicle is subjected to an impact force. The protection system comprises a pair of expandable bellows, a latch, a crash barrier, a sensor, and an expander responsive to operation of the sensor. The pair of spaced expandable bellows are adapted to be in a normally retracted stored relationship to the header of the vehicle. Each bellows has a first end affixed with respect to the vehicle on one side of the occupant and a second end expandably deployable to an opposite side of the occupant. The latch is adapted to be affixed with respect to the vehicle at the opposite side of the occupant to latchingly receive the second end of each bellows. The crash barrier has one portion adapted to be affixed with respect to the vehicle on the one side of the occupant and another portion attached to the second end of each bellows. The crash barrier is deployable with the second end of each bellows to the opposite side of the occupant. The sensor operates to sense when the vehicle is subjected to a high impact force and expands the bellows to deploy the crash barrier.

Passenger restraint systems are designed to reduce the risk of serious injury or death to a passenger involved in a vehicular accident. Three types of passenger restraint systems, including seat belts, air bags, and web restraints, are found in the prior art.
For many years, conventional seat belts have been installed in vehicles. When used properly, seat belts have proven to reduce the risk of serious injury or death resulting from a vehicular crash. However, conventional seat belts have several shortcomings. First, a seat belt is an active restraint system requiring that the passenger buckle the belt each time the passenger enters the vehicle. Second, conventional seat belts often do not properly fit passengers such as short adults and children. During a crash, an improperly worn seat belt may cause serious injury or death. Third, seat belts alone do not provide passengers with the maximum amount of protection available. The risk of serious injury or death resulting from a vehicular crash is further reduced when a seat belt is used in conjunction with a passive restraint system such as an air bag.
Recently, air bag systems have been installed in vehicles. Conventional air bag systems protect front seat passengers by deploying a bag filled with pressurized gas during front or side impact collisions. Conventional air bag systems, in cooperation with a seat belt system, further reduce the risk of serious injury or death during a vehicular crash. Nevertheless, such air bag systems also have shortcomings. Crash reports indicate that short adults and children are especially prone to injury from air bag deployment. Further, after deployment of the air bag during a first impact, the air bag deflates and can not protect the passenger during a second consecutive impact. Additionally, conventional air bags do not provide protection to passengers seated in the rear of the vehicle.
A third type of passenger restraint system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,226,672 issued on Jul. 13, 1993 to Husted. During a crash, this restraint system traps the upper body of the occupant within a web. While this system claims advantages over conventional air bag systems, it also has several shortcomings. For one, the webbed surface of the webbing may cause injuries to the passenger during and after deployment.


The present invention provides a macrocyclic compound of formula (I)

