The present invention provides method for break reminder and a display device. The display device includes a display unit; a clock counter; a distance estimator configured for detecting if the display device being used by a user, calculating distance between the user and a front of the display device, and generating a tracking signal if the distance is less than a predetermined distance; and a central processing unit configured for waiting for the tracking signal, resetting a worked time and a rested time when the tracking signal is received, signaling the clock counter to track the worked time, detecting if the worked time is less than a first predetermined time, and signaling the display unit to output the message prompt when the worked time is equal to or greater than the first predetermined time, thereby the present invention can prevent the user of the display device from fatigue.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for preventing users from fatigue and display device using the same, and more particularly to method for break reminder and display device using the same.
2. Description of Related Art
In the information age, computers plays an ever increasing important role for work or for entertainment. Computers have become a hi-tech product that we need greatly in our daily lives.
However, according to a medical research, people generally develop heath problems from long-term computer usage. Amongst computer repetitive stress injuries (CRSI), some of the most common are the computer vision syndrome (CVS) and the carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS), these are caused by viewing a display device too long, typing on a keyboard over long time periods, and clutching and dragging a mouse over long periods. Generally speaking, computer users who use a computer continuously more than two hours per day have high risks in developing CVS. Reduced blinking frequency from concentrating on the screen too long causes moisture of the eyes to vaporize quickly and causes eye dryness, and may further induce chronic conjunctivitis and xerophthalmia. The flickering of the screen may also aggravate eyestrain even further, causing poor eyesight to get worse. The users may often be affected by eyestrain, headache, and fatigue. The CTS occurs from repeated physical movements that damages tendons, nerves, muscles, and other soft body tissues along the arms. The thousands of repeated keystrokes and clutching and dragging the mouse over long periods slowly damage the wrists and may cause numbness and pain.
Those who suffer from the CVS and the CTS should get proper medical therapy immediately, otherwise, they would suffer permanent injury and/or lasting pain. However, compared with the time and money spent for the therapy, the CVS and the CTS are far easier to prevent than to cure. Doctors suggest that computer users should shorten the time spent on the computer and take regular breaks to prevent CVS and CTS.
Therefore, a heretofore unaddressed need exists in the industry to prevent the users of the display device from fatigue.

Method for break reminder and display device using the same

Hong Fu Jin Precision Industry (ShenZhen) Co., Ltd.


The present invention provides an egg-laying rate-improving agent for egg-laying hens, quails, or broiler breeders, the egg-laying rate-improving agent being characterized by comprising unheated cashew nut shell liquid, heated cashew nut shell liquid, anacardic acid, cardanol, and/or cardol.

Egg-laying hens (layers) receive not only nutritional care and disease management but also photoperiodic treatment and the like with an aim to allow egg collection once a day and eventually to increase their productivity. However, decrease in egg-laying rate and/or reduction in the quality of eggs, particularly in egg shell strength, are increasingly observed with aging, suggesting that the productivity of hens is inevitably reduced based on their physiology. There have been techniques using the physiology of hens for the purpose of improving the egg-laying rate and the quality of eggs through a fasting or low-nutrition treatment, such as forced molting and induced molting; however, several problems due to limited nutrition have been identified, including increase in death rate (mortality rate), deterioration in immune function, extremely slow recovery of egg-laying rate due to the nutrient restriction, and the like.
Non-Patent Document 1 describes in Section "(5) Induced molting methods and egg-laying rates derived therefrom" that an egg-laying rate of more than 85% in egg-laying hens after molting was achieved by about 30% of farmers and an egg-laying rate of not more than 90% in egg-laying hens after molting as achieved by only about 10% of the farmers even though the low-nutritional diet switching, in which a type of feed that causes a lower mortality rate as compared with other molting methods is continuously provided, was used. Moreover, Non-Patent Document 1 describes in Section "(6) Induced molting methods and mortality rates derived therefrom" that the mortality rate in egg-laying hens after molting was on average not less than 5.6% and a mortality rate of more than 3% covered 80% of the farmers even though the low-nutritional diet switching was used.
There have been cases where functional substances, including antioxidants, probiotics (Lactobacillus spp., Bacillus subtilis), alkaloids (for example, piperine), herbs (for example, allspice, clove) and monosaccharides, are fed to hens, in addition to improving the nutritional care, to solve the above-described problems; however, there still remains in the art a need for substances to increase the productivity further.
Patent Document 1 (JP H08-231410 A) describes a coccidiosis-relieving agent for poultry including chickens for meat, such as broiler chicken, the coccidiosis-relieving agent being characterized by comprising cashew nut shell liquid and/or anacardic acids as active ingredients/an active ingredient.
Patent Document 2 (JP2001-151675A) describes a feed for poultry including chickens for meat, such as broiler chicken, to prevent and/or treat coccidiosis, the feed being characterized by comprising as active ingredients cashew nut oil and/or anacardic acids as well as at least one selected from an organozinc compound, betaine and a Bacillus bacterium.
However, it was unknown that the provision of cashew nut shell liquid enabled egg-laying hens, quails, or broiler breeders to improve their egg-laying rate and egg-laying hens to decrease the death rate during molting.


A rate of rotation sensor is structured as a micromechanical component on the surface of a substrate. The rate of rotation sensor has a ring with drive elements and detection elements. The ring is made to oscillate by means of the drive elements, and the deformation of the ring which results from Coriolis forces is detected by the detection elements.

A micromechanical rate of rotation sensor is described in European Patent No. EP 461 761, which has a ring structure which can be excited to produce oscillations. The oscillation nodes are shifted by rotating the ring about its central axis. Detection elements which detect this shift are arranged in the oscillation nodes. The ring structure is formed out of a plate-shaped element, where the oscillating part is connected with the rest of the plate structure by means of spring elements. The plate structure can then be arranged between additional plates, in order to form means for exciting the oscillations or means for detecting the shift in the oscillation nodes.

Micromechanical rate of rotation sensor having ring with drive element and detection element


An integrated circuit packages comprises a printed circuit board, a non-metal connector, and a metal casing. The printed circuit board includes a ground ring around the non-metal connector. The metal casing substantially encloses the printed circuit board, and has an opening that allows access to the non-metal connector. The metal casing has a metal lip that makes physical and electrical contact with the ground ring of the printed circuit board. The metal casing may be used to help reduce EMI from a transmitter.

1. Field of the Invention
The described invention relates to the field of integrated circuits. In particular, the invention relates to reducing electromagnetic interference (EMI) from a transmitter.
2. Description of Related Art
A transmitter operating at high frequencies, such as 10 Ghz, emits electromagnetic (EM) radiation from its integrated circuit package. The EM radiation may interfere with other electronic equipment. Thus, reducing EMI from a high-frequency transmitter is important.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


An electronic device that identifies an environmental condition associated with a portal (such as a door or a window) is described. In particular, a sensor mechanism in the electronic device measures environmental signals associated with the portal, such as vibrations and/or acoustic waves. Then, an integrated circuit in the electronic device analyzes the measured environmental signals to identify the environmental condition. To facilitate the measurements, the electronic device may be mechanically coupled to the portal by an impedance-matching material, so that the vibrations and/or the acoustic waves are coupled to the electronic device. Moreover, the analysis may also be based on measured environmental signals received from one or more additional electronic devices that are mechanically coupled to the portal and/or may involve correcting the measured environmental signals for a mechanical transfer function associated with the portal based on a position of the electronic device on the portal.

1. Field
The described embodiments relate generally to an electronic device for monitoring a portal. More specifically, the described embodiments relate to techniques for determining an environmental condition associated with a portal.
2. Related Art
Trends in connectivity and in portable electronic devices are resulting in dramatic changes in people's lives. For example, the Internet now allows individuals access to vast amounts of information, as well as the ability to identify and interact with individuals, organizations and companies around the world. This has resulted in a significant increase in online financial transactions (which are sometimes referred to as 'ecommerce'). Similarly, the increasingly powerful computing and communication capabilities of portable electronic device (such as smartphones and tablets), as well as a large and growing set of applications, are accelerating these changes, providing individuals access to information at arbitrary locations and the ability to leverage this information to perform a wide variety of tasks.
Recently, it has been proposed these capabilities be included in other electronic devices that are located throughout our environments, including those that people interact with infrequently. In the so-called 'Internet of things,' it has been proposed that future versions of these so-called 'background' electronic devices be outfitted with more powerful computing capabilities and networking subsystems to facilitate wired or wireless communication. For example, the background electronic devices may include: a cellular network interface (LTE, etc.), a wireless local area network interface (e.g., a wireless network such as described in the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 standard or Bluetooth™ from the Bluetooth Special Interest Group of Kirkland, Wash.), and/or another type of wireless interface (such as a near-field-communication interface). These capabilities may allow the background electronic devices to be integrated into information networks, thereby further transforming people's lives.
However, the overwhelming majority of the existing background electronic devices in people's homes, offices and vehicles have neither enhanced computing capabilities (such as processor that can execute a wide variety of applications) nor networking subsystems. Given the economics of many market segments (such as the consumer market segment), these so-called 'legacy' background electronic devices (which are sometimes referred to as 'legacy electronic devices') are unlikely to be rapidly replaced.
These barriers to entry and change are obstacles to widely implementing the Internet of things. For example, in the absence of enhanced computing capabilities and/or networking subsystems it may be difficult to communicate with the legacy electronic devices. Furthermore, even when electronic devices include enhanced computing capabilities and/or networking subsystems, power consumption and battery life may limit the applications and tasks that can be performed.


