The thicknesses of the intrinsic layers of the cells comprising a tandem photovoltaic device are selected so that the cell having the highest quality semiconductor material produces the lowest photocurrent. That cell will then be the dominant cell in the tandem device and its material properties will contribute disproportionately to the overall properties of the tandem device.

Photovoltaic devices directly convert absorbed illumination to electrical energy. They are silent in operation and non-polluting and they are becoming an increasingly more important source of electric power. Tandem photovoltaic devices comprise a plurality of individual cells disposed on a common substrate in an optical and electrical series relationship. Light passes in sequence through the stacked cells and the voltages produced thereby are additive.
Tandem devices are generally more efficient than single cell devices since the thickness of the individual cells can be optimized to provide the highest operating efficiency and the use of a stacked array increases the utilization of all of the incident light. In some instances the band gaps of the active layers of the cells of the tandem device are varied so as to cause the upper-most device to absorb the short wavelengths of light and the lower cell to absorb the unabsorbed longer wavelengths of light. In this manner a relatively large portion of the solar spectrum may be usefully addressed.
Efficiency is a most important factor in any photovoltaic device and efficiency may be categorized as "operational" and "manufacturing." Operational efficiency is determined by the percent of incident light energy which a photovoltaic device converts to electricity. Obviously, efficiency should be as high as possible in order to minimize the area of a photovoltaic device needed to generate a given amount of power. Manufacturing efficiency is measured by the cost incurred in manufacturing the devices. Clearly, the two parameters interact. A high efficiency, very high cost device may be of lesser commercial importance than a low cost device of more modest efficiency.
Operational efficiency depends on both the quality of the photovoltaic material as well as the device configuration. Material quality is a measure of the density of defect states in a semiconductor material; material quality equates with the density of states in the band gap of the material. Material quality is difficult to measure directly, but it is readily correlatable with the performance of a device incorporating the material. Most photovoltaic devices undergo some degree of photodegradation in use which decreases their efficiency. The amount of photodegradation will vary, and it has been found that the quality of the material comprising the device will determine both the initial device efficiency as well as the likelihood that the device will degrade in use. Material quality has been found to be dependent, in at least part, upon preparation conditions. In the instance of thin film alloy materials such as glow discharge prepared Group IVA materials, deposition parameters such as power levels, gas pressures and deposition rate have been correlated with material quality. Configuration of the photovoltaic device is also determinative of operational efficiency. As noted above, tandem arrays of cells are frequently employed to produce a high efficiency device and, as will be described in greater detail hereinbelow, it is necessary to control the electrical parameters of the various cells comprising the tandem device so as to optimize current and voltage produced therefrom. Control of these parameters is particularly important when cells having different band gaps are disposed in a single device.
Manufacturing efficiency is strongly tied to the utilization of raw materials and to the speed at which devices are fabricated. In general, it is desirable to have maximum throughput in a manufacturing facility, and in the manufacture of photovoltaic devices this translates into rapid deposition of the component semiconductor layer. It has been found that photovoltaic materials produced at relatively high deposition rates are generally of lower quality than those produced at slower deposition rates; hence, high rates of production often represent a trade-off in device efficiency. To some degree, slow deposition rates can be compensated for by utilizing a larger deposition facility, albeit at increased overhead costs. It will thus be appreciated that in the manufacture of photovoltaic devices a practical balance must often be struck between operational and manufacturing efficiencies, particularly in those instances where high volume, relatively low cost consumer oriented products are being produced. Therefore any method or device configuration which can increase either the operational or manufacturing efficiency of a photovoltaic device without adversely affecting the other parameter will be of significant commercial importance.
The present invention, as will be fully explained hereinbelow, provides a relatively high speed, efficient process for the manufacture of tandem photovoltaic devices having high operational efficiencies. The present invention also has great utility in the manufacture of high volume consumer oriented photovoltaic devices such as those used for power generation. These and other advantages of the invention will be readily apparent from the drawings, discussion and description which follow:

Method for the manufacture of improved efficiency tandem photovoltaic device and device manufactured thereby


Methods and apparatus, including computer program products, implementing and using techniques for determining validity of cached frames of a compositing hierarchy as a composition tree of a digital video composition is edited. The techniques use interval lists associated with nodes in a compositing tree to determine which cached frames of a composition hierarchy are guaranteed to be valid in the face of arbitrary edits to the hierarchy.

The invention relates to optimization of compositing in a digital system for creating and editing movies.
A movie composition, such as a digital video composition, is a sequence of frames, each frame containing data describing the audio and visual content of the frame. To render the composition, the frames are rendered and then output in their sequential order. Temporal changes in the composition are conveyed by the changing data in the sequence of output frames.
The present invention provides a useful framework for determining the validity of frames that have been cached in a movie rendering process, as well as for other purposes. To provide context for describing embodiments of the invention, the following paragraphs will describe the elements of an exemplary movie compositing and editing system.
In the system, a "composition" or "comp" is a single level of a compositing tree and is composed of one or more layers. Each layer has a defined in-point and out-point within the comp, which controls the times at which the image the layer defines first and last appears. The comp itself has a master timeline, ranging from time zero to a user set maximum, and the layers exist within this timeline. The root of the compositing tree is a comp. Rendering a comp generates a sequence of frames, each frame corresponding to a time interval on the comp's timeline determined by the frame rate.
A "layer" generally consists of an input source, which may be a still image, a moving image, or a comp, and a set of one or more masks, transformations, and effects that may be constant or time varying. In addition to representing footage, layers can also be used to represent cameras and lights in three-dimensional compositions.
The system performs "compositing". Compositing is the process of reading input still and moving image and graphics files, applying masking, geometric transformations and arbitrary effects, any of which may vary over time, and layering these images together using a number of predefined modes to produce a desired sequence of output images, such as might be used for video productions, movies, and video games. Any number of layers may be combined into a composition, which in turned can be used as the source of a layer in a parent composition, resulting in a hierarchical tree of operations, the above-mentioned compositing tree.
A node is one element in a compositing tree and can be a comp a layer, or an input source item, such as footage.
Generally, rendering a frame of a compositing tree is computationally expensive. Thus, movie compositing systems commonly cache frames for reuse. The goal of caching is to re-render a frame only if the cached frame has been invalidated by user edits, e.g., edits affecting the sources, parameters or structure of the composition tree. The present invention provides a novel framework and related techniques for validating cached frames.
Two standard approaches to caching are the push model and the pull model. In the push model, whenever an edit is made to the tree, the edited node and all nodes in the tree that depend on the edited node are recursively marked invalid. This has the advantage that when a frame is needed, it is known immediately whether the frame needs to be re-rendered. A disadvantage is the additional processing required during editing, which may slow down interaction with the user.
In the pull model, only the local node at which an edit is made is marked invalid when the edit is made, so that when it is time to render a frame, all of its sources must be checked recursively to determine whether they are valid. This gives constant-time performance during editing at the expense of increased cost at rendering time.
With either model, compositing systems commonly treat the validity of a node as time-invariant, i.e., either all of the cached frames of a comp or layer are valid, because none of their parameters or sources has changed, or they are all invalid, because something has been modified. This can be very costly for the user. For example, consider a user who has created and rendered 1000 frames of a comp that contains complex effects. It is not unusual for every frame to take ten seconds to render, so the full comp would take nearly three hours to render. If the user changes the color of one layer for ten frames in the middle of the comp, many existing compositing systems would require the user to re-render the entire comp from scratch. Some systems have a limited ability to invalidate individual cached frames based on editing. However, these systems use a manual form of caching, where it is up to the user to re-render invalid frames.

Tracking the validity of cache frames in digital movie editing


A method for correcting color registration errors for a color printer that prints color image data on a continuous web of media. A color registration error model is used to predict a color registration error value for a particular in-track position as a function of ink coverage characteristics for an image region including the particular in-track position, wherein the color registration error model is a parametric model having one or more parameters. An image plane correction value is determined based on the predicted color registration error, and the color image data for the particular in-track position is printed using the determined image data correction values.

In a digitally controlled printing system, a print medium is directed through a series of components. The print medium can be in the form of cut sheets or a continuous web. As the print medium moves through the printing system, colorant, for example, ink, is applied to the print medium by one or more printing stations. In the case of an ink jet printer, the colorant is a liquid ink, and the printing process is commonly referred to as jetting of the ink.
In commercial inkjet printing systems, the print medium is physically transported through the printing system at a high rate of speed. For example, the print medium can travel 650 to 1000 feet per minute. Inkjet lineheads in commercial inkjet printing systems typically include multiple printheads that jet ink onto the print medium as the print medium is being physically moved through the printing system. A reservoir containing ink or some other material is usually behind each nozzle plate in a linehead. The ink streams through the nozzles in the nozzle plates when the reservoirs are pressurized.
The printheads in each linehead in commercial printing systems typically jet only one color. Thus, there is a linehead for each colored ink when different colored inks are used to print content. For example, there are four lineheads in printing systems using cyan, magenta, yellow and black colored inks. The content is printed by jetting the colored inks sequentially, and each colored ink deposited on the print medium is known as a color plane. The color planes need to be aligned (i.e., "registered" with each other) so that the overlapping ink colors produce a quality single image.
Color registration errors can be classified into different types. Examples of color registration errors include, but are not limited to, a color plane having a linear translation with respect to another color plane, a color plane being rotated with respect to another color plane, and a color plane being stretched, contracted, or both stretched and contracted in different regions or in different directions with respect to another color plane.
There are several variables that contribute to the registration errors in color plane alignment including physical properties of the print medium, conveyance of print medium, ink application system, ink coverage, and drying of ink. Color registration errors are typically managed by controlling these variables. However, controlling these variables can often restrict the range of desired print applications. For example, color-to-color registration errors will typically become larger as paper weight for the print application is reduced, when ink coverage is increased, or when the amount of ink coverage is more variable for successive documents. These limitations compromise the range of suitable applications for inkjet printing systems.
There remains a need for improved methods to reduce color registration errors in digital printing systems.

