A low pressure drop spacer for positioning and retaining the fuel rods of a nuclear fuel assembly in which a plurality of upper and lower spring forks which extend through apertures in the side wall of the spacer into the assembly and through apertures in grid members which divide the assembly. The intersection and superposition of the spring forks, side wall and grid members form fuel rod passageways through which the fuel rods extend.

In nuclear reactors intended for the generation of power, nuclear fuel assemblies are customarily of the rod type which are arranged in closely spaced parallel arrays in generally square configurations. An outer channel, usually square, surrounds the generally square configuration of fuel rods to form a fuel assembly. The means by which fuel rods are spaced ordinarily take the form of a spacer grid. An example of a spacer grid is shown and described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,654,077.
A common problem in typical boiling water reactors is that the central region of the fuel assemblies may be undermoderated and overenriched. In order to increase the flow of moderator, usually water, and to improve neutron moderation and economy, an elongated central water channel is provided which forms a centrally disposed path for the flow of moderator/coolant along the length of, but physically separated from, the fuel rods. The central water channel can have any cross-sectional area and/or geometry, positioned centrally and symmetrically within the outer channel, or asymmetrically displaced from the central axis within the outer channel, and can be oriented around its central axis so that its walls which extend the length of the assembly are either parallel or non-parallel to the walls of the outer channel. The central water channel can be a square or circular tube or array of such tubes extending along the length of the fuel assembly. An example of the square central water channel is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,913,876. Sufficient liquid coolant is circulated through the central channel or tubes to keep the contained coolant largely or completely in the liquid phase. The presence of liquid as contrasted to gaseous moderator in the central region of the fuel assembly increases the nuclear performance of the assembly by providing a greater number of hydrogen atoms which function, in part, to slow down neutrons and thereby increase the likelihood of further fissions. The moderator coefficient of reactivity, which is the change in reactor reactivity occurring when the moderator density changes, is thus affected by maintaining liquid as contrasted to gaseous moderator in the central region in the assembly.
As is well known, each fuel assembly for a boiling water type of water cooled reactor is typically enclosed by a square outer channel which confines the coolant which enters that fuel assembly to that particular fuel assembly until it exits the assembly at the top of the reactor core. The coolant passing through the fuel assembly consists of a mixture of liquid water and steam. At the bottom entrance of the fuel assembly, the coolant is liquid water having a temperature at/or approximately near its saturation temperature. As coolant flows upward through the assembly, power is transferred by the fuel rods to the coolant, steam is produced, and the fraction of steam in the coolant is increased. At the top of the fuel assembly, the coolant which has been heated by the fuel rods may be primarily steam. As a result of a high volume fraction of steam in the upper region of the reactor core, the upper region of the core becomes undermoderated and overenriched due to the presence of too few hydrogen atoms compared to the number of fissionable uranium or plutonium atoms. As a consequence, less than optimum uranium utilization results. The neutronic efficiency may be improved by decreasing the amount of fuel in the upper region of the core. One way in which this may be accomplished is by reducing the diameter of that portion of one or more of the fuel rods which extend into the upper portion of the core.
Current reactor and fuel assembly designs provide for fuel rods to be loaded during fuel fabrication from the top of the fuel assembly. If conventionally designed fuel assemblies are utilized, and if fuel rods with decreased diameters in the upper region of the core are to be loaded into the assembly, the fuel rods must be inserted into the assembly from the bottom. Subsequent to reactor operation, failed fuel rods must similarly be removed from the bottom of the assembly. A failed fuel assembly would first have to be upended which could cause the relocation of cracked fuel pellet fragments within fuel rods which have not failed. Such movement of cracked fuel fragments in rods which have not failed can cause such rods to sustain subsequent fuel cladding failure. The departure from normal procedures by upending fuel assemblies would add to design complexity of the upper and lower tie plates and the fuel rods, increase the fabrication costs of the fuel assembly, as well as increase the subsequent operational costs and risks associated with failed fuel rod replacement.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,084,237 issued to Patterson et al. on Jan. 28, 1992 which is incorporated by reference, relates to a side insertable spacer designed to permit rapid repair of irradiated fuel assemblies. The side insertable spacer is an example of a device which does not require upending of the fuel assemblies in order to remove the failed fuel rod(s). The side insertable spacer, however, must be used in conjunction with conventional spacers and tie plates.
As is well known, improvements in fuel cycle costs may be achieved by increasing the net amount of fuel in the fuel assembly. Although increasing the diameter of the fuel rods would produce such an increase, it would also result in the concomitant increase in the resistance to coolant flow within the assembly and an increase in pressure drop. Spacer grids also contribute significantly to the resistance to coolant flow. Furthermore, since there are several grid spacers which are located at selected intervals along the length of the fuel assembly, their total contribution to resistance to coolant flow affects the maximum quantity of nuclear fuel that may be utilized in a particular fuel assembly design. It would thus be an advantage over prior art designs if a spacer grid offered lower resistance to coolant flow thereby permitting an increase in fuel rod diameter and, concomitantly, an increase in the total amount of nuclear fuel within the assembly.
Once the maximum quantity of nuclear fuel has been placed within the fuel assembly, further improvements in nuclear reactor operations could be achieved if the amount of power that could be safely produced within the fuel assembly were increased. Since reactor power levels are limited by the amount of coolant flowing through the assembly as well as by local heat transfer conditions present at the surface of the fuel rods, it is highly desireable spacer grid offer as little resistance to coolant flow as is possible. It is well known that heat transfer and therefore power capability is enhanced if a continuous film of water is maintained on the surface of the nuclear fuel rods. It would therefore be an advantage over prior art designs if the spacer grid also aided in, or contributed to, maintaining a water film on the fuel rod surfaces. An example of a spacer/mixing grid which provides for circulation of cooling water about the fuel rods while offering low resistance to flow is found in U.S. Pat. No. 4,726,926 for a Mixing Grid issued to Patterson et al. which is incorporated by reference.
In addition to maintaining a water film on the surface of the fuel rods, it is also desirable to transfer liquid water present on the inner walls of the outer channel and the outer walls of the inner water channel to the surface of the fuel rods. In order to insert the outer channel in its proper position over the bundle of fuel rods, a significant clearance is provided between the outer surface of the spacer grid and the inner surface of the outer channel. This clearance permits significant coolant flow between the inner walls of the outer channel and the outer perimeter of the spacer grid. Such bypass flow is undesirable because it is not as effective in the transfer of the liquid film from the channel walls to the fuel rod surfaces as is flow which passes through the spacer grid. Bypass flow can be decreased by limiting the clearance between the spacer grid and channel walls or by sealing the clearance between the spacer grid and the channel walls. Either approach renders the grid spacer susceptible to damage during the insertion or the removal of the outer channel. Copending application Ser. No. 07/747,088, entitled Boiling Water Reactor Fuel Rod Assembly With Fuel Rod Spacer Arrangement describes a fuel rod spacer arrangement wherein the fuel rods can be easily loaded into the assembly. One design which facilitates the transfer of liquid condensed on the surrounding channel to the fuel rod surfaces while maintaining an adequate clearance between the spacer grid and channel is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,749,543. However, this design suffers from the limitations that it is complex, and since it permits bypass flow, not all of the liquid is removed from the channel walls. It would therefore be an advantage over prior art devices to more effectively reduce bypass flow and remove virtually all liquid present on the inner wall of the outer channel as well as directing it to the fuel rod surfaces.
Spacer grids, regardless of their design, remove or strip a portion of the liquid water which has condensed on the inner walls of the outer channel and outer wall of the central channel and transfer some of the condensed water to the fuel rod surfaces, thereby increasing the water film thickness on the fuel rods. Spacer grids also function to coalesce small liquid droplets present in the coolant flow into larger droplets and aid in directing greater quantities of such larger liquid droplets to the fuel rod surfaces contributing further to increasing the water film thickness on the fuel rods. It might thus appear that additional spacer grids could be placed at selected points along the length of the assembly to function as a flow stripper and transfer liquid coolant drops to the surface of the fuel rods. However, the use of additional spacer grids results in increases in pressure drop. It would thus be an advantage to provide a low pressure drop spacer grid and to position at least one additional low pressure drop spacer grid to reduce the distance between the spacers in the upper region of the core and enhance the formation of a water film on the fuel rods without increasing the pressure drop across the fuel assembly.
Despite advances in the art of fuel assembly and spacer grid designs, a need exists for a spacer grid which has a low pressure drop, improves local heat transfer and provides for maximum fuel loading, while accommodating changes in the diameter of individual fuel rods along the length of the fuel assembly.

Low pressure drop spacer for nuclear fuel assemblies


A system and method of augmenting existing and operational base stations to include multiple diversity schemes and to render passive antenna elements active is presented herein. The passive antenna array of the existing base station is replaced with an active antenna array, consisting of an active radiator unit that includes an array of both receive and transmit antenna elements. The transmit and receive antenna elements of the active radiator unit, respectively, are connected to transmit amplifiers and bandpass filters located at a masthead or at the top of the building.

