A protocol for protected email transmission using micropayments and a segregated inbox in which protected emails are displayed. The protocol also involves authentication of the sender to defeat phishers and an opt out protocol which can be used to block protected emails from sources from which the user no longer wishes to receive emails even if the source has made a micropayment. Branded email is also taught wherein a sender of protected emails can pay extra to have a miniature version of its brand logo or trademark displayed with its email in the segregated inbox. A white list is maintained on the protected email server (along with the opt out black list) so that recipients can designate specific senders who may send email to that recipient without paying a micropayment and still have the protected email displayed in the segregated inbox.

Unsolicited email is becoming a large problem on the internet. One solution to this problem is the use of a micropayments system where emails from sources not on a recipient's white list do not get to recipients unless the sender has taken steps to make a small payment called a micropayment. Emails for which micropayments have been made include in them coding which is called a stemp and which indicates the micropayment has been made. One such micropayments system is disclosed in U.S. patent application METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR IMPLEMENTING A MICROPAYMENT SYSTEM TO CONTROL E-MAIL SPAM, filed Feb. 12, 2004, Ser. No. 10/778,956 as assigned to the assignee of the present invention.
While that patent application describes the details of how a micropayments server cooperates with client computer executing sending and receiving processes, it did not go into a user interface for interacting with users regarding the presence or absence of stemps on incoming emails or the issue of phishing.
Micropayments are effective to stop mass emailers who send out millions or tens of millions of unsolicited emails per day to users who do not want to receive them. Even a payment of 0.01 cents per email will be a considerable amount of money when multiplied by millions of emails per day. However, bulk emailing of unsolicited emails is not the only problem the internet suffers from.
Phishing has become a large problem in email communications over the internet. Phishing involves passing oneself off as a legitimate business from which a user may actually want to receive unsolicited emails. In September 2003, the number of phishing attacks was 279. By March 2004, the number of phishing attacks had risen to 215,643. Spam only gets a response rate of 0.01%. However, phishing, because of the air of legitimacy and the strong call to action, gets a 5% response rate.
Phishing is done with email messages which look very similar or identical to email messages that come from the legitimate business and contain an urgent call to action with a request to click on a link. Clicking on the link takes the unsuspecting user to the phisher's web page where personal information such as credit card numbers or bank account numbers are sought. If the user supplies the information, an identity theft often follows. For example, a favorite recent ploy of phishers is to send an email to a customer pretending to be from the user's credit card company. The email says typically, that a charge for a kiddie pornography purchase is about to show up on the user's credit card statement and requesting the user to click on a link if the user wishes the cancel the charge. When the user clicks on the link, his browser is directed to a web page which actually is being run by the phisher but which appears to be run by the credit card company. The user is then asked to enter his credit card number to verify he wants to stop the charge. Many user's do not recognize the fact that the sender of the original email would already have his credit card number if the email was actually sent by the credit card company it purports to have been sent from. Another favorite recent ploy is to send an email to people who are looking for a job, the email apparently being from careerbuilder.com. The emails says the job seeker has a job offer and invites her to click on a link to learn more about the offer. Clicking on the link takes the job seeker to a page apparently offered by careerbuilder.com which describes an offer and asks for their credit card number to pay the fee of careerbuilder.com and asks for employee identification information such as social security number and date of birth to complete mandatory government forms such as W-2's and I-9's. The fee goes to the phisher, the job offer is totally fictitious, and the identity data is used for identity theft.
Another possible vunerability to phishers is practiced in Europe. There, banks offer a service to send short message service warnings to customers cell phones when their balance gets low. If the phishers can think of a way to abuse this system, they will.
Phishers have been achieving as high as about 5% click through rate on these type ploys and have been stealing a large amount of sensitive information.
Phishers can do all this by downloading into the user's browser "JAVA®." applets which paint the display to make it look like the solicitation is coming from the legitimate business. Phishers can even hijack the URL bar where user's enter URLs to direct their browsers to a desired web page. When the user clicks on a link provided by the phisher, the address bar of the browser for that session is hijacked so no matter what URL the user types in, the browser will be directed to a web page offered by the phisher. For example, the user may click on a link that he things will take him to www.amazon.com but which is actually provided by the phisher, and a "JAVA®." applet downloaded into the browser hijacks the user's address bar. Whatever the user types in the address bar will take him nowhere but to a web page supplied by the phisher. There, the phisher displays a web page that looks very similar or identical to the business which the user thinks he is visiting. This user may think she is buying something from or supplying information to Amazon.com needed to correct some problem with the user's account but in reality, the payment or information goes to the phisher and not to the legitimate business to which the consumer thinks the payment is going.
Naturally this ability to cause a user's browser to display a page which looks like it is being offered by a legitimate business can and currently is leading to abusive practices which micropayment systems cannot stop. For example, when the phisher is only sending out a few thousand emails to a targeted list of consumers in the hope of getting just a small percentage of those users to respond, a small micropayment, even if paid, is not much of a deterrent. Micropayments will not stop phishers since they do not send out millions of emails every day. Their volume is much lower because they can use targeted email lists.
There are two kinds of phishing today. The first uses a long URL to obscure the criminal's actual domain name. The second, called social phishing, uses perfectly legitimate domain name registrations, which can be purchased for as low as $8.95 from some sources but which include a famous trademark of another company. For example, there are twenty five imposter, but perfectly legitimate domain name registrations using the trademark "VIAGRA®." For example, there is a registration to www.viagra-generic.com. "PHIZER®." the legitimate owner of the "VIAGRA®." trademark, does not own nor is it associated with any of these websites. For an extra $49.95, each one of these imposters can obtain a perfectly legitimate 128 bit certificate that will lock the lock on the browser and support digital signatures. Technical means cannot detect these perfectly legitimate URLs. Further, since the "MICROSOFT®/YAHOO®." Sender ID scheme only checks for the authenticity of the top level domain, and all these imposters have legitimate top level domains, this prior art authentication scheme will not work to protect a recipient of an email from one of these domains from being confused into believing the email is from "Phizer®." A way to protect users from these social phishers is needed.
Eventually, micropayment-based email may become the dominant form of email traffic on the internet. In addition to the phishing problem, it is annoying to have commercial unsolicited email mixed in with email from friends and family.
In order to fight spam and phishing, email filters are getting tighter. Filters now block up to 50% of permission based marketing e-mails. Legitimate advertisers still need to get their messages through however.
Email presents four challenges to commercial senders.    1. Filters: Filters now block up to 50% of commerical email for some service providers. eTrust is working to solve this. Jupiter says it will get worse.    2. Phishing: The problem with phishing has been discussed above. For email marketing, this is a huge problem. Filter providers say they can fix this problem, but the reality is they cannot. With a 5% response rate, volumes do not have to approach the spam volume levels that trigger filters. The identification of this material is too content specific to be subject to computerized solutions. Technical solutions probably will not work, because clever criminals find ways around such solutions, and technical solutions would have to find universal acceptance which is difficult to achieve.    3. Clutter: When the world is perfect and only permission based email gets in your inbox, the volume of permission based email is growing. Marketers need a way to break out of the clutter. Jupiter says this will get worse.    4. Opt-outs: As legitimate companies get mailing lists from numerous sources and use numerous outside agencies to send email, opting out becomes very hard for the senders of commerical email marketing messages to administer. A way to take this burden off them is needed, and is provided by this invention.
Commercial companies which are legitimate and who want to use the internet to send messages using their logo are bothered by all the above noted problems. In the prior art, "AOL®." has been using their logo in their webmail to distinguish their own email. They do it in their "type" column. "AOL®." claims this is secure so that you know for sure this email came from them. But this has not, as far as the applicants are aware, been generalized into a simple general purpose graphical display of verifiable sender identity. Also, it appears to lack the validation feature provided by the invention described herein. A phisher could overwrite this screen and spoof the "AOL®." logo.
Passmark has a rather complex system that attempts to provide sender validation. What is needed however is a general way to associate security with visualization for email. "Visualization" is more general than simply a picture. It could include a sound note.
Therefore, a need has arisen for a user interface which segregates out paid email from unpaid email and for a micropayments system with antiphishing functionality which authenticates the sources of each paid email so that a user knows from whom each email received actually came. A need has also arisen for a system which provides legitimate marketers the ability to use email in a sheltered, safe environment to deliver legitimate messages to their existing customers and prospective customers. A way to send branded email with logos encrypted with the identity of the sender is also needed to allow commercial marketing messages to be sent by protected email which gets segregated into a separate inbox at the recipient and which uses the valuable and trusted logo of the sender and which the recipient knows is already authenticated when it arrives or which the recipient can authenticate by giving a command on his computer is also needed.

