In a bridge unit for connecting branch LANs through a trunk LAN, of address information registered in an address translation table, address information associated with a station not subjected to message transmission or reception for a predetermined period of time is recognized as address information to be deleted from the address translation table After this recognization, when a message is to be transmitted to a destination station represented by the station address included in the address information to be deleted, message transmission is performed by using the address information to be deleted When a response message is not received from the destination station, the address information to be deleted is deleted from the address translation table, and the message is retransmitted by broadcast.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for managing address information utilized in message transmission and reception.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a conventional network system wherein a plurality of branch LANs (Local Area Networks) are connected to each other through a trunk LAN by a plurality of bridge units, when a message is to be transmitted from a station on a predetermined branch LAN to a station on another branch LAN, it is necessary not to transmit this message to branch LANs not associated with message transmission. For this purpose, the message must be transmitted using address information including a pair of a station address of the station on the branch LAN and a bridge port address of an interface of the bridge unit to which this branch LAN is connected. In general, the address pair are registered in an address translation table by a hash method or the like, and when the message is transmitted from the predetermined station to another station by broadcast, or its response message is to be transmitted, the address pair are automatically changed.
Each station of the network system is not always permanently connected to a desired branch LAN and may be connected to the station of another branch LAN upon movement of the station. In this case, the bridge port address associated with the station address is changed. When the address information of the moved station is information prior to movement and registered in the address translation table, the message is transmitted to the branch LAN connected to the station prior to the movement. In this case, a response message is not transmitted from the destination station. In general, when a response message is not received, the same transmission message is repeatedly transmitted. When no response message is received upon a lapse of a predetermined period of time, error processing is performed. If retry or error processing is performed upon movement of the destination station, transmission efficiency of the entire network system is degraded, and a load on the network system is undesirably increased.
When a station is moved in a conventional network system, this station will not be used for a predetermined period of time. A station which does not receive or transmit a message for a predetermined period of time is recognized as a moved station (or failed station), and the address information not utilized for the predetermined period of time is deleted from the address translation table.
According to this conventional method address information associated with a station which is not frequently used in a network system is deleted from the address translation table in addition to the address information associated with the moved station. After deletion of the address information, since a message for this station is transmitted by broadcast, this message is also transmitted to branch LANs not associated with the current message transmission, thus undesirably increasing the load of the network.
Strong demand therefore has arisen for an apparatus capable of transmitting a message to a desired station by utilizing the address information associated with the desired station not subjected to message transmission/reception for the predetermined period of time without immediately deleting this address information from the address translation table.

Method and apparatus for managing address information utilized in message transmission and reception


Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a touch control substrate, a method for manufacturing the same and a display device. The touch control substrate includes a base and touch wiring lines on the base. The touch wiring line includes a plurality of hollowed patterns defined by a plurality of metal lines.

As rapid development of display technologies, touch screens are widely used. According to different induction modes, the touch screens may be divided into four types including resistance type, capacitance type infrared type and acoustic type. The capacitance type touch screen has become the mainstream of the touch screen market and the future development trend.
Currently, the capacitance type touch screen includes touch electrodes and touch wiring lines. The touch electrodes are arranged on an array substrate or a color substrate. The touch wiring lines are distributed at a periphery of the touch screen. Each touch electrode is needed to be connected with the touch wiring line. However, the touch wiring lines in the capacitance type touch screen in the related art occupies a large area, which cannot meet design requirements of narrow-bezel products.

Display device with touch control wiring liens having hole patterns and method of manufacturing thereof

HEFEI XINSHENG OPTOELECTRONICS TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.


An improvement in process for reinforcing a structure against fatigue failure and the resulting structure are set forth. The structure comprises joined weldable structural portions having adjoining surfaces which meet at a junction and diverge therefrom to form a gap between each other. A brace with weldable terminal feet spans the gap. Each such foot rests against a structural portion, and the brace is plug-welded to at least one of the structural portions through a hole in a foot, or a hole in a structural portion or holes in each such portion where they interface. The invention is especially efficient for bracing an air chamber bracket that is designed for automotive use. A preferred rigid structure has the feet welded at both ends.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to weldable structures such as metal joints, bends and brackets that are braced with gussets, specifically welded-on type gussets that improve the resistance of such structures to fatigue failure from vibration, and to an improved process for effecting the bracing.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The conventional welded-on metal gusset bracing a rigid angular joining between a pair of diverging metal surfaces against fatigue failure from vibration is transverse to (usually normal to) and on edge towards both such metal surfaces. Such "erect" or "plate-type" gusset is a triangle or trapezoid that typically fills in all or most of the angle between such surfaces where they intersect. Such gusset ordinarily is secured by boxing it with fillet weld beads, that is the beads are deposited all along the side edges and the far end edges of the gusset where it meets the metal surfaces being braced. The time required to so weld, for example, a mild steel trapezoidal gusset of this type that is approximately 5/16 inch thick, is about three inches long on its longest side, and reaches down to about one-half inch above the fillet-welded right angle joint between two steel members, is about three minutes using manually a gas metal arc weld (GMAW) method skillfully.
The instant process has as a principal virtue the speeding-up of the welding process considerably, and this without losing fatigue resistance of the resulting gusseted joint in comparison to the same joint having a conventional erect gusset of the same thickness and maximum span. Additionally, the amount of metal in the instant gusset structure for the same service can be less than that in the conventional event gusset while attaining essentially the same or better operating performance. Thus, the instant structure represents appreciable economy and speed of assembly, as well as simplicity and versatility of gusset design, manufacture, and attachment onto the structure.
The invention utilizes plug welds. A plug weld is a deposit of weld metal inside a hole (not necessarily circular in cross-section) that goes clear through one weldable metal piece and abuts another weldable metal piece. The weld connects the two pieces. Such welds often substantially fill the weld hole, but need not do so to be effective; a weld bead around the inner periphery at the base of the weld hole in one piece of metal where it abuts the other can be quite effective for many of the instant structures.
Plug welds in various configurations have been used heretofore to make connections between various metal pieces, to make elements for various construction units, and to make marine piling connections. However, to depart from the conventional erect gusset with its fillet welding attachment to the surfaces being braced, to employ a footed type between joined diverging surfaces, and to plugweld the feet in place to brace such surfaces against fatigue failure is believed novel as well as being surprisingly economic and effective.

Plug-welded automotive bracket for an air chamber

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Instrumentation for implanting an intervertebral disc replacement device includes an insertion handle comprising a shaft having a proximal end and a distal end and an engagement member disposed at the distal end of the shaft and operable to detachably engage an insertion plate that maintains first and second members of an intervertebral disc replacement device in registration with one another for substantially simultaneous insertion into an intervertebral disc space of a spinal column. The invention also comprising a method for replacing at least a portion of an intervertebral disc in a spinal column, comprising the steps of removing the portion of the intervertebral disc from the spinal column and manipulating an insertion handle that is detachably engaged with an insertion plate that is coupled to first and second members of an intervertebral disc replacement device such that the first and second members may be substantially, simultaneously inserted into an intervertebral disc space of the spinal column, wherein the first and second members are engageable with and operable to permit the vertebral bones to articulate with respect to one another.

The structure of the intervertebral disc disposed between the cervical bones in the human spine comprises a peripheral fibrous shroud (the annulus) which circumscribes a spheroid of flexibly deformable material (the nucleus). The nucleus comprises a hydrophilic, elastomeric cartilaginous substance that cushions and supports the separation between the bones while also permitting articulation of the two vertebral bones relative to one another to the extent such articulation is allowed by the other soft tissue and bony structures surrounding the disc. The additional bony structures that define pathways of motion in various modes include the posterior joints (the facets) and the lateral intervertebral joints (the unco-vertebral joints). Soft tissue components, such as ligaments and tendons, constrain the overall segmental motion as well.
Traumatic, genetic, and long term wearing phenomena contribute to the degeneration of the nucleus in the human spine. This degeneration of this critical disc material, from the hydrated, elastomeric material that supports the separation and flexibility of the vertebral bones, to a flattened and inflexible state, has profound effects on the mobility (instability and limited ranges of appropriate motion) of the segment, and can cause significant pain to the individual suffering from the condition. Although the specific causes of pain in patients suffering from degenerative disc disease of the cervical spine have not been definitively established, it has been recognized that pain may be the result of neurological implications (nerve fibers being compressed) and/or the subsequent degeneration of the surrounding tissues (the arthritic degeneration of the facet joints) as a result of their being overloaded.
Traditionally, the treatment of choice for physicians caring for patients who suffer from significant degeneration of the cervical intervertebral disc is to remove some, or all, of the damaged disc. In instances in which a sufficient portion of the intervertebral disc material is removed, or in which much of the necessary spacing between the vertebrae has been lost (significant subsidence), restoration of the intervertebral separation is required.
Unfortunately, until the advent of spine arthroplasty devices, the only methods known to surgeons to maintain the necessary disc height necessitated the immobilization of the segment. Mobilization is generally achieved by attaching metal plates to the anterior or posterior elements of the cervical spine, and the insertion of some osteoconductive material (autograft, allograft, or other porous material) between the adjacent vertebrae of the segment. This immobilization and insertion of osteoconductive material has been utilized in pursuit of a fusion of the bones, which is a procedure carried out on tens of thousands of pain suffering patients per year.
This sacrifice of mobility at the immobilized, or fused, segment, however, is not without consequences. It was traditionally held that the patient's surrounding joint segments would accommodate any additional articulation demanded of them during normal motion by virtue of the fused segment's immobility. While this is true over the short-term (provided only one, or at most two, segments have been fused), the effects of this increased range of articulation demanded of these adjacent segments has recently become a concern. Specifically, an increase in the frequency of returning patients who suffer from degeneration at adjacent levels has been reported.
Whether this increase in adjacent level deterioration is truly associated with rigid fusion, or if it is simply a matter of the individual patient's predisposition to degeneration is unknown. Either way, however, it is clear that a progressive fusion of a long sequence of vertebrae is undesirable from the perspective of the patient's quality of life as well as from the perspective of pushing a patient to undergo multiple operative procedures.
While spine arthroplasty has been developing in theory over the past several decades, and has even seen a number of early attempts in the lumbar spine show promising results, it is only recently that arthoplasty of the spine has become a truly realizable promise. The field of spine arthroplasty has several classes of devices. The most popular among these are: (a) the nucleus replacements, which are characterized by a flexible container filled with an elastomeric material that can mimic the healthy nucleus; and (b) the total disc replacements, which are designed with rigid endplates which house a mechanical articulating structure that attempts to mimic and promote the healthy segmental motion.
Among these solutions, the total disc replacements have begun to be regarded as the most probable long-term treatments for patients having moderate to severe lumbar disc degeneration. In the cervical spine, it is likely that these mechanical solutions will also become the treatment of choice.
It is an object of the invention to provide instrumentation and methods that enable surgeons to more accurately, easily, and efficiently implant fusion or non-fusion cervical disc replacement devices. Other objects of the invention not explicitly stated will be set forth and will be more clearly understood in conjunction with the descriptions of the preferred embodiments disclosed hereafter.