1. Reservation of Copyright
This patent document contains material which is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent, as it appears in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office patent files or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever.
2. Field of the Invention
The present invention, in certain respects, relates to wireless communication systems. Other aspects of the invention relate to systems and methods for augmenting existing cellular base station systems and for implementing cellular base station systems.
3. Description of Background Information
Existing and operational base stations for cellular and personal communication systems (PCS) typically comprise antenna arrangements located at the top of a mast or building. Some of these antenna arrangements utilize diversity antennas arrangements to enhance the performance of the base station by, e.g., combating the deleterious effects of multi-path propagation, such as multi-path fading and dispersion. The types of diversity employed may include, e.g., one or a combination of space diversity, phase diversity, frequency diversity, polarization diversity, and time diversity. Some of those existing/operational antenna arrangements may include a first (main) antenna array of co-located antenna elements and a second (diversity) antenna array (or individual antenna element) located at a distance from the first antenna array. The main antenna array may include antenna elements serving as both transmit and receive antennas. The diversity antenna array may include only receive antenna elements. Either or both the main antenna array and the diversity antenna array may be passive in that the antenna elements are not coupled to proximate amplifiers also provided at the top of the mast/building.
Thus, there is a need to augment existing base station antenna setups such as these. For example, existing/operational base stations would benefit by rendering their receive antenna elements active, i.e., by installing low noise amplifiers (LNA) at the top of the mast of a building, rather than only at the bottom of the mast or building. Alternatively or in conjunction with the installation of the LNAs, the transmit elements may be rendered active by installing linearized power amplifiers (LPA) positioned also at the top a building. This will provide certain advantages, including reducing cabling and power consumption costs associated with carrying signals up and down the mast or building. These base station antenna setups may also need augmentation or modification to facilitate a change in cellular technologies, e.g., adding code division multiple access (CDMA) capabilities to a base station using the Advance Mobile Phone Service (AMPS) or Global System for Mobile (GSM) standard or changing the base station altogether for use in a new scheme, e.g., CDMA.
There is also a need to add antenna functionality (e.g., to accommodate new cellular technologies and/or to enhance performance over the forward and reverse links) without adding antenna arrays that may take up additional space, or be considered as additional antenna arrangements (which may be a violation of local laws, regulations or ordinances).
There is a further need for novel and beneficial ways of addressing these issues, and others, in the implementation of cellular base station systems, and more particularly in the implementation of communication sites serving limited coverage areas, such as cells and sectors.


A tire inflation gun has a valve having several positions. When fully closed, the gun does not fill or empty a tire, but allows the tire pressure to be measured. When the valve is partially opened, the tire pressure can still be measured, but air is allowed to escape from the tire. Fully open, the gun allows the tire to be filled by a pressurized air source but closes the connection between pressure gauge and pressurized air source. This prevents the pressure gauge from being damaged by the high pressure.

The invention relates to a tire inflation gun.
Tire inflation guns are known in the art. They generally comprise a gun structure connected by a pipe to a compressed air receiver and extend into a tube provided with an element for its connection to a tire nozzle. A pressure gauge is connected to the gun structure for checking the tire pressure.
The inflation gun is used by connecting the gun to the tire, the pressure gauge then indicating the tire pressure. If the internal pressure is less than the correct value, the user operates the gun trigger to connect the compressed air receiver to the tire and hence inflate it. If the internal pressure is too high, the user causes air to escape from the tire by again operating the trigger, but moving it only a short distance.
However, this known inflation gun has the drawback that, during inflation, the pressure gauge is connected to the compressed air receiver, with consequent damage to the sensor element and to the pointer of the pressure gauge graduated scale, which has an end-of-scale value which is distinctly less than the pressure in the receiver.
An object of the invention is to eliminate this drawback by providing an inflation gun which, during tire inflation, closes the connection between the pressure gauge and the compressed air receiver.
It is another object of the invention to provide a tire inflation gun allowing a tire to be inflated or deflated and measure the pressure within the tire. It is another object of the invention to provide a valve that may be used in a tire inflation device that allows the tire to be deflated while measuring the pressure in the tire but protects the pressure gauge from exposure to high pressure during tire inflation.


In order to provide a connector for a memory card that seeks the reduction of the number of parts and the reduction of costs, there is provided a connector for a memory card including an insulating housing having plural power contacts and signal contacts lined up, and an accommodating unit for allowing installation of a memory card therein to bring an electric circuit in the memory card and an electric circuit on a printed circuit board into electrical connection through the power contacts and the signal contacts. A detecting contact for detecting that the memory card has been installed in the accommodating unit is further provided in the insulating housing along the power contact and the signal contact, and a leading end of the detecting contact is placed so as to be in contact with a pad of the memory card accommodated in the accommodating unit.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a connector that accommodates a memory card such as a micro SD card that is mainly used for data recording in a cellular phone and is to be mounted on a surface of a printed circuit board.
2. Prior Art
A conventional connector for a memory card disclosed in JP-A-2006-164604 has been known. As shown in FIG. 5, in a connector 1a for a memory card, if a memory card 2 is accommodated in an accommodating unit 3, a power supply pad 2a or signal pad 2b on one side of the memory card 2 is brought into slidable contact with a power supply contact 4a or a signal contact 4b provided in parallel at corresponding pitches thereby connecting electrically. On the other hand, on the side of the memory card 2, a part of a detecting contact 5a intruding into the accommodating space is pushed out to the outside. Thus, this part of the detecting contact 5a is brought into contact with a detecting contact 5b which leads to a detecting circuit on a printed circuit board side thereby connecting electrically. Therefore, the fact that the memory card 2 has been installed in the accommodating unit 3 can be electrically detected.
However, in the conventional connector 1a for a memory card, the two detecting contacts 5a and 5b are provided in an insulating housing of the connector 1a as means for detecting the installation of a memory card. This increases the cost for detecting the installation of a memory card, imposes a load of parts control and increases the number of steps of assembly, which are problems.


A collectible trading card, investment game using a set of trading cards, and a method of playing the investment game designed to raise awareness in the concepts of investing in the equities market. Each trading card features a unique publicly traded corporate business entity and includes printed indicia including at least one of corporate, product, service and financial information of a corporate business entity associated with the card and represents at least one theoretical share of stock in a corporate business entity. The printed indicia allows a collector to engage in a trade of at least one card to another collector based on at least the actual stock price of the corporate business entity associated with the card.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed generally to collectible trading cards. In particular, the present invention is directed to collectible trading cards which feature information relating to a corporate business entity and an investment game using the collectible trading cards which is designed to raise awareness in the concepts of investing in the stock market.
2. Description of the Related Art
The history of trading cards began with the advent of professional sports in America during the nineteenth century. Tobacco manufacturers first produced trading cards and included them as a free accompaniment with a purchase of their products. These cards consisted of sections of a cardboard base having printed images of sports figures on one side and statistical information for that respective sport figure on an opposite side. It was not until the emergence of television during the Golden Age of sports, associated with the 1950""s and athletes such as Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle, Johnny Unitas, and Bill Russell, did trading cards become a favorite hobby of Americans. Today, the trading of sports cards makes up a multi-billion dollar industry dominated not only by children, but avid, knowledgeable sports fans seeking wise investments. However, there are currently no trading cards on the market which are geared for educating novice investors on the stock market.
There have been numerous games associated with the trading of stocks. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,934,674 to Bukowsky discloses a stock market game including a display unit which provides players with information concerning the current value of stocks within the game and provides a running total of the value of the stock portfolios they have built. The current value of the stocks, however, is randomly generated by a processing unit, and thus, is not based upon actual stock market conditions. While the game uses an electronic display, it is a board game which is not capable of being played online. Also, the reference fails to disclose a collectible stock card for use in combination with the investment game.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,829,747 to Nebel discloses a stock market game for play by a one or more players which simulates for each player security transactions and includes stock certificates of seven companies represented on the game. The stock certificates, however, are of fictitious companies whose value is generated by the roll of a pair of dice.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,979,750 to Enrody discloses a trading card game including cards that are designed to represent commodities, industries or any property that can be traded in the real world. The game fails to specifically disclose, however, a collectible trading card system featuring publicly-traded corporations and including a graphic representation of notable products and/or images of the respective corporation and textual stock information pertaining to that corporation.
In view of the foregoing, it is an object of the invention to overcome the disadvantages in the related art.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a set of collectible trading card designed to raise the awareness of the principles of stock investing.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an educational game based on a set of trading cards and which simulates actual investment scenarios which occur on an equities exchange.
It is yet another object of the invention to provide an online investment game for participation by both novice and skilled stock market investors.
These and other objects are achieved in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the invention in providing a collectible trading card featuring information relating to a corporate business entity, such as a publicly traded corporation in an equities market. Preferably, the card comprises a relatively thin base material having a front surface and a back surface. The front surface of the stock card may include at least a picture of notable products or images of a selected corporate business entity, while the back surface is provided at least with indicia of financial and product information relevant to that corporation. The information provided may include publicly released corporate business entity data such as share price, annual revenues and earnings.
In addition, each stock card is provided with an issue date, the xe2x80x9cissue datexe2x80x9d being defined here as an arbitrary date assigned to each stock card to provide a point of reference in determining the theoretical value of the card and is preferably the date in which the card is issued, produced or offered for sale. Each card is also provided with a theoretical share value, or xe2x80x9cissue pricexe2x80x9d, which correlates directly with the actual value of the stock of the corporate business entity represented on the card on the issue date. Preferably, each stock card is provided with educational features that will assist the novice trading card collector in learning the basic fundamentals of investing, trading and asset management. However, an individual xe2x80x9ceducational cardxe2x80x9d may be provided to better educate the collector of the various terms and strategies that are involved in equity trading. Purchasers, collectors or collectors of a stock may engage in trading one or more of their respective cards with other collectors in order to build a complete set of cards based on their portfolio objectives or to obtain every card issued in a series of cards.
In accordance with another aspect of the invention, a set of stock cards are used to participate in an online investment game based on the collection and/or trade of one or more stock cards. The online game, unlike conventional board games, creates a game that simulates actual investment scenarios using stock cards which represent actual corporate business entities. An objective of the online trading game is for each participating player to build a portfolio of stock cards based on their respective portfolio goals. The player/collector trades, or collects, cards to meet their respective portfolio objectives.
For purposes of playing the online game, a single stock card represents one theoretical share of the respective corporate business entity depicted on the stock card. One advantage of the online game in accordance with the present invention is that the theoretical value of the card changes depending upon the actual or real-time value of one share of the corporate business entity indicated on the stock card. The actual or real-time value is defined here as the market price of one share of the respective corporate business entity""s stock at the end of an equities trading day. Accordingly, fluctuations in the stock market will directly affect the theoretical value of a stock card, and thus, makes it desirable for the collector to hold the stock card in hopes that the value of the corporate business entity""s stock increases over time.
Preferably, a new set of trading cards are produced at least once every calendar year, and will include updated public information from the selected corporate business entities. Each set of cards will include a card which lists every corporate business entity represented during that calendar year. Through trading, participating in the online activities and use of the educational cards, collectors will learn about various investment strategies and relevant financial information based on actual stock market conditions.
As previously mentioned, each card will have indicia indicating certain financial and product information such as the issue price and the number of shares each card represents. The collector of the stock card will have theoretical shares of stock that become more or less valuable depending upon the current actual market price obtained from the stock exchange where that stock trades. In addition, collectors of the stock cards may trade their cards with other collectors in an effort to build a portfolio of stock cards that meet their personal stock card portfolio objectives and risk tolerances. Accordingly, participants in the online game in accordance with the present invention learn fundamental investment skills and strategies using the trading cards to build an investment portfolio based on actual corporate business entities and actual stock market conditions.

