A driver or ballast for the ultraviolet bulb of a water treatment system. The driver includes a step-up transformer and a feedback oscillator connected between the secondary and the primary of the transformer. The secondary of the transformer also is selectably connected through one of two different capacitor compensators depending on water flow through the system. In a low intensity mode, the current and the power factor output of the driver are relatively low--preferably just enough to keep the bulb filaments energized. In a high intensity mode, the current and the power factor are relatively high to power the bulb at a relatively high efficiency. The driver operates at a relatively low DC voltage. A voltage converter selected as function of the local line voltage converts the AC line voltage to the necessary DC voltage.

The present invention relates to water treatment systems, and more particularly to an electronic driver or ballast for an ultraviolet household water treatment system.
Household water treatment systems have gained widespread popularity, particularly in areas with less-than-ideal potable water. A household system or unit is mounted on a single tap to selectively treat water flowing through the tap. Treatment may include filtration, irradiation, or both. The most effective water treatment systems include ultraviolet (UV) irradiation to sterilize the water stream. It is well known that such UV treatment kills bacteria and viruses with an extremely high degree of reliability. The water to be treated is routed through a container, and a UV light source within or adjacent to the container directs UV light through the water stream.
A first issue with UV water treatment systems relates to intensity control of the UV bulb. At least three factors are considered in determining the intensity of the UV light. First, it is desirable to operate the bulb at a relatively high intensity to achieve the maximum "kill rate" when water is flowing. Second, it is desirable to never extinguish the bulb, for example as one might be tempted to do when water flow stops, because of the start-up lag in bringing the UV intensity back up to treatment intensity when water flow is detected. Third, it is desirable to reduce bulb wattage or power when water flow stops to avoid excessive warming of the water "stagnated" within the treatment chamber.
Prior artisans have accommodated these considerations by designing bulb intensity control circuits capable of selectively driving the bulb at relatively high and low intensities. One such circuit is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 5,324,423 issued Jun. 28, 1994, to Markham and entitled UV BULB INTENSITY CONTROL FOR WATER TREATMENT SYSTEM. When water is flowing, as detected by a flow switch, the bulb is operated at high intensity to achieve the desired kill rate. When water flow stops, the bulb is operated at a lower intensity to avoid excessive warming of the water and to prevent extinguishing of the bulb. While the Markham circuit is a significant advance in the art, it is not without its drawbacks. The inductive ballast is more expensive and less efficient than desired. Further, the ballast is relatively heavy and noisy.
A second issue with water treatment systems is the possibility of electrical shock to a user. While the risk is low, the consequences can be serious because the systems plug directly into the household line voltage, which is 110 volts in the United States and varies from 100 volts to 264 volts throughout the world.
A third issue with water treatment systems is the variance in design from country to country. As noted in the preceding paragraph, line voltage can vary from 100 volts to 264 volts. Additionally, line frequency varies from 50 Hz to 60 Hz. Consequently, the electronics package of a water treatment system must be custom tailored to the line voltage/frequency combination for that country. This leads to design, manufacture, and inventory problems.

Electronic driver for water treatment system UV bulb


A garment hanger is comprised of a one-piece body having a hook portion for the receipt of a display rod, a central portion depending from the hook portion, the body defining in the central portion an opening therethrough and a garment support member disposed in the opening and movable relative to the body. A lower portion of the hanger defines a fold line segment depending from the central portion and a flap segment depending from the fold line segment, the central portion, the fold line segment and the flap segment jointly defining a slot in the body. The flap segment has a latching projection thereon and the central portion defines a passage therethrough for the flap projection, the central portion having a part thereof circumscribing the passage and in facing relation to the flap segment on folding thereof which is thickened with respect to adjacent parts of the central portion.

FIGS. 1-3 of the above-referenced '280 application depict a presently known commercial tie hanger, comprised of an integral plastic body having first and second foldable panels, the second panel having three openings for the looping of a tie therethrough. The first panel has projections at a lower portion thereof and the second flap portion has latching openings. In use, when a tie has been applied to the second panel, the panels are folded and latched in folded condition by fording the projections into the latching openings. A quite extensive amount of plastic material is involved in the hanger, i.e., the first and second panels are generally coextensive. Further, the configuration of the projections and latching openings is such that security does not attend the hanger. Thus, an unscrupulous shopper can interchange ties and hangers, placing a hanger with a lower price indication with a tie of far greater price.
By way of further introduction to the subject invention, reference is made to copending, commonly-assigned application Ser. No. 179,909, filed on Jan. 11, 1994. That application discloses a garment hanger comprised of a one-piece body having a hook portion for the receipt of a display rod, a central portion depending from the hook portion and having first and second openings therein, and a lower portion defining a fold line segment depending from the central portion with a third opening disposed in the fold line segment and a flap segment depending from the fold line segment. The central portion and the flap segment define coactive structure for retaining the flap segment against the central portion on folding of the flap segment about the fold line segment. The coactive structure is preferably comprised of first and second projections on the flap segment adjacent respective lateral margins thereof and first and second latching openings in the central portion adjacent respective lateral margins thereof.
In use of the hanger, with the flap segment unfolded, a garment, such as a tie, is looped through the first and second openings and then passed through the third opening. The flap is now folded against the garment and latched to the central portion.
Advantage attends the hanger as against the first above-discussed hanger, in that it requires substantially less plastic material. However, the security disadvantage, above noted, likewise attends this hanger.
The tie hanger of above-referenced, copending, commonly-assigned application Ser. No. 279,280 is depicted in FIGS. 1-5 hereof. Referring thereto, garment hanger 40 is comprised of a one-piece synthetic plastic body having a hook portion 42 with an opening 42a for the receipt of a display rod. A central portion 44 of hanger 40 depends from hook portion 42 and has a garment support member 46 disposed in opening 48 and cantilever-supported by the central portion. The central portion also includes latching openings 50 and 52 adjacent respective lateral margins thereof.
A lower portion of hanger 40 has a fold line segment 54, depending from the central portion, constituted by thinning out the one-piece body to have a lesser thickness in fold line segment 54, and a flap segment, depending from the fold line segment and including a panel 56 with latching projections 58 and 60.
The latching openings and projections constitute coactive structure for retaining the flap segment against the central portion on folding of the flap segment about the fold line segment.
The hanger of the '280 application incorporates non-releasable projections and latching recess structure shown in FIGS. 1-3, which is fully explained in commonly-assigned U.S. Pat. No. 5,005,741.
The hanger central portion, the fold line segment and the flap segment jointly define slot 62, which has an interior end with which the fold line segment is contiguous and opens into the left side margin of hanger 40. The fold line segment provides cantilever support for the flap segment.
Referring to FIGS. 4 and 5, hanger 40 is shown in assembly with tie 64, the tie having a first part 66 looped about support member 46 and a second part 68 extending through slot 66 and disposed between the central portion and the flap segment.
In reaching the assembly of FIGS. 4 and 5, an assembler forms a tie with looped first part 66 and displaces both support member 46 and panel 52 outwardly of the plane of the hanger body, e.g., rearwardly of the plane of FIG. 4. The looped first part 66 is then dressed over and about support member 46 and the second part 68 is then inserted into slot 62. Panel 52 is then folded about the fold line segment and projections 58 and 60 are forced into openings 50 and 52.
Advantage attends the hanger of the '280 application in that its open slot 62 greatly facilitates assembly of the hanger with a tie. Further, it provides the security, lacking in the earlier above-discussed hangers. Since cutting is necessary to open the hanger, it evidently can be associated with only one tie and not reused with another tie.


Proxy data stream handling and complex object parameter handling allow object oriented programs to be run as distributed programs without any explicit networking code, and without using an interface definition language (IDL). Two proxies are generated dynamically that allow method calls written for local invocation to be invoked over a network. These dynamically-generated proxies allow calls to flow across a network as if they were local, and contain support for using data stream and complex objects as parameters.