Instrumentation and methods for use in implementing a cervical disc replacement device


Disclosed is an air cleaner for a vehicle. The air cleaner for a vehicle according to the exemplary embodiment includes: a body portion which has an air inlet formed at one side of the body portion so as to suck air; a cover portion which is coupled to an upper portion of the body portion and has an air outlet formed at one side of the cover portion; an element which is inserted into or withdrawn from the interior of the body portion and the cover portion through a receiving opening that is formed at one side of the body portion and the cover portion; a height adjustment handle which is rotatably coupled to a lower portion of the element and allows the element to be raised upward and lowered downward by a rotation of the height adjustment handle; and an element cover which is coupled to one side of the cover portion so as to prevent the element from being moved away from the receiving opening, and has a locking member which is provided at one surface of the element cover and has elastic force.

In general, a vehicle generates power by mixing fuel and air and combusting the mixture of fuel and air. That is, fuel stored in a fuel tank of a vehicle passes through various types of fuel supply devices, is mixed with air introduced from the outside, and then is injected into a cylinder of an engine, and at the same time, the engine is operated by repeating intake, compression, combustion, and exhaust strokes, and thereby, the vehicle obtains power.
As described above, a predetermined amount of air is needed to drive the engine, and air is supplied from the outside of the vehicle. That is, air flows into an air cleaner housing from the outside of the vehicle, flows toward an intake manifold through an air intake hose that is connected to the air cleaner housing, and then is supplied into the engine.
That is, the intake manifold is formed so that air sucked from the outside passes through a filter and then flows toward the opposite side via the air cleaner, and purified air is supplied into the engine after filtering dust and impurities included in the air using the filter, thereby supplying air required for combustion.
FIG. 1 is a view schematically illustrating an air cleaner 1 in the related art. Referring to FIG. 1, the air cleaner 1 in the related art includes a body portion 10 which has an air inlet 12 formed at one side of the body portion 10, a cover portion 20 which is coupled to an upper portion of the body portion 10 and has an outlet 22 formed at one side of the cover portion 20, an element 30 which is interposed between the body portion 10 and the cover portion 20.
In the air cleaner 1 having the aforementioned configuration, air flows into the air cleaner 1 through the air inlet 12 formed in the body portion 10, the air flowing into the air cleaner 1 passes through the element 30 so as to filter impurities, and thereafter, the air is supplied into the engine through the outlet 22 formed in the cover portion 20.
There is a problem in that when the air cleaner 1 is used for a long period of time, a large amount of impurities is attached to the element 30, and thereby, the air cleaner 1 does not properly perform a filtering function. Therefore, in order to filter air, the element 30, which is installed in the body portion 10 and the cover portion 20, needs to be replaced by a new element after a predetermined time has passed.
However, because the body portion 10 and the cover portion 20 of the air cleaner 1 in the related art are coupled to each other by bolts, the bolts, which fix four corners of the body portion 10 and the cover portion 20, needs to be removed to replace the element 30, and therefore, there are problems in that it is inconvenient to replace the element 30, and it takes a long time to replace the element 30.
In addition, because in the air cleaner 1 in the related art, the element 30 is positioned such that the element 30 merely lies on an upper side of the body portion 10, there are problems in that when air flows in from a lower portion of the element 30, that is, through the air inlet 12 of the body portion 10, the element 30 is shaken by flow pressure of the air, and the body portion 10 and the cover portion 20 collide with each other, which causes vibrating noise.
Accordingly, in order to resolve the aforementioned problem in the related art, the present applicant filed Korean Patent Laid-Open Application No. 10-2013-0061599, entitled "Air Cleaner for Vehicle". However, the aforementioned technology has a merit in that the air cleaner 1 is mounted in an air cleaner housing so as to be detachable like a drawer structure such that the air cleaner 1 may be easily and conveniently replaced, but has a problem in that because an element is not securely fixed when flow pressure occurs in the housing, which causes vibrating noise.
Therefore, the present applicant has studied an air cleaner for a vehicle, which may resolve the aforementioned problems in the related art.


An optical amplifier suitable for use in optical communication systems such as for telecommunications or cable television provides, for purposes of wavelength division multiplexed communications, the ability to amplify optical signals in both the C band, L band, and S band using conventional EDFA amplifiers. The S band, normally not amplifiable by EDFAs, here is amplified by converting the S band signal to a C band optical signal, providing optical amplification by an EDFA, then reconverting the amplified C band optical signal back to the S band in the same or a subsequent amplifier stage. The wavelength converters are, for instance, periodically poled lithium niobate devices using three-wave mixing, and employing difference frequency generation techniques.

This invention relates to optical communications and more specifically to amplification of optical signals.
Optical communications are an important field. Typically optical signals are carried on optical fibers from a transmitter to a receiver. Such systems typically include optical amplifiers that amplify the signals in the optical (not electrical) regime. Such systems are used, for instance, in telecommunications and cable television. The growing demand for more bandwidth (ability to carry more information on a particular fiber) has expanded the use of what is called wavelength division multiplexing. This means one fiber carries simultaneously optical signals at several different wavelengths (frequencies). Presently available optical equipment including the transmitters, receivers and optical amplifiers typically operates in the spectrum of 1530-1625 nanometers. The most commonly used portion of this spectrum is the C band which is 1530-1565 nanometers. Immediately above the C band is the L band which is about 1565-1625 nanometers. The S band is below the C band at about 1460-1530 nanometers. Most presently available optical equipment operates in the C band. One reason for this is that one of the key components, which are the optical amplifiers, are typically erbium-doped fiber amplifiers (EDFA). An EDFA includes a length of optical fiber doped with the element erbium and which is pumped with a pump laser. These erbium-doped fiber amplifiers typically amplify wavelengths in the C band. Erbium-doped fiber amplifiers also can amplify wavelengths in the L band. However, for physical reasons they are not capable of amplifying wavelengths in the S band. This is a significant drawback since other types of optical amplifiers have major shortcomings and it is very desirable to use the S band in wavelength division multiplexed optical communication systems. However, this shortcoming of EDFA""s generally prevents that. Note that a typical optical communication system requires amplification approximately every 80 kilometers of optical fiber due to signal losses in the fiber. It is of course possible to amplify signals in the electrical domain using a regenerator which converts the optical signal to an electrical signal, amplifies the electrical signal, and then reconverts it to an optical signal. However, this process involves its own losses and the regenerators are complex and expensive, so it is desirable to avoid their use if possible.
Hence, in the prior art there still remains the problem of the inability to effectively use the S band for optical communication without converting the signal into the electrical regime and reconverting it back to the optical regime.
In accordance with this invention, an optical amplifier is provided which allows amplification in the optical regime of S band optical signals. In one embodiment this is done by taking the S band signal, converting it using an optical wavelength converter to a C band wavelength signal, amplifying the C band signal using an EDFA, then reconverting the amplified C band signal back into an S band signal. This uses a first wavelength converter which converts the S band signal to the C band and a second wavelength converter which converts the amplified C band signal back to the S band. Typically, the amplifier in addition to operating in the S band also includes paths for C band and L band signals which themselves are amplified using their own EDFA, without conversion.
In another embodiment, the C band and S band signals are each converted to the other band in one amplifier stage, the converted signals are propagated along a span of fiber, and then the converted signals are reconverted to their original bands in the next amplifier stage. In each stage only one of the C band or S band signals is amplified. The L band signals similarly are amplified in every other amplifier stage. This requires somewhat shorter spans of fiber between stages than other embodiments but provides better power balance.
The conversion of the S band to the C band and back again is performed completely in the optical regime in these embodiments. Moreover, such a system allows wavelength division multiplexing of S band, C band, and L band signals using coarse demultiplexers and multiplexers to separate the three bands and amplify them each using a separate path including an EDFA. The multiplexing and demultiplexing are performed using conventional optical components.
The wavelength converters used to convert the S band to C band and vice versa are, for instance, optical devices based on non-linear optical materials which shift entire bands of wavelengths to the desired other band. One example of such a device is a converter employing difference frequency generation (DFG) techniques in a PPLN (periodically poled lithium niobate) waveguide.