Trading cards for an investment game, and game and method thereof


A single dielectric barrier aerodynamic plasma actuator apparatus based on the dielectric barrier discharge phenomenon is disclosed and suggested for application to aerodynamic uses for drag reduction, stall elimination and airfoil efficiency improvement. In the plasma actuator apparatus non-uniform in time and space, partially ionized gasses are generated by one or more electrode pairs each having one electrically encapsulated electrode and one air stream exposed electrode and energization by a high-voltage alternating current waveform. The influence of electrical waveform variation, electrode polarity, electrode size and electrode shape on the achieved plasma are considered along with theoretical verification of achieved results. Light output, generated thrust, ionizing current waveform and magnitude and other variables are considered. Misconceptions prevailing in the present day plasma generation art are addressed and are believed-to-be corrected. The influence of electrostatic shielding effects of the developed plasma on the applied electric field are also considered.

Airfoils are found in many different shapes, sizes and functions in the aircraft and related arts. The Wright brothers, Orville and Wilbur, are for example known to have devoted extensive time to the achieving of a surprisingly efficient airfoil cross section for the propellers used on their early 1900's flyers. Airfoil shapes are of course also found in aircraft wing cross sections, in tail assemblies and in helicopter rotors as a short list of examples. Each of these airfoils involves a compromise between the achieved lift and drag characteristics of the selected shape. The results of sharply differing compromises in this area may be appreciated to some small degree by consideration of the differing wing designs used in the World War II U.S. bomber aircraft known as the B-17 and the B-24. The B-17 wing is or was of a large and long cross sectional shape and resulted in what was considered a tolerant and forgiving airfoil while the B-24 wing was considerably smaller yet capable of lifting a significantly larger aircraft payload but also was less tolerant of marginal flight conditions.
In many airfoil arrangements the achieved overall performance can be improved by way of drag reduction; a reduction accomplished through consideration of boundary layer air flow conditions between the wing surface and the surrounding air. The introduction of small boundary layer air or gas flows into this area of transition is one tool that is found useful in achieving better airfoil performance. Such boundary layer air or gas flows may be realized in a variety of ways including use of pressurized air dispensers and with use of plasma generating apparatus, apparatus in which a relatively small amount of ionized ambient fluid or air is introduced into the airfoil transition area by way of electrical plasma generating elements disposed at a selected location along the air flow path of the airfoil. For present purposes such an electrical apparatus will be discussed using the formal name of "single dielectric barrier aerodynamic plasma actuator". In the present invention the mechanism for generating this plasma is recognized to be that of the dielectric barrier electrical discharge notwithstanding the views of accomplished others working in this art that some differing plasma generating mechanism is involved.

Single dielectric barrier aerodynamic plasma actuation

The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Air Force


A method including replicating a first virtual machine (VM) in a first cloud and putting the replicated VM in a second cloud. Activating the first VM and pausing the replicated VM. First processing, at the first VM, traffic from VMs in the first cloud, wherein the first processing occurs when the first VM is activated and the replicated VM is paused. Buffering, at a hypervisor of the replicated VM, traffic from VMs in the second cloud, wherein the buffering occurs when the first VM is activated and the replicated VM is paused. Activating the replicated VM in response to state information of the first VM and pausing the first VM. Second processing, at the replicated VM, the buffered traffic according to the state information of the first VM, wherein the second processing occurs when the replicated VM is activated and the first VM is paused.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to cloud based virtual networks, and more particularly, to a virtual machine replication scheme applicable to such networks.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
As enterprise workloads are migrated to the cloud, it is essential that hybrid and/or multi-cloud deployments are supported. However, enterprise workloads often contain servers or network components that act as choke points that may be tied to a single site and difficult to replicate. For example, many servers may communicate with a stateful firewall, dynamic host configuration protocol (DHCP) server, authentication server or file server. Servers on different clouds cannot communicate with these components locally, thereby causing significant traffic overhead between clouds or requiring the redesign of the application or component. FIGS. 1-3 exemplarily illustrate this scenario.
For example, FIG. 1 shows an enterprise workload built from a virtual network that includes virtual machines VM1-VM4 and a middlebox MB in a cloud computing environment 110. The middlebox MB may be a virtual machine that performs packet inspection, protocol acceleration, DHCP, authentication, etc. of traffic flowing between VM1-VM4, for example. The dashed lines between the virtual machines VM1 and VM2 and the middlebox MB illustrate traffic flowing from VM1 to VM2 and vice versa. The dashed lines between the virtual machines VM3 and VM4 and the middlebox MB illustrate traffic flowing from VM3 to VM4 and vice versa. FIG. 2 shows that even when the virtual machines VM3 and VM4 are moved to cloud computing environment 120, their traffic must still go through the middlebox MB in the cloud computing environment 110. FIG. 3 shows that the movement of the middlebox MB to the cloud computing environment 120 does not help much as traffic flow between VM1 and VM2 in the cloud computing environment 110 must still pass through the middlebox MB.
As can be seen, the placement of the middlebox MB in the cloud computing environment 110 or 120 can lead to a drop in performance of the virtual network. For example, in the case shown in FIG. 3, the traffic must leave the cloud computing environment 110 to be processed by the middlebox MB in the cloud computing environment 120. This transit takes time and affects latency. This transit also increases cost, since traffic leaving a cloud costs additional monies.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method and apparatus to replicate stateful virtual machines between clouds

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION


A shift register according to an embodiment includes: a magnetic nanowire; a first control electrode group and a second control electrode group arranged with the magnetic nanowire being sandwiched therebetween, the first control electrode group including a plurality of first control electrodes arranged to be spaced apart from each other along a direction in which the magnetic nanowire extends, the second control electrode group including a plurality of second control electrodes arranged to be spaced apart from each other to correspond to the plurality of first control electrodes along the direction in which the magnetic nanowire extends, and the second control electrodes corresponding to the first control electrodes being shifted in the direction in which the magnetic nanowire extends; a first driving unit for driving the first control electrode group; and a second driving unit for driving the second control electrode group.