Techniques for displaying emails listed in an email inbox


A method of making an expanded metal sandwich structure includes cleaning at least two metal superplastic core sheets to remove metal oxides and residues that would interfere with diffusion bonding of the sheets. The core sheets are placed face-to-face and a gas pressure line fitting is inserted between one edge and is welded into place. The fitting has a through bore through which gas can flow under pressure into the space between the core sheets. The core sheets are pressed together and laser welded together into a core pack along lines which will form junction lines between the core sheets when the core pack is superplastically expanded. The core pack and the two metal face sheets having superplastic characteristics are each chemically cleaned, and the face sheets are placed over and under the core pack. An envelope gas fitting is placed between the face sheets and is welded in place while seal welding around the entire peripheral edges of the face sheet and the core pack to produce a sealed envelope pack with gas fittings into the core pack and into a face sheet zone between the face sheets and the core pack. A gas supply tube is connected to each of the fittings and air and moisture is purged from the packs by flushing with dry argon. The packs are pressurized to a low pressure with argon to maintain separation of the sheets while heating to prevent premature bonding. The full pack is placed in an internal cavity of a heated die and is raised to superforming temperatures. Forming gas is injected to inflate the envelope pack to the interior walls of the cavity and to inflate the core pack to the envelope pack and to diffusion bond the face sheets to the core sheets.

Multisheet superplastically formed, diffusion bonded, expanded metal sandwich structures have been in use for many years, primarily in the aerospace industry, because of the low cost, high temperature capability and good strength and stiffness per unit weight that these structures offer. Various processes for fabricating these structures have been developed in the past, with various degrees of success, but all have proven costly and slow to produce, and often they have been prone to produce defective or unreliable parts.
Most of the existing techniques for fabricating such structures, including the truss core technique shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,927,817 to Hamilton, utilize superplastic forming of a stack of sheets in a die having a cavity shaped like the final sandwich structure. The stack includes one or more core sheets that are selectively joined to each other, when there is more than one core sheet, and to a top and bottom sheet that form the top and bottom outside skins of the sandwich structure. The stack is inflated at superplastic temperature with gas pressure to expand the top and bottom sheets outwardly against the interior walls of the die cavity with gas pressure in a die cavity to the desired exterior dimensions. During superplastic forming, the core sheets stretch between their attachment areas to the top and bottom skins as those skins expand toward the boundary surfaces of the die cavity.
Early developments of techniques for fabricating multi-sheet expanded metal sandwich structures utilized diffusion bonding to join the core sheets along selective areas to produce the desired core structure. These techniques require the accurate placement of stop-off to prevent diffusion bonding in areas where adjacent sheets were not intended to bond together. Diffusion bonding is a desirable joining method because the junction retains superplastic qualities, but it has been difficult to produce a clean junction line free of stop-off that is narrow enough, and diffusion bonding can be a lengthy process with long holding times in the press at elevated temperatures, preventing the press from being used for other production. The capital intensive and time consuming nature of the diffusion bonding process lead to research into other techniques for joining the core sheets of multisheet stack that would be faster, more reliable, and less costly.
Another joining method, shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,217,397 and 4,304,821 to Hayase et al., uses resistance welding of the core sheets along the selected lines to establish the junction lines between the core sheets, leaving gaps in the weld lines for passage of forming gas into the cells. This process was faster than the diffusion bonding technique, but still required that the core and face sheets not be loaded into a hot die to avoid premature diffusion bonding of the core sheets to each other. After closing the die, the stack could be purged and pressurized to slightly inflate the stack and separated the sheets from one another so that they would not diffusion bond together where no bonding was desired. The die would then be heated to superplastic temperature and forming gas would be admitted under pressure into the stack to superplastically expand the top and bottom sheets against the walls of the die cavity and stretch the core sheets between the top and bottom sheets to form the desired sandwich structure.
To prevent premature diffusion bonding of the face sheets in the stack with the core sheets, a device is used in the apparatus of the Hayase et al. patents to hold the face sheets spaced apart from the core sheets. Eight separate tooling pieces are shown for this purpose, which increases the cost and complexity of the forming process. For a high rate production operation, it would be preferable to simplify the tooling and enable the parts to be loaded into the die while it is hot, to achieve an increased production rate and lower production cost.
For successful forming to occur, a pressure differential must be established between the face sheet zones and the core sheet zones, and this pressure differential must be equalized over both face sheet zones. Otherwise, the core sheets will form unevenly and will result in excessive thinning.
Heating titanium to a high temperature in the presence of oxygen creates a surface layer of alpha case which is a hard but very brittle composition and is unacceptable in structural parts because of its tendency to crack. Such cracks could grow in a fatigue environment and lead to failure of the part. Consequently, it is desirable to purge oxygen and moisture from the stack of sheets of before heating to elevated temperatures. An ideal process would be one in which the stack of sheets is sealed and purged of oxygen and moisture before loading so the sealed pack could be loaded into a hot die without the danger of alpha case forming before the stack is purged and without using expensive press time to purge the stack and then slowly bring the die up to superplastic temperature.
Another fastening technique, shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,603,089 to Bampton, uses a CO.sub.2 laser to weld sheets in the stack together. However, the Bampton disclosure does not teach any way to hold the sheets together while they are being laser welded, and indeed does not disclose any apparatus at all to perform the welding operation. In fact, in a production operation for making a laser-welded multisheet expanded metal sandwich structure, such as that shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,330,092 to Gregg et al., it is necessary to press the sheets into intimate contact to obtain a quality weld, and to do so with a high speed, efficient, high production rate apparatus in order to benefit from the potential benefits that laser welding has to offer. In addition to exerting a press-up force on the sheets during welding, such an apparatus ideally would protect the weld area from oxidation at high temperature that occurs during laser welding of titanium.
Weld cratering and tight radii at the start and stop of the weld are inherent limitations of laser welding. They are the consequences of the high intensity, narrowly focused nature of the beam, and have in the past resulted in sharp termination points that concentrated stresses at those points which can rip the core sheet when the core is pressurized by forming gas during superplastic forming. The laser naturally produces a "keyhole" weldment that forms a crater at the weld termination, severely undercutting the top sheet at the end point of a stitch weld. Such welds weaken the top sheet of the core stack at the weld termination at a point that experiences high stress during inflation by gas pressure during superplastic forming. A production process that optimally utilizes the potential benefits of laser welding would eliminate these weak points at the beginning and terminating ends of the weld.


The invention discussed in this application relates to vitamin B12-based compounds that are useful as quantitative standards, particularly for the assessment of vitamin B12 deficiency.

Vitamin B12 (also known as cobalamin) is an essential vitamin that plays a key role in many physiological processes in the human body. However, it is not produced endogenously in fungi, plants, or animals, and can only be synthesised in nature by prokaryotes, such as bacteria [1]. Therefore, humans (and other animals) obtain their vitamin B12 from food or supplements. In addition, due to its chemical complexity, it is very difficult to synthesise vitamin B12 de novo and therefore, commercially, it is manufactured by microbial fermentation [2].
Vitamin B12 deficiency is a significant health concern—it can lead to megaloblastic anaemia and a range of neurological deficits (from peripheral neuropathy to depression, cognitive disturbances, and dementia). Evidence also suggests that vitamin B12 deficiency may contribute to the risk of vascular disease, cancer (particularly breast cancer), and neural tube defects (spina bifida, anencephaly). Vitamin B12 deficiency may also play a role in the rate of onset of clinical AIDS resulting from HIV infection.
The Schilling urinary excretion test [3] has been used since the 1950s to indirectly measure vitamin B12 absorption, and can be used when vitamin B12 insufficiency is identified and malabsorption is the suspected cause. The test involves ingestion of a physiological quantity of vitamin B12 labelled with radioactive (gamma-emitting) cobalt (such as 60Co or 57Co), followed by administration of a pharmacological parenteral flushing dose of unlabeled vitamin B12 to force urinary excretion of the radioactivity. Urine is collected over a 24-hour period, and the radioactivity in the urine is then measured. While the Schilling test has been the standard assessment for vitamin B12 absorption for many years, it does suffer from a number of disadvantages, including the use of radioactive isotopes (which exposes patients and medical personnel to small but quantifiable levels of gamma radiation, and results in the production of radioactive waste), and the long waiting period (24 hours for the first stage, which causes problems with patient compliance and delays treatment of the underlying condition).
US 2012/0264174 describes a method for preparing a labelled form of vitamin B12 for deficiency testing, as well as for determining the cause of the vitamin B12 deficiency. However, the labelled products produced using this method also have a number of drawbacks, including the use of 14C, which is a radioisotope (as discussed above, radioisotopes are a health and safety concern) and complex detection systems (specifically, accelerator mass spectrometry, or AMS).
AMS is a very specialised instrument that is not widely available, due to its size, complexity, initial expense and running costs. In addition, sample preparation for AMS is complicated by the fact that the sample needs to be pyrolysed (as it is the carbon isotopes in the resulting CO2 that are detected and measured). The sample preparation method also means that AMS detects the ratio of all carbon isotopes in a sample, regardless of the source of the isotopes. For example, in the case of 13C, the natural abundance is around 1%, which consists of random incorporations of 13C in all carbon-containing compounds (including vitamin B12). AMS cannot tell the difference between these randomly incorporated 13C signals and small amounts of vitamin B12 labelled with 13C, essentially counting the labelled vitamin B12 and the background as one signal.
Therefore, the accuracy of the result of the analysis can be adversely affected, and is not solely dependent on the amount of labelled vitamin B12 administered to the patient for the analysis.
Accordingly, a simple, safe and accurate means for quantitative measurement of vitamin B12 in a variety of matrices (particularly biological matrices) is desirable.
Reference to any prior art in the specification is not an acknowledgment or suggestion that this prior art forms part of the common general knowledge in any jurisdiction or that this prior art could reasonably be expected to be understood, regarded as relevant, and/or combined with other pieces of prior art by a skilled person in the art.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


A method and system to improve fuel economy of an engine on a vehicle is offered. An electronic throttle control device is commanded to a wide open throttle position during vehicle coast down, thus improving engine breathing and reducing pumping losses, and improving engine efficiency. This includes monitoring operator inputs to: an accelerator device, a braking device, and a cruise control device, and, monitoring throttle position control input from the electronic controller to the electronically controlled throttle mechanism. The electronically controlled throttle mechanism is commanded to a substantially wide-open throttle condition only when the monitored operator inputs to the accelerator device, the braking device, and the cruise control device are each at a null position. A further limitation on the wide-open throttle command includes monitoring other inputs from the electronic controller to the throttle mechanism.

