A disk recording and/or reproduction device subject to acceleration forces in which the transducer track following function is augmented by an acceleration responsive transducer positioning control. The acceleration response is calibrated as a function of the position error of the transducer with respect to the center of the track being followed.

In a disk recording and/or reproduction system an objective of the servo system which controls the radial position of the transducer on the disk, is to keep the transducer over the center of a preselected track. In a disk file system, this is done as the transducer reads position information from a track in the surface of the disk as the disks rotates. This position information is then used to develop a position error signal. The error signal is then fed back through a compensator into the drive motor for the transducer actuator to move the transducer in a direction to reduce the error.
The servo system includes a feed back servo loop. The position error signal is coupled into the feed back loop. Because of the finite response time of the feed back servo loop in correcting for disturbances, these disturbances or displacements cannot be totally eliminated. In the prior art, to aid the servo system in holding the transducer on track center in the presence of a physical disturbance or displacement, such as a shock force, an accelerometer has been found to be useful. An accelerometer mounted on the base plate of the disk file or compact disk player senses the resulting acceleration. Such acceleration will cause the disk to move relative to the transducer, resulting in an off track excursion of the transducer. The signal from the accelerometer is coupled to the actuator drive motor to cause a force to be applied to the transducer which, ideally, moves the transducer with the disk in the direction of the displacement, resulting in no net displacement of the transducer with respect to the track. This system has been in use for several years.
Typical prior art systems are found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,040,103; 4,138,121; 4,325,089; 4,532,802; 4,562,562; 4,573,087; 4,692,915; 4,862,298 and 4,947,093.
These patents are briefly reviewed below.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,040,103 describes a shock force compensating system in which, an accelerometer senses shock forces acting perpendicular to the gap between the head and the disk. Disturbance between the head and disk lags the shock by about one to ten milliseconds. Acceleration sensing is employed to provide lead time to minimize displacement.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,138,121 describes a control for a tone arm assembly in a record player. High fidelity reproduction is said to be obtained by employing a detector for detecting low and high frequencies in horizontal and vertical directions and using such detection to develop a signal which is fed back to cancel the vibrations.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,325,089 employs vibration sensing in an effort to safeguard magnetically recorded data. In this disclosure, unauthorized access to data is minimized by detectors which destroy the disk data by causing it to be passed through an electromagnetic field which erases the data. One detector of the plurality of detectors which are employed, is responsive to vibration caused by attempted physical access to the disk.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,532,802 employs accelerometers in a system for analyzing the interface between a recording disk and a read/write head. In one of its aspects, this system employs two accelerometers which ride piggy back on the transducer. One accelerometer is positioned at the leading edge of the transducer body and the other accelerometer is positioned at the trailing edge of the transducer body. These accelerometers are of the piezoelectric type. In their respective positions, these accelerometers sense vertical accelerations of the transducers and produce signals which when processed produce traces of the excursions including head crashes.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,562,562 describes a tracking system for controlling the radial position of a transducer on a disk in a disk file or drive. In the disclosed arrangement, a circuit is provided which detects the acceleration of the transducer in the rough searching or seek mode of the system. A signal developed by this acceleration detection circuit is applied to the actuator which positions the transducer or tracking element and powers the actuator in a direction so that the transducer error is substantially zero.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,573,087 describes a recording apparatus involving an electromagnetic device which senses a vibration of the recording head. When the recording head is stabilized a signal is produced which enables recording.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,692,915 describes a recording and reproduction apparatus employing a system in which sensitivity to acceleration is minimized. This is accomplished by providing three different accelerometers which respectively sense accelerations perpendicular to the recording tracks, accelerations perpendicular to the disk surface and accelerations parallel to the track direction. Excesses of acceleration sensed by an abnormality detector suspends transducing.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,862,298 describes a shock load detection device for a disk drive. Here there is described a cluster of piezoelectric sensors which sense accelerations in x, y and z directions, these being mutually perpendicular axes. The signals produced by these respective piezoelectric sensors are compared to threshold signals for the respective axes. When the acceleration signals exceed the threshold signals, reading or writing is interrupted.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,947,093 describes a shock resistant control system for a Winchester type of disk drive. Here, it is observed, that angular acceleration having a torque component acting about the axis of the disk stack causes circumferential shift of the tracks on the disk drive with respect to a transducer. This results in frequency modulation which is sensed. A phase comparator responsive to this modulation, controls the frequency of a voltage controlled oscillator in the system which shifts the phase to accommodate the frequency modulation which has taken place. In a rotary actuator drive of the type described, the transducer may also shift from track center as a result of the angular acceleration. This produces a position error signal which is coupled into the servo loop which controls the transducer.
The phase comparison signal is also, after filtering, coupled into the servo loop and functions to augment the positioning of the transducer by the servo. It is noted that acceleration sensing is not a feature of this particular disclosure.
One problem encountered in the implementation of prior art systems employing accelerometers of the type referenced above, is that it is expensive to obtain and maintain the necessary calibration of the accelerometer signal. Typically, low cost accelerometers like those economically feasible to this application, as manufactured, do not exhibit the same acceleration response and temperature response. Thus the signal gains at the source vary widely among the accelerometers. Augmenting this undesirable condition is the fact that other sources of signal gain in the signal path of the accelerometer to the head are subject to gain variation as well.
A second problem encountered in the manufacture and use of prior art systems of the type described, lies in testing the performance of the accelerometer in the servo system. It is expensive and impractical in high volume manufacture to perform an external shock or vibration test to evaluate the function (goodness) of the accelerometer shock corrective loop. Such a test requires a large mechanical shaker or other means for imparting external acceleration disturbances to the disk drive for the disk player for each test station.
There remains a need for a system in which accelerometers of different gain may be employed in disk recording and reproduction systems to function acceptably in the environment of use without the need for matched selection and extensive test and calibration of an assembled system.

Apparatus and method for shock attenuation in a disk recording and/or reproduction system using variable gain acceleration sensor


A method for inspecting a wireharness is disclosed that enables reduced inspection time. The method comprises inspecting a wireharness, including a plurality of wires and connectors for receiving terminals attached to ends of the wires, to judge wireharness quality.