As a method of achieving a large capacity memory, a shift register type magnetic memory is proposed. Unlike a conventional semiconductor memory in which each memory cell includes a storage element, a selection element, and wiring for obtaining information, the shift register type magnetic memory transfers stored information to the locations of a sensor and wiring.
In shift register memories that have been proposed, the shift operation has been performed by using a current pulse flowing through a shift register. However, it is not easy to shift information of all the digits using a current pulse without fail. In particular, in a case where information of 100 digits or more is dealt with in order to achieve a large capacity memory, the physical length of the shift register increases, resulting in that the possibility of the occurrence of malfunction increases due to the unsharpening of current pulse waveform caused by the capacitance or inductance component.
In order to drive a magnetic domain by current pulse, a large current density of about 1×107 A/cm2 is required. In particular, in a case of a shift register with 100 digits or more, the length of magnetic nanowire increases, thereby increasing the resistance value. As a result, a high voltage is required to generate current pulses. There is a fear in that this would prevent the memories from having a large capacity.

Shift register and shift register type magnetic memory


A visible digital watermark is applied to output images from a computer program. Various attributes of the watermark are modified from image to image, making the watermark difficult to remove. For example, a watermark indicating “not for commercial use” can be applied to all output images from the program. Such watermarking permits full functioning demonstration versions of the computer program to be freely distributed to users while commercial use is inhibited. This is accomplished by a minimal level of intrusiveness to file sharing capabilities between a commercial version of the software and a non-commercial version of the software.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of computer software and, more particularly, to a method of software protection involving digital watermarking of output images from a computer program.
2. Related Art
To promote their computer programs (also called "software"), some companies (e.g., software venders) distribute for free, and permit users to use, demonstration or trial versions of their software. A software vender can benefit in many ways by allowing certain users to have free access to their software. For example, increased access to its software can build market share. The more that people are familiar with the operation and use of the software, the more that people will develop a preference for the software. By enabling users to advance skills, a long lasting and more fluid connection to the market can be established. Further, the career growth and professional advancement of the user can be affected by the pervasiveness of software, further increasing demand. Thus, it can be to a software vender's advantage to provide free access to its software.
A delicate balance must be struck, however, between the company's objective of increasing popularity of the software to achieve market pervasiveness and the company's objective of maximizing profit from sales of the software. For example, if the company focuses too much on achieving market pervasiveness by allowing users unlimited use and functionality of their commercial software, the company can risk sacrificing its profit-making objective.
In attempts to balance these marketing goals with the need to make sales of the software, the free or demonstration (demo) versions of the software typically have limited functionality and/or limited demo use time. For example, some companies allow users to use software on a "trial-run" basis to provide the users with an opportunity to discover whether they perceive enough value in the software to purchase a fully functioning commercial version. A problem with this approach is that the "trial-run" period is often not long enough to actually provide users with enough time to determine whether they actually like the software.
An example of functionality limits that may be placed on the software include preventing users from saving/copying output from the software, and/or preventing printing output produced by the software. This reduces the commercial usefulness of the software and encourages users to purchase a commercial version. However, by preventing the users from saving/copying output from the software, and/or preventing the users from printing output produced by the software, users are not able to experience the full functionality of the software. This reduces the demo version's marketing effectiveness.
There is further a need in the industry to provide demo versions of software that can be used by students to learn how to use the software. Educating students in the use of a particular software package benefits the student by making him or her more marketable in the industry, benefits industry by providing access to more trained workers, and benefits the software vender because more trained users of their software creates more of market demand for the software. However, conventional demo versions of software are not suitable for training students. A limited functionality demo program does not typically permit a student to become proficient in use of the program. Further, a 30 or 60 day time limit does not typically provide sufficient time to learn a complex computer program.
In seeking a solution to these problems, some software venders have removed the time limits and functionality limits on the demo software. Instead, they have implemented a system where the software may be used a limited number of times before the software requires that a code be entered to unlock it for unlimited use. The code is provided by the software vender upon purchase of a usage license. This solution, however, does not help the student who needs unlimited access to the software. This solution also does not prevent a user from simply reinstalling the software to reset the usage count.
Thus, there are limited options available to a software vender who wishes to provide free copies of software to students and educational institutions. If full functionality copies of the software are given to students at no charge, there is a risk that the copies will be put to commercial use. If enough functionality is removed from the software to protect against unlicensed commercial use, then the training effectiveness of the software is similarly reduced.
These problems are particularly felt by companies that sell high-end drawing, drafting, animation, modeling, and Computer-Aided Industrial Design (CAID) programs. Such programs can be expensive such that students cannot typically afford to purchase their own copy. Such programs are also complex to use, requiring many hours of hands-on training to master use.
Therefore, there is a strong need in the industry for a way to protect against unlicensed commercial usage of computer software while still permitting full functioning or nearly full functioning versions of the software to be distributed for educational and demonstration purposes.

Method for applying a digital watermark to an output image from a computer program


A networking environment in which a sequence of proxy forwarders are used to forward network management requests from a network management station (NMS) to a network element containing a managed object. The NMS sends a request according to a network management protocol. The sequence of proxy forwarders forward the request to the network element. The response generated by the network element is forwarded back to the NMS by the same sequence of proxy forwarders, but in the reverse direction.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to network management, and more specifically to a method and apparatus for hierarchical management of objects in a networking environment.
2. Related Art
A networking environment generally contains devices such as computer systems, servers, etc., which may be connected by a network. Networks in turn contain devices such as routers, bridges and access servers. There has been felt a general need to enable a network administrator to manage (e.g., monitor, configure) such devices ("network elements").
Network management protocols have accordingly been defined which enable a network administrator to manage network elements from a network management station (NMS). Typical network protocols enable different entities (e.g., interfaces, routing tables) within each network element to be managed from a NMS, and the entities are generally referred to as managed objects.
Typical management transactions from a NMS entail sending a request to a managed object (network element), and generally receiving a response. Simple network management protocol (SNMP) is an example of a network management protocol which is implemented according to such an approach. Thus, it may be desirable for a NMS to send requests directly to a managed object (or a network element containing the object), and for the object to send back a response.
Unfortunately, such a communication may not be always possible due to various reasons (e.g., the NMS and the agent may be operating with different versions of SNMP). Accordingly, devices known as proxy forwarders have been proposed which forward requests received from a NMS to the corresponding device (intended recipient), and then forward a resulting response received from the device to the NMS. Proxy forwarders are described in further detail in RFC 2573, available at www.ietf.org, and is incorporated in its entirety herewith into the present application.
In general, it is desirable that a NMS be able to manage many devices in a networking environment.


The present document discloses a driver circuit for the high side switch of a half bridge at ultra-high voltage. The half bridge comprises the high side switch coupled to an input voltage Vin and to a midpoint of a low side switch. The driver circuit comprises a control signal generation unit generating a stream of control pulses and a control logic generating a gate voltage for the high side switch using a supply voltage Vcc based on the control pulses, a supply voltage capacitor generating the supply voltage Vcc, and a decoupling capacitor coupled on a first side to the control signal generation unit and on a second side to the control logic, to the midpoint of the half bridge via a first charging switch, and to the supply voltage capacitor via a second charging switch.

Half bridges may be used in power converters (e.g. in resonant power converters). Typical applications for such power converters are driver circuits for solid state lighting (SSL) devices such as Light Emitting Diode (LED) devices or Organic LED (OLED) devices. A half bridge typically comprises a high side switch coupled to an input voltage Vin and a low side switch coupled to ground, wherein the high side switch and the low side switch are switched in an alternating manner between an on-state and an off-state.
A commutation cycle of the half bridge typically comprises a high voltage phase during which the high side switch is in an on-state and during which the low side switch is in an off-state, and a low voltage phase during which the high side switch is in an off-state and during which the low side switch is in an on-state. The commutation cycles may be repeated at a pre-determined commutation cycle rate e.g. in the range of 20 kHz to 10 MHz. The high side and low side switches may be metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) transistors. e.g. PMOS and/or NMOS transistors.
The input voltage Vin of the half bridge may e.g. be derived from the mains power supply. By way of example, the input voltage Vin may be a rectified version of the mains power supply. As such, the input voltage may be a DC voltage at e.g. 400V. The midpoint of the half bridge (i.e. the coupling point between the high side switch and the low side switch) may be coupled via a coupling capacitor to a transformer for galvanic isolation of a subsequent device, e.g. a subsequent SSL device.
The present document describes a driver circuit for the high side switch of a half bridge. In particular, the present document describes a driver circuit for the high side switch of a half bridge, wherein the driver circuit is adapted to generate its supply voltage Vcc (e.g. 12V) directly from the input voltage Vin and at the same time to control the switching instants of the high side switch. As such, a cost effective driver circuit for the high side switch of a half bridge is described.

High side driver with power supply function


A communication system includes a cell site router that receives a voice traffic stream in a layer two based protocol. The cell site router removes redundant information to generate a compressed stream of payloads from the layer two based protocol voice traffic stream. The cell site router sorts each payload of the compressed stream according to its intended destination and generates a layer two packet for each group of payloads of the compressed stream having a same intended destination. The cell site router prioritizes for transmission each layer two packet with other packets not carrying the voice traffic stream and having the same intended destination The communication system also includes an aggregation node that receives packets from the cell site router. The aggregation node separates layer two packets from the other packets and extracts each payload from each of the layer two packets. The aggregation node decompresses each payload carried by the layer two packet and forwards each payload towards its intended destination.