The present invention relates generally to computer programming methods and systems, and, in particular, to object oriented programming and to methods and systems of running object oriented programs on multiple computers connected by a network.
The distribution of a single program, so that a portion of the program executes on more than one computer, has become more pervasive as xe2x80x9cdesktopxe2x80x9d computers have become more powerful. FIG. 1 demonstrates an example of a computer network containing several distributed computers upon which an application can execute. While most computer networks are many orders of magnitude larger, this small network is used as an example. Presently, many computer systems allow objects to communicate over a network. One method of distributing object oriented programs across computer networks is Automatic Object Distribution (AOD), described in the commonly assigned, copending patent application having Ser. No. 08/852,263, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,157,960, entitled xe2x80x9cTechnique for Programmatically Creating Distributed Object Programsxe2x80x9d.
When a distributed object-oriented program is built with AOD, it is written as if the entire system is to reside on a single machine and compiled into unlinked executable code, known as xe2x80x9cbyte code.xe2x80x9d The distribution of the objects is determined, and the AOD process is used to effect the distribution by analyzing the aforementioned byte code, determining which method calls will be made across the computer network, and generating proxy objects to represent remote objects and their method calls. Two proxies are created for each object-to-object call that will occur over the network: one that resides on the machine containing the object making the call, and one that resides on the machine containing the object to which the call is made. These two proxies cooperate to hide the fact that the objects actually reside on different machines from the programmer, thereby sparing the programmer any need to be aware of the distributed nature of the system when writing his code.
When calls are made across a computer network in this fashion, the parameters are objects. When these objects represent finite data, such as arrays, data structures, integers, etc. they are passed using well-known techniques such as Object Serialization. In Object Serialization, all the pieces of the object are combined and converted to a byte stream, which is sent across the network and then reassembled into a new data object on the other side of the network connection. This method is well-known in the art, and is used by the AOD system to send parameters for method calls which are split across the network.
However, some types of data objects do not lend themselves to Object Serialization. In particular, objects which represent data streams and complex objects (which may contain extensive programmed methods and/or references to other objects, have system locking requirements, or do not implement a serialization protocol) do not lend themselves easily to object serialization.
Objects which represent data streams are not a finite size, as they often represent data to be read from or written to some data source, such as a diskette drive. Additionally, since they may represent data being input to or output from a system or peripheral device, the data they contain may be in a system-specific format. When a program is distributed with AOD, different parts of it may be distributed to different types of computers, which may have incompatible data formats.
Additionally under the AOD proxy system, if one data stream object is split and proxied, all data streams must be so split and proxied, because the proxy remaining on the first machine would contain method names and semantics that are identical to those in a real data stream, causing name collisions. These name collisions would eliminate the possibility of any kind of data input or output operations on a machine on which a data stream proxy resides, a result which is not acceptable in today""s environment. If the name collision problem were to be overcome, the performance of the proxied data stream would not be acceptable, as each read or write on a data stream so proxied would require two method calls and a remote method call.
When complex objects are passed as parameters on remote method calls, it is undesirable to pass them as simpler objects would be passed, using serialization, for three reasons:
1. A complex object will likely contain extensive code and/or references to other objects. To serialize the object, all of the data it contains and the objects it references must be serialized and passed over the network as a byte stream. This may be inefficient, especially if the object is being passed to allow access to only a small percentage of its data.
2. When a complex object is passed over the network to be used by another object, it must be locked on its xe2x80x9chomexe2x80x9d machine. This is to prevent any other objects from invoking it, which may result in changes to the data contained therein, while it is being operated on in a remote machine. Without such locking, the object may become corrupted. For example, if an object contains a counter, and the object is invoked on a remote machine to increment the counter and also invoked on the local machine to increment the same counter, then when the remote copy is returned and recopied over the original copy, the counter""s value will be one less than required. Locking imposes a performance penalty on all objects that need to access the object being serialized, as they are all required to queue up and wait for the remote operation on the object to complete and for the results to be returned and recopied.
3. A complex object that is to be serialized must contain special code to enable such serialization. For example, in the Java(trademark) (Java is a trademark of Sun Microsystems) environment, the object must implement the serializable interface. This may require the programmer to be aware of and code for the distributed nature of the program.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a method for creating distributed object programs, which include data streams and complex objects as parameters, that allows the programmer to write a program as if it were running on a single, local machine.
It is a further object of the present invention to automatically create the distribution of data streams across multiple machines even though the format of stream data may be machine-specific.
It is yet a further object of the present invention to allow data streams that are local to a machine and those which have been distributed to other machines to co-exist without programmer input.
The present invention provides a system, method and program product for executing or running objects remotely, some of which objects may pass data streams between themselves. This is herein referred to as Proxy Datastream Handling (PDH). A data stream is an object which represents a source of data, such as a diskette drive, which is accessed to obtain data from the source. Additionally, the present invention provides a system, method and program product for executing or running objects remotely, some of which objects may pass complex objects between themselves. This is herein referred to as Complex Object Parameter Handling (COPH). A complex object is one which contains programmed member functions and/or references to other objects, or which has locking requirements to the extent that it is not desirable to pass the object itself over a network.
As shown in FIG. 2, an object oriented program may be written with many independent objects that call each other to perform a unified function. FIG. 2 depicts a computer memory 101 in which objects 102 V, W, X, Y and Z all reside. One or more of these objects may pass or receive a data stream or a complex object as a parameter. The present invention allows a user to move some of the objects from a first computer to a second computer to be executed. This is shown in FIG. 3. In FIG. 3 objects V and Y 205 remain in a first computer memory 201 while objects W, X, and Z 207 are moved to a second computer memory 203. This can be done, for instance, to balance the workload between the first computer and the second computer. This creates additional complexities since each of the program objects are capable of calling external routines herein referred to as methods. If one or more of the methods references one or more data streams as parameters, the format of the data produced therefrom may be machine-specific. Additionally, if one or more of the methods references one or more complex objects, additional complexities are introduced, e.g., the complex object may have locking requirements. For example, a complex object may be updatable by many different objects. Sending a complex object to a remote machine to make it available for an updating method requires all of the other objects that may need to update it to be locked out for the entire duration of the remote method call, thereby affecting system performance. Also, a complex object may contain extensive data fields and referenced objects which make it undesirable to pass the entire complex object over the network simply to allow a possibly minor aspect of the object to be used by the remote object.
The separation of the program objects into multiple computers for execution requires that all of the methods or objects which, due to the separation of the objects to different computer memories now access methods and data streams which are no longer coresident with the calling method on the same system, know that some of the objects and data streams are located elsewhere on the network and understand how to access those remote objects.
The Proxy Datastream Handling (PDH) and the Complex Object Parameter Handling (COPH) of the present invention eliminate the requirement that programmers write their programs with the knowledge that the objects which reference data streams or pass complex objects as parameters will be distributed over a network. It also eliminates the need for programmers to write programs in a special language, known as an Interface Definition Language (IDL), that supports distributed objects, or to write using any particular tool when it is desired to distribute the work across the network. Instead, using the present invention, programmers write programs in a common object-oriented language, such as the Java(trademark) language, and compile the code into unlinked executable code. (In the computing literature, unlinked executable code is often called xe2x80x9cobject codexe2x80x9d. When describing object-oriented systems, the use of the term xe2x80x9cobject codexe2x80x9d creates confusion, therefore the term xe2x80x9cbytecodesxe2x80x9d has been adopted for purposes of the present invention.) The programmer writes the code exactly as if writing a program that will execute on a single machine; he does not decorate the program with any additional information as he would with IDL systems. The programmer then decides where the distribution should occur, then PDH and COPH, together with Automatic Object Distribution (AOD), generate the distribution code.
The AOD performs the distribution by generating two proxies. The proxies allow method calls written for local invocation to be invoked over a network. If a split is indicated between some class Y to be executed locally, and some class X to be executed remotely, the AOD process generates the proxies to overcome the intervening network. Together, these proxies intercept the calls from Y, pass them to X, and return the result to Y. If a data stream is passed as a parameter to these calls, the present invention enhances the proxies to do the PDH necessary to obtain data from the original data stream object, send the data that the data stream object contains over the network, and reassemble it in the destination machine into a proxy data stream object that can be accessed as if it were local. This is shown in more detail in FIGS. 4A and 4B. If a complex object is passed as a parameter to these calls, the present invention enhances the proxies to do the COPH necessary to build proxies for the complex object and reference the complex object""s proxies on the actual call. This is shown in more detail in FIGS. 5A and 5B.
Data Streams:
FIG. 4A represents the computer system in which a program is running in a single memory 401. Both object Y 404 and object X 403 reside on the same memory and a method call 407 is used to invoke object Y 404 from object X 403. The result of this invocation is that a reference to a data stream object is returned 417 to object X 403, and object X 403 may use the reference to access this data stream object 422 via a method call 423 to obtain the data 424 that the data stream object 422 represents.
As shown in FIG. 4B, the AOD process uses information in the bytecode file for a class, say Y 404, to generate the two proxy files (Yxe2x80x2 405 and Yxe2x80x3 406) that contain classes serving as proxies for Y 404. Yxe2x80x2 405 contains a class named Y that has all of the public methods in Y 404. (Note that since the original class Y 404 file will be located on the remote machine, no name conflict exists.) Yxe2x80x3 406 contains a class with a unique name that contains the method that makes calls to the public methods in class Y. Yxe2x80x2 405 resides on the same machine as X 403; Yxe2x80x3 406 resides on the same machine as Y 404. Since Yxe2x80x2 405 contains a class called Y and that class contains all of the public methods in Y 404, when X 403 makes a call against a method in the original class Y 404, that call is actually made against a method in the new class Y residing locally and contained in file Yxe2x80x2 405. Yxe2x80x2 405 passes the call information to Yxe2x80x3 406 which then makes a local call to Y 404. The results of the local call are propagated back to X 403 by way of Yxe2x80x3 406 and Yxe2x80x2 405. When the call returns a data stream, Yxe2x80x3 406 and Yxe2x80x2 405 cooperate to communicate the data that the data stream represents across the network and present it to the caller as if it were local data. The result is that the application, written to execute locally, can be distributed across the network without requiring that the programmer write or change any of the program code.
Complex Objects:
FIG. 5A represents a computer system in which a program is running in a single memory 501. Object Y 503, object X 502, and object Z 504 all reside on the same memory and a method call 505 is used to invoke object Y 503 from object X 502. Object Z 504 is a parameter of the method call, and as part of the method call object Y 503 performs a method call to invoke an object which is passed to object Y 503 as a parameter (in this case, object Z 504). Object Y 503 updates object Z 504 because object Z is provided to object Y 503 by object X 502 as a parameter. Object X 502 could provide itself, or any other object that contains the method that object Y 503 will use in its call. The case in which object X provides itself as a parameter, indicating that it is to be invoked by object Y, is referred to hereafter as a callback. This callback logic may be used in an object oriented system when the invocation of object Y 503 from object X 502 may cause system states which are stored in object X to be altered, or if invoking methods in the calling object is the way that the called object returns its results. The non-callback logic, in which object X 502 provides object Y 503 with a third object to be updated, such as object Z 504, may be used when object Z is a common system object for storing state information or other data that may be updated by object Y.
FIG. 5B represents the computer system of FIG. 5A after it has been distributed using the AOD process described above. Objects X 502 and Z 504 remain in computer 501, but object Y 503 has been moved to another computer 509. The AOD process knows from examining the objects"" byte codes that object X 502 will be calling object Y 503, so it creates two proxies for object Y, one on computer 501 referred to as Yxe2x80x2 510 and one on computer 509 referred to as Yxe2x80x3 511. Because the AOD process also knows that object Z 504 will be passed as a parameter on the call from X 502 to Y 503, the proxies for object Y are enhanced by the present invention to create the appropriate proxies for object Z 504 so that object Z may be passed as a parameter on the remote call to object Y without needing to lock and serialize object Z. Additionally, since the logic is added by the AOD process to the proxies created for object Y, no programmer intervention is necessary to accomplish this efficient remote call using object Z, allowing the entire program to be written as if all its objects are to reside on one computer.