Optical amplifier using wavelength converter


A distributed system has a multiplicity of nodes. A group of the nodes subscribe to a group services process. The group is subject to dissolving. A list of persistent subscribers to the group is maintained. Subscriptions to members and states of the group that are persistent subscribers do not terminate in response to the group being dissolved. The persistent subscribers automatically receive a notice in response to the group being reestablished and do not need to re-subscribe to the group.

The present invention is generally directed to the monitoring of memberships and the states of one group or groups in a single system or a cluster system or cluster systems, such as in a multi-node computer system and its application to a number of such environments including its application to Group Services.
A group is an abstract collection of the specific entities like network adapters, cluster nodes, or distributed application processes in a clustered system. For example, an Ethernet adapter group represents a set of all Ethernet adapters in a cluster, and a cluster-aware application "X" may consist of a set of processes of the application "X" in a cluster.
The membership of the group refers to a set of each element in a group. A membership of an Ethernet adapter group may be a list of IP addresses that are in the cluster. Typically an active (or current) membership refers to the members that are active in a cluster (e.g., UP, reachable, etc). In other words, if a member is in the active membership, it is considered as working, active, reachable, or detectable in the cluster. If not, the member is considered as down, inactive, unreachable, or undetectable.
Many cluster-aware applications subscribe to and monitor the several memberships without joining them, and decide the next action based on the membership changes or state changes. For example, an application subscribes to a network adapter group to monitor the network connectivity. If an adapter is up or down, the application reacts to it.
However, in some cases, if there is no member in the group, the application has to keep trying to subscribe to the group periodically because subscribing to the empty group would fail with the Group Services system.
This periodical re-subscription exposes a serious drawback in performance especially when the system software needs to use the system resource. Furthermore, if an existing group is dissolved, the application's subscription is also dissolved, the application may need to re-subscribe to the group. This adds software logic complexity.
Thus, what is needed is an improved system and method that eliminates the need to re-subscribe to a group after a group member becomes inactive or after the group is dissolved. Furthermore, the improved system and method should be compatible with existing group membership systems.
Additional features and advantages are realized through the techniques of the present invention. Other embodiments and aspects of the invention are described in detail herein and are considered a part of the claimed invention.

Persistent group membership in a distributed computing system

International Business Machines Corporation


An apparatus for cooling the work rolls of a roll stand includes for each roll a cooling water duct equipped with spray nozzles at a spray beam as well as devices for supplying cooling water and for removing heated water, a cooling water guide plate for the upper work roll arranged at an acute angle relative to the rolling stock surface and provided with a stripping member at the front of the guide plate facing the upper roll, and an essentially horizontally extending cooling water guide plate located closely underneath the rolling stock plane and provided with a stripping member for the lower roll. A cover plate is arranged in a sandwich-type configuration above the upper cooling water guide plate so as to form a liquid-conducting gap and the gap is connected at its end facing away from the roll with a cooling water suction device, and at least one suction pipe is arranged underneath the lower cooling water guide plate, wherein the suction pipe extends into the liquid-conducting corner area formed between the lower cooling water guide plate and the stripping member thereof and a surface portion of the lower roll, and wherein the suction pipe is connected to a cooling water suction device.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for cooling the work rolls of a roll stand, wherein the apparatus includes for each roll a cooling water duct equipped with spray nozzles at a spray beam as well as means for supplying cooling water and for removing heated water, a cooling water guide plate for the upper work roll arranged at an acute angle relative to the rolling stock surface and provided with a stripping member at the front of the guide plate facing the upper roll, and an essentially horizontally extending cooling water guide plate located closely underneath the rolling stock plane and provided with a stripping member for the lower roll.
The present invention also relates to a method for cooling the work rolls using the apparatus described above.
2. Description of the Related Art
Apparatus and methods for cooling the work rolls of roll stands are known in the art. Usually, a cooling unit each is provided on the entry side and on the exit side. Even though requiring a large and complicated apparatus, the effect of the work roll cooling unit on the entry side is relatively small.
The requirement of an effective work roll cooling results from the objects to be achieved in connection with the rolling process; these objects are:
preventing a defined temperature limit from being exceeded in order to maintain the mechanical properties of the work rolls;
limiting the thermal stresses in the work rolls and, thus, preventing fractures in the work rolls;
minimizing fire cracks in the surface of the work rolls;
positively influencing the oxidation film on the work rolls, particularly in chromium steel rolls.
Most of the heat is produced during the contact of the work rolls with the rolling stock in the roll gap; this is increased by the additionally developed rolling heat produced as a result of the plastic changes of the shape of the rolling stock and further by the frictional heat produced between the rolling stock and the rolls and the introduction of the frictional heat in the contact area between the work roll and the back-up roll and additional heating by the radiation heat in the entry area and in the exit area.
For achieving sufficient roll cooling, the influence of the cooling unit on the exit side is of particular importance because the heat induced to the surface area of a roll must be removed as early as possible after leaving the roll gap in order to prevent the heat from penetrating into the depth of the roll as much as possible and as efficiently as possible.
DE 36 16 070 A1 discloses a roll cooling apparatus for a roll stand which includes cooling water guide plates which each have a curved surface along the circumferential direction of a roll and are arranged near the respective roll, further a cooling water supply distributor for supplying the cooling water in a cooling water duct which is defined by the cooling water guide plate and the roll, a water discharge distributor for discharging the cooling water from the cooling duct and supplied by the cooling water supply distributor, a support element for supporting the cooling water guide plate and curvature adjusting members which change the curvature of the guide plate in accordance with the diameter of the roll. The thickness of the guide plate increases from the edge portions to the middle of the guide plate in the circumferential direction of the roll. When the roll diameter is changed the curvature adjusting members serve to maintain the space available between the guide plate and the roll to the necessary extent so that the roll is sufficiently cooled. This apparatus produces a forced cooling water guide means whose configuration corresponds to the outer circumference of a roll, wherein the uniform distance relative to the roll produces an intermediate space between the cooling water guide means and the roll through which the cooling water is conveyed under pressure, which is supposed to achieve an average heat transfer number which is about four times the value of the conventional heat transfer number.
This known apparatus is technically very complicated and, in addition, the curvature adjusting members are arranged in such a way that they are not easily accessible and, moreover, the periodic readjustment of the curvature requires a high degree of maintenance work. Since, in addition, the cooling medium is conducted in a forced manner in a narrow gap along a portion of the roll surface, the cooling medium absorbs heat as it travels through the gap and looses its cooling intensity to the same extent.
The Japanese Patent Application published under the number 01091903 A discloses an apparatus for cooling the work rolls on the exit side with upper and lower cooling water guide plates provided with stripping members, wherein each cooling water guide plate is equipped at the end facing the work roll with spray nozzles for a cooling water and air mixture. By spraying a water mist into the corner areas between the work rolls and the rolling stock forming an acute angle on the exit side, a sufficient cooling effect is supposed to be achieved at the work rolls and the consumption of cooling water is simultaneously to be reduced.
The Japanese Patent Application published under number 01057908 A discloses water mist nozzles at the front side of cooling water guide plates, and additional upper and lower spray nozzles for cooling water. This apparatus is supposed to prevent the formation of cracks at the surface of the work rolls.
The Japanese Patent Application published under number 06339712 A discloses a cooling apparatus on the exit side for work rolls each with cooling water ducts arranged three-high above or below each other and equipped with spray nozzles, and with an upper and a lower cooling water guide plate with a stripping member at the end thereof. The upper guide plate is provided at a distance from the upper roll with a duct arranged parallel to the axis of the roll and provided with openings for cooling water to be discharged, wherein the duct forms a cooling water discharge duct which is open at both ends. This is supposed to achieve a discharge of heated cooling water from the middle portion of the work rolls uniformly to both sides. However, since the heated cooling water flows in this device only with natural gradient and through the relatively narrow duct cross-section from the middle toward both sides, the liquid throughput is relatively small and cannot be increased as desired.
The water level is adjusted between the upper cooling water guide plate and a lower portion of the upper work roll approximately on the level of the inlet openings of the discharge duct. In this construction the application of a negative pressure would only result in the intake of air, but not in an increased removal of liquid. Moreover, in this device it is also not possible to provide different discharge quantities of liquid in different areas of the discharge duct and in a direction extending parallel to the axis of the rolls which would mean that the formation of a predetermined thermal crown could be influenced. A discharge device for cooling water running off the lower work roll is not provided.

