An enclosure which has a lead-through for passing a rod-like element through a wall of the enclosure, and a grommet for sealing a rod-like element to a wall of an enclosure, the grommet having a passage for passing the rod-like element therealong through the grommet and the passage having its walls adapted to fit around the rod-like element. The grommet includes a first recess adapted to match at least a rim of a cutout in the enclosure; a second recess, adapted to receive a clamping element which is adapted to secure and seal the rod-like element to the grommet by applying a radial compression to the rod-like element; one split face, which establishes an openable route between the exterior of the grommet and the passage, the split face being provided with sealing elements for an axially directed and radially directed alignment and sealing of the split face.

In the context of this invention, the term enclosure refers to a structure, inside which can be established a sealed space. The enclosure comprises at least a front wall, a rear wall, as well as panel type walls defining a depth of the enclosure. The enclosure is also capable of being split along a division plane or boundary surface at least for a base section and a lid section, which are disengageably fastenable to each other. Typically, the enclosure is used for protecting electrical, pneumatic, optical or the like connections or equipment from external influences, such as physical contact, effects of ambient air, moisture, dust, UV radiation, etc. A few examples of the enclosure include, among others, distribution boxes, distribution cabinets, pneumatics cabinets and the like. A joint between the base section and the lid section can be effected for example by means of threaded connecting elements such as screws or by means of hinges and a clasp.
Electric cables and the like to be extended into enclosures, such as distribution boxes and the like, must be capable of being delivered through a wall of the enclosure. Depending on the installation site of an enclosure, various properties are required in the enclosure as regards tightness of the enclosure. These various conditions and a tightness class consistent therewith are determined in standard SFS-EN 60529 whereby, in the event that an enclosure fulfils certain qualifications set forth in the standard, the enclosure has a tightness which is for example IP 55 or IP 65. One objective for an enclosure lead-through and a grommet, making up the object of this invention, is to provide a solution matching the class IP55 or IP 65 of the cited standard.
The connections present inside the enclosure may not be subjected by way of a cable to pulling, pushing, bending, twisting or other such force. Hence, the actual connection point must be in a mechanically strainless condition, which is why the enclosures are provided at a lead-through point with a so-called strain relief mechanism. A strain possibly existing in a cable outside an enclosure is transmitted by this strain relief mechanism to the enclosure structure, the segment of cable thus ending up inside the enclosure in a strainless condition.
The prior art discloses various solutions for such an application which functionally requires both sealing and strain relief in an enclosure lead-through.
One traditional solution is a socket sealing to be threaded on a cable and tightened with a nut. For such a device, the wall of an enclosure is typically drilled to form a hole, followed by placing outside the enclosure a socket-like element which is mounted on the enclosure wall either by a retaining nut or by a screw thread present in the socket-like element. The socket-like element has generally further in connection therewith a seal or seals as well as sealing faces for ensuring a proper tightness between the socket, the cable and the enclosure. The cable is threaded through both and the joint is tightened. The result of this is a very tight and solid construction, which nevertheless requires a linear thread-through cable plain without prefitted connectors or the like. One example of applying such a solution is described in the publication U.S. Pat. No. 5,676,339, although the application in this case is not actually a screw-threaded but quick release-fastened lead-through socket.
Another traditional solution is a lead-through mechanism to be threaded on a cable and placed in a U- or V-shaped recess, which opens from a division plane between the lid and base sections of an enclosure, said mechanism comprising a rubber-like lead-through collar, which seals between the recess and the lid and features a hole matching the cable diameter, and which is split either partially or all the way. Such split rubber seals provide a useful solution, but a sufficient sealing effect and strain relief are difficult to achieve because of inconsistent cable diameters and symmetry defects involved therein.
One solution is a lead-through mechanism to be threaded on a cable and placed in a U- or V-shaped recess, which opens from a division plane between the lid and base sections of an enclosure, wherein a traditional sealing socket can be set tightly in a recess without threading it through a hole in the enclosure wall. In this solution, the lead-through mechanism is installable in separate operations first on a cable and only then on a wall of the enclosure, but the socket and the nut still require a plain threadable linear cable without prefitted connectors or the like.
One solution is also a collar type split version, "stocks", which is applicable with several cable to be led through. The strain relief features and the sealing features of this solution do not match those of the above-described solutions. If a high-quality sealing is desired in such "stocks" designs, its achievement requires a construction with a high compression force. Thus, the structure shall most often be expensive, complicated, and inconvenient to install.
Another publication known from the prior art is JP 2002142344, disclosing a lead-through liner or rather a water stop plug to be mounted on the end of a cable protective tube. Here, the liner is split for two parts, said half-liners aligning themselves relative to each other by means of corrugated guide faces. The external surface is sealed to the cable protective tube by means of a long urethane material attached with the help of a double-faced tape.
The prior art discloses also the publication JP 08251769, wherein the water tightness of a two-component lead-through seal has been improved by forming the division surface with complementary grooves and lands as well as with guide faces for an improved, alignment.
Another publication known from the prior art is U.S. Pat. No. 4,993,724, wherein a conduit seal is hingedly splitable and the conduit seal can be fit tightly around a conduit by using bolts to tighten the axially seal-penetrating flanges present on either side of an elastic seal element.

Enclosure with a lead-through and a grommet


A silicon monocrystal is manufactured according to the continuously charged Czochralski method in which a double crucible is used which includes an outer crucible and an inner crucible which communicate with each other through pores. A dopant is charged to the silicon melt stored in the double crucible before commencing pulling of a silicon monocrystal such that the ratio of the dopant concentration of the silicon melt stored in the outer crucible to the dopant concentration of the silicon melt stored in the inner crucible becomes greater than an effective segregation coefficient of the dopant. The silicon monocrystal is then pulled while silicon material is charged to the silicon melt within the outer crucible, during which the dopant concentration ratio becomes equal to the effective segregation coefficient and then becomes smaller than the effective segregation coefficient. When the dopant concentration ratio becomes smaller than the effective segregation coefficient, the dopant is charged to the silicon melt stored in the outer crucible. The above operation is repeated, so that the specific resistance of the silicon monocrystal pulled from the double crucible can be controlled within a desired range using commonly-employed dopant.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an improved continuously charged Czochralski method (i.e., a CCZ method) of manufacturing a silicon monocrystal and, more particularly, to a method of manufacturing a silicon monocrystal whose resistivity is controlled so as to fall within a predetermined range. Further, the present invention relates to a dopant feeding apparatus suitable for use in the manufacturing method.
2. Description of the Related Art
There exists a CCZ method in which a silicon monocrystal is pulled while silicon material is supplied to silicon melt whose volume reduces as a result of pulling of the silicon monocrystal. This method enables the pulling of a longer silicon monocrystal from one crucible, thereby improving manufacturing yield and reducing manufacturing costs of the silicon monocrystal.
In the ordinary CZ method, in order to control the resistivity of a silicon monocrystal to be pulled, the silicon monocrystal is pulled while dopant; e.g., boron, phosphorous, or antimony, is added to the silicon melt. Introduction of dopant into the silicon monocrystal is dependent on segregation. As the pulling of silicon monocrystal proceeds, the dopant concentration of the remaining silicon melt increases, and, as a result, the resistivity of the silicon monocrystal to be pulled gradually decreases.
At this time, the resistivity of the silicon monocrystal is determined by an exponential curve defined by an effective segregation coefficient (k.sub.eff) of the dopant. The term "effective segregation coefficient (k.sub.eff) of the dopant" is used herein to refer to a segregation coefficient when a silicon monocrystal is actually grown. For example, if the resistivity is measured at both longitudinal ends of the silicon monocrystal block, the distribution of resistivity of the area of silicon monocrystal block between its longitudinal ends can be determined from the exponential curve. Because of this, it is possible to confirm which portion of the silicon monocrystal block has a desired range of resistivity without the need of any further measurements.
However, according to the ordinary CZ Method, the resistivity of the silicon monocrystal to be pulled decreases exponentially for reasons of segregation, and therefore the resistivity of the latter half of the silicon monocrystal deviates from a desired range of resistivity, thereby resulting in decreased manufacturing yield.
To prevent the previously-described problem, an improved CCZ method has been developed. According to this method, the silicon monocrystal is pulled while its resistivity is controlled by charging silicon material to the silicon melt whose volume reduces as a result of pulling of the silicon monocrystal, so as to prevent the dopant concentration of the silicon melt from increasing. In this method, if the silicon material is charged so as to maintain the dopant concentration of the silicon melt constant, the resistivity of the silicon monocrystal to be pulled can be maintained constantly. However, it will be impossible to pull a too long silicon monocrystal without addition of the dopant. In some cases, a longer silicon monocrystal is pulled through addition of dopant as well as silicon material to the silicon melt.
In this case, there is a method of pulling a silicon monocrystal while charging to silicon melt a mixture of granular silicon material and dopant-containing granular silicon material that has the same shape distribution as the granular silicon material and is capable of being evenly mixed with the granular silicon material. The granular silicon material and the dopant-containing granular silicon material are mixed in a suitable ratio. The dopant-containing granular silicon material is special material, and therefore this method is impracticable.
There is still another method of pulling a silicon monocrystal while continuously charging dopant--which is different in shape distribution from the granular silicon material and does not evenly mix with the granular silicon material--to the silicon melt separately from the granular silicon material. In this method, since the amount of dopant to be continuously charged is small, a large amount of errors arise in the amount of dopant to be added. As a result, variations in the resistivity of the silicon monocrystal to be pulled become greater. For this reason, this method is also impracticable.
In the previously-described methods, there may be used a double crucible comprising an outer crucible and an inner crucible which communicate with each other through pores. Use of the double crucible is intended to control the resistivity of a silicon monocrystal to be pulled by continuously charging dopant to the silicon melt stored in the outer crucible, and by causing the thus-charged dopant to flow into the inner crucible through the pores. Since it is impossible to measure the resistivity of the silicon monocrystal while it is being pulled, it is impossible to control the amount of dopant to be charged to the silicon melt of the outer crucible on the basis of feedback on the resistivity of the silicon monocrystal. Therefore, the resistivity of a resultantly-obtained silicon monocrystal may deviate from a desired range.
In contrast to the ordinary CZ method, even if the resistivity is measured at both longitudinal ends of the silicon monocrystal block, the distribution of resistivity of the area of the silicon monocrystal between its longitudinal ends cannot be determined, because the dopant is continuously charged during the course of pulling of the silicon monocrystal. Because of this, without further measurement of resistivity it is impossible to confirm which portion of the silicon monocrystal block has a desired range of resistivity.