Technologists and designers for internal combustion engines implement various technologies and control strategies to improve engine characteristics such as fuel efficiency. Electronic throttle control is a technology that has been broadly implemented on internal combustion engines for passenger vehicles. Electronic throttle control offers opportunities for engine control, previously unavailable, that may be exploited to improve fuel economy. Improvements in engine characteristics through use of electronic throttle control strategies may benefit any engines employing throttles, including conventional spark-ignition engines, some compression-ignition engines, and engines that employ intermediate engine control strategies, such as homogeneous-charge compression-ignition engines.
One opportunity for improving fuel economy and managing engine operation comprises vehicle coasting, wherein input commands to the vehicle indicate that the operator has no need for braking or acceleration of the vehicle. Under such circumstances, there may be gains to fuel economy if the vehicle is able to sustain vehicle momentum during the coasting event. Prior systems to take advantage of vehicle momentum during coasting include transmission design and controls, such as optimization of torque converter designs and transmission control methods to decouple the engine from the driveline. Other systems have increased air flow through the engine by increasing engine idle control settings, to reduce engine pumping losses. Idle control systems are limited in their ability to improve engine breathing during coast down events, due to their limited authority to control air into the engine. What is needed is a method and system to improve engine performance during coast down events by improving engine breathing and reducing pumping losses, thus improving engine efficiency and fuel economy.

Method and apparatus for controlling throttle during vehicle coasting


A camera-assisted presentation apparatus, which is one of imaging apparatuses, has a table including a fixation member and two extension members, and a camera support assembly with a video camera attached to one end thereof. The two extension members are attached to the fixation member in a pivotally rotatable manner. In a service state of the camera-assisted presentation apparatus, the fixation member and the two extension members are extended to form one identical plane and ensure a wide area, on which a material for presentation is mounted. In a non-service state of the camera-assisted presentation apparatus, the two extension members are folded down to a camera holder member and an arm member of the camera support assembly. This arrangement significantly reduces the whole size of the camera-assisted presentation apparatus in its non-service state and effectively enhances the portability of the camera-assisted presentation apparatus.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an imaging apparatus, and more specifically pertains to an imaging apparatus having a table, on which an object to be imaged is mounted, and a video camera that faces the table in an imaging direction.
2. Description of the Related Art
A camera-assisted presentation system including a video camera and displaying an image of a material on a monitor television is one known example of imaging apparatuses. The imaging apparatus has a table on which a material to be imaged, such as a document or a photograph, is mounted, and a video camera located above a center portion of the table. The video camera is attached to a post, which is fixed to the table or is folded down in a non-service state and pulled up in a service state.
In the imaging apparatus, the vide camera is provided with a zoom lens for zooming the imaged material or expanding the imaging range. The imaging range may be varied manually or automatically.
The prior art imaging apparatus has a large table, on which the material is mounted. This leads to poor portability of the imaging apparatus. The material to be imaged typically has a size of A4 or greater, and the table accordingly has the size of A4 or greater. Size reduction of the imaging apparatus has highly been demanded with recent size reduction of a liquid crystal projector or a micro mirror device (DMD) projector, which is often combined with the imaging apparatus.
One proposed technique for size reduction of the imaging apparatus in the folded state omits the table and uses legs to support the post with the video camera attached thereto. This technique, however, has a problem that the imaging range is unclear. The required area of the material may thus not be imaged adequately, or it may take an undesirably long time for presentation of the material. Size reduction of the imaging apparatus with a table has accordingly been required.


A pivoting drive socket has a cylindrical body within a sleeve, studs on the sleeve, the studs fitting into a slotted bracket, and the bracket joining to a handle. The slot has an elongated, rectangular shape. The body rotates within the sleeve and has a tab upon one end that receives an external tool. The tab has a shape with at least two flat portions. The bracket permits the handle to engage the tab. The bracket has an opening reinforced by a ring that admits the tab for connection into that handle. The tab has at least two chamfers that grip the bracket during usage. The tab rotates the body which engages a pipe that fits upon a mechanism to raise and to lower trailer legs. The invention allows a trucker to use manual effort or to use power to raise or to lower trailer legs.

The present invention relates generally to towed trailers and more particularly to a tool that extends and retracts the leg of a trailer, generally ahead of the wheels towards the tongue.
Long ago, people used beasts of burden to carry cargo. The cargo would rest in a saddle upon a beast or a traveler would tie the cargo to the beast. A beast of burden such as a donkey, mule, ox, or horse may only carry so much cargo. In time, the cargoes acquired weight that exceed that of a beast to carry himself. People then developed wagons that a beast or a team of beasts of burden would pull. The beasts pulled wagons depending upon the terrain to travel. Donkeys and mules performed well on steep narrow trails in mountains and similar passages in mines. Oxen and horses performed well with cargo on flat land and in river crossings. Oxen and horses often pulled heavy cargo on their wagons. The terrain though still had its effects on cargo. Steep terrain would urge cargo to slide off a wagon. Also, the beasts of burden effected cargo as a startled beast could upset a wagon. Thus, teamsters and other masters of beasts of burden tied cargo securely to wagons. Such ties were generally ropes and with better metal work, they became chains.
Once more, technology moved along. In time, beasts of burden became replaced by engine powered trucks. Trucks come in a wide variety with vans, flat beds, dump, tanker, special purpose, and the like. Similar to wagons of old, a trucker often operates a tractor with a connected flat bed trailer, side dump trailer, dump trailer, tank trailer and the like. Each of these trailers does not move itself. Each of these trailers has wheels upon axles near one end and retractable feet upon the opposite end. The end near the retractable feet connects to the tractor often at the so called fifth wheel. During the connections, the retractable feet are in an up position, that is, away from the supporting road surface. Just prior to connecting to a fifth wheel, just after disconnecting to a fifth wheel, and well after disconnecting to a fifth wheel, a trailer often has its retractable feet in a down position, that is, in contact with a supporting surface, such as a road. This position assists a trucker in connecting and disconnecting the trailer and supports the trailer upright when the tractor has departed from the trailer. Presently, a trucker manually raises and lowers the feet of the trailer.


A medium voltage switching pole includes: a fixed contact of a vacuum interrupter; a movable contact of the vacuum interrupter; a piston; at least one electrical contact; a first terminal; and a second terminal. The fixed contact is fixedly connected to the first terminal. The movable contact is fixedly connected to the piston. The piston moves within the second terminal along an axis. The at least one electrical contact makes an electrical connection between the piston and the second terminal. An outer surface of the piston and an inner surface of the second terminal are arranged such that: when in an open configuration the fixed contact and movable contact are separated, at least one first radial line perpendicular to the axis extends through locations of the at least one electrical contact, and a first distance along the at least one first radial line extends from the outer surface.

Medium voltage (MV) switching poles with spiral contacts or multicontacts are used for the transfer of the current from a fixed side of the switching pole to the movable parts of the switch. In these switching pole systems, a cylindrical piston runs in an arrangement of contact elements that are fixed in an outer hollow cylinder, or the contact elements are fixed onto the movable piston and run inside the hollow cylinder along with the piston.
The contacts generate a certain amount of friction during their operation. This friction can be static friction and dynamic friction. For the safe transfer of current—both nominal rated current and short circuit current—it is required that the contact points of a spiral contact or of a multicontact system are pressed onto the corresponding surfaces with a certain contact force. This contact force has a strong influence on the friction that has to be overcome when the pole is being operated. The result is a requirement for the drive of the pole that can make the drive more complex, larger and/or more expensive.
There is a need to provide for an improved medium voltage switching pole.


According to some embodiments, a wireless device receives (1020) a discovery burst from a network node (115). The same discovery burst includes multiple signals within at least one subframe, each of the multiple signals having one or more associated measurement functions. At least one of the multiple signals is received with multiple repetitions within the same discovery burst and two or more repetitions of the same type of signal can be combined by the wireless device. The wireless device performs (1024) at least one radio measurement based at least in part on a particular one of the signals of the discovery burst. The performed at least one radio measurement corresponds to a measurement function associated with the particular signal of the discovery burst.