Method and apparatus for remotely running objects using data streams and/or complex parameters

International Business Machines Corporation


In a reflective-type mask blank (10) for exposure which blank includes a substrate (1) having a principal surface, a reflective multilayer film (2) formed on the principal surface, and an absorber film (4) formed on the reflective multilayer film, an intermediate layer (3) is interposed between the reflective multilayer film and the absorber film and is resistant against an etching environment of the absorber film. The intermediate layer is made of a material comprising Ta as a main metal component. The reflective multilayer film is for reflecting exposure light which travels from the outside of the reflective-type mask blank towards the principal surface. The absorber film is for absorbing the exposure light.

This invention relates to an exposure technique used in pattern transfer in a semiconductor process and, in particular, to a reflective-type mask blank for exposure, a method of producing the same, and a reflective-type mask for exposure.
In the semiconductor industry, a pattern transfer technique is required when an integrated circuit comprising fine or microscopic patterns is formed on an Si substrate or the like. As the pattern transfer technique, use has been made of photolithography utilizing visible light or ultraviolet light. In recent years, accelerated development of a semiconductor device more and more miniaturized and having finer patterns requires a shorter wavelength as an exposure wavelength so as to achieve higher resolution. However, limitation is imposed upon pursuit of a shorter wavelength in existing optical exposure using the above-mentioned photolithography so that the limit of resolution is approaching.
In case of the photolithography, it is known that the limit of resolution in pattern transfer generally corresponds to a half of the exposure wavelength. It is predicted that, even if an F2 laser beam having a wavelength of 157 nm is used, the limit of resolution is on the order of 70 nm. As an exposure technique capable of achieving higher resolution, an EUV (Extreme Ultra Violet) lithography using EUV light is promising. The EUV light has a wavelength shorter than that of the F2 laser beam. It is noted here that the EUV light, which is described in the present specification, is a radiation having a wavelength within a soft X-ray region or a vacuum ultraviolet region, specifically, a wavelength within a range between about 0.2 and 100 nm.
For the EUV light, all substances exhibit high absorption and have a refractive index approximately equal to 1. Consequently, in the EUV lithography, a refraction optical system used in the photolithography can not be used but a reflection optical system is exclusively used. In the reflection optical system, a reflective-type mask is used as a mask (see, for example, a reflective X-ray mask disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. H08-213303 (JP 8-213303 A)).
The reflective-type mask generally comprises a substrate, a reflective multilayer film formed on the substrate for reflecting light, an intermediate layer formed on the reflective multilayer film, and an absorber film having a predetermined pattern and formed on the intermediate layer to absorb light. Light incident to the reflective-type mask is partially absorbed by the absorber film in an area where the absorber film is present and is partially reflected by the reflective multilayer film in a remaining area where the absorber film is not present. The former area and the latter area may be referred to as an absorption region and a reflection region, respectively. A reflected image formed by the light reflected by the reflective multilayer film is transferred through the reflection optical system onto a wafer. Herein, the intermediate layer serves to protect the reflective multilayer film when the pattern of the absorber film is formed by the use of dry etching or the like in a mask production process. As a material of the intermediate layer, use is often made of SiO2 because SiO2 is excellent in etching selectivity with respect to the absorber film of Cr or the like, readily available, and easy in handling. Generally, in order to increase the reflectivity for exposure light, the intermediate layer formed on the reflection region of the mask (the area where the pattern of the absorber film is not formed) is completely removed after forming the pattern of the absorber film.
However, if the intermediate layer is formed by the material such as SiO2 mentioned above, it is difficult to control an internal stress of the intermediate layer so that a residual stress is produced. As a consequence, the reflective multilayer film is deformed, for example, distorted or warped. This results in degradation in reflection characteristic. In addition, SiO2 has a large surface roughness. Consequently, the absorber film formed thereon has a roughened surface. This results in an increase in edge roughness of the pattern of the absorber film so that the dimensional accuracy of the pattern of the absorber film is decreased.

Reflective-type mask blank for exposure, method of producing the same, and reflective-type mask for exposure


A computer implemented method is provided for detecting potential fraud or unauthorized activity when resetting an application password in an application in which a computer system including a call center dashboard system and a fraud detection interface. The method includes the steps of initiating the resetting of a user's application password for an application. The method further includes the steps of determining when an application ID is duplicated in the call center dashboard data store for the application and preparing an error report when the application ID is duplicated in the data store. The method also includes the steps of submitting a reset password for the application using the password criteria of the application. The method further includes the steps of storing the reset password in the user profile of the user when the application ID is not duplicated and the password conforms to the password criteria.

Employees in a business may use an automated sign-on system in order to access multiple computer programs or applications during the course of performing their job in a corporate setting. Such a system may contain information regarding the passwords, authorization levels, and applications that a user may be permitted to access. This information may be contained in a single location or across a variety of relational databases.
The security of the system is based in part upon the integrity of the various application IDs and application passwords. The need to access a particular application may result in password sharing or duplication among the users. A team lead or the group supervisor may also provide their application ID and application password to a user in order to verify the functionality of the system or to provide access for a single use of an application for a user.


Frying apparatus for frying food, such as French fries, vegetables, bakery goods, meat fish, poultry and the like, in a heated fluid contained in a fry pot. The fluid is heated by a combustion burner that has a heat exchanger removably disposed in the heating fluid. When removed from the fluid, the heat exchanger and the fry pot can be easily cleaned. The air and/or gas is injected into the combustion chamber so as to provide an air gas ratio that supports clean combustion. A control monitors various temperatures and other parameters at various locations of the frying apparatus to control the efficiency of the frying apparatus to approximate a predetermined efficiency by altering the air/gas ratio.

Commercial gas fryers generally have a fry pot for containing a cooking fluid and a means for heating the cooking fluid. One type of fry pot, known as the open pot design, requires heat to be applied to the exterior sides of the fry pot. The open pot design has an advantage of being easily cleaned. Open pot designs use either an atmospheric burner or a forced combustion burner. Open pot designs with an atmospheric burner achieve an efficiency of about 45%, while open pot designs with forced combustion burners achieve an efficiency of about 65 to 70%. The disposition of the burner adjacent the exterior sides of the fry pot has the disadvantage of heating the entire fry pot including the temperature sensitive wiring and controls.
Another type of fry pot, known as the tube design, has heat applied by means of one or more tubes (typically, four for a standard pot) that are disposed in the fry pot below the cooking fluid level. The tube fryer has an efficiency that is about 3 to 5% greater than that of the open pot design with an atmospheric burner. The tube fryer is also difficult to clean due to the tubes that are permanently installed in the fry pot.
There is need for a frying apparatus and method that achieves a high efficiency without an external burner.
There is also a need for a frying apparatus that has a heat exchanger that is removably disposed to facilitate cleaning the fry pot.

Frying apparatus with closed loop combustion control and method


A data processing system and method delivers an open profile personalization system based on profile data structures that contain one or more interest nodes or channels. The channels can be created or subscribed to by the user, provided by social media friends of the user, and/or suggested by editors of the system. The interest nodes include respective sets of targets and qualifiers, where the targets and qualifiers comprise types of attributes to be used in the filtering of information files for delivery as a result set for the interest nodes. Targets and qualifiers are applied to the types of attributes and available information files to produce a filtered set. Web pages showing personalized results include tools based on content analysis to assist the user in creation and editing of the open profile.