This disclosure relates to a valve comprising a housing, an actuating shaft and a plurality of groups of valve body elements. The plurality of groups of valve body elements are disposed in the housing and capable of rotating in the housing. The actuating shaft is configured to selectively actuate at least one group of valve body elements in the plurality of groups of valve body elements to rotate. The valve is provided with a plurality of fluid passages therein, and the actuated at least one group of valve body elements can connect or disconnect at least one of the plurality of fluid passages. The valve provided by the present disclosure can control and switch more fluid passages when an output power of an actuating device is limited.

A plurality of fluid passages are usually provided in a cooling system of a vehicle, and are switched according to different needs to cool various heating components in the vehicle. One control method is switching fluid passages through a valve. The valve usually comprises a housing and a valve body. The housing has a plurality of openings, which are respectively used to connect a plurality of pipes in a coolant flow path. An exemplary valve body has a valve body passage capable of fluidly connecting the plurality of openings on the housing. The valve body can rotate in the housing, and through the rotation of the valve body, the relative position of the valve body passage in the valve body and an opening can be changed, so that the valve body passage can be connected to and disconnected from the openings on the housing, and different fluid passages can be formed accordingly to switch the coolant flow path.
The rotation of the valve body is usually actuated by an actuator. In order to prevent the coolant from leaking during the rotation of the valve body, corresponding sealing is required, especially a sealing element is required between each housing opening and the valve body. However, the presence of the sealing element will increase the frictional force borne by the valve body during rotation, and the actuator that actuates the valve body to rotate is required to have a higher output power to overcome the frictional force.
The existing actuator is generally a small motor with a limited output power. When the frictional force is too large, it is necessary to choose a motor with a higher power or a plurality of actuators. Especially with the development of new energy vehicles, coolant flow paths that need to be adjusted in a vehicle will increase, so openings and sealing elements on a housing of a multi-passage valve are required to increase accordingly, but the existing actuator is limited to power and is difficult to meet the requirement.


A method and apparatus for transporting portions of document images across a network in response to one or more requests are described. In one embodiment, the method comprises receiving a plurality of requests for portions of a JPM file and transmitting a JPM file in parts in response to the plurality of requests.

