A package for a plurality of ammunition units, each unit having an axially elongated casing with a base and a projectile joined to the casing opposite its base, is made from a thermoformed sheet, formed to have a plurality of elongated compartments for receiving an ammunition unit. Each compartment is recessed from a planar peripheral upper surface and has a cradling surface extending along an axis of an inserted ammunition unit for supporting its casing and first and second separation walls on opposed sides of the cradling surface. At least one of the first and second separation walls has an overhanging tab, resiliently deformable relative to the other opposed separation wall to receive and grasp the casing upon insertion or to allow removal of the casing.

Various forms of ammunition are known in the art. Generally speaking, ammunition includes any device capable of propelling at least one projectile toward a target (with or without directional guidance) upon the ignition of a propellant. Specific examples of ammunition include, but are not limited to, cartridge systems, high explosive projectiles, warheads, shaped charges, carrier projectiles, mortar ammunition, small arms ammunition, grenades, mines, pyrotechnics, improved conventional munitions, and terminally guided munitions.
One common example of an ammunition unit is a bullet/cartridge system. Such ammunition, which is typically referred to as a cartridge, is used in connection with various types of small arm weapons, including hand guns, pistols, rifles, machine guns, and the like. FIG. 9 depicts the components of an example cartridge 10. A bullet or projectile 1, which is typically made of copper, brass, lead or other metal, is inserted at its base end within the open end of a casing 2. The casing 2, which is typically made of brass, steel, copper, aluminum, or other metal, contains a propellant 3, which may be gunpowder, cordite, or the like. The base end of the casing 2 includes a rim 4, which is used to load and position the cartridge into and in a weapon for which the cartridge is designed and dimensioned. The base end of the casing 2 also includes a primer 5, which serves to ignite the propellant in cooperation with the firing pin of the weapon.
As is well known in the art, certain areas or components of ammunition are particularly susceptible to damage when mishandled. Such damage may occur, for example, during manufacture, shipping, transportation, or loading of the ammunition. These areas or components of the ammunition, which will be referred to herein collectively as "key areas," should be treated with care during times when ammunition is susceptible to damage. These key areas include, but are not limited to: the area of contact between the casing and the projectile (referring to FIG. 9, the area where the base of the bullet 1 is inserted within the casing 2)—if this area is damaged, the projectile may misfire upon leaving the casing; the means for loading and securing the ammunition into the respective weapon (referring to FIG. 9, the rim 4, which is the part of the casing that assists in loading and aligning the cartridge for firing)—if this area is damaged, the ammunition may jam or otherwise improperly load into the weapon; the projectile (referring to FIG. 9, the bullet 1), which will have less accurate flight if its designed shape is impaired; and the ignition means for the ammunition (referring to FIG. 9, the area including and surrounding the primer 5)—if this area is damaged, the ammunition may not fire when the firing means of the weapon (e.g., the firing pin of a gun or rifle) is brought in operative connection therewith.
As mentioned above, shipping and transportation are two particular times when ammunition is susceptible to damage. This is because shipping and transportation generally includes the movement, loading, stacking, handling, jostling, and other forms of physical manipulation of the packaging within which the ammunition is held. During such times, depending on the cartridges, their packaging and the forces developed in the physical manipulation, cartridges can contact one another, contact the packaging, or otherwise be subject to physical forces from the outside that may cause damage. This is particularly true of the aforementioned key areas, which, by their very nature, may be more susceptible to damage than other areas of the ammunition.
Some known forms of ammunition packaging provide little protection for the ammunition, including its key areas, during shipping and transportation. For example, it is common to simply package a plurality of cartridges loose within a cardboard or paperboard box. In this type of packaging, the cartridges are free to move about and contact one another, which could potentially lead to damage. Other known forms of ammunition packing, which do provide a measure of protection to the ammunition, are bulky, expensive, and/or wasteful from an environmental perspective. For example, it is common to ship cartridges (as in FIG. 9), in what is may be referred to as a "test tube rack" form of packaging. The cartridges are inserted upright into aligned openings in the rack, which may be able to accommodate eight or more cartridges at a time. The racks are typically injection molded from plastic. While these racks do afford a measure of protection against damage, they require a considerable amount of plastic to manufacture, they are heavy and bulky, and they require expensive dies and complicated machinery to manufacture.
Thus, what is needed in the art is an improved form of ammunition packaging that affords protection to the ammunition during shipping and transportation. What is further needed is a form of packaging that is light weight, compact, easy to manufacture, and environmentally friendly (e.g., uses as little material as possible and/or is readily recyclable or biodegradable).


A tamale roll prepared from a dough comprising from 1 to 15% by weight of wheat gluten in the presence of a humectant such as glycerol and/or maltodextrin, processes for preparing the tamale roll by steaming tamale shape dough followed by freezing or packaging in nitrogen gas, carbon dioxide or their combinations and kept refrigerated. An edible filling such as a meat or cheese filling may be placed on the tamale roll to make a tamale for serving.

Conventionally, tamales are made from corn, also known as maize. One known method of preparing tamale rolls involves mixing corn masa (corn masa is made by soaking and cooking corn in water with lye treatment, and then grinding to a paste), lard, water or broth, and spices into a corn meal tamale dough which is placed on a corn husk wrapped around a filling (such as meat or cheese filling) and steamed to make tamale roll with filling, the tamale.
Instead of preparing corn masa, another conventional method used to prepare tamale rolls involves the use of Masa Harina flour, an alkaline treated corn flour with desirable flavor and dough consistency, which is mixed with lard, salt, baking powder, water or broth and spices to form the tamale dough which is placed on a corn husk wrapped around a filling (such as meat or cheese filling) and steamed to make tamale.
In both cases, the steamed tamale corn meal dough is a soft mass and needs a "wrapper" to hold it (the "wrapper" may be, for instance, corn husks, banana leaves or corn leaves). There are two disadvantages of the conventional tamale roll:
(i) after it is made, it has no strength, is breaks easily on bending or folding, and PA1 (ii) it has to be kept frozen since it has a moisture content of 48-55% and water activity of 0.97-0.98 which can be kept at refrigerated temperature only for a very short period of time.


Test access to an integrated circuit 2 is controlled by the use of test access enabling keys. A plurality of different test access enabling levels may be supported corresponding to different keys. The test access control may be performed by dedicated hardware or software executing a secure privilege mode.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the field of integrated circuits. More particularly, this invention relates to the field of providing test access to integrated circuits, such as, for example, debug access via serial scan chains and trace access via embedded trace units.
2. Description of the Prior Art
As integrated circuits and system-on-chip designs have developed in size and complexity, the importance of thorough, quick and convenient testing tools for those designs and systems increases in importance. A significant amount of time in the development of a new integrated circuit, system-on-chip circuit or system product is devoted to the testing, validation and debugging of the design.
As an example, in the field of mobile telephones it is known to provide debug and trace test access into the telephone systems to allow these to be tested and debugged. These testing interfaces sometimes remain in place in the shipped products and can be used to diagnose additional problems when units are returned from field service.
Within the field of integrated circuits and data processing systems in general there is an increasing need for secure operation e.g. smart cards bearing integrated circuits for controlling financial transactions where the user needs to be authenticated and/or data needs to be encrypted/decrypted. As another example, copyright material owners require the use of decryption keys obtained by payment in order to access their copyright material. It is critical that the decryption keys remain secure and cannot be accessed by unauthorised persons. Accordingly, considerable effort is devoted to developing systems with secure modes of operation and that resistant to unauthorised intrusion which so as to keep secret data and operations secure. Smartcards for use in financial transactions are another example of integrated circuits with a requirement for a high degree of security.
It is known from British Published Patent Application GB-A-2,395,583 to provide an integrated circuit having a hardware control pin (JSDAEN) which it is assumed is tied down to ground (i.e. set low) in production. This assumption applies only to certain production scenarios—alternative scenarios require the pin to be set high or low according to the category of s/w developer, with all developers using standard production units. This is a potential security vulnerability.

Test access control for secure integrated circuits


An analysis pretreatment device according to an embodiment includes a chamber capable of containing an analysis object therein. A pressure reducer reduces pressure inside the chamber. An introducing part vaporizes a liquid and introduces the vaporized liquid into the chamber. A first supplier supplies water in a liquid state to the introducing part. A second supplier supplies hydrofluoric acid in a gas state to the introducing part. The introducing part introduces a mixed gas into the chamber. The mixed gas includes vaporized water, which is obtained by vaporizing water in a liquid state, and hydrofluoric acid in a gas state.

Metal impurities present in a semiconductor thin film deteriorate an oxide film breakdown voltage or lead to crystal defects, resulting in deterioration of characteristics of a semiconductor device. Therefore, analysis of metal impurities present in a semiconductor thin film is performed.
In a case where an object of examination is a natural oxide film or a thermal oxide film on a semiconductor substrate, the oxide film is decomposed by vapor phase decomposition using hydrofluoric acid. Silicate generated by the vapor phase decomposition is reduced by being vaporized by heat treatment or the like. Thereafter, the substrate is scanned with a chemical liquid such as hydrofluoric acid-hydrogen peroxide mixture, and the chemical liquid is then collected.
In this manner, metal impurities on the substrate are taken into the chemical liquid and are collected. This chemical liquid is then analyzed by a total refection X-ray fluorescence (hereinafter, "TXRF") method, for example.
However, in a case where an object of examination is a nitride film or an oxynitride film, decomposition takes a long time and a particle diameter of ammonium fluorosilicate ((NH4)2SiF4) generated by a reaction between hydrofluoric acid and the nitride film or the oxynitride film becomes large according to a conventional vapor phase decomposition method. Water droplets (a decomposition liquid) are condensed on the substrate that is hydrophobic by using this ammonium fluorosilicate as nuclei. As the decomposition time is longer, the water droplets (the decomposition liquid) are larger and it takes a considerably long time to decompose the ammonium fluorosilicate by heat treatment. Further, long-time decomposition causes a back surface of the semiconductor substrate to be exposed with hydrofluoric acid and be decomposed, so that resultant ammonium fluorosilicate contaminates a stage or the like. Therefore, a nitride film or an oxynitride film is not suitable for an automated collecting apparatus that automatically performs operations from vapor phase decomposition to collection or analysis.