3GPP LTE technology is a mobile broadband wireless communication technology in which transmissions from base stations (referred to as eNBs) to mobile stations (referred to as user equipment (UE)) are sent using orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM). OFDM splits the signal into multiple parallel sub-carriers in frequency.
FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an LTE downlink physical resource. The basic unit of transmission in LTE is a resource block (RB) which in its most common configuration consists of 12 subcarriers and 7 OFDM symbols (one slot). A unit of one subcarrier and 1 OFDM symbol is referred to as a resource element (RE) 10. Thus, an RB consists of 84 REs.
FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a downlink LTE radio subframe 210. Radio subframe 210 is composed of two slots in time and multiple resource blocks in frequency, with the number of RBs determining the bandwidth of the system. Furthermore, the two RBs in a subframe that are adjacent in time may be denoted as an RB pair. Currently, LTE supports standard bandwidth sizes of 6, 15, 25, 50, 75 and 100 RB pairs.
In the time domain, LTE downlink transmissions are organized into radio frames of 10 ms, with each radio frame consisting of ten equally-sized subframes of length Tsubframe<1 ms. The signal transmitted by an eNB in a downlink (the link carrying transmissions from the eNB to the UE) subframe may be transmitted from multiple antennas, and the signal may be received at a UE that has multiple antennas. The radio channel distorts the transmitted signals from the multiple antenna ports. In order to demodulate any transmissions on the downlink, a UE relies on reference symbols (RS) that are transmitted on the downlink.
FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating reference signals in frequency division duplex (FDD) and time division duplex (TDD). More specifically, diagram 305 illustrates reference signals in FDD and diagram 310 illustrates reference signals in TDD. FIG. 3 illustrates a plurality of reference signals in FDD and TDD. In Rel. 11 and prior releases of LTE, there are multiple types of reference symbols. For example, FIG. 3 illustrates common reference symbol (CRS) 315, channel state information reference symbol (CSI-RS) 320, primary synchronization signal (PSS) 325, secondary synchronization signal (SSS) 330, and demodulation reference symbols (DM-RS) 335 and 340. The reference signals shown in FIG. 3 are illustrated over two subframes of duration 1 ms each.
In operation, these reference symbols and their position in the time-frequency grid are known to the UE, and hence can be used to synchronize to the downlink signal and determine channel estimates by measuring the effect of the radio channel on these symbols. PSS 325 and SSS 330 are used for cell search and coarse time and frequency synchronization. CRS 315 are used for channel estimation during demodulation of control and data messages, in addition to synchronization. CRS 315 occur once every subframe. CSI-RS 320 are also used for channel state feedback related to the use of transmission modes that enable UE-specific antenna precoding. These transmission modes use the UE-specific DM-RS 335 and 340 at the time of transmission, with the precoding at the eNB performed based on the feedback received from and measured by the UE on CSI-RS 320.
PSS 325 and SSS 330 may define the cell ID of the cell. SSS 330 can take 168 different values representing different cell ID groups. PSS 325 can take three different values that determine the cell ID within a group. Thus, there are a total of 504 cell IDs. PSS 325 are Zadoff-Chu sequences of length 63, which along with 5 zeros appended on each edge, occupy the 73 subcarriers in the central 6 RBs. SSS 330 are two m-sequences of length 31 that occupy alternate REs and are appended with 5 zeros on each edge and located in the central 6 RBs as is the case for PSS 325. PSS 325 and SSS 330 sequences may occur in subframes 0 and 5. The PSS may be the same in both subframe 0 and 5, while the SSS sequences may differ between the subframes. The sequence transmitted in subframe 0 is referred to as SSS1 while the sequence transmitted in subframe 5 is referred to as SSS2. The sequence SSS2 swaps the two length-31 m-sequences transmitted as part of the sequence SSS1 in subframe 0.


A particle detector employs a resonant cavity having a chromium doped colquiriite crystal lasing medium, such as an Cr:LiSrAlF.sub.6 crystal, adjacent to an intra-cavity view volume. The resonant cavity is defined by two spaced apart mirrors, with the crystal positioned between them, defining a light path through the crystal, but most of the light does not escape past the mirrors. The view volume is positioned in the light path, between the first mirror and the laser medium, to introduce particles into the resonant cavity so that light impinging thereupon produces scattered light. A detector is disposed to sense light scattered from the view volume and produces signals proportional to the light sensed. Harmonic generators are used in alternate embodiments to produce sub-micron wavelengths. Optical coatings on mirrors forming cascaded cavities are used to isolate a harmonic wavelength in a cavity containing the view volume.

Typically, particle detectors employ laser devices producing a beam of coherent light that is directed to impinge upon a sample of particles. Particle detection is achieved either by sensing light scattered by a particle, e.g. U.S. Pat. No. 5,085,500 to Blesener et al., or by detecting extinction of light, e.g. U.S. Pat. No. 5,121,988 to Blesener et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,811,349 to Payne et al. discloses a chromium colquiriite such as Cr:LiSrAlF.sub.6 as a useful laser crystal. U.S. Pat. No. 5,105,434 to Krupke et al. discloses a chromium colquiriite solid-state laser such as Cr:LiSrAlF.sub.6 pumped with at least one AlGaAs semiconductor laser, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,249,189 to Scheps discloses a chromium colquiriite solid-state laser such as Cr:LiSrAlF.sub.6 pumped with at least one visible AlGaAs semiconductor laser. U.S. Pat. No. 5,317,447 to Baird and DeFreez discloses, in pertinent part, a solid state laser having a Cr:LiSrAlF.sub.6 crystal pumped from one end by an array of semiconductor laser diodes and suggests use of broad area laser diodes.
Particle detectors have been used for a variety of purposes to detect the presence and/or size of particles in various fluids, including air and other gases, as well as liquids, such as water, hydraulic oils and lubricants. They have proved particularly useful to control contamination in many industrial environments. For example, particulate contamination can cause hydraulic equipment and the like to fail due to excessive accumulation of particles in the hydraulic fluid. Even though filters are used in such equipment to continuously remove particles, the filters may become clogged and may rupture due to excess pressure build-up across the filter membrane. Also, microelectronic fabrication requires a "clean room" in which particulate contaminants, e.g., dust, are filtered from an atmosphere of a room. The filters used in "clean rooms" are also subject to clogging and compromise, resulting in particulate matter entering a "clean room" atmosphere in great quantities. Failure to provide a "clean room" results in particulate contamination of the devices during fabrication, which reduces yield. Particle detectors are thus used in such environments to detect particles in specified size classes and report the cleanliness level of the fluid according to categories specified by industry standards.
A significant amount of research has been performed using open cavity gas lasers in particle detection systems and is discussed by R. G. Knollenberg and B. Schuster in "Detection and Sizing of Small Particles in an open Cavity Gas Laser", Applied Optics, Vol. 11, No. 7, pp. 1515-1520 (November 1972). Sub-micron particle sizing devices utilizing light scattering in an open cavity laser device is described by R. G. Knollenberg and R. E. Leur in "Open Cavity Laser `Active` Scattering Particle Spectrometry from 0.05 to 5 Microns", Fine Particles, Aerosol, Generation Measurement, Sampling and Analysis, Academic Press, pp. 669-696 (May 1975).
U.S. Pat. No. 4,594,715 to Knollenberg discloses an external cavity gas laser for use as a particle detector that includes first, second and third spaced mirrors. The first and second mirrors define an active resonant cavity of a gas laser, and the second and third mirrors define a second cavity. The second cavity ranges between being passive and being closely coupled as part of the active cavity, depending on the phase of the light returned from the third mirror to the second mirror. In the limiting case where the second cavity is not resonant, a large field does not build up in the passive cavity, because that cavity is off resonance for the wavelength of the active cavity. In the latter case, the second mirror, ignoring scattering and absorption losses in its coating and substrate, becomes transparent to light recirculating in the external cavity formed by the first and third mirrors, thus destabilizing the original cavity modes of the resonator formed by the first and second mirrors. In this case, even a small amount of absorption or scattering in the coating or substrate of the second mirror will result in the resonator formed by the first and third mirrors to have low net gain. This is because the inherent low gain of many types of gas lasers renders them particularly sensitive to intracavity loss. To address these issues, Knollenberg describes a method to modulate the external cavity along the laser axis, thereby creating a broad, Doppler induced, incoherent spectrum. This reduces the Q value of that cavity, because the nominal Q, as calculated from standard Fabry-Perot formulas, depends, for buildup of optical power, on having a resonance wavelength as opposed to a broad spectrum.
A problem with certain gas lasers is that they sometimes have a highly charged window, most of the time a Brewster window. A high voltage plasma inside of the tube creates a charge build-up on the outside of the window because the window is a very good insulator. This charge attracts oppositely charged molecules that get through purge filters. After a period of time (from 2 days to 2 weeks) depending on concentration, the build-up is a high enough loss that it causes loss in lasing power and inevitable catastrophic failure.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a resonant cavity type particle detector having improved efficiency with an optimized resonant cavity and which is not subject to the catastrophic failure mode of a gas laser.

Particle counter employing a chromium based solid-state laser with an intracavity view volume


Since an abnormality is judged by executing a square calculating process with respect to sin θ and cos θ for detecting an abnormality in an angular resolver, a processing time is elongated, and a burden to a CPU is great. Since the invention prepares a map which can judge whether the combination of sin θ and cos θ is normal or abnormal, and judges by mapping the combination of the detected sin θ and cos θ, a process can be easily executed, a processing speed is high, and a burden to the CPU can be reduced. Further, an assist can be maintained by controlling a motor by a rectangular wave current by detecting a rotation angle signal at low resolution level, such as Hall sensors arranged around the motor.