(1) Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method for inspecting a wireharness to judge the quality thereof and, more specifically, to a method for inspecting a wireharness to judge the quality thereof by checking whether each terminal of connectors connected to each both ends of wires, which constitute the wireharness, electrically continues to other terminals or not.
(2) Description of the Related Art
So far, a wireharness, which includes a plurality of wires and connectors for receiving terminals attached to ends of the wires, has been judged its quality by checking whether said each terminal electrically continues to other terminals or not.
The conventional inspection of a wireharness described above has been carried out according to the following processes. That is, one terminal is selected out of terminals of the wireharness, then a potential is applied to this selected terminal and then, an electric potential at other terminals are checked. Thus, all the terminals are subjected to be applied potential in turn, then the potential of all the terminals except the terminal, to which the potential is applied, is checked in turn, thereby checking the electrical continuity between every pair of terminals.
A condition on the electrical continuity among terminals of a wireharness, which is subjected to be checked, is compared to that of a normal wireharness, thereby the quality of the wireharness, which is subjected to be checked, is judged and abnormal portions of the wireharness are detected.
In the above conventional art, all the terminals are subjected to be applied potential in turn, then the potential of all the terminals except the terminal, to which the potential is applied, is checked in turn. Since it has been needed to apply a potential to the terminals repeatedly for (number of the terminals xe2x88x921) times, there has been a problem that a long period of time is required to finish the inspection when the number of wires in the wireharness increases and the number of the terminals is increased.
That is, supposing that one terminal in the wireharness is applied potential, that a period of time T is required to finish the measurement of the potential at all the terminals except said one terminal, and that the number of the terminals is 3000, then as a result, a period of time 3000T is required to complete all the measurement of the potential between every pair out of the 3000 terminals.
It is therefore an objective of the present invention to solve the above problem and to provide a method for inspecting a wireharness, in which a period of time required to complete the inspection can be shortened.
In order to attain the above objective, the present invention is to provide a method for inspecting a wireharness 2 including a plurality of wires 4 and connectors 5 for receiving terminals attached to ends of the wires in order to judge the quality of the wireharness, and the method for inspecting the wireharness comprises a first inspection step S1 consisting of:
simultaneously inputting a mutually different input 31 to said each terminal; and
judging the quality of the wireharness by comparing an output 41 from said each terminal upon inputting of said input with a standard output from each terminal of a normal wireharness upon inputting of said input.
According to the construction described above, since the input is simultaneously input to each terminal, therefore a period of time required to inspect the wireharness can be controlled.
Moreover, since the mutually different input is simultaneously input to each terminal, therefore a period of time required for inputting the input does not fluctuate, because said time does not depend upon the number of joint groups (described later) constituted with wires by their mutual connection, which constitute the wireharness.
Said each terminal is numbered in sequence starting from one and said input 31 is input to said each terminal with time intervals corresponding to said number.
According to the construction described above, the input is securely mutually different for each terminal and can be simultaneously input to each terminal more securely, therefore a period of time required to inspect the wireharness can be controlled more securely.
Said input is input to said terminals in sequence starting from the terminal having less number of place up to the terminal having larger number of place, while with respect to each place said input is input to said terminals with the timing corresponding to the number of said place.
According to the construction described above, the input is mutually different for each terminal more securely and can be simultaneously input to each terminal more securely.
Moreover, a period of time to complete the input to all the terminals can be shortened compared to a method, in which the input is input to each terminal in turn.
The wireharness 2 has joint groups JG1, JG2, JG3 and JG4, each joint group having the wires 4 mutually electrically connected and terminals connected to ends of the wires, and the method for inspecting a wireharness comprises a second inspection step S2 consisting of:
simultaneously inputting a second input 35, which is mutually different among the different joint groups but is identical within said each joint group, to said each terminal; and
judging the quality of the wireharness by comparing a second output 42 from said each terminal after inputting of said second input with a second standard output from each terminal of a normal wireharness upon inputting of said second input.
According to the construction described above, it can be securely inspected whether a short circuit among the joint groups exists or not.
The wireharness 2 has joint groups JG1, JG2, JG3 and JG4, each joint group having the wires 4 mutually electrically connected and terminals connected to ends of the wires, and the method for inspecting a wireharness comprises a third inspection step S3 consisting of:
simultaneously inputting a third input 36, which is mutually different among the different joint groups, to any one of terminal out of the terminals constituting the respective joint group; and
judging the quality of the wireharness by comparing a third output 43 from said each terminal after inputting of said third input with a third standard output from each terminal of a normal wireharness upon inputting of said third input.
According to the construction described above, it can be securely inspected whether an open circuit among the terminals within each joint group exists or not.
The present invention is also to provide a method for inspecting a wireharness 2 which includes a plurality of wires 4 and connectors 5 for receiving terminals attached to ends of the wires in order to judge the quality of the wireharness, wherein the wireharness has joint groups JG1, JG2, JG3 and JG4, each joint group having the wires mutually electrically connected and terminals connected to ends of the wires, and the method for inspecting the wireharness comprises a second inspection step S2 and a third inspection step S3,
said second inspection step S2 comprising the steps of:
simultaneously inputting a second input 35, which is mutually different among the different joint groups but is identical within said each joint group, to said each terminal; and
judging the quality of the wireharness by comparing a second output 42 from said each terminal after inputting of said second input with a second standard output from each terminal of a normal wireharness upon inputting of said second input,
said third inspection step S3 comprising the steps of:
simultaneously inputting a third input 36, which is mutually different among the different joint groups, to any one of terminal out of the terminals constituting the respective joint group; and
judging the quality of the wireharness by comparing a third output 43 from said each terminal after inputting of said third input with a third standard output from each terminal of a normal wireharness upon inputting of said third input.
According to the construction described above, it can be securely inspected whether a short circuit among the joint groups exists or not, and moreover, it can be securely inspected whether an open circuit among the terminals within each joint group exists or not.
Said each joint group is numbered in sequence starting from one and said second input 35 is input to said each terminal with the timing corresponding to the number of said each joint group.
According to the construction described above, the second input is secrely mutually different for each joint group, therefore the second input can be simultaneously input to each terminal more securely.
Said each joint group is numbered in sequence starting from one and said third input 36 is input to said each terminal with the timing corresponding to the number of said each joint group.
According to the construction described above, the third input is secrely mutually different for each joint group, therefore the third input can be simultaneously input to each terminal more securely.
When the wireharness 2 is judged to have abnormality on the basis of an output from at least one terminal in any one step out of the first to third inspection steps, i.e. S1 to S3, the method for inspecting the wireharness comprises a fourth inspection step S4 consisting of:
successively selecting one terminal out of said terminals being judged to have abnormality;
inputting a fourth input 32 to said selected terminal; and
judging the quality of the wireharness by comparing fourth outputs 44a, 44b and 44c from all terminals except said selected terminal with fourth standard outputs from all terminals except said selected terminal upon inputting of said fourth input 32 to said selected terminal of a normal wireharness.
According to the construction described above, a short circuit or an open circuit of a terminal, which is judged to have the abnormality, can be securely inspected.


Embodiments provide a transceiver, configured to select, responsive to a reported position of a mobile terminal, one channel covariance matrix out of a plurality of channel covariance matrices for communication with the mobile terminal or a further mobile terminal, wherein each of the channel covariance matrices is associated with a different one of a plurality of locations of a cell served by the transceiver.

FIG. 1 is a schematic representation of an example of a wireless network 100 including a core network 102 and a radio access network 104. The radio access network 104 may include a plurality of base stations eNB1 to eNB5, each serving a specific area surrounding the base station schematically represented by respective cells 1061 to 1065. The base stations are provided to serve users within a cell. A user may be a stationary device or a mobile device. Further, the wireless communication system may be accessed by IoT devices which connect to a base station or to a user. The mobile devices or the IoT devices may include physical devices, ground based vehicles, such as robots or cars, aerial vehicles, such as manned or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), the latter also referred to as drones, buildings and other items having embedded therein electronics, software, sensors, actuators, or the like as well as network connectivity that enable these devices to collect and exchange data across an existing network infrastructure. FIG. 1 shows an exemplary view of only five cells, however, the wireless communication system may include more such cells. FIG. 1 shows two users UE1 and UE2, also referred to as user equipment (UE), that are in cell 1062 and that are served by base station eNB2. Another user UE3 is shown in cell 1064 which is served by base station eNB4. The arrows 1081, 1082 and 1083 schematically represent uplink/downlink connections for transmitting data from a user UE1, UE2 and UE3 to the base stations eNB2, eNB4 or for transmitting data from the base stations eNB2, eNB4 to the users UE1, UE2, UE3. Further, FIG. 1 shows two IoT devices 1101 and 1102 in cell 1064, which may be stationary or mobile devices. The IoT device 1101 accesses the wireless communication system via the base station eNB4 to receive and transmit data as schematically represented by arrow 1121. The IoT device 1102 accesses the wireless communication system via the user UE3 as is schematically represented by arrow 1122. The respective base station eNB1 to eNB5 are connected to the core network 102 via respective backhaul links 1141 to 1145, which are schematically represented in FIG. 1 by the arrows pointing to the "core". The core network 102 may be connected to one or more external networks.
For data transmission a physical resource grid may be used. The physical resource grid may comprise a set of resource elements to which various physical channels and physical signals are mapped. For example, the physical channels may include the physical downlink and uplink shared channels (PDSCH, PUSCH) carrying user specific data, also referred to as downlink and uplink payload data, the physical broadcast channel (PBCH) carrying for example a master information block (MIB) and a system information block (SIB), the physical downlink and uplink control channels (PDCCH, PUCCH) carrying for example the downlink control information (DCI), etc. For the uplink, the physical channels may further include the physical random access channel (PRACH or RACH) used by UEs for accessing the network once a UE synchronized and obtained the MIB and SIB. The physical signals may comprise reference signals (RS), synchronization signals and the like. The resource grid may comprise a frame having a certain duration, like 10 milliseconds, in the time domain and having a given bandwidth in the frequency domain. The frame may have a certain number of subframes of a predefined length, e.g., 2 subframes with a length of 1 millisecond. Each subframe may include two slots of 6 or 7 OFDM symbols depending on the cyclic prefix (CP) length.
The wireless communication system may be any single-tone or multicarrier system based on frequency-division multiplexing, like the orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) system, the orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA) system, or any other IFFT-based signal with or without CP, e.g. DFT-s-OFDM. Other waveforms, like non-orthogonal waveforms for multiple access, e.g. filter-bank multicarrier (FBMC), generalized frequency division multiplexing (GFDM) or universal filtered multi carrier (UFMC), may be used. The wireless communication system may operate, e.g., in accordance with the LTE-Advanced pro standard or the 5G or NR (New Radio) standard.
Data may also be communicated over channels of a wired communication network or a combination of wired and wireless networks, for example, a local area network (LAN), a G.hn network operating over different types of wires like telephone wires, coaxial cables and/or power lines, or a wide area network (WAN) such as the internet.
In the above referenced networks data, for all current interference alignment/interference management, quasi perfect channel-state information (CSI) is needed at the base station (BS), evolved-node base station (eNB), or gigabit node base station (gNB). This makes the problem even more difficult if this channel-state information is needed for cancel the interference from the multiple neighboring cell (or multiple transmission reception points (TRP)) onto a small cell, group of users, or moving vehicles transmitting on their own via sidelinks transmission.
Hence, it is not practical the amount of training (reference signals), in both time division duplexing, and the amount of feedback overhead, in frequency division duplexing, between the macro coordinated base stations (gNB,eNB), the other macro or picot user equipment's (UEs) within its range, and the small cell/group of users of interest.
The considerations of future (cellular) wireless communications systems are directing us to increase spectral efficiency per area assuming the following. First, densifying the cellular network with small/pico cells leads to a heterogeneous network. Second, all cells may operate on all frequency bands which leads to frequency reuse one. Third, frequency reuse one needs a highest spectral efficiency per area (if intra and inter-cell interference (ICI) are close too (or below) the background noise level) Hence, interference coordination/alignment is needed to cancel/reduce significantly the interference level.
Interference alignment is known from MIMO (multiple input multiple output) and massive MIMO systems [V. Cadambe and S. Jafar, "Interference Alignment and Spatial Degrees of Freedom for the K User Interference Channel", Communications, 2008. ICC '08. IEEE International Conference on, pp. 971-975, May 2008], [D. Aziz, M. Mazhar and A. Weber, "Multi User Inter Cell Interference Alignment in Heterogeneous Cellular Networks", Vehicular Technology Conference (VTC Spring), 2014 IEEE 79th, pp. 1-5, May 2014], [M. Kurras, M. Shehata, K. Hassan and L. Thiele, "Spatial interference management with hierarchical precoding in ultra-dense heterogeneous networks", Wireless and Mobile Computing, Networking and Communications (WiMob), 2015 IEEE 11th International Conference on, pp. 520-526, October 2015] and [M. Shehata, M. Kurras and K. Hassan, "Interference Alignment Precoding in Heterogeneous Networks with Inter-cell Interference", 2015].
Further, interference alignment based only on first order statistics is known from [M. Kurras, M. Shehata, K. Hassan and L. Thiele, "Spatial interference management with hierarchical precoding in ultra-dense heterogeneous networks", Wireless and Mobile Computing, Networking and Communications (WiMob), 2015 IEEE 11th International Conference on, pp. 520-526, October 2015]
Multistage precoding and precoding based on instantaneous channel information and/or covariance slow channel information is known from [A. Adhikary, J. Nam, J.-Y. Ahn and G. Caire, "Joint Spatial Division and Multiplexing: The Large-Scale Array Regime", Information Theory, IEEE Transactions on, vol. 59, pp. 6441-6463, 2013], [M. Kurras, L. Thiele and G. Caire, "Interference Mitigation and Multiuser Multiplexing with Beam-Steering Antennas", WSA 2015; 19th International ITG Workshop on Smart Antennas; Proceedings of, pp. 1-5, March. 2015] and [M. Kurras, L. Thiele and G. Caire, "Multi-stage beamforming for interference coordination in massive MIMO networks", 2015 49th Asilomar Conference on Signals, Systems and Computers, pp. 700-703, November 2015].
User grouping based on channel covariance information is known from [J. Nam, A. Adhikary, J.-Y. Ahn and G. Caire, "Joint Spatial Division and Multiplexing: Opportunistic Beamforming, User Grouping and Simplified Downlink Scheduling", Selected Topics in Signal Processing, IEEE Journal of, vol. PP, pp. 1-1, 2014] and [M. Kurras, S. Fahse and L. Thiele, "Density Based User Clustering for Wireless Massive Connectivity Enabling Internet of Things", 2015 IEEE Globecom Workshops (GC Wkshps), pp. 1-6, December 2015]