A service plan is delivered to a mobile phone user without direct user communication with a mobile network operator or providing of personal details. A method comprises packaging a service plan, and at least one of a phone number and data plan, from a mobile network operator; associating the plan and phone number or data plan with a non-provisioned Universal Integrated Circuit Card; cueing service plan loading and activation of the UICC post purchase of the UICC by a user in communication with a provisioner by at least one of 1) product code scanning of the UICC and messages generated thereby; 2) automatic messaging generated by an activation application on the UICC; 3) user directed short messaging; 4) interactive voice responses between user and a provisioner system; 5) network detection software; 6) user interaction with a website; and 7) user entry of a zip code.

In order to operate on a wireless network, a wireless device (which can include, but is not limited to a wireless phone) generally must be a subscriber on the network, (except for cases in which a wireless devices operates in a roaming mode on a foreign network). To identify the device to the network as a subscriber, a wireless provider generally undertakes a practice referred to herein as "activation," in which the phone is identified to the network using an identifier (such as an international mobile subscriber identifier ("IMSI") or similar identifying number, which, in many cases, is encoded on a subscriber identity module "SIM" in the wireless device). In a general sense, this process involves creating, in a home location register ("HLR"), a record for the device; in some cases, the record comprises the identifying number, as well as an addressing number (e.g., a phone number for a wireless phone), such as an international ISDN number ("MSISDN") or similar number. This record identifies the device to the network and provides information about the capabilities of the device. Without such a record in an HLR, the device generally will be inoperable on the wireless network.
Hence, when a user purchases a new wireless device, the user's wireless provider generally must activate the device before the user can use the device on the provider's network. There are, in general, three different ways in which a wireless device can be activated.
In the first case, the wireless device is preactivated prior to sale of the device to the user. This process is used most frequently for prepaid wireless phones. Under a preactivation scheme, the device has installed therein a SIM that is assigned an activated IMSI before the device ever is sold. This technique, while technically feasible, has several downsides. First, because the IMSI is assigned and activated before the device is sold, there is enhanced risk of theft and other supply-chain "leakage." Second, this technique requires substantial investment in allocating and activating IMSIs early in the supply chain, resulting in inefficiencies (for example, maintain a relatively large stock of activated IMSIs corresponding to devices that may not be sold or used for some time). Moreover, if the supply chain involves rebranding the devices, some of the allocated and activated IMSIs might never be used. Moreover, preactivation of a SIM generally requires the assignment of an MSISDN to the SIM (by associating the MSISDN with the IMSI assigned to the SIM). Given that IMSIs (and, especially, MSISDNs) can be relatively scarce resources, this solution is less than optimal.
In the second case, the wireless device is activated at the point of sale. While this technique is suitable for applications in which the device is sold at a relatively sophisticated reseller or agent of the wireless provider, it is unavailable in many cases (including, for example, in the case of prepaid phones or phones that are purchased at locations other than dedicated resellers).
The third option is to sell a wireless device in an unactivated state and require the user to activate the phone before using it. Because, as noted above, the device is inoperable on the network until activation, the device itself cannot generally be used as the activation vehicle. Hence, the user will have to call the provider (using a different phone), visit the provider's website (using a separate computer or some other device), and/or the like. This option, while sometimes the only available option, is less than desirable because it imposes an inconvenience on the user, resulting in a competitive disadvantage for the provider in relation to techniques that do not impose this inconvenience on the user.
Moreover, existing techniques for activating wireless devices offer the user limited (if any) input into the phone number (e.g., MSISDN) that the device will be assigned.
So, it is clear that conventional techniques for activating telecommunications services typically require users to go through a multi-stage process. Even for a user who is evaluating a telecommunications service, the user is typically required to experience a multi-stage process and delays between stages before being able to evaluate a telecommunications service to decide whether to use the telecommunications service. For example, a user is typically asked, in one stage, to provide contact information (e.g., name, address, or other contact information). In another stage, a user is typically asked to provide billing information (e.g., a credit card number). After contact and billing information has been provided, if required, activating a telecommunications service is itself a multiple stage process.
Furthermore, conventional methods of provisioning and activation a telecommunication service typically involve communications over a telephone, over the internet (world wide web) on a computer, or over a fax machine with paper requests. This also causes inconvenience to the customers or potential customers in procuring telecommunications services on the go when hardware equipment such as a computer or fax machine, or services such as internet connections are not readily available.
So, mobile phone setup is time consuming and restrictive to consumers. Additionally, once a mobile phone and service plan have been setup for a consumer, the wireless network needs to be informed of the mobile phone and the mobile phone thereafter needs to register with the wireless network whenever being used. Registration requires a location update request be sent from the mobile phone to the wireless network. In the case of initial phone setup, since location update is triggered on power-up, typically the person configuring the mobile phone would be required to power-off and then power-on the mobile phone to render it active on the wireless network.
All of these identified issues are exacerbated by regulatory issues within the North American markets. In particular, because of numbering regulations in the US it is not currently possible to sell SIM (subscriber identity module) cards that are 'pre-activated' and can be simply inserted into a GSM based mobile phone device and start operating with a service without running through a manual activation process. So currently, although SIM cards can be sold apart from the mobile device, they must be activated by the hand of the consumer before usage. The issue that this creates is that the SIM Card (as sold) is useless unless the new customer contacts the carrier to activate his/her service. As described above, this is generally via dealer assisted activation, Internet/online activation, or by phone support activation. If the customer only has cash to pay, the options are reduced to 'dealer assisted' model only.
Standard wireless industry practices also hinder the ability to pre-activate a SIM card, since a pre-activated and unsold wireless product would not be able to be distinguished from a truly active device with a user therefore making financial reporting used for billing between vendors and license providers which are used to support the user very cumbersome.
What this means is that, effectively, the SIM Card cannot be sold and activated without depending on some other means of communication to the provider.
This inherently reduces the market to which mobile service can be sold and limiting the options for traditional cell phone distribution in respect to non-English speaking travelers to the US, anyone who does not have a credit card, immigrants, people who need emergency cell service but do not want to pay for a plan when they are not using it and many other population segments.
Dealer Network and Commissioning
The mobile services industry today works like many service and sales industries. A service provider signs up dealers to sell their service. The model is universal and, while it has many variations always comes down to a basic process:                1) An entity (retail shop, individual or distribution owner) signs up to sell the service.        2) The provider authorizes that entity to sell.        3) The entity sells service.        4) The carrier pays commissions to the entity based on confirmed sales or at point of activation.
While this model seems straightforward, it has drawbacks for providers. These include:                1) The dealers command increasing commissions, as there are more service providers in each dealer channel that are not growing (with limited shelf space).        2) Signing up and vetting dealers is time consuming and costly.        3) Not all dealers are trustworthy, so activation fraud is a constant threat.        4) Commissions must be calculated and paid. This is a considerable administrative burden as 'chargebacks', 'churn' and 'fraudulent activations' have to calculated and reduce commissions. It is cumbersome.
There is thus a need to avoid the various inconveniences and inefficiencies of conventional mobile phone setup. It is an object of the present invention to obviate or mitigate some or all of the above-noted disadvantages.

Method for activating an unlocked, inactive mobile device using a universal integrated circuit card pre-provisioned with a service plan


Techniques are provided for improving the performance of a multi-band antenna in a wireless device. An example wireless device includes at least one radio frequency integrated circuit, and at least one patch antenna operably coupled to the at least one radio frequency integrated circuit, including a first patch operably coupled to the at least one radio frequency integrated circuit, a ground plane disposed below the first patch, and a plurality of via wall structures disposed around the first patch, wherein each of the plurality of via wall structures is electrically coupled to the ground plane.

A wireless device (e.g., a cellular phone or a smart phone) may include a transmitter and a receiver coupled to an antenna to support two-way communication. The antenna may be enclosed within a housing assembly (e.g., cover) based on portability and aesthetics design considerations. In general, the transmitter may modulate a radio frequency (RF) carrier signal with data to obtain a modulated signal, amplify the modulated signal to obtain an output RF signal having the proper power level, and transmit the output RF signal via the antenna to a base station. For data reception, the receiver may obtain a received RF signal via the antenna and may condition and process the received RF signal to recover data sent by the base station. As the radio frequency used by the wireless device increases, the complexity of the RF transmitting circuitry also increases. To facilitate and/or enable wireless signal applications, numerous types of antennas have been developed, with different antennas used based on the needs of an application. e.g., distance, frequency, operational frequency bandwidth, antenna pattern beam width, gain, beam steering, etc. Additionally, newer RF technologies and wireless devices are becoming more reliant on multi-band performance.