An electric power steering apparatus for applying a steering assist force to a steering mechanism of an automobile by a rotating force of a motor transmits a driving force of the motor by a transmitting mechanism such as a gear or a belt through a reduction gear to apply the steering assist force to a steering shaft or a rack shaft. An example of a brief structure of such an electric power steering apparatus is shown in FIG. 1 and will be described.
A shaft 102 of a steering wheel 101 is coupled to tie rods 106 of steered wheels through a reduction gear 103, universal joints 104a and 104b, and a pinion rack mechanism 105. The shaft 102 is provided with a torque sensor 107 for detecting steering torque of the steering wheel 101, and a motor 108 for assisting a steering force of the steering wheel 101 is coupled to the shaft 102 through the reduction gear 103.
It is very important to detect a rotation angle θ of the motor for controlling the motor 108 of the electric power steering apparatus mentioned above, and in the case that any abnormality is generated in the angle detection, it is necessary to immediately detect the abnormality and take a proper safety measure. Accordingly, various detecting methods and detecting apparatuses have been conventionally developed in connection with the abnormality detection.
For example, Japanese Patent No. 3136937 discloses a detection abnormality of an angular resolver corresponding to one of the angle detecting device, and contents thereof will be explained with reference to FIG. 2.
An apparatus for detecting an angle is constituted by an angular resolver 10, and an angle detecting process portion for calculating a rotation angle θ by processing a signal output from the angular resolver 10. As one example of the angle detecting process portion, a resolver digital conversion (RDC) circuit 14 is provided. Further, a subject to be detected the abnormality is constituted by the angular resolver 10 except the resolver digital conversion circuit 14, a wiring to the angular resolver 10 or the like, and a detecting method is generally executed by detecting an abnormality of the angular resolver 10 by detecting an abnormality of a sin signal (=sin ωt·sin θ) and a cos signal (=sin ωt·cos θ) corresponding to the output signal of the angular resolver 10.
In this case, the resolver digital conversion circuit 14 has a structure provided with a function of detecting the abnormality of the angular resolver 10, and an abnormality detecting signal is output from an E terminal of the resolver digital conversion circuit 14 in FIG. 2. However, since the performance of detecting the abnormality is definite and is not sufficient, there is a case that a unique abnormality detecting circuit explained below is provided.
In FIG. 2, a carrier wave oscillation circuit 12 sends a carrier wave signal sin ωt to the angular resolver 10 for detecting a rotation angle θ of a motor 108, whereby a sin signal (sin ωt·sin θ) and a cos signal (sin ωt·cos θ) corresponding to the rotation angle θ are output from the angular resolver 10. The rotation angle θ is calculated in the resolver digital conversion circuit 14 to which the sin signal and the cos signal are input, the calculated rotation angle θ is incorporated into a CPU circuit 16, and the motor 108 is controlled on the basis of the rotation angle θ.
A description will be given of a state in which the abnormality of the resolver 10 or the like is detected by using the sin signal and the cos signal with reference to a flow chart in FIG. 3.
As a method of calculating the sin θ from the sin signal, a peak value of the sin signal is held by sampling the sin signal in synchronous with the peak of the carrier wave sin ωt, and it is possible to detect the sin angle signal (sin θ) corresponding to an envelope curve of the sin signal. In the same manner, it is possible to calculate the cos angle signal (cos θ) from the cos signal. A relation between the sin ωt, the sin θ and the cos θ is illustrated as FIG. 4. Specifically describing the process mentioned above, in order to detect the peak of the carrier wave sin ωt output from the carrier wave oscillation circuit 12, in FIG. 2, a peak value setting circuit 24 indicating a reference amplitude corresponding to the peak value of the sin ωt and the carrier wave signal sin ωt are compared by a comparator circuit 22, and the peak time is detected. It is possible to detect the sin angle signal (sin θ) and the cos angle signal (cos θ) by latching the sin signal and the cos signal in an AD converter 44 and an AD converter 46 serving as a sample hold in synchronous with the peak time.
The sin angle signal (sin θ) and the cos angle signal (cos θ) detected as mentioned above are incorporated into a CPU circuit (an arithmetic processing circuit mainly constituted by a CPU or an MPU), and a process of a flow chart shown in FIG. 3 is executed. In other words, first, the sin angle signal (sin θ) and the cos angle signal (cos θ) are incorporated into the CPU circuit 16 (a step S301), and the CPU circuit 16 executes a calculation of (sin θ)2+(cos θ)2=P (a step S302), and judges normal or abnormal on the basis of whether a value of P exists in a range 0.9<P<1.1 (a step S303).
In Japanese Patent No. 3216491, an abnormality is detected by executing a calculation of (sin θ)2+(cos θ)2=P and judging whether or not P=1 is established (a step S303).
However, whichever method is executed, it is necessary to execute an AD conversion of the sin signal and the cos signal in synchronous with the carrier wave, an interruption by a carrier wave peak timing, a calculation of (sin θ)2+(cos θ)2 and the like, and the calculation requires a lot of processing time. Further, in the case of processing by a software, there is a problem the process is a burden to the CPU, and in the case of processing by a hardware, there is a problem that a lot of hardwares are necessary.
The present invention is made on the basis of the circumstances as mentioned above, an object of the present invention is to provide a control unit for electric power steering apparatus which can detect an abnormality of an angle detecting device of a motor used in the control unit of the electric power steering apparatus, an abnormality of an incomplete disconnection state (a rare short) and the like rapidly, without being a burden to a CPU and without having need of addition of a lot of hardwares.
On the other hand, in the electric power steering apparatus, it is necessary to correctly execute a motor control in such a manner as to output a desired torque in correspondence to a handle operation of a driver. Further, in order to correctly control the motor, it is necessary to detect a state of the electric power steering apparatus by utilizing various sensors. Since a detected signal obtained from the sensor is very important for controlling the electric power steenng apparatus, it is necessary to quickly detect a failure of the sensor so as to execute a control and a protection in correspondence thereto. For example, the control afler detecting the failure of the motor angle detecting device corresponding to one of the sensors is a very important problem for a safety steering of the vehicle, and various control unit have been conventionally considered.
As one example, a description will be given of a control unit in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2003-26020 with reference to FIG. 5.
In FIG. 5, a vehicle speed V detected by a vehicle speed sensor 313 and a torque value Tr detected by a torque sensor 107 are input to a torque command value calculating portion 319, and a torque command value Tref is calculated in the torque command value calculating portion 319. Next, the torque command value Tref and a rotation angle θ of a motor 108 output by a resolver digital conversion circuit 311 are input to a current command value calculating means 320, and current command values Idref and Iqref are calculated. On the other hand, if the motor 108 is excited, motor current Ia, Ib and Ic are detected by a current detecting device 312, and the motor currents Ia, Ib and Ic are converted into two-phase currents Id and Iq of d-q axis by a three-phase/two-phase conversion portion 327.
In a subtracting means 321, deviations ΔId and ΔIq between the current command values Idref and Iqref, and the motor currents Id and Iq are calculated. Each of the calculated deviations ΔId and ΔIq is input to a PI control portion 323, voltage command values Vdref and Vqref are calculated in such a manner that the deviation ΔI becomes zero, and the voltage command values Vdref and Vqref are converted into three-phase voltage command values Varef, Vbref and Vcref in a two-phase/three-phase converting means 324. A PWM control portion 325 drives an inverter circuit 326 constituted by FETs on the basis of the three-phase voltage command values Varef, Vbref and Vcref, and supplies the motor current Ia, Ib and Ic to the motor 108. Further, the rotation angle θ of the motor 108 is detected by a resolver 310 corresponding to one example of the angle detecting device and a position detection circuit 311 corresponding to an angle detecting means (the rotation angle θ of the motor 108 is detected mainly by a resolver digital conversion circuit (an RDC circuit), and the rotation angle θ is utilized in the two-phase/three-phase conversion portion 324, the three-phase/two-phase conversion portion 327 and the like.
In the control of the electric power steering apparatus mentioned above, in the case that the detection of the resolver 310 and the resolver digital conversion circuit 311 becomes abnormal, it is impossible to correctly detect the rotation angle θ, and the correct control can not be executed. Accordingly, there is executed the control of stopping the electric power steering apparatus, and changing a handle operation to a manual operated state.
However, if an assist of the handle operation by the electric power steering apparatus is lost, and the operation is changed suddenly to the manual operation, a great uncomfortable feeling is applied to the handle operation. Accordingly, this matter is not preferable. Therefore, in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-26020, an abnormality judging means 340 is provided. When detecting any abnormality of the resolver 310 or the resolver digital conversion circuit 311, a counter torque against a wish of the handle operation is not generated in some position of the rotation angle θ. Accordingly, there is executed a process of continuing the assist by the electric power steering apparatus for a short time. However, there is a case that it is necessary to immediately stop the electric power steering apparatus in the other position of the rotation angle θ so as to change the handle to the manual operation.
As mentioned above, in the control in the case of detecting the abnormality of the rotation angle θ, there is a problem that the control or the electric power steering apparatus can not be continued in accordance with the position of the rotation angle θ at a time of detecting the abnormality, and the duration is widely limited. Further, the load applied to the driver undesirably becomes greater in the manual operation in correspondence to the increase in size of the vehicle mounting the electric power steering apparatus thereon in recent years.
The present invention is made on the basis of the circumstance as mentioned above, and an object of the present invention is to provide a control unit for electric power steering apparatus which can continue a control of a electric power steering apparatus regardless of a position of a rotation angle θ at a time of failure, even in the case that an angle detecting device for detecting the rotation angle θ of the motor of the electric power steering apparatus is out of order.