Pain is the most common reason for physician consultation in most developed countries. It is a major symptom in many medical conditions, and can interfere with a person's quality of life and general functioning. It also creates a significant burden on society and is one of the primary reasons for absenteeism at work. Acute pain, e.g., related to injury, surgery or disease, can be severe and has significant impact on patient recovery, while chronic pain, which affects around 20% of the population, can also cause isolation, symptoms of anxiety and is frequently accompanied by depression, which can include changes in mood, appetite and sleep, thus preventing a sufferer from typical daily activities. Acute pain is usually managed effectively with pharmacological treatments, notably with the first line agents acetaminophen and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID). Severe acute pain is typically treated with potent opioids. Management of chronic pain, however, is much more difficult. Pain medications are only effective in 20% to 70% of cases.
Drugs currently used to treat pain are not always effective (anti-inflammatory) or exhibit severe adverse effects such as development of constipation, nausea/vomiting, respiratory depression and tolerance/dependence (opioids such as morphine) in patients. Opioids are very commonly used, despite their undesirable effects, because they are very effective to alleviate pain. Opioids work by activating the Mu opioid receptor in the central nervous system. However, it is also the activation of this opioid receptor which causes undesirable effects. To date, almost all drugs that activate this receptor have the same deleterious side effect, and opioid abuse resulting from tolerance and dependence is now a widespread problem in Western countries.
Neurotensin (NT) is a tridecapeptide, which was first isolated from bovine hypothalamus in 1973 (Carraway, 1973). It has been shown that activation of the NT receptors, which belong to the G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) superfamily, particularity the NTS1 and NTS2 receptors, results in an analgesic action similar to that obtained by activating the Mu opioid receptor but does not cause the same undesirable effects. Constipation and respiratory depression peculiar to the Mu opioid receptor are not observed subsequent to activation of the neurotensin receptors. Existing data also indicate that the analgesic effects of NT are independent of the endogenous opioid system, and may even act synergistically with opioids to reduce pain (Feng, 2015; Dobner, 2012). A pain medication that would go through the activation of the NT receptors rather than the opioid receptor would therefore solve the main problem of the drugs currently in use.
In addition to analgesia (Nemeroff, 1979), NT exerts a wide range of physiological effects such as hypothermia (Dubuc, 1992). Targeted temperature management (TTM) (mild therapeutic hypothermia) is an active treatment seeking to achieve and maintain a specific body temperature in a person for a specific duration of time in an effort to improve health outcomes during recovery after a period of stopped blood flow to the brain (Peberdy, 2010). This is done to reduce the risk of tissue injury following a lack of blood flow (Bernard, 2002). Periods of poor blood flow may be due to myocardial infarction (heart attack), or to the blockage of an artery by a clot as in the case of a stroke or traumatic brain injury. TTM can significantly improve rates of long-term neurologically intact survival.
NT's half-life is however very short because of enzymatic degradation by amino- and carboxypeptidases, especially specific endopeptidases [24-11] (Connelly, 1985), [24-15] (Vincent, 1997), and [24-16] (Barelli, 1993).
There is a need for compounds displaying advantageous characteristics of NT i.e. potency and reduced adverse effects, but having a better half-life than NT.
The present description refers to a number of documents, the content of which is herein incorporated by reference in their entirety.

Macrocyclic compounds and methods of preventing or treating pain

Abstract: compositions and kits comprising this compound and their use for preventing or treating pain, or inducing hypothermia or hypotension.

SOCPRA SCIENCES SANTÉ ET HUMAINES S.E.C.


A combined electronic/silver-halide image capture system is capable of transmitting electronic image data using conventional cellular telephone transmission technology. The system includes a camera unit and a cellular telephone that can be electrically coupled to the camera unit. The camera unit has both a photographic film plane and an electronic image sensor. A mechanism is provided for directing scene light from a scene to be imaged to at least one of the photographic film plane and the electronic image sensor, wherein the electronic image sensor generates analog image signals in response to incident scene light. A processing unit receives the analog image signals generated by the electronic image sensor and generates digital image signals represented of the scene to be imaged. A memory unit is provided to selectively store the digital image signals generated by the processing unit. The camera unit also preferably includes a display so that the digital image signals generated by the processing means can be viewed by the operator of the system. The digital image signals are supplied to a cellular telephone which transmits the digital image signals to a remote location when the camera unit is electrically coupled to the cellular telephone.

Imaging systems have been proposed that combine both electronic imaging technology and conventional silver-halide photographic film for image capture. U.S. Pat. No. 4,714,962 issued to Levine, for example, discloses a dual electronic camera that permits an image to be captured both electronically and on photographic film. The dual capability of the imaging system permits a user to electronically capture an image for previewing prior to exposing the photographic film, thereby insuring that the subject of interest has been appropriately selected and framed while the event of interest is occurring without having to wait until photographic prints are made. In addition, dual image capture has the benefit of providing a silver-halide image of a scene that is much less susceptible to tampering than stored electronic image data, and can therefore be utilized for archive purposes or as evidence that the electronic image data has not been altered.
Dual electronic/silver-halide image capture systems are particularly useful in news gathering and surveillance operations, where it may be desirable to electronically capture an image for approval prior to creating a photographic exposure. In such cases, the location of the imaging system operator may be remote from the individual charged with approving the image to be captured, and the electronically captured image data must be transmitted to the remote location for preview. In such situations, the silver-halide image may be required in addition to an electronic image to meet evidence, archival storage requirements, or high resolution large format output requirements.
While methods have been developed for transmitting electronic image data to a remote locations using satellite transmission or conventional radio technology, there exists a need for reducing the expense and complexity of the data transmission system in electronic/silver-halide image capture systems.