Method of manufacturing silicon monocrystal by continuously charged Czochralski method


Various arrangements for a satellite-based forward link overlay are presented herein. In some embodiments, broadband data is modulated at a particular frequency, phase, and/or timing to create a broadband data signal. The frequency, phase, and/or timing are used to modulate a low-bandwidth data signal. The low-bandwidth data signal can then be combined with the broadband data signal and transmitted via satellite to a geographic region. A low-bandwidth receiver unit may determine the frequency, phase, and/or timing from the embedded broadband signal and use such information to demodulate and despread the low-bandwidth data signal.

Internet access, or more generally, network access can be performed via a satellite connection between user equipment (UE) and a satellite gateway. Such an arrangement can allow UE located away from terrestrial networks to obtain high-speed broadband internet and network access. However, for some devices, such as IoT devices, a broadband network connection may not be available or needed.

Overlay of a forward link on broadband satellite signals


A method of determining information about a device includes the steps of 1) acquiring an image of at least a portion of the device, 2) comparing the information content of the image to the information content of at least one record of a library, and, 3) if the comparison is positive, reporting that the device is in the possible state represented by the library record. A method which depends on calculations based on the acquired image rather than on comparison of the information content of the image to the information content of one or more library records is also disclosed. A system for determining the state of the device is also disclosed.

Hospitals and other health care facilities customarily employ a data communications system to report parameters of the beds in the facility to various destinations, many of which destinations are not in the immediate vicinity of the bed. In a typical arrangement, sensors installed on the beds detect parameters which indicate the state, status or condition of the bed or of one of its components. Electrical signals representative of the sensed parameters are conveyed to the communications network by way of a network interface unit and then across the network to their destinations. One example destination is a nurses' station where the information content of the signals is presented in human understandable form, such as text or graphics, on a video screen. Another example destination is a database where the information content of the signals is stored for future use.
The network interface unit acts as an intermediary between the bed and the communications network. The network interface unit is adapted to be compatible with and to facilitate data communication between beds produced by a particular bed manufacturer B and a communications network whose components are provided by a network supplier N. The bed manufacturer and the network supplier may be the same entity or may be different entities. However either way, the network interface unit is specific to a given bed manufacturer and a given network supplier. As a result the interface unit is unable to support communications between network N1 provided by network supplier N1 and beds B2 obtained from a bed manufacturer B2 or between the beds from bed manufacturer B1 and an information network provided by a different network supplier N2. (Symbol B is used to designate both beds and the manufacturer of those beds; N is similarly used to designate both networks and the supplier of those networks; different numerical suffixes to B and N indicate different bed manufacturers or network suppliers).
In principle, the above described bed/network incompatibility can be overcome by designing and deploying an interface unit compatible with the desired bed/network combination (B1/N2 or B2/N1). Alternatively, the management staff of a hospital with beds made by different manufacturers can invest in multiple network infrastructures, each of which is able to successfully communicate with only a subset of the beds in the facility. However in practice these can be costly endeavors, in part because of the proprietary nature of the technology employed by the bed manufacturer and network supplier.
A related difficulty is that even if all the beds in a hospital are made by the same manufacturer, some of those beds may have little or no capability to produce signals indicative of bed state, status or condition.
Yet another related difficulty is that even if all the beds in a hospital are made by the same manufacturer, and even if those beds are capable of producing signals indicative of bed state, status or condition, a bed that becomes disconnected from its electrical power supply will not be able to produce the signals or will be able to do so for only a limited time if the bed is equipped with a backup battery.
What is needed is a way to monitor the state, status or condition of a bed which cannot be successfully placed in communication with an existing communications system or network because of, for example, bed/network incompatibility, inability of the bed to produce signals indicative of bed parameters, or power loss.

Image based monitoring of the state of a device


A cleaning composition suspension for use as a liquid anti-microbial cleaner which is non-toxic to the extent that it is safe to ingest includes a base diluted vinegar solution which includes sodium bicarbonate dissolved therein and dried and powdered plant matter suspended therein. The dried and powdered plant matter includes prepared leaves from Guiera Senegalensis, Combretum micranthum, and Combretum glutinosum along with prepared flowers from Hibiscus Sabdariffa. The dried and powdered plant matter may additionally include an anti-caking agent and are prepared in such a manner that they may be stored in and dispensed from a conventional spray bottle similar to conventional cleaning agents.

Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to cleaning compositions and, more particularly, to an all natural cleaning suspension employing natural leaf active ingredients and that is suitable for use with conventional spray bottles.
Description of the Prior Art
The use of various compositions as detergents and other cleaning agents for surfaces is well known. A problem which still exists, however, is that many existing cleaning compositions often include toxic ingredients and/or components that are harsh on surfaces to be cleaned or on the skin of a user. Thus, there remains a need for a cleaning composition suspension that employs as primary active ingredients dried plant components. It would be helpful if such a cleaning composition suspension had a liquid base that included vinegar to enhance its cleaning properties. It would be additionally desirable for such a cleaning composition suspension to include suspended particles that were small enough that the suspension was useable in a spray bottle.
The Applicant's invention described herein provides for a cleaning composition suspension adapted to provide a liquid based cleaning agent that was non-toxic to the extent that it is safe to ingest. The primary components in Applicant's cleaning composition suspension are a base solution, defined as a liquid base with sodium bicarbonate dissolved therein, and dried and powdered plant matter. When in operation, the cleaning composition suspension enables the deployment of an anti-bacterial cleaning agent through a spray bottle. As a result, many of the limitations imposed by prior art structures are removed.

Cleaning composition suspension for spray bottle dispersal


A compound of structural formula (I), wherein R is H or —PO3H or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt form thereof. The compounds are useful as inhibitors of potassium channel function and in the treatment and prevention of arrhythmia, IKur-associated disorders, and other disorders mediated by ion channel function.

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most frequently observed type of cardiac arrhythmia and is generally identified clinically when taking a pulse and can be further confirmed with an electrocardiogram (ECG). AF causes cardiogenic cerebral embolism, and is therefore recognized as an arrhythmia that greatly affects vital prognoses and quality of life. It is known that the onset of AF increases with age, and that repeated AF strokes lead to chronic AF (The Journal of American Medical Association, 285:2370-2375 (2001) and Circulation, 114:119-123 (2006)).
The cardiac repolarization process is regulated by several outward currents, of which the ultrarapid delayed rectifier potassium current (IKur) is thought to play a major role. This current is absent in the ventricles and hence represents a suitable target for selectively modulating action potentials (APs) in the atria (Wang. Z. et al., "Sustained depolarization-induced outward current in human atrial myocytes: evidence for a novel delayed rectifier K+ current similar to Kv1.5 cloned channels currents", Circ Res., 73:1061-1076 (1993); Courtemanche, M. et al., "Ionic targets for drug therapy and atrial fibrillation-induced electrical remodeling: insights from a mathematical model", Cardiovasc Res., 42:477-489 (1999); and Nattel, S., "New ideas about atrial fibrillation 50 years on", Nature, 415:219-226 (2002)).
The ultra-rapidly activating delayed rectifier K+ current (IKur) is believed to represent the native counterpart to a cloned potassium channel designated Kv1.5 and, while present in human atrium, it appears to be absent in human ventricle. Additionally, because of its rapidity of activation and limited slow inactivation, IKur is believed to contribute significantly to repolarization in human atrium. Consequently, a specific blocker of IKur, that is a compound which blocks Kv1.5, would overcome the short coming of other compounds by prolonging refractoriness by retarding repolarization in the human atrium without causing the delays in ventricular repolarization that underlie arrhythmogenic after depolarizations and acquired long QT syndrome observed during treatment with current Class III antiarrhythmic agents. An improved agent for the prevention and treatment of AF should prolong atrial refractory period and maintain normal sinus rate without affecting the ventricle.
PCT publication number WO 2011/028741 A1 discloses compounds useful as inhibitors of potassium channel function which are used for the treatment and prevention of arrhythmia, IKur-associated disorders. The contents of this PCT publication are incorporated herein by reference.
The IKur inhibitor compounds may show pH-dependent solubility and pH-dependent bioavailability. To mitigate the long-term developability risk of reduced bioavailability in patients with concomitant gastric acid suppression therapies, it would be ideal to have a prodrug that would mitigate this property.
Prodrugs are new chemical entities which upon administration to the patient, regenerate the respective parent molecule within the body. Prodrug strategies or methodologies can be used to markedly enhance properties of a drug or to overcome an inherent deficiency in the pharmaceutical or pharmacokinetic properties of a drug. Various forms of prodrugs are well known in the art and are described in:
a) Wermuth, C. G. et al., The Practice of Medicinal Chemistry, Chapter 31, Academic Press (1996);
b) Bundgaard, H. ed., Design of Prodrugs, Elsevier (1985);
c) Bundgaard, H., Chapter 5, "Design and Application of Prodrugs", Krosgaard-Larsen, P. et al., eds., A Textbook of Drug Design and Development, pp. 113-191, Harwood Academic Publishers (1991); and
d) Testa, B. et al., Hydrolysis in Drug and Prodrug Metabolism, Wiley-VCH (2003).
A myriad of Prodrug strategies exist which provide choices in modulating the conditions for regeneration of the parent drug, the physical, pharmaceutical or pharmacokinetic properties of the Prodrug, and the functionality to which the Prodrug modifications may be attached. The identification of prodrugs with desired properties is often difficult and is not straightforward.

