A two-part composition useful as an adhesive comprises an epoxy resin, a chain extender selected from an amine or a phenolic compound, a base catalyst and a polymeric toughener wherein Part A contains the catalyst and Part B with the epoxy resin.

The invention relates to epoxy resin compositions, particularly, to an epoxy resin composition that when cured exhibits properties useful in structural assembly and, even more particularly, to two-part epoxy adhesive compositions that exhibit one or more improved adhesive properties such as impact, creep and fatigue resistance, as well as durability under service conditions for structural applications.
Adhesives have been used in many structural applications. Such structural applications have included vehicles, computer cases, buildings, appliances, etc. For example, structural adhesives have been used in vehicle assembly (e.g., automobile and aircraft assembly) to replace or augment conventional joining techniques such as welds, nuts and bolts, and rivets.
Epoxy compositions are known and have been used for structural adhesive applications. In state-of-the-art epoxy technology today, polymerization catalysts used to achieve higher order oligomers typically are tetraalkyl ammonium or phosphonium salts that do not promote epoxy homopolymerization. Cyclic amidine catalysts, such as imidazoline catalysts and imidazole catalysts, have also been used in adhesives. The adhesives of the prior art are quality adhesives in many applications. Even so, there is a continuing need for higher performance adhesives in order to meet the changing needs of various industries such as, for example, the vehicle assembly industry.
The present invention is intended, at least in part, to address the ongoing need for higher performance adhesives to meet the needs of various industries, including the vehicle assembly industry (e.g., automobile, aircraft and watercraft industry). Compositions of the invention are believed to be useful in structural adhesive applications either alone or in conjunction with conventional assembly techniques like welding and/or mechanical fastening (e.g., rivets).
We have found a composition useful as a structural adhesive having long term durability under static and/or dynamic loads and substantially improved impact, creep and/or fatigue resistance for use in assembly applications. The composition can include a chain extender, a catalyst, a reactive epoxy resin and one or more polymeric tougheners. At least when mixed together, the present adhesive composition is in a form that can be applied or dispensed (e.g., liquid or paste form). The chain extender, the reactive epoxy resin, the catalyst and the toughener are each in an amount and of a type that are effective, when mixed together, to form a thermally curable adhesive. When the adhesive is cured, at least about 50% by weight of the epoxy resin is chain extended. Preferably, at least 60 wt %, and even more preferably at least 70 wt %, of the epoxy resin is chain extended.
It is preferred that the composition be free, or at least substantially free, of a polyfunctional curing agent (i.e., an agent that chain extends and cross links the epoxy resin). That is, the amount of polyfunctional curing agent should be limited to the point that, when the adhesive is cured, the desired amount of the epoxy resin is chain extended.
The chain extender can comprise an amine, a phenolic compound or a combination thereof. Preferably, the chain extender is all or at least substantially in monomeric form (i.e., the chain extender is not prereacted, prepolymerized or in oligomeric form) prior to being added to the composition. That is, enough of the chain extender is in monomeric form to enable the resulting composition to be applied or dispensed. Preferably, the resulting composition is compatible with state-of-the-art dispensing and rheology (e.g., viscosity) requirements. It is also preferable that the chain extender be dissolvable into the epoxy resin, the catalyst or both, at least at an elevated temperature (e.g., the curing temperature of the composition). It may be desirable for the chain extender to be in solid particulate form and finely dispersed in the epoxy resin and/or the catalyst, where the chain extender dissolves at elevated temperatures.
The phenolic compound preferably includes a dihydric phenol (e.g., a di-hydroxy benzene, such as catechol, resorcinol and/or compounds based thereon), and the amine preferably includes a primary monoamine (e.g., attached to a primary or secondary carbon), a secondary diamine, and compounds based thereon. A polyfunctional or multifunctional amine (e.g., a diamine containing both primary and secondary functionality or multiple primary functionality) will cause chain extending and cross linking (i.e., will function as a curing agent). Even though it will cause cross linking to occur, a polyfunctional amine or other curing agent may be used, but in a limited amount.
The present composition can be a two-part adhesive with the catalyst in a part A and the reactive epoxy resin in a part B. The chain extender is included in at least one of the two parts. When the chain extender of such a two-part adhesive composition includes an amine, the amine is preferably only in the part A. It may be possible to add very small amounts of amine in the epoxy part B, as long as the amount of amine is not enough to adversely affect the part B (e.g., its rheology). When the chain extender of such a two-part composition includes a catechol, the catechol can be in the part A, in the part B or in both. It is preferable that the catechol is in at least the part A. It is surprising that the catechol can be sufficiently stable (i.e., not recrystalize or react) in the epoxy resin to provide a part B with a commercially acceptable shelf life. When the chain extender includes a catechol and resorcinol, at least the part A includes the resorcinol and catechol. The part B can include the catechol without resorcinol. When the chain extender includes another type of phenolic compound, it may also be included in the part A, part B or both.
It can be preferable for at least about 50 wt % of the chain extender to be catechol. When such a chain extender also includes resorcinol, up to about 50 wt % of the chain extender can be resorcinol. It is believed that the adhesive composition can contain in the range of from about 8 wt % to about 30 wt % of such a catechol and resorcinol containing chain extender, based on the amount of chain extender and reactive epoxy.
The catalyst is preferably a base. The catalyst can include a cyclic amidine, a tertiary amine, and substituted analogues thereof The catalyst can comprise one or more of imidazole, imidazoline, a substituted imidazole compound, a substituted imidazoline compound, 1,4,5,6-tetrahydropyrimidine, a substituted 1,4,5,6-tetrahydropyrimidine compound and combinations thereof The chain extender preferably includes catechol. The catalyst can also include one or more substituted pyridines, pyrrolidines and piperidines. The chosen catalyst or catalysts should not contain a group that exhibits an electron withdrawing or stereo chemical effect sufficient to prevent the composition, when mixed together, from forming a thermally curable adhesive suitable for structural bonding. Typically, as the mass of the catalyst increases, the amount of catalyst needed to establish a desired effect also increases, unless any substitution chemistry present has an affect on (i.e., increases or decreases) the effectiveness of the catalyst. The catalyst can comprise two or more different catalysts. We have surprisingly found that a combination of two different amidine catalyst species, in particular cyclic amidine catalysts, can provide enhanced adhesive properties. A preferred combination can include one or more imidazole compounds (substituted or unsubstituted) and one or more imidazoline compounds (substituted or unsubstituted). It is believed that a combination of a 1,4,5,6-tetrahydropyrimidine compound (substituted or unsubstituted) with an imidazoline compound and/or an imidazole compound may also provide enhance adhesive properties.
Preferably, the amount of the catalyst in the adhesive composition is at a level of at least about 0.5 wt-%, more preferably, in the range of from about 0.5 wt-% to about 10 wt-% or, even more preferably, in the range of from about 0.5 wt-% to about 7.5 wt-%, based on the total amount of the reactive species or components of the adhesive mass (i.e., the chain extender, epoxy resin and catalyst) and the molecular weight of the catalyst.
The reactive epoxy resin can comprise one or more glycidyl ether epoxy compounds, each having more than one reactive epoxy group. Preferably, the reactive epoxy resin comprises at least one of an aromatic glycidyl ether epoxy compound and an aliphatic glycidyl ether epoxy compound, with at least one compound having more than one reactive epoxy group. Typically, the reactive epoxy resin materials are present in amounts in the range of from about 50 wt-% to about 90 wt-%, and preferably about 80 wt-%, based on the reactive species of the composition (i.e., catalyst, chain extender and epoxy).
It is desirable for the adhesive composition to contain up to 35 parts, preferably in the range of from about 5 parts to about 35 parts, and more preferably from about 10 parts to about 30 parts, by weight of polymeric toughener based on 100 parts by weight of the reactive epoxy resin. For a two-part adhesive composition of the present invention, the toughener can be added to the part A, the part B or both.
The present adhesives may be used to supplement or completely eliminate a weld or mechanical fastener by applying an adhesive mass between two parts to be joined and curing the adhesive to form a bonded joint. Optionally, spot welding can be used to pin the parts together until the adhesive is sufficiently cured for handling. Welding can contribute to the curing process. The adhesives may be used to form assembled structures by applying the adhesives to augment or replace welded joints and other mechanical joints. Replacing or supplementing welded joints with an adhesive bond to create a load bearing joint is believed to require superior adhesive toughness over a broad temperature range in some applications, as well as adequate adhesion to the substrates being bonded. This is related directly to the degree of polymeric matrix ductility, which requires chain extension allowing for optimum toughening. Compatibility with state-of-the-art dispensing and rheology (e.g., viscosity) requirements for a flowable one- or two-part adhesive composition can require this chain extension to occur, at least substantially if not completely, after the adhesive is applied.
For the purposes of this patent application, the term xe2x80x9cactive hydrogenxe2x80x9d denotes a hydrogen atom in a chemical group wherein the group becomes chemically reactive with the oxirane group resulting in ring opening bonding to the group. Active hydrogens typically are found in amines, thiols, carboxylic acids and phenolics. Preferred active hydrogen groups include amine (xe2x80x94NHxe2x80x94, xe2x80x94NH2) groups and aromatic hydroxyl (xe2x80x94OH) groups. The function of the active hydrogen compound is to provide chain extension. Some cross-linking can be introduced by polyfunctional amines but only to a limited extent. If excessive cross-linking occurs the adhesive can lose toughness and adhesion. Conversely excessive chain extension with little epoxy homopolymerization will result in a weak adhesive.
The first part or part A of the two-part epoxy adhesive comprises the catalyst. The second part or part B comprises the reactive epoxy portion and optional toughener. One formulation places dihydroxy phenolic in the epoxy part B with only the catalyst in a part A. A second formulation places the amine and/or dihydric phenol along with the catalyst in the part A and the epoxy and a toughener in the part B. A third formulation places a portion of the phenolic in both the part A (catalyst) and part B (epoxy).
In the adhesive of the invention, we have found that the stoichiometric equivalents ratio of reactive hydrogen sites to reactive epoxy sites is preferably less than 1.0 (i.e., for each epoxy equivalent in the adhesive, there is less than 1.0 equivalents of active hydrogen). We have also found that it can be preferable for the stoichiometric equivalents ratio to be in the range of from about 0.5 to less than 1.0, in the range of from about 0.6 to less than 1.0, or in the range of from about 0.7 to less than 1.0. The active hydrogen sites can be provided by the chain extender and catalyst. Fillers or the toughener can be independently incorporated in either or both parts A or B. We have found that an amine of the type described above can replace a portion of the dihydric phenol without a loss in physical properties and may be useful as the only chain extender in the composition. The amine can act as a diluent for the Part A, to lower its viscosity, but may also shorten the work-life of the mixed adhesive. Another function of the amine is to reduce any tendency of the phenolic to recrystallize and help stabilize the viscosity of the Part A. A further function is providing latitude in formulating for a specific volumetric mix ratio to meet dispensing requirements.
Adhesives made using the formulations of this invention can obtain an impact peel strength of at least about 3 Joules, preferably at least about 5 Joules and most preferably at least about 10 Joules at a temperature in the range of from about xe2x88x9240xc2x0 C. to about 90xc2x0 C. The desirable impact peel strength depends, at least in part, on the type of substrates being adhered together. Further, adhesives according to the present invention can form adhesive bonds having a T-peel strength of greater than about 70 N/cm width at 23xc2x0 C., greater than about 85 N/cm width at 23xc2x0 C., and greater than about 100 N/cm width at 23xc2x0 C. The adhesive can sustain a load under certain accelerated environmental cycling conditions for at least 10 days, preferably greater than 20 days, most preferably greater than 30 days.
In another aspect of the present invention, a structure is provided that has a first surface and a second surface joined by an adhesive bond made with a cured mass of the above described adhesive composition. The structural adhesives of the invention can form high quality adhesive bonds between metallic components (e.g., iron, aluminum, titanium, magnesium, copper, etc. and alloys thereof), between non-metallic substrates (e.g., reinforced and unreinforced thermoplastic and thermoset polymers, as well as other organic materials or organic composite materials) and between metallic and non-metallic substrates. The structure being bonded can form at least a portion of a vehicle.
We have also found that adhesives used to augment or replace weld construction can provide useful properties to an assembly. Welded joints, while strong, tend to concentrate stress at the weld nugget perimeter and can fail at the weld perimeter if sufficient impact energy is applied to the joint. Additionally, corrosion resistance associated with the weld nugget and adjacent metal is typically reduced. Cured epoxy adhesives of the present invention can absorb substantial impact energy and dissipate the energy throughout the structure. Such energy dissipation properties, in conjunction with weld joints, can improve the survivability of a structure under conditions of high impact loads. Such an adhesive requires significant structural properties. Regardless of the direction of the impact energy, it may be desirable for the adhesive mass to be able to maintain structural integrity regardless of whether the adhesive is exposed to stress in a cleavage mode, a shear mode, a compression mode or a tensile mode. Therefore, the structure can comprise a joint having a welded bond in addition to the adhesive bond. In addition, the welded bond can be formed through the adhesive bond.
We have found two characteristics of adhesives that can help identify an adhesive that is useful in this type of application. We have found that the impact peel strength and T-peel adhesion of the adhesive can be useful indicators for adhesive utility. Other characteristics of adhesives useful as performance indicators can also include sustained load durability and fatigue resistance. The epoxy adhesives of the invention may be used in a structure having structural integrity that is maintained with both welded joints and adhesive bonds made using the curable adhesive of the invention or with only such adhesive bonds. Adhesives are also desirable, for example in the automotive industry, because in an effort to reduce weight, car manufacturers are looking to use thinner gauge steel either alone or in combination with aluminum, magnesium, etc. In addition, the present adhesives can be a viable option for bonding together various organic materials or composites which cannot be welded or joined with conventional methods. Additional benefits of a structure bonded according to the invention are believed to include improved crash worthiness (i.e., impact resistance), survivability, corrosion resistance, sealing of the joint and vibration damping.
In an additional aspect of the present invention, a method is provided for assembling the above described adhesively bonded structure. The method comprises the steps of: (a) applying an uncured mass of the composition of claim 1 to at least one of a first member and a second member; (b) sandwiching the uncured mass between the first member and the second member; and (c) curing the composition to form an adhesive bond so as to adhere the first member and the second member together. The first member can be a frame member and the second member can be a sheet-like member or another frame member. The method can also include the step of welding the sheet-like member to the frame member through the uncured mass before the curing step.
Adhesives can be used for such applications, but known structural adhesives that are currently available for such applications do not have the requisite combination of properties and performance over typical end use (e.g. service) temperature ranges. Such properties include long term durability and fatigue resistance under static and dynamic (e.g. cyclic) loads and good impact resistance.