Discrete antenna module with via wall structure


The present invention has an object of providing a novel fructosyl peptide oxidase having superior physicochemical properties such as stability that is useful as an enzyme for clinical diagnosis, and an object of providing a method for producing the fructosyl peptide oxidase. A novel fructosyl peptide oxidase having physicochemical properties useful as an enzyme for clinical diagnosis, and a method for producing a novel fructosyl peptide oxidase are provided herein, the method comprising: culturing a microorganism capable of producing the oxidase in a medium; and collecting the oxidase from the culture. Furthermore, a fructosyl peptide oxidase gene coding for a novel fructosyl peptide oxidase, recombinant DNA wherein the gene is inserted into vector DNA, and a method for producing a novel fructosyl peptide oxidase are provided herein, the method comprising: culturing, in a medium, a transformant or a transductant including the gene; and collecting the novel fructosyl peptide oxidase from the culture.

Glycated protein is a non-enzymatically-glycated protein, which is produced as a result of covalent bonding between an aldehyde group of sugar, namely, aldose (i.e., a monosaccharide potentially associated with an aldehyde group, and derivatives thereof), and an amino group of a protein. Examples of the amino group of the protein include an N-terminal α-amino group and an internal lysine residue side chain ε-amino group. These glycated proteins are also referred to as Amadori compounds for being formed upon Amadori rearrangement of a Schiff base, a reaction intermediate product.
The glycated proteins are contained in body fluid such as blood in body or in a biological sample such as hair. The concentration of the glycated protein in blood strongly depends on the concentration of saccharide such as glucose dissolved in serum. In diabetic conditions, production of the glycated protein is accelerated. A concentration of glycated hemoglobin in erythrocytes and a concentration of glycated albumin in serum indicate an average blood sugar level for the past predetermined period. Therefore, quantification of the glycated proteins is important for diagnosis and control of the disease process of diabetes.
Examples of known conventional methods for quantifying a glycated protein include, for example, a method employing high-performance liquid chromatography (Chromatogr. Sci., 10, 659 (1979)), a method using a column loaded with a solid material bound with boric acid (Clin. Chem., 28, 2088-2094 (1982)), a method employing electrophoresis (Clin. Chem., 26, 1598-1602 (1980)), a method using antigen-antibody reaction (JJCLA, 18, 620 (1993)), a colorimetric method for determining reducibility using tetrazolium salt (Clin. Chim. Acta, 127, 87-95 (1982)), a colorimetric method using thiobarbituric acid following oxidation (Clin. Chim. Acta, 112, 197-204 (1981)), a method using an enzyme such as glycated amino acid oxidase (Japanese Patent Examined Publication (kokoku) No. 05-33997, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (kohyo) No. 11-127895, WO97-13872, Japanese Patent Examined Publication (kokoku) No. 6-65300, and Japanese Patent Applications Laid-Open (kohyo) Nos. 2-195900, 3-155780, 4-4874, 5-192193, 6-46846, 11-155596, 10-313893, 11-504808, 2000-333696, 2001-54398, 2001-204495 and 2001-204494). Furthermore, a new method for quantifying a glycated protein was disclosed recently which is more accurate than any of the above-mentioned methods (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (kohyo) No. 2001-95598). According to this quantification method, a sample containing a glycated protein is treated with protease to release a fructosyl peptide from the glycated protein, which is then exposed to oxidase. The resulting product is quantified for quantification of the glycated protein. This method has been recognized as an accurate quantification method that requires short time and simple manipulation.
According to the conventional method using glycated amino acid oxidase, a glycated protein is treated with protease and then the produced glycated amino acid is quantified enzymatically. Specifically, according to this method, a glycated protein is treated with protease or the like to give fructosyl amino acid, which is then exposed to fructosyl amino acid oxidase to quantify the produced hydrogen peroxide. Examples of known fructosyl amino acid oxidases that can be used in such quantification method include oxidase produced by Corynebacterium (Japanese Patent Examined Publications (kokoku) Nos. 5-33997 and 6-65300), oxidase produced by Aspergillus (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (kohyo) No. 3-155780), oxidase produced by Gibberella (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (kohyo) No. 7-289253), oxidase produced by Fusarium (Japanese Patent Applications Laid-Open (kohyo) Nos. 7-289253 and 8-154672), oxidase produced by Penicillium (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (kohyo) No. 8-336386), oxidase produced by Tricosporon (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (kohyo) No. 2000-245454), and ketoamine oxidase (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (kohyo) No. 5-192193). However, while these enzymes act well on fructosyl amino acids, they do not act on fructosyl peptides. Oxidase produced by E. coli DH5α (pFP1) (FERM BP-7297) described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (kohyo) No. 2001-95598 is known as an enzyme that acts on fructosyl peptide. However, preparing a quantification kit with this enzyme is difficult since its basic physicochemical properties are unknown and it has poor stability.
The objective of the present invention is to provide a novel and stable fructosyl peptide oxidase, a fructosyl peptide oxidase gene encoding the same, and a method for producing the novel fructosyl peptide oxidase.


A linear vibratory feeder having a base, an overlying track support plate and a counterweight with an internal structure between the base and support plate and a pair of outer side plates secured to each of a plurality of separate, longitudinally spaced parts of the internal structure. A first pair of vertical, relatively flexible, flat leaf springs extend between the base and internal structure and a second pair of generally upright but slightly inclined, flat leaf springs extend between the internal structure and support plate. The first and second pairs of leaf springs are mounted in overlapping relationship to provide a low profile feeder and a short moment arm between the centers of gravity of the upper support plate assembly and counterweight.

The present invention relates generally to vibratory feeders of the type having an elongated track and operable to feed parts forwardly along the track by longitudinal oscillation or vibration of the track. The present invention relates more particularly to a new and improved vibratory feeder of the type described having a configuration of component parts providing superior performance and greater design flexibility.
Examples of vibratory feeders of the type described are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,786,912, dated Jan. 22, 1974 and entitled "Linear Vibratory Feeder" and U.S. Pat. No. 4,260,052, dated Apr. 7, 1981 and entitled "Vibratory Feeder Leaf Spring Arrangement". In such vibratory feeders, the parts are fed forwardly along an elongated linear track by longitudinal vibratory motion of the track generally parallel to but inclined upwardly from the longitudinal axis of linear feed. Thus, the vibratory motion has a primary component parallel to the axis of feed and a secondary component normal to the axis of feed. As the vibrating track moves in a forward direction, it carries each part forwardly a small step while propelling the part upwardly normal to the axis of feed. As the vibrating track moves in the opposite direction, each part floats partly or fully on or above the track support surface. That cycle is repeated at a high frequency to feed the parts in small steps forwardly along the track.
Such vibratory feeders typically are used to transport parts in succession from a bowl feeder to an escapement, deadnest or other part receiver. Storage and orientation of the parts is normally provided by the bowl feeder. In some applications, it is essential that there be smooth and consistent track motion normal to the axis of feed along the full length of the track to maintain part orientation and to ensure that the parts are fed evenly along the track. Smooth and consistent track motion normal to the axis of feed is also necessary if the track has an overlying or other retaining structure for retaining the parts on the track. Otherwise, excessive track vibration normal to the axis of feed can cause the parts to engage the retaining structure and to be fed backwardly by the retaining structure during the reverse motion of the track.
When vibratory feeders of the type described are operated to produce the desired vibratory motion of the track, additional undesirable track vibrations are usually produced. For example, an undesirable track vibration is produced by the oscillating force couple which produces the desired vibratory motion. This undesirable vibration is particularly problematic because it has a component normal to the axis of feed which varies along the length of the track. Specifically, the normal component increases along the track in opposite directions from approximately the midpoint of the track. Where the intended and undesirable components normal to the direction of feed are additive, the resultant track motion normal to the direction of feed can cause the parts to bounce excessively. Where the intended and undesirable normal components are subtractive, the resultant track motion normal to the direction of feed can be inadequate to properly feed the parts or in extreme situations can feed the parts backwardly.
It is often desirable to employ a track substantially longer than the track platform used to support and vibrate the track. However, lengthening the track magnifies the undesirable component of vibration normal to the direction of feed. The magnified vibration in combination with the greater track flexure at the outer ends of the track significantly compounds the problem. Track motion normal to the axis of feed can be excessive at one end of the track and insufficient or even out-of-phase at the other end of the track. As a consequence, the parts may bounce excessively at one end of the track, stop at an intermediate point of zero or reduced vibratory motion and be fed backwardly at the opposite end of the track.
A principal aim of the present invention is to provide a new and improved vibratory feeder of the type described which provides generally smooth and consistent track motion normal to the axis of feed along the full length of the track.
Another aim of the present invention is to provide a new and improved vibratory feeder of the type described which provides a higher feed rate by providing increased track motion in the direction of feed. In accordance with the present invention, a relatively low angle of inclination of intended vibratory motion is provided which increases the intended track motion in the direction of feed and reduces the intended track motion normal to the direction of feed.
Another aim of the present invention is to provide a new and improved vibratory feeder of the type described having an oscillating two-mass system which is supported to minimize the transmission of vibrations to and from the two-mass system, to minimize the resistance to oscillation and to minimize the absorption of energy from the oscillating system.
A further aim of the present invention is to provide a new and improved vibratory feeder of the type described useful with tracks of different lengths and weights and with tracks mounted at different longitudinal positions on the vibratory feeder.
Another aim of the present invention is to provide a new and improved vibratory feeder of the type described having a low profile and an oscillating two-mass system with a short moment arm between the centers of gravity of the two oscillating masses.
Another aim of the present invention is to provide a new and improved vibratory feeder of the type described which is economical to manufacture, easy to assemble and disassemble and which permits ready modification and adjustment. According to the present invention, the vibratory feeder has a new and improved configuration of component parts which provides greater flexibility in tuning the feeder for each application.
Other objects will be in part obvious and in part pointed out more in detail hereinafter.
A better understanding of the invention will be obtained from the following detailed description and the accompanying drawings of an illustrative application of the invention.