Phosphoramidic acid prodrugs of 5-[5-phenyl-4-(pyridin-2-ylmethylamino)quinazolin-2-yl] pyridine-3-sulfonamide


Presented here is a method and system to prevent wrinkling of the wearable identification (ID) by providing a reinforcement to the wearable ID. The reinforcement can act as an interface between the wearable ID and the uniform by attaching to the wearable ID as well as to the uniform. The wearable ID can be detached from the reinforcement, and the reinforcement can be detached from the uniform. The reinforcement can include a hook-and-loop hook on one side and a hook-and-loop loop on the other side to enable attachment between the wearable ID and the uniform. The reinforcement can be made of material that is sufficiently strong to resist wrinkling, but sufficiently flexible to be able to bend in response to an applied force without breaking. Further, the reinforcement material can be fire retardant.

In an industrial setting, such as on a ship, personnel may wear uniforms with identifications, such as nametags, temporarily attached to the uniforms. The wearable identifications can be made of cloth and can be attached to uniforms using hook-and-loop, such as Velcro. Exposed to the physical forces of the industrial setting, the wearable identifications can wrinkle and make the uniform appear unkempt. The wrinkling can happen due to demanding manual labor and tough treatment of the uniform while it is worn, taken on/off the ship, stored poorly, and/or rolled down and tied around the waist.

Industrial reinforcement for a wearable identification


The present invention discloses needles configured to prevent or reduce contact of tissue or other material with the heel of the needle to prevent coring of the tissue or other material by the heel of the needle. Also provided are needles having no heels or blunted heels. The present invention also provides methods of manufacturing needles having obstructed or blunted heels.

Needles have a wide variety of applications in the medical field. For instance, needles are used to delivery therapeutic agents, collect bodily fluids, and fill drug delivery ports. In many such applications, there is a desire to avoid or reduce damage to the site in which the needle is inserted. For example, drug delivery ports such as intravascular drug access devices often include a chamber for holding a therapeutic agent and a pierceable rubber septum for receipt of a needle to either fill or empty the chamber. Repeated piercing of the septum with the needle can damage the septum leading to infusion of the septum fragments into the patient's vascular system or into any catheter or other device having access to the port, thereby occluding the port.
With respect to delivering a therapeutic agent to a target site in the body, particularly directly delivering a therapeutic agent to a target site, current injection needles have beveled open ends with Lancet point tips. Such open-ended needles have the potential to core tissue as the needles penetrate the tissue. In the case of directly delivering a therapeutic agent to a myocardial wall of the heart, since most myocardial direct injection procedures involve injecting a therapeutic agent into the left ventricle walls, the risk of tissue embolism into the left ventricular cavity exists.
Needle tips, such as the "pencil-point" needle and the "Huber" needle have been developed that attempt to reduce coring by the needle. A Huber needle has a distal portion with a lateral bend and a laterally facing opening. The needle terminates in a sharpened closed tip. A pencil-point needle has a lateral opening and a closed tip at the distal end. Because there are no distal openings in these types of needles, any therapeutic agent that passes through the lumens of these needles exits these laterally facing openings, which will direct the therapeutic agent in a radial direction. Such radial delivery may result in the therapeutic agent being ejected or squeezed back through its point of entry in the target site. This problem is exacerbated in situations where the therapeutic agent is injected into an actively contracting tissue such as the myocardium of the heart. In such a case, the therapeutic agent may be ejected or squeezed out through its point of entry by the repeated expansion and contraction of the heart muscle. This unintended and unwanted leakage can result in an unascertainable dosage of the therapeutic being ultimately received by the target site and arbitrary and unwanted interaction between leaked therapeutic agent and neighboring tissue and muscle.
Accordingly, there is a need for a needle that will prevent or minimize damage to the site in which the needle is inserted and that will direct the delivery of a therapeutic agent, or any infusion material, in a distal direction out of the needle.

Non-coring needles and methods of manufacturing same


Deflecting means, for deflecting an electron beam in a radial direction and the circumferential direction, and blanking means, for shielding irradiation of the electron beam at portions other than drawing portions, are provided. While the disk is rotated unidirectionally, the electron beam is repeatedly deflected in a figure 8 pattern, in which the electron beam is deflected toward the next deflection initiation point in the radial direction at track edge portions, such that the deflected directions toward the inner periphery of the disk and toward the outer periphery of the disk intersect each other. Parallel scanning is performed alternately toward the outer periphery and the inner periphery of the disk. Elements of a transfer pattern, having lengths which are integer multiples of a reference value, are drawn by performing scanning a number of times equal to the integer that the reference value is multiplied by.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electron beam lithography method, for drawing and exposing elements that constitute an uneven transfer pattern on a master carrier for magnetic transfer, by irradiating an electron beam on a resist provided on a disk.
2. Description of the Related Art
A magnetic transfer method is known. In the magnetic transfer method, a master carrier for magnetic transfer that bears transfer data, formed by a fine uneven pattern of magnetic material, is placed in close contact with a slave medium, which has a magnetic recording portion. A transfer magnetic field is applied to the master carrier and the slave medium while they are in close contact with each other. Thereby, a magnetic pattern that corresponds to the data borne by the master carrier (servo signals, for example) is transferred and recorded on the slave medium.
As a method to produce master carriers, which are utilized in magnetic transfer, an application of an optical disk stamper production method is being considered (refer to Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2001-256644, for example). The optical disk stamper production method uses an original disk, having an uneven pattern formed of resist that corresponds to data to be transferred, as a base.
During production of the optical disk stamper, a disk (a glass plate, for example) having resist coated thereon is rotated. Data is converted to lengths of pits, and data is written into the resist by emitting laser beams, which are modulated according to the lengths of pits, onto the resist.
It is considered that drawing of the fine patterns onto master carriers for magnetic transfer may also be performed by rotating a disk having resist coated thereon and emitting a laser beam modulated according to data to be transferred, similar to the production method for the optical disk stamper.
However, miniaturization and increase of data capacity are desired in magnetic disk media. If bit lengths or track widths are decreased to accommodate increases in recording density (for example, if bit lengths or track widths become 0.3 μm or less), the decreased sizes approach the drawing limits of laser beams. Therefore, the shapes of the ends of drawn portions become arcuate, causing difficulty in forming rectangular elements of the uneven patterns. The shapes of the elements that constitute the uneven patterns of master carriers, and particularly the shapes of the upper surfaces of the elements, are those of the drawn portions. Therefore, if the ends of the drawn portions are arcuate, the upper surfaces of the protrusions of the uneven patterns on the master carrier substrate become shapes different from rectangles, such as ovals. In these cases, it becomes difficult to form desired magnetic patterns on slave media.
Meanwhile, in the field of semiconductors, patterning is already being performed by utilizing electron beams, which are capable of exposure with smaller diameter spots than laser beams. By utilizing the electron beams, it is becoming possible to perform highly accurate patterning of fine patterns.
In addition, patterned exposure using electron beams has been proposed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2001-110050. The patterned exposure using electron beams has been proposed to produce miniature, light weight and high recording density magnetic patterned media, the realization of which is being anticipated.
Magnetic transfer has a conspicuous advantage over conventional servo track writers when recording servo patterns that correspond to servo signal as transfer patterns. Conventional servo track writers require a long amount of time to record servo patterns in each sector of circumferential tracks using magnetic heads. In contrast, magnetic transfer is capable of simultaneously recording the servo patterns across the entire surface of a disk in a short amount of time.
However, servo signals include, for example: synchronization signals (preambles) which are recorded across the entire width of a track; address signals (gray code) such as track numbers; and burst signals for positioning heads, which are recorded across half of the width of a track. In addition, the address signals are not limited to single unit signals (1 bit signals), but include multiple unit signals (multiple bit signals). Similarly, a transfer pattern (uneven pattern formed on magnetic material), to be formed on a master carrier for magnetic transfer in order to transfer and record the servo signals, comprises elements which are of lengths that are of a reference value, corresponding to a single bit, and integer multiples of the reference value, corresponding to multiple bits. It is necessary to efficiently and accurately draw the elements, which are of varying lengths in the circumferential direction, in a resist layer provided on a disk, using an electron beam.
In addition, it is necessary for concentric patterning to be performed to produce the master carriers for magnetic transfer. Therefore, favorable pattern formation is difficult, in the case that an electron beam lithography method that employs an XY stage, as in the field of semiconductors, is adopted. Accordingly, an electron beam lithography method, which is capable of drawing patterns favorable for master carriers, is desired. Accompanying increases in the numbers of tracks (numbers of sectors), the number of elements also becomes enormous. Thus, reductions in drawing times, by improvements in drawing speeds, as well as improvements in the shapes and positional accuracy of drawn elements across the entire surfaces of disks, are desired.
Particularly in the case that the elements are drawn employing lithography, elements are drawn by rotating a disk and deflecting an electron beam in the radial and circumferential directions thereof, for a single circumferential track. However, if lithography is performed in a single radial direction, time is required to return the electron beam in the radial direction opposite the drawing direction, after deflecting the electron beam in the radial direction to draw a single unit of a multiple bit element. During this time, lithography is not possible, thereby creating blank periods between lithography of a first unit and lithography of a next unit. Accordingly, there is a problem that continuous elements, which are long in the circumferential direction, cannot be drawn. Drawing a single track during multiple rotations of the disk reduces drawing efficiency, and also causes difficulties in securing positional accuracy for drawn elements.