Interference free geographical zonal mapping utilizing slow varying channel covariance matrix

FRAUNHOFER-GESELLSCHAFT ZUR FÖRDERUNG DER ANGEWANDTEN FORSCHUNG E.V


A method for offshore overboarding a structure on a vessel for subsequent lowering the structure to the sea floor, is using a crane (13) to lift the structure at its storage place on a deck of the vessel and move it by means of the crane to a position free of the vessel before lowering it into the sea. During at least a part of the overboarding movement of the structure (1), the structure (1) is forced to follow a track (2) along the deck of the vessel. Two apparatus for performing the method are also presented.

Conventional offshore installation methods are normally based on the use of tugger lines directly connecting the structure to winches or handled manually by on-deck personnel. A common challenge for such operations is to obtain adequate control of the movement of the structure and the rotation in particular when the vessel is influenced by wave loads. Especially in situations where the structure is large and there is limited deck space, the overboarding operation is critical due to the risk of clashing of structure into deck equipment. Consequently, the limiting sea state for such operations is often quite low.
A number of constant tension winches, typically five to eight winches, have previously been used to guide and overboard heavy structures. The winches have been arranged such that the structure is guided step by step by a system of winch wires connected between the structure and deck. As the winches at times will pull against each other, wires have ruptured as a result of lack of control due to the complexity of the system.
GB 2502379 A, which was not publically available at the priority date of the present application, shows overboarding a structure by means of a crane while keeping the object stationary with respect to the crane axis by means of telescopic arms extending between the structure and a rotatable ring on the pedestal of the crane. The arms are maintained in compression in order to reduce pendulum movements of the structure caused by ship movements due to the sea state. This system is complicated and cannot easily be decommissioned for use on other vessels. Besides, it cannot be used for unwieldy structures and structures stored outside the relatively short reach of the arms.

Method and apparatus for overboarding of a subsea structure


Optically active bisoxazoline compounds represented by the general formula (1), a process for producing the compounds, and a process for producing cyclopropanecarboxylic esters by using the same:

Methods for producing optically active cyclopropane compounds, which are very important compounds as synthesis intermediates of agricultural chemicals such as synthesized pyrethroid type insecticides, pharmaceuticals, etc., and whose representative example is (+)-2,2-dimethyl-3-(2-methyl-1-propenyl)cyclopropanecarboxylic acid, from prochiral olefins have been known as an asymmetric reaction using an optically active bisoxazoline compound as a ligand (e.g. JP 11-171874 A, Tetrahedron Lett., 32, 7373 (1991)). These methods are relatively good in the diastereoselectivity (trans-isomer/cis-isomer ratio) and enantioselectivity. However, from an industrial viewpoint, it is desired to further improve the yield of the desired optically active cyclopropane compounds.

Optically active bisoxazoline compounds, process for production of the same and use thereof

Abstract: wherein R1 and R2 are the same and each represents C1-6 alkyl, substituted or unsubstituted aralkyl, or substituted or unsubstituted phenyl or R1 and R2 are bonded each other together with the carbon atom of oxazoline ring to which they are bonded to form a ring; R3 is substituted or unsubstituted naphthyl; R4 and R5 are the same and each represent hydrogen or C1-6 alkyl, or R4 and R5 are bonded each other together with the carbon atom to which they are bonded to form a cycloalkyl ring having 3 to 6 carbon atoms; and * represents an asymmetric center.


A post driving device is disclosed. The post driving device slides to a desired position and is essentially locked in place through frictional force. As the post is driven into the ground, the device can be adjusted to a new position along the length of the post.

Posts are used in a variety of applications as structural supports. To provide optimal support, the post must be driven into the ground. This is commonly accomplished by applying a driving force to the top of the post. If the post is tall, an installer may need to stand on the back of a truck bed or balance from a ladder to be above the height of the post. The installer then proceeds to drive the post into the ground with a sledge hammer or similar device. This procedure can be dangerous for the installer and may result in poor or incorrect positioning of the post, including twisting of the post. Further, because the driving force is applied to the top of the post, the post can be easily weakened or otherwise damaged during installation.

Manual slide post driver and extractor for “T”-type metal or fiberglass or plastic posts


Semiconductor structures and methods for forming isolation between fin structures formed from a bulk silicon wafer are provided. A bulk silicon wafer is provided having one or more fin structures formed therefrom. Forming of the fin structures defines isolation trenches between the one or more fin structures. Each of the fin structures has vertical sidewalls. An oxide layer is deposited in the isolation trenches and on the vertical sidewalls using HDPCVD in about a 4:1 ratio or greater. The oxide layer is isotropically etched to remove the oxide layer from the vertical sidewalls and a portion of the oxide layer from the bottom of the isolation trenches. A substantially uniformly thick isolating oxide layer is formed on the bottom of the isolation trench to isolate the one or more fin structures and substantially reduce fin height variability.