Composition of epoxy resin, chain extender and polymeric toughener with separate base catalyst


A network element (NE) comprising a hypervisor configured to receive a first virtual machine (VM) from a source hypervisor, and send a first VM mobility registration request to a management node, wherein the first VM mobility registration request comprises a VM identifier associated with the first VM and an internet protocol (IP) address associated with the hypervisor. Also disclosed is a management node comprising a binding cache, and a processor, wherein the processor is configured to receive a first VM mobility registration request from a first hypervisor, wherein the first VM mobility registration is associated with a VM, and record VM information from the first VM mobility registration request in an entry of the binding cache.

Datacenter networks may be used by telecom operators as well as by enterprises. The datacenter networks may be organized as one large network which may be implemented in layer 2 of the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model (e.g. the data link layer). In some cases, datacenter networks may be natively limited to a single building. In some cases, a datacenter network may be extended geographically using virtual private network (VPN) technologies, which may result in a larger layer 2 network.

System and apparatus for distributed mobility management based network layer virtual machine mobility protocol


An electronic apparatus comprises an electronic circuit unit having heat-generating electronic parts and cooling jackets fed with a coolant so as to cool the heat-generating electronic parts, and a coolant cooling unit having a heat exchanger for cooling the coolant from the cooling jackets and a pump for pressurizing and feeding the cooled coolant to the cooling jackets. The electronic circuit unit and the coolant cooling unit are housed in the same cabinet, and a partition plate is provided between the electronic circuit unit and coolant cooling unit to partition the two so that in the event of occurrence of liquid leakage, the coolant may be prevented from migrating from the coolant cooling unit to the electronic circuit unit. A coolant drainage drain may be provided at the bottom of a U-shaped portion of a path for circulating the coolant to facilitate drainage of the coolant.

The present invention relates to an electronic apparatus and, a method of cooling the same, and more particularly, to an electronic apparatus having heat-generating electronic parts which are cooled by using a liquid coolant and a method of cooling the electronic apparatus.
In recent years, as the technique for high-density packaging of integrated circuits boarded on an electronic apparatus has advanced, density of heat generated in the electronic apparatus has been increased. In this type of electronic apparatus, a liquid cooling system as disclosed in, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,226,281 and 4,800,956 has been employed in place of an air cooling system based on forced convection of air.
A prior art electronic apparatus employing the liquid cooling scheme will be described with reference to FIGS. 12, 13 and 14.
Referring in particular to FIG. 12, the electronic apparatus comprises a plurality of electronic computers 10, each carrying various integrated circuits, and a single cooler 20 which absorbs heat generated in the integrated circuits to cool them.
Provided in the cooler 20 are, as shown in FIG. 14, a primary coolant circulating line through which freon serving as a primary coolant circulates and part of a secondary coolant circulating line through which water serving as a secondary coolant circulates.
The primary coolant circulating line includes a compressor 21 for compressing freon, a condenser 22, a heat exchanger 23 for performing heat exchange between freon and water, and freon pipes 24 for interconnecting together the above components.
The secondary coolant circulating line in the cooler 20 includes a tank 25 for absorbing a change in volume of water, a pump 26 for pressurizing and feeding the water, and water pipes 27 for interconnecting together the above components.
Each electronic computer 10 includes, as shown in FIG. 14, a plurality of electronic circuit modules 11, each having integrated circuits formed on a substrate, cooling jackets 12, fed with water serving as the secondary coolant to cool the electronic circuit modules 11, water pipes 13 for feeding water to and discharging water from the cooling jackets 12, and piping paths 13a.
The water pipes 13 of each electronic computer 10 and water pipes 27 of the cooler 20 are interconnected together by flexible water pipes 19. The flexible water pipes 19 are laid under the floor as shown in FIG. 13 to meet requirements of working efficiency.
Water, warmed up by receiving heat transferred from the electronic circuit modules 11 through the cooling jackets 12, is led to the cooler 20 by the water pipes 13 and flexible pipe 19. Within the cooler 20, the warmed water is cooled by undergoing heat exchange with freon at the heat exchanger 23 in the secondary coolant circulating line, and the cooled water is pressurized by the pump 26 and again led to the cooling jackets 12 of the electronic computer 10.
As compared to the air cooling system, the above described liquid cooling system provides a significantly improved cooling power and is very suitable for cooling large-scale electronic apparatus. However, presently even medium-scale and small-scale electronic apparatus tend toward an increase heat generation density equivalent to the large-scale electronic apparatus and, in some medium-scale and small-scale electronic apparatus, a liquid cooling system similar to that of the large-scale electronic apparatus has been adopted.
However, when a liquid cooling system is employed for the medium-scale and small-scale electronic apparatus which is similar to the large-scale electronic apparatus, wherein the electronic computer and the cooler which are separately individual units, the following problems arise:
The medium-scale or small-scale electronic apparatus is often installed in an ordinary office room and reduction of installation space is one of its important performance factors. However, the arrangement in which the electronic computers and the cooler are disposed separately adversely affects realization of a realization of the installation space reduction and requires a sophisticated layout at the installation site.
Piping has to be laid between the electronic computers and the cooler and consequently installation is time-consuming. Especially when the installation site is in an ordinary office, it is preferable that installation be finished within as short a period of time as possible; however, it takes a long time to rearrange other office machines and, in any case, the office may be soiled.
Because of resistance between the electronic computers and the cooler, pumping power of a pump in the cooler has to be increased to make up for the piping resistance and accordingly the pump is increased in size and running cost is raised.
The electronic apparatus with the liquid cooling system faces a further problem in that, when the electronic apparatus of a liquid cooling system in non-operational for a long period of time, the coolant deteriorates and there is an increase in corrosion of the jackets and pipes ultimately resulting in requiring a draining of the coolant.
However, in the prior art electronic apparatus, a method for draining the coolant is not, in particular, considered and, even if a coolant drainage is effected in the construction shown in FIG. 14, the coolant in the flexible pipes 19 laid under the floor and in the piping paths 13a cannot be drained.
With a view of preventing this problem, a method has been proposed in which highly pressurized air is fed so as to remove the coolant in the cooling jackets; however, disadvantages to this proposed method resides in the fact that a compressor is required, thereby providing yet an additional component which requires maintenance and drainage becomes complicated.