Current Radio Access Network (RAN) products are focused on the transport of traffic from the cell site where the base transceiver station (BTS) is located to the central office (CO) site where the base station controller (BSC) is located. As of now, only Layer 3 solutions, such as Internet Protocol (IP), solutions have been proposed for this space. However, the data transport requirements for the majority of traffic in a 2G/3G RAN is point to point, i.e. BSC to BTS. IP solutions add significant amounts of overhead and cost in order to be as efficient as comparable networks, such as those implementing an asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) protocol. In addition, these IP solutions rely on a RAN vendor to comply with pre-standards architecture.

System and method for communicating traffic between a cell site and a central office in a telecommunications network


Heretofore, in an electronic clock in which a hand is moved a plurality of divisional times per minute and the hand takes one step for each one minute during a correction, when a pointer is stopped at a point other than an exact minute due to a battery replacement or the like, a time correction has been troublesome. The present invention solves the problem and provides a pointer-type electronic clock which can easily perform the time correction even if the clock is arranged so that a minute hand may be moved a plurality of times per minute. The pointer-type electronic clock has a minute hand that is moved at a plurality of divisional steps per minute in a time display state. The minute hand is moved at one step per minute in a correction state. The pointer-type electronic clock comprises minute hand position adjusting means for allowing the minute hand to be moved onto any one of each minute scale and to be then stopped when the minute hand is stopped or time is corrected. When a reduction of a source voltage or the like causes an hour/minute hand to be stopped, since the hand is always stopped at an exact minute position, the correction of the hour/minute hand due to the battery replacement or the like can be easily accomplished.

Heretofore, an electronic clock whose minute hand is moved not at one step per minute but at one step at 15-second intervals, at 20-second intervals or the like has been commercialized. For example, in case of a 20-second-interval movement, such an electronic clock performs three step movements per minute so as to thereby gain one minute. A reason for such an arrangement is to know an approximate second even by the minute hand alone and to reduce a rotating angle of the minute hand so as to thereby facilitate a drive control of a step motor or the like.
On the other hand, if a correction of time, a setting of alarm time or the like is performed in the driving system as described above, this is very troublesome. More specifically, when it is desired to move the minute hand by one or two minutes alone, this driving system has a shortcoming in which a switch operation must be often carried out. Therefore, the applicant discloses, in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 57-169690/1982, a system in which one switch operation allows the clock to gain one minute at the time of setting the alarm.
However, in the conventional electronic clock, the step of the minute hand is normally set to, for example, the 20-second-interval movement. Therefore, when a source voltage is reduced and thus the electronic clock is stopped, the minute hand may be stopped between one minute scale and another minute scale. When a battery replacement or the like is performed and then the minute hand is corrected, this causes the clock to gain one minute each. Thus, the minute hand cannot be set to the minute scale, whereby the time correction is very difficult to perform.


An intravenous pacemaker electrode comprises an electrode tip provided for transmission of stimulation pulses to the heart as well as at least one fixing element provided for fixing the electrode tip to the heart, of which the form and/or arrangement can be changed relative to the electrode tip, as well as a suitable actuation element for magnetic actuation of the fixing element.

A pacemaker electrode of this type is known for example from DE 33 00 050 C2.
The pacemaker electrode disclosed in DE 33 00 050 C2 features as its fixing elements bands or threads which, on implantation of the pacemaker electrode, lie close to its surface. That section of the electrode cable of the pacemaker to which the bands or threads are attached at their ends can be compressed slightly with a mandrin running through the electrode cable. This compression makes the bands or threads stand out from the pacemaker electrode in an arc shape and they is thus intended to develop their effect as fixing elements. A renewed movement of the mandrin in the opposite direction is designed to stretch the bands or threads again so that a change in position of the electrode tip is possible.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,280,512 discloses a pacemaker electrode with a fixing element which, by contrast with the fixing element known from DE 33 00 050 C2, features free ends which are intended to be able to penetrate into the tissue of the heart. In this case an activation and also a deactivation of the fixing element is to be possible, with a mandrin that can be moved within the electrode cable also being provided for this purpose here. To deactivate the fixing element, i.e. to fold in the free ends of the fixing element, a hook-shaped part of the mandrin is to be hooked into an eye-shaped part of the fixing element. However this process might be difficult to perform with implantable pacemaker electrodes.
Implantable pacemaker electrodes in accordance with the prior art can barely be removed again once implanted. If a new pacemaker electrode is to be implanted, the unusable electrode cable is thus cut off as a rule, so that the old electrode tip remains implanted. This can lead to complications, especially inflammations or to a perforation of the heart chamber because of the electrode left in it.


A method of automatically identifying sentence boundaries in a document image without performing character recognition to generate an ASCII representation of the document text. The identification process begins by selecting a connected component from the multiplicity of connected components of a text line. Next, it is determined whether the selected connected component might represent a period based upon its shape. If the selected connected component is dot shaped, then it is determined whether the selected connected component might represent a colon. Finally, if the selected connected component is dot shaped and not part of a colon, the selected connected component is labeled as a sentence boundary.

Document summaries and abstracts serve a valuable function by reducing the time required to review documents. Summaries and abstracts can be generated after document creation either manually or automatically. Manual summaries and abstracts can be of high quality but may be expensive because of the human labor required. Alternately, summaries and abstracts can be generated automatically. Automatic summaries and abstracts can be cheaper to produce, but obtaining high quality consistently is difficult.
Systems for generating automatic summaries rely upon one of two computational techniques for analyzing ASCII documents, natural language processing or quantitative content analysis. Natural language processing is computationally intensive. Additionally, producing semantically correct summaries and abstracts is difficult using natural language processing when document content is not limited.
Quantitative content analysis relies upon statistical properties of text to produce summaries. Gerald Salton discusses the use of quantitative content analysis to summarize documents in "Automatic Text Processing" (1989). The Salton summarizer first isolates text words within a corpus of documents. Next, the Salton summarizer flags as title words used in titles, figures, captions, and footnotes. Afterward, the frequency of occurrence of the remaining text words within the document corpus is determined. The frequency of occurrence and the location of text words are then used to generate word weights. The Salton summarizer uses the word weights to score each sentence of each document in the document corpus. These sentence scores are used in turn to produce a summary of a predetermined length for each document in the document corpus. Summaries produced by the Salton summarizer may not accurately reflect the themes of individual documents because word weights are determined based upon their occurrence across the document corpus, rather than within each individual document.
Although many documents are available in ASCII, many others are available only as paper documents. Paper documents can be converted to ASCII text by performing character recognition (commonly done using OCR), which then permits use of automatic summarization techniques. However, character recognition systems are not perfect and require significantly more processing time than is required to perform document summarization or abstraction.

Automatic method of identifying sentence boundaries in a document image


Provided are a method and device for building a security-based environment that uses an eUICC. A method of building a trust relationship in an eUICC environment includes transmitting, by a trust requesting object, a trust relationship requesting message including identification information and signature information of the trust requesting object to a trust verifying object, delivering, by the trust verifying object, the trust relationship requesting message to a trust relationship relay object and receiving trust information of the trust requesting object corresponding to the trust relationship requesting message from the trust relationship relay object, and verifying, by the trust verifying object, the signature information of the trust requesting object using the trust information of the trust requesting object.

1. Technical Field
Example embodiments of the present invention relate to building an environment that uses an eUICC, and more specifically, to a method and device for building a security-based environment that uses an eUICC.
2. Related Art
A universal integrated circuit card (UICC) is a smart card that is inserted into a terminal and used as a module for user authentication. The UICC may store a user's personal information and carrier information about a mobile carrier to which the user subscribes. For example, the UICC may include an international mobile subscriber identity (IMSI) to identify the user.
The UICC is called as a subscriber identity module (SIM) card in a global system for mobile communications (GSM) method, and a universal subscriber identity module (USIM) card in a wideband code division multiple access (WCDMA) method.
When the user installs the UICC in the user's terminal, user authentication is automatically performed using information stored in the UICC so that the user may conveniently use the terminal. When the user replaces the terminal, the user may detach the UICC from the old terminal and reinstall it in a new terminal, to easily replace the terminal.
Meanwhile, it is difficult to downsize a terminal which requires a compact size, for example, a terminal for machine-to-machine (M2M) communication, when the terminal is manufactured to have a detachable UICC. Therefore, an embedded UICC (eUICC) structure that is a non-detachable UICC has been proposed.
Since an existing UICC is detachable from the terminal, the user may activate the terminal regardless of a type of the terminal or a mobile carrier. However, a UICC that is embedded when a terminal is manufactured may include an international mobile subscriber identity (IMSI) in the eUICC when it is assumed that the UICC is used for only a specific mobile carrier. In order to, for example, order, activate, and terminate the terminal, the eUICC needs information (for example, an IMSI) on a user of the corresponding UICC through, for example, downloading.
That is, in the eUICC that is integrally installed in the terminal, the UICC is installed in the terminal when the terminal is manufactured and released, unlike the existing detachable UICC. Due to its non-detachable physical structure, it is necessary to download from an external location and install in the eUICC a network operator authentication key (K), a UICC data file (a network access file, an international mobile subscriber identity (IMSI), a home public land mobile network (HPLMN), etc.), a user information file (for example, a short message service (SMS) file, a phonebook, etc.), and an applet, etc.
In this process, it is necessary to support a function provided by the conventional UICC technology and an equal or higher level of security than the conventional UICC.
In an environment that uses conventional UICC (SIM) technology, the UICC is manufactured by a UICC manufacturer through an order from a mobile network operator (MNO). In this case, the MNO and the UICC authenticate by sharing predefined unique information (for example, an IMSI, K, or OTA Key), securely transmit and receive data based on the authentication information, and perform an operation through a permission check based on the authentication information.
However, in an environment that uses the eUICC, in general, the MNO and the eUICC may not share any data in advance. Moreover, in the environment that uses the eUICC, a function of the existing MNO is subdivided into several functions and managed remotely. That is, according to a request from subdivided components (for example, user information file download, or applet download), it is necessary to perform authentication (identification) for the component, data is securely transmitted to or received from the component, permission for the component is checked, and a corresponding operation is performed.