In contrast to traditional planar metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETS), which are fabricated using conventional lithographic fabrication methods, nonplanar FETs (field-effect transistors) incorporate various vertical transistor structures, and typically include two or more gate structures formed in parallel. One such semiconductor structure is the "FinFET" which takes its name from the multiple thin silicon "fins" that are used to form the respective gate channels, and which are typically on the order of tens of nanometers in width.
More particularly, referring to the exemplary prior art nonplanar MOS transistor having a FinFET configuration shown in FIG. 1, a FinFET device 10 generally includes two or more parallel silicon fin structures (or simply "fins") 12. However, it is to be appreciated that the FinFET device may include just one silicon fin structure.
The fins extend between a common source electrode and a common drain electrode (not shown in FIG. 1). A conductive gate structure 16 "wraps around" three sides of both fins, and is separated from the fins by a standard gate insulator layer 18. Fins may be suitably doped to produce the desired FET polarity, as is known in the art, such that a gate channel is formed within the near surface of the fins adjacent to the gate insulator 18.
The fin structures (and thus FinFET devices) may be formed on a semiconductor substrate. The semiconductor substrate may be a bulk silicon wafer from which the fin structures are formed or may comprise a silicon on insulator (SOI) wafer disposed on a support substrate. The SOI wafer comprises a silicon oxide layer, and a silicon-comprising material layer overlying the silicon oxide layer. The fin structures are formed from the silicon-comprising material layer. Fin structures are typically formed using conventional photolithographic or anisotropic etching processes (e.g., reactive ion etching (RIE) or the like).
Electrical isolation of the fin structures is necessary in order to avoid electromechanical interference (EMI) and/or parasitic leakage paths between the various devices. Isolating fin structures on a bulk silicon wafer is especially problematic as the silicon of the bulk silicon wafer between the fin structures forms a conduction path. Shallow trench isolation (STI) is a technique used to electrically isolate transistors or electrical devices. Typical STI is created early during the semiconductor device fabrication process, before the transistors are formed. A conventional STI process involves creating an isolation trench in the semiconductor substrate through an anisotropic etch process (such as reactive ion etching (RIE)), and depositing one or more dielectric filler materials (such as silicon oxide) using chemical vapor deposition (CVD) processes to fill the isolation trenches. The deposited dielectric material may then be planarized by a Chemical-Mechanical Polishing (CMP) process that removes the excess dielectric and creates a planar STI structure. In FinFET devices, this planarized oxide then needs to be etched back to form a 5 nm to 20 nm uniformly thick oxide isolation between the fin structures and expose the fin vertical sidewalls for further processing. This conventional technique is difficult to control, often resulting in a dielectric layer that varies in thickness. In addition, more dielectric filler material than is needed to provide isolation is required to be deposited in order to permit etch back (planarization).
In addition, the isolation area on the exposed semiconductor substrate between each fin structure (hereinafter "isolation trench") has a high aspect ratio. Aspect ratio is the ratio of the depth of the opening to its width. The filling of high aspect ratio isolation trenches is difficult. Even state of the art oxide chemical vapor deposition (CVD) processes such as advanced high density plasma (HDP) or ozone based TEOS (tetraethylorthosilicate) processes cannot reliably fill these high aspect ratio isolation trenches. This causes problems in controlling and creating electrical isolation in FinFET devices.
Additionally, bulk silicon wafers lack an etch stop layer upon which etching of the fin can terminate. Without this etch stop layer, variability in the etch depth results in variability in the fin height. As the amount of current conducted by the FinFET device is proportional to the height of the fin, it is important to minimize variability in the fin height.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide methods for forming isolation between fin structures of FinFET devices. In addition, it is desirable to provide methods for controllable filling of the high aspect ratio isolation trenches between the fin structures, with fewer process steps, with less dielectric filler material, and which result in less fin height variability for bulk FinFETs. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics of the present invention will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description of the invention and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and this background of the invention.

Semiconductor structures and methods for forming isolation between Fin structures of FinFET devices


An apparatus for providing footgear with comfortable individualized custom support, said apparatus comprising mechanical means to selectively and seperately change the position of multiple areas of the inner sole of said footgear, said areas corresponding generally to the areas of the foot described as the inner heel, the lateral arch, and the metatarsal area, and, whereas such changing of positions involves movement in two different directions: (1) upward and downward, (2) forward and backward, said changes in position are achieved by two different and seperate structures, wherein the movement of each of said structures is controlled by the selective turning of a screw, the heads of said screws being located on the outside of said footgear, where they can be selectively turned at any time.

The invention relates generally to the field of footgear: dress shoes, athletic boots, sneakers, orthopedic shoes, and the like, and more particularly to an improved means for accomplishing quick, easy, inexpensive and therapeutic individual custom adjustments to accommodate the needs of each individual foot by mechanical means within said footgear.
Walking is a complicated bio-mechanical process. In the first stage of walking, at heel strike, the Talus and the attached Calcaneous (heel) bones move inwardly and downwardly, said movement acting as a shock absorber. The range of motion of said movement is called pronation. Said pronation is a direct factor that determines the efficiency of the foot and leg. At this and subsequent stages of walking an abnormal amount of pronation, whether greater or lesser than it should be, results in excessive strain to all the directly and indirectly connected joints, bones, ligaments, nerves and muscles. Said strain thus gives rise to various symptoms such as pain, aching, fatigue, cramping, pulling feelings, weakness, etc. The effected areas are not only the foot and leg, but anywhere throughout the skeletal system. For instance, one common sequelae of abnormal pronation is the so-called "bad back". An excess of pronation results in an excessive spinal curve, which weakens the back so that an additional strain can put the back "out." Then, there are two problems, the original weak position, and the secondary damage that resulted from it. Usually only the acute secondary condition is treated which accounts for the chronicity of such problems.
Abnormal pronation can result from many and varied causes, ranging from tight posterior leg muscles to unusually shaped foot bones. The shape and style of footgear also imposes its own complications to gait. Said footgear is manufactured on lasts contoured to an "average" foot which, by definition, is nonexistent. Within a similar shoe size, each foot has its own shape and dimensions. Said lasts are further distorted by considerations of style and heel height, which have further negative effects on the bio-mechanics of weight bearing activity.
It is known in the art to control postural problems of individual feet by various means worn inside footgear. However, each of said means has its own advantages and disadvantages.
There are the well known "arch supports" which are inexpensively sold over the counter in arbitrary shoe sizes. There are methods of molding the interior of a shoe by placing a bag therein, and introducing a molding material into said bag, which "sets" with the imprint of the foot.
The best means of helping feet, based on scientific principles, are Foot Orthotics. Said Orthotics are shaped to fit the entire plantar surface of a foot from the "ball" of said foot to the heel, with some lateral and medial cupping of the heel area. Said Orthotics are formed over a positive Plaster of Paris cast of an individual foot, said cast derived from a negative cast taken while the foot was held in a neutral position by a Doctor or skilled technician. Laboratories then fabricate the Orthotic. Adjustments may then have to be made to compensate for dynamic problems which a static cast cannot duplicate. Further, a hard cast cannot properly reproduce the difference between a thin skinned and a fat foot, which influences the result. Said Orthotics cannot be worn in all shoes, and especially not in most ladies' dress shoes. The above process takes about two weeks and can cost between $300 to $500.
All of these devices, and others, have common faults. They take up space within the footgear. They fit differently in different shoes. They cannot be easily adjusted. They are expensive and require varying degrees of trained personnel for dispensing and adjustment. Much time is necessary for adjustments.
To retain the benefits of such appliances while eliminating some of the disadvantages, the present inventor has been issued U.S. Pat. No. 4,744,157. Said Patent was based on the fact that a Foot Orthotic has three basic major therapeutic areas which benefit the foot. The other substance of the Orthotic acts mostly to hold the three areas in correct position relative to the foot and shoe. By controlling only the basic areas, no space in the footgear was taken up with useless connective substance.
The three basic areas of a Foot Orthotic are: the inner aspect of the heel, the area under the lateral arch of the foot, and the area directly behind the metatarsal arch of the foot. Said metatarsal arch is the parabola made up of the individual heads of the five Metatarsal bones. Occasionally the inner long arch area is involved.
Of these areas, the inner aspect of the heel, which is where the pronation angulation occurs, is by far the most important area. Seventy to ninety percent of the benefits arising from the use of an Orthotic is due to control imposed on this area. Control of the metatarsal area is next in importance, and then the lateral arch area. All of these areas are affected at different stages of walking. And, it is to be noted that high heeled shoes do not lend themselves to pronation control because of the unsteady nature of said heels. There, metatarsal control becomes a much more important factor.
In the invention cited, varying control of the three important areas was accomplished with the use of multiple individually complete elements. Each of said elements comprising: impervious flexible bags for receiving and maintaining a non-setting fluid, such as water; an end port with a valve-like action to maintain closure while permitting selective insertion and withdrawal of said fluid; and a connective tube between said port and said bag. Hypodermic syringes and needles were used to insert and withdraw fluids through said end ports.
While the above means achieved the desired results, said means also presented many problems. Heat sealing of said bags of proper watertight material was difficult, and often leaked under pressure. Insertion of multiple elements into shoes was complicated and laborious as multiple grooves and bores had to be cut into the soles of shoes, and the elements inserted in parts and then secured. There were also difficulties in the procurement and use of hypodermic syringes, so that customers could not themselves adjust their footgear. All of the above made major difficulties for the manufacturing and marketing of said apparatus in footgear.
It is therefore among the principal assets of the present invention to provide improvements for the adjusting of the interior of footgear to the needs of the individual foot, in which the benefits of the above are substantially retained, while the disadvantages are substantially eliminated. Another object of the invention lies in the provision of mechanical means to achieve the desired changes within said footgear. Another object of the invention lies in the provision of means that would allow the customer to achieve necessary changes within seconds, and without the necessity of any specialized training. Another object of the invention lies in the provision of simplified means that can easily be added to already manufactured footgear, as well as reducing the overall cost of such a product.


The present invention relates in general to fishing lures, and more specifically, to a contracting fishing lure that provides life-like movement to mimic live bait. The fishing lure is configured so that when the fishing lure is retrieved (e.g., reeled in) or jigged by an angler, or the fishing line is pulled or twitched, the fishing lure transitions from a first non-contracted position to a second contracted position. The purpose of the invention is to provide a fishing lure that will successfully attract fish by displaying a unique action in the water.