Reducing registration errors using registration error model


The present disclosure relates generally to systems and methods for frequency synchronization in a non-hierarchical network. In one example, the method includes receiving, by a node in a wireless non-hierarchical network, frequency synchronization messages from other nodes. The method calculates an average frequency based on the frequency synchronization messages, calculates a control frequency based on the average frequency, and sets an oscillator of the node to the control frequency.

A wireless non-hierarchical network, such as a mobile ad hoc network (MANET), is a collection of devices (e.g., nodes) capable of wirelessly communicating and networking. Generally, ad hoc wireless networks operate in a distributed, not-fully-connected, asynchronous, and mobile manner. Examples of ad hoc networks include wireless sensor networks, packet radio networks, and wireless mesh networks. An ideal ad hoc network provides multi-hop transmission, high mobility, self-organization, seamless handover, quality of service (QoS), and high spectrum efficiency.
In general, an ad hoc network has no central controllers, such as access points (AP) in a wide local area network (WLAN) environment or base stations (BS) as described with respect to IEEE 802.16. Therefore, nodes within an ad hoc network cannot rely on a central control architecture to provide synchronization and prevent collisions.
To address these types of issues, a node in an ad hoc network generally uses an algorithm that provides for time synchronization with other nodes. For example, the Timer Synchronization Function (TSF) specified by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Working Group 802.11 provides time synchronization with errors ranging from approximately fifty microseconds to two thousand microseconds, while the Automatic Self-time-correcting Procedure (ASP) provides time synchronization with errors of approximately 100 microseconds. Such errors are undesirable, and improvements in synchronization between nodes in an ad hoc network are needed.

System and method for frequency synchronization in a wireless non-hierarchical network


A frequency-dependent phase pre-distortion technique is applied to an input signal in order to reduce spurious emissions resulting from subsequent amplification of the signal. In preferred embodiments, the frequency-dependent phase pre-distortion of the present invention is implemented in combination with the (frequency-independent) magnitude and phase pre-distortion technique described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/395,490 (“the '490 application”), where one or more frequency-dependent phase pre-distortion signals are either advanced or delayed relative to the main pre-distorted signal generated in accordance with the '490 application. Each frequency-dependent phase pre-distortion signal is preferably based on a 180° phase difference between a pair of (critical) frequencies located outside (e.g., one on each side) of the signal channel. The magnitude of the frequency difference between the pair of critical frequencies dictates the magnitude of the desired advancement or delay in time of the frequency-dependent pre-distortion signal relative to the main pre-distorted signal. Embodiments of the present invention may be implemented in either the baseband domain or the RF domain. Implementations may also be based on look-up tables that are adaptively updated to ensure optimal performance over time.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to signal processing, and, in particular, to the pre-distortion of signals for transmission, for example, in a wireless communication network, to reduce spurious emissions.
2. Cross-Reference to Related Applications
The subject matter of this application is related to the subject matter of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/395,490, filed on Sep. 14, 1999 ("the '490 application"), the teachings of which are incorporated herein by reference.
3. Description of the Related Art
Modern wireless communication networks employ complex modulation schemes that necessitate tight control of spurious emissions (sometimes called "out-of-band emissions") in order to avoid interfering with neighboring carriers and to comply with the requirements of regulatory bodies (e.g., FCC) and standards bodies (e.g. ITU). One source of spurious emissions is the base station transmitter amplifier that is used to amplify signals prior to transmission as wireless (e.g., RF) signals to wireless (e.g., mobile) units in a wireless communication network, such as a cellular voice and/or data network. Prior art techniques for reducing such spurious emissions were able to satisfy previous requirements. However, recent developments in wireless communication networks (e.g., Universal Mobile Telecommunication Service (UMTS)) place additional burden on the base station transmitter amplifier and make it advantageous to reduce the spurious emissions even further.

Frequency-dependent phase pre-distortion for reducing spurious emissions in communication networks