Control unit for electric power steering apparatus


Disclosed is an organic/inorganic composite porous film comprising: (a) a porous substrate having pores; and (b) an active layer formed by coating a surface of the substrate or a part of the pores in the substrate with a mixture of inorganic particles and a binder polymer, wherein the inorganic particles in the active layer are interconnected among themselves and are fixed by the binder polymer, and interstitial volumes among the inorganic particles form a pore structure. A method for manufacturing the same film and an electrochemical device including the same film are also disclosed. An electrochemical device comprising the organic/inorganic composite porous film shows improved safety and quality, simultaneously.

Recently, there is an increasing interest in energy storage technology. Batteries have been widely used as energy sources in portable phones, camcorders, notebook computers, PCs and electric cars, resulting in intensive research and development into them. In this regard, electrochemical devices are subjects of great interest. Particularly, development of rechargeable secondary batteries is the focus of attention.
Secondary batteries are chemical batteries capable of repeated charge and discharge cycles by means of reversible interconversion between chemical energy and electric energy, and may be classified into Ni-MH secondary batteries and lithium secondary batteries. Lithium secondary batteries include secondary lithium metal batteries, secondary lithium ion batteries, secondary lithium polymer batteries, secondary lithium ion polymer batteries, etc.
Because lithium secondary batteries have drive voltage and energy density higher than those of conventional batteries using aqueous electrolytes (such as Ni-MH batteries), they are produced commercially by many production companies. However, most lithium secondary batteries have different safety characteristics depending on several factors. Evaluation of and security in safety of batteries are very important matters to be considered. Therefore, safety of batteries is strictly restricted in terms of ignition and combustion in batteries by safety standards.
Currently available lithium ion batteries and lithium ion polymer batteries use polyolefin-based separators in order to prevent short circuit between a cathode and an anode. However, because such polyolefin-based separators have a melting point of 200° C. or less, they have a disadvantage in that they can be shrunk or molten to cause a change in volume when the temperature of a battery is increased by internal and/or external factors. Therefore, there is a great possibility of short-circuit between a cathode and an anode caused by shrinking or melting of separators, resulting in accidents such as explosion of a battery caused by emission of electric energy. As a result, it is necessary to provide a separator that does not cause heat shrinking at high temperature.
To solve the above problems related with polyolefin-based separators, many attempts are made to develop an electrolyte using an inorganic material serving as a substitute for a conventional separator. Such electrolytes may be broadly classified into two types. The first type is a solid composite electrolyte obtained by using inorganic particles having lithium ion conductivity alone or by using inorganic particles having lithium ion conductivity mixed with a polymer matrix. See, Japanese Laid-Open Patent No. 2003-022707, ["Solid State Ionics"—vol. 158, n. 3, p. 275, (2003)], ["Journal of Power Sources"—vol. 112, n. 1, p. 209, (2002)], ["Electrochimica Acta"—vol. 48, n. 14, p. 2003, (2003)], etc. However, it is known that such composite electrolytes are not advisable, because they have low ion conductivity compared to liquid electrolytes and the interfacial resistance between the inorganic materials and the polymer is high while they are mixed.
The second type is an electrolyte obtained by mixing inorganic particles having lithium ion conductivity or not with a gel polymer electrolyte formed of a polymer and liquid electrolyte. In this case, inorganic materials are introduced in a relatively small amount compared to the polymer and liquid electrolyte, and thus merely have a supplementary function to assist in lithium ion conduction made by the liquid electrolyte.
As described above, electrolytes according to the prior art using inorganic particles have common problems as follows. First, when liquid electrolyte is not used, the interfacial resistance among inorganic particles and between inorganic particles and polymer excessively increases, resulting in degradation of quality. Next, the above-described electrolytes cannot be easily handled due to the brittleness thereof when an excessive amount of inorganic materials is introduced. Therefore, it is difficult to assemble batteries using such electrolytes. Particularly, most attempts made up to date are for developing an inorganic material-containing composite electrolyte in the form of a free standing film. However, it is practically difficult to apply such electrolyte in batteries due to poor mechanical properties such as high brittleness of the film. Even if the content of inorganic particles is reduced to improve mechanical properties, mixing inorganic particles with a liquid electrolyte causes a significant drop in mechanical properties due to the liquid electrolyte, resulting in a fail in the subsequent assemblage step of batteries. When a liquid electrolyte is injected after assemblage of a battery, dispersion of the electrolyte in a battery needs too long time and actual wettability with electrolyte is poor due to the high content of the polymer in the organic/inorganic composite film. Additionally, addition of inorganic particles for improving safety causes a problem of a significant drop in lithium ion conductivity. Further, because the electrolyte has no pores therein or, if any, has pores with a size of several angstroms (Å) and low porosity, the electrolyte cannot sufficiently serve as separator.
In addition, U.S. Pat. No. 6,432,586 discloses a composite film comprising a polyolefin-based separator coated with silica, etc., so as to improve the mechanical properties such as brittleness of the organic/inorganic composite electrolyte. However, because such films still use a polyolefin-based separator, they have a disadvantage in that it is not possible to obtain a significant improvement in safety including prevention of heat shrinking at high temperature.

Organic/inorganic composite porous film and electrochemical device prepared thereby


Synthetic gemstones are produced by growing single crystals of silicon carbide, fashioning the silicon carbide into gemstone cores, and thereafter depositing a thin coating of diamond on the core.

Gemstones Generally
There are a limited number of elements and chemical compounds that have the physical characteristics to be useful as gemstones. The physical characteristics that are generally accepted as being most important are hardness, refractive index and color, although thermal stability, chemical stability and toughness are also considered important in many gemstone applications. To date, the only chemical substances technically considered precious stones are diamond (single crystalline carbon) and corundum (sapphire and ruby single crystalline aluminum oxide!) because their hardness when measured on the Mohs scale is approximately 9 or higher. The Mohs system is a scale for ranking the hardness of a mineral with diamond being the hardest at 10, sapphire at 9, topaz 8 down to the softest mineral, talc, which is 1. Emerald, because it is rare, is accepted as a precious stone even though its hardness is 7.5 while other gems, such as chrysoberyl, topaz and garnet, are usually classified as semiprecious stones because of their lower hardness. Hardness has practical value in that it defines the ability of a gemstone to resist scratching.
Refractive index is important because it defines the ability of a gemstone to refract light. When materials with a high refractive index are fashioned into finished gemstones they appear brilliant when exposed to light. The characteristic brilliance of a diamond is due mainly to its high refractive index.
The color of a gemstone is determined by a variety of factors, from the impurity atoms that are available to be incorporated into the crystal lattice to the physical and electronic structure of the crystal itself. A ruby, for instance, is simply a sapphire crystal (aluminum oxide) that contains a small concentration of chromium impurity atoms.
The thermal and chemical stability of a gemstone can be important during the process of mounting stones into jewelry. In general, it is beneficial if stones can be heated to high temperatures without changing color or reacting with ambient gases (that mar the surface finish).
The toughness of a gemstone relates to the ability of the gemstone to absorb energy without breaking, chipping or cracking. A gemstone must be able to withstand those impact forces normally encountered during a lifetime of use mounted on a ring or other jewelry item.
Hardness, refractive index, color, thermal/chemical stability and toughness are all characteristics that, in combination, determine the usefulness of a material as a gemstone.
Synthetic Diamond Gemstones
Dating from the 1950s, an effort to produce gem-quality synthetic diamonds was pursued by General Electric Company as evidenced by numerous patents, including U.S. Pat. No. 4,042,673. These efforts centered around the use of very high pressure/high temperature environments for growth of monocrystalline diamonds on seed crystals. Gem-quality synthetic diamonds generally have not gained commercial acceptance.
Synthetic Diamond Films and Coatings
Synthetic diamond films and coatings are now available for certain applications. These films may be grown from the vapor phase by either chemical vapor deposition (CVD) or physical vapor deposition (PVD), with CVD being more prevalent in its use. The deposition of a synthetic diamond film on a substrate using CVD requires an activated gas phase that is activated by high temperature and/or plasma excitation, with the gas phase including a carbon-containing species such as CH.sub.4, CO, CO.sub.2, a hydrocarbon or an alcohol. Since the gas phase so described will tend to deposit both diamond and graphite on the substrate, the gas phase must also include a species such as atomic hydrogen that preferentially etches graphite. The CVD process also requires a substrate surface receptive to nucleation of diamond thereon and a temperature gradient between the gas phase and the substrate to drive the diamond producing species to the substrate.
Commercial uses of diamond films and coatings are largely limited at present to non-electronic application such as abrasives, machine tool coatings, x-ray detection windows, IR optical coatings or elements, and electronic heat sinks.
Synthetic Silicon Carbide Used As Abrasives And Semiconductor Materials
Silicon carbide is rarely found in nature. However, it has been manufactured for more than eighty years, in crystalline form, for abrasive products. Silicon carbide crystals found in nature and in abrasive products are black and not transparent because they contain substantial levels of impurity atoms.
During the 1960s and 1970s, significant development activities were initiated with the objective of growing large (bulk) crystals of low impurity silicon carbide for use in the production of semiconductor devices. These efforts finally resulted in the commercial availability of relatively low impurity, transparent silicon carbide crystals in 1990. These silicon carbide crystals are only fabricated and marketed as very thin, green or blue (175 um-400 um) slices useful for semiconductor devices.
Silicon carbide has a very high hardness (9.25-9.5 Mohs depending on the polytype atomic arrangement! and crystallographic direction)and a high refractive index (2.5-2.71 depending on the polytype). Furthermore, silicon carbide is a very tough and an extremely stable material that can be heated to more than 2000.degree. F., in air, without suffering damage.
Silicon carbide is a complex material system that forms more than 150 different polytypes, each having different physical and electronic properties. The different polytypes can be classified in three basic forms, cubic, rhombohedral and hexagonal. Both the rhombohedral and hexagonal forms can occur in a number of different atomic arrangements that vary according to atomic stacking sequence.