Apparatus and method for cooling the work rolls of a roll stand at an exit side thereof


A method and system for updating an archive of a computer file to reflect changes made to the file includes selecting one of a plurality of comparison methods as a preferred comparison method. The comparison methods include a first comparison method wherein the file is compared to an archive of the file and a second comparison method wherein a first set of tokens statistically representative of the file is computed and compared to a second set of tokens statistically representative of the archive of the file. The method further includes carrying out the preferred comparison method to generate indicia of differences between the file and the archive of the file for updating the archive of the file.

File archiving systems backup computer files to protect against data loss. As files are modified over time, a comparator differentiates between new and archived file versions for the purpose of updating the archived versions. Known comparators include revision control engines and exclusive-or (XOR) processes.
Conventional comparators and differentiating systems used in file archiving systems suffer disadvantages in that they are process or memory intensive and inflexible. As a result, they are unsuitable for some systems, applications and/or conditions.

Method and system for updating an archive of a computer file


Multiple single-channel links are employed as a single high-bandwidth link for packetized data having a single packet delineator. The single high-bandwidth link may typically be employed for transfer of data in intra- and inter-frame/rack back-planes. A transmitter forms the packetized data including the single packet delineator. The packet delineator is used by, for example, a framer of a receiver to enable reconstruction of packetized data from the multiple single-channel links. The transmitter forms the packetized data such that a beginning portion of each packet is transferred to a particular one of the single-channel links. Thus, the packet delineator is associated with that particular single-channel link, regardless of the number of other single-channel links that are bonded together with that particular single-channel link to form the single high-bandwidth link. A single high-bandwidth link, formed in accordance with one or more embodiments of the present invention, significantly reduces the cost per link over prior art systems, while maintaining relatively similar link quality. The transmitter may ensure that the packet delineator is associated with a particular single-channel link by inserting inter-packet fill bits into the packet stream. The total amount of inter-packet fill inserted into the packet steam between packets is such that the total length of the packet plus inter-packet fill is a number that is wholly divisible by the number of single-channel links.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to transmission of data in one or more channels between modules interconnected by physical communication links in a terminal.
2. Description of the Related Art
Telecommunication systems include terminal equipment that processes data at exceptionally high data-rates, since such processing generally occurs with a speed greater than the transmission rate of the signals received and transmitted through the terminal. Such equipment may be physically implemented with specialized circuit boards mounted in slots within racks that make up the terminal equipment frame. Circuit boards and racks are interconnected with data communication links (e.g., parallel data buses or serial data links) that are part of a back-plane that is common to some or all of the racks.
However, as inter-board and inter-rack data rates in high speed systems (e.g., networking switches and routers) continue to increase, it is increasingly desirable to include back-plane communication links that are inexpensive to implement while providing relatively high-quality communication performance. High quality may be measured in terms such as low bit error rate (BER) or high total data throughput. However, these two requirements are hard to meet at the same time. Due to these high speeds of data in the back-plane, multiple physical links are typically needed for the required bandwidth of the communication link, thus increasing the cost of implementing the communication links.
Different methods exist to implement high-speed back-planes. Parallel back-planes include 32-bit and 64-bit PCI buses. Serial interfaces include 8b/10b encoded data (e.g., FibreChannel and Ethernet) and scrambled data (e.g., pseudo-SONET implementations).
Serial interfaces such as FibreChannel, Ethernet, and pseudo-SONET were initially implemented as single-channel communication links, but some recent implementations use ("bond") multiple single-channel links into a single high-bandwidth link. In order to transfer packet data across multiple, bonded links, two different implementations are employed in the prior art, both of which lead to very high cost of implementation. The first implementation concatenates all of the incoming data streams into a single data stream at a bit rate that is the incoming bit rate multiplied by the number of physical links bonded together. The second implementation performs packet delineation on each individual link independently, thus requiring as many packet framers as there are links. One cost associated with using multiple physical links with packet delineation is the cost added by a high-speed framer that must be associated with each link.

Protocol-independent packet delineation for backplane architecture


An air conditioning and refrigeration system includes a compressor, a four-way valve, two delivering guide pipes joined to two lateral sides of the four-way valve, two thermal compensation devices and two heat exchangers. Even if the air conditioner is a window type in association with a rotary compressor, the purpose of slow running with fast temperature reduction can be reached by means of doubling refrigerant filling and flow process regulation. Meanwhile, hi/lo pressure ratio 4:1 (cool room) or 8:1 even higher (warm room) is the most novel design of the air conditioner and it is capable of secure the indoor comfort. Besides, in case of the present invention being applied to the refrigeration system, the four-way valve inverse direction of the refrigerant being changed to enhance the efficiency thereof without using tungsten filament for defrosting.

According to difference of living environments, an air conditioning system usually is installed in a house for promoting living quality and comfort. For instance, the cool air conditioner is frequently used in the area of temperate zone and tropics and the warm air conditioner is frequently used in the area of cold zone. Nevertheless, sometimes, it is hot during summer in the areas of temperate zone and the cold zone too and people often can't stand cold wave in the area of temperate zone during winter. Hence, it is essential that an air conditioning system with cool air and warm air supply in our daily lives.
The warm air supply of the current used air conditioning system basically has a heat source such as vapor coming from a boiler heating up the water to the boiling state and the vapor is delivered to rooms via pipeline. However, it is not suitable for residents without central air conditioning system. For ordinary family houses, the air conditioner mostly has provided filament heat device for air blown out being warm. However, due to indoor rooms being different from each other, it frequently results in the warm air being insufficient warm enough. Besides, the conventional electric heater provides insufficient warm air supply and occurs a phenomenon of oxygen consuming. Moreover, when the refrigerant circulates in the air conditioning and refrigeration system, the lubricant in the refrigerant becomes sticky in a cold state while the refrigerant passes through the evaporator and decreases temperature thereof abruptly. As a result, it is unfavorable for lubrication of the compressor and poor lubrication often greatly increases ampere amount of current such that load increases during running and it is dangerous to the user.
In order to improve the conventional air conditioning system, the present inventor has endeavored in design and development of air conditioning system for many years and is granted many patents in Taiwan and United States. For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 6,092,377 entitled "Air cooled two stage condenser for air conditioning and refrigeration system" (corresponding to Taiwanese Patent Official Gazette No. 428077, U.S. Pat. No. 6,370,901 entitled "Compound evaporation system and device thereof" (corresponding to Taiwanese Patent Official Gazette No. 457359 and Taiwanese Patent Official Gazette No. 494222 entitled "Method for reinforcing condensation and a device thereof (corresponding to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/878,415).

Thermal compensation system and device there of in heat pump and refrigeration system


A scroll fluid machine comprises a driving shaft in a housing. An orbiting scroll is eccentrically revolved around an eccentric axial portion of the driving shaft via a bearing. Air is introduced from outside through an intake port of a circumferential wall of the housing and directed toward the bearing by a guide to cool the bearing.

The present invention relates to a scroll fluid machine such as a scroll compressor or a scroll vacuum pump.
A scroll fluid machine comprises a driving shaft driven by an electric motor and comprising an eccentric axial portion at one end; an orbiting scroll rotatably mounted around the eccentric axial portion via a bearing and having an orbiting wrap on an orbiting end plate; and a fixed scroll having a fixed wrap on a fixed end plate. The orbiting wrap engages with the fixed wrap to form a sealed chamber. A self-rotation-preventing device is provided to prevent the orbiting scroll from rotating on its own axis.
The orbiting scroll is eccentrically revolved with the eccentric axial portion of the driving shaft and self-rotation-preventing device. The sealed chamber is gradually decreased in volume toward the center to allow fluid sucked from the outer circumference to be compressed, or is gradually increased away from the center to allow fluid sucked from the center to be decompressed and discharged from the outer circumference.
In such a scroll fluid machine, thermal load increases with compression and expansion. Especially, heat significantly affects a rotary part or a bearing rotatably supporting the eccentric axial portion of the orbiting scroll. JP63-43427Y2 discloses that an axial fan is provided in the housing of the scroll fluid machine to allow external air taken in from the inlet to blow into the rear surface of the sealed or compression chamber and to be discharged from the outlet to the housing.
The scroll fluid machine can transfer external air sucked from the inlet to the rear surface of the sealed chamber and a bearing for the driving shaft close to the rear wall of the housing, but it cannot flow air to a bearing for the eccentric axial portion which cannot effectively be cooled.