The present invention provides a method of improving a therapeutic response to a cancer treatment, in a subject, the method comprising administering an effective amount of an agent that enhances the expression of microRNA-130 or an agent that mimics the effects of microRNA-130. Further provided is a method of treating a cancer in a subject in need of such treatment comprising the step of administering an effective amount of a microRNA-130 or an agent that enhances the expression of microRNA-130.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the fields of microRNA molecular biology and cancer. More specifically, the invention relates to the use of microRNA-130a,b as tumor suppressors able to significantly suppress cell proliferation, increase apoptosis, suppress tumor growth and increase sensitivity of chemotherapeutic drugs.
2. Description of the Related Art
RNA interference refers to the process of sequence-specific post-transcriptional gene silencing in animals mediated by short interfering RNAs (siRNAs) (Fire et al. (1998) Nature 391:806-810). The corresponding process in plants is commonly referred to as post-transcriptional gene silencing (PTGS) or RNA silencing and is also referred to as quelling in fungi. The process of post-transcriptional gene silencing is thought to be an evolutionarily-conserved cellular defense mechanism used to prevent the expression of foreign genes and is commonly shared by diverse flora and phyla (Fire et al. (1999) Trends Genet. 15:358-363). Such protection from foreign gene expression may have evolved in response to the production of double-stranded RNAs (dsRNAs) derived from viral infection or from the random integration of transposon elements into a host genome via a cellular response that specifically destroys homologous single-stranded RNA of viral genomic RNA.
The presence of dsRNA in cells triggers the RNAi response through a mechanism that has yet to be fully characterized. The presence of long dsRNAs in cells stimulates the activity of a ribonuclease III enzyme referred to as dicer. Dicer is involved in the processing of the dsRNA into short pieces of dsRNA known as short interfering RNAs (siRNAs) (Bernstein et al. (2001) Nature 409:363-366). Short interfering RNAs derived from dicer activity are typically about 21 to about 23 nucleotides in length and comprise about 19 base pair duplexes (Elbashir et al. (2001) Genes Dev 15:188-200). Dicer has also been implicated in the excision of 21- and 22-nucleotide small temporal RNAs (stRNAs) from precursor RNA of conserved structure that are implicated in translational control (Hutvagner et al. (2001) Science 293:834-838).
The RNAi response also features an endonuclease complex, commonly referred to as an RNA-induced silencing complex (RISC), which mediates cleavage of single-stranded RNA having sequence complementarity to the antisense strand of the siRNA duplex. Cleavage of the target RNA takes place in the middle of the region complementary to the antisense strand of the siRNA duplex (Elbashir et al. (2001) Genes Dev 15:188-200). In addition, RNA interference can also involve small RNA (e.g., microRNA, or miRNA) mediated gene silencing, presumably through cellular mechanisms that regulate chromatin structure and thereby prevent transcription of target gene sequences (see, e.g., Allshire, Science 297:1818-1819 2002; Volpe et al. (2002) Science 297:1833-1837; Jenuwein (2002) Science 297:2215-2218; Hall et al. (2002) Science 297:2232-2237).
As such, miRNA molecules of the invention can be used to mediate gene silencing via interaction with RNA transcripts or alternately by interaction with particular gene sequences, wherein such interaction results in gene silencing either at the transcriptional or post-transcriptional level. RNAi has been studied in a variety of systems. Fire et al. ((1998) Nature 391:806-811) were the first to observe RNAi in C. elegans. Wianny and Goetz ((1999) Nature Cell Biol 2:70) describe RNAi mediated by dsRNA in mouse embryos. Hammond et al. ((2000) Nature 404:293-296) describe RNAi in Drosophila cells transfected with dsRNA. Elbashir et al. ((2001) Nature 411:494-498) describe RNAi induced by introduction of duplexes of synthetic 21-nucleotide RNAs in cultured mammalian cells including human embryonic kidney and HeLa cells.
Small RNAs play an important role in controlling gene expression. Regulation of many developmental processes is controlled by small RNAs. It is now possible to engineer changes in gene expression of plant genes by using transgenic constructs which produce small RNAs in the plant. Small RNAs appear to function by base-pairing to complementary RNA or DNA target sequences. When bound to RNA, small RNAs trigger either RNA cleavage or translational inhibition of the target sequence. When bound to DNA target sequences, it is thought that small RNAs can mediate DNA methylation of the target sequence. The consequence of these events, regardless of the specific mechanism, is that gene expression is inhibited. It is thought that sequence complementarity between small RNAs and their RNA targets helps to determine which mechanism, RNA cleavage or translational inhibition, is employed. It is believed that siRNAs, which are perfectly complementary with their targets, work by RNA cleavage. Some miRNAs have perfect or near-perfect complementarity with their targets, and RNA cleavage has been demonstrated for at least a few of these miRNAs. Other miRNAs have several mismatches with their targets, and apparently inhibit their targets at the translational level.
Without being held to a particular theory on the mechanism of action, a general rule is emerging that perfect or near-perfect complementarity favors RNA cleavage, especially within the first ten nucleotides (counting from the 5′ end of the miRNA), whereas translational inhibition is favored when the miRNA/target duplex contains many mismatches. The apparent exception to this is microRNA-172 (miR172) in plants. One of the targets of miR172 is APETALA2 (AP2), and although miR172 shares near-perfect complementarity with AP2 it appears to cause translational inhibition of AP2 rather than RNA cleavage. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are noncoding RNAs of about 19 to about 24 nucleotides (nt) in length that have been identified in both animals and plants (Lagos-Quintana et al. (2001) Science 294:853-858, Lagos-Quintana et al. (2002) Curr Biol 12:735-739; Lau et al. (2002) Science 294:858-862; Lee and Ambros (2001) Science 294:862-864; Llave et al. (2002) Plant Cell 14:1605-1619; Mourelatos et al. (2002) Genes Dev 16:720-728; Park et al. (2002) Curr Biol 12:1484-1495; Reinhart et al. (2002) Genes Dev 16:1616-1626). They are processed from longer precursor transcripts that range in size from approximately 70 to 200 nt, and these precursor transcripts have the ability to form stable hairpin structures. In animals, the enzyme involved in processing miRNA precursors is called Dicer, an RNAse III-like protein (Grishok et al. (2001) Cell 106:23-34; Hutvagner et al. (2001) Science 293:834-838; Ketting et al. (2001) Genes Dev 15:2654-2659). Plants also have a Dicer-like enzyme, DCL1 (previously named CARPEL FACTORY/SHORT INTEGUMENTS1/SUSPENSOR1), and recent evidence indicates that it, like Dicer, is involved in processing the hairpin precursors to generate mature miRNAs (Park et al. (2002) Curr Biol 12:1484-1495; Reinhart et al. (2002) Genes Dev 16:1616-1626).
Furthermore, it is becoming clear from recent work that at least some miRNA hairpin precursors originate as longer polyadenylated transcripts, and several different miRNAs and associated hairpins can be present in a single transcript (Lagos-Quintana et al. (2001) Science 294:853-858; Lee et al. (2002) EMBO J. 21:4663-4670). Recent work has also examined the selection of the miRNA strand from the dsRNA product arising from processing of the hairpin by DICER (Schwartz et al. (2003) Cell 115:199-208). It appears that the stability (i.e. G:C vs. A:U content, and/or mismatches) of the two ends of the processed dsRNA affects the strand selection, with the low stability end being easier to unwind by a helicase activity. The 5′ end strand at the low stability end is incorporated into the RISC complex, while the other strand is degraded. In animals, there is direct evidence indicating a role for specific miRNAs in development. The lin-4 and let-7 miRNAs in C. elegans have been found to control temporal development, based on the phenotypes generated when the genes producing the lin-4 and let-7 miRNAs are mutated (Lee et al. (1993) Cell 75:843-854; Reinhart et al. (2000) Nature 403-901-906).
In addition, both miRNAs display a temporal expression pattern consistent with their roles in developmental timing. Other animal miRNAs display developmentally regulated patterns of expression, both temporal and tissue-specific (Lagos-Quintana et al. (2001) Science 294:853-853, Lagos-Quintana et al. (2002) Curr Biol 12:735-739; Lau et al. (2001) Science 294:858-862; Lee and Ambros (2001) Science 294:862-864), leading to the hypothesis that miRNAs may, in many cases, be involved in the regulation of important developmental processes. Likewise, in plants, the differential expression patterns of many miRNAs suggests a role in development (Llave et al. (2002) Plant Cell 14:1605-1619; Park et al. (2002) Curr Biol 12:1484-1495; Reinhart et al. (2002) Genes Dev 16:1616-1626), which has now been shown (e.g., Guo et al. (2005) Plant Cell 17:1376-1386).
MicroRNAs appear to regulate target genes by binding to complementary sequences located in the transcripts produced by these genes. In the case of lin-4 and let-7, the target sites are located in the 3′ UTRs of the target mRNAs (Lee et al. (1993) Cell 75:843-854; Wightman et al. (1993) Cell 75:855-862; Reinhart et al. (2000) Nature 403:901-906; Slack et al. (2000) Mol Cell 5:659-669), and there are several mismatches between the lin-4 and let-7 miRNAs and their target sites. Binding of the lin-4 or let-7 miRNA appears to cause downregulation of steady-state levels of the protein encoded by the target mRNA without affecting the transcript itself (Olsen and Ambros (1999) Dev Biol 216:671-680).
On the other hand, recent evidence suggests that miRNAs can, in some cases, cause specific RNA cleavage of the target transcript within the target site, and this cleavage step appears to require 100% complementarity between the miRNA and the target transcript (Hutvagner and Zamore (2002) Science 297:2056-2060; Llave et al. (2002) Plant Cell 14:1605-1619), especially within the first ten nucleotides (counting from the 5′ end of the miRNA). It seems likely that miRNAs can enter at least two pathways of target gene regulation. Protein downregulation when target complementarity is <100%, and RNA cleavage when target complementarity is 100%. MicroRNAs entering the RNA cleavage pathway are analogous to the 21-25 nt short interfering RNAs (siRNAs) generated during RNA interference (RNAi) in animals and posttranscriptional gene silencing (PTGS) in plants (Hamilton and Baulcombe (1999) Science 286:950-952; Hammond et al., (2000) Nature 404:293-296; Zamore et al., (2000) Cell 31:25-33; Elbashir et al., (2001) Nature 411:494-498), and likely are incorporated into an RNA-induced silencing complex (RISC) that is similar or identical to that seen for RNAi.
Identifying the targets of miRNAs with bioinformatics has not been successful in animals, and this is probably due to the fact that animal miRNAs have a low degree of complementarity with their targets. On the other hand, bioinformatic approaches have been successfully used to predict targets for plant miRNAs (Llave et al. (2002) Plant Cell 14:1605-1619; Park et al. (2002) Curr Biol 12:1484-1495; Rhoades et al. (2002) Cell 110:513-520), and thus it appears that plant miRNAs have higher overall complementarity with their putative targets than do animal miRNAs. Most of these predicted target transcripts of plant miRNAs encode members of transcription factor families implicated in plant developmental patterning or cell differentiation. Nonetheless, biological function has not been directly demonstrated for any plant miRNA. Although Llave et al. ((2002) Science 297:2053-2056) have shown that a transcript for a SCARECROW-like transcription factor is a target of the Arabidopsis miRNA mir171, these studies were performed in a heterologous species and no plant phenotype associated with mir171 was reported.
General categories of sequences of interest for the invention described include, for example, those genes involved in regulating oncogenic processes that are responsible for the initiation, progression or maintenance of increased cell proliferation and/or decreased cell death that are direct or indirect targets of tumor suppressor microRNAs. Target sequences further include coding regions and non-coding regions such as promoters, enhancers, terminators, introns and the like, which may be modified in order to alter the expression of a gene of interest. For example, an intron sequence can be added to the 5′ region to increase the amount of mature message that accumulates (see for example Buchman and Berg (1988) Mol Cell Biol 8:4395-4405); and Callis et al. (1987) Genes Dev 1:1183-1200). This current invention is about microRNAs are small-22 nucleotide non-coding RNAs that can bind protein coding mRNAs through complimentary base pairing to mediate mRNA decay or translational repression. Because a single microRNA can bind and silence hundreds of genes across diverse signaling pathways they can be developed as powerful therapeutic agents to silence entire disease networks.
The prior art is deficient in the use of the microRNA-130a, microRNA-130b, microRNA-130c to, inter alia, significantly enhance sensitivity to chemotherapeutic drug as well as provide an alternative or complement to small molecule inhibitor treatment for ovarian and other cancers.

MicroRNA-130a,b as a tumor suppressor and sensitizing agent for chemotherapy


A self-contained isolation and environmental protection life support system for shielding a patient contained therein or, alternatively, isolating a contaminated patient from a clean environment while allowing treatment of traumatic injuries to the patient. The system comprises the combination of an environmental control system (ECS) and a containment enclosure that are designed to function in concert with conventional life support stretcher. The ECS component possesses an air management system that is designed and configured to extract contaminated particles and gas from the external air and deliver the same to the patient contained within the containment enclosure. To facilitate such delivery, the containment enclosure is preferably provided with a plurality of tubular passages which are designed to be filled with air provided by the ventilator system to thus cause the containment enclosure to expand to form a semi-rigid structure. A multiplicity of apertures formed upon the tubular passages that causes the purified air to pass therethrough and wash over the patient in a head-to-toe direction such that rapid removal of toxic residues is facilitated. The system further includes heating and cooling systems integrated into the ECS coupled with an environmental sensor to regulate attemporated air to a desired temperature depending on the conditions of the external environment.