In a multicore type error correction processing system which can simultaneously cope with a plurality of error correction methods and a plurality of code lengths, an interconnect part 11 has a barrel shifter which extends across a plurality of error correction processing parts 12a-12c. An error correction process can be selectively performed by collectively using a group of the plurality of the error correction processing parts 12a-12c or by individually using each of individual error correction processing parts 12a-12c in response to interconnection configuration information. With this structure, the plurality of the error correction processing parts 12a-12c are collectively used if computation resources are insufficient and an idling error correction processing part is assigned to another error correction process if computation resources are excessive.

A high throughput and a high resistance to error have been required for recent wireless communication systems. In order to meet such demands, various techniques including error correction processes such as turbo coding, LDPC (Low Density Parity Check) coding, and convolutional coding have been used in a variety of wireless communication systems, such as LTE (Long Term Evolution) and WiMax. Those error correction processes, particularly decoding algorithms, require a large amount of bit processing and many repetitional processes and, as a result, need a great amount of calculations. Therefore, various proposals have been presented so far with regard to dedicated hardware engines suitable for decoding algorithms. Use of those dedicated hardware engines can provide a high throughput and high capability of error correction as required.
However, each of those dedicated hardware engines deals with a single decoding method in order to achieve high performance requirements. Herein, it is assumed that those dedicated hardware engines which would be a key technology to a next-generation wireless communication system are used in a software radio apparatus required for a multi-standard wireless system. In this event, such engines suitable for all of error correction algorithms used in a required communication method should be installed individually. In such a case, the scale of the circuit becomes large as an increase of the number of those dedicated hardware engines and results in an influence on the scale of the entire system. Furthermore, multiple types of dedicated hardware engines should be developed on all such occasions or on demand. This causes an increase of development cost.
With regard to those problems, there has been proposed a programmable engine that deals with multiple types of error correction algorithms Form the viewpoint of achieving a high throughput as required, proposals have been made about the architecture of the programmable engine formed by a single processor having a high operating frequency (see Non-Patent Document 1) or a plurality of processors arranged in parallel (see Non-Patent Document 2). The latter method using a plurality of processors would be effective in a wireless communication system in terms of a reduction of the electrical power consumption.
As shown in FIG. 6, a programmable engine disclosed in Non-Patent Document 2 includes a plurality of memory banks 50a, 50b, and 50c, a plurality of error correction processing parts 52a, 52b, and 52c, and an interconnect part 51. The memory banks 50a-50c are connected to the error correction processing parts 52a-52c via the interconnect part 51. Multiple sets of data can simultaneously be read from or written in each of the memory banks 50a-50c. The engine having the above configuration as disclosed in Non-Patent Document 2 operates as follows.
It is assumed that each of the memory banks and the error correction processing parts is equal to N in number and that M words of data can simultaneously be read from or written in one of the memory banks. For the sake of brevity, FIG. 6 shows an example where N=3 and M=32. Input data for an error correction process are stored in the memory banks. A plurality of data that can simultaneously be accessed in one memory bank are referred to as a data row.
First, an operation for LDPC decoding will be described. Data rows are read from the memory banks 50a-50c. The read data rows are subjected to a predetermined amount of shift in barrel shifters 51a, 51b, and 51c which are connected to the memory banks 50a, 50b, and 50c, respectively. The amount of shift differs depending upon the type of LDPC coding. The shifted data rows are inputted to the error correction processing parts 52a, 52b, and 52c. When the data rows are inputted to the error correction processing parts 52a-52c, a program for LDPC decoding is executed in each of the error correction processing parts 52a-52c, so that one repetition cycle of the LDPC decoding process is performed. The resultant computation results are outputted to the interconnect part 51. In the interconnect part 51, the inputted data rows are subjected to a reverse shift operation that is reverse to the shift operation performed at the time of input, so that the order of the data rows is recovered to the original one. The data rows in the original order are written back to the memory banks. This sequence is repeated a predetermined number of times. Thus, LDPC decoding for one code is conducted.
Next, an operation for turbo decoding will be described. In the case of the turbo decoding, the interconnect part 51 is operated in a different manner between an even number one of repetitive times and an odd number one of the repetitive times. When the repetition times are even, data rows inputted from the memory banks 50a-50c are inputted to the error correction processing parts 52a-52c without any change of the order of the data. When the repetition times are odd, data rows inputted from the memory banks 50a-50c are subjected to interleaving processing by a cross bar 51d of the interconnect part 51 and are inputted to the error correction processing parts 52a-52c after the order of the data has been changed. When the data rows are thus inputted, a program for turbo decoding is executed in the error correction process, so that a turbo decoding process is performed. The resultant computation results are subjected to de-interleaving depending upon whether the repetition times are even or odd like in the case of the input of the data rows from the memory banks and then are written back to the memory banks. This sequence is repeated a predetermined number of times. Thus, turbo decoding is conducted.
As described above, Non-Patent Document 2 can perform typical error correction processes, including LDPC decoding and turbo decoding, by the use of the same architecture.
As shown in FIG. 6, however, it should be pointed out that the architecture of Non-Patent Document 2 has limited or fixed connections between memory banks and the error correction processing parts. When multiple types of error correction methods are to be processed, only one type of error correction methods can be processed during a single operation in Non-Patent Document 2. This shows that a plurality of error correction processes should be successively or sequentially performed. Accordingly, even if a single error correction method is processed in connection with a certain code length an error correction process cannot be performed simultaneously on different code lengths from the certain code length. A next-generation wireless communication system, particularly a base station, requires decoding processes for a plurality of users. Furthermore, it would be desirable to effectively process a plurality of error correction methods and a plurality of code lengths. In most of the existing wireless communication systems, different error correction processes are performed for different communication channels. Thus, it would be desirable also to process a plurality of error correction methods and a plurality of different code lengths at one time.

Multicore type error correction processing system and error correction processing apparatus


A transducer assembly may include a first transducer having a first front volume, a first back volume and a first port acoustically coupled to the first front volume; and a second transducer having a second front volume, a second back volume and second port acoustically coupled to the second front volume. The first front volume and the second front volume are acoustically coupled to increase the effective back volume of both the first transducer and the second transducer. An optional signal processing circuit may be used to control the output of the first transducer based upon a signal received from the second transducer.

A common problem with listening devices and portable communication devices is to avoid exceeding the discomfort threshold in the sound signal and to maintain a constant sound pressure level (SPL) to the listener. In order to simplify the operation of the devices, SPL can be maintained by signal amplitude regulation with a feedback structure. In such an arrangement, the amplifier input signal is fed to a level detector. The level detector output value is delivered to a control loop providing attenuation of the amplifier output signal at increasing input signal strength. However, such compensation is not capable of satisfactorily eliminating the excessive SPL to prevent potential long term damage to hearing characteristics of a person. Further, to improve the receiver efficiency, more power will be drawn from the power source, i.e. battery, to increase output. However, draining the energy from the battery may cause power supply voltage fluctuating and reduced battery life.

Conjoined receiver and microphone assembly


The safety barrier system prevents a person from being caught under a wheel of a vehicle and is provided with a sensing system to inform the driver of the presence of the person on the barrier during start up. The sensing system combines a first sensor (for example, a pressure sensor) with an infrared sensor, and includes a snow switch for selectively using the first sensor and/or the infrared sensor depending on the weather conditions. The barrier is mounted to the vehicle by a motor drive mechanism to lower the barrier when stopped and to raise the barrier after the vehicle has travelled a given distance. The system is particularly suitable for school buses.