Electronic apparatus and method of cooling the same


An internal combustion engine has a plurality of cylinders that have been allocated in at least two groups to one exhaust gas tract each. In each exhaust gas tract, an exhaust gas catalytic converter and an exhaust gas probe are fitted upstream of the exhaust gas catalytic converter. In order to detect combustion misfires in a combustion chamber of one of the cylinders, the following steps are carried out in each case. A combustion misfire is detected in one of the cylinders and allocated to one of the groups of the cylinders depending on at least one operating variable of the internal combustion engine.

The object of the invention is to create a method and a device for detecting the reason for combustion misfires or that the said method and device for accurately detecting the reason for combustion misfires is accurate.
The object of the invention is achieved by the features of the independent patent claims. Advantageous further embodiments of the invention are characterized in the sub-claims.
The invention in accordance with a first aspect is characterized by a method and a corresponding device for detecting combustion misfires in a combustion chamber of a cylinder of an internal combustion engine with a plurality of cylinders that have been allocated in at least two groups to one exhaust gas tract each. In each exhaust gas tract, an exhaust gas catalytic converter and an exhaust gas probe are fitted upstream of the exhaust gas catalytic converter. Combustion misfires are detected in one of the cylinders in accordance with at least one operating variable of the internal combustion engine and allocated to one of the groups of the cylinders. A cause of the error of combustion misfires is determined and lies in an injection system of the internal combustion engine or in an ignition system of the internal combustion engine depending on a first standard difference of a lambda regulator, which has been allocated to the group of cylinders, which has been allocated to the combustion misfires and, moreover, depending on a second standard difference of an additional lambda regulator, which has been allocated to one group of the cylinders, which has not been allocated to the combustion misfires.
According to a first aspect, the invention applies the knowledge that when the cause of the error is determined, it is possible that influences that are not caused by combustion misfires and which could possibly lead to an incorrect conclusion on the cause of the error could be reduced in this way, because they have an effect on both with regard to the group of cylinders, which has been allocated to the combustion misfires and on that group of cylinders, which has not been allocated to the combustion misfires. Above all, it is for example possible that in the event of an estimated value for a mass air flow in the cylinders of the internal combustion engine or additional load variables, which have been determined by means of a dynamic physical model of an exhaust gas tract of the internal combustion engine, the influence of a modeling fraught with errors is reduced. Over and above that, with regard to the first aspect in the case of low combustion misfiring rates, it is possible to allocate the cause of the error in an accurate manner.
The invention in accordance with a second aspect is characterized by a method and a corresponding device, which is distinguished from that in accordance with the first aspect in that the cause of the error of the combustion misfire is determined depending on a first characteristic value, which is determined depending on the controller output of the lambda regulation, which has been allocated to the group of cylinders, which has been allocated to the combustion misfires and, moreover, which is determined depending on a second characteristic value which is determined depending on the controller output of the lambda regulation, which has been allocated to one group of the cylinders, which has not been allocated to the combustion misfires.
In accordance with the second aspect of the invention, the invention applies the knowledge that the first characteristic value is influenced by the combustion misfires whereas the second characteristic value is not influenced by the combustion misfires. Due to the effect of the interferences on both characteristic values, it is possible that because of the corresponding determination of the cause of the error, depending on the first and the second characteristic value, the influence of the interferences is reduced or even eliminated and because of this it is in particular possible to determine the cause of the error in a reliable manner. Above all, it is also for example possible here, in the event of an estimated value for a mass air flow in the cylinders of the internal combustion engine or another load variable, which is determined by means of a dynamic physical model of an exhaust gas tract, an influence of a modeling fraught with errors is reduced. Over and above that, in the event of a high combustion misfiring rate, it is possible to allocate the cause of the error in an accurate manner.
A combination of the first and the second aspects of the invention has the advantage that both in the case of low combustion misfiring rates and in the case of high combustion misfiring rates, the cause of the error can easily be allocated in an accurate manner.
In accordance with an advantageous embodiment of the invention, the first or the second characteristic value is determined in such a way that it is representative of an integral part of the output controller of the specific lambda regulation. In this context, the knowledge is applied that the integral part is representative of a stationary regulator intervention of the specific lambda regulation, which on the other hand, is characteristic of the occurrence of combustion misfires in particular with a high combustion misfiring rate.
In this context, it is advantageous if the first or the second characteristic value is determined depending on taking a sliding mean for the controller output of the specific lambda regulation. In this way, it is in particular possible to determine the stationary regulator intervention in an easy manner.
In accordance with an additional advantageous embodiment of the invention, the cause of the error is determined depending on a first trim characteristic value, which is determined depending on a controller output of a trim regulator, which has been allocated to the group of cylinders, which has been allocated to the combustion misfires and, moreover, which is determined depending on a second trim characteristic value, which is determined depending on the controller output of a trim regulator, which has been allocated to the group of cylinders, which has not been allocated to the combustion misfires. Therefore, it is in particular possible in this way to allocate the cause of the error in a correct manner, in particular, in the case of average and high combustion misfiring rates. A trim regulator is characterized in that its controller output is determined depending on a measuring signal of an exhaust gas probe, which is fitted downstream of the specific exhaust gas catalytic converter and in this way it is in particular possible to compensate for a behavior of the specific exhaust gas probe that is fitted upstream of the exhaust gas catalytic converter changing over the operating time of the internal combustion engine.
In accordance with an additional advantageous embodiment of the invention, the cause of the error is determined depending on the desired value for the air-to-fuel ratio, which has been allocated to the group of cylinders, which has been allocated to the combustion misfires. In this context, the desired value preferably relates to that value at which the gas flow times and the probe dynamics of the exhaust gas probe upstream of the exhaust gas catalytic converter and, if required, a behavior of the exhaust gas catalytic converter are taken into account. Therefore, it is in particular also possible in this way to allocate the cause of the error to a full load operation of the internal combustion engine or in this context to an enrichment of the air-to-fuel mixture supplied to the internal combustion engine in order to protect the exhaust gas catalytic converter in a very accurate manner.
Over and above that, it is also possible to reduce or eliminate the effect of interferences by means of a superposed forced excitation in the case of the lambda regulation, which could otherwise act as interferences with regard to determining the cause of the error.
In accordance with an additional advantageous embodiment of the invention, the cause of the error is determined depending on a cylinder-specific uneven running value of said internal combustion engine, which has been allocated to the cylinder in which the combustion misfires were detected, and allocated to the other cylinders depending on additional cylinder-specific uneven running values of said internal combustion engine. In this way, it is in particular possible in the case of sporadic combustion misfires whose frequency increase with a decreasing quantity of fuel, to allocate very accurately the cause of the error, if it is in the injection system. In this context, the knowledge is applied that in the case of this cause of the error, which is also called low flow, also in the case of points in time or operating conditions, in which there are no combustion misfires or hardly any combustion misfires occur, the uneven running of the internal combustion engine has clearly changed compared to additional cylinder-specific uneven running values of said internal combustion engine, which have been allocated to the other cylinders even when its absolute value has not yet reached the value that is characteristic of combustion misfires.
In accordance with an additional advantageous embodiment of the invention, the cause of the error is determined depending on a cylinder-specific duration of the spark of an allocated spark plug, which has been allocated to the cylinder, in which the combustion misfires were detected, and depending on additional cylinder-specific durations of the spark of other spark plugs, which have been allocated to other cylinders. In this way, it is in particular possible in the case of operating points of the internal combustion engine with a low cutoff that the cause of the error can be clearly allocated in an accurate manner. Above all, it is possible in said way that the cause of the error in the ignition system can be determined in an accurate manner. This is based on the knowledge that in particular in the case of the operating points of a low cutoff, exhaust gas packages that have been allocated to the individual cylinders on reaching the upstream exhaust gas probe have very often to a large extent already been mixed with the exhaust gas packages of other cylinders. Therefore, this results in the fact that a cylinder-individual influence on actually occurred combustion misfires in one of the cylinders, less characteristically with a view to the allocation to the specific cylinder influences the first standard difference of the lambda regulation, which has been allocated to the group of cylinders, which has been allocated to the combustion misfires, and influences less characteristically the controller output of the lambda regulation, which has been allocated to the group of cylinders, which has been allocated to the combustion misfires.
In accordance with an additional advantageous embodiment of the invention, the cause of the error is determined by evaluating a plurality of detected combustion misfires, which has been allocated to the group of cylinders, which has been allocated to the combustion misfires. In this way, it is possible to remove statistical fluctuations, in particular a vibration, by means of filtering and indeed, with a high probability and in this way the assurance of a correct allocation of the cause of the error is increased.
In this context, it is in particular advantageous if the number of the majority of detected combustion misfires depends on a rotational speed and/or a load variable. In this way, it is then in particular possible in the different operating areas of the internal combustion engine to carry out the allocation of the cause of the error in an accurate manner.
In accordance with an additional advantageous embodiment of the invention, the cause of the error is determined by evaluating the majority of detected combustion misfires, which were detected during a predetermined point in time. In this way, it is also in particular possible to carry out an accurate allocation in an easy manner.
In accordance with an additional advantageous embodiment of the invention, the predetermined point in time depends on the rotational speed and/or a load variable. In this way, it is also in particular possible to carry out in the different operating points an accurate allocation of the cause of the error.
In accordance with an additional advantageous embodiment of the invention, the cause of the error is determined depending on a combustion misfiring rate of a specific cylinder, which has been allocated to the group of cylinders, to which the combustion misfire has been allocated, and/or a probe ageing of the exhaust gas probe which has been allocated to the group of cylinders to which the combustion misfires have been allocated. In this way, it is in particular possible to guarantee a reliable allocation of the cause of the error and this in particular over a long operating time of the internal combustion engine.
Elements with the same design and function are characterized in all the figures with the same reference symbols.