Combined electronic/silver-halide image capture system with cellular transmission capability


A toner comprises a first particle having a predetermined volume average diameter and including thermoplastic binding resin and a colorant mixed into the thermoplastic binding resin to apply a color thereto. Wax of a second particle whose volume average diameter is considerably smaller than that of the first particle, is attached to the first particle by mechanical pressure. A nonmagnetic particle of a third particle is attached to the wax. The volume average diameter of the third particle is considerably smaller than that of the second particle. The attachment of the nonmagnetic particle decreases the area of an exposed surface of the wax, thereby preventing the wax from being attached to other wax and preventing the wax from contacting another toner.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a toner which is used to form an image out of a toner image contact-heated and fixed on paper by a heat roller in a dry type electrostatic copying process, a method for manufacturing the toner, and an image forming apparatus using the toner.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, a contact-heating fixing method has been widely used in a dry type electrostatic copying process. According to this method, an electrostatic latent image is formed on a photoconductive layer on the surface of a drum-shaped photosensitive body, and developed by a toner to form a toner image. The toner image is contact-heated by a heat roller and fixed on paper or the like. Though the contact-heating fixing method has the advantage of high thermal efficiency and rapid fixing, it has the drawback in which an offset phenomenon appears and the paper is wound on the heat roller.
In order to eliminate the above drawback, Published Unexamined Japanese Patent Application No. 1-309075 discloses a method for attaching wax to the surfaces of toners to give a separation property to the toners heated and fused by a heat roller.
The toners disclosed in the Japanese Publication are powders of adhesive resin containing a colorant and a charging control agent, and the wax is externally attached to the powders. Since, however, the wax is easily softened at high temperature and the softened wax has tackiness, if the toners are agitated at the time of development, wax particles are softened and attached to each other or to toner particles, resulting in cohesion of the toners. If the toners cohere with one another, the toner particles are increased and, even though the toners are charged by friction with carriers in twocomponent development, they cannot be sufficiently charged. For this reason, the toners peel off to contaminate the inside of a copying machine and a blur occurs to degrade image quality.
Since the surface energy of the toners disclosed in the above Japanese Publication is small, the wax is easy to separate from the surfaces of the toner particles when the toners are agitated in a developing unit. If the separated wax is charged and attached to a photosensitive drum, a black point appears on an image, thereby degrading image quality.
Using the toners to which the wax is attached as developers, the wax separated from the toner particles is attached to the photosensitive drum to form a film and thus to prevent a good image from being formed. It is thus necessary to remove the wax from the photosensitive drum by a cleaning roller. For this reason, the conventional method has a drawback in which the photosensitive drum is much worn to reduce its durability and thus to increase a workload of maintenance.

Toner and method for manufacturing the same, and image forming apparatus using the toner


A process for the processing or upgrading of heavy oil fractions containing polynuclear aromatics is disclosed. The process comprises selectively oxidizing a feedstock under low severity conditions in a multi-phase system, wherein one phase is an aqueous and contains water-soluble catalyst, deoxygenating that product followed by hydroprocessing to yield a substantially mononuclear product.