It is a known problem with school buses that as children are let off after school at the various stops that the school bus makes on its route to drop off children, that bus driver supervision of the children surrounding the bus is particularly difficult to ensure that no children have slipped underneath the bus either accidentally or intentionally. This is particularly difficult since several children may be getting off the bus at the same time and to monitor the movements of all children getting off the bus is virtually impossible, and even with the best mirror systems, there is no guarantee that a child does not slip under the bus and out of the view of the mirror system.
As early as 1959 in British Patent Specification 809,624, it was known to provide safety devices fitting in front of wheels on buses and cars in order to provide a barrier preventing a pedestrian from being caught underneath the wheels of the vehicle. These devices were fixed in nature, and were not particularly practical. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,688,824 and 4,877,266 are examples of more recent safety devices for school buses which serve to prevent children from being caught under the wheels which are of a more practical construction. U.S. Pat. No. 4,688,656 describes a barrier safety device in which contact with the device activates means for turning off the motor vehicle.
In the prior art systems, no effective combination of a safety barrier and a detecting means to indicate the presence of a person or an object in closed proximity or in contact with the safety barrier has been constructed. It is important for such safety barriers to completely eliminate the possibility that a child or object be caught under the wheels and also to prevent that the child be pushed or dragged.

Vehicle wheel safety barrier system using pressure and infrared sensors


A distributed make command is used when compiling a computer program in order to allow non-dependent processes in the compiling be performed in parallel, such as with different resources, in order to speed compile time. The distributed make command is typically executed by a user who also specifies a maximum number of resources to allocate to the compiling. The present invention dynamically adjusts this maximum number of resources to allocate if the resources become overloaded during the compiling, which has the effect of optimizing the efficiency of the compiling, either by reducing the number of resources utilized or by reducing the amount of time the compiling takes (or both).

When a computer program is built, the code is typically written in a high level language, such as C++. The code is typically placed in one or more source files. Upon compiling, these source files may be made into object files, and combined with other object files to create the final software.
Make is a software tool that automates the procedures required to compile a program. The interdependencies between different source files may be stored in a makefile, which enables Make to recompile only those files that have been changed. A typical makefile may read as follows:
  x1.o:    cc -c x1.c  x2.o:  cc -c x2.ca.out: x1.o x2.o  1d -o a.out x1.o x2.o
This indicates that object file x1.o is made by compiling x1.c, x2.o is made by compiling x2.c, and a.out is made by linking x1.o and x2.o.
Make operates sequentially, as due to the dependencies certain actions must be done before other actions. However, there are some situations where actions could be done simultaneously (if they are not dependent on one another). Make does not provide for any facility to take advantage of this fact. Distributed Make (Dmake) was therefore created to allow non-dependent actions to be executed in parallel, such as on different systems, to speed compile time.
The Dmake command includes a parameter indicating a maximum number of resources to utilize. This is often used because it is can be beneficial to leave resources for other people.
The problem with this maximum parameter is that it can often be set too high for optimal compiling. This occurs if, for example, the programmer overestimates the amount of resources available or unexpected jobs begin utilizing resources.
This problem may be illustrated through the use of several examples. In each of these examples, Dmake starts 64 parallel jobs, with each job taking 256 MB of memory and 60 seconds of CPU time. FIG. 1 is a graph illustrating an example of the build operation in a system having 64 CPUs and more than 16 GB of memory. This is a case where there are plenty of resources, and thus the program compiles quickly, in about 60 seconds.
FIG. 2 is a graph illustrating an example of the build operation in a system having 4 CPUs and more than 16 GB of memory. Here, there are a moderate amount of resources, and thus the program still compiles in a reasonable time, about 20 minutes, although not as fast as the example in FIG. 1.
FIG. 3 is a graph illustrating an example of the build operation in a system having 4 CPUs and less than 16 GB of memory. Here, the build will take a very long time because when the memory limit is exceeded, swapping must occur (indicated by area 300). The overall parallel system runs very inefficiently whenever swapping must occur.
Thus, the maximum parameter specified by the programmer may result in an oversubscription of the system, resulting in a less than ideal throughput. What is needed is a solution that achieves the optimum throughput on the system.


In one embodiment, the present invention is a method and apparatus for wireless network security. In one embodiment, a method for securing a wireless computing network includes receiving a communication from an unidentified transmitter, identifying the transmitter in accordance with a fingerprint generated from one or more radio frequency signal characteristics extracted from the communication, and taking action in response to an identity of the transmitter.

In recent years, the growth in wireless technology for local area networking, mobile computing and "hotspot" services has been nothing short of explosive. At the same time, there have been discoveries of egregious security vulnerabilities, privacy concerns and a general recognition that failure diagnosis and recovery must be made affordable and expedient.
Wireless networks essentially eliminate the traditional security barriers offered by wired networks and give attackers direct access to both observe and interject communications with any wireless networks in range. Thus, no matter the degree to which encryption and authentication are employed, the need to monitor for and defend against illicit usage and to rapidly diagnose communication disruptions in wireless network environments is critical.
Though products have been developed to address wireless intrusion detection and fault management concerns, these devices are generally insufficient to meet the security demands of wireless network environments. Tremendous resources are expended in identifying malicious traffic, and many of these efforts are still easily subverted. For example, traditional filtering based on medium access control (MAC) address can be subverted by simply forging a MAC address, making signals and sessions approximately free for anyone in the vicinity to generate.
Thus, there is a need in the art for a method and apparatus for identifying wireless transmitters.

Method and apparatus for wireless network security


A method for producing a cathode that can lower a sintering temperature is provided. The method comprises: acid-treating particles of a lithium containing composite oxide that has a layered rock-salt structure; obtaining a mixture by mixing the acid-treated particles with a lithium salt whose melting point is lower than that of the lithium containing composite oxide; and heating and sintering the mixture.

It is considered that in an oxide solid-state battery that uses a solid oxide as an electrolyte, interface resistance between a cathode and an oxide solid electrolyte layer, interface resistance between the oxide solid electrolyte layer and an anode, and so on can be reduced by joining the cathode, oxide solid electrolyte layer, and anode by sintering. On the other hand, in a solid-state battery whose layer cannot be joined by sintering, such as a sulfide solid-state battery using a sulfide solid electrolyte that is easy to suffer heat deterioration, the battery is pressurized using a restraining member, thereby contact interfaces of battery material are increased, to reduce interface resistance in the present circumstances. That is, an advantage of an oxide solid-state battery is that any member for restraining a cathode, oxide solid electrolyte layer, and anode are not necessary, and energy density of a battery as a whole can be easily increased, compared with other types of solid-state batteries.
A lithium containing composite oxide having a layered rock-salt structure can be applied as cathode active material for oxide solid-state batteries. Sintering particles of such a composite oxide makes it possible to compose a cathode of an oxide solid-state battery. In this point, Patent Literature 1 discloses a method of filling a powder of LiCoO2 which has a layered rock-salt structure into a mold, reducing a pressure inside the mold, and applying pressure sintering to the LiCoO2 powder at a temperature of equal to or higher than 800° C. and equal to or lower than 880° C. Patent Literature 2 discloses a method of mixing and molding a Li-containing oxide having a layered rock-salt structure, and an additive containing La and Zr, and heating and sintering a molded body at 750 to 950° C.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method for producing cathode, and method for producing oxide solid-state battery


A substrate processing apparatus capable of accurately aligning a center of a substrate, such as a wafer, with an axis of a substrate stage and capable of processing the substrate without bending the substrate is disclosed. The substrate processing apparatus includes a first substrate stage having a first substrate-holding surface configured to hold a first region in a lower surface of the substrate, a second substrate stage having a second substrate-holding surface configured to hold a second region in the lower surface of the substrate, a stage elevator configured to move the first substrate-holding surface between an elevated position higher than the second substrate-holding surface and a lowered position lower than the second substrate-holding surface, and an aligner configured to measure an amount of eccentricity of a center of the substrate from the axis of the second substrate stage and align the center of the substrate with the axis of the second substrate stage.

A polishing apparatus provided with a polishing tool, such as a polishing tape or a grinding stone, is used as an apparatus for polishing a peripheral portion of a substrate, such as a wafer. FIG. 14 is a schematic view showing this type of polishing apparatus, As shown in FIG. 14, the polishing apparatus includes a substrate stage 110 for holding a central portion of a wafer W by vacuum suction and rotating the wafer W, and a polishing head 105 for pressing a polishing tool 100 against a peripheral portion of the wafer W. The wafer W is rotated together with the substrate stage 110, and in this state the polishing head 105 presses the polishing tool 100 against the peripheral portion of the wafer W to thereby polish the peripheral portion of the wafer W. A polishing tape or a grinding stone may be used as the polishing tool 100.
As shown in FIG. 15, a width of a portion of the wafer W polished by the polishing tool 100 (which will be hereinafter referred to as a polishing width) is determined by a relative position of the polishing tool 100 with respect to the wafer W. Typically, the polishing width is several millimeters from an outermost peripheral edge of the wafer W, In order to polish the peripheral portion of the wafer W with a constant polishing width, it is necessary to align a center of the wafer W with an axis of the substrate stage 110. Therefore, before the wafer W is placed on the substrate stage 110, centering of the wafer W is performed by holding the wafer W with centering hands 115 as shown in FIG. 16. The centering hands 115 are configured to approach from both sides of the wafer W, which has been transported by a transfer robot (not shown), to contact an edge portion of the wafer W, thereby holding the wafer W. A relative position between the centering hands 115 and the substrate stage 110 is fixed, and the center of the wafer W held by the centering hands 115 is located on the axis of the substrate stage 110.
However, such a conventional centering mechanism has a limit to an accuracy of the wafer centering. As a result, the polishing width may be unstable. Moreover, the centering hands 115 may be worn out, resulting in a lowered accuracy of the wafer centering. Furthermore, when the polishing tool 100 is pressed against the peripheral portion of the wafer W, the wafer W in its entirety is bent, and as a result a defect may occur in the peripheral portion of the wafer W. In order to prevent the wafer W from being bent, a supporting stage (not shown) for supporting a circumferential portion of a lower surface of the wafer W may be provided separately from the substrate stage 110. However, if a substrate supporting surface of the substrate stage 110 is not flush with a substrate supporting surface of the supporting stage, the wafer W is bent.