The present disclosure relates to a process for synthesis of mesotrione. The process comprises reacting 4-toluene sulfonyl chloride with alkali metal sulphite and alkali metal bicarbonate to obtain alkali metal toluene-4-sulfinate. The alkali metal toluene-4-sulfinate is reacted with alkali metal salt of monochloroacetic acid to obtain 4-methylsulfonyl toluene. Further, 4-methylsulfonyl toluene is nitrated to obtain 2-nitro-4-methylsulfonyl toluene. 2-nitro-4-methylsulfonyl toluene is oxidized and then halogenated to obtain 2-nitro-4-methylsulfonylbenzoyl halide. 2-nitro-4-methylsulfonylbenzoyl halide is reacted with alkali metal salt of 1,3-cyclohexanedione to obtain 3-(2-Nitro-4-methylsulfonylbenzoyloxy)cyclohexen-1-one which is reacted with base, a third fluid medium and cyanide ion source to obtain an amorphous mesotrione. The present disclosure also discloses the steps of converting the amorphous mesotrione to crystalline mesotrione having purity greater than 99%. The process of the present disclosure for preparing mesotrione is rapid, economic, and environment friendly.

The background information herein below relates to the present disclosure but is not necessarily prior art.
2-[4-(methanesulfonyl)-2-nitrobenzoyl]cyclohexane-1,3-dione is a second-generation triketone having the common name 'mesotrione'.

Mesotrione is a selective herbicide for both pre-emergence and post-emergence control on most of the broadleaved weeds, and some grasses in maize and paddy rice. It is also used as herbicide for fruit plants such as berries, pome fruit, citrus fruits, some vegetables, sugar cane and turf.
Further, several processes for the synthesis of mesotrione are known in the art. However, the conventionally used reagents in the synthesis of mesotrione, are corrosive, and not environment friendly.
Therefore, there is felt a need for rapid, efficient, economical, and environment friendly process for synthesizing mesotrione.


A retainer ring configured to reduce heat generated during a polishing process may include a heat absorbing element, a thermoelectric element, and a heat dissipating element. A polishing head configured to polish a wafer may include a wafer carrier, a retainer ring, and a cooling element. A chemical mechanical polishing apparatus including a polishing pad formed on a platen and a polishing head including a retainer ring.

1. Field
Example embodiments relate to a retainer ring, a polishing head, and a chemical mechanical polishing apparatus. For example, example embodiments relate to a retainer ring having a thermoelectric element and a polishing head and a chemical mechanical polishing apparatus, having the retainer ring.
2. Description of the Conventional Art
Chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) is a semiconductor manufacturing processes that may use a CMP apparatus having a polishing pad to polish a wafer. A chemical solution including a slurry may be used in a manner such that a chemical reaction is induced on a wafer, and mechanical force produced by the polishing pad may be transmitted to the wafer so as to planarize the surface of the wafer.
A CMP apparatus may include a platen, a polishing pad, and/or a polishing head, which may be composed of a retainer ring and a wafer carrier. When polishing the wafer surface by rotating the polishing head, the temperature may rise due to friction between the polishing pad and the retainer ring, friction between the retainer ring and the wafer, and/or friction between the wafer and the polishing pad. The increase in temperature may lower the yield of the CMP process. For example, erosion and dishing may occur to a greater extent at the edge of the wafer than at the center of the wafer. Erosion is a phenomenon in which a portion of a spacer on a relatively fine pattern is concavely removed during the polishing process. Dishing is a phenomenon in which a top portion of a layer deposited in a trench becomes concave, like a dish, during the polishing process.
In the conventional art, a cooling device may be arranged in a platen to lower the heat during a CMP process. However, because the polishing pad is formed of polyurethane having a low thermal conductivity, it may be difficult to effectively reduce the heat.

Retainer ring, Polishing head, and chemical mechanical polishing apparatus


Fibrous structures and/or sanitary tissue products comprising such fibrous structures, more particularly to fibrous structures and/or sanitary tissue products that exhibit improved wet strength properties, especially temporary wet strength properties, as compared to fibrous structures and/or sanitary tissue products that contain conventional wet strength additives.

Wet strength properties are critical in certain fibrous structures, especially sanitary tissue products, particularly toilet tissue. Fibrous structures utilize wet strength additives to impart wet strength. One example of a commercially available wet strength additive is PAREZ® from Bayer Chemicals.
Fibrous structures, such as sanitary tissue products, particularly toilet tissues that contain wet strength additives, especially temporary wet strength additives, exhibit wet strength properties such as Initial Total Wet Tensile, % Decay, Decay Rate and/or % Clogging Reduction. These wet strength properties influence the ease at which such fibrous structures can be flushed in conventional toilets for example.
Prior art fibrous structures and/or sanitary tissue products comprising conventional wet strength additives exhibit a % Decay at 5 minutes of around 33% and/or a % Decay at 30 minutes of around 64%.
There continues to be a need for fibrous structures that comprise wet strength additives, especially temporary wet strength additives that exhibit improved wet strength properties, especially temporary wet strength properties, over existing fibrous structures that contain conventional wet strength additives in order to better meet the needs of consumers of fibrous structures.
Accordingly, there is a need to develop fibrous structures comprising wet strength additives, especially temporary wet strength additives that exhibit improved wet strength properties as compared to fibrous structures comprising conventional wet strength additives.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Fibrous structures exhibiting improved wet strength properties


Systems and methods are disclosed for a fluid-based projectile launcher having a housing, that may also include a barrel portion, and a propellant fluid chamber. Disclosed embodiments also include a valve assembly that controls flow of propellant fluid from the propellant fluid chamber to the barrel portion through a fluid passageway, and an adjustable block assembly that controls motion and/or position of the valve assembly.

Typical fluid-based projectile launching systems utilize a propellant fluid. In these devices, the propellant fluid is typically held in some storage system. The propellent may also be introduced to the device through some interface. The fluid has some amount of stored energy based on factors such as pressure and volume. One example of a storage system is a container holding a given volume of fluid at a given pressure. The propellent may also have energy added to it via pumps, fans, compressors, and so forth, or it may provide energy through chemical reactions (e.g., combustion) and so forth.
At the time of launching the projectile, the propellant is released in such a manner that it applies a force on the projectile, either directly or indirectly, causing it to move. The speed at which the projectile is released is dependent on the energy of the propellant.
With such devices, there may be a desire to propel projectiles at different speeds using the same launching device. Or there may be a desire to launch different projectiles with different mass and/or aerodynamic attributes at the same speed, or to allow for launching different projectiles with different characteristics at appropriate velocities.
Typically, the velocity is varied by changing the amount of stored propellant or the pressure of the stored propellant, reducing or increasing the stored energy in order to reduce or increase the speed of the projectile, or adjusting the energy rate (such as changing the speed of a pump which provides energy to the fluid). Adding or removing propellant or increasing or reducing the pressure of the propellant presents challenges, inconveniences, and limitations such as time involved, monitoring and regulating pressure levels, safe mechanism to reduce pressure, noise, and so forth.
Other drawbacks, inconveniences, and issues with current systems and methods also exist.

Method and apparatus for varying projectile velocity


Provided are tris-quaternary ammonium compounds which are modulators of nociception and pain.

The treatment of pain is a critical health issue. Acute (eg. postoperative pain) and chronic (eg. arthritis, low back, cancer) pain affects tens of millions of people annually in the US. Each year some 30 million people visit a physician with a complaint of a painful condition. Some 10% of these patients are seen with chronic pain as their main complaint. The financial loss due to pain has been estimated to exceed 100 billion dollars a year as a result of medical fees, decreased productivity, litigation and the cost of drugs. New therapeutic agents with greater efficacy, in particular for chronic neuropathic pain syndromes (eg. complex regional pain syndrome), and with fewer side effects would result in significant societal benefit.
Pain can be broadly divided into two categories: nociceptive and neuropathic pain. Nociceptive pain occurs as a result of activation of peripheral nociceptors, actually free nerve endings by noxious stimuli (heat, pressure, inflammatory mediators). Examples of nociceptive pain include postsurgical pain, inflammatory pain (eg. arthritis) and low back pain. Such a pain is often described as "a constant, dull, aching pain". Neuropathic pain occurs as a result of damage to the peripheral or central nervous system. Examples of neuropathic pain include radiculopathy (eg. disc impingement on a nerve), complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS I, II), diabetic peripheral neuropathy or central pain (stroke, spinal cord injury, multiple sclerosis). Patients typically describe neuropathic pain as "burning and tingling" in nature. It is characterized by hyperalgesia (increased painful response to a noxious stimulus) and allodynia (pain to a previously non-noxious stimulus).
In many patients, in particular those with chronic pain conditions of malignant (cancer-related pain) and non-malignant (arthritis, low back pain, CRPS) origin, pain is inadequately managed with currently available drugs. Available drugs are simple modifications (eg. extended release) of drugs from classes which have been available for decades including the opioids, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory agents (NSAID's) or various adjuvants (antidepressants, anticonvulsants) initially approved for other uses besides pain. Opioids (eg. morphine, oxycodone) are often successfully used for the treatment of moderate to severe nociceptive pain. Chronic neuropathic pain is much less responsive to opioids. Use of opioid analgesics is associated with a broad range of significant side effects including cognitive impairment, respiratory depression and constipation. In addition, long-term opioid dosing results in the development of tolerance to the analgesic effect, drug abuse and dependence. The NSAID's (eg. ibuprofen) act by inhibition of the cyclo-oxygenase (Cox-1,2) enzyme. They are especially useful in nociceptive pain of inflammatory origin (eg. arthritis). However, the NSAID's have limited efficacy when compared to the opioids. In addition, NSAID's have significant side effects (renal, gastrointestinal, cardiovascular). The discovery of the Cox-2 selective agents (eg. rofecoxib-Vioxx®; celecoxib-Celebrex®; valdecoxib-Bextra®) which have far less gastrointestinal toxicity, was thought to be an advance in NSAID pharmacology. Nonetheless, these agents still have low efficacy and evidence is now available linking them to significant cardiovascular events including stroke and myocardial infarction following chronic use. This has resulted in the removal of both rofecoxib and valdecoxib from the market. No suitable agent exists for the treatment of neuropathic pain. GABA-pentin (Neurontin®), an anticonvulsant, has found use for some neuropathic pain syndromes (eg. diabetic peripheral neuropathy, postherpetic neuralgia), but it still has limited efficacy. Duloxetine (Cymbalta®), an antidepressant, has recently been approved for the treatment of diabetic peripheral neuropathy. However, it has limited efficacy and usefulness for other neuropathic pain states. The N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonists (eg. ketamine) have been proposed for the treatment of neuropathic pain. Their general use is impractical given the marked side effects including sedation, psychosis and motor impairment. The limitations of the currently available therapies clearly demonstrate the need for a broad spectrum new class of efficacious and safe analgesic drugs for the treatment of nociceptive and neuropathic pain.
Given the need for more effective, less toxic, analgesic drugs, a great deal of emphasis has been placed on identifying novel molecular targets that could form the basis for new analgesics.