A method for automatically linking program execution status information during the execution of a program to display the execution status information of the program by a multi-window display having a plurality of sectioned areas for use in the development of the software program. In the method for displaying the program execution status information, text data of a program having a plurality of instruction statements sequentially executed in the order of line numbers is prestored, and the following steps are carried out in the course of the execution of the program: storing image information which is continuously obtained by recording output screen image and interaction images between a computer and an operator as the program is executed, together with recorded image data identification numbers determined in accordance with a predetermined rule; storing execution history information inputted by an operator or generated in the course of the execution of the program, together with history numbers assigned in a predetermined sequence; and correlatively storing in a table the recorded image data identification numbers, the line numbers of the program corresponding to the recorded image information having the recorded image data identification number assigned thereto, and the history numbers assigned to the execution history information corresponding to the programs designated by the line numbers.

The present invention relates to a method for automatically linking program execution status information to display program execution status information by using a multi-window display sectioned into a plurality of areas for use in the development of a software program. More particularly, the invention relates to a method for linking, text data, image information which is continuously obtained by recording at least one of an output screen image generated by the execution of the program, a moving image of a machine controlled by the program and an operation image of an operator in the course of execution of the program, and history information which is generated in the course of execution of the program, during the execution of the program.
In a related, art system, in order to improve efficiency of the maintenance of a software program, any portion of a source text portion of the program and a document portion of a specification corresponding to the source text portion is manually linked, and the document portion of the specification corresponding to the source text portion is parallelly displayed on an operator's instruction while the operator watches the program source text on a display screen.
The above related art technique is disclosed in "Hypertext and Its Application to Programming Environment" INFORMATION PROCESSING, Vol. 30, No. 4 (1989, 4) pages 406-413.
In the above related art, the linking of the program source text portion and the document portion of the specification is accomplished manually. Accordingly, the linking work is troublesome and lacks practicability.
In the related art, when a modified area of the program is to be detected, when the program is to be maintained or when an execution status of the program is to be checked, the program is actually run and any error is detected by manual collation with a specification, information is logged to collate it with the specification, or the execution of the program is stopped at a desired point to check the status at the stopped point.
In the related art, in order to determine a function and a feature of an existing program, there is no other way than imaging them in the human brain by viewing a specification. As a result, only a vague image can be determined. Accordingly, when the program is to be reutilized to support the development of another program, the support is not sufficient because the function and feature of the existing program have not been fully determined. In the related art, in order to communicate test information and claims of a user to a program developer who is not on site, a memorandum which describes the situation or oral communication is used. This, however cannot fully communicate the situation to the developer. In the related art, when an execution status of a program is to be examined in detail at a desired time point, the examination takes a long time and the status cannot be fully appreciated if the synchronization between a recorded display screen and the program is not perfect.

Method for linking program execution status information


A gate valve sleeve including a reinforced elastomeric valve sleeve member with an integrally molded reinforcing member disposed therein. In one embodiment, the reinforcing member comprises a pair of parallel spaced ring elements connected by a plurality of spacers. In another embodiment, the reinforcing member comprises first and second ring member abutted to form a T-shape. In a further embodiment, the reinforcing member comprises a ring and a plurality of axially oriented spacer members. In yet a further embodiment, the reinforcing member comprises a pair of ring elements connected by a plurality of pins. The pins are fixed to one of the ring elements and are slidably engageable with the other ring element. In an alternate embodiment, an auxiliary ring member is located within an interior opening of the reinforcing member.

Gate valves are used in fluid handling applications when a straight-line flow of fluid with minimum restriction is desired. A gate, or disc, engages a pair of opposed seals when the valve is in the closed position to shut off the straight-line flow. When the gate is lifted, configuring the valve in the open position, fluid is able to flow freely between the inlet and outlet ports of the valve. As designed, gate valves are typically operated in either the fully open or fully closed position.
In some cases, the opposed seals are metal, and the gate is either metal or non-metallic. As can be appreciated, the disadvantage of such metallic seal configurations is that they can result in substantial short term wear of the gate and/or seals.
In other cases, the opposed seals are elastomeric and the gate is metal. With such arrangements, the seals operate to provide a resilient seal against the gate. The problem with such elastomeric seal arrangements, however, is that the portion of the soft elastomeric material which engages the gate can abrade as the gate moves between the open and closed positions. As the gate cycles through the sleeve, it can rip off the nose, split the sleeve open, or cut chunks away so that eventually the valve leaks. Attempts have been made to reinforce the elastomeric seals, but providing too much rigidity/support for the nose can also accelerate wear of the seals.
Thus, there is a need for an improved reinforcement configuration for elastomeric seals used in gate valve applications. The configuration should provide a balance in stiffness and flexibility so that the resulting seal has an increased life expectancy as compared to current seals.


This invention relates to benzylic ether phenolic resole resins prepared in a sealed reaction vessel and their uses. The benzylic ether phenolic resole resins are prepared by heating phenol and an aldehyde in a sealed reaction vessel in the presence of a divalent metal catalyst without removing water generated by the reaction until an appropriate endpoint for the resin is reached. The benzylic ether phenolic resole resins produced by the process are preferably free or essentially free of unreacted formaldehyde and can be used in the resin component of phenolic-urethane foundry binders to make foundry cores and/or molds by the cold-box and no-bake processes. The cores and/or molds are used for making metal castings.

Two major categories of phenolic resins are known. These are the novolak resins and the phenolic resole resins. Novolak resins are prepared by the reaction of excess phenol with formaldehyde under strongly acidic conditions where the formaldehyde to phenol ratio is typically from 0.5:1.0 to 1.0:1.0. Novolak resins are linear or slightly branched condensation products linked together by methylene bridges, and have relatively low molecular weight, i.e. up to approximately 2,000. They are soluble and permanently fusible, i.e. thermoplastic. Novolaks are cured with hexamethylenetetramine (HEXA). In foundry applications, novolak resins are almost exclusively used in the "shell process" where foundry sand is precoated with the resin before curing with HEXA.
On the other hand, phenolic resole resins are prepared by the reaction of phenol and excess formaldehyde under alkaline conditions. Formaldehyde to phenol ratios between 1.1:1.0 to 3.0:1.0 are customarily used. Phenolic resole resins are somewhat stable at room temperature, but are transformed into three dimensional, crosslinked, insoluble, and infusible polymers by the application of heat.
It is generally accepted that the best overall performance characteristics for phenolic-urethane foundry binders are achieved by using highly ortho substituted phenolic resole resins having benzylic ether and methylene bridging units between the constituent aromatic rings where the ratio of ether to methylene bridging units is at least 1.0, i.e. benzylic ether phenolic resole resins. These benzylic ether phenolic resole resins are produced by the reaction of phenol with formaldehyde in the presence of a divalent metal catalyst at atmospheric pressure with reflux such that the formaldehyde to phenol ratio in the reaction charge is generally from 1.0:1.0 to 2.0:1.0.
The preparation of benzylic ether phenolic resole resins involves the reaction of phenol and formaldehyde in the presence of a divalent metal catalyst in an open reaction vessel at increased temperature and the continuous stripping of water formed by the reaction from the reaction mixture. See U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,409,579; 3,485,797; and 4,546,124.
It is known to use pressure in the preparation of novolak resins. R. W. Martin in "The Chemistry of Phenolic resole resins," John Wiley & Sons, 1956, p. 111 mentions preparation of novolak resins without catalysts at high temperatures in autoclaves. A. Knop and L. A. Pilato in "Phenolic resole resins Chemistry, Applications and Performance," Springer-Verlag, 1985, pp. 93-95 mentions the continuous production of novolak resins which involves heating at 120.degree. C.-180.degree. C. at up to 100 psig to enhance the reaction rate. A process for preparing novolak resins under pressure is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,687,896, although it is not clear how the pressure in the reaction vessel is obtained. These novolak resins prepared under pressure are not highly ortho substituted and contain only methylene bridges between the aromatic rings.

Benzylic ether phenolic resole resins and their uses


A system and method for implementation of transaction security on a distributed ledger-based Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) platform is provided. The system includes a message broker device which receives a transaction request associated with a transport service from a publisher node of a transportation provider. The message broker device routes, via an API gateway hosted on the message broker device, the transaction request to a subscriber node of the transportation provider. The API gateway validates the transaction request based on application of a set of security rules on the transaction request. The subscriber node is associated with a first node of a distributed ledger node that stores a first state object. The first state object includes transaction data associated with the transport service. The distributed ledger node receives the validated first transaction request from the API gateway, via the subscriber node and updates the transaction data based on the received transaction request.