Substrate processing apparatus and substrate processing method


A tilting member has a force bearing portion to which operating force is applied, and a supported surface. A supporting member has a supporting projection with which the supported surface of the tilting member may come in contact. When the operating force is applied to the tilting member, the tilting member tilts with respect to the supporting member. The supporting member supports the tilting member at a supporting point where the supporting projection of the supporting member is in contact with the supported surface of the tilting member, about which supporting point the tilting member tilts. The tilting of the tilting member, with respect to the supporting member, establishes a predetermined electrical contact.

The present invention relates to a control-key mechanism.
In the known art, a kind of control-key mechanism is used, such as, in computers, for example, video game apparatus including video game apparatus of business use or video game apparatus of personal use. In these video game apparatuses, a display screen such as using a liquid crystal display device is provided. In this display screen, a character is moved in response to an operation performed on the video game apparatus by an operator. The character is an object represented on the display screen. The operator may specify the movement of the character using the control-key mechanism such as that mentioned above.
Using the control-key mechanism, the operator may specify or may select a direction in which the character moves. The direction selected is selected from various directions, for example, 4 directions on the screen, that is, the top, bottom, right and left, or 8 directions, the top, bottom, right, left, top left, top right, bottom left, and bottom right.
Such a control-key mechanism has a construction such that the operator may control the character, via the control-key mechanism with very small force being applied to the control-key mechanism by the operator's finger so as to control, for example, the movement of the above-mentioned character displayed on the screen. This is because, for example, the operator has to control the movement of the character very frequently. Thus, if this control needed a relatively large force, the operator's finger would become tired.
The Japanese Utility-Model Publication No.3-13951 corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 4,687,200, discloses such a conventional control-key mechanism. This conventional control-key mechanism has a key top. A half-spherical shaped projection projects downward from a center of a bottom surface of the key top. The control-key mechanism also has a circuit substrate. In the control-key mechanism, there exists a small space between the top of the half-spherical shaped projection and the circuit substrate.
A elastic supporting member is provided so as to support a disc portion formed on the periphery of the bottom surface of the key top so that the key top is supported on the circuit substrate. Thus, the above-mentioned small space is maintained.
When the operator pushes, in a certain direction, the key top of the above-mentioned conventional control-key mechanism, the top of the half-sphere shaped projection comes in contact with the substrate. Thus, the portion where the top of the half-sphere shaped projection comes in contact with the substrate will act as a supporting point to be used for a seesaw-like movement of the key top on the substrate.
Depending on the direction in which the control-key is being pushed, the key top is tilted in a corresponding direction with the above-mentioned seesaw-like movement using the supporting point. This tilting of the key top causes a conductive rubber, provided on the bottom surface of the supporting member, to come in contact with a plurality of contacts provided on the circuit substrate. This coming in contact with the plurality of contacts, that is, a short-circuiting of the plurality of contacts results in forming a corresponding circuit on the circuit substrate.
In this construction of the conventional control-key mechanism, the following drawback may exist. When the operator operates, that is, pushes the key top in a certain direction, the top of the half-sphere shaped projection is rubbing against the circuit substrate at the portion acting as the above-mentioned supporting point to be used for the seesaw movement. This rubbing is caused by the seesaw movement of the key top on the substrate.
Such rubbing results in a corresponding friction between the top of the half-sphere shaped projection and the counterpart on the circuit substrate. Such friction may damage these rubbing parts so as to shorten a life time of the control-key mechanism.
Further, there may be a case where a relatively large mechanical shock is applied on the key top so as to cause the top of the half-sphere projection to collide with the counterpart on the circuit substrate. Such case also may damage the same parts so as also to shorten the life of the control-key mechanism.
As mentioned above, the control-key mechanism may be operated very frequently by the operator when it is applied, for example, to the video game apparatus. Such frequent operations may excessively facilitate the above-mentioned damages resulting in shortening the life of the control-key mechanism.

Control-key mechanism having improved operation feeling


A ferrule structure includes: a holding aperture that holds light guide members forming light guides; a recess that is recessed from a connection end surface with respect to a mating ferrule; a first lens array on a base surface that is a bottom surface of the recess; and a first groove that is recessed from the base surface and is on an outer side of the first lens array. The first lens array includes lenses that are aligned with the light guides.

There has been known a technique relating to an optical connector with lens ferrules that optically connects optical fibers to each other with the facing ferrules each having a lens at an end surface. Patent Literature 1 discloses that a ferrule body holding an optical fiber and a lens are integrally formed to reduce work for aligning and assembling the ferrule body and the lens.
Further, there has been known a configuration in which a ferrule body holding an end part of an optical fiber is formed separately from a lens array. Patent Literature 2 discloses that a front surface of a ferrule body and an endface of an optical fiber are polished, and then a lens array is attached to the front surface of the ferrule body.
In the ferrule described in Patent Literatures 1 and 2, a recess is formed in the end surface of the ferrule, and the lens array is arranged on a bottom surface of the recess. However, in the configuration in which abase surface of the lens array is set to the bottom surface of the recess, when a water droplet is formed in the recess under high-temperature and high-humidity environment, the water droplet is more likely to adhere to the lens. If the water droplet adheres to the lens being an optical path, light is dispersed, and a transmission loss is increased. Note that, even after the water droplet adhering to the lens is evaporated, a water scale is formed on the lens in some cases, and there may be a possibility in that light is dispersed due to the water scale.
One or more embodiments of the present invention suppress adhesion of a water droplet to a lens.


Fabrication method of GaN power LED with electrodes formed by composite optical coatings, comprising epitaxially growing N—GaN, active, and P—GaN layers successively on a substrate; depositing a mask layer thereon; coating the mask layer with photoresist; etching the mask layer into an N—GaN electrode pattern; etching through that electrode pattern to form an N—GaN electrode region; removing the mask layer and cleaning; forming a transparent, electrically conductive film simultaneously on the P—GaN and N—GaN layers; forming P—GaN and N—GaN transparent, electrically conductive electrodes by lift-off; forming bonding pad pattern for the P—GaN and N—GaN electrodes by photolithography process; simultaneously forming thereon bonding pad regions for the P—GaN and N—GaN electrodes by stepped electron beam evaporation; forming an antireflection film pattern by photolithography process; forming an antireflection film; thinning and polishing the backside of the substrate, then forming a reflector thereon; and completing the process after scribing, packaging and testing.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to fabrication technology of a semiconductor photoelectronic device, specifically to a fabrication method of GaN power LED with electrodes formed by composite optical coatings.
2. Description of Prior Art
Since white-light LEDs were invented, the application area of high-brightness LEDs has been extended to the market of high-efficiency light source. Compared with prior illumination light sources, the light source using LEDs has the benefits of energy conservation, long life period, small volume, high luminous efficiency, no pollution, having various colors and the like. The energy consumption of a white-light LED is only ⅛ of that of a filament lamp, and only ½ of a fluorescent lamp. The life period of the white-light LED can be up to one hundred thousands hours. Moreover, the white-light LEDs can be made mercury-free, which is very important in view of the demand for environmental protection and energy conservation. As the most commonly-used method of achieving the white-light LEDs, a blue-light chip of InGaN/GaN multi-quantum wells (MQW) is used to excite a yellow-light fluorescent powder (YAG: Ce3+). The semiconductor solid light source has a good prospect of being used as a green solid light source in a new-generation illumination revolution, due to a deep research on the blue-light material of the InGaN/GaN MQW and a steady improvement in the property of the manufactured white-light power LED devices.
Despite the great development in the research on GaN power LEDs, which rapidly increases the illumination efficiency, there is still a long way to achieve the object of completely replacing the conventional light sources. Current problems in quantum efficiency, current distribution uniformity and heat dissipation capacity of the device are technical bottleneck in a further improvement of the property of a LED. How to increase an extraction efficiency of the light emitted from a power GaN LED is one of the most important problems under research.
To solve the problem with respect to the extraction efficiency of the light emitted from a power GaN LED, those skilled in the art have proposed many solutions with respect to device configurations, fabrication processes, or the like, such as a flip-chip structure, a resonant cavity structure, a metal reflector, surface coarsing, using a photonic crystal, or the like, and have made much progress. Especially in a preparation of electrodes, a transparent electrode is often used for a P—GaN electrode. However, for the N—GaN electrode, a metal ohmic contact electrode is usually used, which certainly degrades the extraction efficiency of the LED because the metal has a high absorption coefficient for the light. The present invention proposes a novel design and a novel fabrication method of a GaN-based power LED with P and N electrodes formed by transparent composite optical coatings with high light extraction efficiency.