The Internet is becoming a leading source for news. However, the amount of news available through the Internet is overwhelming. Thus, Internet portals and other websites offer so-called personalization to varying degrees. A great deal of active research is being conducted concerning how to improve personalized access to news and other resources. See, Pretschner et al., "Ontology Based Personalized Search," Proc 11th IEEE Intl. Conf. on Tools with Artificial Intelligence, pp. 391-398, Chicago, November 1999.
Personalization technologies often require creation of a user profile, which is used in the process of filtering information and presenting the filtered information to the user. One common perception in this field is that profile creation should not require significant effort by the user at the risk of alienation and loss of the customer. However, so-called open profiles which include editable user models have been proposed, allowing a user to examine and edit a user profile. See, Ahn et al., "Open User Profiles for Adaptive News Systems: Help or Harm?" International World Wide Web Conference Committee, WWW2007, May 8-12, 2007. In Ahn et al., an editable profile is described based on the display of keywords used in the filtering process. The user is able to add and delete words from the list. Also, the process identifies "top" keywords in articles returned to the user, which enables the user to discover the terms used in the articles, and utilize the information in the process of editing the profile. Ahn et al. found however that his experiment of providing a user the ability to add and remove keywords may harm system and use performance in information retrieval systems. Ahn et al. suggests that user editable profiles might work in systems that have good control over the delivery of cumulative or duplicative articles, which they characterize as good "novelty control", in the filtering of information to deliver to the users. Ahn et al. found evidence that apparent duplicates in filtered results often led users to amend their profiles in an apparent attempt to eliminate the duplicates, but with poor results.
It is desirable to provide personalization technologies based on open profiles which can be modified by users, in a way that improves the results of the information filtering and presentation systems.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/417,489 filed on Apr. 2, 2009 and published as US 2009/0254838 on Oct. 8, 2009 and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/317,031 filed on Oct. 7, 2011 and published as US 2012/0096041 on Apr. 19, 2012 are hereby incorporated herein by reference in their respective entireties.
US 2009/0254838 is directed to a system and method that includes a harvesting tier that ingests content via RSS and converts that content into unique system documents. An analytics tier takes the unique system documents and enriches them with meta data extracted from the document content which meta data is then used to match against channels. Channels act as smart filters, and the relevance a document has to a channel is calculated and represented as a relevancy score. Channels are displayed on a user's graphical user interface (GUI) as both a front page view, which is a summary of all the user's personal interests, as well as a channel view, which displays the most relevant documents for a particular interest context.
US 2012/0096041 is directed to a system and method that allows users to edit and share created channels with other users. Both of these referenced and published applications require that a user expressly subscribe to or create particular channels.

System and method for delivering an open profile personalization system through social media based on profile data structures that contain interest nodes or channels


Embodiments are configured to receive metadata of a process intercepted on an end host when attempting to access a network. The metadata includes a hash of an application associated with the process and an endpoint reputation score of the application. Embodiments are configured to request a threat intelligence reputation score based on the hash of the application, to determine an action to be taken by the end host based, at least in part, on one or more policies and at least one of the threat intelligence reputation score and the endpoint reputation score, and to send a response indicating the action to be taken by the end host. Further embodiments request another threat intelligence reputation score based on another hash of a dynamic link library module loaded by the process on the end host, and the action is determined based, at least in part, on the other threat intelligence score.

The field of network security has become increasingly important in today's society. The Internet has enabled interconnection of different computer networks all over the world. In particular, the Internet provides a medium for exchanging electronic communications between various systems in the same or different computer networks. While the use of the Internet and other networking infrastructures has transformed business and personal communications, it has also become a vehicle for malicious operators to gain unauthorized access to systems and networks and for intentional or inadvertent disclosure of sensitive information.
Malicious software ("malware") that infects an end host may be able to perform any number of malicious actions, such as sending out spam or malicious emails from the end host, stealing sensitive information from a business or individual associated with the end host, propagating to other host systems, assisting with distributed denial of service attacks and/or sabotage or espionage (or other forms of cyber-warfare), for example. Although various approaches are used to detect malware traversing a network, some malware still eludes detection. Detecting and stopping the spread of malware or malicious activities caused by malware is made even more complicated due to the continually-evolving array of tactics exploited by malicious operators. Hence, significant administrative challenges remain for protecting computers and computer networks from malware. Security professionals need to develop innovative tools to combat such tactics that allow malicious operators to exploit computers.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Agent assisted malicious application blocking in a network environment


Apparatus for continuous flow weighing of a flowable material includes a pair of sequential conveyors. A first, control conveyor moves material from an inlet to a discharge point. A second, weighing conveyor is mounted for pivotal movement about a horizontal axis at its inlet end. The pivot point is positioned below the discharge of the control conveyor. The outlet end of the weighing conveyor is suspended from and weighed by a load cell. Electronic control circuitry monitors the material transport rate of the weighing conveyor which, in combination with the output of the loadcell, is used to determine the weight flow rate of material being discharged from the weighing conveyor. The material transport rate of the weighing auger is adjusted to result in a preselected weight flow rate.

The invention relates generally to apparatus for preparing on a continuous basis, mixtures of a plurality of constituent materials and, more specifically, to apparatus for continuous flow weighing of a dry flowable material for addition in a desired proportion to a mixture.
Mixtures or rations are typically made by mixing multiple ingredients by either the technique of batching by volume or weight or by the technique of continuous volumetric proportioning. Batching by volume or weight requires use of a batch mixer. Each ingredient is loaded into the mixer sequentially, the amount of each ingredient to be added is measured either by volume or, more accurately, by weight. After all of the ingredients have been loaded into the mixer, the mixer is operated until a homogeneous mixture of the ingredients is obtained.
The batching method provides for accurate measuring of ingredients and can be automated to load ingredients according to predefined recipes. Its disadvantages include the time required for sequential loading of ingredients, inaccuracy if ingredients are measured by volume, and operator error as is often the case with microingredients (i.e., ingredients added in very small proportional amounts).
The volumetric proportioning method does not require a mixer. Each ingredient flows simultaneously through separate augers into a common gathering auger. The flow rate of each ingredient is controlled by controlling the speed of the individual ingredient augers. Volumetric proportioning can be accomplished with a simple, compact system that does not require a mixer and which is potentially inexpensive to purchase and maintain. This method, however, has relatively low accuracy, being dependent on material flow characteristics and constancy of material density. Microingredients must typically be preblended into another ingredient to obtain the necessary minimum flow rates of the augers. Further, volumetric flow proportioning requires a separate metering auger for each ingredient.


A non-invasive blood analyzer includes a light application device for applying light to a detection region of vessels contained in part of the living body, an imaging device for imaging the detection region to which light is applied, a fixing device for relatively fixing the imaging device and the part of the living body; a stabilizing device for stabilizing a focus of the imaging device with respect to the detection region; and an analyzer for analyzing the morphology and/or number of blood cells contained in the detection region by processing images captured with the imaging device, the light application device and the imaging device forming one image with a light application and capturing process during an interval of one ten thousandth to one billionth of a second.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for analyzing blood in a non-invasive manner and a method using the same, and more particularly to an apparatus for analyzing blood components necessary for a hematology test by optically measuring blood flowing through blood vessels in a living body and a method using the same apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
The items of hematology tests such as the number of blood cells, hematocrit, hemoglobin, and corpuscular constant (mean corpuscular volume: MCV, mean corpuscular hemoglobin: MCH, and mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration: MCHC) are extremely important for the diagnosis of diseases and the treatment thereof. Such items are most frequently used in clinical tests of patients.
Such a hematology test involves collecting blood from a living body to analyze the sample thereof with an analyzer. However, the collection of blood from the living body causes considerable pain to the living body. The above method for hematology tests is always accompanied by a fear that needles for blood collection might cause an accident due to erroneous injection when they are used for collecting blood from a different living body contracted with infectious diseases such as hepatitis and AIDS. Thus, a demand has been made for many years that an apparatus be developed that allows practitioners to perform a blood test in a non-invasive manner. When such a blood analyzer is installed beside the bed on which the living body is laid, the practitioners can monitor real-time conditions thereof on the spot without difficulty. Examples of the widely known prior art relating to such apparatus include a video microscope which applies light to a subject portion of observation on a skin surface of a living body to capture a video image thereof (static image) at a shutter speed of about one thousandth of a second and identifies discontinuous points in the blood stream which points move one by one on the static image, and an analyzer providing a video camera equipped with a high-speed shutter which captures red blood cells in the conjunctival capillary blood vessels in an eyeball (see Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. HEI 4-161915 published Jun. 5, 1992 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,998,533 issued to James W. Winkleman, Mar. 12, 1991).
By the way, the speed of blood flow is about five mm to ten mm per second. When images of red blood cells are captured at a shutter speed of one thousandth of a second like in the prior art, assuming that the blood flows at a rate of 10 mm per second, red blood cells move by the distance equal to the diameter thereof thereby generating a shift in the image by that diameter for consecutive shutter actuations.
Furthermore, red blood cells adjoin each other in blood vessels with a space of the diameter or less therebetween and almost all the red blood cells overlap each other in the image due to the shift in the image thereof. Consequently, the above Japanese prior art is far from allowing examiners to quantitatively measure the above test items through the morphological analysis of blood cells and the counting of the number thereof from captured images.
On the other hand, the analyzer disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,998,533 captures conjunctival capillary blood vessels in an eyeball with the video camera. However, the focus of the video camera is relatively shifted at all times with respect to the captured portion of the eyeball because of a slight motion inherent in the eyeball. Thus, it is very difficult to repetitively capture the same region of the captured portion thereof with the video camera. It is impossible to mechanically stop the slight motion of the eyeball by closely contacting some object to eyeballs because the eyeball might be damaged. Furthermore, U.S. Pat. No. 4,998,533 describes counting the number of RBC and measuring HCT, MCV and MCHC, but it describes no procedure for measuring these values.