Method and device for detecting a combustion misfire


The present invention provides a fluoride fluorescent material comprising a chemical composition represented by the following formula (I):K2[M1-aMn4+aF6]  (I)wherein M is at least one element selected from the group consisting of elements belonging to Groups 4 and 14 of the Periodic Table, and a is a value that satisfies the relationship: 0<a<0.2, and a minimum value of a weight median diameter of the fluoride fluorescent material is 30 μm.

Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fluoride fluorescent material and a light emitting device using the same.
Description of the Related Art
A light emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor light emitting element frequently used as a substitute for a conventional light source, and is useful as a display lamp, a warning lamp, and a lamp for indicator or lighting. Various types of light emitting devices emitting a light of, e.g., a white color, electric bulb color, or orange color have been developed, wherein the devices use a semiconductor light emitting element produced from a Group III-V semiconductor, such as gallium nitride (GaN), and a fluorescent material in combination. These light emitting devices emitting a light of a white color or the like is controlled in color tone by the principle of mixing colors of lights. As a system for emitting a white light, a system using a light emitting element emitting an ultraviolet light and three types of fluorescent materials respectively emitting red (R), green (G), and blue (B) lights, and a system using a light emitting element emitting a blue light and a fluorescent material emitting, e.g., a yellow light have been well known. A light emitting device of a system using a light emitting element emitting a blue light and a fluorescent material emitting, e.g., a yellow light is demanded in a wide variety of fields, such as a lighting, a car lighting, a display, and a backlight for liquid crystal. In these fields, the fluorescent material used in the display application is desired to have both excellent light emission efficiency and excellent intensity of color for reproducing colors in a wide range on the chromaticity coordinates. Further, the fluorescent material used in the display application is desired to be advantageously used in combination with a filter, and thus a fluorescent material exhibiting an emission spectrum having a narrow half band width is demanded.
For example, as a red light-emitting fluorescent material having an excitation band in the blue region, and exhibiting an emission spectrum having a narrow half band width, a fluoride fluorescent material activated by tetravalent manganese ions (Mn4+), having a composition, such as K2TiF6:Mn4+, Ba2TiF6:Mn4+, Na2TiF6:Mn4+, or K3ZrF7:Mn4+, has been known (see, for example, Japanese Patent Application prior-to-examination Publication (kohyo) No. 2009-528429). In addition, a fluoride fluorescent material having a composition: K2SiF6:Mn4+ has been known (see, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2010-209311). Further, the excitation and emission spectra and the light emission mechanism of a fluoride complex fluorescent material activated by Mn4+ have been known (see, for example, "Effective Mn(IV) Emission in Fluoride Coordination", written by A. G. Paulusz, J. Electrochemical Soc., 120 N7, 1973, p. 942-947).

Fluoride fluorescent material and light emitting device using the same


An integrated heating and cooling system for a living space of a building connects together (a) a solar-based heating and cooling system and (b) heating and cooling systems that rely directly or indirectly on fossil fuels that are conventionally used in buildings. The system operates the solar-based heating and cooling system preferentially to heat or cool the living space. Therefore, the system minimizes the use of fossil fuels to heat and cool the living space.

The present invention relates to a heating and cooling system for a living space of a building.
The nature of heat loss and heat gain within buildings and, more particularly, living spaces of buildings is a complex relationship that is dependent on a number of factors including, by way of example, orientation of buildings, climatic conditions, building materials, building design, ventilation, and internal loads on buildings.
There is an increasing recognition that the use of heated and cooled air pumped into living spaces of buildings to artificially heat and cool buildings is costly in terms of capital and operating costs and is an environmental issue in terms of the use of fossil fuels.
Coincidentally, there is increasing interest in minimising the artificial heating and cooling requirements for the living spaces of new and existing buildings.
The present invention was made during the course of further research and development work in relation to an invention of a system for heating and cooling living spaces of buildings that is described and claimed in International application PCT/AU2006/000146 in the name of the applicant. The specification of the International application is incorporated herein by cross-reference.
The invention of the heating and cooling system in the International application is described and claimed as a roof assembly that includes a roof, a roof space in heat exchange relationship with at least a section of the roof, one or more than one first opening for airflow from the roof space to outside the building altogether to cool the building in "summer" conditions, and one or more than one second opening for airflow from the roof space to a living space of the building to heat the living space in "winter" conditions. With this arrangement, the roof section or sections are heated as a consequence of exposure to solar energy, air within the roof space is heated by heat exchange with the solar heated roof section or sections, the heated air is pumped from the roof space via the openings and, depending on the conditions in and outside the living space, is either pumped (a) into the living space to heat the living space or (b) from the building to effectively remove heat that would otherwise increase the temperature in the living space.
The term "summer" conditions is understood herein to mean that the temperature outside a building is higher than what would be regarded as a desired temperature in the living space of the building.
The term "winter" conditions is understood herein to mean that the temperature outside a building is lower than what would be regarded as a desired temperature in the living space of the building.
The heating and cooling system in the International application can also operate under "nocturnal" conditions to cool a living space in a building. In this context, the term "nocturnal" conditions is understood to mean that the outside temperature is lower than the inside temperature and the inside temperature is higher than what would be regarded as a desired temperature in the living space of the building. This situation arises particularly where there are significant temperature variations between night time and day time.
As is indicated above, the applicant has carried out further research and development work in relation to the above-described solar-based heating and cooling system, and the present invention relates to an invention that was made during the course of this work.


A tandem turbine-blade cascade for a turbine, turbo-engine or power engine includes at least two rows of blades disposed substantially directly in line with one another in the rotor or stator. The second row of blades has a larger number of blades than the first row of blades and the second row of blades are distributed nonuniformly. The spacing (s.sub.1) between two blades of the first row of blades is substantially equal to the sum (s.sub.2) of two successive blade spacings (s.sub.12, s.sub.22) in the second row of blades and the distribution quotient (s.sub.12 /s.sub.22) of the blade spacings in the second row is in the range between 0.4 and 1.0.