A large portion of found oil and reserves can be characterized as heavy oil or bitumen, which is distinguished by a particularly high asphaltene or maltene fraction. These oils are often produced as emulsions with water when using secondary recovery techniques. Because heavy oils are ordinarily low cost feedstocks, there is often an economic incentive to convert these heavy oils (or other refractory hydrocarbons, such as coal derived liquids) into gasoline boiling range liquid fuels if processing costs can be kept low. This invention relates generally to an improved process for upgrading these heavy oils and bitumen into fuels or marketable syncrudes.
Considerable process technology already exists for upgrading heavy crudes, bitumens, and coal liquids, but most of the known processes are expensive and/or inefficient. Among those broad categories of primary heavy oil upgrading processes already known in the art are: carbon rejection or demetallation processes, hydrogen addition processes, and gasification or combustion processes.
Carbon rejection processes include delayed coking, Flexicoking, visbreaking, Fluidized Catalytic Cracking (FCC) (with the use of metals tolerant catalysts), Reduced Crude Cracking (RCC), and other versions of heavy oil cracking. A particular example of a carbon rejection process which may be used as a pre-treatment in advance of other upgrading steps is the Asphaltene Residual Treating (ART) process, which removes Conradson carbon fractions and metals components at otherwise low conversion.
An example of a gasification process is the gasification process developed by Texaco Development Corporation. This is a non-catalytic partial oxidation gasification process for generating principally hydrogen and carbon monoxide from mixtures of vacuum residue, SDA pitch, or other low hydrogen-to-carbon ratio feedstocks with water.
Hydrogen addition processes include: LC-fining, H-Oil, the Shell Resid Process, resid hydrocracking, resid hydrodesulfurization (HDS), and hydrodenitrogenation (HDN), most of which have been demonstrated on a commercial scale. Second generation hydrogen addition processes include: Microcat-RC, CANMET hydrovisbreaking, Veba Combi-cracking, and Dynacracking, all of which have been demonstrated primarily on a semi-commercial scale.
The advantages and disadvantages of these processes, as well as their general economics, are known in the art. For example, one significant disadvantage, particularly of carbon rejection processes, is the ordinarily high yield of coke or metals-containing solids which must be disposed of at considerable expense and some risk of environmental hazard. Additionally, gasification processes, such as the Texaco process, usually result in low liquid yields. Moreover, to achieve economically viable operation, these processes often require a scale which is much larger than the size needed to match the production rate of a particular heavy oil production site. Additionally, emulsified oils often must be demulsified prior to further processing.
Both hydrogen addition and carbon rejection processes, which often require the use of large quantities of solid catalysts, are also susceptible to reduced throughput and high catalyst replacement costs resulting from catalyst poisoning when processing heavy oils. This poisoning usually results from the deposition of either contaminant metals, high molecular weight refractory compounds (or coke derived therefrom), or sulfur or nitrogen containing heterocyclic compounds onto the catalyst surface. A review of this phenomenon is published in Applied Catalysis, (1985) 15, 197,225. Under certain circumstances these strongly-adsorbed poisons can react with catalyst components to form low melting eutectic compositions which can either sinter molecular sieves, zeolites, or other high surface area catalyst components or effectively block catalyst pores, in either case significantly reducing catalyst effectiveness. Additionally, beneficial acidic components can be partially neutralized and catalytic metallic components blocked by this virtually irreversible metals adsorption. Asphaltene and some resin fractions contain significant quantities of such poisons, which can be "cracked" onto the catalyst at high temperatures. Consequently, even though asphaltenes often comprise only 12% to 15% of typical heavy oil feedstocks, they disproportionally contribute to solid catalyst deactivation.
The following is a summary of the major problems encountered while upgrading heavy oils, bitumens, coal liquids, and other low hydrogen-to-carbon ratio feedstocks, by known refinery processes:
1. Severe reaction conditions are required. PA0 2. Poor liquid yields with high gas and coke makes. PA0 3 Formation of a poor quality coke which is not marketable. PA0 4. High costs and materials-handling concerns associated with the use of hydrogen. PA0 5. Deactivation of solid catalysts by contaminant metals, basic nitrogen compounds, and/or sulfur compounds. A separate processing step may be required to remove such compounds. PA0 6. Required disposal of metals-laden solid catalysts, often as hazardous wastes. PA0 7. Demulsification often being required prior to processing. PA0 8. High viscosity feed produced requiring cutback with light solvents which must be sacrificed during subsequent processing. PA0 9. Low volatility of heavy oils limits throughput in vapor phase processes. PA0 1. Increased liquid yields of high-octane gasoline blending (aromatic) components. PA0 2. Decreased hydrogen consumption. PA0 3. Low yield of light gas cracking products. PA0 4. Partial desulfurization of feed. PA0 5. Mild operating conditions. PA0 6. Avoidance of large quantities of metal laden solid catalysts requiring disposal as hazardous waste. PA0 7. Long catalyst life in the presence of contaminant metals often found in residua. PA0 8. Ability to use emulsified oils directly in process without pre-demulsification step. PA0 1. U.K. Patent GB2 132 107 A, Feb. 3, 1982, Huibers, et al., assigned to Hydrocarbon Research, Inc. (HRI). PA0 2. U.K. Patent GB 2094 827 A, Feb. 3, 1982, Huibers, et al., assigned to Hydrocarbon Research, Inc. (HRI). PA0 3. U.S. Pat. No. 4,446,070, May 1, 1984, Huibers, et al., assigned to Hydrocarbon Research, Inc. (HRI). PA0 4. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,496,778 and 4,496,779, Jan. 29, 1985, Myers, et al., both assigned to Exxon Research & Engineering Co.