Typically, when a person is injured and becomes a casualty in a contaminated environment, such as occurs in a chemical warfare confrontation, the casualty is taken to a decontamination site where he is decontaminated, and thereafter transferred to a medical treatment facility. In many cases, it is imperative that medical treatment be given to the casualty immediately.
However, in order to administer treatment, the casualty must first be isolated and transported into an enclosure within which medical personnel may work on the casualty or additional means must be provided for allowing access to the casualty without introducing contaminants into the enclosure containing the casualty. In this regard, it is desirable to isolate the patient from the environment when the environment-contains substances which may be detrimental to the medical patient. For example, if the patient has suffered severe blood loss or is experiencing difficulty breathing, then it is desirable to prevent the patient from breathing dust, engine exhaust, smoke, etc. It is also desirable to isolate the medical patient from the environment when bacteriological, chemical and/or radiological hazards are present, as may occur during battlefield conditions.
In addition, it would be advantageous if such isolated environment were caused to facilitate the removal of such toxic and infectious residues that may be present on the clothing and/or skin of such isolated medical patient to thus enable the patient to become further stabilized during transit to a suitable medical facility. Ideally, the isolated medical patient would be contained within an environment that is provided with air that is constantly circulated, decontaminated and refreshed such that such toxic and infectious residues are rapidly removed from the isolated medical patient's containment area.
Alternatively, it is desirable to isolate the caregivers from the medical patient in instances where the medical patient is suspected of having a contagious disease, or has been exposed to bacteriological, chemical or radiological contamination. As such, it is desirable to provide means for isolating the patient from the environment and caregivers, as well as isolating the caregivers from the patient.
Unfortunately, prior art apparatuses currently available for isolating and treating the casualty in the field are generally ineffective in providing an environment conducive to the administration of medical treatment, and can thus cause treatment to be delayed until the casualty is transported to an adequate medical facility, which is frequently not readily accessible. Such prior art apparatuses are further generally deficient in providing an environment where the casualty is protected from contaminants, and provided with refreshed, decontaminated air that actually facilitates the removal of contaminants already present on the skin and/or clothes of the casualty, in addition to providing trauma casualty treatment.
As such, there is a need in the art for an isolation system within which a medical patient is placed at the battlefield and within which the medical patient remains isolated until a suitable medical facility can be accessed. It is further desirable to provide an isolation system that can protect a medical patient contained therewithin from an contaminated external environment such that the condition of such patient is not made worse by the ingress of poisonous substances resulting from chemical and/or biological attack, as well as other harsh and extreme weather conditions arising from rain, wind, dust, hot, cold, wet and dry climatic conditions. There is still further a need for an isolation system that is capable of delivering a constant supply of air to a patient contained therewithin wherein such air is constantly circulated, decontaminated, refreshed, and selectively attemporated, that is further capable of delivering such air in a manner that facilitates rapid removal of toxic and infectious residues present upon the patient, and subsequently filters and decontaminates the same. There is additionally a need for a medical patient isolation system that is specifically designed and configured to function integrally with conventional litters and certain life support systems utilized therewith, most notable of the latter being the Life Support for Trauma And Transport device developed by Northrop Grumman Corporation and disclosed and claimed in co-pending U.S. Pat. application Ser. No. 08/687,693.

Self-contained isolation and enviromental protection system


Low-profile anterior vertebral plate assemblies and methods of use are disclosed herein. The plate assemblies herein are useful for coupling adjacent vertebral bodies together. Preferred vertebral plates assemblies herein are low-profile, meaning that the assemblies herein are positioned partially within and partially outside of the intervertebral space. Additional teachings are directed to hinged low-profile anterior vertebral plate assemblies that allow slight flexion towards the vertebral bodies in a sufficient amount to prevent kyphosis, and encourage a desired amount of lordosis.

The spine consists of a series of bone structures termed "vertebrae." Between each vertebra is a flexible, connective tissue termed an "intervertebral disc" which secures one vertebrae to another and functions as a shock absorber. Spinal fixation is a surgical technique in which one or more vertebrae are joined by an implant (e.g., a plate or rods.) to prevent relative movement of the spine, with the goal of live bone eventually fusing the adjacent vertebrae together.
Patients requiring spinal fusion typically suffer from either neurological deficits or severe pain which has not responded to conservative treatment. Typical conditions that are treated by spinal fusion procedure non-exclusively include: degenerative spinal conditions, discogenic pain, spinal tumor, vertebral fracture, scoliosis, kyphosis, spondylolisthesis, spondylosis, and other conditions that causes instability or pain in the spine.
Typically a spinal fixation procedure does not connect the patient's original vertebrae directly together; rather the intervertebral disc is usually completely or partially removed (disectomy) and/or one or more entire vertebral bodies are removed (corpectomy). The space remaining from the removed discs and vertebral bodies after a disectomy or corpectomy is typically replaced by a graft positioned between adjacent vertebrae to maintain proper length in the spinal column. After the surgery, it is desirable to have the living bone from the vertebrae span the inter-body graft thereby fusing the adjacent vertebrae together.
Traditionally, interbody grafts are fashioned from bone taken from a patient's skeleton, and are also referred to as "autografts." As the harvesting of an autograft is painful for the patient, many surgeons now prefer the use of "allografts" which are harvested from a body other than the patient's. Interbody grafts may also be formed from synthetic materials such as titanium, carbon fiber and plastics. Unfortunately, grafts are associated with a relatively high rate of dislodgement due to the patient's neck movement during the healing process. To minimize the risk of dislodgement of the interbody graft posteriorly, toward the spinal cord, surgeons routinely mortise the graft by drilling a shelf into the vertebrae. To minimize the risk of dislodgement of the interbody graft anteriorly, surgeons routinely place a fusion plate across the inner space and secure it with screws extending into the vertebrae.
Placement of an anterior cervical plate with screw fixation is effective in preventing interbody graft dislodgement toward the esophagus and also enhances fusion by providing fixation between the vertebrae. In general, a cervical plate is attached to the anterior cortex of the vertebrae. This method can be disadvantageous as these plates are generally not low-profile, not easily compressible, nor easily centered. Cervical plates also tend to be long and may encroach upon the space of an adjacent disc space or vertebral body. Alternatively, other spinal devices are configured to be inserted directly into the disc space and attach to the vertebral endplates. This approach also is disadvantageous in that attachment to the vertebral endplates is not as strong as attachment to the hard anterior cortex of the vertebrae.
An additional problem of prior art plates is that their rigid attachment to the vertebral bodies can prevent compressive forces on the vertebral bodies, which in turn can prevent proper fusion of the graft. In attempt to counter this problem, new plate designs were developed that used slotted holes for the screws, configured such that the screws could slide in the slots, allowing compression of the graft. At least two problems are associated with these plates. Firstly, as the front of the spine compresses, compression in the back is limited by the facet joints posteriorly, which causes an abnormal forward angulation and flexion called kyphosis. Secondly, as the screws move down in the plate slots as the graft is compressed, the inferior and superior portions of the plate can encroach upon the neighboring disc areas or vertebral bodies, above and below the compressed vertebral bodies, and lead to advanced degeneration. In an attempt to counter the encroachment issue, new plates were designed that shorten when compressed. While addressing the encroachment problem, the shortening or translating plates can still lead to kyphosis as shown in FIG. 7. Stated otherwise, anterior vertebral plates that shorten in length when the graft and the surrounding vertebral bodies are compressed can still lead to the anterior area of the disc space collapsing more so than the posterior area.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for improved spinal plates that are lower profile, more easily compressible and centered, do not encroach upon the space of a nearby disc or vertebral body, and that attach to bone that is stronger than the vertebral endplates. Additionally there is a need for anterior vertebral plates that prevent kyphosis, or forward angulation, of the spine and encourages the natural lordotic, or inward curvature, of cervical and lumbar regions of the vertebral column.


According to one embodiment, a magnetic recording layer is coated with a fine particle coating solution containing fine particles coated with a protective layer containing a first additive including a straight-chain structure for increasing wettability to the magnetic recording layer, and a carboxy group or the like, and a second additive including a carboxy group or the like and a polymerizable functional group, each fine particle having, on at least a surface thereof, a material selected from Al, Si, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Zn, Y, Zr, Sn, Mo, Ta, W, and oxides thereof, thereby forming a fine particle monolayer, and heat or light energy is applied, thereby curing the protective layer and forming a periodic pattern.

Nanometer-order micropatterning techniques continue to improve, with the semiconductor industry taking the initiative, and patterning at a level of a few tens of nanometers to a few nanometers has recently become possible. Patterning techniques are used not only in the semiconductor field but also in various other fields such as displays, electronic materials, catalysts, and memory materials.
In particular, it is being contemplated to apply micropatterning techniques to hard disk drives (HDDs). It is possible to increase the magnetic particle volume per bit and increase the thermal stability by patterning the recording medium of an HDD. Also, jitter noise can be reduced because particle sizes can be made uniform compared to a granular medium manufactured by sputtering. A magnetic recording medium like this is called a patterned medium (patterned media). In this patterned medium, it is important to make the sizes and arrangements of patterned magnetic particles uniform.
In a device having a nanostructure such as a patterned medium, fine particles can be applied as a template for forming the nanostructure. It is possible to transfer a fine particle shape to a magnetic recording medium or anti-reflection film, and grow a carbon nanotube (CNT) by using fine particles themselves as a catalyst. It is necessary to uniformly arrange particles on a substrate and subject the particles to a subsequent process regardless of whether the particles form a monolayer or multiple layers. During the process, the surface of each fine particle is exposed by etching a protective group covering the surface of the fine particle. This process poses the problem that the particles are charged by plasma and aggregate to each other.

Pattern formation method and magnetic recording medium manufacturing method


A machine and method for making folded strips, which machine and method are characterized by features that enable a reduction in the size, weight and cost of the machine. The machine and method comprises a housing having first and second housing sections, a longitudinal severing assembly for longitudinally severing the sheet stock material into a plurality of strips, and a folding device downstream of the longitudinal severing assembly and operative to cause back and forth folding of the strips to produce accordion-folded strips having substantially uniform adjacent opposite folds. The longitudinal severing assembly includes first and second slitting members respectively carried in the first and second housing sections, and the first and second housing sections are separable whereby the housing is openable to maintain and repair the machine. The slitting members include a shaft and an array of slitting discs carried on the shaft for rotation therewith. The slitting discs are individually axially shiftable relative to the shaft and a biasing member is used to resiliently bias the slitting discs towards one another to hold the same assembled as a stacked array. Also provided are first and second arrays of combers passing through respective spaces between relatively adjacent cutting discs of the first and second slitting members, respectively. The first and second array of combers define therebetween a passageway which directs the sheet stock material between the first and second slitting members, and the combers each are in the form of an elongated member having an inner surface defining a part of one side of the passageway and an outer surface disposed inwardly of the rotation axis of the respective slitting member at the same side of said passageway as the comber.