Many transportation providers provide their services through infrastructures based on a closed platform. For example, a transportation provider may have a separate ticketing infrastructure (such as ticketing gates and Point-of-Sale (PoS) devices) or a separate application (such as a ticket booking application or a ride hailing application) for create, pay for, or manage a trip.
With growing number of transportation providers, there has been a demand for a MaaS platform which may provide a unified gateway to create, pay for, and manage a trip that may rely on services of multiple transportation providers. A typical MaaS platform may include participation of multiple transportation providers, such as airline companies, ride hailing companies, car rental companies, carpooling companies, rail network companies, or a combination thereof. Typically, each transportation provider on the MaaS platform has a closed infrastructure with minimum to no connectivity with infrastructures of other transportation providers. With limited connectivity, individual transport providers may have trust and privacy concerns associated with common billing, route planning, revenue sharing, and the like.
Limitations and disadvantages of conventional and traditional approaches will become apparent to one of skill in the art, through comparison of described systems with some aspects of the present disclosure, as set forth in the remainder of the present application and with reference to the drawings.

Transaction security on distributed-ledger based MaaS platform


The invention discloses system and method for data authentication among processors. The method comprises: generating a first key, by a first processor, according to a first identification data and a first algorithm; generating a first digest, by the first processor, according to data to be transmitted, the first identification data and a second algorithm; generating a digital signature, by the first processor, according to the first key, the first digest and a third algorithm; and transmitting the data and the digital signature from the first processor to a second processor.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to system and method for data authentication among processors, and more particularly, to system and method for authenticating data transmission between processors with digital signature.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Generally, an electronic device comprises a plurality of processors, and each processor is responsible for some specific tasks in order to control operations of the electronic device. For example, a smart phone may comprise a main processor, and a radio frequency processor. The main processor is for executing an operating system and some application programs in order to provide functions of the operating system and the application programs to a user. The radio frequency processor is for receiving and transmitting wireless signals in order to make communication with another electronic device. The main processor and the radio frequency processor are coupled to each other by a data bus, and data sent from the main processor to the radio frequency processor via the data bus may be monitored or changed by an external device coupled to the data bus, such that data transmission between the main processor and the radio frequency processor is not secure. The electronic device of the prior art does not have any authentication mechanism to effectively prevent the data transmitted between processors from being monitored or changed.

System and method for data authentication among processors


Incident information that describes a timing of an incident in a service, is received from a service. User activity information is received from a client system in a tenant. An impact of an incident, on a tenant, is identified by combining the incident information with the user activity information.

Computing systems are currently in wide use. Some computing systems host services in a remote server environment that are accessed by tenants. Tenants can represent an organization, a business, a portion of a business, and each tenant illustratively includes a plurality of different users, that are associated with that tenant. The users may have different permissions to access different portions of the hosted service, even within a single tenant.
In a remote server environment, such as in a cloud deployment, a given tenant may have a corresponding map. The map may identify which particular servers, server farms, or data access groups etc., that serve the tenant. In some cases, users of a tenant are also mapped to the different servers, server farms, data access groups, etc.
It is not uncommon for services to experience various incidents which may degrade or disrupt access, of the various tenants and users of the service, to the service's functionality. It can be very difficult to determine the impact of a particular incident, or a set of incidents, on a tenant, because it can be very difficult to identify which tenants were actually impacted by an incident. Thus, it can be difficult for an administrative user to determine what type of remedial action should be taken to improve the experience of the various users of a tenant, for a given service. In fact, it can even be difficult for an administrative user to determine whether any remedial action needs to be taken at all.
The discussion above is merely provided for general background information and is not intended to be used as an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Detecting and surfacing user interactions


A subsea rotary gas separator system has a separator located adjacent the discharge of the pump for separating gas from the high pressure liquid stream exiting the pump. Some of the high pressure liquid is recycled back to the inlet of the pump to maintain a liquid-rich inlet stream for the pump.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates in general to downhole gas separators and, in particular, to an improved system, method, and apparatus for a submersible pump assembly having a gas separator that produces a liquid stream for reintroduction upstream of the pump.
2. Description of the Related Art
Subsea wells typically connect to a subsea manifold that delivers the well fluid to a production platform for processing, particularly for the removal of water and gas. The oil is then transmitted to a pipeline or other facility for export from the production platform. Production of fluids from a medium to deep subsea environment requires compensation for the effects of cold temperatures, high ambient pressures and fluid viscosity as a function of break out of gas in the fluid stream. In flowing wells, particularly those with light API fluid, these conditions may be mitigated by the nature of the producing reservoir. In wells with low API oil and insufficient pressure to drive the fluid to the surface, some form of artificial lift will be required.
One type of artificial lift for wells employs a submersible pump, which is a type that has been used for many years on land-based wells. One type of submersible pump assembly has an electrical motor, a rotary pump and a seal section located between the pump and the motor for equalizing wellbore pressure with the internal pressure of lubricant in the motor. In applications where there is a high free gas content in the fluid production stream, the gas content is typically separated upstream from the rotary pump intake.
In other types of applications, the recycling of discharge liquids back to the suction to reduce the free gas content percentage also is known. However, in a traditional gas separation application, the gas stream has entrained liquids that are together recycled back to the inlet of the pump below the gas outlet. Although this design is workable for some application, an improved solution for increasing the hydraulic efficiency of the system and improving flow conditioning through the pump would be desirable.

Subsea well having a submersible pump assembly with a gas separator located at the pump discharge


A soundproof member is provided. The soundproof member includes a structural element, and a first composite film which is disposed on the bottom surface of the structural element. The structural member includes at least one through hole and the through hole passes through the structural element. The first composite film includes a polymer material and an inorganic nanoscale material, wherein the inorganic nanoscale material is a one-dimensional inorganic nanoscale material or a two-dimensional inorganic nanoscale material.

For buildings such as apartments, office buildings, and hotels, insulation from outdoor noise (such as the noise from automobiles, trains, airplanes, ships, and the like), equipment noise, and human voices, which occur inside buildings, is required to keep rooms quiet. Additionally, it is necessary to insulate against wind noise and engine noise to reduce indoor noise, to provide a quiet and comfortable space to passengers in vehicles such as automobiles, trains, airplanes, ships, and the like.
With conventional soundproofing materials, as their mass increases, sound is more effectively shielded. In order to obtain a good soundproofing effect, large and heavy soundproofing materials are required. However, parts and materials utilized in buildings and vehicles must be lightweight, to improve design flexibility and reduce the power consumption of vehicles. As a result, the soundproofing effectiveness of conventional soundproofing materials is restricted by the mass limitation of buildings or vehicles. Furthermore, conventional soundproofing materials have a relatively high soundproofing effect for high-frequency sound waves and a relatively low soundproofing effect for low-frequency sound waves.
Accordingly, a novel soundproofing material is called for to solve the aforementioned problems.

INDUSTRIAL TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH INSTITUTE


Provided are a thinner composition for improving coating property of a resist and for removing the same, which includes 10 to 80 wt. % of alkyl (with 1 to 5 carbon atoms) 2-hydroxyisobutyrate, 20 to 90 wt. % of propyleneglycol alkyl (with 1 to 5 carbon atoms)ether acetate, and 10 to 1000 ppm of a surfactant represented by Formula 1 to a total weight of the alkyl 2-hydroxyisobutyrate and propyleneglycol alkylether acetate, so as to achieve excellent solubility to various photoresists and bottom anti-reflective coatings (BARC) and high edge bead removing (EBR) performance, possibly be employed in a process for recycling photoresist-coated wafers, and remarkably improve coating property of the photoresist, and a method for manufacturing a semiconductor device or a thin film transistor liquid crystal display device including removal of the photoresist by using the above-described thinner composition.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a thinner composition for improving coating property of a resist and for removing the same, and a method for manufacturing a semiconductor device or a thin film transistor liquid crystal display device by using the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a process for manufacturing a semiconductor device, a working process including applying a photo-sensitive resin composition to a wafer, transferring a designed pattern thereto and forming a micro-fine circuit pattern such as a semiconductor integrated circuit through etching refers to photolithography. The photolithography includes achieving a desired micro-fine circuit pattern through a series of processes including applying, exposing, developing, etching and stripping.
In this regard, the exposing process is executed by minutely exposing the desired pattern on a coating film using a light in UV ray range as a short wavelength, therefore, becomes sensitive to a contamination source. Accordingly, a residue of photoresist applied to a substrate during applying, or contaminants may become a contamination source during exposing process. Therefore, these materials should be removed in advance. Herein, a thinner composition (for removing edge beads) has been used in the above process.
Meanwhile, since the photoresist using KrF and ArF (including ArF immersion) light source with a short wavelength has recently been employed, the extent of using the photoresist increasingly influences upon production costs of the integrated circuit. Accordingly, there has been a requirement for reducing the extent of using photoresist to save expenses. For this purpose, a reducing resist consumption (RRC) process that treats the surface of a substrate with a treatment composition before application of the photoresist to thus uniformly spread the photoresist throughout the surface of the substrate even with a small amount of photoresist, has been employed.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2001-188359 discloses an edge bead remover including propyleneglycol ether acetate and methyl α-hydroxyisobutyrate. However, this product cannot be used to the RRC process, although it may be used in EBR process and have excellent rework performance.
In addition, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2005-227770 discloses a thinner composition including propyleneglycol ether acetate and methyl 2-hydroxy-2-methyl propionate as well as ethyl lactate or ethyl 3-ethoxy propionate, as principal components, and further including a fluorine-based, non-ionic or ionic surfactant. However, if the surfactant is not contained, it is difficult to use the above composition in the RRC process. On the other hand, when the surfactant is included, the above composition may be employed in the RRC process, however, entail a problem of low rework performance since the surfactant remains on the surface of a wafer.
Accordingly, there is still a requirement for development of a treatment agent composition with high RRC efficiency while being sufficiently and reliably employed in the existing EBR process.