JPEG 2000
FIG. 1A-D illustrate operations performed by a typical JPEG 2000 system. Referring to FIG. 1A, an original image may be divided into regular tiles, such as tiles 101. These tiles are compressed independently. Thus, the coded data from the upper left tile is sufficient to reconstruct the upper left part of the image. Likewise, any region can be reconstructed by obtaining the data from all the tiles that intersect that region and decoding them.
A two-dimensional wavelet transform is performed on each tile. This leads to a set of wavelet coefficients grouped in subbands, such as subbands 102. One of the subbands is a low resolution version of the image—it is exactly the same image as would be obtained by operating a particular low pass filter on the entire image and subsampling. Importantly, that subband can be combined with other subbands to form intermediate resolution versions of the image. This is shown in FIG. 1C. Thus, a JPEG 2000 codestream provides access to images at low resolution, and resolutions larger by a factor of 2 horizontally and vertically, up to the full resolution of the image.
The wavelet transform coefficients are regrouped, or divided, into "precincts," such as shown in FIG. 1B. These precincts form an alternative mechanism to access spatial regions of an image. Tiles and precincts can both be used when compressing an image. If both are used, the tiles provide a coarse grain access to regions of the image, while the precincts provide access to more localized regions.
Finally, precincts are divided into code-blocks and these groups of wavelet coefficients are compressed with multiple passes, starting with the most significant bit and proceeding to the less significant bits. This is shown in FIG. 1D. These "coding-passes" remove statistical redundancy in a lossless manner. For example, large numbers of zero bits are replaced by much shorter codes. The fixed sized block of wavelet coefficients thus becomes a variable length segment of coded data. The first part of the segment is the most important part because it corresponds to the most significant bits of the wavelet coefficients. If the later parts of the coded data segment are not available to a decoder, an image can still be obtained, but it is just of lower quality.
A "codestream" is defined in JPEG 2000 Part 1 as consisting of a series of "marker segments" which are essentially two byte codes identifying the next bit of data in the codestream, followed by the data. The codestream contains all the entropy coded data for the image, and data describing the method, which should be used to decode the coded data. For example, the codestream contains information about the wavelet transform used, the size of tiles, precinct sizes, information about the number of resolutions, the order of packets in the file, etc. The codestream must contain all the parameters needed to decode the entropy coded data into image samples. The codestream may also contain information to provide rapid access to portions of the coded data, e.g., lengths of the packets.
A "file-format" is a wrapper for one or more codestreams. JPEG 2000 Part I defines a simple "JP2" file format. JPEG 2000 Part 2 defines the "JPX" format to store more complex information. JPEG 2000 Part 3 defines the "MJ2" file format for motion JPEG 2000.
File-formats typically provide "meta-data" associated with the image data contained in the codestream, e.g., audio, XML information, image capture conditions. The file format also commonly contains information about the color space of the decoded image data.
JPEG 2000 Part 6 defines the "JPM" file format for compound documents. There are also file-formats not defined by the JPEG 2000 committee that could contain JPEG 2000 codestream. PDF has been recently updated to allow JPEG 2000 codestreams. PDF and JPM are good file formats for documents with multiple pages.
JPIP
JPIP stands for JPEG 2000 Interactive Protocol and will become an international standard, ISO/IEC 15444-9. The JPEG committee is still working on this document, which is nearing the final draft stage. The current document is "15444-9 (JPIP) FCD Study Text 0.1" ISO/IEC JTC1 SC29JWG1 N2396.
JPIP defines a syntax a client can use to make requests to a server for portions of an image. JPIP also defines two new "media-types" that a server can use to return portions of a JPEG 2000 file or codestream. A key facet of JPIP is that it is meant to be interactive. Thus, there can be follow up requests for more data from the same image, and the returned data should not have to repeat data the client has already received.
JPIP Requests
JPIP defines several parameters that can be used by a client in making a request. These requests indicate the sub-image in which the client is interested. The requests also may provide information about what meta-data the client is interested in and information to control the type of response given by the server. The most important parameters for purposes of this disclosure are frame size, region offset, and region size.
The frame size parameter appears as "fsiz=128,128" in several examples, and indicates the size of the entire image the client wishes to use to access a region. If there is no region size parameter (as described below), the frame-size is simply the size of the image the client wants. For example, an image that is 512 by 512 samples and encoded with 4 levels of wavelet transform can be accessed with a frame size of 512 by 512, 256 by 256, 128 by 128, 64 by 64, or 32 by 32. In the first request to the server, the client may not know the actual frame-sizes available. In this case, the client can indicate a desired size and a rounding method, and the server will return the closest available size (the other parameters will be scaled to match the actual frame size used).
The region offset parameter might be used as "roff=64,64" and indicates that the client is not interested in the entire image, but only in a region beginning at the offset specified by the two values given in the request. The offset is relative to the request frame-size.
The region size parameter might be used as "rsiz=64,64" and indicates the size of the region desired by the client. Instead of providing the three parameters fsiz, rsiz, and roff, a client may indicate interest in file or server defined regions of interest (ROI) with the "roi" parameter. The roi parameter can be used to request a named region identified in one of the file format boxes. The value may be set to "dynamic" as in "roi=dynamic" to indicate that the server should choose the appropriate region based on any knowledge of the client.
Responses
JPIP responses can take three main forms: complete image file, tile-part stream also called JPT-stream, or precinct stream also called JPP-stream. The complete image file return type is essentially like returning a custom file that has been generated on the basis of the request. The two stream return types are compound responses that consist of a series of small "messages." Each message has a header, which identifies its type, its index within that type, the offset of the message into the "data-bin" with that type and index, and the length of the message. The "data-bins" can be thought of as representing all information a client might ever request about a resource on the server. In response to a single request a server might deliver a portion of several different data-bins. The messages typically do not contain a complete data-bin; instead they contain a portion of the next part of the data-bin that has not yet been sent to the client. Small message sizes allow data for different portions of the image to be interleaved, and thus a region specified by the client can grow uniformly in quality. Likewise, image data may be interleaved with meta-data. Providing the lengths of each message allows the stream to be elegantly terminated at the end of any message. This allows a server to stop responding to one request and begin responding to a new request on the same communications channel.
JPM
JPM is intended to provide storage for document images. One of the key benefits of JPM over other file formats commonly used to contain images compressed with JPEG 2000 is the ability to handle a large number of pages. In fact, the introduction to the JPM standard describes use of JPM to store an entire encyclopedia. Because of the ability to include other files, there can be many files storing the pages of the encyclopedia, but it is possible to "browse" from page 1 to the end, with a user agent stepping through all the necessary files.
All of the data in a JPM file appears in a "box". A box is an organizational unit that always contains a length and a type. From these two fields, any program or user accessing the file can determine the type. If the type is not understood by a decoder or unneeded for the particular task, the program or user can use the length to locate the next box. Many files can be decoded or otherwise used effectively without knowing all of the types of boxes. Some boxes only appear inside other boxes. Once again, the length field can be used to skip a box that is unknown or unneeded for the current task whether the box appears at the "file level" or inside another box. Some boxes contain data values that indicate the number of bytes from the beginning of a file to some data, usually another box, or a portion of a compressed codestream. These data values are often referred to as "pointers" because they indicate the location of something else. These data values are also often referred to as "offsets" because they indicate the distance in bytes from the beginning of a file.
Important Boxes
The JPM file format allows the use of many different box types. Some specific boxes are described in greater detail below.
Data Reference Box
The Data Reference Box lists all external files necessary to fully decode the current file. The Data Reference Box provides both a list of all other files that might be necessary to make full use of the JPM file and serves as a way to provide a short two-byte code for external data segments. Other data in a JPM file that makes use of data outside of the JPM file includes only a data reference id number, which is the number within the list of external references. Only the Data Reference Box contains the actual "path" or "URL" to another file (which might be quite long, and are certainly of different lengths). This feature makes it easy to change external references from one file to another, by updating only one box.
Contiguous Codestream Box
The Continuous Codestream box contains a complete codestream. The codestream is decoded by using normal JPM decoders to create a mask or image object. The codestream box itself does not indicate the purpose of the codestream; rather other boxes may contain a reference to a contiguous codestream box. Thus, the same codestream can be used for multiple objects perhaps on different pages.
Fragament Table Box
The Fragment Table box is an alternative way to address codestreams for layout objects. While the contiguous codestream box must contain the entire codestream in order, the Fragment Table box allows a codestream to be stored as small segments called fragments each in a different location. The Fragment Table box contains a list of fragments of the codestream. Each fragment must be contiguous, but the full codestream is obtained by concatenating all of the usually discontinuous fragments. The fragments can be stored within the same file as the Fragment Table box or in external files listed in the Data Reference box or both. Fragments within the same file are commonly in Media Data boxes.
Page Collection Box and Page Table Box
A Page Collection box is a way to group pages in a JPM file. The Page Collection box contains a Page Table box that is a list of pages and other Page Collection boxes. By including other page collections, a very large "document" can be represented. For example, the highest level page collection might represent a "library" with each of its page collections representing a "book" and each next level page collection representing a chapter, and the final Page Collection box listing pages in the chapter. No image data is contained in the Page Collection and Page Table boxes; they simply contain pointers to page boxes.
Page Box and Page Header Box
The Page box contains a set of other boxes including the Page Header box and Layout Object boxes for the page. The Page Header box contains information about the page: width, height, orientation, and color.
Layout Object Box and Layout Object Header Box
The Layout Object box contains the Layout Object Header box, object boxes, and optionally additional boxes. The Layout Object Header box contains fields with information about the layout object: identifier, height, width, horizontal and vertical offset (of the image data), and a style.
Object Box and Object Header Box
The Object box contains the Object Header box and optionally additional boxes. The Object Header box contains fields with information about the object (mask or image). The fields are: type, codestream indicator, horizontal and vertical offsets (of image data), offset of Contiguous Codestream box or Fragment Table box, length of Contiguous Codestream or Fragment Table box, and a data reference number which allows access to other files through the Data Reference box which is stored elsewhere in the file. The most important elements for this disclosure are the offset and length of the codestream boxes, because these elements need to be accessed to render the images.
Shared Data Entry Box
The Shared Data Entry box is designed to contain a box that is used repeatedly in the file. The box consists of an id value, and the shared data. Instead of including a box multiple times in different places in the JPM file, a Shared Data Reference box can be used, and the data within the shared data entry box will be used. It is anticipated by the standard that the contents will be a box. However, the data within a Shared Data Entry box can be anything at all, since it will not be read unless a Shared Data Reference box is used.
Shared Data Reference Box
A Shared Data Reference box consists solely of the length and type fields that all boxes contain, and an id field. The id field is used to identify the Shared Data Entry box that should be used in place of the Shared Data Reference box at the location of the Shared Data Reference box. For example, if the same layout objects were used in multiple pages of a file, the Layout Object Header box might be stored once in a Shared Data Entry box, then in each layout box within each page box that would normally contain a complete copy of the Layout Object Header box, a Shared Data Reference box can be used instead. The Shared Data Entry box that the Shared Data Reference box uses must appear in the same file as the Shared Data Reference box and before any Shared Data Reference box with the same id.
JPM File Structure
FIG. 5 shows an outline of an exemplary JPM file with the details being shown for boxes and offsets. The file corresponds to a possible encoding of the two-page document shown on the left side of FIG. 4 described later. FIG. 5 shows one line for each box in the file, in the order the boxes appear in the file. Box names beginning at the left hand side of FIG. 5 appear at the top level of the JPM file. Indented box names represent boxes that are sub-boxes of the first box above them that is closer to left side of FIG. 5. Required boxes are shown, but many optional boxes are not shown to avoid obscuring the present invention. Some field names within a box are shown on the line after the box name and appear in FIG. 5 in italics. Most field names are not shown at all, while many of those field names that contain offsets are shown. These are shown along with an arrows pointing to where the offset goes.
The particular file in FIG. 5 has all offsets pointing to objects beyond the current object, except for the pointers to the primary page collection box. This is a legal order, but is not required. For example, the Shared Data Entry boxes could immediately follow the Compound Image Header box, the Fragment Table box could follow the Shared Data Entry boxes, Page boxes could follow the Fragment Table boxes and Contiguous Codestream boxes, and/or the Page Collection box could appear last. In this ordering, all of the offsets would be to items already having occurred in the file. Note that while the offsets have been drawn as pointers, they are actually offsets from the beginning of the file, not from the current location in the file. Thus, all pointers to the primary Page Collection box have the same value.
In FIG. 5, each text like object has been encoded with a single codestream and stored in a Contiguous Codestream box. Each image like object has been coded with JPEG 2000, the JPEG 2000 codestream has then been split into a pair of Shared Data Entry boxes, and addressed with a Fragment Table box.
FIG. 6 shows information similar to FIG. 5 except that the specific order in the file is not shown (since this may vary), and only boxes at the top level of the file are shown. The pointers that are shown usually occur deeply nested inside the top level boxes as was shown in FIG. 5. However, FIG. 6 allows the "structure" of the file to be more plainly illustrated. Many operations performed in a JPM client server may be understood by considering the top-level file boxes and the overall structure in the file. FIG. 6 also has the codestream stored in a Media Data box rather than in a Shared Data Entry box.
If the offsets stored in the JPM file are to the first byte of the a box, then the arrows is shown pointing to the top of the box. If the offsets stored in the JPM file are to the contents of a box, and thus point to the bytes of the codestream rather than the containing box, then the arrows are shown pointing to the side of the box. In this case, it is possible that different offsets will address different points in a box. For example, the Fragment Table box with two arrows to the media data box would typically address different ranges of the media data box for each fragment.

Network access to partial document images


A method comprising identifying a source program to send a target program map interaction data set to a target program, identifying a target program map function set that includes at least one target program map function, identifying a source program map function set that includes at least one source program map function, determining a transfer map function set that is a set intersection of the target program map function set and the source program map function set, identifying a source program map interaction data set, determining a target program map interaction data set to include each source program map interaction data item from the source program map interaction data set that corresponds with at least one target program map function of the target program map function set, and sending the target program map interaction data set to the target program is disclosed.

As electronic apparatuses become increasingly prevalent and pervasive in our society, people increasingly utilize electronic apparatuses to view map information. Many users may utilize electronic apparatuses for purposes relating to viewing particular map information. As such, it may be desirable to configure an electronic apparatus such that the electronic apparatus facilitates viewing particular map information in an intuitive and simple manner.

Sending of map interaction data to a program


The present invention provides a phase change memory cell comprising (GeASbBTeC)1-X(RaSbTeC)X solid solution, the solid solution being formed from a Ge—Sb—Te based alloy and a ternary metal alloy R—S—Te sharing same crystal structure as the Ge—Sb—Te based alloy. A nonvolatile phase change memory cell in accordance with the present invention provides many advantages such as high speed, high data retention, and multi-bit operation.