Accordion-folded paper strips heretofore have been used as decorative packaging, dunnage, void-fill and other cushioning products. Accordion-folded paper strips have also recently found uses in other fields, such as the agricultural and veterinary fields.
Machines and methods for making such folded strips are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,088,972; 5,134,013; 5,173,352; 5,403,259; 5,573,491 and 5,656,008; and in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/153,360. In these machines and methods, a continuous sheet of material is separated into a plurality of strips and folded into a zig-zag or accordion shape. The folding may be accomplished by advancing the plurality of strips against a restrained body of previously folded strips in such a manner that the natural resilience of the material produces adjacent opposite folds thereby causing the strips to assume a zig-zag shape. The separation of the sheet of material into strips is accomplished by transverse separation of the sheet into lengths which define the lengths of the strips and longitudinal separation of the sheet which defines the width of the strip. The width of the folded strip will be approximately the same as the width of the unfolded strip. The length of the folded strip will be somewhat shorter than the length of the unfolded strip.
The separation of the continuous sheet of material into a plurality of strips has been accomplished by several methods of longitudinal and then transverse separation. For example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,088,972 and 5,134,013, a machine and method is disclosed in which a continuous sheet or web of material is first longitudinally cut into longitudinal sections. These longitudinal sections are folded and then the folded sections are transversely separated into strips to form a plurality of folded strips. Thus, the continuous sheet of material is longitudinally separated and then subsequently transversely separated into folded strips.
Alternatively, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,173,352 and 5,403,259, a machine and method is disclosed in which the leading end of the continuous sheet of paper is completely transversely separated from the rest of the sheet of paper to define a leading sheet portion. This leading sheet portion is then fed to a longitudinal slitting assembly for longitudinal separation of the sheet into strips which are then folded into folded strips. Thus, the continuous sheet of material is transversely separated and subsequently longitudinally separated into strips which are then folded into folded strips having the same or a specified unfolded length.
Folded strips also have heretofore been produced using a combination of machines. A first machine, known as a crepe converter machine, impels a continuous sheet of paper through transverse restricting fingers and wrinkles the paper, thereby producing a creped/crimped sheet. In a second machine, the creped/crimped sheet is longitudinally slit and transversely cut to form folded strips. In still another arrangement, a corrugator machine is used in place of the crepe converter machine. In the corrugator machine, the continuous sheet of paper is passed between cooperating corrugating rollers that produce corrugating in the paper. The corrugated paper may then be wound into a roll and later supplied to slitting and cutting equipment which longitudinally slits and transversely cuts the corrugated paper sheet into strips.
The aforesaid machines or machine combinations are of considerable size, weight and cost. Thus, heretofore these machines have been located at a few manufacturing facilities and the folded strips have been shipped in boxes or bags to customers who may be located a considerable distance from the manufacturing facility. This results in high transportation costs considering that the folded strips occupy a substantial volume requiring a lot of room in the truck or other transport vehicle. Therefore, it would be advantageous to have a machine and associated method for producing the folded strips that is significantly smaller, lighter and less expensive then presently known machines. Thus, for a given investment more machines could be located at respective strategically located manufacturing and/or end user facilities, thereby substantially reducing shipping costs of the converted product.

Conversion machine and method for making folded strips


A method is provided to determine the conditions required for the production of homogeneous protein-colloidal gold complexes. The method uses the electrophoretic migration of a discrete fraction of a sample of protein-colloidal gold complexes to identify, and produce homogeneous complexes. Further, the methods provided are used to select the pH of adsorption and the quantity of protein required to produce homogeneous complexes.

During the last decade colloidal gold particles have become popular as markers in cytochemistry applications. Colloidal gold particles may be prepared in a variety of sizes through the reduction of gold chloride, or similar compounds, with a variety of reagents, including white phosphorus, sodium ascorbate, or sodium citrate. Colloidal gold particles generally have an average diameter of from 1 to about 140 nm.
Colloidal gold particles are typically bound to proteins or immunoglobulins to form protein-colloidal gold complexes, these protein-colloidal gold complexes are useful for the visualization of immunoreactions. For example, protein-colloidal gold complexes are widely used as electron-dense markers for electron microscopy, as colored markers in light microscopy, as stains for identifying substances on blots, and as a visible indicator for the presence of various substances in solution, such as hormones in urine.
The adsorption of proteins onto the colloidal gold is variable, depending to a great extent on the reaction conditions. Reaction conditions which have been identified as being most important include the amount of colloidal gold, the concentration of protein, and the pH of the reaction solution.
It is desirable that protein-colloidal gold complexes have a uniform size, shape, charge, and ratio of charge to size. In other words, the complexes are preferably homogeneous. Homogeneity is an important factor in predicting the reactivity of complexes, and further the reproducibility of experimental results obtained using them. The term "homogeneous" or "homogeneity" as used herein is defined as relating to a product producing substantially symmetrical spots after subjection to electrophoretic migration on a flat bed gel electrophoresis system. Electrophoretically homogeneous protein-colloidal gold complexes, or a discrete fraction thereof, are defined in greater detail as occupying a discrete area in the gel, immediately following electrophoresis, which is (at least with one dimensional electrophoresis) no greater than the diameter of the round sample well plus about 10% (perpendicular to the electrophoretic migration path); such areas are preferably round, or one axis of the area may be slightly elongated but no more than about 1.34 times the diameter of the sample well (about 33% increase, parallel to the electrophoretic migration path). One aspect of homogeneity is related to the quantity of protein bound by the gold particles. It is known that the amount of protein attached to the colloidal gold likely influences any experimental results obtained. Therefore, a homogeneous preparation would be superior to one that is either unknown or known to be nonhomogeneous.
The testing and selection of homogeneous colloidal gold-protein complexes has in the past been largely restricted to only a few procedures including absorbance (1-3); passive gold agglutination (3); blotting (4-7); and centrifugation combined with direct observation in the electron microscope (8,9). The most commonly used methods for determining the homogeneity and usefulness of a particular preparation involves either a visual or spectrophotometric determination of the color change that occur when NaCI is added to the mixture. The spectrophotometer is used to determine the smallest absorbance or color change produced following the addition of NaCl to the protein-colloidal gold solution. These procedures are used not only to identify homogeneous preparation but also to select the pH and protein concentration that yield the lowest absorbance. Proponents of this method contend that solutions having a low absorbance contain minimal aggregates of complexes, and are therefore, homogeneous.
Visual and spectrophotometric methods essentially only distinguish between non-aggregated and aggregated preparations and do not identify the more subtle differences in the complexes which create heterogeneity. For example, more than one set of reaction conditions may be used to produce protein-colloidal gold complexes, which, according to spectrophotometric comparison, have identical or near identical absorbance, or degree of aggregation. However, it has been determined that the reactivity of these complexes is often different. Accordingly, visual or spectrophotometric methods cannot determine the homogeneity of a preparation. In addition, although direct observation with an electron microscope, centrifugation or chromatography can be used to identify, and in some cases even remove aggregates from a solution, unfortunately, however, these procedures do not detect more subtle differences between the particles themselves.
In light of the above deficiencies in the art, and the need for homogenous preparations of protein-colloidal gold complexes, it would be advantageous to provide a method for identifying the reaction conditions which produce homogeneous protein-colloidal gold complexes. Further, it would be advantageous to provide a method for producing homogeneous protein-colloidal gold complexes. Still further, it would be an advantage to provide a homogeneous protein-colloidal gold preparation. The present inventor has discovered that the electrophoretic mobility of protein-colloidal gold complexes can be used in the identification and production of homogeneous preparations. More particularly, it has been determined that complexes which exhibit an electrophoretic mobility which closely resembles that exhibited by the unbound free protein, are homogeneous.

Production of electrophoretically-homogenous protein-colloidal gold complexes

Board of Regents, The University of Texas System


A corrosion-resistant volume damper apparatus for use in gas- and vapor-handling duct systems, installed between existing external duct flanges without having to custom cut or otherwise modify the duct system or the volume damper itself. The retrofittable volume damper has a housing or framework with an aperture extending therethrough and a corrosion-resistant damper blade having integral pivot arms. The aperture or bore is of a suitable size and shape to match the duct system within which the volume damper is to be installed. The housing preferably comprises a pair of corrosion-resistant plates of suitably rigid materials. The two plates have a series of through holes permitting the two plates to be bolted together with a damper blade to be rotatably sandwiched between the plates such that one of the pivot arms of the damper blade extends beyond the two plates on a plane perpendicular to, and away from, the axis of the bore. Each of the two plates has substantially semicircular ridges and, optionally, grooves adjacent to the inner edge of the aperture to provide sealing surfaces. The damper blade is rotatably adjustable to partially or completely occlude the bore and is preferably lockable in a desired rotatably adjusted angular position. The housing has standardized attachments allowing the apparatus to be installed between existing flanges on two sections of existing ductwork or against an existing flange on one end of existing ductwork.