Non-invasive blood analyzer and method using the same


Disclosed is a system for handling errors. A system managed by a processor processes an error in the system. The system then generates an interrupt to the processor indicating that an error occurred and executes an error mode before the processor interprets the interrupt. As part of the error mode, the system prevents data from transferring between the system and the processor and processes a read request from the processor to the system by returning data to the processor unrelated to the requested data. The processor would then process the interrupt indicating the error and execute a diagnostic mode to diagnose the error in the system.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and system for handling errors in a system managed by a processor and, in particular, a system for handling errors in a bridge system interfacing the processor with an external device, such as a computer system.
2. Description of the Related Art
The Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus is a high-performance expansion bus architecture that was designed to replace the traditional ISA (Industry Standard Architecture) bus. A processor bus master communicates with the PCI local bus and devices connected thereto via a PCI Bridge. This bridge provides a low latency path through which the processor may directly access PCI devices mapped anywhere in the memory or I/O address space. The bridge may optionally include such functions as data buffering/posting and PCI central functions such as arbitration. The architecture and operation of the PCI local bus is described in "PCI Local Bus Specification," Revisions 2.0 (April, 1993) and Revision 2.1s, published by the PCI Special Interest Group, 5200 Elam Young Parkway, Hillsboro, Oreg., which publication is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
A PCI to PCI bridge provides a connection path between two independent PCI local busses. The primary function of the bridge is to allow transactions between a master on one PCI bus and a target device on another PCI bus. The PCI Special Interest Group has published a specification on the architecture of a PCI to PCI bridge in "PCI to PCI Bridge Architecture Specification," Revision 1.0 (Apr. 10, 1994), which publication is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. This specification defines the following terms and definitions:
initiating bus--the master of a transaction that crosses a PCI to PCI bridge is said to reside on the initiating bus. PA1 target bus--the target of a transaction that crosses a PCI to PCI bridge is said to reside on the target bus. PA1 primary interface--the PCI interface of the PCI to PCI bridge that is connected to the PCI bus closest to the CPU is referred to as the primary PCI interface. PA1 secondary interface--the PCI interface of the PCI to PCI bridge that is connected to the PCI bus farthest from the CPU is referred to as the secondary PCI interface. PA1 downstream--transactions that are forwarded from the primary interface to the secondary interface of a PCI to PCI bridge are said to be flowing downstream. PA1 upstream--transactions forwarded from the secondary interface to the primary interface of a PCI to PCI bridge are said to be flowing upstream.
The PCI architecture provides for the detection and signaling of both parity and other system errors. The error reporting chain from target to bus master to device driver and eventually to the operating system is intended to allow error recovery operations to be implemented at any level. The generation of the SERR signal could generate an NMI, high priority interrupt signal. The SERR signal is generally used to signal address parity errors and/or other non-parity errors. Any PCI agent can set the SERR error by setting a bit in the configuration space register, such as the Status register.
The PCI bridge must detect address parity errors for all transactions on either a primary or secondary interface. The PCI bridge reports the error by asserting the SERR signal and propagating the SERR signal upstream. For instance, if the bridge detects an address parity error on the primary or secondary interface, the bridge asserts the SERR signal on the primary interface, sets the SERR bit in the Status register, sets a Detected Parity Error bit in either the Status register or Secondary Status register and may signal a target abort by setting a target abort signal register. Another error is the PERR or parity error that the PCI bridge uses to signal a data parity error.
The agent detecting an error may also terminate with a master abort mode by setting a master abort bit. When a read transaction with an address parity error crosses a PCI to PCI bridge and is terminated by a master abort, the bridge will return FFFF FFFFh to the initiator and terminate the read transaction on the initiating bus. When a write transaction is terminated with a master abort, the bridge will complete the write transaction on the initiating bus and discard the write data.
In current systems, a processor functions as the master that controls the PCI to PCI bridge system. One problem with current systems is that when the master processor attached to the PCI system receives an SERR, PERR or other error signal, the operating system of the processor enters a machine check handling mode to diagnose and check the error. However, upon entering the machine check handling mode, the processor would hang-up because the machine check handling logic is designed to handle errors in the processor and is typically not capable of diagnosing errors generated from an external system, such as a PCI to PCI bridge network. Because the machine check handling mode for the processor cannot process an error from the external PCI bridge system, the processor system will hang-up and crash. As a result of this crash, data maybe be lost and the system will be down while the processor is rebooting. In large scale systems, such as the IBM 3990 storage controller which manages critical data, rebooting can take up to twenty minutes. The loss of data and down time resulting from having to reboot the system can be especially costly for such storage controllers that manage critical data. Machine check handling for storage controllers is described in IBM publication "ESA/390 Principles of Operation," document no. SA22-7201-04 (Copyright IBM Corp. 1990, 1991, 1993, 1994, 1996, 1997), which publication is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
Moreover, there is typically a delay time from when an error is generated to when the processor interprets the error interrupt to perform error diagnosis and correction operations. During this delay, the processor may be processing numerous input/output (I/O) requests. Such I/O processing could cause further errors and problems to propagate through the PCI to PCI bridge system before the processor proceeds to address the error.

Error handling between a processor and a system managed by the processor

International Business Machines Corporation


A topical composition for skin repair comprising selenosugars of formula (1): (Formula (I)) wherein, n is 1, 2 or 3; m is 2, 3, 4; or 5; and each R1 is independently-(optionally substituted C1-C3 alkyiene)p-OH, where p is 0 or 1 or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof.

It is to be appreciated that any discussion of documents, devices, acts or knowledge in this specification is included to explain the context of the present invention. Further, the discussion throughout this specification comes about due to the realisation of the inventor and/or the identification of certain related art problems by the inventor. Moreover, any discussion of material such as documents, devices, acts or knowledge in this specification is included to explain the context of the invention in terms of the inventor's knowledge and experience and, accordingly, any such discussion should not be taken as an admission that any of the material forms part of the prior art base or the common general knowledge in the relevant art in Australia, or elsewhere, on or before the priority date of the disclosure and claims herein.
'Wound healing' is a general term for the process by which living skin tissue repairs itself in response to an injury. An injury triggers a complex set of overlapping biochemical events characterised by three main phases; (1) inflammation, (2) proliferation and (3) remodeling.
For example, within a few minutes of an injury to skin, platelets adhere to the injury site, become activated, and aggregate. The biochemical coagulation cascade is activated to form a clot of aggregated platelets enmeshed in cross-linked fibrin protein that stops active bleeding (hemostasis).
During the inflammation phase, neutrophils and macrophages phagocytose bacteria and cell debris, effectively removing them from the wound. During this phase platelet derived growth factors are released into the wound and cause the migration and division of cells during the proliferative phase.
During the proliferation phase, angiogenesis occurs and vascular endothelial cells form new blood vessels. Collagen deposition also occurs along with granular tissue formation, epithelialization, and wound contraction. In fibroplasia and granulation tissue formation, fibroblasts grow and form a new, provisional extracellular matrix by excreting collagen, fibronectin and other materials. Concurrently, re-epithelialization of the epidermis occurs, in which epithelial cells proliferate over the wound bed to cover the new tissue.
The wound contracts as myofibroblasts grip the wound edges and contract. When the cells' roles are complete, many become redundant and undergo apoptosis. During maturation and remodeling, collagen is remodeled and realigned along tension lines, and more redundant cells undergo apoptosis.
Skin tissue repair is thus a complex process and is susceptible to disruption, potentially resulting in the formation of non-healing chronic wounds. Factors that can contribute to non-healing chronic wounds include metabolic syndrome (diabetes, venous or arterial disease), infection, and metabolic deficiencies of old age.
Many different chemical moieties including trace elements such as selenium have been orally, or internally administered to a subject in attempts to improve wound healing. For example attempts have been made to show that selenium salt (in the form of sodium selenite) taken orally can accelerate wound healing in the diabetic condition—allegedly decreasing the expression of connexins and serum glucose in diabetic wounds as compared to non-diabetic wounds. In the diabetic wounds, the low levels of vascular endothelial growth factor and extracellular superoxide dismutase were restored to normal level following selenium administration and angiogenesis improved at the wound site (Baipai S et al, Biol Trace Elem Res. 2011 Ded; 144(1-3): 327-38. Epub 2011 Jun. 2). However the lack of rigorous statistical analysis of the results leaves the conclusions open to question. It is however apparent that the results are attributed to the antioxidant characteristic of the selenium salt. Interestingly, the results indicate that oral selenium salt administration appeared ineffective in accelerating wound healing in non-diabetic wounds.
In the past the consumption of selenium in health supplements and sports drinks has been associated with bolstering antioxidant defences and immune health, minimising the adverse effects of free radicals. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,668,515 describes a selenium-containing drink to maintain health and prevent the formation of spontaneous tumours of the mammary gland. DE 44 37 403 describes another antioxidant composition including bound selenium, also for internal administration. More specifically these treatments have been based on the antioxidant activity of such compounds.
Selenium compounds such as the water-soluble glutathione peroxidase (GPx) mimic DL-trans-3,4-dihydroxy-1-selenolane (DHSred) have been investigated for their potential to heal acute gastric ulcers induced by non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID's). It is suggested that the healing action of DHSred in conjunction with omeprazole was due to antioxidant activity, ability to protect mucin and augmentation of prostaglandin synthesis. (Chakraborty S et al, Free Radical Research, 2012; 46(11) 1378-1386).
US 2011/0038956 (Kuklinski et al) teaches the use of selenite- or selenate-containing preparations supplemented with pharmaceutically acceptable acids for topical, buccal or mucosal administration to utilise the anti-oxidant activity of selenium to treat skin conditions caused by papillomavirus or mycoses and periodontal diseases such as stomatitis, aphthae or leucoplakia.
The use of the anti-oxidant activity of selenium containing compounds and their solubility in aqueous solutions such as plasma, is also taught and disclosed in WO 2012 054988 (U.S. Ser. No. 13/881,594). WO 2012/054988 identifies a group of seleno-compounds that regulate the presence of reactive oxygen species (ROS), such as hypohalous acids (e.g., HOCl and HOBr) and/or to minimise the adverse impact of such ROS by inhibiting or minimising the pathogenesis of certain conditions or disease states which are linked to tissue damage by ROS. More specifically the compounds comprise a stable seleno-moiety, which acts as a radical scavenger and in particular a scavenger of ROS or free-radicals derived from non-radical ROS and as such these compounds are able to function as antioxidants. Such compounds have significant potential in treating disorders linked to the effect of free radicals such as atherosclerosis, cystic fibrosis, sepsis, rheumatoid arthritis and other inflammatory disorders, some cancers, asthma, and cardiovascular diseases.