Method and apparatus of constructing secure infra-structure for using embedded universal integrated circuit card


A data arranging method for linear PCM data, which allows both low-class and high-class machines to easily perform a reproduction process and can cope with multiple channels. Data having a structure in which each sample data of 20 bits or 24 bits of individual channels is separated to a main word consisting of 16 bits and an extra word consisting of 4 or 8 bits, a collection of 2n-th main words of the individual channels is arranged, a collection of (2n+1)-th main words of the individual channels is then arranged, a collection of 2n-th extra words of the individual channels is then arranged, and a collection of (2n+1)-th extra words of the individual channels is then arranged, is recorded on a recording medium or transferred.

The present invention relates to a data arranging method and a medium for recording or transferring data or the like to be recorded on a digital video disk and a digital audio disk, and a signal processing apparatus for processing the data.
Recently, digital video disks have been developed as optical disks in addition to conventional compact disks (hereinafter referred to as "CDs") for audio usage, and players for such digital video disks have also been developed. In particular, the digital video disks include a kind which is about the same size (12 cm in diameter) as the conventional CDs and is designed such that about two hours of picture information can be recorded on and reproduced from that disk. For such a digital video disk, there is a format which allows voices or music in eight different languages and superimposition information in thirty-two different languages to be recorded on the same disk in addition to picture information.
Again, digital video disks which can record voices or music in multiple languages in addition to main picture information and are the same size as the conventional CDs have been developed.
If such digital video disks become available on the market, naturally, it would be a natural demand to reproduce pieces of music or voices (audio signals) from new digital video disks as well as from the conventional CDs. The recording systems for audio signals include a compression system and a linear PCM system. If one considered for a video disk from which audio signals of pieces of music and voices can be reproduced by an exclusive audio player, it is effective to record data by the linear PCM technique as used for conventional CDs. It is very likely that both low-class and high-class types of video disk players become available on the market.

Data arranging method and medium for data recording or transfer, and signal processing apparatus for the method and medium


The present invention relates to a block copolymer (A) including a (meth)acrylic polymer block (a) and an acrylic polymer block (b). The (meth)acrylic polymer block (a) is preferably copolymerized with a monomer having a functional group having high cohesive force, such as a carboxyl group, so that the 5%-weight-loss temperature is 300° C. or more or the tensile strength is 3 MPa or more, and the hardness measured by a type A durometer according to JIS K6253 is 50 or less, and a compression set measured after 22 hours at 70° C. is 45% or less. The block copolymer (A) exhibits excellent thermal decomposition resistance and low compression set at high temperatures. The block copolymer (A) can be used as a soft material for automobile, and has low hardness, high adhesion, high oil resistance, high weather resistance, high heat resistance, high recycling property, high tensile properties, and high wax remover resistance.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a block copolymer having excellent thermal decomposition resistance and oil resistance, exhibiting good compression set even at high temperatures, and being usable as a rubber, a thermoplastic resin, an impact modifier for thermoplastic resins, a compounding agent for a compound material having elasticity between those of resins and rubber, a paint, a binding agent, or an adhesive. More specifically, the present invention relates to a block copolymer containing a methacrylic polymer and an acrylic polymer and having excellent balance between physical properties, particularly thermal decomposition resistance and oil resistance, and good compression set at high temperatures.
The present invention further relates to a soft material for automobile containing a thermoplastic elastomer composition having low hardness, excellent adhesion, excellent heat resistance, excellent oil resistance, and excellent tensile properties (mechanical properties), and also having excellent flexibility, formability.
2. Background Art
In general, a thermoplastic elastomer has an alloy structure comprising a rubber component (soft segment) exhibiting entropy elasticity, and a restrictive component (hard segment) which is fluid at high temperatures and which prevents plastic deformation at room temperature and gives a reinforcement effect to the rubber component. For example, in a styrene elastomer, styrene blocks aggregate to function as a hard segment, whereas butadiene blocks or isoprene blocks form a matrix to function as a soft segment. An olefin elastomer has an alloy structure in which rubber such as EPDM is dispersed in a resin such as PP. In any of the elastomers, the hard segment is fluid at high temperatures, and thus permits thermoplastic processing such as injection molding. In addition to the styrene elastomer and the olefin elastomer, examples of thermoplastic elastomers include vinyl chloride elastomers, ester elastomers, amide elastomers, and urethane elastomers.
However, conventional styrene or olefin thermoplastic elastomer is insufficient in rubber elasticity, particularly compression set at high temperatures, as compared with crosslinked rubber. Therefore, thermoplastic elastomer exhibiting high rubber elasticity even at high temperatures is desired.
On the other hand, it is known that a (meth)acrylic block copolymer including a hard segment of methyl methacrylate or the like and a soft segment of butyl acrylate or the like is usable as a thermoplastic elastomer. As a block copolymer having a (meth)acrylic polymer block and an acrylic polymer block, the specification of Japanese Patent No. 2553134 discloses known examples such as a block copolymer (MMA-b-BA-b-MMA) of poly(methyl methacrylate)-b-poly(butyl acrylate)-b-poly(methyl methacrylate), and a block copolymer (MMA-b-2EHA-b-MMA) of poly(methyl methacrylate)-b-poly(2-ethylhexyl acrylate)-b-poly(methyl methacrylate). (Meth)acrylic block copolymers are characterized by excellent weather resistance, durability, heat resistance and oil resistance.
Acrylic block copolymers can be synthesized by various types of living polymerization. Examples of living polymerization include so-called group transfer polymerization in a silylketene acetal/Lewis acid system (Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 62-292806), living polymerization using porphyrin-organoaluminum complex (S. Inoue and others, Macromolecules, Vol. 24, p. 824, 1991), and living polymerization using an organic rare earth metal complex as an initiator (Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 6-93060). In particular, for polymerization using an organic rare earth metal complex, it has been reported that a (meth)acrylic polymer block is stereoregularly polymerized, and an acrylic polymer block is non-stereoregularly polymerized to form a block copolymer having excellent heat resistance and impact resistance or excellent elastomeric properties. Furthermore, in a method of atom transfer radical polymerization using a halogen-based initiator and a copper catalyst, an acrylic ester is polymerized, and then ester bonds are selectively decomposed to obtain a block polymer composed of polyacrylic acid-polyacrylic ester-polyacrylic acid (Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2001-234147). It is also introduced that the resultant block polymer can be used as an adhesive exhibiting a small change in physical properties even at high temperatures.
However, the hard segments of these (meth)acrylic block copolymers have glass transition temperatures of 150° C. or less, and thus have difficulty in exhibiting rubber characteristics at high temperatures which are required in the automobile field. Also, acrylic block polymers having hard segments of acrylic acid exhibit a breaking strength of less than 3 MPa (NITTO DENKO Technical Report (Nitto-Giho), Vol. 38, No. 2, November, 2000), and thus have the problem of failing to exhibit sufficient strength for use as elastomeric materials.
Furthermore, as an invention relating to the design of an adhesive material achieving a small change in physical properties even at high temperatures and having excellent balance between adhesive properties such as retention, an adhesive comprising a (meth)acrylic block copolymer having a hard segment of a polymethacrylic acid block has been reported (Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 10-298248). Although this invention introduces a di-block polymer composed of polymethacrylic acid and polyacrylic ester in examples, di-block structures generally cannot express substantial compression set and breaking strength, which are important properties of elastomer, and thus the development of thermoplastic elastomer having excellent heat resistance is desired.
On the other hand, it is known that block copolymers can be used as compositions with thermoplastic resins. As such block copolymers, styrene-butadiene copolymers, styrene-isoprene copolymers, and hydrogenated polymers of these copolymers (called "styrene-ethylene-butylene copolymers", and "styrene-ethylene-propylene copolymers", respectively) are widely used. By using these block copolymers, compositions having excellent balance between impact resistance, rigidity, and forming fluidity can be obtained. However, the thermoplastic resins usable with the block copolymers are limited to low-polarity resins such as polystyrene resins, polyolefin resins, and polyphenylene ether resins.
Also, it has recently been known that a block copolymer containing a methacrylic polymer and an acrylic polymer functions as an excellent impact resistance modifier, and a combination with a thermoplastic resin produces a thermoplastic resin composition having excellent impact resistance. In this case, a high-polarity resin such as a polyvinyl chloride resin, a polymethyl methacrylate resin, a polycarbonate resin, a polyester resin, or a polyamide resin is effective as the thermoplastic resin.
The hard segment of a thermoplastic elastomer is fluid at high temperatures, and thus permits thermoplastic processing such as injection molding. However, when the thermal decomposition temperature of the thermoplastic elastomer is lower than the injection molding temperature, the thermoplastic elastomer may cause thermal deterioration. For example, the above-described high-polarity resin such as a polyvinyl chloride resin, a polymethyl methacrylate resin, a polycarbonate resin, a polyester resin, or a polyamide resin has both a high molding temperature and high heat resistance, and thus such a resin cannot be used for molding a mixture with the thermoplastic elastomer because the thermoplastic elastomer is thermally decomposed. In particular, most of the methacrylic polymers are decomposed to monomers by depolymerization at 170° C. to 250° C. (Polymer Handbook Third Edition, Wiley-Interscience, 1989). Therefore, when high-temperature thermal stability is required, an ester elastomer or an amide elastomer must be selected. However, such an elastomer may also be required to have improved physical properties including oil resistance, controlled balance of physical properties, and reduction of cost, and the development of a novel elastomer is greatly demanded.
A soft polyurethane (RIM urethane) material and a poly(vinyl chloride)-based (soft PVC-based) material have recently been used for molded products required a good touch, such as automobile parts. However, these materials have the problem of resources saving and environmental protection, i.e., the problem of recycling. The RIM urethane material is thermally curable, and the soft PVC contains a large amount of plasticizer and produces chlorine gas by heating. Thus, it is impossible or difficult to recycle these materials. Therefore, a resin alternative to the soft vinyl chloride resin and the polyurethane resin is demanded. A candidate of such an alternative material is a thermoplastic elastomer resin which is a rubber-like material, not requires a crosslinking process, and exhibits formability comparable to that of thermoplastic resins, and this thermoplastic elastomer resin has recently attracted attention in the field of automobile parts, household appliance parts, and construction materials.
Although conventional olefin thermoplastic elastomer and styrene thermoplastic elastomer are excellent in recycling property and mechanical properties, these elastomers have the problem of low adhesion to resins and metals and low oil resistance. Although the olefin thermoplastic elastomer is known to have proper flexibility and processability, the olefin thermoplastic elastomer does not exhibit sufficient weather resistance and oil resistance and cannot be directly used as an alternative. In particular, many processes for removing rustproof wax from an automobile often use a wax remover comprising a hot-water mixture containing kerosene and a surfactant. Thus, the use of the olefin thermoplastic elastomer as a material for exterior members has the problem of causing poor surface appearance during the removal of the wax.
Typical examples of hollow-molded products among the automobile parts include a boot and a hose. In particular, with respect to the boot, an accordion joint boot is mounted on a joint of an automobile or an industrial machine, for holding the sealed grease or preventing contamination with dust. Such a joint boot is conventionally made of rubber such as chloroprene, or a composition containing a monoolefin copolymer rubber and a polyolefin resin that are partially crosslinked with an organic peroxide used as a crosslinking assistant, as disclosed in Japanese Examined Patent Application Publication No. 53-21021.
From the viewpoint of recycling, thermoplastic polyester elastomers, which are non-crosslinking materials, have recently been used. Although the thermoplastic polyester elastomers are excellent in mechanical properties, heat resistance and oil resistance, the polyester elastomers have the problem of low flexibility due to high hardness, thereby significantly degrading mountability.
Therefore, in order to solve the problem, thermoplastic copolyester elastomer compositions comprising thermoplastic copolyester elastomers and rubber compositions are proposed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication Nos. 6-145477 and 7-97507. However, these thermoplastic copolyester compositions do not have flexibility and oil resistance sufficient for boots and hoses, and further investigation is required.
Also, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2000-351889 discloses a thermoplastic elastomer composition comprising a thermoplastic copolyester elastomer and acrylic rubber. Although the oil resistance and boot-assembling performance are improved by mixing the acrylic rubber, molding fluidity decreases depending upon the content of the acrylic rubber. Therefore, molding is difficult, and the problem of flexibility remains unsolved, thereby causing the need for further improvement.
As described above, the thermoplastic polyester elastomer has excellent mechanical strength, but it has disadvantages of high hardness and poor oil resistance. Also, the acrylic rubber-compounded thermoplastic elastomer has improved oil resistance, but it still has disadvantages of poor formability and poor flexibility. Therefore, the application to automobile hollow-molded products is limited, and a material for automobile hollow-molded products having excellent oil resistance and excellent flexibility is required.