1. Field of the Invention
This application is filed under 35 U.S.C. 371 and claims priority based upon international application PCT/EP96/03039, filed on Jul. 11, 1996, which claims priority based upon German Patent Application P19525699.9, filed on Jul. 14, 1995.
The invention relates to a tandem turbine-blade cascade of a turbo-engine, power engine or other machine, having at least two rows of blades disposed substantially directly in line with one another in the rotor or stator. A turbocompressor with this kind of tandem turbine-blade cascade is shown for instance in German Patent DE 36 24 951 C1.
2. Description of the Related Art
Such tandem turbine-blade cascades can be provided in particular in turbine aircraft engines, in the compressor or the turbine, in order to achieve the pressure ratios needed in as few stages as possible. This leads to a desired weight reduction, but on the other hand, puts a greater aerodynamic load on the individual stage. Especially for the case of a compressor stage, this means that among other things that a greater deflection and/or retardation in the flow must be effected in the rotor with regard to the relative system, or in the ensuing stator with regard to the absolute system. However, this is possible only to a limited extent, since an excessive aerodynamic load on the cascade leads to a flow separation and thus, to increased pressure losses. These losses can be reduced if the cascade load is divided between two rows of blades disposed substantially directly one behind the other or directly in a line in the rotor or stator. The two rows of blades disposed substantially in a line may be positioned differently relative to one another in both the axial and circumferential directions, which affects the pressure index and the efficiency. In this regard, reference may be made to the studies by Linnemann reported in the German Journal "Konstruktion" [Construction] 1964, No. 4, p. 128. With regard to the phrase "substantially directly", reference is briefly made to FIG. 1, later to be described in further detail, which is taken from precisely this reference in the literature (Linnemann). Here, one can see the two rows 1, 2 of blades, for instance in a rotor, which are spaced apart from one another by the dimension a*, and between which no further row of blades, for instance of a stator, protrudes. Each value a*, which is less than the chord length c and can even assume negative values, is intended to represent substantially in-line rows 1, 2 of blades as long as no further row of blades protrudes between these rows of blades.
If the second or subsequent row of blades is now heavily loaded aerodynamically in such a way that a larger number of blades would have to be provided in this row of blades than in the preceding row of blades, then for some of the blades in the second row, the result can be unfavorable positions in the circumferential direction, in terms of the pressure index and efficiency. The object of the present invention is to disclose remedies for these problems.


Proposed is a dosing module for injecting liquid urea-water solution into the exhaust tract of an internal combustion engine, which dosing module is composed of two pumps, specifically a delivery pump (5) and an aeration pump (15). This permits firstly the injection of urea-water solutions and secondly safe and reliable ventilation of the system when the internal combustion engine is to be shut down.

In internal combustion engines which operate according to the diesel process, an SCR catalyst is often provided in the exhaust gas system in order to meet environmental regulations. In order that the SCR catalyst can convert the NOx compounds contained in the exhaust gas to water and atmospheric nitrogen, a liquid urea-water solution (reducing agent) has to be injected into the exhaust tract upstream of the SCR catalyst. To this end, a dosing system comprising a tank, a pump and a dosing module, which operates similarly to the injector of a fuel injection system, is used. The pump is also referred to as the delivery module.
It is the task of the delivery module or the pump to draw urea-water solution from a tank and to build up a sufficient pressure on the pressure side so that the liquid urea-water solution is finely atomized as soon as the dosing module opens in a demand-controlled manner. Just as the delivery module, the injector is connected to a control device of the internal combustion engine and is opened by said device in accordance with the demand and closed again by the same. The same process also applies to the operation of the delivery pump. Because urea-water solution has the property of freezing at low temperatures and thereby increasing the volume thereof by approximately 11%, measures must be taken to prevent damage to the dosing system due to freezing urea-water solution.
For this reason, it is known from the German patent application DE 10 2004 054 238 to aerate the lines carrying the urea-water solution. To this end, the pump is designed having a reversible delivery direction, or a valve for reversing the delivery direction of the pump is provided.
It is known from the German patent application DE 10 2009 029 408 to integrate a 4/2-way valve into the dosing system. In a first switching position of the 4/2-way valve, the pump delivers reducing agent from the tank to the dosing module. When the internal combustion engine is to be shut down, the 4/2-way valve is brought into the second switching position; thus enabling the pump of the delivery module to deliver liquid reducing agent from the dosing module to the tank and thereby ventilate parts of the dosing system. This assumes that the dosing module is open and air or exhaust gas can flow out of the exhaust tract into the dosing system.
By the partial aeration of the dosing system, a compressible air bubble forms so that when the remaining residues of the reducing agent freeze in the dosing system, the resulting ice pressure is so small that no damage occurs to the dosing system. Such a 4/2-way valve is however subject to malfunction and expensive.

Dosing system for a liquid reducing agent


The present invention relates to a new method for the production of polymer microparticles. The method is carried out in the absence of organic solvent, and consists in the steps of (a) combining first and second polymers, the first and second polymers being immiscible, (b) heating the combination obtained in step (a) so as to melt the first and second polymers; (c) stirring the melted polymers obtained in step (b) under conditions effective to produce a biphasic system comprising a dispersed phase consisting of a dispersion of the first polymer and a matrix continuous phase comprising the second polymer, the dispersed phase containing microparticles of the first polymer dispersed in the matrix continuous phase; (d) solidifying the biphasic system obtained in step (c) so as to keep the microparticles of the first polymer dispersed in the matrix continuous phase; and (e) separating and isolating the microparticles of the first polymer from the matrix continuous phase, wherein the first polymer forming said dispersed phase is water-insoluble, while the second polymer forming the continuous phase is water-soluble.

(a) Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a method of preparation of polymer microparticles free of organic solvent traces.
(b) Description of Prior Art
There is a substantial interest in the preparation of polymer microparticles in the micrometer and submicrometer ranges, because of their potential applications. These kind of particles are produced by various manufacturing processes including suspension, emulsion and dispersion polymerization in addition to the well known solvent evaporation-based method. In the biotechnological field, polymer microparticles have attracted increasing attention as carrier matrices in a wide variety of applications, namely affinity chromatography, immobilization technologies, drug delivery systems, nuclear imaging and cell culturing (Rembaum A. and Toke Z. A., Eds., Microspheres: Medical and Biological Applications, CRC Press, Boca Raton, Fla., 1988; Mosbach K., 1988, Methods Enzymol., 137:443; Arshady R., 1993, Biomaterials, 14:5).
Up to now, all methods reported that the fabrication of such microparticles requires a solution media, since they necessarily involve preliminary dissolution of polymers or relative monomers depending on the technique.
Aliphatic polyesters are preferred polymers for the preparation of biodegradable microparticles as devices for drug delivery and cell culturing. Such a preparation is often carried out in presence of CH.sub.2 Cl.sub.2 or CH.sub.3 Cl as organic solvent, and poly(vinyl alcohol), PVA, as surfactant. Accordingly, one cannot underestimate the toxicity risks associated with the solvent and surfactant residues remaining adsorbed on the microparticles inner and outer surfaces. The surfactant problem may be solved by using other surfactants, such as methyl cellulose or poly(ethylene oxide) Sorbitan.TM. monoalkaneoates (Tween.TM.) instead of PVA (U.S. Pat. No. 4,933,105 in the name of Fong J. W.; Jalil R. and Nixon J. R., 1990, J. Microencapsul., 7:297; Bodmeier R. and McGinity J. W., 1987, J. Microencapsul., 4:279).
More recent patent gets around the surfactant problem by using PLA or PLGA oligomer to prepare microparticles of PLA and PLGA polymers (Vert M. et al., International Patent Application published under No. WO93/25191 on Dec. 23, 1993). However, the solvent problem seems to be too difficult to overcome, and thus its use remains an important drawback of the prior art method.
Both mentioned patents are based on solvent-evaporation method to produce microparticles of PLA or PLGA as matrices for drugs or cells. The employed method consists to dissolve desired polymer in CH.sub.2 Cl.sub.2 or CH.sub.3 Cl, after which the resultant solution is emulsified in aqueous media containing a surfactant as stabilizing agent for the dispersed phase. Once the emulsion is formed the organic solvent is taken off by simple evaporation. The first patent uses Na-Oleate as surfactant, while in the second one, the microparticles are prepared in presence of PLA and PLGA oligomers, which allowed them to be considered surfactant-free.
It would be highly desirable to be provided with an alternative method aiming to produce microparticles from melted polymers, which avoid using organic solvents which are mostly toxic. Such a method is expected to receive a particular attention in biotechnological field.

Method for preparation of polymer microparticles free of organic solvent traces


The invention, in an embodiment, relates to optimizing database performance by taking advantage of sleepy drives. The invention analyzes queries to indexes based on usage frequency, and determines whether to access an index stored on a sleepy drive, or perform an alternate access plan based on green optimization. Furthermore, the invention transfers data, such as, for example, indexes, files, data areas, journals, and statistics, between active and sleepy drives based on usage frequency. In another embodiment, the invention provides an improved sleepy drive which optimizes energy savings by a graduated degree based on a speed setting. In yet another embodiment, the invention controls when read-write heads are unloaded from disks to reduce drag and power consumption by a disk drive.

1. Field of the Invention
The inventive embodiment provides a method and apparatus for optimizing the power consumption of computer drives, and in particular, optimizing the power consumption of sleepy, or green, computer drives.
2. Description of Related Art
Recent emphasis on the environment and energy conservation has prompted the computer industry to produce computers that have reduced environmental impact, such as green computers. A conventionally defined green computer is a computer that has reduced power consumption.
The computer disk drive industry is currently developing "sleepy" drives. Sleepy drives are disk drives that are designed to save power when not in active use by spinning down to a slower speed or stopping altogether. The idea behind sleepy drives is to reduce the computer's energy consumption. Sleepy drives are known in the art, however, the problem with the conventional sleepy drive is that it impairs the computer's performance.
Once a sleepy drive is in sleep mode, the lag time required for the sleepy drive to become active makes sleepy drives an unacceptable and inefficient solution for many enterprise databases and applications which require instantaneous or expedient processing.
The hardware to implement sleepy drives is known in the art. However, the software to allow computer systems to intelligently take advantage of sleepy drives without an impact to performance is not currently available. Furthermore, the energy required to activate a sleepy drive from a stopped or reduced speed is significant as compared to the energy required to leaving the drive spinning. Acceleration is power consuming, and therefore, the number of accelerations must be minimized in order for the computer system to be truly green.
Therefore, there is a need for a method and apparatus that takes advantage of sleepy drives, but which significantly reduces the adverse performance that sleepy drives have on enterprise databases and applications while reducing energy consumption.