A fishing lure is an artificial object tied onto the end of a fishing line and used to attract fish. Used in conjunction with a fishing rod and fishing reel, a skilled angler continuously casts and retrieves the fishing lure to mimic a swimming or popping action as it moves through the water. An angler may also utilize a jigging action wherein the fishing lure is dropped into the water and vertically moved, or jigged, up and down via the attached fishing line. The fishing lure is designed to resemble the prey of a particular type of fish, such as earthworms, caterpillars, grubs, frogs, crawfish, minnows, lizards, insects, etc. The color, appearance, vibration, and movement of the fishing lure as it travels through the water attract fish attention, causing fish to bite the lure. Fishing lures are further equipped with a single, double, or treble hook(s) of various sizes, shapes, and spacing. The hooks snag the fish after the fishing lure has been bitten or swallowed by the fish.
Historically, fish hooks were carved by ancient man out of bone or molded out of bronze. The Greek and Roman civilizations advocated fishing for sport, creating fly-fishing lures of feathers, bronze, horsehair, and wild boar bristles. In the United States during the early 1800s, fishing lures were made by individual craftsmen whittling wood or pounding metal into a shape that resembled live bait. However, the unnatural movement of these lures as they traveled through the water left much to be improved upon. Manufacturing of fishing lures began to slowly evolve from individual craftsmen to commercial ventures during the late 1800s to early 1900s. More recently, the development of soft plastic compositions and injection molding techniques have produced fishing lures that more closely resemble live bait and their movements. Such lures may incorporate dyes, metallic flakes, or even scents. Soft plastic baits encompass a variety of different lures, one common example being a tube lure. Generally, a tube lure comprises a soft plastic tube with tentacles extending from the tail to resemble a crawfish. A hook is typically pierced through the tube lure, after which an angler casts and retrieves the lure utilizing a twitching motion to mimic a live crawfish swimming through the water. While such a lure has its own advantages, a desire remains to develop still further tube lures that incorporate unique life-like movements while offering a concealed position for the hook(s) to attract more fish and make it easier to set the lure in the fish's mouth.


The present invention relates to a medical-technical identification device for identifying a sterile product (4, 62, 72, 82), and to a method of identifying such a product, for example a product intended for one-time-use only, when connected to a piece of medical equipment (1, 60, 70, 80), wherein the sterile product (4, 62, 72, 82) includes a fixedly mounted information carrier (9, 63, 73, 83) which is adapted to deliver or to offer specific product information in a contactless fashion to a reading element (12, 64, 74, 84) connected to the equipment (1, 60, 70, 80).

U.S. Pat. No. 5,131,823 makes known a device for joining a connection piece to peristaltic pump. As evident from the descriptive part of the document, one end of a hose is provided with a sleeve for connection to an end of a further hose. The connection sleeve includes a disc-shaped angled collar which is intended to be received in a slot disposed in a support device and facing towards the disc. The sleeve together with its angled disc functions to fixate the hose ends in a correct position relative to the peristaltic pump. Moreover, the angled disc causes an increase in tension forces caused by the pump to result in a self-locking action by virtue of the sleeve being pressed against a seat.
One problem with this device is that hoses can be mixed-up, even when color-marked. Furthermore, unintentional confusion between the hoses can go as far as causing the equipment to be used wrongly in the absence of any indication to the contrary.

Medical indication device and identification method

Medical Vision Research & Development AB.


A method for detecting vehicle system faults includes receiving, with a processor, a plurality of sensor signals from one or more sensors; thresholding, with the processor, the plurality of sensor signals for each respective sensor substantially in real time; and generating, with the processor, abnormal derivative frequency values for each of the plurality of thresholded sensor signals in real time and determining an operational status of at least each of the one or more sensors based on the abnormal derivative frequency values.

The vast majority of conventional aircraft prognosis and diagnosis assumes that the sensor-wiring-processor pipeline is operating correctly and instead focuses on detecting failures of the components that are being measured. Generally where sensor failure is addressed the sensor fault detection falls into one of four categories such as knowledge driven methods, estimation methods, time-series analysis based methods, and machine learning based methods. Knowledge driven rely strictly on domain knowledge in order to pace rules/constraints on the sensor values. This class of methods can often detect more subtle faults, with "low intensity" signatures than the other three categories noted above however, because the knowledge-driven methods are not data driven they tend to be less robust in that they exhibit more false negatives. Estimation methods utilize the signals from unique, but correlated sensors in order to detect abnormalities. While these estimation methods do not necessarily require completely redundant sensors, they do require that a significantly strong correlation exist between two different sensors at the very least and that the fault does not exist far enough downstream from the sensors such that both sets of recorded measurements (sensor signals) are affected. These downstream faults that affect both sensor signals can happen, for example, if there is a fault at the wiring or processor stage. Time-series analysis based methods make use of temporal correlations among current and past measurements from a single sensor in order to predict future measurements. The time-series analysis based methods rely on a pre-defined fixed model structure with adaptable parameters, such as the well-known Autoregressive-Moving-Average (ARMA) class of models, however, the time-series analysis based methods are less robust than machine learning approaches due to their reliance on a fixed, pre-defined model. Machine learning based approaches infer a model of normal versus abnormal sensor measurements using training data, and then statistically detect and identify classes of faults. This is the most robust class of fault detection methods owing to its purely data-driven approach. However, the machine learning based approaches require the most data to train and tend to be less capable of picking up on failures that induce subtle "low intensity" signals.
Most conventional diagnostic algorithms onboard vehicles, such as aircraft, only issue fault messages when recorded sensor measurements enter abnormal ranges or exhibit "wild" dynamics. As such, most of the conventional fault diagnostic algorithms, such as those included in the fault detection methods described above, will not issue appropriate fault messages in response, and therefore vehicle operators and maintenance crew remain unaware that there is an impending failure.

System and method for detecting vehicle system faults


The present invention relates generally to data storage systems having user configurable levels of input/output (xe2x80x9cI/Oxe2x80x9d) performance and fault tolerance. To provide exceptional performance to read data requests in a RAID data storage subsystem with 100 percent redundancy, the data striping procedure (22) of the present invention distributes data across disk drives in a data storage subsystem without any backward writes, and thereby provides exception I/O performance with 100 percent data redundancy.