A novel nonlinear impulse sampler is presented that provides a clock sharpening circuit, sampling stage, and post-sampling block. The clock sharpening circuit sharpens the incoming clock while acting as a buffer, and the sharpened clock is fed to the input of the sampling stage. The impulse sampling stage has two main transistors, where one transistor generates the impulse and the other transistor samples the input signal. Post-sampling block processes the sampled signal and acts as a sample and hold circuit. The architecture uses an ultrafast transmission-line based inductive peaking technique to turn on a high-speed sampling bipolar transistor for a few picoseconds. It is shown that the sampler can detect impulses as short as 100 psec or less.

In the last few years, there has seen a shift from continuous-wave systems to pulse-based systems for high-resolution 3D imaging, high-speed wireless communication, and broadband spectroscopy. Designing a receiver to detect sub-100 psec pulses without causing distortion is extremely challenging. This requires a high-performance analog to digital converter (ADC) with an extremely short sampling window. Such samplers primarily exist in expensive III-V materials. Moreover, the ADC architectures have not changed in decades. Every year, the performance of ADCs has been improved by either moving to a newer technology node or by adding circuitry, such as bootstrapping or active cancellation. Such addition comes at a cost of increased area, power, or both. A novel Nonlinear Impulse Sampler architecture is introduced that aims to reduce the sampling window and increase the bandwidth of the system.
Conventional ADCs use Sample and Hold (S/H) or Track and Hold (T/H) architecture to sample the input signal. For example, a series CMOS switches sample the input signal and stores it on a holding capacitor. In these samplers, the series resistance of the CMOS switch (Rswitch) and the size of the holding cap (Chold) determine the time constant of the circuit (τ=Rswitch×Chold) and its effective analog bandwidth. The analog bandwidth of these samplers is limited to 70 GHz. Such architectures are very useful in implementing an ADC with high linearity and resolution. However, these samplers operate at few gigahertz and thus have a relatively large sampling window compared to the proposed architecture. Moreover, to further reduce the sampling window, a high-speed clock with very sharp edges is required. The generation of such a clock with stringent requirement is extremely difficult and consumes large amount of power.
The proposed impulse sampler architecture uses ultra-short impulses to sample the signal. These short pulses activate a nonlinear sampling circuit for only a few picoseconds. One point of novelty of this architecture lies in the on-chip generation of the ultra-short impulse samplers, thus relinquishing the stringent external clock requirements. These improved samplers may significantly reduce the sampling window and increase bandwidth of a system.

Impulse sampler architecture and active clock cancellation architecture


A pneumatic controller for use in controlling airflow in a conditioned air distribution system is adjustable to accommodate different types of damper actuation and thermostats in different systems. The four-function controller can be manually reconfigured to be a direct acting/direct reset controller, a reverse acting/reverse reset controller, a direct action/reverse reset controller or a reverse acting/directing resent controller, all using a single diaphragm valve responsive to differential pressure between total air and static air inputs. A reset unit on one end of the controller can be mounted in four different positions, two upright and two inverted, to provide the four functions, with total air and static air inputs being reversed in position when the controller is in a reverse acting mode. A differential pressure responsive valve at the heart of the system is controlled by a spring which can act as either a tension spring, for direct acting, or as a compression spring, for reverse acting. Manual adjustments are provided for adjusting the spring pressure in the absence of reset, and for adjusting the degree of change in spring pressure when reset occurs. These two adjustments control minimum pressure differential threshold and maximum pressure differential threshold. The latter adjustment preferably includes a slidable fulcrum movement for shifting the position of a fulcrum about which a reset arm pivots during reset, to control the spring tension displacement during reset from zero, at one extreme, to a maximum displacement at the other extreme.

The invention relates to controls for conditioned air distribution systems, and in particular relates to a pneumatic controller having versatility for four different modes of operation to accommodate differing system operating parameters and components.
A great variety of controls, including pneumatic controls, have been disclosed and used previous to the present invention. For example, see U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,806,027; 3,934,795; 4,077,567; and 4,291,832, all assigned to the assignee of the present invention. These patents disclose systems and controllers involving various differing parameters in different conditioned air distribution systems, and the disclosures of these patents are hereby incorporated by reference into this application. Typical parameters which may vary in such systems are:
(1) whether the system is cooling or heating; PA0 (2) whether a spring-biased damper or flow valve in a duct of the system is normally open or normally closed (which determines whether the controller must be direct acting or reverse acting, respectively, as those terms are understood herein); PA0 (3) whether a thermostat connected to a controller is direct acting or reverse acting and PA0 (4) whether the controller is in a direct reset mode or a reverse reset mode, which is related to the type of thermostat used.
The above-listed U.S. Pat. No. 4,077,567 discloses and illustrates a pneumatic temperature reset differential pressure controller which functions in a general sense in the manner of the present invention. That velocity controller, for a variable air volume control system, was connectable to sensors for static air and total air in a duct, for sensing air flow velocity, and was reset by changes in the room air temperature as determined by a thermostat in the room. The controller included a means for full time on-line control of the air flow velocity in the variable air volume system, not simply acting as a maximum velocity limiter.
In the subject prior controller the room temperature signal from the thermostat was interlocked with a bias spring in a differential pressure controlled valve, to reset a velocity set point with changes in the room thermostat signal so that, for example, if the room became too hot, the differential pressure threshold (velocity threshold) at which a normally open duct damper would begin to be closed would be increased, tending to increase or to maintain at a maximum the cooling air flowing into the room.
In such a controller the interlock between the room temperature signal and the velocity set point or threshold enables the velocity controller to maintain a constantly regulated flow of air into a room in proportion to the room thermostat's demands and independently of variations of static pressure in the duct, since the sensors always measure pressure differential between the flowing air and static pressure. Such a velocity controller is a full time controller, not simply a maximum flow limiter or high limit controller, and the amount of air flow through the duct is controlled from near-zero flow to maximum flow (as set on the controller) in response to the signal from the thermostat. As in U.S. Pat. No. 4,077,567, such a system may include an adjustable minimum flow velocity mechanism for maintaining a regulated minimum amount of air into the room (provided the system source is delivering such a minimum velocity of air through the particular duct), regardless of whether the room thermostat is calling for any air.
In such systems the velocity pressure is generally sensed across a sensing diaphragm which is exposed to the total pressure (including the duct air velocity) on one side and to the static duct pressure on the other side, so that the difference in pressures across the sensing diaphragm corresponds to the air velocity only.
The above-referenced U.S. Pat. No. 4,077,567 has operated as an effective full time velocity controller, but it was designed to be limited to a specific situation, being solely a direct acting, direct reset controller. In other words, the controller was for use with a normally open damper actuator, and normally did not admit compressed air to a damper actuator line. Only when differential pressure between total air and static air exceeded a preset value did the diaphragm valve of the patented system shift to pressure to the actuator line to thereby inhibit air velocity in the duct by tending to close the normally open damper. The controller was for use in a cooling system with a direct acting thermostat, wherein higher temperature would cause pressurized air to flow through an outlet line from the thermostat to the reset portion of the controller, or in a heating system with a reverse acting thermostat.
In general, prior pneumatic controllers have not had the versatility of the present invention, for adjustment and reconfiguration to four different modes of operation depending on the particular system in which the controller is used and the damper and thermostat types employed in the system.
A pneumatic controller manufactured by Kreuter Mfg. Co. and marketed by Environment Elements Corp. under the trademark TITUS, one model of which is Model No. ESV 3010, has been capable of functioning in four different modes. However, that controller had a number of internal differential pressure actuated diaphragm valves, and instead of the versatility and easy reconfiguration of the present invention, the TITUS system depended upon repositioning and interchanging of input tubes among a number of different ports, and a complex system of air passages and a complex system of valves for switching among the passages to activate different modes of operation. In addition, the described controller had many internal smaller-than-pinhole-sized orifices for the flow of air, and the controller required a constant flow of air through it. Such orifices are easily clogged by small particles in moving air.
It is therefore an important object of the present invention to provide a pneumatic controller which controls velocity flow of air in a variable air volume distribution system in response to preset limits and in response to a thermostat as in U.S. Pat. No. 4,077,567, and also which has versatility for use in different systems with different operating parameters and components.