Polycyclic aromatic ring cleavage (PARC) process


A visible helium neon beam is used as an aiming beam to establish a spot at which a carbon dioxide beam also focuses. The carbon dioxide beam is then employed to vaporize biotic material. A distal end of an articulated arm may couple with the micromanipulator to direct the carbon dioxide beam from the laser through a waveguide and into the micromanipulator. Another aspect of the invention includes introducing the aiming beam into the waveguide through a dichroic mirror positioned in a knuckle joint of the articulated arm. In one embodiment, a laser diode generates the visible light of the aiming beam, and is disposed proximate to the distal end of the articulated arm.

Materials such as optical glass can be formed as convergent or divergent lenses. One problem inherent in optical lenses is that when two light beams having significantly different wavelengths pass through a lens material, they will become focused at different points, due to wavelength dispersion. Mathematically, dispersion is defined as the rate of change of the index of refraction (n), with respect to the wavelength (.lambda.) or D=dn/d.lambda.. As different wavelengths are transmitted through the lens, the lens exhibits a different index of refraction for each wavelength. Thus, different wavelengths are refracted differently, and thereby focus at different points.
This focusing anomaly for greatly differing wavelengths can be undesirable in certain applications, such as laser surgery. Due to certain desirable properties of laser light outside the visible portion of the spectral range, physicians often perform laser surgery using laser light that is invisible to the human eye, e.g., wavelengths in the far infrared. Because this light cannot be seen by the surgeon, medical laser systems utilizing invisible light typically employ a low power "aiming" laser beam at a visible wavelength. The aiming beam is focused on a patient where an incision is to be made, and then a high power laser beam at an invisible wavelength is applied to make an incision at the point where the low powered beam is focused. Typical medical laser systems employ a helium neon laser, emitting a beam of approximately 0.63 microns wavelength which is not damaging to biotic material, for the low powered aiming beam and a carbon dioxide laser, emitting a beam of approximately 10.6 microns wavelength which vaporizes biotic material, for the high powered cutting beam. The two beams must focus at the same point to ensure the incision is made at the desired location. Even small differences in the location of the focal points of the beams can cause the tissue of a patient to be cut improperly.
Achromatic lens elements are commonly used to align the focal point of two different wavelengths passing through the same optical system. Such elements comprise two different materials which, together, correct for the focusing anomaly caused by dispersion. The different materials of the achromatic lens elements have substantially different indices of refraction and dispersion relationships such that they focus two beams of substantially different wavelengths at the same focal point. However, achromats have typically been used within a moderate range of wavelengths since it is difficult to find two materials which achromatically focus and transmit light over a large wavelength separation. The choices of materials are limited not only by achromatic compatibility, but by absorption properties. Typical optical glasses, for example, do not transmit well at wavelengths approaching 2.7 microns or more due to strong water absorption peaks in the vicinity of three microns. These problems have severely restricted the use of achromats in medical laser systems.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for an achromatic optical element which will focus widely separated wavelengths, particularly where one of the wavelengths is in the visible portion of the optical spectrum and the other is in the far infrared.