Method and apparatus for query optimization and management of sleepy drives

International Business Machines Corporation


A power conditioning, distribution and management system includes a switch circuit that enables coupling of an AC power supply to a load though an overcurrent device. A control circuit switches the switch circuit from a non-conductive state to a conductive state when a supply voltage signal is between first overvoltage and undervoltage thresholds. The control circuit records an overvoltage event and maintains the switch circuit in the conductive state when the supply voltage signal exceeds a second, higher overvoltage threshold and switches the switch circuit to a nonconductive state when the supply voltage signal exceeds a third, highest overvoltage threshold. The control circuit records an undervoltage event and maintains the switch circuit in the conductive state when the supply voltage signal falls below a second, lower under-voltage threshold and switches the switch circuit to the non-conductive state when the supply voltage signal falls below a third, lowest undervoltage threshold.

Power distribution units (PDUs) provide power from an alternating current (AC) power source to one or more loads connected thereto. PDUs typically include circuitry that disconnects the AC power from the connected loads in response to overcurrent conditions. A ubiquitous example of such circuitry is a circuit breaker that opens when current drawn by an electrical load and passing through the circuit breaker exceeds a rated current. Typical circuit breakers are current controlled devices and are not responsive to voltage anomalies, such as voltage surges. Thus, load equipment connected to a PDU having such overcurrent protection may be left vulnerable to potentially damaging anomalies in the AC source power. Additionally, certain line voltage conditions, such as swells and overvoltages, can cause failure of certain components in the power protection device itself, such as metal oxide varistors and other suppressor components. Given the range of different undesirable, damaging and in certain cases dangerous power conditions and the many points of potential failure at which such power conditions can adversely operate, ongoing development efforts seek ever more robust power protection solutions to an ever-widening set of power-related problems.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Power conditioning, distribution and management


A detection circuit for a capacitive sensor includes a drive signal generator for applying drive signal varying between first and second levels to a sensor common terminal, a sense amplifier having input terminals respectively connected to sensor detection terminals, and a controller for controlling input common-mode voltage of the sense amplifier to predetermined voltage. The controller includes a feedback amplifier for outputting feedback voltage according to difference between the common-mode and predetermined voltages, a pair of feedback capacitors having one ends respectively connected to the detection terminals and another ends connected together, and a voltage switcher for applying preset voltage, between the predetermined voltage and a limit voltage outputtable by the feedback amplifier in direction where the second level exists relative to the first level, to the other ends during the first level and the feedback voltage to the other ends during the second level.

A capacitive sensor has a pair of sense capacitors with capacitances, the difference between which changes according to a physical quantity such as acceleration or pressure. One ends of the sense capacitors are connected together to provide a common terminal. Another ends of the sense capacitors are configured to provide separate detection terminals. The detection circuit applies a drive signal varying between two levels to the common terminal, converts the difference between the capacitances of the sense capacitors to a voltage, and outputs an electrical signal having a voltage value according to the physical quantity.
A detection circuit with a fully differential switched capacitor amplifier (sense amplifier) has been proposed as an example of this type of detection circuit (refer to a non-patent document 1). This detection circuit has a great effect on suppression of common-mode noise, is capable of reducing errors such as charge injection and clock feedthrough, and is capable of increasing amplitude of an output signal by using differential output.
Even when a fully differential amplifier is simply used in a detection circuit, a voltage at an input terminal varies largely according to a drive signal. A sense amplifier needs to have a wide input range for a variation in an input common-mode voltage. Further, influence of a mismatch of a parasitic capacitance at an input terminal of a C-V conversion circuit appears, and influence of an offset of a sense amplifier depending on an input common-mode voltage appears. Therefore, in the detection circuit disclosed in the non-patent document 1, a common-mode feedback loop is added to stabilize an input common-mode voltage to a desired constant voltage.
In another configuration to stabilize an input common-mode voltage, one end of a compensation capacitor is connected to a detection terminal, and an inversion signal opposite in phase to a drive signal is applied to the other end (refer to a patent document 1). In practice, even in this configuration, a common-mode feedback loop is necessary to prepare for a difference in capacitance between a sense capacitor and a compensation capacitor due to, for example, manufacturing variation, aging degradation, and temperature drift.


A method, apparatus, and article of manufacture for exchanging information in a computer-implemented database system. The present invention implements this exchange using a new operator known as a Rhonda operator. A Rhonda operator includes a tuple and template as arguments and, when performed, atomically swaps its tuple with a tuple from another Rhonda operator when both their templates match. More specifically, if two processes perform Rhonda operations, and each process' template argument matches the other process' tuple argument, then each process receives the other process' tuple as a result. This atomic synchronization can be performed for two or more Rhonda operators at a time.

1. Field of the Invention.
The present invention generally relates to a computer-implemented database management system, and in particular, to a method for exchanging information in a tuplespace.
2. Description of Related Art.
A Tuplespace is a globally shared, associatively addressed memory space that is organized as a grouping of tuples. The Tuplespace concept is further described in the following: David Gelernter and Arthur J. Bernstein, "Distributed Communication via Global Buffer," PODC 1982, pp. 10-18, 1982 (hereinafter referred to as Gelernter 82); Nicholas Carriero and David Gelernter, "Linda in Context," CACM 32(4), pp. 444-458, 1984 (hereinafter referred to as Carriero 84); and David Gelernter, "Generative Communication in Linda," TOPLAS 7(1), pp. 80-112, 1985 (hereinafter referred to as Gelernter 85); all of which are incorporated by reference herein.
The basic element of a Tuplespace system is a tuple, which is simply a vector of typed values or fields. Templates are used to associatively address tuples via matching techniques. A template (or anti-tuple) is similar to a tuple, but some (zero or more) fields in the vector may be replaced by typed placeholders (with no value) called formal fields. A formal field in a template is said to match a tuple field if they have the same type. If the template field is not formal, both fields must also have the same value. A template matches a tuple if they have an equal number of fields and each template field matches the corresponding tuple field.
Table 1 below illustrates some simple tuples and templates.
TABLE 1 __________________________________________________________________________ SIMPLE TUPLE EXAMPLES Does the Sample Does the Sample Match the Match the Template (Float, Template (Float Sample Tuple Description "Hellow World" int) String, 345.0) __________________________________________________________________________ <2.24, "hello A tuple with three fields: (1) a Yes No world", 345> float with the value 2.24, (2) a string with the value "hello world", and (3) an integer with the value 345. <2,24, "hello A tuple with three fields: (1) a No Yes world", 345.0> float with the value 2.24, (2) a string with the value "hello world", and (3) a float with the value 345.0. < > A tuple with 0 fields. No No __________________________________________________________________________
A tuple is created by a process and placed in the Tuplespace via a write primitive. Tuples are read or removed with read and take primitives, which take a template and return the first matching tuple. (Note that, because the space is unstructured, the choice among multiple matching tuples is arbitrary and implementation-dependent.) Most Tuplespace implementations provide both blocking and non-blocking versions of the tuple retrieval primitives. A blocking read, for example, waits until a matching tuple is found in the Tuplespace, while a non-blocking version will return a "tuple not found" value if no matching tuple is immediately available.
Tuplespace provides a simple yet powerful mechanism for inter-process communication and synchronization, which is the crux of parallel and distributed programming. A process with data to share "generates" a tuple and places it into the Tuplespace. A process requiring data simply requests a tuple from the space. Although not quite as efficient as message-passing systems, Tuplespace programs are typically easier to write and maintain, for a number of reasons:
Destination uncoupling (fully anonymous communication): Most message passing systems are partially anonymous: it is not necessary for the receiver of a message to identify the sender, but the sender always has to specify the receiver. The creator of a tuple, however, requires no knowledge about the future use of that tuple, or its destination. PA1 Space uncoupling: Since tuples are retrieved using an associative addressing scheme, multiple address-space-disjoint processes access tuples in the same way. PA1 Time uncoupling: Tuples have their own lifespan, independent of the processes that generated them, or any processes that may read them. This enables time-disjoint processes to communicate seamlessly.
Tuplespace extends message passing systems with a simple data repository that features associated addressing. Conceptually, it ranks above a pure message passing system in terms of function, but far below relational database systems, since most implementations do not include transactions, persistence or any significant form of query facility.
Research into Tuplespace systems has proceeded at a steady pace for the past fifteen years, but has been primarily targeted at the high-performance parallel computing market. Recently, interest in Tuplespace has developed among researchers in distributed systems.
For example, SUN Microsystems has recently publicized an internal project based on Tuplespaces, called "Javaspaces", as described in the JavaSpace.TM. Specification, Revision 0.4, Sun Microsystems, Inc., 1997, which is incorporated by reference herein. Also, computer science departments at universities around the country are now giving programming assignments that feature Tuplespaces in Java.TM..
Notwithstanding these improvements, there remains a need in the art for enhanced functionality for use with Tuplespaces. The present invention provides such enhanced functionality directed to the exchange of information between clients or processes using a Tuplespace.