Fabrication method of GaN power LEDs with electrodes formed by composite optical coatings

Institute of Semiconductors, Chinese Academy of Sciences


The present invention is an economical fermentation method for the production of carboxylic acids comprising the steps of a) inoculating a medium having a carbon source with a carboxylic acid-producing organism; b) incubating the carboxylic acid-producing organism in an aerobic atmosphere to promote rapid growth of the organism thereby increasing the biomass of the organism; c) controllably releasing oxygen to maintain the aerobic atmosphere; d) controllably feeding the organism having increased biomass with a solution containing the carbon source to maintain the concentration of the carbon source within the medium of about 0.5 g/L up to about 1 g/L; e) depriving the aerobic atmosphere of oxygen to produce an anaerobic atmosphere to cause the organism to undergo anaerobic metabolism; f) controllably feeding the organism having increased biomass a solution containing the carbon source to maintain the concentration of the carbon source within the medium of .gtoreq.1 g/L; and g) converting the carbon source to carboxylic acids using the anaerobic metabolism of the organism.

Carboxylic acids and derivatives thereof are widely used as specialty chemicals for applications in polymers, foods, pharmaceuticals, and cosmetics. Succinic acid, for example, is useful for the production of such plastic precursors as 1,4-butanediol (BDO), tetrahydrofuran, and gammabutyrolactone. New products derived from succinic acid are under continual development, including the development of polyester. Polyester is made by linking succinic acid and BDO. Generally, esters of succinic acids have the potential of being new, "green" solvents that can supplant more harmful solvents and serve as precursors for millions of pounds of chemicals annually at a total market value of over one billion dollars.
The production of carboxylic acids, such as malic acid, succinic acid and fumaric acid, from renewable feedstocks (in this case through fermentation processes) is an avenue to supplant the more energy intensive methods of deriving such acids from nonrenewable sources. Succinate is an intermediate for anaerobic fermentations by propionate-producing bacteria but those processes result in low yields and concentrations.
Many succinic acid-producing organisms have been isolated, such as the anaerobic rumen bacteria, Bacteroides ruminicola and Bacteroides amylophilus. However, rumen organisms are characteristically unstable in fermentation processes. Another succinic acid-producing organism is Anaerobiospirillum succiniciproducens (A. succiniciproducens). Several patents have been issued on the use of this organism to produce succinic acid in an anaerobic fermentation process. One such patent by Glassner et al, U.S. Pat. No. 5,143,834, outlines the use of this organism in fermentation processes to naturally produce succinic acid in moderate yields. However, fermentation processes using A. succiniciproducens have a number of problems. One problem is that the organism is a strict anaerobe, its cultivation must be performed in an environment absolutely free of oxygen. The propagation of this organism in a commercial fermentation plant is difficult and requires highly skilled workers. A. succiniciproducens is also difficult to handle even in laboratory-scale practice and tends to degenerate under unfavorable conditions. Its degeneracy cannot be reversed. The organism has never been used in a commercial fermentation process. In other words, production-scale fermentation experience with this particular organism is non-existent. Furthermore, the organism requires an external supply of carbon dioxide to achieve a high yield of succinic acid. In a fermentation process, a stream of pure carbon dioxide must be sparged into the fermentation broth. A. succiniciproducens produces a mixture of succinic and acetic acids at a succinate:acetate molar ratio of about 2. The presence of acetic acid at high concentrations in the fermentation broth increases the cost of succinic acid purification. Production of the acetate co-product illustrates that one-third of the expensive glucose is not converted to succinate. Furthermore, the A. succiniciproducens host strain has been shown to be not highly osmotolerant in that it does not tolerate high concentrations of salts and is further inhibited by moderate concentrations of product. Another problem that the use of A. succiniciproducens presents is that medium preparation for the inoculum requires the addition of tryptophan and also requires the mixing of four different solutions, one of which contains corrosive and toxic H.sub.2 S.
It has long been known that a mixture of acids are produced from E. coli fermentation, as elaborated by J. L. Stokes in 1949 "Fermentation of glucose by suspensions of Escherichia coli," J. Bacteriol. 57:147-158. However, for each mole of glucose fermented, only 1.2 moles of formic acid, 0.1-0.2 moles of lactic acid, and 0.3-0.4 moles of succinic acid are produced. As such, efforts to produce carboxylic acids fermentatively have resulted in relatively large amounts of growth substrates, such as glucose, not being converted to desired product.
Fairoz Mat-Jan et al describes in the J. Bacteriol., v. 171 (1989), pp. 342-348, a study conducted on mutants of Escherichia coli deficient in the fermentative AND-linked lactate dehydrogenase (ldh) that had been isolated showed no growth defects under anaerobic conditions unless present together with a defect in pyruvate formate lyase (pfl). Double mutants (pfl ldh) were unable to grow anaerobically on glucose or other sugars even when supplemented with acetate, whereas pfl mutants can do so. The study did not discuss nor did it investigate the production of succinic acid or dicarboxylic acids.
Although the succinate ion is a common intermediate in the metabolic pathway of several anaerobic microorganisms, a need exists in the art for a fermentation process to economically produce succinic acid as well as other carboxylic acids such as malic acid and fumaric acid, in large amounts or with high yields. The process should utilize low cost nutrients and substrates, the rate of fermentation should be high for high productivity, and the product concentration in the fermentation broth should be high.

Method for the production of dicarboxylic acids

Lockhead Martin Energy Research Corporation


An automatically operated opening access closure and venting mechanism includes a vent with one or more baffles inserted in and opening. The baffles are coupled to an actuator mechanism which operates the baffles as the door moves from a closed to an open position or conversely, from an open to a closed position. When the door is in a closed position, the baffles are closed to maintain the integrity of the door. As the door begins to open, the baffle opens thus equalizing the pressure on both sides of the door allowing the door to be easily pushed open and to close with minimal force.

Certain doors, particularly fire stop doors found in exit stairways of residential or commercial buildings, must be kept closed at all times due to fire and safety regulations. Many of the stairways, however, are naturally or manually pressurized or vented to be sure that in a fire or other hazardous situation, the occupants of the building can escape by means of the stairway with relatively clean air.
Although such changes to residential and commercial buildings have improved life and safety of the occupants, it has created a different problem. Because the stairways are often at a different air pressure than that found on the other side of the stairway door, doors can be nearly impossible to open in the case of a greater air pressure on the backside of the door. In order to combat this, installers or maintenance people often increase the closer pressure on the automated door closer mechanism to such a high value that the door shuts with such force that someone may be caught off guard and hurt by the force of the closing door. Indeed, it is often nearly impossible for elderly or handicapped individuals to operate such doors because of the fact that they are so difficult to open and/or close so quickly and violently. This situation results from the fact that the air pressure acting on one side or the other of such a large, solid door or other opening tends to make the door either extremely difficult to open or closes it very quickly and abruptly.
Other situations also suffer from the same problem such as, for example, in the case of a storm door on a residential home which is generally difficult to close due to the pressure that builds up between the storm door and the main house door as the storm door closes. Often this results in the storm door not closing and latching completely which can result in the door being pulled open and maybe even pulled off by the wind.
Accordingly, what is needed is a method of providing an air vent in the door, window or other opening in a structure such that when the door begins to open, an air vent automatically opens whereby air pressure is allowed to equalize on both sides of the door yet once the door is closed, the air vents will close thus maintaining the fire integrity of the door.


The invention relates to methods of inducing expression of coding sequences including cellulose synthase coding sequences in transgenic plants using promoters of cellulose synthase genes from Populus plant species and transgenic plants produced by the methods.