University of Kentucky Research Foundation


A microfabricated probe array for nanolithography and process for designing and fabricating the probe array. The probe array consists of individual probes that can be moved independently using thermal bimetallic actuation or electrostatic actuation methods. The probe array can be used to produce traces of diffusively transferred chemicals on the substrate with sub-1 micrometer resolution, and can function as an arrayed scanning probe microscope for subsequent reading and variation of transferred patterns.

High-throughput lithography and surface patterning with extremely fine linewidths (e.g., on the order of 10-100 nm) are very important for the future growth of the microelectronics industry and nanotechnology. Next-generation integrated circuit technology will inevitably call for efficient and low-cost generation of features with a sub-100-nm linewidth. The emerging field of nanotechnology also requires patterning and functionalization of surfaces with a spatial resolution that is comparable with the scale of the molecules and cells that need to be manipulated and modified.
The resolution of conventional projection optical lithographic systems, still the most widely used in the microelectronics industry, is limited by optical diffraction. The resolution can be improved by using beam-based direct-writing tools with high energy and short wavelengths. High-energy beam lines, including ones that rely on electron beams and X-rays, are being used. However, such direct-write lithography systems suffer from several drawbacks. First, such systems are invariably complex and expensive. Second, these lithographic tools operate with a single beam and produce patterns in a serial manner, resulting in low throughput. Third, conventional high resolution lithography systems are not capable of depositing patterns made of biological molecules or chemical compounds. Only special chemical resists may be used.
Dip-pen Nanolithography (DPN) is a new and recently introduced method of scanning probe nanolithography. A description of DPN is contained in PCT/US00/00319, the entirety of which is incorporated herein by reference. It functions by depositing nanoscale patterns on surfaces using the diffusion of a chemical species from a scanning probe tip to the surface, sometimes via a water meniscus that naturally forms between tip and sample under ambient conditions. As a DPN tip is scanned across the surface of a substrate, molecules on the surface of the tip are transported through the water meniscus that forms between the tip and the substrate surface. Once on the surface, the molecules chemically anchor themselves to the substrate, forming robust patterns. Features in the 10 nm to many micrometer range can be fabricated with commercially available silicon nitride tips. One factor that influences the linewidth of DPN writing is the linear speed of the tip. Smaller linewidths are achieved with faster tip speeds. Other factors that influence the linewidth include the sharpness of the DPN tip and the diffusion constants of the molecules used as inks.
DPN offers a number of unique benefits, including direct writing capability, high resolution (˜10 nm linewidth resolution, ultimate ˜5 nm spatial resolution), ultrahigh nanostructure registration capabilities, the flexibility to employ a variety of molecules for writing compounds (including biomolecules) and writing substrates (such as Au, SiO2, and GaAs), the ability to integrate multiple chemical or biochemical functionalities on a single "nano-chip", a one-layer process for patterning, and the ability to automate patterning using customized software.
DPN technology can be implemented using a low-cost commercial scanning probe microscope (SPM) instrument. In a typical setup, the DPN probe chip is mounted on an SPM scanner tube in a manner similar to commercially available SPM tips. Precise horizontal and vertical movement of the probes is attained by using the internal laser signal feedback control system of the SPM machine.

Parallel, individually addressable probes for nanolithography

The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois


Protecting the security of an entity by using passcodes is disclosed. A user's passcode device generates a passcode. In an embodiment, the passcode is generated in response to receipt of user information. The passcode is received by another system, which authenticates the passcode by at least generating a passcode from a passcode generator, and comparing the generated passcode with the received passcode. The passcode is temporary. At a later use a different passcode is generated from a different passcode generator. In these embodiments, there are asymmetric secrets stored on the passcode device and by the administrator. This adds more security so that if the backend servers are breached, the adversary cannot generate valid passcodes. In some embodiments, the passcode depends on the rounded time.

The subject matter discussed in the background section should not be assumed to be prior art merely as a result of its mention in the background section. Similarly, a problem mentioned in the background section or associated with the subject matter of the background section should not be assumed to have been previously recognized in the prior art. The subject matter in the "some advantages section" represents different approaches, which in and of themselves may also be inventions, and various problems, which may have been first recognized by the inventor.
In many applications a password is required to grant access to a system or authorize a transaction. Today many users have so many different passwords that it is difficult to remember them. In other cases, a password can be stolen by a thief, making passwords susceptible to fraud.


A control devices includes a key having a top surface configured to be pressed by a user, and a resistance device coupled to the key and configured to provide a resistance force to the key that opposes a user force applied to the top surface. A force sensor is coupled to the resistance device and is configured to detect the user force applied to top surface. A control circuit is coupled to the resistance device and is configured to change the resistance force of the resistance device according to a force profile.

The present invention relates to a control device, such as a computer mouse, configured to control a computer. More particularly, the present invention relates to analog keys included in a control device.
Computer mice are well known devices used for controlling computers, such as personal computers and the like. While computer mice include numerous devices that allow a user to control various function of a computer, computer mice manufactures continue to strive to provide users' computer mice with improved features that allow user to control a computer in more convenient ways and in new ways. Further, computer mice manufactures continue to strive to provide mice with improved features that improve users' comfortable use of mice to reduce stress on users' hands and arms.

Programmable analog keys for a control device


A method for converting credits to funds can include a step of a Web site receiving user identification information. Non-negotiable credits can be identified that are associated with an entity with which the user has previously interacted. The previous interactions could have earned the non-negotiable credits. Responsive to a user request, a conversion agency can convert a quantity of the non-negotiable credits into a quantity of negotiable funds. The conversion agency can be an agency not directly associated with the entity. The user can be permitted to access the quantity of negotiable funds. The quantity of negotiable funds can be applied to user specified purchases. At least a portion of the purchases can involve at least one vender that does not honor the non-negotiable credits.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of e-commerce and, more particularly, to the automatic conversion of non-negotiable credits associated with entities to negotiable foods independent of the entities.
2. Description of the Related Art
Entities often reward consumers for utilizing their services with non-negotiable credits, such as frequent flier miles, consumer loyalty points, and entertainment credits. These non-negotiable credits can be applied towards products and/or services provided by a granting entity or its affiliates. For example, consumers can apply frequent flyer credits towards the purchase of airline tickets or airline upgrades. In another example, a consumer can utilize purchase points from a credit card company to receive percentage discounts on goods provided by affiliates. In still another example, entertainment credits can be redeemed for prizes offered in a winnings storefront of an entertainment site.
Many problems are inherent to the current techniques for the redemption of entity provided credits. One such problem is the restriction on usage to goods and/or services of the entity. That is, a consumer may have no need for the products or services listed by the entity for which the non-negotiable credits can be redeemed. Further, additional restrictions and limitations can be placed upon the non-negotiable credits that lessen the usefulness of non-negotiable credits from the consumer's perspective. For instance, airlines often limit the choice of travel dates, known as black-out dates, to which frequent flyer credits can be applied.
Another problem encountered by consumers when redeeming non-negotiable credits is time. Once a consumer submits a request to redeem their non-negotiable credits, the consumer must wait for the entity to perform one or more actions required to fulfill their request. These steps often require days or weeks to complete. For instance, consumers participating in online entertainment sites often are required to wait a minimum of three days for their entertainment credits to be redeemed. Redemption delay can be particularly aggravating to e-commerce consumers, who by nature of an e-commerce marketplace expect rapid responses and immediate consumer gratification.
Time can also be a factor for redeeming credits having an associated expiration date. A consumer's non-negotiable credits may expire before a sufficient quantity is acquired for a desired purchase. Lesser purchases requiring fewer credits may not have a significant appeal for the consumer. Hence, credit expiration dates can further decrease the consumer value of non-negotiable credits.
Yet another problem with conventional implementation of non-negotiable credits is that consumers often belong to multiple credit-earning programs that provide the consumers with multiple incompatible forms of non-negotiable credit. Each of these multiple programs can span a single industry or can span multiple industries. For example, a consumer can acquire a moderate number of frequent flyer miles with multiple airlines, where each airline specific account contains insufficient credits to have any meaningful consumer value. Consumers can also have many different types of non-negotiable credits, such as multiple merchant specific credit, credit card credits, and frequent flier miles, each having different redemption values and program redemption rules. These different programs, values, and rules can understandably confuse and frustrate consumers, who due to their confusion, often elect to avoid participating in an entity sponsored credit program.