Information exchange operator for a tuplespace

International Business Machines Corporation


A system for creating mobile software applications that may be updated in real time without code changes, re-submittal or user updating. The system includes various types of media content, a content management system, mobile application and a mobile device. Media content is uploaded to the content management system where it is translated and organized in preparation for delivery to the mobile application and mobile device. A user interfaces with the mobile device to receive translated and organized media content for display on the mobile device.

Traditional mobile development requires new code to be written for each new application. This code is then submitted to a mobile application store and downloaded by the end user. Changes or updates required to traditional development call for modifications to the original code, re-submission to a mobile application store, and a re-download by the end user.
Such traditional technology limits the ability of applications to be updated in real-time without code changes, re-submittal, or user updating.


An electrical interconnect has a non-planar ceramic substrate with opposing first and second ends. A first conductive layer having first and second opposing sides is disposed within the ceramic substrate with one of the first and second opposing sides exposed at the first end and one of the first and second opposing sides exposed at the second end. The electrical interconnect is useful to join an integrated circuit in a hybrid package to a circuit board in high frequency communication applications.

1. Field
The disclosure relates to a ceramic feedthrough for use in a high frequency signal transmission device. More particularly, a stripline transmission line is surrounded by a ceramic portion. This ceramic portion is then covered with a ground metallization.
2. Description of the Related Art
High frequency electronic packages are frequently hybrid packages containing a multiple devices. The hybrid package is solder attached to a circuit board for use in high data rate communication systems. A number of requirements are imposed on an interconnect that joins the hybrid package to the circuit board. First, the interconnect must be capable of transitioning the electrical signal from the location of integrated circuits inside the housing of the hybrid package to lower levels that make contact with the circuit board. The signal path from the integrated circuits to the circuit board must simultaneously provide good signal integrity, solderable connection to the circuit board and transverse the requisite distance.
Second, the hybrid packages require electrical interconnects with performance that is effective over a very wide frequency bandwidth, nominally from 0 to 50 GHz or even 80 GHz. This wide band performance is required to maintain signal integrity of the information carried along the electrical interconnects. If the signal integrity is not maintained, then the information carried along the electrical interconnects will become unusable and the information could be lost.
Third, the interconnects must be compatible with the solder used to attach to circuit boards using standard surface mount methods. Solder attach is important because it offers the board level system integrator flexibility in processes and a capability to use low cost manufacturing processes.
To demonstrate the importance of signal integrity, consider the effect of poorly performing interconnects. The effect may be illustrated by eye performance results from the signal passing through the electrical interconnect. In telecommunications, an eye diagram is an oscilloscope display that shows a digital data signal that is repetitively sampled. It is called an eye diagram because, for several types of coding, the pattern looks like a series of eyes between a pair of rails. It is an empirical method used for the evaluation of combined effects. It is commonly used for high speed communication signals as an indication of the quality of the signal. For interconnects, the eye diagram shows undesired effects within the interconnects that will degrade the signal performance.
Several signal performance measures can be derived by analyzing the eye diagram. If the signals are too long, too short, poorly synchronized with the system clock, too high, too low, too noisy, too slow to change, or have too much undershoot or overshoot, this can be observed from an eye diagram. An open eye pattern corresponds to minimal signal distortion. Distortion of the signal waveform due to intersymbol interference and noise appears as closure of the eye pattern. An exemplary eye diagram with good performance is illustrated in FIG. 1. The eye 2 has symmetry and is uniform in shape.
The eye diagram illustrated in FIG. 2 shows the effect of transmission line dispersion, an electrical interconnect effect that degrades eye performance. Dispersion causes the transmission line propagation constant to be non-linear with frequency and line impedance to change as a function of frequency. The eye 4 lacks symmetry and is not uniform in shape. Other effects that degrade eye diagram performance include a stray inductive or capacitive parasitic as part of the electrical interconnect.
One prior high speed interconnect is a metal box with high quality coaxial connectors. The connectors are approximately 0.5 inch×0.5 inch×0.25 inch and require coaxial cable for connection. While these connections are capable of providing high quality interconnect performance over a very broad frequency range, they are not surface mountable. The connectors are too large to effectively integrate with a compact telecommunications equipment box.
A high speed interconnect is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 8,933,450, titled "High-Frequency Transmitting Device," by Okumichi et al., that is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety. FIGS. 1A-1D of U.S. Pat. No. 8,933,450 illustrate a microstrip or coplanar waveguide transmission line forming a vertical transition from a top layer to a bottom layer. This approach utilizes a coaxial section that allows transition of the electrical signal from a layer with integrated circuits down to a layer that contacts with a circuit board. The coaxial section is formed using a center conductor via and a series of vias that form an electrical ground contact. This permits the signal to travel over transmission lines that are matched or nearly matched to the required system impedance, that is normally 50 ohms. A drawback with this approach is that it requires the electrical system to make an abrupt 90° bend in at least two locations which degrades electrical performance. The 90° bends occur at transition points at the top and at the bottom of the ceramic stack. One attempt at addressing this drawback is to use a stair-stepped via structure as mention in U.S. Pat. No. 8,933,450. This approach adds additional transition discontinuities which must be compensated and degrade electrical performance. Another drawback is that it requires a transition from co-planar waveguide (CPW), or microstrip, transmission line to coaxial transmission at two locations. This transition further degrades the electrical performance because the electric field distributions are so different between horizontal CPW or microstrip and the vertical coaxial line.


Provided is an LC composite component having a multi-layer substrate, a pattern coil, and a chip capacitive element. The multi-layer substrate is configured such that insulating layers are stacked. The pattern coil forms a coiled shape of which the coil axis extends along a stacking direction of the multi-layer substrate, and includes a coil conductor disposed between the insulating layers. The chip capacitive element includes a ceramic body having a relative permittivity higher than that of the insulating layers and counter electrodes. The chip capacitive element is at least partially disposed within the pattern coil.

1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates to an LC composite component configured such that a coil and a chip capacitive element are arranged in a multi-layer substrate having a plurality of insulating layers stacked on each other.
2. Description of the Related Art
There is an LC composite component that is configured as an LC filter in which a coil and a capacitor that are formed by an electrode pattern are disposed between layers in a multi-layer substrate are connected (see JP 5-335866 A).
According to a conventional LC composite component, a magnetic field generated within a multi-layer substrate becomes stronger as the magnetic field is closer to a coil. Therefore, if an electrode pattern such as a capacitor is disposed near the coil, a magnetic flux travels around the electrode pattern, and thus an inductance of the coil is reduced. Accordingly, in order to set an inductance to a desired value without changing a configuration of the coil too largely, it may be desirable to place an electrode pattern such as a capacitor away from the vicinity of the coil so as to prevent reduction of the inductance. In addition, it may be desirable to increase an area of the multi-layer substrate in order to place the electrode pattern such as a capacitor away from the vicinity of the coil. Therefore, it can be difficult to produce downsized LC composite components.


A split phase fuel conditioner 10 includes a main body 20 defining an ignition chamber 22. A transfer passage 24 is in fluid communication between the ignition chamber 22 and chamber 14. A valve 28 selectively opens and closes a throat 26 of the transfer passage 24 to control fluid communication between chamber 22 and chamber 14. A first injector 30 injects a first fuel volume into ignition chamber 22. A second fuel injector 32 injects a second volume of fuel directly into transfer passage 24 through the first valve 28. The first fuel volume is ignited in the chamber 22 to form an ignition plasma. Valve 28 is opened allowing the ignition plasma to condition the second fuel volume by vaporising the second fuel volume. The ignition plasma then sweeps the conditioned second fuel volume into the combustion chamber where it combusts in a controlled manner.

An inherent characteristic of large bore direct injection diesel engines is the very short time available for the satisfactory introduction of fuel into the combustion chamber. This often leads to the phenomenon of ignition delay which causes physical damage to the diesel engine as it forces peak cylinder pressure far higher than ordinarily desired. Since the inception of diesel engines, substantial efforts have been placed in reducing the detrimental effects of ignition delay.
Fuel technologists have attempted in part to decrease the phenomenon of ignition delay by raising the cetane value of diesel fuels. Various engineering techniques have also been employed to reduce this phenomenon. While some progress has been made, ignition delay still persists.
Ignition delay is a chemical phenomenon caused by the fact that before any liquid hydrocarbon fuel can spontaneously ignite from compression heat, it must first vaporise and gather sufficient heat from the air to raise it well above its self-ignition temperature.
While in theory this may seem straight forward, it is compromised by the very short time available during the conventional diesel cycle within which to vaporise the fuel. Typically, the fuel injection period for a diesel engine is about 15 crank degrees before top dead center (TDC). Thus even for a low speed diesel engine operating at, say 1500 rpm, this time period is less than two thousandths of a second.
The situation is further aggravated by the fact that the liquid fuel when it evaporates can absorb a disproportionate amount of compression heat, and due to its much higher mass than the air, there is a reduction in the rate of heat transfer from the air to the fuel.
As a consequence, instead of the injected fuel burning as soon as it is introduced into a main combustion chamber of the diesel engine, and thus liberate the heat value of the fuel at a controlled combustion rate, the ignition delay allows the fuel to accumulate such that upon finally reaching self-ignition temperature, all the accumulated fuel present along with that being injected tends to explode in an uncontrolled manner rather than steadily burn. Consequently, very high peak cylinder pressure is created just prior to TDC which also coincides with compression pressure reaching its maximum. When close to TDC, due to the alignment of crank bearings, fast and sympathetic expansion of the combustion chamber is not possible. Thus, in maintaining pressure and temperature equilibrium, a substantial proportion of the heat generated by the fuel is simply transferred to other engine components rather than being directed to useful work.
Further, the high peak pressure at TDC heavily loads the piston rings of the engine against its cylinder walls at a time when they are momentarily stationary (that is, changing from the upward compression stroke to the downward expansion stroke) and therefore unable to generate a hydrodynamic lubrication film. This leads to unprotected metal-to-metal attrition further contributing to engine wear.
The present invention was developed with a view to providing a means for better control of the factors that govern the combustion process in a diesel engine. However embodiments of the invention may be equally applied to combustion engines running on low grade and/or low octane rated fuels.