Embodiments of the invention utilize an optimized key-value storage engine to strike the optimal balance between cloud-cost and performance and supports queries, including updates, lookups, range queries, inserts, and read-modify-writes. Cloud cost is manifested in purchasing both storage and processing resources. The improved approach has the ability to self-design and instantiate holistic configurations given a workload, a cloud budget, and optionally performance goals and a set of Service Level Agreement (SLA) specifications. A configuration reflects an optimized storage engine design in terms of, for example, the individual data structures design (in-memory and on-disk) in the engine as well as their algorithms and interactions, a cloud provider, and the exact virtual machines to be used.

Key-value stores serve as the backbone of data storage for a wide range of applications, such as graph processing in social media, event log processing, web applications, and online transaction processing. Relational systems also increasingly use key-value stores internally for core functionality, such as the catalog or even base data storage and indexing. Machine learning pipelines deploy key-value stores for data exploration, storing features, and maintaining debugging data e.g., for neural networks. Bitcoin uses a key-value engine in its primary infrastructure for network nodes.
With the growing diversity of applications and data sizes, key-value stores are increasingly deployed on the cloud. Cloud providers offer auto-scaling of resources (e.g., bandwidth, computation, memory and storage) and budget requirements based on the demands of the workload. This liberates applications from directly managing workload scaling as resource requirements evolve. For instance, AMAZON WEB SERVICES (AWS) cloud, the GOOGLE CLOUD PLATFORM (GCP), and MICROSOFT AZURE provide support for automatic configuration and deployment of some of the widely used key-value stores, such as MongoDB, CouchDB, RocksDB, and Cassandra.
Current key-value systems are challenged by growing application diversity and data sizes, which in turn result in growing cloud budgets. The source of the problem is in the inherent complexity of data system design and the numerous metrics and factors that affect performance and cloud cost. As a result, organizations, systems administrators, and even expert data system designers cannot predict how a special combination of a key-value store design, a cloud provider (their pricing policies and hardware), and a specific workload (data and queries) will ultimately behave in terms of end-to-end performance and cloud-cost requirements. This can lead to severe performance bottlenecks or cost requirements that are difficult to overcome given the time, effort, and risk involved in switching to a different system or investing in building a new one.
For example, state-of-the-art key-value stores are typically designed to meet and tailored to the requirements of specific, limited workload types for which they provide excellent (even optimal) performance. Applications select from the limited set of choices of underlying storage engine designs of existing systems, typically engines that are based on B-trees for read-heavy workloads, Log-Structured-Merge (LSM)-trees for write-heavy workloads, or Log-Structured-Hash (LSH) tables for systems with large memory. Utilizing such engines for any other workload type does not guarantee optimality. Moreover, making a bad choice and then having to switch from one storage engine to another can result in substantial costs; applications need to make hard choices between either being stuck with a sub-optimal system or transition. Even with a single cloud provider, it is imperative to choose the correct configuration of hardware resources to maximize performance and simultaneously safeguard an application from paying extraneous costs.
Currently, these decisions are manually made based on past experience. However, given the complexity of all options involved (even with a given system design) organizations are often led to wrong choices with significant negative impact. Accordingly, there is a need for approaches that match the current and projected resource requirements for a workload with offerings tailored to current needs and that are sufficiently scalable to accommodate future changes.