A DC power generation system in which an arc detector, comprising an arc noise analysis unit which detects an arc which occurs in a DC power generation system based on noise of signal of a voltage-current sensor, a voltage-current variation analysis unit for specifying an arc occurrence point in a case where an arc is detected in the arc noise analysis unit, a voltage-current operation point of output of each string is analyzed based on a signal from a voltage-current sensor and based on variation of voltage-current operation point before and after when an arc is detected and a switch control unit for controlling of opening or closing of a switch based on an arc specified result in a voltage-current variation analysis unit, is provided.

Due to the widespread of renewable energies, construction of mega solar systems are accelerated. In a case of a mega solar system of 1 MW volume, approximately 5000 pieces of panels are required. Consequently, a vast extent of land is covered with panels. Solar power generation systems are DC power supply, and at present, generally, they are low voltage lower than 750V, however, in future, their voltage might reach 1000 V. Further, due to degradation of cable, salt damage, etc., inferior electrification or contact resistance might increase, therefore, the probability of DC arc failure (series arc, parallel arc) might increase. In a case where the above-mentioned failure occurs, it is difficult to specify fault points in huge systems such as a mega solar system. Further, a current, which flows when a series arc or a parallel arc occurs, will not reach a current which trips a breaker. Consequently, it is necessary to establish protection method of solar power generation systems so as to prevent from continuing an arc in a case where an arc occurs.
Arc fault detection and protection of solar power generation system is disclosed in Patent Documents 1 to 3, for example. According to the Patent Document 1, a difference between power which is supplied to a load and power which is generated by photovoltaic panels is obtained, and in a case where a difference of the power is larger than a threshold value, an alarm condition is set. Alternatively, noise voltage of a load and noise voltage of photovoltaic panels are measured and a difference of the voltage is obtained, and in a case where a difference of the noise voltages is larger than a threshold value, an alarm condition is set. In a case where a difference between power which is generated by photovoltaic panels and power of a load is larger than a threshold value, an alarm condition is set. However, in a large-scale plant of a solar power generation system such as a mega solar system, power loss due to loss of back flow preventing diode or distribution cable and deterioration of a cable occurs. Consequently, it is difficult to judge occurrence of an arc only by power difference.
According to the Patent Document 2, an arc detector is provided at an end part of a power line and on a retrace line, and an overcurrent protection, an arc failure protection and a reverse-current protection can be performed. However, an arc detection is performed only by parallel arc judgement with a reverse-current detector.
According to the Patent Document 3, arc detection is performed based on variation of voltage-current, however, a case in which a constant voltage source is used is supposed. A voltage-current characteristic of a solar power generation system is different from that of a constant voltage source, therefore, judgement method is different. Further, judgement of an arc occurrence point or an arc mode is not performed, therefore, an arc failure point cannot be specified. Further, a case of plural parallel arcs is not supposed, and selective breaking technique is not included.

DC power generation system and protection method for DC power generation system


A method for classifying a document based on content within a class hierarchy. The class hierarchy comprises a plurality of category nodes stored within a tree data structure. Each of the plurality of category nodes includes a category name corresponding to a unique directory and a category definition comprising a set of defining terms. The class hierarchy is searched to determine appropriate categories for classification of the document. The document is then stored in directories corresponding to the categories selected for classification. If no categories are produced by the search, a system administrator is notified of the unsuccessful search.

1. Field of the Invention
The embodiments of the present invention relate to a method and apparatus for classification of documents within defined categories using a class hierarchy having document categories and corresponding category definitions. More particularly, the embodiments of the present invention relate to a method and apparatus for comparing a document to be classified to the category definitions to determine appropriate category classification for the document and classifying the document within the appropriate category or categories.
2. Background of the Invention
Libraries and other institutions have historically categorized documents by hand. Furthermore, information retrieval systems exist which provide documents for automated retrieval. For example, Yahoo!.RTM., an information storage and retrieval system available to Internet users at http://www.yahoo.com, allows a user to search for information according to various search terms.
Yahoo!.RTM. allows a user to classify a document within various categories. However, Yahoo!.RTM. requires a user to determine appropriate classification for each document prior to classifying the document. In today's computerized society, it would be extremely beneficial to provide a means for automating this process of document categorization. A need exists in the prior art for an automated document classification system for categorizing a document based upon the content of the document.

Method and apparatus for classifying documents within a class hierarchy creating term vector, term file and relevance ranking


There is provided a new and useful component system for constructing storage containers adapted for ready assembly and disassembly, the system comprising a series of panels at least some of which include tongues or grooves along at least two edges thereof; each tongued panel comprising a sheet section having an edge flange therearound, and at least one tongue disposed longitudinally of and extending outwardly from at least two associated edges; each grooved panel comprising a sheet section having an edge flange therearound and having associated with at least two edges thereof and spaced from the edges a receiving channel, the channel including at least one opening through the sheet section; and wherein each tongue of a tongued panel is adapted for insertion through a corresponding opening of an adjacent grooved panel into an associated receiving channel; the system further comprising at least one locking member slidable in each receiving channel and for slidably engaging and locking each tongue in position when the tongue is inserted through a corresponding opening into an associated receiving channel.

There is an ongoing need both in the residential and commercial context for a range of small or medium-sized containers which can be readily assembled and disassembled.
Typical requirements in the residential context which are not currently being adequately met include, for example, storage boxes for larger toys, containers for garbage bags and storage containers for outdoor tools. This container size range falls below the range serviced by common metal garden sheds.
What containers have been available have tended to be expensive and to lack versatility and portability, and to be insufficiently rugged.
In the commercial context there are numerous requirements for small and medium-sized sturdy containers.
The usefulness of containers of the size of interest is greatly enhanced if the containers can be readily assembled and disassembled. This factor means, for example, that the container can be transported to the retailer, stocked and sold in a knockdown form requiring much less space and can readily be transported by a consumer in an automobile.
In the industrial context the knock-down feature offers the very significant advantage that the container, once emptied, can be disassembled prior to being shipped to a refilling point. The space and handling requirements are significantly decreased in this way.
Against this background the present invention provides a component system which can be readily assembled and formatted to form containers of various sizes and configurations. The containers are very stable when assembled but can be readily disassembled.