The present invention provides an interleaved IDT that is connected to and overlaps adjacent IDTs. In particular, the interleaved IDT may be connected to both an input IDT and an output IDT via corresponding bus bars. The first bus bar of the interleaved IDT is connected to the bus bar of the input IDT, and the other bus bar of the interleaved IDT is connected to a bus bar of the output IDT. The interleaved IDT is coupled electrically to the respective input and output ports of the overall surface acoustic wave architecture. As such, the bus bars of the respective input and output IDTs are effectively extended, such that the adjacent edges of the respective input and output IDTs partially overlap one another in an interdigitated fashion at the interleaved IDT.

Surface acoustic wave (SAW) devices are often used in filtering applications for high-frequency signals. Of particular benefit is the ability to create low loss high order bandpass and notch filters without employing complex electrical filter circuits, which may require numerous active and passive components.
A common filtering application is in the transceiver circuitry of wireless communication devices. The maximum attainable SAW filter bandwidth and achievable minimum Insertion Loss are determined primarily by the piezoelectric properties of the substrate material and the metallization used for the transducers. At the same time choice of proper SAW filter structure is critical to meeting a specific filtering requirements specification. In mobile communications, there is always a need to minimize device insertion loss in order to increase battery life. Secondly, there is a need to decrease costs and minimize size. As such, there is a need for a more efficient technique to implement SAW filters with lower loss and wider bandwidths.
Although SAW filters with lower losses and wider bandwidths can be realized by choosing different materials, aspects like performance over operating temperature range and cost of implementation can be prohibitive.
As such, there is a further need to provide a SAW architecture that will allow wider filter bandwidths while minimizing losses to the signal being filtered irrespective of the substrate material being used. This will allow low cost implementation of improved filters as well as allow for application of current low cost materials with beneficial properties for newer applications.


A system is provided for controling access to a resource, the access being restricted by an access mechanism. The system comprises an access control subsystem for i) subjecting the user to one or more security measures based on use of a security input system, and ii) signaling the access mechanism to grant the user access to the resource based on the user passing the one or more security measures. The system further comprises a task interlace for accessing task data, the task data being indicative of a scheduled task of the user. The access control subsystem is further arranged for determining the one or more security measures based on the scheduled task to establish different levels of security depending on the task. Advantageously, a better adjusting of the level of security is obtained in that it is dynamically adjusted to the scheduled task of the user.

It is widely known to control access to a resource. For example, access to a physical resource, such as, e.g., a storage cabinet, may be subject to a user having a physical key which fits a lock of the storage cabinet. Hence, the access is controlled in that it is subject to a security measure in the form of a physical key being required to unlock the lock.
Alternatively or additionally to using physical keys, such access may also be controlled electronically, i.e., using an electronic system. Such a system may require a user to identify him/herself, e.g., by entering a user identification on a keypad of the system or by swiping a magnetic badge through a badge reader. Having identified the user, the system may then grant the user access to the resource based on the user passing one or more security measures. For example, the user may be required to enter a password via the keypad. The identification and passing of the one or more security measures may also be combined. For example, the system may obtain a biometric identification of the user, with the providing of the biometric identification also serving as passing a security measure.
US 2005/0097320 A1 describes a flexible transaction processing system. It is said that the flexible transaction processing system may assess a risk level, and based on the risk level, set or alter a level of authentication for the transaction. Several examples are provided of how the risk level may be assessed, including evaluating the transaction, assessing a size of the transaction and assessing the risk level of the user.
It is known to dynamically adjust a level of security needed for accessing an electronic health record of a patient based on a context of the access.
A publication from Pravin Shetty and Seng Loke, titled "Modelling Context-Aware Security for Electronic Health Records Using Contextual Graphs", 2007, Australia, describes an approach to modeling security for electronic health records by using contextual graphs. It is said that contextual information may be used in implementing security policies, thereby enabling to take different security actions based on the contextual information. The publication describes such contextual information being, e.g., a role of the user within a medical institution and whether access to the electronic health record is local or remote.


An optical ophthalmic treatment apparatus comprises: a slit illuminating light beam projecting optical system having a reflecting member for reflecting a narrow illuminating light beam toward a patient's eye to illuminate the patient's eye; a stereomicroscopic observation optical system for observing the patient's eye; a first therapeutic light beam projecting optical system for introducing a first therapeutic light beam through a position on the side of an operator with respect to the reflecting member into the stereomicroscopic observation optical system; a light path deflecting optical element capable of being inserted in and retracted from a plane including the light paths of the stereomicroscopic observation optical system, of transmitting at least part of the narrow illuminating light beam and of reflecting a second therapeutic light beam; and a second therapeutic light beam projecting optical system for projecting the second therapeutic light beam which is reflected toward the patient's eye by the light path deflecting optical element inserted in the stereomicroscopic observation optical system. Thus, the optical ophthalmic treatment apparatus is capable of satisfactorily and selectively using different therapeutic light beams and has a simple construction.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical ophthalmic treatment apparatus and, more specifically, to an optical ophthalmic treatment apparatus capable of selectively projecting an incisive YAG (yttrium-aluminum-garnet) laser beam to be used principally for the treatment of the front portion of the eye or a coagulative semiconductor laser beam to be used principally for the treatment of the fundus of the eye.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A known optical ophthalmic treatment apparatus irradiates the affected part of the eye with a therapeutic light beam, while the operator observes the eye illuminated by a slit lamp through a stereomicroscopic observation optical system. Some optical ophthalmic treatment apparatus uses an incisive YAG laser beam principally for the treatment of the front portion of the eye and other optical ophthalmic treatment apparatus uses a coagulative laser beam, such as argon laser beam or a semiconductor laser beam, principally for the treatment of the fundus.
FIG. 4 shows a previously proposed optical ophthalmic treatment apparatus capable of selectively using an incisive laser beam or a coagulative laser beam. As shown in FIG. 4, a YAG laser beam Ly and an argon laser beam La are guided, respectively, by separate half mirrors 52 and 53 to the light path of an observation optical system. When using the argon laser beam La, an illuminating light beam Ls is guided to the light path of the observation optical system and the components of the illuminating optical system including prisms are arranged on the side of the operator's eye E with respect to an objective lens 54 to avoid the interference of the components of the illuminating optical system with the argon laser beam La. Thus, the argon laser beam, i.e., a coagulative laser beam, is transmitted through the slit lamp optical system and the YAG laser beam, i.e., an incisive laser beam, is transmitted through the observation optical system. In FIG. 4, indicated at Lh is a collimating He--Ne laser beam projected together with the YAG laser beam Ly.
FIG. 5 shows another previously proposed optical ophthalmic treatment apparatus. As shown in FIG. 5, an incisive YAG laser beam Ly projected by a YAG laser 70 is expanded by a beam expanding concave lens 71, the expanded YAG laser beam Ly is reflected by the reflecting surface 67b of a laser beam reflecting prism 67 and collimated by a relay lens 68, the collimated YAG laser beam Ly is reflected by the reflecting surface of a laser beam reflecting mirror 62 so as to travel along the light path of an observation optical system, and then the YAG laser beam Ly is focused on an affected part of the patient's eye E. An illuminating prism 72 for reflecting an illuminating light beam Ls emitted by a slit lamp toward the patient's eye E is shifted to a position where the illuminating prism 72 will not obstruct the YAG laser beam Ly. A collimating He-Ne laser beam Lh for collimating the YAG laser beam Ly relative to the affected part is emitted by a He--Ne laser, not shown, and the He--Ne laser beam Lh is transmitted through an optical fiber cable 69 to the reflecting surface 67a of a laser beam reflecting prism 67. Then, the He--Ne laser beam Lh is reflected by the reflecting surface 67a so as to travel in parallel to the light path of the YAG laser beam Ly. A coagulative argon laser beam La emitted by an argon laser, not shown, is transmitted through an optical fiber cable 63, condensed by a lens 64, reflected by a movable mirror 65, condensed further and focused on the laser beam reflecting prism 67 by a lens 66 and travels along the light path of the He--Ne laser beam Lh.
In these two prior art optical ophthalmic treatment apparatus, the argon laser beam and the YAG laser beam travel along the same light path into the observation optical system at a position on the side of the operator with respect to the slit reflecting prism and the objective lens of the observation optical system.
In the former prior art optical ophthalmic treatment apparatus, which transmits the coagulative laser beam through the slit lamp optical system, the optical system for the coagulative laser beam turns together with the slit lamp optical system, which makes the observation of the illuminated part difficult.
In the latter prior art optical ophthalmic treatment apparatus needs a complex optical system for coaxially guiding the laser beam and the illuminating light differing from each other in wavelength. Furthermore, since the therapeutic laser beam is introduced into the observation optical system into the observation optical system through a position on the side of the operator with respect to the slit reflecting prism, the slit reflecting prism must be located outside the light path of the illuminating light.