In recent years, there has been a renewal of interest in phase change random access memory (PCRAM) as a promising candidate for next generation nonvolatile memory device because of many advantages such as non-volatility, fast operation property, process simplicity and possibility of multi-bit operation.
Traditionally, PCRAM employs a chalcogenide-based phase change material such as a stoichiometric Ge—Sb—Te alloy like Ge2Sb2Te5. A Ge—Sb—Te based alloy is capable of storing information in a binary form by electrically switching between the amorphous and crystalline states in a reversible manner.
Despite its merits as nonvolatile phase change memory material, however, a Ge—Sb—Te based alloy is disadvantageous as it tends to yield slow writing speed. For instance, it takes about 100 ns for the completion of the phase change from the amorphous (high resistance) to the crystalline (low resistance) states when a Ge—Sb—Te based alloy is employed. It takes ordinarily less than 100 ns in the reverse direction. On the other hand, conventional DRAM (dynamic random access memory), SRAM (static random access memory) and MRAM (magnetic random access memory) show the writing time of ˜50 ns, ˜8 ns and ˜10 ns, respectively. Therefore, efforts should be made if PCRAM is to be used for high speed applications.
In addition, there is a stability problem associated with thermal interference between adjacent memory cells.
To store information in a binary form, memory cell exploits the difference in electrical resistance between crystalline and amorphous states. Specifically, in order to write '1' state (reset state) in a single cell, an electric voltage or current pulse is applied between the top and bottom electrodes contacting a phase change material, which induces direct or indirect heating on the phase change material for melting thereof. Upon termination of the electric pulse, the molten phase change material is quenched to an amorphous state, thereby writing the state '1' in a single cell.
With density of PCRAM growing higher, binary data stored in amorphous memory cells may be corrupted with ease by unintended crystallization as a result of the heat generated in an adjoining memory cell which undergoes melting during a reset process thereof.
Nitrogen or silicon may be added to a Ge—Sb—Te based alloy for raising the crystallization temperature thereof. However, the addition of impurities may slow the crystallization process (B. J. Kuh et al, EPCOS 2005).
Further, integrating the memory device by sizing down the cell area is inherently bound by the limits of photolithographic techniques. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,414,271, it is disclosed that data can be stored in multi-bit forms by controlling the ratio between the amorphous and crystalline states in a single cell unit. However, it is extremely hard to control the dispersion between these two states.
Accordingly, it is imperative to find a way for storing multi-bit information in a single cell unit.

Phase change material and non-volatile memory device using the same

Korea Institute of Science and Technology

Seoul National University Industry Foundation


A portable table top formed from a base having multiple legs and brackets for accommodating various positions. Extension brackets are attached to side edges which engage a mounting tab slidably insertable into a cavity formed on each side edge of the base. A centrally positioned support having a first end pivotably mounted to a lower surface of the base provides a three-point support. Legs are provided if the base is to be used on flat table as an angled work surface.

Portable table tops are well known to the consuming public. A portable table top is typically an adjustable platform that can be placed in various positions to operate as a lap desk or elevated platform on an existing tabletop. The platform provides an area for placement of reading books, computers, writing materials, food stuffs, or anything else that an individual may want placed before them on a desk type support. Unfortunately, the weight of a portable table top resting on an individual's lap or legs can be uncomfortable. The heat build-up from a platform resting on the individual's lap or legs can quickly make use of the platform most uncomfortable.
Portable table tops are also used in automobiles as many industries require employees to work in the field. For instance, contractors may utilize their vehicle to operate as a mobile office wherein a writing platform is beneficial if not a necessity. All known computer desks that attach to a vehicle steering wheel is either not positioned ergonomically or take up too much room because car seats often do not go back far enough to use them.
In many instances, an individual may wish to use the platform while resting in an arm chair and then use the platform in driver's seat of an automobile. In such instances, the platform needs to be adjustable to provide a level, stable platform with sufficient spacing to enable ergonomic positioning to avoid the aforementioned uncomfortable positions caused by a conventional lap desk with provisions for securing a computer thereto to prevent accidents when moving it.
What is lacking in the art is a platform that can be adjusted to span the distance between chair arm rests, attached to a vehicle's steering wheel in an ergonomic position despite the limited room, or adopted to operate as an elevated platform when set over a conventional table top, sofa or bed.


A system including an apparatus and method for dissolving powder into a lid is disclosed. The apparatus includes a powder supply device which supplies powder, such as a water soluble resin polymer which is to be dissolved in water, to a powder and air mixing chamber. Pressurized air, at a low pressure, is mixed with the powder to provide an air and powder mixture. The pressurized air and powder mixture is supplied to the bottom of a powder and liquid mixing tank, below the surface of the liquid. A mechanical mixer gently agitates the liquid while the low pressure powder and air mixture is supplied to the mixing tank, to assure generally uniform distribution and dissolving of the powder in the liquid.

(1) Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an apparatus and method for mixing dry powders in a liquid and more particularly, to an apparatus and method by which a water soluble powder or polymer, may be directly and uniformly dissolved in water in high concentrations without excessive agitation.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
The reduced drag observed in liquid flows when small quantities of polymer are present in the fluid has created a need for mixing the polymer powder uniformly in the carrier fluid. Water soluble resin (WSR) polymers such as Polyox.TM. brand of polyethylene-oxide, (trademark of Union Carbide), have been used for many years in such a drag reducing role and have developed a good performance record. In the past, however, WSR polymer mixing was a two step process. First, the powder is dispersed in glycerol (in which Polyox will not dissolve), then the Polyoxglycerol slurry is introduced into the carrier fluid (usually water).
At the present time, however, glycerol which is utilized as the emulsion fluid, is considered a hazardous material, requiring an environmental impact statement for any technique which ejects or utilizes glycerol as a drag reducing agent. This is operationally as well as cost prohibitive, and has lead to a requirement for mixing the polymer directly into the carrier fluid which in many cases is fresh water.
In the direct mixing prior art, the mixing of the polymer has been accomplished by mixing the polymer powder with water by hand, carefully and slowly stirring the solution until the necessary concentration was reached. This is extremely difficult because for a uniformly distributed solution of concentrated polymer and water, the local molecular concentration during mixing cannot exceed 1% percent at anytime. When the local concentration exceeds 1%, the polymer coagulates into a very viscus gum which will not dissolve easily into the solution without employing high shear mixing techniques.
The drag reducing effectiveness of the polymer depends on the high molecular weight, or size, of the long chain polymer molecules. If the long chains are broken, as can occur through high shear mixing, the drag reducing performance of the solution is drastically diminished. Hence, there is a need for a low shear, WSR polymer water mixing device and method which can disburse the polymer more sufficiently to keep local molecular concentration below 1%.
Prior art devices and methods for directly mixing powders or suitable water soluble resin polymers into water include U.S. Pat. No. 4,077,612 which pre-wet the resin powder in a turbulent pre-wetting chamber, and then discharge the wetted resin into a mixing vat above the surface of the water, such that the wetted resin falls down into the water.
Another prior art device and method includes the type disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,752,446 which completely dissolves the resin in turbulent mixing chambers by providing a stream of air carrying resin particles which is turbulently carried in a spray of water.
A further prior art device such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,685,810, by Sakuichi, et al. uses a high pressure air feed to feed the powder resin into a water vat below the surface of the water using high pressure jets. The high pressure jets inject the powder resin into the water and agitate the water to mix the resin with the water. A single, high pressure jet is not sufficient, however, to assure local concentrations do not exceed 1%. In addition, at high polymer concentrations, Non-Newton effects reduce air bubble breakdown, allowing dry powder to escape through the upper surface. This requires additional low level agitation and an evenly distributed array of turbulent jets in the tank.
Due to the violently turbulent nature of the mixing of the above prior art devices, high sheer stresses are created that breakdown the long chains of polymers in the resin resulting in a solution with drastically diminished drag reducing capabilities.

Method and apparatus for dissolving powder in a liquid

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


The present invention comprises: a spool (10); a clamper (22); a torch electrode (31); a high-voltage power source circuit (30); a non-bonding detection circuit (40); a first changeover switch (50) switching a connection between the spool (10) and the high-voltage power source circuit (30) or the non-bonding detection circuit (40); and a relay (53) turning on/off a connection between the clamper (22) and a spool side of the first changeover switch (50), and comprises a control part (60) that sets the first changeover switch (50) to the high-voltage power source circuit side and turns off the relay (53) to generate electric discharge, and that sets the first changeover switch (50) to the non-bonding detection circuit side and turns on the relay (53) to perform non-bonding detection. Due to this configuration, electric corrosion of a wire clamper can be suppressed and non-bonding detection can be carried out with a simple configuration.

A wire bonding apparatus that connects between electrodes of devices such as semiconductor chips disposed on a circuit board and leads of a circuit board with a metal wire is frequently used. Wire bonding is a method in which a free air ball is formed at a front end of a wire by an electric torch, the free air ball is bonded to an electrode of a device by a capillary, then the capillary is looped, the wire is pressed against a lead of the circuit board by the capillary, and thereafter the wire is pulled up in a state of being gripped by a clamper to cut the wire. The free air ball is formed by clamping the wire with the clamper, applying a high voltage for forming a free air ball to the wire, and generating electrical discharges between the wire and the electric torch to melt the wire. At this time, there are cases in which secondary electrical discharges are generated between the clamper clamping the wire and the wire and this causes electrolytic corrosion on a surface of the clamper. When scratches are made on the surface of the clamper, a force of the clamper acting to grip the wire may be decreased, or a surface of the wire may be damaged by the scratches on the clamper due to the electrolytic corrosion. For this reason, it has been proposed to provide a clamper for electrical connection separately from the clamper for wire cutting (see, for example, Patent Literature 1).