Thinner composition for improving coating and removing performance of resist


A laser diode assembly capable of guiding a laser beam to a predetermined direction by utilizing a reflecting surface which has an arbitrary angle with respect to a sub-mount. The assembly includes a first unit, a second unit, and a laser diode. The first unit has a first surface and a mounting surface inclined to the first surface. The second unit is made of a semiconductor substrate and is on the first unit. The second unit has a second surface and a reflecting surface that coincides with a (111) surface of the semiconductor substrate inclined to the second surface. The laser diode is on the second surface and irradiates a laser beam to the reflecting surface along a direction parallel to the second surface. The second unit is on the first unit in a manner that the second surface is disposed parallel to the mounting surface. thereby realizing an inclined angle of the reflecting surface with respect to the first surface of 45 degrees.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a laser diode assembly and more particularly to a laser diode assembly which is capable of guiding a laser beam to a direction perpendicular to the surface of a mount unit of the assembly.
2. Description of the Related Art
An edge emitting laser diode is known as a kind of laser diode assembly that is used to guide a laser beam to a direction parallel to the surface of the assembly. In order to transmit the laser beam by employing other optical components, such as an optical fiber, to the edge emitting laser diode, it is necessary to arrange an optical coupling unit such as a lens or a waveguide, or the optical fiber directly. to a vicinity of an exit of the laser beam. This arrangement makes it impossible to secure enough room to dispose a drive circuit, a beam detecting element, a beam emitting element, or a wire onto the assembly. This limits the flexible of designing the assembly. In addition. it is also impossible to miniaturize the assembly. by integrating the elements and the wires onto the same assembly. This constraint of arrangement becomes remarkable when laser diodes are integrated in high density onto the assembly in array manner.
With a surface emitting laser diode, on the contrary, high flexibility in designing can be achieved on wiring and integration, because an optical path needs not employed on the assembly. This can be advantageous of miniaturization and cost-efficiency of the assembly.
In recent years, an optical transmission system has been widely developed in order to realize a optical-subscriber system in the telecommunication area. In the optical transmission system. if a plastic optical fiber having a larger diameter can be utilized, the laser diode and the plastic optical fiber can be coupled directly without employing lenses. Accordingly, the number of parts on the assembly can be reduced
To simulate a surface emitting laser diode, a mirror reflects a laser beam from an edge emitting laser diode to the perpendicular direction. A conventional (100) silicon substrate is usually employed as the mirror. However, a (111) surface, which corresponds to the mirror surface, is known to have 54.74 degree angle with respect to the (100) surface. This is described, for example, by Akio Yoshikawa. xe2x80x98Laser-Detector-Hologram Unit for Thin Optical Pick-up Head of a CD Playerxe2x80x99 IEEE Transactions on Components, Packaging, and Manufacturing Technology Part B, Vol. 18, No. 2, May 1995 pp245-249. In order to obtain the laser beam to the perpendicular direction, a mirror having 45 degrees with respect to the surface of the substrate is required. Thus. the (111) surface of the mirror is manufactured to be 9.74 degrees off the (100) surface.
However, when the 45-degree-mirror is manufactured by etching of the 9.74-degree-off-angled (100) silicon substrate, the other surface which is simultaneously produced by etching has a 9.74-degree-added angle surface. This means that a mirror having a 64.47 degree angle with respect to the surface of the substrate is produced. Such a mirror having a 64.47 degree angle cannot be used as the surface emitting laser diode. Therefore. the number of sub-mounts having a useable mirror from a silicon wafer is reduced. Moreover. because a detecting surface of a photo detector placed on the sub-mount and an edge surface of the optical fiber are disposed in parallel, a laser beam which does not enter the photo detector but is reflected by both an upper surface of the sub-mount and the edge surface of the optical fiber enters the laser diode. This destabilizes the output of the laser diode.
The above discussion is focused on only the case when the laser beam is guided to the perpendicular direction with respect to the surface of the substrate. However. it is also difficult to guide the laser beam to arbitrary direction other than the perpendicular direction, as long as using such conventional and inexpensive silicon wafer which has fixed off angle and surface orientation of crystal is used.
In the conventional laser diode assembly as stated above, the 9.74-degree-off-angled (100) silicon substrate is used to produce the 45-degree-mirror of the (111) surface. However, unnecessary 64.47-degree-surface is simultaneously produced, and this makes impossible to increase the number of the sub-mount to be manufactured from a silicon wafer and thereby involving cost-increasing.
The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned circumstances and is intended to solve the above-mentioned problems. In particular, one purpose of the present invention is to provide a laser diode assembly capable of guiding the laser beam to a predetermined direction by utilizing the mirror surface which has arbitrary angle with respect to the sub-mount.
Additional purposes and advantages of the invention will be apparent to persons skilled in this field from the following description, or may be learned by practice of the invention.
The present invention provides a laser diode assembly including: a first unit having a first surface and a mounting surface inclined to the first surface: a second unit made of a semiconductor substrate on the first unit, the second unit having a second surface and a reflecting surface that coincides with a (111) surface of the semiconductor substrate inclined to the second surface; and a laser diode on the second surface for irradiating a laser beam to the reflecting surface along a direction parallel to the second surface; wherein the second surface is parallel to the mounting surface and an angle between the reflecting surface and the first surface is substantially 45 degrees.
An inclined angle of the mounting surface with respect to the first surface may be 19.48 degrees. and an inclined angle of the reflected surface with respect to the second surface may be 54.74 degrees. Similarly, an inclined angle of the mounting surface with respect to the first surface may be 38.94 degrees, and an inclined angle of the reflected surface with respect to the second surface may be 64.47 degrees.
The reflecting surface may be formed by an etching process. The second unit may include silicon, and the second surface may be a (100) silicon surface. Gold may be evaporated on the reflecting surface.
A step may be formed by the first surface and the mounting surface, and the step may be used to adjust at least one portion of the second unit.
The laser diode may be integrally manufactured on the second unit. A photo detector for detecting an optical signal may be disposed on the second unit
An optical transceiver material may be disposed for guiding the laser beam to a predetermined position. The optical transceiver material may include an optical fiber. The laser diode may include a red semiconductor laser diode or a blue semiconductor laser diode.
The present invention also provides a mount unit including a first surface; and a mounting surface adjacent to the first surface, the angle between the first surface and the second surface being greater than 0 degree and less than 90 degrees, wherein a mounted unit on the mounting surface has a second surface parallel to the mounting surface and a reflecting surface adjacent to the second surface, the angle between the reflecting surface and the first surface being substantially 45 degrees.
The present invention further provides an optical head apparatus for recording/reproducing information onto/from an optical recording medium. including an optical head capable of moving relative to the optical recording medium, the optical head including a first unit having a first surface and a mounting surface inclined to the first surface; and a second unit comprising a semiconductor substrate on the first unit and having a second surface and a reflecting surface that coincides with a (111) surface of the semiconductor substrate inclined to the second surface; a laser diode on the second surface of the optical head for irradiating a laser beam to the reflecting surface along a direction parallel to the second surface; and a lens for condensing the laser beam onto the optical recording medium, wherein the second surface of the second unit is parallel to the mounting surface, and an angle between the reflecting surface and the first surface is substantially 45 degrees.
The present invention also provides a transceiver apparatus having at least a pair of terminals for transmitting/receiving optical information, the terminal includes: a first unit having a first surface and a mounting surface inclined to the first surface; a second unit made of a semiconductor substrate on the first unit, having a second surface and a reflecting surface that coincides with a (111) surface of the semiconductor substrate inclined to the second surface and a laser diode on the second surface for irradiating a laser beam to the reflecting surface along a direction parallel to the second surface: wherein the second surface is parallel to the mounting surface, and an angle between the reflecting surface and the first surface is substantially 45 degrees.
Further purposes, features and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the detailed description of preferred embodiments that allows, when considered together with the accompanying figures of drawings.


A hearing aid anchoring fixture (104) for anchoring a direct bone conduction hearing aid (108) to the skull bone (106), comprising a threaded portion (110) that has at least one cutting edge (118). Each cutting edge (118) has an adjacent cavity (120) having a volume Vc. The threaded portion (110) has a thread depth dt being half of the difference between the maximum outer diameter d1 of the threaded portion (120) and the inner diameter d2 of the thread, where dt is at least 10% of the maximum outer diameter d1 of the threaded portion (110) and where dt is less than 20% of the maximum outer diameter d1 of the threaded portion (110). The fixture (104) may be equipped with a flange portion (114) that has an outer diameter d3 being greater than the maximum diameter d1 of the threaded portion (110).