System for constructing storage containers for ready assembly and disassembly


The present invention relates to powder coating compositions which are solid below 3O.degree. C. and contain a mixture of. A) a copolymer component which is solid below 3O.degree. C. and contains at least one copolymer containing both cyclic carboxylic anhydride groups and hydroxyl groups, PA0 B) a polyepoxide component which contains at least one polyepoxide containing at least two epoxide groups per molecule.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to new powder coating compositions, wherein the binder is based on a mixture of copolymers containing hydroxyl and carboxylic anhydride groups with polyepoxide compounds.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The use of compositions containing polyacrylates having at least two carboxyl groups per molecule and polyepoxide compounds, which may be based on acrylates, is known.
Japanese patent application 73-29 319 (publication number: 49 116 134; C. A. 82(24): 157 882 e) describes heat-curing coating powders containing A) a solid acrylate resin prepared by reacting a hydroxyl-functional copolymer with a polycarboxylic acid or anhydride and B) an epoxy-functional copolymer. The two polymers are mixed in the form of hot melts (100.degree. C.) and, after cooling, the resulting mixture is ground. The coatings are applied to metal surfaces and cured at temperatures of about 200.degree. C.
DE-OS 2,347,680 describes heat-curing powder coatings containing A) 50 to 97% of an epoxy-functional copolymer having a molecular weight of 3,000 to 15,000 and a softening point of 80.degree. to 150.degree. C. and B) 3 to 50% of a carboxyl-functional curing agent having a softening point of at least 50.degree. C.; the curing agent may also be a carboxyl-functional copolymer.
Japanese patent application 75-146 705 (publication number: 52 069 936; C.A. 88(12): 75 374 a) describes heat-curing powder coatings based on glycidyl (meth)acrylate o copolymers containing A) 100 parts of a copolymer (Tg 30 to 100.degree. C., molecular weight 3,000 to 70,000) containing 10 to 50% by weight glycidyl (meth)acrylate, 30 to 85% by weight C.sub.1-12 alkyl acrylate and 0 to 60% by weight of another comonomer, B) 0.1 to 30 parts of a flow-regulating copolymer (Tg>50.degree. C., molecular weight >1,000) containing 30 to 85% by weight of an alkyl (meth)acrylate, 1 to 50% by weight of a monomer containing a glycidyl, carboxyl, hydroxyl or amide group and 0 to 69% by weight of another monomer and C) 3 to 55 parts of an aliphatic dicarboxylic acid containing 4 to 20 carbon atoms. The paints show good adhesion to metals without preliminary surface treatment.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,991,132 and 3,991,133 describe heat-curing coating powders containing A) an epoxy-functional copolymer prepared from of 5 to 20% glycidyl methacrylate and 80 to 95% of other comonomers (Tg 40.degree. to 90.degree. C., molecular weight 1,500 to 15,000) and B) an anhydride crosslinking agent which is either a dicarboxylic anhydride or a dicarboxylic anhydride homopolymer, provided that the copolymer is difunctional. In addition to 70 to 93% of other comonomers such as methyl or butyl methacrylate, styrene and vinyl toluene, U.S. Pat. No. 3,991,132 discloses that the anhydride crosslinking agent is prepared from at least 2 to 10% of an unsaturated acid amide, while U.S. Pat. No. 3,991,133 discloses that the anhydride crosslinking agent is prepared from at least 2 to 10% of a C.sub.5-7 hydroxyalkyl (meth)acrylate. Further, the anhydride curing agent is replaced by a hydroxycarboxylic acid in such a quantity that, for every functional group of the copolymer, there are 0.1 to 0.4 carboxyl groups of the hydroxycarboxylic acid.
It has now surprisingly been found that copolymers of olefinically unsaturated compounds containing both incorporated hydroxyl groups and incorporated intramolecular carboxylic anhydride groups in the same molecule, in combination with polyepoxides, represent excellent binders for powder coatings, provided that they possess the necessary softening point or softening range. The particular advantage of such systems is that component A) initially contains no free carboxyl groups which are necessary for crosslinking with the epoxide groups of component B). Instead these carboxyl groups are only formed from the reaction of the carboxylic anhydride groups with hydroxyl groups by the action of heat. Accordingly, these binder composition show considerably better storage stability at room temperature than comparable prior art systems which contain free carboxyl groups. Another advantage of the binder compositions according to the invention is that the hardening reaction is based on a so-called "double-cure" mechanism, i.e., the hydroxyl groups of component A) initially react with the anhydride groups of component A) under the effect of heat or catalysts with opening of the anhydride ring and formation of carboxyl groups. This reaction is itself a crosslinking reaction. In addition, the newly formed carboxyl groups can react with the epoxide groups of component B) which results in additional crosslinking.
By virtue of the high crosslink densities which may be obtained, coatings characterized by very high resistance to chemicals and solvents are obtained from the binder compositions according to the invention.
Accordingly, the binder combinations according to the invention show excellent stability in storage at room temperature or moderately elevated temperatures below their softening range and, on the other hand, provide for the production of coatings having excellent performance properties.


Provided are a laterally diffused metal oxide semiconductor field-effect transistor and a manufacturing method therefor. The method comprises: providing a wafer on which a first N well (22), a first P well (24) and a channel region shallow trench isolating structure (42) are formed; forming a high-temperature oxidation film on the surface of the wafer by deposition; photoetching and dryly etching the high-temperature oxidation film, and reserving a thin layer as an etching buffer layer; performing wet etching, removing the etching buffer layer in a region which is not covered by a photoresist, and forming a mini oxidation layer (52); performing photoetching and ion injection to form a second N well (32) in the first N well and form a second P well (34) in the first P well; forming a polysilicon gate (62) and a gate oxide layer on the surface of the wafer; and photoetching and injecting N-type ions to form a drain electrode (72) and a source electrode (74).

With regard to the laterally diffused metal oxide semiconductor field-effect transistors (LDMOSFET), one of these structures forms a shallow trench isolation (STI) structure between a drain and a source, which is referred to as a STI structure laterally diffused metal oxide semiconductor field-effect transistor. Since the device requires to have a high breakdown voltage (off-BV) in some applications, it is an urgent problem to increase the off-BV of the device without increasing the area of LDMOS.

Laterally diffused metal oxide semiconductor field-effect transistor and manufacturing method therefor


An aircraft fuel system having a fuel tank and a baffle dividing the fuel tank into a primary fuel containing space and a secondary fuel containing space. A fuel drain is provided through which fuel flows from the primary fuel containing space into the secondary fuel containing space. A primary fuel outlet draws fuel from the primary fuel containing space and a secondary fuel outlet draws fuel from the secondary fuel containing space, wherein fuel flow through the primary fuel outlet causes fuel flow through the secondary fuel outlet. The mass flow rate of fuel through the fuel drain is restricted so that the allowable mass flow rate of fuel through the secondary fuel outlet is configured to be greater than the allowable mass flow rate of fuel through the fuel drain in the baffle.

Fuel in an aircraft is typically stored in one or more fuel tanks. Such fuel tanks are generally disposed in the interior space of the wings and fuselage of the aircraft. A fuel delivery arrangement including a fuel pump is arranged to draw fuel from the or one of the fuel tanks and provide the fuel to one or more engines.
In one arrangement, a fuel pump is disposed in the fuel tank which draws fuel from the tank and feeds it along a pipe to be used by the one or more engines.
Due to the necessary structural arrangement which results in an irregular shape of the fuel tank and the provision of structural components extending in the fuel tank, together with requirements on the size of the fuel pump to be capable of drawing a sufficient volume of fuel, there are restrictions on the location of the fuel pump in the fuel tank. For example, internal structural components restrict the location of the fuel pump. It is therefore difficult to draw all of the fuel from the fuel tank. For example, it is not possible to dispose the fuel pump at the lowest point in the fuel tank; that is the lowest point in the fuel tank is defined as the lowest point to which fuel would flow when the aircraft is in its normal flight attitude. As such, there is a quantity of fuel in the aircraft that cannot be retrieved.
The fuel delivery arrangement is not able to draw all of the fuel contained in the fuel tank. This volume of fuel is therefore trapped in the fuel tank, and is not usable. This fuel is known as residual fuel. The residual fuel is excess weight carried by an aircraft which contributes to an increase in aircraft weight, a reduction in the efficiency of the aircraft, and reduces the volume of usable fuel that the aircraft is capable of carrying.


A device for depositing overspray from the overspray-charged booth air of coating installations with a flow system for booth air. The flow system includes a number of depositing units through which overspray-charged booth air can be directed and in which overspray is deposited. The depositing units are designed as an exchangeable structural unit with a filter housing, a filter inlet, a filter unit and a filter outlet, each of which can be fed to the flow system and can thereby be moved into or out of an operating position. In the operating position of a depositing unit, the filter inlet is connected to an associated first flow connection of the flow system and the filter outlet is connected to an associated second flow connection of the flow system. There are docking means, by which the filter inlet and the filter outlet of one of the depositing units and the flow connections of the flow system are forcibly aligned in relation to one another during the feeding movement.

In the manual or automatic application of paint to objects, a partial flow of the paint which generally contains both solid matter and/or binding agents as well as solvents, is not applied to the object. This partial flow in the industry is referred to as "overspray". Furthermore, overspray is always understood in the context of a dispersed system such as an emulsion or a suspension, or a combination thereof. The overspray is acquired by the airflow in the painting booth and fed to a separator such that the air, optionally upon suitable conditioning, can be redirected into the coating booth.
In particular in the case of installations with a high consumption of paint, for example in the case of installations for painting vehicle bodies, wet depositing systems, on the one hand, or electrostatically operating dry depositing systems, on the other hand are used in a known manner. In the case of known wet separators, a comparatively large amount of energy is required for recirculating the rather large quantity of water required. The preparation of the rinsing water on account of the high-level of chemicals that bind and de-tack paint and on account of the disposal of the paint sludge is cost intensive. Furthermore, the air on account of the intensive contact with the rinsing water absorbs a large amount of moisture which in the recirculating operation in turn results in a high consumption of energy for the preparation of the air. In the case of electrostatically operating dry separators, the paint overspray has to be continuously removed from the depositing faces which is often associated with rather complex measures in terms of construction and can accordingly be prone to malfunctions. Moreover, the energy input in the case of such separators is comparatively high.
As an alternative to these depositing systems, devices of the type mentioned at the outset which operate using exchangeable filter modules which upon reaching a limit load with overspray are exchanged for unladen filter modules and are disposed of or optionally recycled are known. The preparation and/or disposal of filter modules of this type in terms of energy as well as in terms of the resources required can be more sustainable than the investment in the case of a wet separator or of an electrostatically operating depositing device.
Such filter modules are fed to the overspray-charged booth air which flows through the filter module and leaves the latter as exhaust air that is largely relieved of overspray. For the sake of simplicity, such an exhaust air hereunder is also referred to as booth air or as booth air that is relieved of overspray.

Device for depositing overspray and surface treatment installation