Wire bonding apparatus, circuit for wire bonding apparatus, and method for manufacturing semiconductor device


A technique for replicating file systems to any number of targets includes obtaining a writeable snapshot of a file system on a source, performing cloud tiering of files in the snapshot, replacing the file contents of the snapshot with stubs pointing to the cloud, and generating a namespace backup of the snapshot that includes directories and stubs. The source system ships the namespace backup to the cloud, allowing any authorized target system to restore from the namespace backup to a local file-system replica, such that contents of the cloud-tiered files are made accessible on the target system from the restored namespace via the stubs.

Data storage systems are arrangements of hardware and software in which storage processors are coupled to arrays of non-volatile storage devices, such as magnetic disk drives, electronic flash drives, and/or optical drives. The storage processors service storage requests, arriving from host machines ("hosts") or host applications, which specify blocks, files, and/or other data elements to be written, read, created, deleted, and so forth. Software running on the storage processors manages incoming storage requests and performs various data processing tasks to organize and secure the data elements on the non-volatile storage devices.
Data storage systems commonly perform replication to establish multiple copies of file systems, which may be useful for backup, failover, load balancing, and disaster recovery. Storage systems may perform replication locally or over arbitrary distances. A typical replication session requires close coordination between a source data storage system and a target data storage system, where the source hosts the file system to be replicated and the target maintains a replica. The source and target work cooperatively to transfer data and keep the replica approximately current with the file system at the source.

Replicating file systems via cloud storage


Rotary actuator arc compensation correction method and apparatus are provided for a direct access storage device (DASD). A reference feedforward correction signal is generated at each of a plurality of sectors around a predetermined track on a disk surface. A specific selected track is identified, and both magnitude and phase of the generated reference feedforward correction signal are modified to correct for the arced trajectory caused by the rotary actuator at the specific selected track. Improved actuator servo control is provided by using pseudo sector compensation to interpolate the feedforward correction signal between servo sectors.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to a method and apparatus for rotary actuator arc compensation correction in a direct access storage device (DASD).
2. Description of the Prior Art
Computers often include auxiliary memory storage units having media on which data can be written and from which data can be read for later use. Disk drive units incorporating stacked, commonly rotated rigid magnetic disks are used for storage of data in magnetic form on the disk surfaces. Data is recorded in concentric, radially spaced data information tracks arrayed on the surfaces of the disks. Transducer heads driven in a path toward and away from the drive axis write data to the disks and read data from the disks.
All DASD units must have a method to position each data head over the proper radial location to write a track and again, to position it very close to the same location to read the track. With the higher level files using a voice coil type of actuator, a feedback mechanism must be provided to locate and stably hold the head on a given track. Typically, track accessing and track following is provided utilizing a magnetically written pattern in the DASD unit. A dedicated servo system employs one surface of one of the disks in the DASD on which to have all the tracking and access information. A sector servo system uses small portions of tracks between each or between several sectors on each track of each data surface to provide the tracking and access information. A hybrid servo system uses both to obtain advantages of each type of servo.
The degree of tracking accuracy, i.e., the ability of the actuator servo to keep the head position discretely over the track, is governed by two factors. One factor is spacial (space), the other is temporal (time). The spacial factor corresponds to the number of servo sectors N around the track, which is a function of the linear recording density and the fixed block data format. The temporal factor corresponds to the time between servo sectors or the sampling period, which is controlled by the rotational disk velocity (RPM).
Track misregistration (TMR) error can be separated into two major components, repeatable or synchronous with disk rotation and non-repeatable or asynchronous with disk rotation. The repeatable TMR component, which can be large in case of a disk slip, can be reduced by correction compensation. A correction for radial track misregistration (TMR) versus radius is required for a DASD with a rotary actuator when tracks are written approximately uniformly on the rotary arc rather than in the radial direction. Both the gain and phase effects with radius should be compensated. Both gain and phase effects with radius produce comparable amounts of TMR error in the system.
In DASD with a rotary actuator, the head does not move in a radial direction. For many disk drives, the skew angle of the head has the back end of the head further out on the disk than the front when the head is at the inner radius. The skew gets progressively larger at larger radii. This is used to advantage in the drives by writing the tracks nearly uniformly on the arc that the head transverses from the inner radius to the outer radius. Due to the larger skew angles, the written tracks are physically smaller near the outer radius than near the inner radius. The positioning of the tracks on the arc causes the radial track pitch to be smaller at the outer radii than at inner radii, which is consistent with the smaller written tracks.
A radial movement of a disk, such as that due to disk slip, or other vibrations producing an apparent out-of-round for the track, moves the disk the same physical distance at any radius. However, in the servo system, the distance is measured in fractions of a pitch. Typically this distance is in 1/512 of a customer track pitch. Since the head is moved at the skew angle for a given radius, the head must be moved further than the radial movement of the disk, and this amount is more significant at the outer radii where the skew angle is larger than at inner radii.
As a result, any compensation for radial TMR that is determined at one radius in a given number of units in the servo system will not be the same value at other radii. For example, a difference between the outside diameter (OD) and the inside diameter (ID) can be about 7%. At progressively higher track density this has some significance as an error in the corrections. Also, when a prewritten servo disk is used, there can be significant repeatable runout, thus increasing the magnitude of the error.
In known disk files which used dedicated servo control, it was necessary to add a reference profile to correct for runout due to disk slip or relative thermal motion between each head and the corresponding tracks on the data surface. These reference profiles, measured for each data surface, would have been correct if a linear actuator was used, since a linear actuator will normally follow a radial trajectory on a disk. On the other hand, a rotary actuator follows an arc rather than a radial line on the disk, thus there will be a phase error between the track where the runout was measured and any other track.
Known feedforward or profile compensation techniques used for rotary actuators to correct for runout or disk slip have a systematic error, for example, such as, up to 10% of the runout for 3.5" DASD caused by the arc made by the product head. A disk slip and/or imbalance will occur in a radial direction, and not along the head arc, thus the measured profile will only be correct at the track or cylinder of measurement. All other tracks will have an incorrect profile for optimal runout compensation.

Method and apparatus for rotary actuator arc compensation correction in a direct access storage device

International Business Machines Corporation


Embodiments are provided for identifying transitory WiFi users and providing a differential treatment of such users in terms of delaying associating steps between user stations (STAs) and an access point (AP). A transitory user refers to a user or user device that connects to a WiFi AP but does not run applications that require association or assigning IP addresses, such as short-term or temporary connected WiFi users that are on the move. In an embodiment, a STA connects to an AP. Upon the STA indicating its transitory behavior to the AP or the AP detecting criteria of transitory behavior of the STA, the STA obtains a delay time value from the AP. The STA then delays sending an association request to the AP, or alternatively, the AP delays handling the association request from the STA in accordance with the delay time value.

In densely populated public areas, such as shopping malls, train stations, and airports, passing-by WiFi users may remain in the Access Point (AP) coverage for relatively short durations. A station (STA) refers to a wireless device that has an active WiFi interface. In many cases, the STAs of such shortly connected or "transitory" user have no data exchange running applications that would require WiFi association or resource consuming WiFi protocol exchanges with the AP. However, typically the STAs may still perform unnecessary network discovery, association, and Internet Protocol (IP) address allocation. This leads to increased WiFi signaling overhead, reduced air channel availability, overuse of network resources, and exhaustion of IP addresses. There is a need for mechanisms that resolve such issues and handle WiFi users that do not need to associate or perform unnecessary steps with the AP.

System and method for association of transitory WiFi users


A shock wave gauge (20) is made from a piece of pure-quartz glass rod (22), or other suitable transparent mineral material. A segment (38) of the rod is uniformly heated above its melting point. The heated segment is then drawn away from a non-heated body segment, forming an optical fiber thread (26). The thread is thinned to a desired size while the rod material is still above its melting point. Upon cooling, the fiber optic thread is cut to a desired length. The body segment (24) of the rod and fiber optic thread (26) drawn therefrom comprise the gauge. The gauge is preferably assembled inside of a housing (34) to protect the thread, with at least one end (24') of the body segment protruding out from the housing. In use, a shock wave impacts the exposed end of the body segment. The pressure of the shock wave causes the temperature of the rod material to rise by an amount proportional to the pressure. The impact of the shock wave also causes a light pulse to be emitted by the rod having a wavelength that is a function of the temperature. The light pulse travels out the formed fiber optic thread and is optically coupled to remote processing apparatus (92), which apparatus analyzes the wavelength of the emitted pulse, and hence provides a measure of the pressure of the shock wave.