Bone conduction hearing aids are essential for the rehabilitation of patients suffering from hearing losses for which traditional hearing aids are insufficient. Direct bone conduction hearing aids have a vibrating transducer that transmits vibrations directly to a fixture anchored in the bone, i.e. the skin does not take part in the transmission of the vibrations from the vibrator to the fixture in the bone. The most common type of such devices consists of an external hearing aid with a vibrating transducer which, through a coupling, is connected to a skin-penetrating abutment that has an interconnection to a screw shaped fixture anchored in the skull bone. A direct bone conduction hearing aid system may however be designed in other ways.
The fixture is usually made of titanium and is often designed with a flange to prevent the fixture from being pushed through the skull bone in case of a sudden accidental impact.
To insert the fixture into the skull bone a hole is first drilled in the bone. After that the fixture can be screwed into the hole directly since the fixture is traditionally equipped with cutting edges to prepare the thread in the bone. The bone shivers are collected in shiver spaces at the cutting edges on the fixture. If the bone is very hard, a screw tap may be used to prepare the thread or part of the thread before the fixture is inserted. The fixture is then integrated with the skull-bone. This process is called osseointegration. After around 3 months, the osseointegration is usually sufficiently strong so that the fixture can be loaded and used. To achieve a firm and stable anchoring for the hearing aid a strong osseointegration is essential. How well the fixture is anchored to the skull bone is determined by several factors such as the surface characteristics of the fixture, the mechanical design of the fixture and the area of the contact surface between the bone and the fixture. For the osseointegration process to be successful it is also important that the fixture is stable in the bone during the first 3 months when the osseointegration is established. The initial stability of the fixture in the bone is therefore also important for a successful treatment.
The shiver spaces, where the fixture is not in direct bone contact directly after fixture insertion, are also, after a successful osseointegration has taken place, filled with bone tissue that comes in direct contact with the fixture surface in these cavities.
To fixate the skin penetrating abutment to the fixture a connection screw is usually placed through the abutment and then screwed into a threaded hole in the fixture. It is important that this connection screw is sufficiently big to ensure a strong fixation of the abutment.
The thickness of the skull bone is usually between 3–5 mm and the thickness determines the appropriate length of the fixture. A wide fixture offers more contact with the bone but, on the other hand, if it is too wide and short it might be difficult to insert. Therefore, the diameter of the fixtures is usually in the range 3.5–5 mm. To ensure that the biomechanical and osseointegration properties of the fixture are functioning well, the pitch of the thread is often chosen to be in the range of 0.5 to 0.8 mm.
Existing fixtures used for anchoring direct bone conduction hearing aids have a depth of the thread of only around 0.3 mm. The depth of the thread on existing fixtures is less than 10% of the maximum outer diameter of the threaded portion of the fixture which limits the possible area of the contact surface between the fixture and the bone and limits the strength of the anchoring in the bone.
Due to the small depth of the thread on existing fixtures, the drilled hole in the bone has to have a diameter which is quite close to the inner diameter of the thread. Otherwise, there would be a low initial stability of the fixture in the bone. When inserting a fixture in a hole that has a diameter which is quite close to the inner diameter of the thread quite a lot of bone shivers are generated. These bone shivers must be collected mainly in the shivers space cavities at the cutting edges on the fixture. Therefore, these shiver space cavities must be quite big. However, since the fixture includes an inner hole for the connection of, for example, an abutment connection screw, it may be difficult to do the shiver spaces sufficiently deep without interfering with the inner hole in the fixture. This compromise leads to a less optimal design of existing fixtures.
Existing fixtures used for anchoring direct bone conduction hearing aids have a simple quite smooth machined titanium surface. The existing fixtures also have a very thin titanium oxide layer on its surface. These surface characteristics do not present the optimal properties to achieve maximum osseointegration.
Existing fixtures has also a flat surface on the side of the flange facing the threaded portion. A common problem that occurs when the fixture has osseointegrate is that the bone closest to the flange is resorbed which gives a lower stability of the fixture in the bone.
Due to the less optimal macroscopic and microscopic properties of existing fixtures, patients experience several clinical problems. One problem is fixtures that do not osseointegrate properly from the beginning so that the patient has to come back to the hospital to have a new surgical procedure performed. Another problem is that fixtures that have osseointegrated with the bone become loose in the bone due to mechanical load on the fixture. The mechanical load may for example be pulling or rotational forces. In this case a new surgery has also to be performed. The problem with existing fixtures is that the design and the thread profiles have mainly been copied from standard mechanical screws rather than being designed for its clinical, biomechanical and osseointeration purpose. Designing an anchoring system for a lifelong medical rehabilitation requires paying attention to the biological implant interactions with the bone tissue. This is a demanding development work where the lack of optimized key design parameters may lead to the need for patients coming in for surgical procedures, which could have been avoided if the fixture design would have been more favorable from a biomechanical and biological point of view. The existing fixture designs have and have always had problems with for example fixtures coming loose from the skull bone, due to an insufficient interaction with the bone tissue.
There is a need for a more effective anchoring and fixture arrangements that do not have the deficiencies described above.


A method of processing management frame for a first communication device in a network system is disclosed. The method comprises maintaining a device table including at least an identity of at least a communication device of the network system, and at least a medium access control (MAC) address corresponding to the identity, and determining whether to perform management frame transmission to a second communication device of the network system according to the existence of the identity of the second communication device in the device table.

With rapidly growing of user's needs for accessing digital contents everywhere, various communication technologies have been developed for transmission of the digital contents. These communication technologies may be developed for different environments, different transmission speeds and/or different user requirements. In addition, several medium access control (MAC) protocols are established based on different communication standards, which define different communication methods based on heterogeneous mediums. For example, IEEE 1901 communication standard is used for power line (PLC), IEEE 802.11 communication standard is used for wireless communication (i.e. WiFi), IEEE 802.3 communication standard is used for Ethernet, and Multimedia over Coax Alliance (MoCA) communication standard is used for coaxial cables, and so on.
As a result, a MAC abstraction sub-layer is developed for convergence of these various media. Please refer to FIG. 1, which is a schematic diagram of an exemplary communication device 10 in a data plane. The communication device 10 may be a mobile phone, laptop, tablet computer, electronic book, modem, or portable computer system, and uses various media for communication. In FIG. 1, the MAC abstraction sub-layer is arranged between an upper layer and a plurality of MAC types of a MAC layer each corresponding to a medium specification (i.e. PLC MAC, WiFi MAC, MoCA MAC, or Ethernet MAC). Each of the MAC types of the MAC layer includes a service access point (SAP), such that the MAC abstraction sub-layer can communicate with the MAC layer via the corresponding SAPs. The upper layer can be a network layer, a transport layer, an application layer or any layer responsible for processing the signalings and the packets received from the MAC abstraction sub-layer, and signalings and packets to be transmitted via the MAC abstraction sub-layer. In addition, the communication device 10 in the data plane includes a plurality of PHY types of a PHY layer. The plurality of PHY types of the PHY layer include an Ethernet PHY, an WiFi PHY, a PLC PHY and a MoCA PHY, which is complied with the IEEE 802.3 communication standard, IEEE 802.11 communication standard, IEEE 1901 communication standard and MoCA communication standard, respectively. Thus, the packet of the WiFi MAC, Ethernet MAC, PLC MAC or MoCA MAC can be received/transmitted through a corresponding PHY type of the PHY layer.
Further, the MAC abstraction sub-layer provides management functions (i.e. device management, or QoS negotiation) between communication devices. To implement management functions, some management frame should be exchanged between communication devices. However, there is no guideline for management frame process. Without clear specification, the MAC abstraction sub-layer may not know how to generate management frames and exchange management frames. In addition, management frame format, management frame delivery path, and management frame exchange flow are not defined for management functions.

Method of processing management frame and related communication device


Disclosed is a pentamethine cyanine dye of formula (I) and a method of producing the same, where the dye is suitable as a fluorescent material for the STORM and SOFI super-resolution imaging.

Recently, with the development of molecular fluorescence detection and imaging technology, numerous powerful tools have been developed for the research and detection in the field of life science, such as the detection instruments based on molecular fluorescence imaging, confocal fluorescence imaging microscopes and fluorescence spectrum/lifetime instruments. Based on the above theory, the super-resolution imaging technology has achieved a great progress to break through the limitation of optical diffraction and obtain a fine structure imaging of small targets with a size smaller than 200 nm.
Stochastic optical reconstruction microscopy (STORM) is a novel super-resolution imaging method which is greatly dependent on the performance of fluorescent materials. At present, Alexa647 is generally considered to be a more suitable fluorescent material for STORM due to the better performance, but the use of these materials is limited due to the small quantities. Moreover, there are still some defects in the application of the super-resolution imaging in the analysis of living cells, affecting the normal use. In addition, for the super-resolution optical fluctuation imaging (SOFI), the fluorescent materials are required to have a photo-induced blinking effect, but the suitable fluorescent materials are currently unavailable.

Pentamethine cyanine dye and preparation method therefor


The invention concerns novel organometallic complexes comprising cationic heterocyclic carbenes. It also concerns a method for preparing said complexes from dicationic heterocyclic precursor compounds. It further concerns the use as catalysts of said organometallic complexes for a certain number of chemical reactions.