Lignin and cellulose are the two major building blocks of plant cell walls that provide mechanical strength and rigidity. In plants, and especially in trees, these two organic materials exist in a dynamic equilibrium conferring mechanical strength, water transporting ability and protection from biotic and abiotic environmental stresses. Normally, oven-dry wood contains 30 to 50% cellulose, 20 to 30% lignin and 20 to 30% hemicellulose (Higuchi, 1997).
Proportions of lignin and cellulose are known to change with variation in the natural environment. For example, during the development of compression wood in conifers, the percentage of lignin increases from 30 to 40%, and cellulose content proportionally decreases from 40 to 30% (Timmell, 1986). Conversely, in angiosperm tension wood the percentage of cellulose increases from 30 to 40%, while lignin content decreases from 30 to 20% (Timmell, 1986).
It was recently discovered that the genetic down-regulation of a key tissue-specific enzyme from the lignin biosynthesis pathway, 4CL, results in reduction of lignin content by up to 45% in transgenic aspen trees (Hu et al., 1999). This down-regulation is also associated with a 15% increase in the cellulose content. If the converse were true, i.e., that increasing cellulose content by genetic up-regulation of cellulose biosynthesis results in reduction of lignin content, then the pulp yield could be increased. This would allow tremendous savings in chemical and energy costs during pulping because, for example, lignin must be degraded and removed during the pulping process.
Cellulose is a linear glucan consisting of β-D-1,4-linked glucose residues. It is formed by a cellulose synthase enzyme which catalyzes assembly of UDP-glucose units in plasma membrane complexes known as "particle rosettes" (Delmer and Amor, 1995). Cellulose synthase is thought to be anchored to the membrane by eight transmembrane binding domains to form the basis of the cellulose biosynthesis machinery in the plant cell wall (Pear et al., 1996).
In higher plants, the glucan chains in cellulose microfibrils of primary and secondary cell walls are different in their degree of polymerization (Brown et al., 1996). For example, secondary cell walls are known to contain cellulose having a high degree of polymerization, while in primary cell walls the degree of polymerization is lower. In another example, woody cell walls suffering from tension stress produce tension wood on the upper side of a bent angiosperm tree in response to the stress. In these cells, there are elevated quantities of cellulose which have very high crystallinity. The formation of highly crystalline cellulose is important to obtain a higher tensile strength of the wood fiber. Woody cell walls located at the under side of the same stem experience a compression stress, but do not produce highly crystalline cellulose. Such variation in the degree of polymerization in cell walls during development is believed to be due to different types of cellulose synthases for organizing glucose units into different paracrystalline arrays (Haigler and Blanton, 1996). Therefore, it would be advantageous to determine the molecular basis for the synthesis of highly crystalline cellulose so that higher yields of wood pulp having superior strength properties can be obtained from transgenic trees. Production of highly crystalline cellulose in transgenic trees would also markedly improve the mechanical strength properties of juvenile wood formed in normal trees. This would be a great benefit to the industry because juvenile wood is generally undesirable for solid wood applications because it has inferior mechanical properties.
Since the deposition of cellulose and lignin in trees is regulated in a compensatory fashion, genetic augmentation of cellulose biosynthesis might have a repressive effect on lignin deposition. Since the degree of polymerization and crystallinity may depend upon the type of cellulose synthase incorporated in the cellulose biosynthesis machinery, the expression of heterologous cellulose synthase or a UDP-glucose binding region thereof (e.g., sweetgum protein expression in loblolly pine), could increase the quality of cellulose in transgenic plants. Over-expression of a heterologous cellulose synthase may also increase cellulose quantity in transgenic plants. Thus, genetic engineering of cellulose biosynthesis can provide a strategy to augment cellulose quality and quantity, while reducing lignin content in transgenic plants.
A better understanding of the biochemical processes that lead to wood formation would enable the pulp and paper industries to more effectively use genetic engineering as a tool to meet the increasing demands for wood from a decreasing production area. With this objective, many xylem-specific genes, including most lignin biosynthesis genes, have been isolated from developing xylem tissues of various plants including tree species (Ye and Varner, 1993; Fukuda, 1996; Whetten et al., 1998). Genes regulating cellulose biosynthesis in crop plants (Pear et al., 1996 and Arioli et al., 1998), versus in trees, have also been isolated. However, isolation of tree genes which are directly involved in cellulose biosynthesis has remained a great challenge.
For more than 30 years, no gene encoding higher plant cellulose synthase (CelA) was identified. Recently, Pear et al. (1996) isolated the first putative higher plant CelA cDNA, GhCelA (GenBank No. GHU58283), by searching for UDP-glucose binding sequences in a cDNA library prepared from cotton fibers having active secondary wall cellulose synthesis. GhCelA was considered to encode a cellulose synthase catalytic subunit because it is highly expressed in cotton fibers, actively synthesizes secondary wall cellulose, contains eight transmembrane domains, binds UDP-glucose, and contains two other domains unique to plants.
Recently, Arioli et al. (1998) cloned a CelA homolog, RSW1 (radial swelling) (GenBank No. AF027172), from Arabidopsis by chromosome walking to a defective locus of a temperature sensitive cellulose-deficient mutant. Complementation of the RSW1 mutant with a wild type full-length genomic RSW1 clone restored the normal phenotype. This complementation provided the first genetic proof that a plant CelA gene encodes a catalytic subunit of cellulose synthase and functions in the biosynthesis of cellulose microfibrils. The full-length Arabidopsis RSW1 represents the only known, currently available cellulose synthase cDNA available for further elucidating cellulose biosynthesis in transgenic systems (Wu et al., 1998).
The discovery of the RSW1 gene substantiated the belief that the assembly of a cellulose synthase into the plasma membrane is required for functional cellulose biosynthetic machinery and for manufacturing crystalline cellulose microfibrils in plant cell walls. Most significantly, a single CelA gene, e.g. RSW1, is sufficient for the biosynthesis of cellulose microfibrils in plants, e.g. Arabidopsis. Thus, RSW1 is a prime target for engineering augmented cellulose formation in transgenic plants.
Since many of society's fiber, chemical and energy demands are met through the industrial-scale production of cellulose from wood, genetic engineering of the cellulose biosynthesis machinery in trees could produce higher pulp yields. This would allow greater returns on investment by pulp and paper industries. Therefore, it would be advantageous to isolate and characterize genes from trees that are involved in cellulose biosynthesis in order to improve the properties of wood.

Isolated cellulose synthase promoter regions


A four-wheeled recreational vehicle in the form of a go-cart having an open body without doors or windows. The body is formed from interconnected tubular members to define a chassis and frame. The vehicle includes a front suspension having V-shaped, parallel upper and lower control members including forward and rear control arms. The forward control arms are substantially perpendicular to the chassis centerline and the rear control arms incline inwardly and rearwardly from the front wheels. Greater vertical front wheel travel is provided for improved ride comfort and stability over rough terrain. The accelerator and brake pedals are placed closer to the front wheel pivot axis for greater legroom.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an off-road, four-wheeled recreational vehicle of the type sometimes referred to as a go-cart. More particularly, the present invention relates to an improved go-cart having a relatively short wheelbase, a compact overall structure, good handling and maneuverability, along with greater legroom than is available in many currently available compact go-carts.
2. Description of the Related Art
Go-carts of various configurations are known. Generally, such vehicles have a substantially open, tubular frame structure, three or four wheels, and one or two seats. Known vehicles of that type have either a short vertical travel front suspension system for a low-slung, generally shorter and narrower vehicle, or a high vertical travel front suspension system for a taller, generally longer and wider vehicle. Greater suspension travel is desirable to provide improved ride comfort and stability on rough terrain. Additionally, the shorter and narrower vehicles generally have limited legroom, which limits the size of the operator who can comfortably operate the vehicle, thereby limiting the potential market for it. On the other hand, the longer and wider vehicles are generally too large for convenient and economical shipment at a sufficient vehicle density in standard cargo containers of the type utilized in over-ocean shipments. Such vehicles also require larger storage spaces in user-owned facilities, such as personal garages.
There is therefore a need for a compact go-cart that accommodates two persons and that has a suspension system that enables a higher degree of front wheel vertical travel for improved off-road performance, improved maneuverability, and improved occupant comfort over widely varying terrain surfaces. Additionally, it is desirable to provide a compact go-cart structure that has a relatively short wheelbase while at the same time providing sufficient front legroom to comfortably accommodate a wide range of drivers of different sizes, from youths to adults. The present invention satisfies those needs and desires.


An aircraft assembly having: a first part; a second part, the first part being movably mounted relative to a second part; a dynamic conduit arranged such that movement of the first part relative to the second part causes the dynamic conduit to move through a movement volume from a first conduit position to a second conduit position; a first fastener arranged to couple a component to the aircraft assembly, at least some of the first fastener residing within the movement volume of the dynamic conduit; and a safety guide arranged to be coupled to the first fastener, the safety guide comprising a bridge portion which extends away from the first fastener within the movement volume of the dynamic conduit so as to support the dynamic conduit when the dynamic conduit is in the second conduit position.

Many types of aircraft assembly include a first part which is movable relative to a second part.
An aircraft assembly can also include one or more hoses or cables for conducting fluid or electricity respectively to one or more components of the assembly. For brevity such hoses or cables will be referred to herein as conduits.
As the first part of the assembly moves relative to the second part, it can cause the conduit to move through a movement volume from a first conduit position to a second conduit position. Such conduits can be referred to as dynamic conduits.
An aircraft assembly can also include components such as sensors, brackets and the like which are coupled to the assembly via one or more mechanical fasteners; for example, by way of nut and bolts.
In the case of an aircraft assembly nut and bolt fastener, it is common for the threaded rod of a bolt to be provided with a hole that extends laterally from one side of the rod to the other. The nut can have an axial face configured to define castellations and is wound until the hole is axially aligned with a space between adjacent castellations. A split pin is then inserted through the hole. The head of the split pin defines an end stop, limiting travel through the hole. The free ends of the split pin are then bent or splayed apart to inhibit removal of the split pin. The split pin inhibits reverse rotation of the nut due to engagement with the castellations.
An aircraft can include sharp edges, such as the tips of a split pin. The sharp edges of a fastener can cause damage to relatively soft articles such as fabric or rubber that come into contact with the sharp edges.
In view of design and assembly considerations, one or more of the fasteners can reside within the movement volume of the dynamic conduit. Thus, the dynamic conduit can brush against the fastener(s) as the first part of the assembly moves relative to the second part, which can abrade the dynamic conduit.
It is known to cap fasteners with sealant so that sharp surfaces such as the tips of splayed split pin arms are encased in a protective coating.
However, the present inventor has identified that known solutions to the above-identified problem can be time consuming to implement, can be unreliable in view of the potential for wear and can be sacrificial in nature requiring periodic reapplication.