The present invention relates to the measurement of strong shock waves, such as shock waves generated during an earthquake, volcanic activity, explosives testing, strong impacts or collisions, and nuclear testing. More particularly, the invention relates to an optical gauge or sensor that may be used to reliably measure shock amplitude for yield verification determination, or other purposes, in environments or conditions where conventional shock gauges or pressure sensors are ineffectual.
For purposes of this application, a "shock wave" is a compression wave produced by a sudden change in pressure and particle velocity. If the sudden change in pressure and particle velocity (hereafter "disturbance") is small, the result is an ordinary sound wave. If the disturbance is severe, however, such as occurs with a massive body rushing rapidly through the air or with an explosion, the result is a definite discontinuity called a strong shock wave. The passage of a strong shock wave through a solid or fluid can redistribute atoms, change the levels of electron energy, and alter the internal energy balance.
There is a frequent need in the art to measure strong shock waves. For example, during nuclear underground testing, it is desirable to verify the yield of the explosion, i.e., how much energy was released, in order to verify compliance with applicable international treaties that limit the use and testing of nuclear devices. See, e.g., "Seismic Verification of Nuclear Testing Treaties'" Office of Technology Assessment (Gregory E. Van Der Link, Project Director) (Library of Congress 88-600523, 1988), hereafter "Seismic Verification".
Yield verification measurements are typically made by measuring the time of arrival (TOA) and physical force associated with the shock wave created by the nuclear explosion. Such measurements are made at various points and distances surrounding the point of origin of the explosion. Unfortunately, conventional sensors, such as piezoelectric crystals, are limited in such measurements because the electrical wires used to couple the sensors to appropriate instrumentation apparatus are destroyed or rendered ineffective (e.g., through electrical pickup of noise associated with the blast). What is needed, therefore, is a sensor or gauge that can withstand strong shock waves and reliably signal appropriate instrumentation apparatus of the sensed force.
The measurement of the source yield on underground tests for the purpose of yield verification has been based, in large part, on the use of TOA measurements using a technique known as "Continuous Reflectometry for Radius verses Time Experiments" (CORRTEX), described generally in the aforecited Seismic Verification reference. In recent years, the CORRTEX technique has been augmented by a particle velocity measurement technique, referred to as KRATZ. The KRATZ gauge is a particle velocity gauge that operates on the principle of embedding a static magnetic field generator in the shock medium and measuring its relative displacement during the shock. A magnesium plate with a current coil embedded in it having an overall density of the shock medium is embedded in the shock media. A magnetic field is established around the current coil prior to shock arrival. Nearby are placed pickup coils that are stationary relative to the magnesium plate displaced during shock arrival. These coils detect a change in magnetic field intensity as the plate moves and thereby can determine the motion of the plate. Since the plate is well matched to the shock medium, the plate can be assumed to be at the particle velocity at that point. These measurement techniques generally assume that valid data, e.g. noise-free data, has first been obtained. Unfortunately, valid data cannot always be obtained due to the problems mentioned herein.
For example, when making international yield verification measurements, there is a requirement that an anti-intrusion switch be coupled to the seismic sensor or gauge to transiently disconnect the gauge prior to zero time. (Note: "zero time" is the precise moment of the detonation that creates the disturbance that causes the shock wave.) Unfortunately, most sensors known in the art for sensing a strong shock wave, e.g., flat pack stress gauges, are "active" gauges, meaning that they require operating power before, during and after sensing the shock wave. In addition to the electrical noise pickup problems that accrue whenever operating power is coupled to the active gauge over conventional wires, the use of active gauges is not particularly amendable to the use of anti-intrusion switches. Hence, what is needed is a purely passive shock gauge that does not require any operating power before, during, or after a shock measurement, and which is thus more amenable to the use of anti-intrusion switches.
Additionally, prior art shock gauges, e.g., flat pack stress gauges, only provide an output electrical signal indicative of the magnitude of the sensed force, and the time at which the force was sensed. Unfortunately, the transmission of this signal to a remote location where the signal can be processed results in a loss of signal strength due to the normal losses associated with an electrical transmission line or cable. associated with the impact of the shock wave, in addition to pressure and TOA data. Such other data may include, for example, thermodynamic data associated with the medium as the shock wave passes therethrough. Heretofore, other sensors adapted to sense the other parameters of interest, e.g., temperature, have had to be employed if such data was to be collected. The use of such other sensors in an environment subjected to strong shock waves is subject to the same problems as is the use of active shock gauges, as described above. Therefore, it would be desirable if a single passive gauge could be employed that provided all or most of the data of interest, e.g., pressure, TOA, and thermodynamic/hydrodynamic data, and if such data could be transmitted to a location removed from the gauge location without appreciable lose in signal strength, and without being susceptable to electrical noise.
One further problem associated with the use of any gauge is the problem of "gauge inclusion". Gauge inclusion relates to the problem of having the gauge itself influence the measurement. For example, if a normal-sized, mercury bulb, thermometer is inserted into a thimble full of water, the temperature of the thermometer prior to the insertion will likely raise or lower the temperature of the water, depending upon the initial temperature of the thermometer, thereby providing a "false" temperature reading of what the water temperature was prior to the insertion. Similarly, if a shock gauge is placed in a medium through which a shock wave is to be measured, the shape, size and material of the shock gauge can influence the manner in which the shock wave propagates, just like a boulder in a creek diverts the flow of water in the creek. A flat pack stress gauge, for example, typically includes a flat plate designed to be positioned perpendicular to the direction of propagation of the shock wave, thereby creating a potentially significant gauge-inclusion interference. Further, such a flat pack stress gauge is made from a material different than that of the material through which the shock wave to be measured is propagating. Hence, the problem of gauge inclusion with a flat pack stress gauge is heightened. What is needed, therefore, is a shock wave gauge that is made from the same or similar material as the medium through which the shock wave is propagating, and that can assume a shape so as to minimize interfering with or altering the shock wave propagation, thereby minimizing the problems associated with gauge inclusion.

Science Applications International, Inc.


A composite fabric comprises perforated expanded low density polyethylene foam that is mechanically attached to two opposing facing layers, at least one of which outer facing layers is a non-woven material. The mechanical attachment of the perforated expanded low density polyethylene foam layer to the outer facing layers may be through stitching or quilting; through adhesive; or through thermal bonding. The composite fabric provides a textile with exceptional buoyancy, cold-resistant and water-resistant properties and which can be easily handled by conventional textile manufacturing processes.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a breathable composite fabric material used generally in forming apparel.
2. Background Information
The term fabric, as used herein, refers to any material made through weaving, knitting, crocheting, or bonding (such as non-woven material). The words textile and cloth are used in textile assembly trades (such as tailoring and dressmaking) as synonyms for fabric. However some would provide that there are subtle differences in these terms. Some definitions of the term textile refer to any material made of interlacing fibers, while the term fabric has been defined as referring to any material made through weaving, knitting, crocheting, or bonding, and cloth has been defined as referencing a finished piece of fabric. The terms textile, cloth, fabric are used interchangeably herein. The term apparel in this application refers to clothing. Clothing, in general, is worn for safety, comfort, and modesty and to reflect religious, cultural and social meaning.
As further background for the present application, non-woven is the term used in the textile manufacturing industry to denote fabrics, such as felt, which are neither woven nor knitted. Non-woven materials are typically manufactured by putting small fibers together in the form of a sheet or web, and then binding them either mechanically, with an adhesive, or thermally such as by applying binder that may be in the form of powder, paste, or polymer melt and melting the binder onto the web by increasing temperature.
Non-woven materials are often produced from man-made fibers. Two synthetic polymers dominate the market: polypropylene (PP) and polyesters (mainly PET). Nonwovens are often application-designated as either durable or disposable. For example, nonwovens used as house-wraps to prevent water infiltration are generally considered as durable nonwovens. Nonwovens used as facings on baby diapers are generally considered as disposable or single-use nonwovens. Horticultural applications include both frost and insect protection applications.
Textile manufacturing is one of the oldest human industries. It has been suggested that the oldest known textiles date back to about 5000 B.C. The industrialization of the textile industries is often referenced as a leading or driving force in the industrial revolution. The advancement of textile manufacturing is spurred by new fabrics or fabric composites that improve the final product and/or the manufacturing process.
In regards to improvements to textile fabrics, it has been noted in U.S. Pat. No. 4,746,564, which is incorporated herein by reference, that apparel possessing buoyancy, cold-resistant and waterproof properties are highly desirable in a multitude of situations. Military personnel equipped with uniforms and jackets having all of these properties would find them advantageous in a number of situations. For example, a soldier's maneuverability in rough terrain under adverse conditions would be greatly enhanced by apparel which was both cold-resistant to protect the wearer from the elements and simultaneously facilitated crossing a river or fording a stream due to its buoyant and waterproof properties. Mountain climbers and hikers would find such garments similarly advantageous, where crossing a river, dealing with a flood, or resisting the cold are all potential encounters. To achieve their greatest utility, such garments must not only possess these various properties, but they must also be comfortable and not bulky or cumbersome.
It has been noted that water sports enthusiasts would also find such garments of particular advantage. Indeed, for many activities, garments possessing buoyant, cold-resistant and waterproof properties would be ideal and find great utility.
It is known to provide various garments with foamed materials for thermal insulation. U.S. Pat. No. 2,976,539, which is incorporated herein by reference, discloses a thermally-insulated garment having an expanded, closed-cell cellular material as a lining, preferably polyvinyl chloride. The garment is thick and cumbersome and does not possess sufficient buoyancy to support a person's weight in water.
Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 3,511,743, which is incorporated herein by reference, discloses a thermal insulation laminate for space and diving suits whose core is an open or closed-cell sponge or foam. A fluid impermeable rubber or plastic skin is necessary. The laminate gives moderate mobility, but is still fairly cumbersome and does not have sufficient buoyancy to serve as a life-saving device.
Polyethylene foams have been suggested as insulation or fillers for life rafts and jackets. U.S. Pat. No. 3,067,147, which is incorporated herein by reference, suggests a low density polyethylene foam for such a purpose which is processed with 1,2-dichlorotetrafluoroethene as a foaming or blowing agent. The polyethylene and blowing agent are heated under pressure and explosively extruded into the atmosphere to form an expanded cellular mass. The product is bulky and cumbersome when used in practice.
Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 3,819,543, which is incorporated herein by reference, discloses molded chlorinated, cross-linked polyethylene foam for use in producing floats and linings for clothing. Various known blowing and cross-linking agents are suggested for use by this reference. The molded products are thick and cumbersome.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,746,564 and 4,952,352, which are incorporated herein by reference, attempted to address these deficiencies and described a thin, lightweight material for use as a liner for garment and outdoor equipment which possesses a combination of superior buoyancy, cold-resistant and water-resistant properties, without hampering the mobility of the wearer. However, the superior properties exhibited with the fabric disclosed in these patents could not be fully utilized as these fabrics required special handling and skill in the apparel manufacturing, which greatly limited their introduction into, and adoption by, the textile industry at large. A further drawback with these solutions was essentially a complete lack of moisture vapor transmission or permeability (also generally referred to as "breathability").
It is an object of the present invention to address the deficiencies of the prior art discussed above and to provide an efficient breathable composite fabric material used generally in forming apparel that can be produced in a cost effective manner and can be easily utilized in the textile industry.