The present invention relates to novel organometallic complexes comprising cationic heterocyclic carbenes.
It also relates, as means for the preparation of such organometallic complexes, to dicationic heterocyclic precursor compounds.
A further subject-matter of the invention is a process for the preparation of the above organometallic complexes.
Finally, it also comprises the use, as catalysts, of the said organometallic complexes in a number of chemical reactions.
Organometallic complexes comprising heterocyclic carbenes have already been disclosed in the prior art. Thus, Patent EP-A-0,721,953 discloses complexes comprising noncationic heterocyclic carbenes derived from imidazoline or from pyrazoline and a metal from Groups 8, 9 and 10 of the Periodic Classification of the Elements. Patent EP-A-0,798,041 discloses complexes comprising noncationic heterocyclic carbenes derived from various compounds having 5-, 6- or 7-membered rings and comprising one or more nitrogen and/or sulphur atoms and a metal chosen from palladium, rhodium, nickel, ruthenium and cobalt.
Such complexes are very stable compounds which additionally have the advantage of not forming toxic byproducts during their decomposition. However, they exhibit the disadvantage of not being able to be used in an excessively acidic medium and complexes of metals with the 0 degree of oxidation are not soluble in water, which limits the field of their use.
The present invention therefore first of all relates to organometallic complexes comprising heterocyclic carbenes, characterized in that they correspond to the general formula (I)
[(Z+Xxe2x88x92)mMLn]Yxe2x80x83xe2x80x83(I)
in which:
Z+ represents a 1,2,4-triazolium-5-ylidene ion, at least a portion of the atoms of the ring of which are substituted by hydrocarbon-comprising radicals,
L represents a ligand, which can be ionic or neutral,
M represents a metal chosen from the transition elements from Groups 1b, 2b, 3b, 4b, 5b, 6b, 7b and 8 of the Periodic Classification of the Elements as published in xe2x80x9cHandbook of Chemistry and Physics, 51st Editionxe2x80x9d (1970-1971) of The Chemical Rubber Company,
Xxe2x88x92 represents an organic or inorganic anion,
m represents an integer from 1 to 6,
n represents an integer from 0 to 5,
the sum of m and of n is equal to or less than 6,
Y represents an anion or a cation such that the metal complex is electrically neutral.
For convenience, compounds of formula (I) also including the Y counterion are known as organometallic complexes or metal complexes in the present text.
The 1,2,4-triazolium-5-ylidene ions Z+ correspond to the general formula (II):
in which R1, R2, R3 and R4, which are identical or different, represent:
a linear or branched alkyl radical or a cycloalkyl radical,
an aryl radical,
an alkyl radical which comprises one or more substituents, such as an aryl radical, an alkoxy radical, a halogen atom or a hydrophilic group, for example:
xe2x80x94COOM1, xe2x80x94SO3M1, or xe2x80x94PO3M1, M1 representing an inorganic or organic cationic residue chosen from a proton, cations derived from alkali metals or alkaline earth metals, or ammonium cations xe2x80x94N(R)4, in the formula of which cations the R symbols, which are identical or different, represent a hydrogen atom or an alkyl radical having from 1 to 4 carbon atoms,
xe2x80x94N(R)3Ya, in the formula of which the R symbols, which are identical or different, represent a hydrogen atom or an alkyl radical having from 1 to 12 carbon atoms and Ya represents an inorganic or organic anion,
xe2x80x94OH,
an aryl or aralkyl or cycloalkyl radical which comprises, on the ring, one or more substituents, such as an alkyl radical, an alkoxy radical, a halogen atom or a hydrophilic group, for example:
xe2x80x94COOM1, xe2x80x94SO3M1, or xe2x80x94PO3M1, M1 representing an inorganic or organic cationic residue chosen from a proton, cations derived from alkali metals or alkaline earth metals, or ammonium cations xe2x80x94N(R)4, in the formula of which cations the R symbols, which are identical or different, represent a hydrogen atom or an alkyl radical having from 1 to 12 carbon atoms,
xe2x80x94N(R)3Ya, in the formula of which the R symbols, which are identical or different, represent a hydrogen atom or an alkyl radical having from 1 to 12 carbon atoms and Ya represents an inorganic or organic anion,
xe2x80x94OH,
R3 also represents a hydrogen atom, R1 and/or R4 can also each represent an organic ligand residue bonded to the nitrogen atom of the 1,2,4-triazolium-5-ylidene ion via an alkylene or arylene radical, it being possible for the said ligand residue to be a phosphite residue, a phosphonite residue, a phosphinite residue, a phosphine residue or an amine residue which is tertiary and aliphatic, cyclo-aliphatic, aromatic or heterocyclic and which acts as ligand L to the metal M.
The preceding organic ligand residues can derive, for example, from phenyl or alkyl phosphites, substituted or unsubstituted by substituents as defined above, or from phenyl or alkyl phosphinites, substituted or unsubstituted by substituents as defined above, or from phenyl or alkyl phosphonites, substituted or unsubstituted by substituents as defined above, or from phenylphosphines or alkylphosphines, substituted or unsubstituted by substituents as defined above.
In such a case, the 1,2,4-triazolium-5-ylidene ion substituted by a R1 and/or R4 radical as defined above is a bidentate or tridentate ligand.
L represents an ionic ligand, such as a halide or a cyanide, or a neutral ligand, such as carbon monoxide, an isonitrile, a phosphine, an organic phosphite, a phosphonate or a phosphonite.
M preferably represents a metal chosen from nickel, cobalt, iron, ruthenium, rhodium, palladium, osmium, iridium, platinum, copper, silver, gold, zinc, cadmium or mercury.
These metals can be in their various degrees of oxidation, including the 0 degree of oxidation.
The Xxe2x88x92 anions are organic or inorganic anions, such as, for example, halides, but are preferably chosen from weakly coordinating anions which are defined with respect to the metal M under consideration. They predominantly constitute the counterions of the 1,2,4-triazolium-5-ylidene ions.
Mention may be made, as non-limiting examples of such weakly coordinating anions, of trifluoromethanesulphonate, tetrafluoroborate, hexafluorophosphate, aluminium tetrachloride, aluminium tetrabromide, aluminium tetrafluoride, aluminium tetraiodide, gallium tetrachloride, gallium tetrabromide, gallium tetrafluoride or gallium tetraiodide.
Another subject-matter of the present invention is the use of dicationic heterocyclic compounds as precursors in the preparation of the organometallic complexes of general formula (I). These dicationic heterocyclic compounds correspond to the general formula (III)
in which
the R1, R2, R3 and R4 symbols have the meanings shown above for the 1,2,4-triazolium-5-ylidene ions of formula (II),
xe2x80x94X31  represents an anion such as those shown for the general formula (I).
The dicationic heterocyclic compounds of general formula (III) can be prepared by reacting a compound of formula XR2, in which X and R2 have the meanings shown above, with a triazole derivative carrying the R1, R3 and R4 substituents. The preparation can also be carried out in several stages, each stage consisting in reacting a triazole derivative with a compound of formula XR1 or XR3 or XR4, depending on the substituent which it is desired to introduce into the formula of the triazole employed, in order to obtain the dicationic heterocyclic compound of formula (III). The reaction conditions can be adapted from the procedure described in the article by T. J. Curphey and K. S. Prasad, Journal of Org. Chem., 1972, 37, 2259.
The organometallic complexes of formula (I) can be prepared by reacting a dicationic heterocyclic compound of general formula (III) with a compound of the metal M in the presence of an inorganic or organic base. Such a base can be the associated anion of the compound of the metal M or can be added independently to the reaction mixture. This reaction can be carried out in liquid medium, generally by adding the compound of the metal M and, if appropriate, the inorganic or organic base to the solution or suspension of the compound (III). Very clearly, the order of introduction of the various reactants can be modified. The reaction can be carried out at room temperature or, preferably, at a temperature of 25xc2x0 C. to 150xc2x0 C., for example. This temperature can conveniently be that of the reflux of the liquid in which the synthesis is carried out. The separation of the complex of formula (I) can be carried out according to the methods commonly used in chemistry, for example by filtration, by centrifuging or by extraction. The complexes of formula (I) and the dicationic heterocyclic compounds of formula (III) are generally characterized by Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) or by Infrared or by X-ray diffraction.
The organometallic complexes of formula (I) can be used as catalysts in numerous chemical reactions.
The majority of the organometallic complexes of formula (I) as well as the dicationic heterocyclic compounds of formula (III) have little solubility in or are insoluble in the majority of nonpolar or only slightly polar organic solvents, such as alkanes, cycloalkanes, haloalkanes, aromatic hydrocarbons, alkylaromatic hydrocarbons or ethers. On the other hand, they are soluble in polar solvents. Thus, the dicationic compounds are soluble in particular in tetrahydrofuran, dimethyl sulphoxide (DMSO), nitrites (for example, acetonitrile) or water. Thus, the organometallic complexes of the invention are soluble in particular in nitrites (for example, acetonitrile), DMSO or water. These properties make possible easier separation of these various compounds, in particular by liquid/liquid extraction. Furthermore, they make it possible to carry out catalysis in two-phase medium.
Mention may be made, as non-limiting examples of such reactions, of the hydrosilylation of alkenes or of alkynes, in particular in the presence of ruthenium complexes, the hydrosilylation of ketones in the presence of ruthenium or rhodium complexes, the Heck reaction in the presence of palladium complexes, the hydrogenation of olefins, aldehydes, acids, enamides and nitroaromatic compounds in the presence of ruthenium, rhodium, platinum or palladium complexes, the hydroformylation and the hydrocarbonylation of olefins in the presence of rhodium complexes, the hydrocyanation of olefins in the presence of nickel complexes, the synthesis of furan in the presence of ruthenium complexes, the metathesis of olefins in the presence of ruthenium complexes, or the polymerization of acrylates in the presence of nickel complexes.

Organometallic complexes comprising cationic heterocyclic carbenes