Optimized self-designing key-value storage engine

PRESIDENT AND FELLOWS OF HARVARD COLLEGE


A method (400, 610) for handling information about packet data connections arriving at a security gateway element, in order to have in a connection data structure information about packet data connections in accordance with current screening information is presented. In the method, data packet header information about packet data connections in accordance with first screening information is stored (401) in said connection data structure, and updated screening information, said updated screening information forming either by itself or in connection with said first screening information second screening information, is being received (402). After receiving said updated screening information, entries of said connection data structure are compared (403) to said second screening information, resulting in a classification of said entries as entries representing packet data connections in accordance with said second screening information and as entries representing packet data connections in conflict with said second screening information. Corresponding security gateway element, management system, computer program and connection data structures are also presented.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates in general to handling in a security gateway element a connection data structure, in which information about allowed packet data connections is stored. In particular the invention relates to handling the connection data structure in a flexible way.
2. Description of Related art
The local networks of various organizations and enterprises are nowadays connected to the public Internet. To protect a local network, special gateway is usually used to connect the local network to a public network. This special gateway is often called a security gateway or a firewall, and the purpose of a security gateway is to prevent authorized access to the local network. Typically there is need to restrict access to a local network from a public network and/or to restrict access from the local network to the public network or further networks connected to the public network. On data packet level this means that data packets, which are entering and/or exiting a local network, are screened or filtered in a security gateway. In addition to filtering data packets a security gateway may secure data packets transmitted between, for example, some communication entities. In this case the security gateway is both a firewall and a VPN (Virtual Private Network) gateway.
FIG. 1 illustrates an example with a first local network 12, a second local network 14 and a public network 10. The public network may be, for example, the Internet. The local networks 12, 14 are connected to the public network 10 via security gateway elements 16 and 18, respectively. A security gateway element 16, 18 may be implemented as one network node (server) or as a cluster of nodes. Term security gateway element is used in this description to refer to a network node or to a cluster of network nodes, where stateful (see below) data packet screening is performed and which connects at least two networks to each other. A security gateway element may be, for example, a plain firewall node screening packets or a firewall node provided with VPN functionality, or a cluster of such nodes.
Screening of data packets in a network element may be stateless or stateful. Stateless screening refers to packet filtering, where each packet is handled according to a set of rules (or other screening information, see below) without any information about history of packets. Stateless screening is typically used, for example, in routers. Stateful screening refers to a situation, where a data packet initiating a packet data connection is accepted using a set of rules, and consequently information about an accepted packet data connection is stored in the network element for handling the rest of the data packets belonging to the opened packet data connection. Security gateways typically perform stateful screening of data packets. The main reason for using stateful screening is security. Typically, it is required to restrict access from a public network to a local network while allowing entities in the local network to access public network. In stateless screening there must be rules, which allow possible reply packets from the public network to the local network to pass a network element. Many other data packets than proper reply packets may be accepted using such rules. When stateful packet screening is used only those data packets, which are really part of an opened packet data connection, can be accepted.
The screening of first data packets in stateful screening is usually done using information specifying at least parts of allowed data packet headers and corresponding instructions for processing a data packet. The screening information is usually an ordered set of rules. FIG. 2 illustrates as an example a set 20 of rules, having a first rule Rule1, a second rule Rule2, and so forth. The order of the rules in the rule set typically defines the order in which a header of a data packet is compared to the rules. The instructions specified in the first rule, to which the header of a data packet matches, states the action to be carried out for said data packet. The rules are typically listed in a rule file in the order in which they are processed: a rule file thus typically comprises a sequence of rules Rule, Rule2, . . . , RuleN. The rule file is typically stored in a security gateway element, for example in security gateway 16.
A typical format for the rules is the following: header information, action. The header information typically involves source address (src), destination address (dst) and protocol (prot) relating to a data packet, and a rule typically has the following form: src, dst, prot, action. This means that for a data packet, which has the indicated header information, the indicated action is carried out. Typically the action defines whether the data packet is discarded or allowed to proceed. As a data packet is processed, its header information is compared to the header information indicated by the rules; the rules are processed in the order defined by the ordered set. Typically the last rule in the ordered set of rules (e.g. RuleN in FIG. 2) does not allow any packet to proceed. This means a data packet, whose header information does not match the header information indicated in any of the preceding rules, is discarded.