A system performs an electronic surveillance in a packet-switched network. The system includes a first card (300), a second card (400), and an electronic surveillance device (120). The first card (300) stores first data identifying a first operational mode and second data identifying a time period. The second card (400) stores activation information. The electronic surveillance device (120) reads the first card (300) and conditions itself for operating in the first operational mode for the specified time period. The electronic surveillance device (120) also reads the second card (400) and performs a packet capture operation in accordance with the first operational mode for the specified time period in response to reading the second card (400).

The Communications Assistance to Law Enforcement Act (CALEA, Public Law 103-414) requires service providers to support lawful authorized electronic surveillance (LAES) activities as specified in United State Codes (U.S.C.) Titles 3, 18, 47, and 50. In packet-switched networks, there has been conflict between the requirements of law and the practical technical implementation of electronic surveillances. Specifically, the Federal Communications Commission, Third Report and Order (August 1999), permits an interim solution to law enforcement where the 'full content' of packet-switched communications can be captured and post-processing minimization performed on the communications to meet the legal limits of surveillance analogous to a pen register/trap and trace type surveillance (where the surveillance is limited to collecting From and To portions of e-mails, a list of web sites visited, or other types of "header" information) defined in U.S.C. Title 18.
Current electronic surveillances are performed by Carnivore, a system developed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. This system is not satisfactory, however, to a number of privacy groups and civil libertarians due in part to its intrinsic functional capability to exceed the scope of Title 18 (pen-mode) surveillances in packet-switched networks. The Carnivore system captures full packets and then breaks the packets down to obtain the addressing information that is contained in the packets' headers while at the same time relying on the trustworthiness of the law enforcement agent(s) performing the surveillance to not look at the message content of the packets. Moreover, the Carnivore system fails to provide an audit capability. Thus, the law enforcement agency that is conducting the surveillance has no way to show that the user settings for Carnivore correspond to those allowed in the warrant. There is also no way to identify which agent was at fault should Carnivore be used for illegal electronic surveillances.
Therefore, there exists a need for systems and methods that improve the performance of law-authorized electronic surveillances.

Systems and methods for performing electronic surveillance


Two wafers of single-crystal silicon are used to produce a bonded substrate having a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) structure. In a principal surface of a first wafer, a number of first insulator film patterns of equal thickness art formed for isolation of semiconductor devices to be fabricated on the bonded substrate. Simultaneously, at least to second insulator film patterns having the same thickniess as the first insulator film patterns are formed in the same surface of the first wafer for optical measurement of the thickness of an active layer of in the bonded substrate. Then the first wafer is bonded to a second wafer to obtain a bonded substrate in which the insulator film patterns are buried adjacent to the interface between the two silicon wafers. To form an active layer having a desired thickness above the buried insulator film patterns, the thickness of the first wafer is reduced by mechanical grinding and chemical-mechanical polishing. The polishing operation is intermitted at suitable time intervals, and the thickness of the active layer is measured by an optical method in the area of each of the second insulator film patterns while the polishing operation is intermitted.

This invent ion relates to a bonded substrate with a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) structure for the fabrication of semiconductor devices and a method of producing the bonded substrate.
In the semiconductor industry the use of bonded SOI substrates having a buried insulator layer such as a silicon oxide layer is expanding. Particularly in the field of power ICs, the use of bonded substrates having a local SOI structure has been developed to meet the requirements of enlarging the scale of integration and enhancing the withstand voltage by fabricating a high voltage MOSFET of the vertical type and low voltage control circuit components in a single chip. The low voltage components, i.e., devices, are fabricated in a region above a buried insulator layer and the high voltage device in another region wherein no insulator layer is buried.
For example, JP-A 4-29353 shows the use of a bonded substrate with a local SOI stricture in a power IC. As shown in FIG. 4 of the accompanying drawings, a first single-crystal silicon wafer 30 is bonded to a second single-crystal silicon wafer 30. Before bonding the two wafers 30 and 50, a silicon oxide film 32 is formed in a principal surface of the first wafer 30. In the bonded substrate the oxide film 32 is buried adjacent to the bonding plane 52. The thickness of the first wafer 30 in the bonded substrate is reduced by mechanical grinding and subsequent chemical-mechanical polishing or chemical etching in order to form an active layer 30a having a suitable thickness above the bonding plane 52. The thickness of the active layer 30a should be accurate and uniform over the whole area since the thickness of the active layer seriously affects the characteristics of semiconductor devices fabricated in and on the active layer. In general, power ICs need an active layer of a large thickness which is tens of micrometers and in some cases reaches 50-70 .mu.m. In the active layer 30a, trenches 34 having V-shaped cross-sections are formed to define the periphery of a selected region 40 wherein low voltage components of a control circuit are to be fabricated. The trenches 34 reach the buried oxide film 32. A silicon oxide film 36 is formed on the inner walls of the trenches 34, and the trenches 34 are filled with a filler 38 such as polysilicon (polycrystalline silicon). By the oxide films 32 and 36, the region 40 is isolated from another region 42 wherein a high voltage MOSFET is to be fabricated. That is, the low voltage region 40 becomes an island-like region provided with a dielectric isolation structure.
The thickness of a single-crystal silicon layer above a silicon oxide layer can be measured by an optical method. For example, when the thickness of the silicon layer is smaller than about 10 .mu.m a useful optical method is interference color photometry. In this method, visible light is vertically incident on the silicon surface, and interference of light reflected from the silicon surface, and from the interface between the silicon layer, and the oxide layer is analyzed to determine the thickness of the silicon layer. However, as the thickniess of the silicon layer becomes larger the intensity of reflected light diminishes so that the thickness measurement becomes difficult, since there is a limit to the depth of penetration of visible light into a single-crystal silicon layer. Therefore, when the thickness of the silicon layer is larger than about 10 .mu.m it is usual to use infrared rays to which single-crystal silicon is transparent. More particularly, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) is used. FT-IR can be used whether the thickness of the silicon layer is larger than 10 .mu.m or smaller than 10 .mu.m.
In producing a bonded SOI substrate in which an oxide film is buried in the whole area of the substrate, the thickness of the active layer above the oxide film is examined by an optical measurement method to determine the extent of the final polishing of the wafer which provides the active layer. That is, the polishing operation and the thickness measurement are alternately repeated until the thickness of the active reaches a predetermined value.
However, in the ease of producing a bonded SOI substrate in which an oxide film is buried in a plurality of small areas, it is not easy to measure the thickness of the active layer because it is difficult to accurately detect the location of a small area wherein the oxide film is buried by observation from the substrate surface. In using FT-IR to measure the thickness of the active layer, it is necessary to irradiate the active layer and the underlying oxide film with infrared rays over an area not smaller than about 30 mm.sup.2. However, when the size of the individual chips to be fabricated in the bonded substrate is smaller than this minimum area, the thickness of the active layer cannot be measured since the oxide film does not have an area necessary for the measurement.
To realize a desired thickness of an active layer in a bonded SOI substrate without need of measuring the thickness, there are some proposals of burying relatively hard structures having a predetermined thickness or depth, such as trenches in which an oxide film is deposited, in the wafer which provides the active layer in order to use the buried structures as polishing stoppers. For example, JP-A 2-219265 shows a method illustrated in FIGS. 5(A) to 5(C) of the accompanying drawings. As shown in FIG. 5(A), in a surface of a first silicon wafer 60 a group of trenches 62 of uniform depth are formed in a lattice-like pattern. A silicon oxide film 64 is deposited on the wafer surfaces including the bottom and wall faces in the trenches 62. Then, as shown in FIG. 5(B), the first wafer 60 is bonded to a second silicon wafer 70 such that the openings of the trenches 62 are closed by the second wafer 70. Next, the thickness of the first wafer 60 is reduced by grinding so as to leave a small thickness above the bottom of the trenches 62. The silicon layer remaining above the bottom of the trenches 62 is removed by chemical-mechanical polishing. When the oxide film 64 at the bottom of the trenches 62 is exposed as shown in FIG. 5(C), the polishing automatically stops since the oxide film 64 is far stronger in resistance to chemical-mechanical polishing than silicon. As a result, an active layer 60a uniformly having a predetermined thickness is formed above the oxide film 64 adjacent to the bonding plane 72. The active layer 60a is divided into a plurality of regions by the oxide film 64 on the inner wall faces of the trenches 62. In this method it is optional to fill the void space in each trench 62 with polysilicon or a different filler.
The method illustrated in FIGS. 5(A) to 5(C) can be applied to the production of a bonded SOI substrate having island-like regions provided with a dielectric isolation structure. For example, JP-A 3-142952 shows a bonded substrate which is shown in FIG. 6 of the accompanying drawings. First and second silicon wafers 80 and 90 are bonded together. Prior to the bonding, trenches 82 having V-shaped cross-sections and a depression 84 are formed in the first wafer 80 to define a region 100 for low voltage devices and another region 102 for high voltage devices. A silicon oxide film 86 is deposited on the inner wall faces of the trenches 82 and the bottom of the depression 84, and the void spaces in the trenches and the depression are filled with polysilicon 88. When the thickness of the first wafer 80 is reduced by grinding and subsequent chemical-mechanical polishing to the extent of exposing the bottom of the trenches 82 as shown in FIG. 6, the polishing is terminated.
The method illustrated in FIGS. 5(A) to 5(C) and FIG. 6 includes complicated process steps and entails an increased cost of production because of forming trenches in one of the two wafers to be bonded together. Besides, in the case of producing a bonded SOI substrate in which an active layer has a thickness larger than about 50 .mu.m, it is difficult to form sufficiently deep trenches with good uniformity and accuracy of depth.