Web based conversion of non-negotiable credits associated with an entity to entity independent negotiable funds


A method, system, and computer program product for displaying components assigned to events produced by resources, includes: registering a new resource by generating a label to which is associated a system specific device identifier used by the new resource within a computing environment; storing in a mapping table the generated label identifying the registered new resource together with an associated system specific device identifier; and updating the mapping table by associating to the label any other system specific device identifier used by the new resource within the computing environment; receiving events produced by resources when being executed within the computing environment, each event being associated with a list of labels for the resources relevant for the generation of the event; and maintaining a tag cloud including different tags, the different tags including labels for the resources associated with the received events to be displayed as components.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an improved monitoring application and in particular to a method, system, and computer program product for a monitoring application. Still more particularly, the present invention relates to a computer implemented method, a system, and a computer program product for displaying components assigned to events produced by resources analyzed by a monitoring application, the resources being executed within some computing environment. It is also related to a monitoring application for analyzing resources being executed within some computing environment.
2. Description of the Background
A person or team facilitates the management of a large-scale, possibly far-flung computer network, such as the extensive distributed systems that are commonplace nowadays in large organizations. The person or team responsible for this job is typically in charge of everything from the organization's power supplies to its business software applications. The organization's business management, naturally, may not wish to concern itself with the technical details, but does demand that when problems occur, they be dealt with according to the seriousness of the effects they have on the normal operations of the business. For example, management will want the greatest attention to be paid to those problems that affect the highest revenue generators among the various parts of the business organization.
This is a difficult demand to meet. For many network operation managers, it can be very hard just managing the network, identifying, diagnosing and correcting problems as they occur. Being able to prioritize among a set of problems occurring during the same time period in such a way as to differentiate among levels of service being provided to different parts of the business organization has thus far been beyond contemplation.
The phenomenal complexity of the world of a large distributed network of interrelated components is reflected in the distribution of costs involved in managing such a system. If it takes on average three times as long to identify a problem as it does to solve it, the distributed systems parts (hardware and software) and their interrelationships is nearly impenetrable to the operators.
At present, operators are unable to tell how a given problem affects the various users in the business organization, and therefore are unable to know where they should direct enhanced or reduced service efforts, until the problem has been correctly identified. One result of this is that the operations managers have only the other 25% of operations time—the problem resolution portion—from which to carve out all service differentiation, 75% of operations time being spent on identifying problems.
Further, identification of the problem does not necessarily lead clearly to successful resolution of the problem. For example, suppose that the operator has correctly identified the root of a given problem as a bad card in an IP ("Internet Protocol") router. Do any critical business systems depend on that router? Perhaps, or perhaps not. Before the operator can direct problem resolution efforts to a specific part of the business organization, therefore, he or she needs to understand the systemic impact of the problem. Impact is sensitive to a wide system context, and even to conditions of the moment. The operation manager can attempt to deliver differentiated levels of service only when she knows whether and how this particular fault has affected particular groups of users under the conditions of the network at the time of the failure. As a result, management information about all of the existing components must be collected.
System management information about the components are correlated and analyzed to access the performance and availability of a particular service being provided within the organization. System management information is the information needed to monitor and manage a specific component in a network data processing system. Thereby, a description (a tag) can be assigned by an individual, usually the system manager, to the different components and/or applications. It is possible to use Web 2.0 tag clouds techniques to optimize the visualization of the tags corresponding to collection of information within some system management. The tag cloud is built out of all the assigned tags. And tag frequency is visualized by different sizes and/or color for the fonts. A drilldown can also be used to view all elements which have a specific tag. But such technique does not avoid the awkward requirement to collect management information about all of the existing components.
FIG. 1 shows a system monitoring as known from prior art. Two different applications (Application A 101 and Application B 102) make use of various resources (Res1 104, Res2 105, and Res3 106), which may or may not be shared between the applications 101-102. The applications 101-102 are instrumented and have the capability to produce "events" which will be processed by a system monitor 106. Different applications create different events and those events are associated with further information (data). Examples for events are: "operation X completed successfully", "the schedule Y could not be executed because resource 1 could not be found", "the throughput for operation Z is 2 TB/h (tera byte per hour)".
The nature of events depends heavily on the application specifics. A system monitor 106 receives those events 107-108 and converts their data into measurable quantities, such as "average response time", and "system available", and sends an alert 109. The system monitor 106 does not correlate information received from different applications since this would require a high degree of manual customization. The main reason for this problem is that events typically do not contain enough information to correlate events produced from different applications automatically. For example, an application might report a service failure without specifying that this failure was caused by a resource that is temporarily unavailable. A system monitor 106 would not know that two applications were failing due to unavailability of the same resource. Thus, there exists a need to overcome at least one of the preceding deficiencies and limitations of the related art.

Use tag clouds to visualize components related to an event


A book easel for supporting an open book on a work surface is formed of a piece of bendable sheet material having a generally flat bottom edge for resting on the work surface and a center crease, generally perpendicular to the bottom edge. The center crease divides the book easel into similar left and right sections. Each of the left and right sections include a center panel, a supporting panel and a foot panel. The center panel is adjacent to the center crease, such that the left and right center panels are angled with respect to one another. The supporting panel extends outwardly from the center panel, and the foot panel extends outwardly from a remote end of the supporting panel. A left crease is formed between the center and supporting panel on the left side and the right crease is formed between the center and supporting panel on the right side. The center panel has an upper edge extending from the center crease upwardly to an intersection with the supporting panel. Further, the support panel has an upper load supporting edge for supporting a book cover, the load supporting edge extending downwardly, with respect to the bottom edge, from the intersection with the center panel to the foot panel. Furthermore, the foot panel extends upwardly, above an intersection of the support panel with a foot panel, in order to support the bottom edge of a book cover.

The instant invention is directed to a book easel for supporting an open book on a work surface. More particularly, the invention is directed to an inexpensive and easily manufactured book easel. This book easel may be made of a sheet material and folded flat for easy transportation.
In the past, many different types of easels for supporting an open book on a work surface have been used. For example, many book easels have been made out of wire. The use of wire provides for a strong book easel, however, it is also rather expensive to manufacture. Such easels are also often difficult to transport. Other easels have been produced in which it is not practical to turn the pages of a book when set in the easel.
It is an object of the instant invention to provide a book easel for supporting an open book on a work surface, which allows the reader the unique ability to turn the pages freely.
It is another object of the invention to provide a book easel which is easy and inexpensive to manufacture and has a printable surface that may be used for decoration and useful information.
It is still another object of the invention to provide a book easel which not only lifts the book for better ergonomic reading, but it also saves desk or table space, because of its efficient triangular foot print.


Disclosed are a semiconductor memory apparatus, a program method, and a program system. The semiconductor memory apparatus includes a memory cell array including a plurality of resistive memory cells and a control block configured to variably control, based on digital code values reflecting resistance states of the resistive memory cells, at least one of a initial voltage magnitude and an initial voltage applying time in an incremental step pulse programming (ISPP) mode for the plurality of memory cells. Therefore, even in the case of the worst cell, the incremental step of the ISPP may be minimized, and the writing time may be reduced, limiting unnecessary current consumption.

Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor memory apparatus, and a program method and a program system, and more particularly, to a semiconductor memory apparatus, and a program method and a program system based on writing distribution control of a ReRAM memory.
Discussion of the Related Art
Recently, as devices have rapidly been reduced in size, the number of charges stored in a nonvolatile memory based on the charges, including a flash memory, is limited. Therefore, a resistive random access memory (ReRAM) has been considered as a replacement memory for overcoming this limitation due to reduction in the size of devices. The ReRAM is a nonvolatile memory having a characteristic in which a resistance of a cell is variable by a voltage or a current applied to the cell, and has advantages of having a large margin for sensing data and having a relatively fast speed and low power consumption as compared with other nonvolatile memories. However, since a writing operation in the resistive memory has statistical distribution by a random change like flash memory, voltages switching the resistance are different from each other for each cell, and as a result, when the same writing voltage is applied to all the cells, the writing distribution is increased and thus it is difficult to sense the data.
Studies for controlling the writing distribution in the resistive change memory have been actively conducted.
FIG. 1A is a circuit diagram illustrating a circuit configuration for controlling writing distribution in an existing resistive memory disclosed in Korean Patent Publication No. 10-2010-0013125, and FIG. 1B is a graph illustrating an example of a writing method using the circuit.
Referring to FIGS. 1A and 1B, a read verify circuit is represented by a dotted circle. The read verify circuit compares a voltage (or current) corresponding to a current read from a cell to a reference voltage (or current). As illustrated in FIG. 1B, the cell resistance distribution is controlled by increasing and verifying again a reset voltage applying time. Further, in Korean Patent Publication No. 10-2010-0013125, the circuit is configured to vary the voltage applying time and the voltage magnitude together. However, in the case of Korean Patent Publication No. 10-2010-0013125, when considering the resistance distribution of all the cells, in the case of the worst cell, the number of steps of varying the voltage applying time (or the applying voltage magnitude) may be increased by an allowable maximum number, and therefore, there is a problem in that a writing speed and an unnecessary current consumed in each step are generated.