The use of volume dampers for controlling air streams is well known. For example, a volume damper is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,186,719, to Dalsin (Device for Supplying Outside Cold Air to a Fireplace). U.S. Pat. No. 4,236,668 to Prikkel discloses a thermally responsive damper assembly having position controls, for mounting in a flue which vents gases from a region in which combustion is to occur. U.S. Pat. No. 4,399,806 to Love discloses a fireplace draft control, or volume damper. U.S. Pat. No. 4,691,689 to Shepherd discloses a one-piece adjustable damper. U.S. Pat. No. 4,669,499 to Miyake et al. discloses a valve casing for use in a butterfly valve, the valve casing having a double structure comprising an inner shell and an outer shell. U.S. Pat. No. 5,207,615 to Edmisten discloses a damper assembly for an air plenum system having a plurality of air duct lines. U.S. Pat. No. 5,257,772 to Habicht discloses a sanitary butterfly valve including a closable disc member carried by a resilient valve seat. The valve seat is compressed between a housing and clamp plate while being retained by a first acute lip and a second acute lip. U.S. Pat. No. 3,750,698 to Walchle et al. discloses a coated valving member for a butterfly-type valve, the valving member being coated with a protective coating material by a high-pressure and high-temperature molding process. The body plate of the coated valving member has a plurality of openings extending through the body plate. The protective coating material fills and extends through the openings to integrally attach the coating on opposite sides of the body plate. Thus both the basic concept of a volume damper and its general uses in various applications are known.
While each of these patents discloses volume dampers which fulfill their respective particular objectives and requirements and are most likely quite functional for their intended purposes, none of the background art discloses an apparatus that allows for the installation of a corrosion-resistant volume damper in an existing duct system without the necessity of custom-making the damper and/or custom-cutting the duct. Neither is there any volume damper especially adapted for easy installation between existing duct flanges. There still exists the need for a new and improved chemical-resistant and corrosion-resistant volume damper apparatus which is easily and inexpensively installed in new or existing exhaust air systems that are designed to handle a wide range of corrosive exhaust streams. In this respect and others, the invention disclosed herein substantially fulfills this need.

Retrofittable corrosion-resistant volume damper


Apparatus and method for emulating a virtual machine within the physical memory space of a programmable processor using virtual functions having a format independent of the hardware architecture of the processor. The virtual functions are executed using an execution engine emulated in the processor. A symbol table maps the virtual functions to native functions in the memory space, and a gate call interface block accesses the symbol table and initiates execution of the corresponding native function in response to each executed virtual function. Execution of the corresponding native function operates to evaluate the concurrent execution of at least one other native function. In this way for example, standardized platform virtual code can be generated for a number of different types of processors and used to evaluate the native operational routines of each processor.

Programmable processor-based devices are increasingly common in the current consumer products marketplace. One popular class of such devices are data storage devices, such as hard disc drives, optical disc (CD, DVD) players and recorders, magnetic digital tape (DAT) players and recorders, digital cameras, etc.
Such devices typically include a hardware/firmware based data interface circuit with a programmable processor (controller). A host device makes data transfer requests over a primary communication pathway using an established communications protocol (Fibre Channel, SCSI, ATA, RS-232, etc.).
The controller provides top level control of the operation of the device using associated programming stored in memory. Such programming includes operational routines that are executed as required to facilitate normal operation of the device, as well as test routines that can be selectively executed to certify and diagnose the operation of the device during manufacturing and field use. The test routines can be accessed through the primary communication pathway or through a separate command pathway, such as a serial bus connected in parallel with the primary pathway.
Manufacturers often concurrently offer a number of different types and models of processor-based devices with varying levels of performance and features to meet different price points and other marketing requirements. Such devices may utilize different types and architectures of processors, such as digital signal processors, DSPs; standard PC-type processors such as the Intel Pentium® and X86 classes of processors; ARM devices (Advanced RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computer) Machines), etc. Each of these generally has unique coding structures and requirements specific to the particular hardware architecture of the individual processors.
Because market pressures continue to press manufacturers to develop successive generations of processor-based devices with ever higher levels of performance at successively lower cost, there remains a continued need for improvements in the manner in which test code is generated and implemented, and it is to such improvements that the present disclosure is directed.

Virtual machine emulation in the memory space of a programmable processor


A composite part consisting of a metallic matrix and reinforcing fibers is fabricated by the simultaneous winding of the fiber and plasma spraying of the matrix onto a rotating mandrel, wherein an axi-symmetric part is produced with multiple layers of the fibers aligned in the circumferential direction. Single or multiple fiber strands are wound onto a mandrel and simultaneously sprayed with the heated powder matrix material using a thermal spray process. Rotation and translation of the mandrel produces an axi-symmetric composite part. The content of the fiber material in the plasma sprayed matrix is typically up to 40% by volume. The light-weight composite part is produced in a single processing step. The part may be used either directly, or as an insert in other components with or without further densification.

Advances in the applications of current materials demand increased strength and toughness from existing monolithic materials. These requirements may be met by reinforcing the monolithic materials with high strength continuous fibres to produce composites. A composite material body comprises two components: the load bearing high strength fibre and a ductile load distributing matrix. Metallic matrices incorporating high strength ceramic fibres, in particular titanium or aluminum alloys reinforced with SiC fibres, result in composites whose properties can be engineered in terms of strength, stiffness, corrosion resistance, density and ductility. These improved material properties, compared to base monolithic materials, are utilized in different geometries such as flat, curved, circular and other shapes, based on the requirements of the particular structural component. The current fabrication of these composites involves cumbersome multi-step processes, predominantly intended for the manufacture of flat parts.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,615,277 describes a method of manufacturing fibre reinforced articles using monolayer composite tapes. The fibre material is attached to a mandrel and placed in front of a plasma spray. By rotating and translating the mandrel, a homogeneous matrix layer is deposited onto the fibres. On cooling, the tape containing the fibres/matrix monolayer is removed from the mandrel and cut to required shape.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,518,625 describes the use of an arc metal spray gun to spray hot molten metal onto previously aligned fibres on a large drum. The chamber containing the fibre wound drum is evacuated and back filled with argon to provide an inert and contaminant free environment. After spraying, the monolayer is removed and cut to the required dimensions.
Both of these processes are used to make flat components. A multi-layer flat part is produced by stacking several cut monolayers and compacting them by using external pressure and/or temperature. The fibres have to be aligned on the drum or mandrel using organic binders which must be removed through a burn-out cycle prior to densification, and may cause contamination due to incomplete removal. Use of high temperature and pressure for densification of the stacks can damage the fibres.
For making axi-symmetric components, the possible fabrication techniques include: pressing layers of matrix-fibre monolayers, wire winding and fibre coating techniques. In the first case, the process consists of pressing individual foil-fibre mats, where each monolayer is laid in the form of a flat matrix disc. Initially, grooves are etched in the circumferential direction by chemical etching or photolithography. This results in a grooved disc into which a single strand of the fibre is aligned circumferentially, with the help of organic binders. These fibre-matrix monolayers are then hot pressed to obtain a circular composite with the fibres arranged in the circumferential direction, again using high temperature and/or pressure for densification. In this process, the matrix to be used must be available in the form of a sheet. This is not always the case, especially with matrices of low ductility, such as certain aluminides of titanium, nickel or iron. Additionally, the carbonaceous char which may be left behind after the burn-out cycle may result in fabrication problems such as: a) formation of porosity, b) internal matrix oxidation during subsequent heat treatments, resulting in poor mechanical properties; and c) carbon from the char chemically combining with the matrix to form brittle carbides.
In the wire winding process, fibres and matrix in the form of wires are wound onto a mandrel. The winding mechanism requires precision equipment to ensure appropriate spacing and fibre distribution throughout the composite. The matrix wire diameter controls the volume fraction of the fibres. After a suitable thickness has been wound, the entire assembly is encased in a can which is evacuated to a low pressure and hot isostatically pressed (HIP-ed), resulting in an axi-symmetric component. For this process, the matrix material should be available in the form of wires, again limiting the scope of possible matrix materials. This method naturally excludes the use of matrices with lower ductility. Given the nature of winding, the porosity in the preform can be as high as 30%, which may lead to further fibre movement and possible damage during HIP-ing. The can material must be machined off after HIP-ing, thus adding to processing costs.
The third process involves the coating of the reinforcing fibre with the matrix alloy by a high speed deposition process such as the Electron Beam Deposition (EBD). Individual fibre strands are rotated above an alloy bath. The evaporation of the alloy may be achieved in a single step, if the vapour pressures of the alloy constituents are of the order of 1 torr, or by coevaporation of the constituent elements. Coated fibres are used to make a preform of an appropriate shape which is then consolidated by vacuum hot pressing or HIP-ing, to produce a 100% dense material. Similar to the wire winding process, high precision equipment is required to hold and rotate the fibre to ensure an even coating of the matrix alloy around the fibre.
None of the above mentioned techniques have the capability to produce an axi-symmetric component in a single step.
It is an object of the present invention to eliminate the above-mentioned problems associated with the existing fabrication techniques by developing a single step process for manufacturing axi-symmetric fiber-reinforced composite parts.

Method to manufacture reinforced axi-symmetric metal matrix composite shapes


A safe has, in addition to its strong body and door and its combination lock knob and dial, a security mask that is strongly and fixedly secured to the upper side of the door over major portions of the dial, for the purpose of preventing a burglar from hammering on the dial and then driving the spindle and actuating the relockers of the safe. In accordance with another aspect of the invention, an anti auto-dialer is fixedly connected to the security mask over the knob of the combination lock mechanism, to prevent operative engagement between the knob and an auto-dialer mechanism while at the same time permitting manual operation of the knob to work the combination.