Gemstones formed of silicon carbide with diamond coating


A communication system including a security system, and a method of controlling a communication system. The communication system includes a communication network having a plurality of nodes, a server connected to a first one of the nodes, and a client processor. A magnetic medium within the client processor stores the security system for connecting the client processor to the communication network for communication with the server. The security system includes a transmission control protocol for controlling communication between an application on the client processor and the communication network and a security classifier for coupling the transmission control protocol to the communication network and determining a security classification for the client processor. A security association negotiator is responsive to the client processor opening a socket at a node of the communication network, for correlating the socket with a security association based on the determined security classification. A network interceptor couples the client processor with the transmission control protocol and is responsive to the socket being closed for deleting the security association. In accordance with the method, the completion status of the communication is monitored. Upon completion of the communication, the socket is closed, and in response to closing of the socket, the correlation of the security association with the socket is terminated.

Communication on computer networks is frequently done utilizing secure communication techniques. By way of example, people frequently purchase goods and services over the Internet utilizing secure communications links. Data transferred over such a secure link is described by an Internet Protocol (IP) address, protocol, and ports, and a security association is established using an Internet Protocol Security (IPsec) protocol. The security association continues until it is no longer needed. Generally, an IPsec security association lasts until either a specified amount of traffic has been transmitted using the association or a specified amount of time has passed. These techniques of determining the duration of the security association are sufficient for long-lived security associations that may be renegotiated multiple times. However, a person contacting a web site over the Internet utilizing, for example, a home computer to make a purchase, generally does not visit that web site for an extended period of time before moving on, either by going to another web site or by closing the connection to the Internet. After such a client has left the web site, the IPsec driver for the web site maintains the security association as active. Lifetime management based on the amount of traffic or the amount of time thus results in the security association being maintained for longer than is necessary. One solution to this is for the IPsec driver to periodically remove idle security associations which have not been used to protect any inbound traffic for some predetermined amount of time. However, this may expire security associations that are still in use, for example, by someone merely observing activity on a web site. In any event, this idle detection could be made more efficient and could be done in a more timely manner if the IPsec driver had some context information it could correlate with the security association.

Communication system including a security system


The present invention provides a method for precise alignment of a photomask with the crystalline lattice structure of a semiconductor wafer. An etchmask including a predetermined window configuration is used to etch an alignment guide into the semiconductor substrate. The window configuration includes a plurality of pattern units and a straight, elongated alignment window, each of which has an angular offset with respect to the alignment window. The pattern units are analyzed after etching to determine the pattern unit having the most uniform undercutting. All subsequent photomasks include an alignment array having a plurality of alignment vernier. The vernier corresponding to the pattern unit having the most uniform undercutting is selected for aligning with the long alignment V-groove.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to semiconductor optoelectronic circuit design and manufacturing. More particularly, it relates to an apparatus and method for precisely aligning a photolithography mask with the orientation of the crystal lattice of a semiconductor wafer.
2. Description of the Related Art
The semiconductor industry has made great strides toward achieving smaller, more densely packed and faster optoelectronic circuits with each successive generation. As a result, it has been increasingly important to refine the tolerances of each step of making an optoelectronic circuit in order to achieve the highest precision circuit possible.
Semiconductor substrates are often used for precisely aligning optical fibers. V-grooves etched into the substrate operate as a guide for the optical fibers that are placed therein. Semiconductor processing technology for transforming a semiconductor substrate into one or more optoelectronic devices involves a complex sequence of processing steps which must be accurately performed to produce properly functioning circuits. One of the most critical steps in the process is generating accurate alignment marks on the semiconductor substrate prior to etching V-grooves into the substrate. When etching a substrate, an etchmask or series of etchmasks, each with a predetermined pattern, is used to permit selective portions of the semiconductor substrate to be etched away while leaving other areas of the substrate intact.
When an etchmask is used to etch a structure such as a V-groove into a semiconductor substrate, a certain amount of undercutting will occur. Using an example of silicon (Si) as the substrate 50 and silicon nitrate (SiNx) as the etchmask 52, it is desired to align the etchmask 52 with the crystal lattice orientation of the silicon substrate 50 as precisely as possible. Referring to FIG. 1, the etchmask 52 has at least one window opening 54 having a certain predetermined width W. This width W is used to achieve a particular desired depth D in the V-groove 56. Precise alignment of the etchmask 52 with the crystal lattice orientation of the substrate 50 results in repeatable and definable etch depth D of the V-groove 56. If the etchmask 52 is properly aligned with the crystal lattice orientation of the substrate 50, symmetrical undercutting 58, (i.e. the same amount of undercutting under all sides of the window opening 54), of the etchmask 52 will occur as shown in FIG. 1. Misalignment of the etchmask 52 and the crystal lattice orientation of the substrate 50 will result in uneven undercutting of the etchmask 52.
The crystal lattice orientation of the substrate has a substantial effect upon the etching process since the etching tends to follow the lattice orientation. As a result, if the etchmask is not properly aligned with the crystal lattice orientation of the substrate, the pattern etched upon the substrate will not be the same as the desired pattern. Accordingly, properly aligning the etchmask with the crystal lattice orientation is critical to achieving more exact tolerances in semiconductor optoelectronic circuit fabrication.
The semiconductor industry has long realized the need for aligning the crystal lattice orientation with the etchmask. Semiconductor substrates, generally shaped as a circle, are provided with a "flat" wherein a portion of the circle is cut as shown in FIG. 2. The flat acts as a guide for aligning the etchmasks thereupon. The equipment used to determine the crystal lattice orientation and mill the flat is accurate to plus or minus 0.5 degrees with respect to the crystal lattice orientation. This 0.5 degree tolerance is unacceptable for certain applications, including the precise alignment of optical fibers in optoelectronics.
Accordingly, there exists a need for a simple procedure for accurately aligning an etchmask with the crystal lattice orientation of the semiconductor substrate.