Resistive semiconductor memory capable of performing incremental step pulse programming (ISPP) based on digital code values of memory cells

RESEARCH & BUSINESS FOUNDATION SUNGKYUNKWAN UNIVERSITY


The potency to be written via ink during recording so as to write the ink image and the re-transferability during re-transferring of the ink image on a recording medium should be retained, securely, for a long term. The transferring layers of the intermediate transferring medium comprise surface layer and intermediate layer, wherein the material of the surface layer comprises a silicone rubber containing 1 to 20 parts by weight of a non-reactive organopolysiloxane of a viscosity of 100 to 100,000 at 25.degree. C. per 100 parts by weight of an addition-type silicone rubber with no inorganic filler; and the material of the intermediate layer comprises a silicone rubber containing 1 to 20 parts by weight of a non-reactive organopolysiloxane of a viscosity of 100 to 100,000 at 25.degree. C. per 100 parts by weight of an addition-type silicone rubber.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an intermediate transfer substance for thermal transfer printer, being capable of speedily recording a high-quality image on a recording medium such as plain paper or bond paper.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Conventional thermal transfer printers have generally been configured such that the molten ink on the ink ribbon is softened on the thermal head to transfer the ink for recording on a recording medium such as paper.
So as to effect high-quality image recording (printing) by such general thermal transfer printers, specific recording media of smooth surface have been used.
So as to effect high-quality image recording with no defect such as void on inexpensive recording media with larger irregularity on the surface, such as plain paper and bond paper, in recent years, a thermal transfer printer of intermediate transfer type has been proposed, wherein the ink on the ink ribbon is melted via exothermic heat from the thermal head and is once thermally transferred and recorded onto an intermediate transferring medium with silicone rubber surface in the form of roll or belt, to write the ink image (primary record image) on the intermediate transferring medium. Then, the ink image written on the intermediate transferring medium is re-transferred on a recording medium.
The intermediate transferring medium to be used for the thermal transfer printer of such intermediate transfer type should be imparted with the property to be written via ink during recording so as to write the ink image and the property of re-transferability during re-transferring so as to re-transfer the ink image on a recording medium. During re-transferring in particular, the intermediate transferring medium should have higher surface releasability.
As disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-open No. Hei 5(1993)-338368, an intermediate transferring medium has been proposed as one of conventional examples to satisfy such demand, having a transfer layer produced by adding a releasing agent such as dimethyl silicone oil, reactive silicone oil for amino modification or epoxy modification, and carnauba-modified silicone oil solid at 100.degree. C. or less into silicone rubber so as to improve the releasability of silicone rubber.
Such intermediate transferring medium with the transfer layer formed from the silicone rubber into which such conventional releasing agent have been added has improved ink releasability and thus effects high-quality image printing on recording media such as plain paper and bond paper, compared with the intermediate transferring medium with a transfer layer formed from general silicone rubber.
Such conventional intermediate transferring medium has excellent effects such that the substance can securely retain the re-transferability during re-transferring for a long term, and additionally, the substance can effect printing of high-quality image on recording media such as plain paper and bond paper with larger irregularity. Furthermore because the transfer pressure during re-transferring can be set low, the size and structural strength of a thermal transfer printer using the intermediate transferring medium can be reduced, concurrently, which very effectively reduces the size and cost of the thermal transfer printer.
So as to confer better performance, recently, thermal transfer printers have been consistently improved. As the thermal transfer printers have got better performance, an intermediate transferring medium for such printers should be required to securely retain the potency to be written via ink during recording so as to write the ink image and the re-transferability during re-transferring of the ink image on a recording medium, for a long term.

Intermediate transferring medium for thermal transfer printer


A display apparatus where external force concentrated on a chassis base via a boss is inhibited, and any stress applied to the boss is diffused. The display apparatus includes a display panel, a chassis base supporting the display panel, main brackets coupled to the chassis base opposite to the display panel to hold bosses, and sub-brackets provided at the chassis base adjacent to the main brackets. The boss held to the main bracket is inserted through the sub-bracket, and is supported thereby.

(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a display apparatus having a boss structure capable of diffusing stress applied to the boss and/or inhibiting external forces concentrated on a chassis base via the boss when, for example, the display apparatus is mounted on a wall or when it is fixed to a display panel module to a block-board.
(b) Description of Related Art
One common type of display apparatus is a plasma display apparatus. Typically the plasma display apparatus has a plasma display panel (referred to hereinafter as a "PDP"), a chassis base holding lateral and back surfaces of the PDP, a plurality of driving circuit boards mounted to the back surface thereof, a front cabinet placed at the front of the PDP, and a back cover placed at the rear of the chassis base. The front cabinet and the back cover may be combined into a single body by interposing the chassis base to form the entire exterior.
The PDP is a display device where phosphors are excited by ultraviolet rays generated through gas discharging within a vacuum vessel. Compared to a cathode ray tube (CRT), a PDP is typically thinner and flatter, making the formation of a high resolution wide screen possible.
The above-structured plasma display apparatus may be placed on the floor like a television or it is may be hung on the wall. When the plasma display apparatus is hung on a wall, it may be mounted via a wall-mounting boss combined with the chassis base, or fixed thereto by providing brackets at the four corners of the chassis base, combining a boss with the respective brackets, and coupling a coupling member with the boss. Further, when the PDP and the chassis base are packaged and delivered together to a set maker, the plasma display apparatus may be fixed to a fixation member such as a block-board by using a coupling member coupled to the boss.
However, in either of the above-described cases, external forces may be applied to the apparatus during transportation. Although it is possible to prevent external forces applied to the boss from being directly transmitted to the chassis base, large amounts of stress applied to the boss may not be able to be effectively diffused causing, for example, the boss to decouple from the bracket or causing black spots to be formed on the display screen of the PDP, thereby deteriorating display quality of the PDP.

Display apparatus having stress-diffusing means


A vehicle seat, which provides an enhanced level of comfort, by the use of dual independently supported seat cushions is disclosed. The apparatus comprises an inner seat cushion and an outer seat cushion, each of which is independently supported by a compressed air pneumatic device to control vertical movement, and by parallelogram linkages control lateral movement, and allow for vertical transition of the seats while maintaining them horizontal. The occupant of this vehicle seat can independently adjust the distribution of body weight shared by the inner seat cushion and the outer seat cushion from time to time, in order to change the pressure pattern against body parts and to provide optimum ergonomic seating posture. Furthermore, by adjusting the air supply, the occupant can increase or decrease the seat's effective spring rate, thus controlling the ride height and the seat's compliance for travel on both rough terrain and smooth roadways.

In the prior art, it is common practice for heavy duty vehicle seats to be constructed on a sub-base with a pivoted parallelogram linkage and a compressed air actuator supporting the seat cushion in position above a fixed base, and with an adjusting valve to regulate the air supply to the air actuator, thereby permitting the occupant of the seat to adjust the ride height of the seat. Such prior art vehicle seats as described above provide a wide range of height adjustment, and the ability to absorb much more of the energy from severe jolts than is possible with a simple rigid seat with foam padding or with air bladder style seat cushions. Operators of trucks and off-highway mobile equipment are required to spend many hours each working day subjected to continual bouncing and vibration, while in a sitting position, resulting in a high incidence of related injuries such as chronic lower back pain and circulatory deficiencies among such workers. In a seated posture, the occupant's body weight is centered over the pelvis, while the legs extend laterally forward of the torso. The pressure between the seat cushions and the driver's body is distributed most predominantly in the area of the pelvis, thus transmitting most of the seating pressure directly through the pelvis directly into the spine. As seat cushions conform to the shape of the occupant's body parts, which are in supportive contact with the seat cushions, there is a reduction of blood circulation in those areas, and fatigue in the joints such as the lower vertebrae, which are subjected to continual compression. Furthermore, because the body weight is supported mainly through the pelvis, the weight of the occupant's legs and lower torso adds to the total weight supported by the base of the spine.
In the prior art, various seats with a plurality of portions which can be varied with respect to form and hardness have been proposed. Such seats are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,263,765, Hideyuki Nagashima, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,320,409, Kazuhito Katoh, in which a plurality of inflatable bladders are strategically positioned within the seat and are selectively inflated and deflated under the control of a fatigue sensing means. Such seats could offer relief from fatigue caused by continual seat pressure and vibration, but they do not address the absorption of large impacts related to vehicle operation on bumpy terrain and highways.

Vehicle seat with dual independently adjustable supports