When a typical (nonprofessional) burglar attacks a safe in a home, motor home, etc., he or she finds a hammer and uses that hammer to knock the knob and dial off the dialing means. Then, the burglar uses the hammer, a screwdriver, or other tools to pound on the spindle, thus driving it downwardly. This forces the bottom plate of the housing of the lock mechanism away from the main body of such lock housing. This, in turn, operates the relockers. The relockers normally stop the burglar from entering the safe.
The result, however, is a large problem in the safe industry, an industry which relies heavily on relockers to prevent the indicated type of entry. The problem is that it is often very expensive for a locksmith hired by the owner of the safe to put the damaged safe back into operating condition after the burglar has done his or her damage. In some cases, the cost of putting the safe back into operating condition may approximate the initial cost of the safe itself. This is particularly true where the safe is embedded in concrete, as is often the case.
A distinct problem involved relative to apparatus mounted on the doors of safes is that the industry--and the underwriters--do not want any holes in the doors other than the single hole necessitated by the spindle of the lock mechanism. Thus, it is important that there be no additional unplugged holes.
Another type of entry into a safe, this one being employed by professional burglars, involves a computer-controlled automatic-dialing system. The burglar simply connects such system to the knob on the safe dial, following which the auto-dial system dials enormous numbers of combinations until the right one is reached. For such a system to work, it is typically necessary that there be a knob present on the dial, and that the knob be accessible to the auto-dialer.

Burglar-resistant lock-operating construction for safes


Enabling the exchange of connection parameters where a user equipment (UE) lacks a secret shared with the network (e.g. a server), such as key materials, and lacks a valid certificate. In some embodiments, the connection parameters may be exchanged via EAP messages. In certain aspects, and particularly with respect to emergency attach, a simplified protocol is used with limited overhead because the UE does not attempt to authenticate the network, and the network does not attempt to authenticate the UE.

When a user equipment (UE) accesses a communication network, there may need to be one or more authentication protocols in place such that the device and the network (e.g., the UE and a server) can be mutually authenticated.
One authentication framework is the Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP), which is defined in RFC 3748 and can be used as a base for numerous authentication processes. For instance, RFC 4187 describes an Extensible Authentication Protocol Method for 3rd Generation Authentication and Key Agreement (EAP-AKA), while RFC 5448 describes an Improved Extensible Authentication Protocol Method for 3rd Generation Authentication and Key Agreement (EAP-AKA′) (collectively, "EAP-AKA(′)"). EAP can be used, for example, to authenticate a UE via a wireless LAN (WLAN) access point (AP), and in particular, via a trusted WLAN AP (TWAN), as described in 3GPP TS 33.402 and 24.302.
In addition to authentication and key agreement parameters, the messages sent in accordance with an authentication protocol, such as an EAP-AKA(′) exchange, can also carry connection parameters, such as those specified in TS 23.402 and 24.302. These connection parameters may include, for example, those needed for setup and connection following authentication. Specific security groups and mechanisms, and in particular relating to non-3GPP and ePDG access, are provided in TS 33.402.

Parameter exchange during emergency access using extensible authentication protocol messaging


Mineralization occurs during weathering of silicate materials/rocks rich in CA+ and Mg+, particularly peridotite which composes Earth's upper mantle. The carbon mineralization mantle peridotite is the base activated carbon for nanostructured-carbon-base-material. The nanostructured-carbon-base-material using mantle peridotite carbon mineralization based activated carbon nanotubes is a new catalyst for batteries and fuel-cell use that doesn't use precious metal such as platinum and that performs as effectively as many well-known, expensive precious-metal catalysts. The nanostructured-carbon-base-material using mantle peridotite carbon mineralization based activated carbon nanotubes makes possible the creation of economical lithium-air batteries that could power electric vehicles. The carbon nanotubes have useful qualities such as slim, strong, lightweight, high electronic conductivity, has metallic/semiconductive properties that are useful in (1) electronics i.e. wiring, transistor; (2) material that reinforced resin/metal; (3) energy source i.e. catalysis support, ion adsorption, capacitors; (4) nanotechnology i.e. nanostructure; and (5) biotechnology i.e. cell cultivating, drug delivery system, biosensor.

The present invention relates to economical non-precious metal catalyst of lithium-air batteries. The new catalyst doesn't use precious metal such as platinum, which is more expensive per ounce than gold. Yet it performs under certain conditions as effectively as many well-known and prohibitively expensive precious metal catalyst developed for battery and fuel-cell use. The catalyst is based on nitrogen-containing carbon nanotubes, it does not require the tedious, toxic and costly nanotechnology materials.
Carbon nanotubes for better and low cost electrodes for fuel cells, carbon nanotubes to epoxy composites in stronger/stiffer components of windmill blades or aircraft components, carbon nanotubes in ink, carbon fibers (baseball bats, golf clubs, airplane body, car panels, any situation where metal can be replaced by carbon fiber), carbon fiber tapes, tow and sleeves, carbon fabrics (twill), carbon fiber reinforce plastics or thermoplastic, carbon nanotubes for computer chips, carbon nanotubes mirrors for lightweight telescopes in cube sats.
The composition of carbon nanotubes is from the carbon mineralization mantle peridotite. The peridotite carbon mineralization is the product of air pollution treatment that target pollutants such as carbon dioxide (CO2) in air using the highly reactive rock fragments of peridotite that is rich in Mg and Ca and the product of CO2 sequestration in using the peridotite glass cells is natural carbon. The carbon mineralization mantle peridotite is the peridotite carbon mineralization based is then the based activated carbon nanotubes.

Nanostructured-carbon-base-material using mantle perido carbon mineralization based activated carbon nanotubes


A method of adjusting the write speed of a CD drive includes writing data from a CD drive to a disk at a first speed during a first preset time. If, at the end of the first preset time, the data error rate at the first speed is larger than the error allowance upper limit for the first preset time, then writing of the data will be completed at the first speed. However, if at the end of the first preset time, the data error rate at the first speed is smaller than the error allowance upper limit for the first preset time, then the writing speed will be adjusted to a second higher speed. The same process can be repeated for the second higher speed.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for dynamically adjusting the writing speed of a compact disk (CD) drive, and in particular, relates to a method for dynamically adjusting the writing speed in accordance with the data error rate of the data to be written onto a disk.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The current writing speed of laser compact disks that may be burned (i.e., written) once (CD-R) in CD drives that are available on the market has reached 24×, and a continued increase in the writing speed for future CD drives is expected. However, compact disks made by different manufacturers do not have completely identical features, so that the data writing conditions can also be different at the same write speeds. At a given data write speed, it is possible that the compact disk of one brand is able to completely and correctly carry out the data writing action, while the compact disk of another brand may experience problems. For example, data may be omitted, or read outs may be impossible even though the writing is completed, among other unexpected situations.
When a compact disk is made in a factory, a helical pregroove is carved onto its surface, which covers the whole disk from an inside circle radiating outwardly at an interval of about 1.6 micrometers. Taking a 12 cm disk as an example, the groove will cover the whole disk with about 20,000 circles. An optical head is guided by means of this groove to radiate a laser beam on to the groove with the result that a sequence of pits and lands of different patterns are formed, with the patterns of the pits and lands obtained in accordance with codes of the data to be written. The groove is carved with some slight wobbles, by which the whole helical groove is etched in continuous time. By analyzing the wobble groove, the absolute time in pregroove (ATIP) of the compact disc can be obtained. ATIP is well-known in the art, and essentially provides information about the minute, second and frame being accessed or written. In other words, ATIP functions like an addressing means.
Using the obtained ATIP, it is possible to determine (i) the starting point for the time when the writing operation is carried out, and (ii) the ending point for the time available for the writing. For example, a location that is about 25 mm from the axis of the compact disk is approximately the zero point of the ATIP of the compact disk (i.e., 00 min, 00 sec, 00 block). The total duration of the ATIP is the total writable time of the compact disk that can generally be seen on the compact disk. However, this duration changes along with the linear velocity of the compact disk when the compact disk is spinning. As an example, when the linear velocity of a compact disk is 1.2 m/sec, the total time available for writing on this compact disk is about 74 min. When the linear velocity of the compact disk is increased to 1.4 m/sec, the total time available for writing on this compact disk is reduced to only about 64 min.
Even though the ATIP provides some information (such as the starting and ending points for data writing and the like), it does not provide certain relevant information. For example, ATIP does not provide information about the optimum writing speed needed by the compact disk to correctly and completely write data, and whether or not the data can be correctly read after the writing process is completed. As a result, when the CD drive is carrying out the data writing process, it must rely completely on the writing speed specified by the user. This can result in failure of the entire writing process and the subsequent waste of compact disks. For example, if a user selects a speed of 24× for writing to a disk, but the disk is only a 16× disk, the writing operation may fail, or the quality of the written data may be poor. This is because the 16× disk cannot support a writing speed of 24×.
Thus, there still remains a need for a method for adjusting the writing speed of a CD drive to minimize write failures and to improve the quality of the written data.