Method of producing bonded substrate with silicon-on-insulator structure


Methods, devices and apparatus are disclosed for carrying out multiple chemical reactions, such as in situ synthesis of polynucleotides, on a surface comprising an array of discrete sites. Molecules are deposited at a predetermined number of the discrete sites on the surface for reaction at the discrete sites. The surface is positioned relative to an outlet of a fluid ejection device, which is activated to dispense a small volume of a fluid through the outlet to the surface to provide uniform coating of a continuous region of the surface comprising a multiple of the discrete sites. The fluid is dispensed as uniform particles having a diameter such that the uniform particles form a sheet to coat the continuous region of the surface. In one embodiment of the present invention, liquid is dispensed as uniform particles through a fluid ejection device activated by means of ultrasonic energy. The invention has particular application to the in situ synthesis of polynucleotides in arrays on a surface.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the application of small volumes of reagents to surfaces. In one aspect the invention relates to the manufacture of arrays formed and arranged by depositing compounds or synthesizing large numbers of compounds on solid supports in a predetermined pattern. In another aspect this invention relates to the field of bioscience in which arrays of oligonucleotide probes are fabricated or deposited on a surface and are used to identify or analyze DNA sequences in cell matter. The present invention has a wide range of application for synthesis and use of arrays of oligonucleotides or proteins for conducting cell study, for diagnosing disease, identifying gene expression, monitoring drug response, determination of viral load, identifying genetic polymorphisms, and the like.
Significant morbidity and mortality are associated with infectious diseases and genetically inherited disorders. More rapid and accurate diagnostic methods are required for better monitoring and treatment of these conditions. Molecular methods using DNA probes, nucleic acid hybridization and in vitro amplification techniques are promising methods offering advantages to conventional methods used for patient diagnoses.
Nucleic acid hybridization has been employed for investigating the identity and establishing the presence of nucleic acids. Hybridization is based on complementary base pairing. When complementary single stranded nucleic acids are incubated together, the complementary base sequences pair to form double-stranded hybrid molecules. The ability of single stranded deoxyribonucleic acid (ssDNA) or ribonucleic acid (RNA) to form a hydrogen bonded structure with a complementary nucleic acid sequence has been employed as an analytical tool in molecular biology research. The availability of radioactive nucleoside triphosphates of high specific activity and the development of methods for their incorporation into DNA and RNA has made it possible to identify, isolate, and characterize various nucleic acid sequences of biological interest. Nucleic acid hybridization has great potential in diagnosing disease states associated with unique nucleic acid sequences. These unique nucleic acid sequences may result from genetic or environmental change in DNA by insertions, deletions, point mutations, or by acquiring foreign DNA or RNA by means of infection by bacteria, molds, fungi, and viruses.
The application of nucleic acid hybridization as a diagnostic tool in clinical medicine is limited due to the cost and effort associated with the development of sufficiently sensitive and specific methods for detecting potentially low concentrations of disease-related DNA or RNA present in the complex mixture of nucleic acid sequences found in patient samples.
One method for detecting nucleic acids is to employ nucleic acid probes that have sequences complementary to sequences in the target nucleic acid. A nucleic acid probe may be, or may be capable of being, labeled with a reporter group or may be, or may be capable of becoming, bound to a support. Detection of signal depends upon the nature of the label or reporter group. Usually, the probe is comprised of natural nucleotides such as ribonucleotides and deoxyribonucleotides and their derivatives although unnatural nucleotide mimetics such as 2′-modified nucleosides, peptide nucleic acids and oligomeric nucleoside phosphonates are also used. Commonly, binding of the probes to the target is detected by means of a label incorporated into the probe. Alternatively, the probe may be unlabeled and the target nucleic acid labeled. Binding can be detected by separating the bound probe or target from the free probe or target and detecting the label. In one approach, a sandwich is formed comprised of one probe, which may be labeled, the target and a probe that is or can become bound to a surface. Alternatively, binding can be detected by a change in the signal-producing properties of the label upon binding, such as a change in the emission efficiency of a fluorescent or chemiluminescent label. This permits detection to be carried out without a separation step. Finally, binding can be detected by labeling the target, allowing the target to hybridize to a surface-bound probe, washing away the unbound target and detecting the labeled target that remains.
Direct detection of labeled target hybridized to surface-bound probes is particularly advantageous if the surface contains a mosaic of different probes that are individually localized to discrete, known areas of the surface. Such ordered arrays containing a large number of oligonucleotide probes have been developed as tools for high throughput analyses of genotype and gene expression. Oligonucleotides synthesized on a solid support recognize uniquely complementary nucleic acids by hybridization, and arrays can be designed to define specific target sequences, analyze gene expression patterns or identify specific allelic variations.
In one approach, cell matter is lysed, to release its DNA as fragments, which are then separated out by electrophoresis or other means, and then tagged with a fluorescent or other label. The resulting DNA mix is exposed to an array of oligonucleotide probes, whereupon selective attachment to matching probe sites takes place. The array is then washed and imaged so as to reveal for analysis and interpretation the sites where attachment occurred.
In the preparation of arrays, reagents are applied to predetermined discrete locations on the surface of a substrate. Depending on the type of synthesis and array, the preparation may involve application of reagents at discrete locations followed by treatment of a portion or the entire surface with a different liquid reagent. The steps may be repeated a number of times sufficient to prepare the desired array. Examples of known methods for subjecting all or a portion of substrate surfaces to reagents include flooding, spin coating and flow cell assembly. Flooding the surface may be accomplished by using, for example, a multi-nozzle piezoelectric pump head. A relatively large volume of liquid is dispensed to contact the surface and assure that the dispensed reagents contact all of the desired locations. Spin coating is usually performed by dispensing the reagent at or near the center of the substrate followed by spinning to spread the reagent uniformly across the substrate.
The volume used to cover the substrate depends on the fluid property and the surface energy of the substrate. Some approaches used for in situ synthesis require a large relative volume to cover the surface because small, dispensed volumes tend to cluster and non-uniformly cover the surface. The reagent is then removed from the substrate within a high-speed spin step, which generates a considerable amount of waste. In the flow cell approach, a seal layer is brought in contact with the substrate at various support points (typically along the perimeter). A thin gap exists between the substrate and seal layer. By developing a pressure gradient across inlet and outlet channels, fluid can be forced to flow in the gap along the substrate. Although this method can use considerably less volume than the flooding method or the spin coat method, it has three major drawbacks. First, there is a long fill time in order to support laminar flow. Second, it is prone to leaking if uniform pressure is not maintained. Third, variability in surface thickness will disturb the laminar flow resulting in air pockets and hence non-uniform coverage.
2. Description of the Related Art
U.S. Pat. No. 5,831,070 (Pease, et al.) discloses printing oligonucleotide arrays using deprotection agents solely in the vapor phase.
Sono-Tek Corporation brochure, copyright 1996.

Methods for applying small volumes of reagents