The present invention relates generally to data storage systems having user configurable levels of input/output (xe2x80x9cI/Oxe2x80x9d) performance and fault tolerance. More particularly, the present invention relates to a system, apparatus, and method for distributing data across multiple disk drives that provides exceptional levels of I/O performance and one-hundred percent data redundancy.
Disk drives in all computer systems are susceptible to failures caused by temperature variations, head crashes, motor failure, controller failure, and changing voltage conditions. Modem computer systems require, or at least benefit from, a fault-tolerant data storage system, for protecting data in the data storage system against instances of disk drive failure. One approach to meeting this need is to provide a redundant array of independent disks (RAID) system operated by a disk array controller (controller).
A RAID system typically includes a single standalone controller, or multiple independent controllers, wherein each controller operates independently with respect to the other controllers. A controller is generally coupled across one or more input/output (I/O) buses both to a an array of disk drives and also to one or more host computers. The controller processes I/O requests from the one or more host computers to the rack of disk drives. Such I/O requests include, for example, Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) I/O requests, which are known in the art.
Such a RAID system provides fault tolerance to the one or more host computers, at a disk drive level. In other words, if one or more disk drives fail, the controller can typically rebuild any data from the one or more failed disk drives onto any surviving disk drives. In this manner, the RAID system handles most disk drive failures without interrupting any host computer I/O requests.
Fundamental to RAID technology, is the concept ofxe2x80x9cstriping,xe2x80x9d or dividing a body of data, from a host computer, into data segments and distributing the data segments in a well-defined manner across each disk drive in the disk drive array. In this manner, the disk drive array becomes, in effect, one logical storage unit as far as a host computer is concerned. There are a number of well known data striping techniques, or RAID levels, including RAID levels 0-6. A numerically higher RAID level does not imply an increase to the disk subsystem""s fault tolerance (reliability), I/O performance and scalability. Instead, the numerical levels refer to different techniques that balance various levels of reliability, I/O performance and scalability.
To illustrate this balance, consider that RAID level 0 has exceptional I/O performance because, as data is written to or read from the disk drive array in response to a group, or an ensemble of I/O requests, each disk drive, or spindle in the array comes into play to satisfy the I/O requests. Optimal I/O performance is realized in systems that use RAID level 0, because each disk drive, or spindle in the array comes into play to satisfy the ensemble of I/O requests.
However, RAID level 0 is redundant in name only, and offers no fault tolerance. If RAID level 0 were fault tolerant, the techniques typically used to provide fault tolerance would slow down the I/O performance typically available through the use of RAID level 0. Because RAID level 0 is not fault tolerant, it is not a viable solution in systems that require reliability.
Fault tolerance in case of disk drive failure is typically provided by a number of different techniques. These techniques include disk drive mirroring and data mirroring. Disk drive mirroring involves duplicating an original datum that is stored on a first disk drive, and storing the duplicate datum on a second disk drive. RAID levels 1 and 0+1 use disk drive mirroring to provide fault tolerance to a data storage subsystem. Disk drive mirroring also provides one-hundred percent redundancy of data that virtually eliminates RAID system interruption due to a single disk drive failure.
There are a number of problems with data striping techniques (RAID levels) that use disk drive mirroring to increase fault tolerance. One problem is that disk drive mirroring sacrifices I/O performance for fault tolerance. For example, consider that in a data storage subsystem implemented with either RAID level 1 or RAID level 0+1, only one-half of the disk drives are used to satisfy any read request from a host computer. The disk drives that are used to satisfy a read data request are the disk drives have original data stored on them. (The other one-half of the disk drives only come into play only if a primary disk drive fails, wherein the duplicate data is used to satisfy the read request). As noted above, optimal I/O performance is only realized if each disk drive, or spindle in the array comes into play to satisfy the I/O request. Therefore, RAID levels that use disk drive mirroring are not viable solutions for systems that require fast response to read data requests.
RAID level 6 data striping techniques use data mirroring, as compared to disk drive mirroring. Data mirroring also means that each original data is mirrored across the disk drives. However, using data mirroring, original data is typically not mirrored on a dedicated mirror disk drive, as is done in RAID levels that use disk drive mirroring. This means that it is possible to distribute the data across the disk drives in a manner that provides optimal read data request performance.
To illustrate data mirroring according to RAID level 6, refer to Table 1, where there are shown aspects of RAID level 6 data striping techniques according to the state of the art.
The first three vertical columns represent disk drives 1-3 and are respectively labeled xe2x80x9cDrive 1xe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9cDrive 2xe2x80x9d, and xe2x80x9cDrive 3xe2x80x9d. Horizontal rows, stripes 0-3, represent xe2x80x9cstripes of data,xe2x80x9d where original and duplicate data are respectively distributed across the disk drives 1-3 in the disk drive 1-3 array. Original data is stored on disk drives 1-3 respectively in data segments A, B, C, D, E, and F. Mirrored data, or duplicate data are respectively stored on disk drives 1-3 in data segments Axe2x80x2, Bxe2x80x2, Cxe2x80x2, Dxe2x80x2, Exe2x80x2, and Fxe2x80x2. For example, data segment Axe2x80x2 contains a duplicate of the original data contained in data segment A, Bxe2x80x2 contains a duplicate of the original data contained in B, Cxe2x80x2 contains a duplicate of the original data contained in C, and the like.
Stripe 0 includes original data in data segments A-C, and stripe 1 contains respective duplicates of original data in data segments Axe2x80x2-Cxe2x80x2. Stripe 2 includes original data in data segments D-F, and stripe 3 contains respective duplicates of original data in data segments Dxe2x80x2-Fxe2x80x2. As can be seen, RAID level 6 stores duplicate data in data segments Axe2x80x2-Fxe2x80x2 on different disk drives 1-3 than the corresponding original data in data segments A-F. To accomplish this, the RAID level 6 data striping algorithm will rotate to the right by one data segment, a copy of the original data in each respective data segment in the immediately proceeding stripe.
This rotation to the right by one data segment before writing the duplicate data introduces an undesirable amount of rotational delay into a data storage subsystem that uses RAID level 6. Such rotational delay slows down the data storage subsystem performance in response to sequential write data requests. To understand why this is the case, it is helpful to understand how a write data request is handled by a disk drive 1-3.
Each disk drive 1-3 is organized into a plurality of platters, each of which has two recordable disk surfaces. (Individual platters and disk surfaces are not shown) Each platter surface is divided into concentric circles called xe2x80x9ctracksxe2x80x9d. Each track is in turn divided into a plurality ofxe2x80x9csectorsxe2x80x9d. Each sector has an associated logical block address (LBA). (Such disk drive 1-3 organization is known in the art).
The first step to a write data onto a platter of a disk drive 1-3, is for a read/write disk head (disk head) to move until it is over the proper track. (Individual read/write disk heads are not shown). This operation is called a xe2x80x9cseekxe2x80x9d, and the time to move the disk head until it is over the the proper track is called the xe2x80x9cseek timexe2x80x9d. Once the correct track has been reached, we must wait for the desired sector to rotate under the disk head. This time is called the xe2x80x9crotational delayxe2x80x9d.
A simple example can be used to illustrate rotational delay. Referring to Table 1, it can be seen that before duplicate data can be written into data segment Axe2x80x2 in disk drive 2, the platter in disk drive 2 must be rotated until the correct logical block (LB) is under the disk head. Although individual LBs are not shown, the correct LB includes the start of a desired data segment A-Gxe2x80x2. In this example, the correct LB contains the start of data segment Axe2x80x2. (LBs are organized in a disk drive 1-3 in a sequential manner, such that a first LB has a lower LBA than a second, subsequent LB).
To process a next, sequential write data request, illustrated by the data in data segment B, the platter in disk drive 2 must be rotated until a LB with a lower LBA is underneath the disk head. The amount of platter rotation required to write this next data into data segment B is nearly a complete, 360 degree platter rotation. To process a next, sequential write data request, illustrated by the data in data segment B, the platter in disk drive 2 must be rotated until a LB with a lower LBA is underneath the disk head. Only at this point will the next data be written into data segment B.
The procedure of writing data to a disk drive 1-3 by rotating the platter in a disk drive 1-3 from a LB with a higher LBA, to a LB with a lower LBA, is known as a backward write. As a general rule, using RAID level 6 to sequentially stripe data across disk drives 1-3, every disk drive 1-3 other than the first disk drive 1-3 will be required to perform backward writes. For example, disk drives 2-3 are shown to have performed backward writes to write data into respective data segments B, C, E and F.
Ideally, the data, original or duplicate data, would always be stored in a respective disk drive 1-3 by rotating the platter in the respective disk drive 1-3 to a LB with a higher LBA for each subsequent write data operation, without requiring such backward writes. Otherwise, as is evidenced by using RAID level 6 techniques to stripe data across disk drives 1-3, such sequential backward writes slow down data storage subsystem performance by introducing undesirable amounts of rotational delay into the data storage subsystem. Therefore, RAID level 6 is not a viable solution for data storage subsystems that require high write data performance.
Another problem with the state of the art data striping techniques is that they are not typically scalable across either an even or an odd number of disk drives. It would be cost-efficient and desirable for a data striping technique to be scalable across either an even number or an odd number of disk drives, so that available hardware resources can be fully utilized. For example, RAID level 1 requires an even number of disk drives, and is not scalable to an odd number of disk drives, and RAID level 0+1 requires an even number of disk drives. Neither of these RAID levels are scalable across an odd number of disk drives.
In light of the above, what is needed is a new procedure for striping data across disk drives in a disk drive array that delivers exceptional, or RAID-0 levels of I/O performance for sequential I/O requests without sacrificing high levels of reliability. To accomplish this, the desired data striping technique will not perform backward writes in response to sequential write data requests. Additionally, the desired data striping technique will be scalable across either an even number of disk drives or an odd number of disk drives greater than two disk drives. (The number of disk drives is greater than 2 disk drives because at least 2 disk drives are required to provide data redundancy to a data storage system).
Heretofore, the state of the art was limited by data storage and retrieval procedures that: (a) while providing for 100% data redundancy, do not provide optimal performance for sequential write data requests; and, (b) are not typically scalable across both an even or an odd number of disk drives. The present invention provides a solution for these limitations.
In one aspect, the present invention a controller receives a plurality of write data requests from a host computer. Each write data request includes data. In response to receiving the write data requests, the controller stores the data across the disk drives according to a data striping procedure. In a data stripe that includes substantially original data, the data are distributed across the disk drives according to a first rule. In a data stripe that includes substantially duplicate data, data are distributed across the disk drives according to a second rule. The data stripes that have substantially original data are interleaved with the data stripes that have substantially duplicate data.

Method and apparatus for distributing data across multiple disk drives

International Business Machines Corporation


Radio terminals (1A, 1B, 1C) each receive a broadcast/multicast signal (220) from a cellular communication network (10). The representative terminal (1A) receives response messages from the respective neighboring radio terminals (1B, 1C) via D2D communication (231, 232). Each response message is generated based on reception of the broadcast/multicast signal (220) by each neighboring radio terminal (1B, 1C). The representative terminal (1A) generates a representative response message and transmits it to the cellular communication network (10) or another node (7) via uplink transmission (240). It is thus, for example, possible to contribute to improving efficiency of transmission by radio terminals of response messages related to a broadcast/multicast service.

Using a Long Term Evolution (LTE) network for a public safety network (PSN) has been discussed. The public safety network is a radio communication network used for emergency services such as police, firefighting, and a medical emergency. An LTE system for the public safety network is referred to as a Public Safety LTE (PS-LTE).
Group communication is one of the main services required by public safety networks. The Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) has already introduced Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service (MBMS) to enable the group communication. Accordingly, it is assumed that MBMS and its enhancements are used for providing the group communication in PS-LTE.
Specifically, Group Communication Service Application Server (GCS AS) is used to provide the group communication. The architecture of the group communication including the GCS AS is specified in Non Patent Literature 1. The GCS AS is an entity in the application domain and communicates with PS devices (i.e., User Equipments (UEs)) in the application layer. The GCS AS provides one-to-one communication and one-to-many communication.
The GCS AS can use a MBMS bearer service to transfer application signaling and deliver application data to a group of UEs. The GCS AS can instead use Evolved Packet System (EPS) bearer services to transfer application signaling and deliver application data to a group of UEs or can use both the MBMS bearer service and EPS bearer services. That is, the GCS AS selects whether to use UE-dedicated unicast bearer services (i.e., EPS bearer services), a multicast bearer service (MBMS bearer service), or both, in order to deliver application signaling or data to a group of UEs. Each EPS bearer service is provided to a respective UE by a Serving Gateway (S-GW) and a Packet Data Network (PDN) Gateway (P-GW) through a radio access network (i.e., Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN) including a base station (eNB)). The MBMS bearer service is provided to a group of UEs by a Broadcast Multicast Service Center (BM-SC) and an MBMS Gateway (MBMS GW) through the E-UTRAN.