Method for adjusting the writing speed of a CD drive


The disclosed method for reducing HRC mode reception time of CATV signals is intended for television receivers or video tape recorders provided with a CATV receiver suitable for the North American CATV system but not provided with a CATV mode (STD, HRC and IRC) selection switch. If a channel is selected, corresponding modulation frequency data is transmitted to a tuner. Subsequently, the video signal is checked for the presence of synchronizing signals, and this information is used to determine whether the broadcast is in STD mode or in HRC mode, prior to broadcast signal reception. This eliminates waiting time, reducing HRC mode reception time to only about 100 ms (the time needed to check for the presence of the synchronizing signals), and prevents noises from being generated as well as improving reception quality.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to television receivers or video cassette tape recorders (hereinafter called "VCR") containing a receiver for cable television (hereinafter called "CATV") signals, and more particularly to a method for reducing the reception time of a Harmonical Related Carriers (hereinafter called "HRC") mode of a CATV signal. According to the invention, HRC mode reception time can be reduced by performing Auto Fine Tuning (hereinafter called "AFT") in cases where the television receiver or VCR does not have a mode selection switch suitable for the North American CATV system.
In the HRC mode, picture carrier frequencies of all channels except channels 5 and 6 are lower by 1.25 MHz than those frequencies in standard (hereinafter called "STD") mode. The picture carrier frequencies of channel 5 and 6 are higher by 0.75 MHz than those frequencies in the STD mode. Therefore, supposing that a modulation frequency in the STD mode is fo, the corresponding frequency in the HRC mode will be fo' (=fo-1.25 MHz) (hereinafter called "fo'").
2. Description of the Related Art
U.S. Pat. No. 4,823,387 describes an improvement of tuning capabilities for scrambled channels, more particularly for tuning non-standard radio frequency (RF) signals containing scrambled video data using AFT.
Such improvements permit reception of channels being broadcast in HRC mode even by a TV receiver or VCR without a CATV mode (STD, HRC, IRC (Interval Related Carriers)) selection switch, as long as the TV receiver or VCR is provided with a CATV receiver, by performing AFT operation.
However, the AFT operation takes approximately 500-900 ms at least, and a noise is generated due to a delay time at the beginning of reception. This results in problems of poor quality for TV receivers or VCRs without CATV mode (including STD, HRC, IRC) selection switches. In cases where the TV receiver or VCR is provided with a CATV mode selection switch, the problem does not exist, but the manufacturing cost of the unit is increased.

Method for reducing HRC mode reception time in cable television


The optical node connects N networks to each other (where N is an integer larger than one). Each of the N networks respectively includes a first transmission path and a second transmission path. The optical node includes a switching unit that connects the first transmission path of one network of the N networks to other (N−1) networks; a failure detector that detects failure in the first transmission path of the network; and a control unit that causes the switching unit to connect the second transmission path of the network to the other (N−1) networks when the failure is detected.

1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical node and an optical add/drop multiplexer for connecting a plurality of networks, which can transmit an optical signal as it is (without conversion to an electric signal) and can continue communication even when a failure occurs in the networks.
2) Description of the Related Art
It is required for a conventional metro-system to meet the demand for high reliability, and quickly recover from a failure such as optical fiber breaking. For example, the recovery must be performed within 50 milliseconds according to the Synchronous Optical NETwork/Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SONET/SDH) standard, which is an international standard for a high-speed digital communication system. As an optical protection system, Optical Unidirectional Path Switched Ring (OUPSR) and Optical Shared Path Protection Ring (OSPPR) have been suggested and commonly used.
FIG. 9A is a diagram of a ring network E in the conventional OUPSR system. The ring network E has a redundant configuration. That is, the ring network E includes a working line 10, a protection line 20, and a plurality of optical add/drop multiplexer (OADM) nodes 30a to 30d.
Each of the OADM nodes 30a to 30d includes a transponder 31, an OADM switch unit 32a for the working line 10, an OADM switch unit 32b for the protection line 11, and a per-channel optical switch 33 (for example, see Published Japanese Translation of PCT international publication for patent application H11-508428). In a typical OUPSR system, a sending terminal includes an optical coupler 33′, while a receiving terminal includes a per-channel optical switch 33.
For example, the optical coupler 33′ of the OADM node 30a (sending terminal) branches and transmits an optical signal from the transponder 31 thereof to both of the working line 10 and the protection line 20 via the OADM switch units 32a and 32b. However, only the optical signal transmitted through the working line 10 is received by the transponder 31 of the OADM node 30c (receiving terminal), since the per-channel optical switch 33 thereof is basically connected to the OADM switch unit 32a for the working line 10.
FIG. 9B is a diagram of configurations of the conventional OADM switch units 32a and 32b, which includes an optical multiplexer/an optical demultiplexer, such as an arrayed waveguide (AWG), and per-channel optical switches. FIG. 9C is a diagram of configurations of the conventional OADM switch units 32a and 32b, which includes wavelength-selective switches (WSSs) whose development is advanced in recent years (for example, see W. J. Tomlinson, "Wavelength-selective switching architecture and technology overview", OFC 2004, WC3, Optical Society of America, February, 2004).
FIG. 9D is a diagram of a recovery operation from a failure in the OUPSR system. When a failure 11 occurs between the OADM nodes 30a and 30b, the per-channel optical switch 33 of the OADM node 30c (receiving terminal), which has been connected to the OADM switch unit 32a for the working line 10, is connected to the OADM switch unit 32b for the protection line 20. As a result, the optical signal transmitted from the OADM node 30a (sending terminal) via the protection line 20 is received by the transponder 31 of the OADM node 30c (receiving terminal) (for example, see Hiroyuki Kasai and other 3, "Easy understandable SDH/SONET transmission system", Version 1, Ohmsha, April, 2001, pages 110 to 118).
The OADM node 30c can detect the failure 11 by monitoring optical power level by a photodiode (PD) or the like in the transponder 31 thereof. The OADM node 30c can receive failure information, such as an alarm indication signal (AIS), via an optical supervisory channel (OSC) from an OADM node just after the occurrence point of the failure 11 (in FIG. 9D, the OADM node 30b) that is monitoring passing-through optical signals.
On the other hand, FIG. 10A is a diagram of a ring network F in the conventional OSPPR system. The ring network F includes a first working line 15 and a second working line 25, instead of the working line 10 and the protection line 11 shown in FIG. 10A. The first working line 15 is used for transmission of optical signals with the highest priority. Utilization efficiency can be improved by providing the two working lines 15 and 25.
Each of the OADM nodes 35a to 35d in the ring network F includes two transponders 36a and 36b, two OADM switch units 37a and 37b, and a per-channel optical switch 38. The transponder 36a and the OADM switch unit 37a are for the first working line 15, while the transponder 36b and the OADM switch unit 37b are for the second working line 25. The per-channel optical switch 38 switches between the first working line 15 and the second working line 25.
The transponder 36a of the OADM node 35a (sending terminal) transmits an optical signal to the OADM node 35c (receiving terminal) through the first working line 15. Simultaneously, the transponder 36b of the OADM node 35a can transmit an optical signal to the OADM node 35d (receiving terminal) through the second working line 25. Furthermore, the OADM node 35c (sending terminal) can transmit an optical signal to the OADM node 35d (receiving terminal) through the first working line 15 if it is not saturated.
FIG. 10B is a diagram of a recovery operation from a failure in the OSPPR system. When the failure 11 occurs between the OADM nodes 35a and 35b, the per-channel optical switch 38 of the OADM node 30c (receiving terminal), which has been connected to the OADM switch unit 37a for the first working line 15, is connected to the OADM switch unit 37b for the second working line 25. Similarly, the per-channel optical switch 38 of the OADM node 35a (sending terminal), which has been connected to the OADM switch unit 37a for the first working line 15, is connected to the OADM switch unit 37b for the second working line 25.
Thus, transmission is temporarily performed via the second working line 25 when a failure occurs. Communications with a low priority performed on the second working line 25 before the failure 11 is disconnected (for example, see Noboru Yajima and et. al. "Fujitsu FLASHWAVE 7500", OPTRONICS, Optronics Corp., August, 2002, pages 158 to 161).
The failure 11 is detected by the OADM node 35b just after the occurrence point of the failure 11. The OADM node 35b transmits the failure information, via the OSC of the first working line 15, to the OADM nodes 35c, 35d, and 35a in the order of the transmission direction.
On the other hand, FIG. 11 is a diagram of a plurality of ring networks in which an optical signal is converted to an electric signal. A node 45 between a ring networks G and H converts an optical signal transmitted over optical fibers 10 and 20 in the ring networks G and H to an electric signal. An electric switch 46 of the node 45 switches wavelength, route, and the like, based on the converted electric signal. The above configuration has various problems such that a transmission capacity is limited, cost and size of the node 45 is increased, a signal format is fixed, and so on. Therefore, it is required to connect a plurality of ring networks, each of which has the above protection function, by an optical signal.
FIGS. 12A and 12B are diagrams of functions of a WSS, FIG. 12C is a perspective view of the WSS, and FIGS. 12D and 12E are side views of the WSS. Such a WSS is disclosed in Published Japanese Translation of PCT international publication for patent application 2003-515187.
A WSS 1200 is a switch that can output a signal of an arbitrary wavelength in an input wavelength multiplexed signal to an arbitrary output port. The WSS 1200 includes 1 input port and N output ports as shown in FIG. 12A, or N input ports and 1 output port as shown in FIG. 12B.
As shown in FIG. 12C, the WSS 1200 includes a spectroscopic element 1201, an optical input and output port 1202, light-converging elements such as lens 1203, and a movable reflector array (a mirror array) 1204 for each wavelength. The spectroscopic element 1201, which is a diffraction grating, disperses wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) lights in different directions (along Z direction in FIG. 12C) for respective wavelengths. Lights along an angular dispersing direction spread in an X-Z plane. Correspondingly, a plurality of movable reflectors (MEMS mirrors) is provided in the movable reflector array 1204 along a dispersing direction (a lateral direction in FIG. 12C).
As shown in FIG. 12E, an incident light from the input port (IN) can be input to any one of the output ports (OUT) for each channel, by changing an angle of the movable reflector array 1204 along an arrangement direction (in Y direction in FIG. 12E) of the ports.

Optical node and optical add/drop multiplexer