An airbag arrangement for a vehicle having a driver's airbag is disclosed. The airbag arrangement has an airbag module having an airbag between the steering wheel and the instrument panel of the vehicle. In the event of a crash, the airbag is deployed between the steering wheel and the instrument panel and, as a result, supports the steering wheel. The effect achieved by this is that the driver's airbag is better positioned with regard to the vehicle occupant, since deformation of the steering wheel by the forces acting on the driver's airbag in the event of a crash is prevented or reduced by means of the airbag. The inflated airbag can extend as far as the windshield of the vehicle. As a result, the forces introduced into the steering wheel in the event of a crash are also conducted away into the windshield. In addition, contact of a vehicle occupant not wearing his/her seatbelt with the can be prevented by suitably defining the size of the inflated airbag.

The invention relates to an airbag module for vehicles and, in particular, to an airbag module for motor vehicles equipped with a conventional driver's airbag.
The decelerations which the driver experiences in frontal collisions are, as a rule, conducted away via the inflated driver's airbag into the steering wheel and into the steering column. The following problems occur. During the dissipation of energy, parts of the steering wheel, the steering column and adjusting and connecting elements of the steering wheel and the steering column are deformed. Particularly in the case of severe forward displacement of the occupant and occupant kinematics, which are difficult to control (for example, if a driver does not have his/her seatbelt on), the "steering wheel and steering column" subsystem is deformed by high forces. As a result, the airbag cannot be optimally positioned with regard to the occupant. The risk of injury increases.
These effects could be reduced by, for example, the steering wheel rim being stiffened, or a predefined position of the steering column being produced or maintained in the event of a crash. However, the styling of the steering wheel means that stiffening is often not possible. A predefined position of the steering column can be produced only with a high outlay; for example, stiffenings in the steering column connection or additional deformation elements in and/or on the steering column may be provided.
In the event of an occupant who is not wearing his/her seatbelt, it can be attempted to optimize the positioning of the airbag with regard to the occupant by means of a relatively large airbag circumference and/or intercepting straps in the airbag. Furthermore, a knee airbag may be provided.
However, these solution attempts are complex and some of them are not optimally effective.


In the present invention, data on a substrate image picked up by an image pickup unit is outputted to a difference calculation unit where a difference image from a normal substrate is calculated. A synthesis calculation unit calculates a synthesized image by rotating the difference image 360 degrees by every predetermined angle about the center of the substrate and synthesizing the images. A Zernike calculation unit digitizes the synthesized image by a Zernike polynomial and outputs a concentric circle component to a determination unit where the component is compared with a previously set threshold value, so that the presence or absence of a defect on the substrate is determined. The present invention can facilitate the determination of the presence or absence of a macro defect on the substrate and reduce the time required for the determination.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a substrate defect inspection method, a computer readable storage medium storing a program for causing a computer to execute the method, and a defect inspection apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a photolithography process in a manufacturing process of a semiconductor device, for example, a resist coating treatment for forming a resist film on a front surface of a substrate such as a wafer, exposure processing for irradiating a pattern on the front surface of the substrate for exposure, a developing treatment for developing the substrate after the exposure and so on are performed. The substrate for which a series of predetermined photolithography process steps has been completed is subjected to a so-called macro defect inspection by an inspection unit, such as whether or not a predetermined resist film is formed on the front surface of the substrate, or whether or not appropriate exposure processing is performed.
The above-described macro defect inspection is performed by moving a mounting table mounting a substrate thereon in X- and Y-directions on the same plane and causing an image pickup means such as a CCD camera fixedly provided above the substrate to scan the top of the substrate so as to pick up an image of the front surface of the substrate (Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2001-168010). The image obtained by the image pickup is subjected to image processing to detect the presence or absence of a defect. In more detail, there occurs a difference in luminance or in brightness and darkness in picked-up images between a normal substrate and a substrate having a macro defect such as defocus, uneven application or the like, the difference appearing as a difference in pixel value on image data. In the prior art, the difference is utilized to obtain a difference image of an absolute value by subtracting the image of a normal substrate from the image of the substrate being an inspection object, and the difference image is simply binarized into numerical values, so that whether the substrate is normal or abnormal, that is, whether there is a defect, is determined depending on whether the numerical value exceeds a previously set threshold value (Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. H6-18436 and Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2004-85503).
In the above-described method, however, if the difference image is binarized, for example, it is difficult to set the threshold value as a reference to perform determination whether the substrate is normal or abnormal because the absolute values of the binarized values are small, and therefore erroneous determination can be made. Besides, it is necessary to accurately mount the substrate being the inspection object at a predetermined image pickup position in all of the X-direction, Y-direction and θ-direction when picking up an image of the substrate. This additionally requires an alignment work using, for example, a notch aligner or the like for the accurate mounting, thus taking extra inspection time.