Radio terminal apparatus and method therefor


A novel organic compound is suitable for emitting green light. An organic light-emitting device includes the novel organic compound.

An organic light-emitting device is a device that includes an anode, a cathode, and an organic compound layer interposed between the anode and the cathode. Holes and electrons injected from the respective electrodes of the organic light-emitting device are recombined in the organic compound layer to generate excitons and light is emitted as the excitons return to their ground state.
The organic light-emitting device is also called an organic electroluminescent device or organic EL device. Recent years have seen remarkable advances in the field of organic light-emitting devices. Organic light-emitting devices offer low driving voltage, various emission wavelengths, rapid response, and small thickness and are light-weight.
Extensive efforts have been made on creation of novel light-emitting organic compounds. Creation of such compounds are critical for producing high-performance organic light-emitting devices.
For example, PTL 1 and 2 disclose examples of the materials used in emission layers. PTL 1 discloses an organic compound represented by the structural formula below:

PTL 2 discloses an organic compound represented by a structural formula below:

The organic compounds and the organic light-emitting devices described in these patent literatures need to be improved to meet practical needs.


The present invention relates, in general, to a method of synthesizing a nucleic acid, and, in particular, to a method of effecting 5' to 3' nucleic acid synthesis. The method can be used to prepare arrays of oligomers bound to a support via their 5' end. The invention also relates to a method of effecting mutation analysis using such arrays. The invention further relates to compounds and compositions suitable for use in such methods.

Through the advances in DNA technology that occurred in the 1980's, it is now possible to map the human genome, identify all the genes it contains, and study their functions. Once all the genes are known, the analysis of how they cooperate will be possible, leading to enormous advances in the understanding of diseases. Indeed, medicine in the next century can be expected to focus increasingly on DNA. The ability to synthesize, sequence, and perceive the meaning of DNA will be an essential tool in the clinical laboratory, the drug industry, and the research laboratory.
The development of detailed genetic maps of each of the 24 chromosomes will aid in the pursuit of specific disease genes. Physical maps of the genome are an essential intermediate step to obtaining the gene itself. Libraries of overlapping cloned DNA for which the position of each gene in the chromosome is known constitute appropriate physical maps. Once genes have been localized to individual clones, they will then be sequenced. As the wild-type sequences become available, this baseline information can be used in presymptomatic diagnosis of genetically-based diseases.
Key to the success of the process described above is the availability of rapid, accurate and affordable DNA sequencing techniques. One of the most widely acclaimed methods currently proposed for DNA analysis is a microchip that can be used for sequencing-by-hybridization (SBH) (Bains et al, J. Theor. Biol. 135:303 (1988); Drmanac et al, Genomics 4:114 (1989); Khrapko et al, FEBS Lett. 256:118 (1989)). In theory, a chip bearing a complete set of n-mer oligonucleotides would permit the sequencing of DNA by duplex formation with their Watson-Crick complements in a target DNA, with the only limitations being repeats of the same sequence and runs of identical bases longer than n.
In theory, the SBH method could be applied either with the probes immobilized and the target in solution (reverse blot) or vice versa. In fact, the initial experiments toward demonstrating this technology have used both. Light-directed synthesis (U.S. Pat. No. 5,143,854; Fodor et al, Science 251:767 (1991)), however, which permits the chemistry of DNA synthesis to be conducted in parallel at thousands of locations, requires probe immobilization. The number of sequences prepared using this technology far exceeds the number of chemical reactions required. In fact, for light-directed DNA synthesis of oligomers of length "l", the number of sequences prepared is 4.sup.1 but the number of steps required is only 4.times.l.
Recently, Pease et al (Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 91:5022 (1994)) have reported the results of initial efforts in preparing DNA chips through light-directed synthesis and in using them for mock sequencing experiments. Using phosphoramidite chemistry modified by the inclusion of the MeNPOC photoremovable group, Pease and colleagues have prepared arrays of 256 octamers (4 mixed nucleotide positions flanked by two CG clamps). They find that fluorescently-labeled target DNA binds selectively to its complement within the array. Some single-base mismatches, however, show as much as 20% of the fluorescence hybridization signal of the perfect complement. This results from the fact that hybridization is dependent on the exact sequences of the probes, the hybridization conditions, and the location of the mismatches (fraying at the 5' end is common in mishybridization (Wood et al, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 82:1585 (1985)). While mishybridization is readily manageable for targets that have only one complement within an array, it could make interpretation of the hundreds of hybridization spots that will be produced with full octamer or decamer arrays and Kb DNA targets very challenging.
A second novel method for high-throughput DNA sequencing has arisen based on reversible termination of primer extension. In accordance with this method, a DNA polymerase reaction is conducted with a primer, template, and four terminators that are conventional deoxynucleotides with a blocking group at the 3' end. No dNTPs are included. Only one blocked deoxynucleotide is incorporated based on the template/primer sequences and the fidelity of the polymerase. The identity of the incorporated terminators can then be determined by tagging them with differently-colored fluorophores. The blocking group is removed (under conditions that do not damage DNA) in order to provide free 3' end for another polymerase cycle. A reasonable strategy is the incorporation of the base specific color into the blocking group.
This method has a number of experimental pitfalls, the greatest being the reversibility of DNA polymerization in the presence of enzyme. This does not refer to the 5'.fwdarw.3' exonuclease activity that has been removed from many of the commercial polymerase preparations by engineering, but rather to the natural reversibility of chemical reactions. Under normal primer extension conditions, this reversal is invisible because the dNTPs that are present permit the degraded strand to be built back up. Even if there is only a small amount of reversal in each cycle, the accumulation of such errors becomes significant over the hundreds or thousands of cycles needed to sequence a template of significant length.
The present invention provides a new approach to the photochemical synthesis of nucleic acids and to the preparation of high quality arrays of oligomers that permit the rapid analysis of genes, including those wherein mutations result in disease. The invention also provides new photochemically removable protecting groups that can be used in the present approach to nucleic acid synthesis.

5'to 3' nucleic acid synthesis using 3'-photoremovable protecting group


An electronic musical instrument utilizes a memory unit containing sampled values of waveforms stored in separately addressable memory locations. A first waveform address bus and a second waveform data bus are both connected to the unit. A counter is connected at its output to the first bus and is connected at its input to both a third address bus and a fourth system data bus. Sampled values of waveforms are supplied to the third and fourth buses. Waveform data is read out of the second bus. An arrangement including a central processing unit, a random access memory and a read only memory is connected to the third and fourth buses. This arrangement together with the counter determines, according to the stored sampled values, the sequence in which the individual memory locations and the sound information stored in the locations should be read.

In one known type of electronic musical instrument, disclosed in German Patent Specification 29 26 548, a waveform generator, allowing a stored tone to dynamically change over into another stored tone, is described to create the sound in an electronic musical instrument. Further electronic instruments are described in the prior art referred to in German Patent Specification 29 26 548, namely, German "Auslegeschrift" 22 37 594, German "Offenlegungsschrift" 28 30 483, German "Offenlegungsschrift" 28 30 482 and U.S. Pat. No. 3,859,884.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,164,020 describes a programmable sound synthesizer, holding a multiplicity of sound data in a memory. The memory is read through an address generator, whose repeat frequency is controlled by an integrator. The rate of integration is in turn determined by a "tone number." Various sound parameters, such as frequency, waveform, envelope, force of stroke, fading, etc., can be entered. These sound parameters are, however, unchangeable constituents of the stored sound data. Thus the sound data are read cyclically in the numerical sequence of the addresses of the sound data entered. Thus, briefly, only pre-programmed tone sequences can be entered with freely programmable sound characteristics, which, however, can no longer be changed during reproduction; so that, strictly speaking, these are not musical instruments, but, like a gramophone record, only "canned sounds."
The objective of the invention is to improve the aforementioned type of electronic musical instrument so that it is fully and freely programmable, producing any sound, which is also changeable at the time the instrument is played.

Electronic musical instrument with memory read sequence control


A virtual space including a model in place of each user is displayed on a terminal of a user. About an item in which the user is interested, the level of interest is previously registered so that the figure of a model of the other user can vary depending on the level of the interest. For example, about a certain interesting item, if the other user is also interested in that item, the user's terminal screen provides a display of the other user's model differently from the ordinary figure of the model. If not interested, then it is displayed as the ordinary model. Thus, the user can readily find out a user he/she wants to meet.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a method for displaying information registered in a data base on a computer terminal via a computer network, and more particularly, to a display method in the case where a virtual space sharable by a plurality of users is displayed on a screen of the computer terminal of each user.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, a virtual space shared by computer users is provided in a computer network. When the user accesses the virtual space from a computer terminal via the network, the virtual space is displayed on a terminal screen. For example, a town is formed within the virtual space, and a three-dimensional model in place of the user registered previously exists there among. The model maybe, for example, a man figure, and may be a preferable animal figure.
The user operates the own terminal while viewing the screen, and can move the own model within the virtual space. The own model is brought into contact with another model within the virtual space, whereby the user can communicate with a user of another model by use of a chat or electronic mail. In this manner, the user can encounter the strange user by utilizing the virtual space, and communicate therewith.
However, the user encountered accidentally within the virtual space does not always have the common hobby or interest. In other words, in the case where the user desires to come upon a user having the common hobby and interest, it is very difficult to find out such users.