In stateful screening information about ongoing data packet connections or about packet data connections relating to ongoing connections is typically stored in a data structure, which is here called a connection data structure. A data packet initiating a packet data connection and arriving at a security gateway element, is compared to the screening information. If a rule allowing the data packet to traverse the security gateway element is found, a corresponding entry is made to the connection data structure. Typically, a connection data structure entry comprises some header information of the corresponding data packet and possibly further additional information. Data packets other than packets initiating a packet data connection are then compared to the connection data structure and, if a corresponding entry is found, the packet is allowed to traverse the security gateway element. Thus, only data packets relating to open packet data connections are accepted. As a further advantage, stateful screening may require less processing power than stateless screening, as data packets of an open packet data connection are checked only against the connection data structure, and there is no need to check if the data packets are in accordance with the given, possibly long, set of rules.
The part of the connection data structure that is related to one currently open packet data connection traversing a security gateway element is called an entry. When a packet data connection is closed, the corresponding entry is typically removed (or deleted or cleared) from the connection data structure. The number of entries having information about packet data connections thus typically varies as function of time.
Information about other data packets, which a security gateway element should allow to proceed, may also be dynamically updated to the connection data structure. In many cases a given set of rules is just basic information for making a decision about allowing a certain data packet to proceed. Additional information may also be needed. Consider, for example, FTP (File Transfer Protocol), which has a control connection and the files are transferred using a separate data connection. This separate data connection should be allowed even though a network element outside the local network initiates the FTP data connection, if a related control connection has been established and a request for opening the data connection has been detected within the control connection before the data connection is attempted. A security gateway element should thus be prepared to receive a data packet initiating such a FTP data connection and to allow such a data packet to proceed. Typically, such a data packet initiating a FTP data connection would not be allowed to proceed on the basis of the rules. It is only allowed on the basis of the prior information transferred within the FTP control connection.
The connection data structure, where information about data packets that are allowed to arrive and be processed in a security gateway element, may be, for example, a connection data structure 30 described in FIG. 3. In the connection data structure 30 each entry 31 corresponds to a data packet having the header information 32 specified in the table entry. The header information 32 typically comprises the source address, the destination address, the source port and the destination port. A connection data structure entry typically comprises further additional information 33. This additional information may comprise information about the protocol to which the data packet relates. The protocol may be, for example, TCP (transmission control protocol) or UDP (User Datagram Protocol). Furthermore, the additional information may specify NAT (Network Address Translation) details, encrypting keys, routing information and/or a program code, which is used to investigate and optionally modify the contents of a data packet. Term protocol-specific program code is here used to refer to program code, which may be either a separate program, an integrate part of a kernel or a kernel module, and which is used to investigate and optionally modify the contents of data packets. A FTP-specific program code, for example, typically monitors the content of data packets relating to a FTP control connection, and when it finds out that a FTP data connection is to be established, it creates a connection data structure entry for the FTP data connection or otherwise informs the software running in the security gateway element to let data packets relating to said FTP data connection to proceed. There may be separate protocol-specific program codes for various protocols or application programs.
The set of rules, or other screening information, is updated every now and then. It may be updated, for example, periodically to ensure that too old screening information is not used. Alternatively, new screening information may be delivered to a security gateway element from a management system after the screening information has been modified, that is, new screening information is pushed to the security gateway element from the management system.
In current security gateway elements, when screening information is updated, a connection data structure is typically cleared. Clearing the connection data structure causes established connections to fail since the connection data structure entry which is required for accepting the packets other that the packet initiating a connection are lost. This is a problem especially in circumstances, where connections should be as reliable as possible.
A second way to handle ongoing packet data, when screening information is updated, is to maintain information about the open connections in the connection data structure. This way existing packet data connections survive, and the packet data connections are as reliable as possible. There may, however, be existing packet data connections which are not in accordance with the updated screening information, and this may cause security risks. Some security gateways give the user a possibility to select between dropping all existing packet data connections and allowing all existing packet data connections. Such a selection is a selection between security and network usability.
A further way to handle ongoing packet data connections when screening information is updated may have, for example, the following features. Before clearing a connection data structure, the connection data structure is copied to a previous connection data structure. The connection data structure is then cleared, and therefore all arriving data packets are handled using the updated screening information. Typically only data packets initiating a packet data connection may be compared to screening information. It is possible, however, to make an exception to this rule. In this case, all arriving data packets are compared to the screening information. If the updated screening information contains a rule allowing said data packet to pass but the packet is not a packet initiating a new connection, it is checked if the previous connection data structure contains an entry allowing the data packet to proceed. If such entry is found, an entry relating to this packet data connection is added to the connection data structure. These features prevent some existing packet data connections to be dropped. For example FTP data connection is, however, dropped, as it is accepted on the basis of the FTP control connection, not directly on the basis of a rule.

Handling information about packet data connections in a security gateway element