Method for precise crystallographic semiconductor wafer alignment orientation


A continuous wave(CW) activator ion doped fiber laser is presented which lases at a normally self-terminating laser transition at a slope efficiency greater than that achieved by a self-terminating fiber laser. Two laser transitions, one corresponding to a self-terminating laser transition and the other to a transition out of the lower level of the self-terminating transition, are simultaneously stimulated in the activator ion doped fiber. Through simultaneous lasing of the two wavelengths corresponding to these transitions, the lower level of the self-terminating transition is sufficiently depopulated so that CW operation is achieved.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to lasers and particularly to a diode-pumped, fiber laser doped with preselected rare earth activator ions for producing simultaneous output continuous wave (CW) laser emissions at wavelengths determined by the rare earth activator ions.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The term "self-termination" refers to the phenomenon wherein a continuous wave (CW) output, at an appreciable slope efficiency, from a laser source is deemed unlikely when the electron lifetime in the lower energy level (.tau..sub.lower) is longer than that of upper energy level (.tau..sub.upper). A continuous wave (CW) output at an appreciable slope efficiency is deemed feasible when the electron lifetime in the lower energy level (.tau..sub.lower) is shorter than that of the upper energy level (.tau..sub.upper). In other words, if .tau..sub.upper >.tau..sub.lower then CW output is feasible at an appreciable slope efficiency, for example, greater than 10% and if .tau..sub.upper <.tau..sub.lower then CW output is not feasible at an at an appreciable slope efficiency, for example, greater than 10%.
The self-termination phenomenon can be more readily understood if one considers that if .tau..sub.upper <.tau..sub.lower, then, at some future time, as electrons transfer out faster from the upper energy level into the lower energy level than electrons transfer out of the lower energy level, the lower energy level will eventually become filled to a greater extent than the upper energy level. When the lower energy level becomes filled to a greater extent than the upper energy level, corresponding to the CW lasing transition, then it is considered that the given transition from the upper energy level to the lower energy level has self-terminated. Thus, self-termination makes a CW laser output above an appreciable slope efficiency almost impossible to occur.
Such a self-termination phenomenon with respect to the four level system of Er.sup.3+ is discussed by Quimby et al. in their paper titled Continuous-Wave Lasing on a Self-Terminating Transition published in Applied Optics, Volume 28, No. 1 in January, 1989 at pp. 14. However, Quimby et al. state in their conclusion that ". . . cw [continuous wave] lasing is possible in certain cases when the . . . lifetime of the upper level is shorter than that of the lower laser level . . . " Quimby et al. reach their conclusion by showing that the condition for CW lasing is as follows: EQU .tau..sub.upper >.beta..sub.upper.fwdarw.lower .tau..sub.lower
where .tau..sub.upper is the upper laser energy level electron lifetime, .beta..sub.upper.fwdarw.lower is the branching ratio from the upper laser energy level to the lower laser energy level and .tau..sub.lower is the lower laser energy level electron lifetime. Thus, according to Quimby et al., even if .tau..sub.lower is greater than .tau..sub.upper, it is possible to obtain CW lasing for a transition if the condition, .tau..sub.upper >.beta..sub.upper.fwdarw.lower .tau..sub.lower, can be satisfied.
Carter et al. in their paper titled Thulium-Doped Fluorozirconate Fiber Lasers Operating at Around 0.8, 1.47, 1.9, and 2.3 .mu.m Pumped at 0.79 .mu.m published in OSA Proceedings on Advanced Solid-State Lasers, Volume 10 in 1991 at pp. 218-221 explore the .sup.3 H.sub.4 .fwdarw..sup.3 F.sub.4 laser transition corresponding to 1.47 .mu.m in a thulium doped fluorozirconate laser fiber. Carter et al. state on page 220 that
Initial experiments have . . . been carried out on laser oscillation at 1.47 .mu.m on the .sup.3 F.sub.4 -.sup.3 H.sub.4 transition using a cavity consisting of mirrors of >99% reflectivity butted at either end of the fiber. Self-terminating pulsed laser emission is observed at 1.47 .mu.m for a threshold power of 250 mW incident on the launch microscope objective (175 mW being launched into the fiber). The reason for the laser emission being self-terminating is that the lower laser level [.sup.3 F.sub.4 ] has a longer lifetime (6.4 ms) than the upper level [.sup.3 H.sub.4 ] (1.1 ms). However, if the fib[er] was pumped sufficiently hard, CW operation could be enforced. The threshold for CW operation was.apprxeq.480 mW incident pump power. As a result of the low value of output coupling, the efficiency of this device was rather low, with <1 mW of output power being measured.
Carter et al. establishes that the thulium doped fluorozirconate fiber laser is prone to self-termination limiting the slope efficiency of any CW laser output at 1.4-1.5 .mu.m. In fact, only a negligible output at <1 mW is observed for the .sup.3 H.sub.4 .fwdarw..sup.3 F.sub.4 transition corresponding to the output at 1.47 .mu.m. Id at 220.

Rare earth ion doped CW cascade fiber laser

The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy


Electrical switch lockout devices for selectively maintaining a position of an electrical switch on an electrical switch base are described. The electrical switch lockout devices include a base adapter configured to be fitted around the electrical switch base, a housing that is moveable between an engaged position and a disengaged position, and a locking mechanism. The housing includes walls, an opening on one side of the housing, a first lateral lip disposed on a first edge of the opening, and a second lateral lip disposed a second edge of the opening. The first lateral lip and the second lateral lip are configured to engage and disengage with the base adapter in the engaged and disengaged positions, respectively.

The present disclosure relates generally to lockout devices for electrical control switches. In particular, lockout devices that releasably cover an electrical control switch such that it may be safely maintained in a desired position are described.
For operation of electrical systems, circuit breakers and other electrical control switches are used for regulation of electrical currents. During maintenance and/or other operational procedures, it may be required that potentially dangerous electrical currents are prevented from being circulated through the system. In such a case, it is desirable that one or more of the circuit breakers and electrical control switches be secured in an OFF position to restrict accidental or unauthorized manipulation. Generally, lockout mechanisms and devices, such as lockout tags and lockout boxes, are used to restrict access to circuit breakers and electrical control switches.
Known lockout mechanisms and devices are not entirely satisfactory for the range of applications in which they are employed. For example, there are no established standards for size and shape of electrical control switches. Many existing lockout mechanisms and devices attach directly to an electrical control switch, and are therefore specific to only a certain type of switch. If such lockout mechanisms are improperly used with an incorrect type of electrical control switch, the lockout mechanism may not be effective.
Further, as many electrical control switches are curved or tapered, gripping of a lockout mechanism to the switch itself may be ineffective. In some cases, lockout devices may be removed from an electrical control switch while still in the locked state. Other lockout devices attach over a switch, but prevent viewing of the position of the switch (to ensure that it is in the OFF position) and require complicated attachment components. In addition, conventional lockout mechanisms and devices do not provide notification to a user of when the lockout device was applied, why it was applied, who applied the device, or the intended duration of lockout.
Thus, there exists a need for lockout devices that improve upon and advance the design of known lockout mechanisms. Examples of new and useful lockout devices relevant to the needs existing in the field are discussed below.

Lockout devices for electrical control switches


An application installation device, which is connected to a plurality of electronic control units, receives (i) a first application to be installed and (ii) application usage information indicating a second application used by the first application, while storing existing application information indicating an existing application installed in each of the plurality of electronic control units. In response to determining that the second application is included as the existing application based on the existing application information, a determined electronic control unit in which the first application and the second application are enabled to be installed is determined as an installation destination of the first application among the plurality of electronic control units. The first application is transmitted to the determined electronic control unit.

Nowadays some vehicle has more than 100 electronic control units (ECUs), which play the brain of various advanced technologies. Various functions are newly installed in the ECU, so that the functions of the ECU can be further expanded.
There is known an information processing device that executes installation of a program. In particular, such an information processing device performs the followings: calculating used amounts in capacity of several storage media; determining whether a installation target program can be installed by comparing the calculated used amount with the free data capacity of each recording medium; and executing the program installation on a storage medium determined to be installable among a plurality of storage media.

Application installation device and application installation method


The invention prevents robots from browsing a Web site beyond a welcome page. When an initial request from an undefined originator is received, the Web site responds to it with a welcome page including a challenge. Then, on receiving a further request from the undefined originator, the Web site can check whether the challenge is fulfilled or not. If fulfilled, the undefined originator is assumed to be a human being and authorized to go on. If the challenge is not fulfilled, the undefined originator is assumed to be a robot, in which case site access is further denied.

WWW robots, also called Web Wanderers, Web Crawlers or Web Spiders, and often just referred to as bots (bot is short for robot), are programs devised to automatically traverse the hypertext structure of the Web. Such bots, having retrieved a document, can also recursively retrieve all the linked pages referenced in the document. This is especially the case of numerous search engines and their robots which roam the World Wide Web finding and indexing content to add to their databases. Although most robots provide a valuable service, concern has developed amongst Web site administrators about exactly how much of their precious server time and bandwidth is being used to service requests from these engines.
While the majority of robots are well designed, are professionally operated and cause no problems, there are occasions where robots visiting Web servers are not welcome because of the way robots behave. Some may swamp servers with rapid-fire requests, or retrieve the same files repeatedly. If done intentionally this is a form of Denial of Service (DoS) attack, although this is more often just the result of a poor or defective robot design. In other situations robots traverse parts of WWW servers that are not suitable for being searched e.g., contain duplicated or temporary information, include large documents or e.g., CGI scripts (CGI is a standard for running external programs from a World-Wide Web HTTP server). In this latter case and in similar situations, when accessed and executed, scripts tend to consume significant server resources in generating dynamic pages and thus, slow down the system.
In recognition of these problems many Web robots offer facilities for Web site administrators and content providers to limit what the robot is allowed to do. Two mechanisms are provided. One is referred to as the 'Robots Exclusion Protocol', even though it is not really an enforced protocol, but was a working draft document discussed as an Internet-Draft by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) in 1996 under the title 'A Method for Web Robots Control'. According to this document, a Web site administrator can indicate which parts of the site should not be visited by a robot. This is accomplished by providing a specially formatted file, in http://.../robots.txt. The second mechanism assumes that a Web author can indicate whether a page may or may not be indexed, or analyzed for links, through the use of a special Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) META tag i.e., a 'Robots META tag'. However, both of these mechanisms rely on cooperation from the robots, and are not even guaranteed to work for every robot. Moreover, as already suggested here above relative to DoS attacks, some of these robots may not be so friendly. They could be run e.g., with the malicious intent of attacking a Web site (then, they just ignore the robots.txt file and the robots meta tags) so the site becomes overloaded and starts refusing to serve legitimate users i.e., the human beings trying to make normal use of the site.
Also, although the information made available on a site may not be confidential, an administrator may want to prevent the unlimited dissemination of it that would otherwise result from the indexing and referencing activities of all sorts of robots. The standard way of achieving this is to protect a Web site through some form of authentication, of which the more common method is to manage a list of registered users having a password so as they have to sign on upon accessing the site. The obvious drawback of this is that administrators must manage and update a closed list of users. This requires a registration step for a first consultation of a site and also assumes that users will remember their passwords in subsequent consultations. This may not be at all what the administrator wanted to achieve, and may even be counterproductive, since it will certainly discourage some individuals who are willing to browse a site to go further if they are requested to register.

System and method for implementing a robot proof Web site

Abstract: The invention prevents Web site contents from being investigated by robots while not requiring users to have to log on.

International Business Machines Corporation