Information display method and information display system for finding another user in a plurality of users based upon registered information


The invention relates to the modelling of the interactions between an incident wave and an obstacle, in particular in the area of nondestructive testing. According to the invention, the surface of the obstacle is meshed and at least one source (Si) is allocated to each surface element (dSi). Boundary conditions are then calculated at each mesh cell of the obstacle and source values are deduced therefrom. On the basis of an interaction matrix and of these source values, a physical quantity representative of the interaction between the wave and the obstacle is estimated at any point of space.

The modelling of the interactions between a wave and an obstacle receiving this wave, such as a target placed in the responsive zone of a sensor, finds an advantageous application in nondestructive testing.
A method of modelling called "finite elements" is known consisting in applying a tiling of the three-dimensional space surrounding the obstacle and in evaluating the aforesaid interactions for all the tiles of the space.
Methods of computation by "finite elements" afford a solution to a problem posed in the form of partial differential equations. They are based on a representation of the space under study by an assemblage of finite elements, inside which are defined approximation functions determined in terms of nodal values of the physical quantity sought. The continuous physical problem therefore becomes a discrete finite element problem where the nodal quantities are the new unknowns. Such methods therefore seek to approximate the global solution, rather than the starting equations in the partial spatial derivatives.
The discretization of the space taken into account ensures that the latter is entirely covered by finite elements (lines, surfaces or volumes), this operation is called "meshing" in two dimensional space (2D) or "tiling" in three-dimensional space (3D). The elements involved are either rectangular or triangular in 2D, or parallelepipedal or tetrahedral in 3D. They may be of different sizes, distributed uniformly or otherwise over the surface.
In general, the physical quantity sought, such as an electrostatic potential or a pressure value, is known on the boundary of the domain. This boundary may be fictitious. Boundary conditions are imposed there. The potential is therefore unknown inside the same domain. A node is then defined as being a vertex of an element. The unknowns of the problem are therefore the values of the potential at each node of the domain as a whole.
By way of illustration, FIG. 6 of the prior art represents an exemplary surface, consisting of two materials M1 and M2, of different electromagnetic properties, and meshed by triangular elements each comprising three nodes Ai, Bi and Ci. The domain as a whole is delimited by a boundary F.
Once the mesh has been defined, several approaches exist for transforming the physical formulation of the problem into a discrete modelling by finite elements. If the problem is formulated through differential equations and consists in minimizing a functional, then a variational procedure is generally applied. This transformation leads to a matrix formulation which when solved gives the nodal solutions, the solutions at the non-nodal points being obtained by linear interpolation.
Nevertheless, such computations, in three dimensions, require considerable computing resources and generate very long computation times, despite the enhancement in the performance of software allowing the implementation of these computations.
Admittedly, 2D problems, often simplified by symmetry conditions that are advantageous for modelling only part of the geometry, are solved rapidly. However, this is not so for 3D problems, which are the most frequent. FIG. 6 shows how the fineness of the mesh, that is to say the ratio of the size of an element to that of the smallest detail of the domain, amplifies the number of nodes.
Consequently, the number of equations and of unknowns increases proportionally, and, hence, the computation time required for solving the problem. It is important to point out that the generation of the mesh, namely the discretization of the workspace, and the generation of the list of nodes consumes greater computation time than that required for solving the problem.
The present invention aims to improve the situation.

Method of evaluating a physical quantity representative of an interaction between a wave and an obstacle

Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - CNRS


Embodiments are disclosed that relate to enforcement of user policies in a multi-user interactive computing environment by end user review. For example, one disclosed embodiment provides, on a computing device, a method comprising receiving a notification of a current policy controversy, and sending information regarding the current policy controversy to each end user reviewer of a plurality of end user reviewers, each end user reviewer being a member of an enforcement federation of a plurality of enforcement federations. The method further comprises receiving enforcement decisions from one or more responding end user reviewers of the plurality of end user reviewers, and if the enforcement decisions received meet an enforcement threshold, then automatically enforcing a policy rule.

Multi-user interactive computing environments may utilize various policies that define permissible and impermissible behavior of end users. For example, a multi-user interactive computing environment that allows users to select user names may have policies regarding characteristics of permissible and impermissible user names. If one user makes a complaint that another user's user name is offensive, an administrative-level policy reviewer may review the asserted offensive user name against established user name policies to determine whether to take any enforcement action (e.g. rejection of user name) against the other user. Similar policies may be used to regulate other user actions.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


A trailer coupling has a removable unitary coupler-receiving element that includes both a ball configured to receive a spherical cavity coupler and a cylindrical neck configured to receive a drawbar eye. A latch is movable about a vertical axis between a closed position, where it engages the coupler-receiving element, and prevents removal of the eye from the neck, and an open position where it is separated from the coupler-receiving element and permits use of the ball. A locking mechanism locks the latch in its closed position and holds it against free movement from its open position. A trigger located in a finger-receiving cavity in the latch releases the locking mechanism. Because the latch rotates about a vertical axis, it can have a low profile and not extend substantially above the ball in the orientation.

This invention relates to a trailer coupling that will receive both a spherical cavity coupler and a drawbar eye.
There are two types of trailer couplings that are commonly used. For light loads a spherical cavity coupler is placed on a spherical ball. With heavier loads an annular drawbar eye is placed on a cylindrical pintle. The use of these two types of trailer couplings is not mutually exclusive, however, and in some applications it is desirable to accommodate both types of coupler elements on the same vehicle. While it is possible to place two trailer couplings on a vehicle, doing so is expensive and inconvenient.
Thelin, U.S. Pat. No. 3,963,266 attempts to overcome this problem with a duplex trailer coupling that accommodated both types of coupler elements. There are two difficulties with Thelin, however, which makes it less than an ideal solution to this problem. First Thelin places the drawbar eye around the spherical ball that carries the spherical cavity coupler. This creates point loading which causes excessive wear on both the drawbar eye and the ball. Secondly, the latch used by Thelin to prevent the drawbar eye from being displaced from the trailer coupling pivots about a horizontal axis. Thus the latch has to be raised to displace it from the ball in order to install or remove the drawbar eye or to use the trailer coupling with a spherical cavity coupler. In many applications there is not sufficient room to accommodate a trailer coupling of this type. Furthermore, when the device is used on a pickup truck, lowering the tailgate when the latch is in its raised position will cause the tailgate to hit the latch, potentially causing damage to both the latch and the tailgate. In addition, while the latch in Thelin prevents the drawbar eye from being displaced from the coupling element it does not prevent it from moving up and down relative to the ball. Since the ball is sized to snugly receive the drawbar eye, as the eye raises or lowers on the ball excessive clearance is created which causes excessive wear, and may create shock loading that could shatter the ball or eye.
The subject invention overcomes the foregoing problems with the prior art by providing a trailer coupling having a body that is attachable to a flat surface at the back of a towing vehicle. An arm located at the lower portion of the body projects rearwardly from the vehicle and has a coupler-receiving element attached to it. Preferably the coupler-receiving element is removably attached to the arm, and in a preferred embodiment this is accomplished by placing a threaded stud at the bottom of the coupler element through a hole in the arm and installing a nut on the stud. The upper portion of the coupler element is a spherical ball which is configured to receive a standard spherical cavity coupler. A cylindrical neck, which is configured to receive a standard drawbar eye, extends between the ball and the arm.
A latch, which is attached to the body, pivots about a vertical axis between a closed position where it contacts the coupler element and an open position where it is displaced from the coupler element. When the latch is in its open position the ball is exposed and the trailer coupling can be used with a spherical cavity coupler. Also when the latch is in its open position a drawbar eye can be placed on the coupler-receiving element. Once the drawbar eye is in place on the coupler-receiving element, the latch is moved to its closed position to prevent the drawbar eye from becoming displaced. The latch also holds the drawbar eye down on the neck where there is a large contact area, and wear is reduced.
In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the latch includes a locking element which positively locks the latch in its closed position and prevents free rotation of the latch out of its open position. The locking element is released by raising a trigger that is accessible through a finger-receiving cavity in the latch.
Accordingly, it is a principal object of the subject invention to provide a trailer coupling that receives both a spherical cavity coupler and a drawbar eye.
It is a further object of the subject invention to provide such a trailer coupling having a latch, that prevents inadvertent removal of the drawbar eye, which moves between its open and closed position by pivoting about a vertical axis.
It is a still further object of the subject invention to provide such a trailer coupling having a locking mechanism associated with the latch which positively locks the latch in its closed position and holds it from inadvertently being rotated out of its open position.
It is a further object of the subject invention to provide such a trailer coupling that utilizes a finger-operated trigger to release the locking mechanism when the latch is in its closed position.
It is a yet further object of the subject invention to provide such a trailer coupling in which the latch mechanism never needs to be raised substantially above the top of the ball that receives the spherical cavity coupler.
It is a yet further object of the subject invention to provide such a trailer coupling that has a replaceable coupler-receiving element that receives both the spherical cavity coupler and the drawbar eye.
The foregoing and other objectives, features and advantages of the present invention will be more readily understood upon consideration of the following detailed description of the invention taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.