Substrate defect inspection method, computer readable storage medium, and defect inspection apparatus


The present invention relates to a photosensitive resin composition, a protective film and an element having the same. The aforementioned photosensitive resin composition includes a polysiloxane resin (A), an alkali-soluble resin (B), an ortho-naphthoquinone diazide sulfonic acid ester (C) and a solvent (D). The alkali-soluble resin (B) is copolymerized by an unsaturated carboxylic acid or unsaturated carboxylic anhydride compound (b1), a fluorene derivative having a double-bond group (b2) and an unsaturated compound having an acid-decomposable group (b3).

Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a photosensitive resin composition, a protective film formed by the photosensitive resin composition and a liquid crystal display element having the protective film. More particularly, the present invention provides a photosensitive resin composition with excellent resistance to development and leveling resistance, a protective film formed by the photosensitive resin composition and a liquid crystal display element having the protective film.
Description of Related Art
In electrical element, such as thin film transistor (TFT) liquid crystal display element, magnetic head element, integrated circuit element, solid imaging element and the like, a protective film (also called as interlayer insulating film) generally is disposed between wirings to achieve the efficacies of insulating and protective.
The materials for producing the protective film generally is selected from materials that can obtain a desired pattern by less steps and the protective film has better flatness. The materials for producing the protective film can be photosensitive resin compositions.
JP Patent publication No. 2009-075329 discloses a photosensitive resin composition for a protective film. The photosensitive resin composition for the protective film can increase adherence of the protective film by transition metal compound having structures shown as following Formula (VIII-1) or Formula (VIII-2):

in Formula (VIII-1), A represents elements of group VIA to group VIIA with an atomic valence of r, and r represents 1 or 2; R represents an aromatic group of 6 to 30 carbons, a heterocyclic group of 4 to 30 carbons, an alkyl group of 1 to 30 carbons, an alkenyl group of 2 to 30 carbons or an alkynyl group of 2 to 30 carbons; D represents a group shown as following Formula (VIII-1-1); X− represents a group shown as following Formula (VIII-1-2); and s represents an integer of 0 to 3:

in Formula (VIII-1-1) or (VIII-1-2), E represents a divalent group, such as an alkylene group of 1 to 8 carbons, an arylene group of 6 to 20 carbons, a heterocyclic compound of 8 to 20 carbons or the like; t represents an integer of 0 to 5; Rf represents an alkyl group that has at least 80% of hydrogen atoms are substituted by fluorine atoms; and u represents an integer of 1 to 5:

in Formula (VIII-2), M represents transition metal elements of group VIB to group VIII; L1 and L2 are ligands of the transition metals, L1 represents an aromatic compound of 6 to 24 carbons or a heterocyclic group of 4 to 20 carbons, and L2 represents anions of indene, fluorene or cyclopiperylene; the X− has the same definition as aforementioned definition in Formula (VII-1), rather than focusing or mentioning it in detail; w and y represents an integer of 0 to 2, and the sum of (w+y) is 2; and z represents 1 or 2.
Moreover, JP Patent publication No. 2009-229892 disclosed a photosensitive resin composition for a protective film. The photosensitive resin composition includes silesquioxane having an aromatic group of 6 to 15 carbons. The silesquioxane having an aromatic group can increase sensitivity, transmission rate and adherence of the protective film.
However, although the aforementioned two photosensitive resin compositions can enhance the adherence of the protective film, the protective film had defects of poor resistance to development and poor leveling resistance, thus lowering accuracy of the desired patterns, and further reducing the performance of the aforementioned electrical elements.
Accordingly, there is a need to provide photosensitive resin composition for a protective film with excellent resistance to development and leveling resistance for improving the disadvantages of the aforementioned defects of the conventional protective film.

Photosensitive resin composition, protective film and element having the same


The present invention provides fractional condensation apparatuses, systems and methods that can recover volatile products from highly diluted liquid and vapor feed mixtures with high purity and recovery yield, both in batch and continuous distillation, while being also designed to achieve low-cost and efficient recovery processes. Single apparatuses and columns can be connected to each other to expand or shrink the column length for desired separation. The apparatuses, systems and methods can be applied to separate mixtures with both narrow and wide boiling point ranges.

Product separation cost in the context of bioprocessing is a major contributor to the overall cost of any manufacturing technologies for conventional agriculture-based biofuel production processes, biomass-derived processes such as cellulosic ethanol and even for direct conversion.
While there are several separation technologies including distillation and pervaporation capable of removing volatile products from fermentation broths, there is a need in the industry for recovering products in dilute concentrations. Pervaporation has been explored in recent years by the EPA: Vane, L. M. A review of pervaporation for product recovery from biomass fermentation processes. J Chem Technol Biotechnol 2005; 80: 603-629; Vane, L. M., et al., Separation of vapor-phase alcohol/water mixtures via fractional condensation using a pilot-scale fractional condenser: enhancement of the pervaporation process separation factor, Ind. Eng. Chem. Res., 43, (2004), 173; Vane, L. M. Separation technologies for the recovery and dehydration of alcohols from fermentation broths, Biofuels, Bioprod. Bioref. 2:553-588 (2008) for possible commercialization in ethanol recovery. However, to date, recovery of volatile products produced in low concentration in air and water mixtures remains challenging.
There is a need for apparatuses, systems and methods that can recover volatile products produced in low concentration in air and water mixtures with high purity and recovery yield. There is further a need that these apparatuses, systems and methods are designed to achieve low-cost and efficient recovery processes.

Fractional condensation processes, apparatuses and systems


An improved graphical manipulation technique for a home communication terminal (HCT) includes a linked-list of commands controlling various video operations in an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC). After each command has been implemented by the ASIC, the ASIC proceeds to the next command without interrupting a host processor. Accordingly, the linked-list eliminates the need of the host processor to continually process interrupts at the completion of each instruction. The linked-list command structure aids in intensive video operations including bit block transfers, video capture, and video display.

1. Technical Field
This invention relates generally to graphical processing in real-time operating systems adapted for high performance applications, such as those executing in a home communications terminal (HCT) to provide cable television or other audiovisual capabilities. More particularly, the invention provides a feature which improves the performance of operating systems installed in devices having limited computing resources.
2. Related Information
Conventional operating systems for HCTs, such as those in cable television systems, have typically provided limited capabilities tailored to controlling hardware devices and allowing a user to step through limited menus and displays. As growth in the cable television industry has fostered new capabilities including interactive video games, video-on-demand, downloadable applications, higher performance graphics, multimedia applications and the like, there has evolved a need to provide operating systems for HCTs which can support these new applications. Additionally, newer generations of fiber-based networks have vastly increased the data bandwidths which can be transferred to and from individual homes, allowing entirely new uses--such as telephony--to be developed for the HCTs. As a result, conventional HCTs and their operating systems are quickly becoming obsolete. In short, HCTs need to evolve to transform today's consumer television sets into interactive multimedia entertainment and communication systems.
Conventional display systems in HCTs include a host processor coupled to a video display device. Faster host processors generally provide faster display manipulations. However, with the advent of higher resolution screens, the amount of display information that needs to be processed also increases. Accordingly, merely increasing the host processor throughput may not be an optimal solution for increasing display performance.
Moreover, merely adding additional processors and memory to an HCT design may unacceptably increase its cost. Accordingly, it is desirable to find ways of increasing display performance within the framework of a low-cost design.
Conventional graphics systems allow groups of pixels to be moved in display memories in a single operation. The movement of at least two pixels together is commonly referred to in the art as bit block transferring (or BitBLT). Using a BitBLT, a CPU can select a block (most often, a rectangular block) of pixels, provide source and destination starting addresses, and invoke a hardware-supported function to perform the transfer. However, where multiple groups of pixels must be moved, the CPU is unnecessarily interrupted to start a new transfer and to update the source and destination addresses for the transfers.
Another inefficiency in conventional video display systems concerns the performance of a video capture function. For such a function, portions of a first memory area are repeatedly copied to a second area for display. As with conventional BitBLT operations, constantly interrupting a CPU to coordinate this function robs performance from the CPU.
In short, conventional video display systems such as those in an HCT suffer from performance inefficiencies which hinders their use for new applications.