An improved, high performance differential voltage regulator for high capacitance loads using a transistor-capacitor that will, while operating with voltages below 5 volts, have wide bandwidth, high current, and loop stability over a to a wide range of output capacitive loads.. The regulator achieves this through first and second control loops coupled to a first one of a pair of differential transistors 2. The first of said control loops sends the output of the regulator to the gate of the first one of the differential transistors while the second of said control loops comprises a control transistor coupled to a transistor-capacitor and to a current mirror transistor controlled by the second differential transistor such that the output voltage may be compared to a reference voltage driving the first differential transistor to generate a differential current and provide differential voltage drives , via a current mirror, to the gate of the output transistor to provide an output capable of driving the gate of the output transistor from ground to voltage thereby providing wide bandwidth, high current, and loop stability to the circuit.

Voltage regulator circuits are currently and widely used to supply a set voltage level to electronic devices. When used with semiconductor circuits and modules, such as DRAMs (Dynamic Random Access Memories) that require a wide bandwidth, high current, and loop stability while supplying current to high capacitive loads, known voltage regulator circuits have been found to be inadequate especially for applications that use input voltages below 5 volts or output voltages below 3 volts.
A common way of maintaining loop stability in low voltage applications is by using either excessively large chip areas or by accepting lower circuit performance. An attempt to provide better circuit performance used a lag-lead resistor-capacitor arrangement commonly known as a Miller compensation circuit in which a resistor and a capacitor are arranged in series between the gate and the output of the output transistor.
These Miller compensation circuits have problems especially when used with large integrated circuits, logic or memory, having large load capacitances, such as DRAMs or BASIC, and requiring high current and fast response times. In DRAMs, the Miller compensation circuit required becomes unacceptably large resulting in an unacceptable bandwidth and the introduction of additional low frequency poles into the system which further adversely affect the performance of the voltage regulator.
Also, in such integrated circuit applications, low input voltages with a low input to output voltage requires a large voltage swing across the gate to source of the output transistor further limiting the size and type of capacitive device that can be used. For example, the large voltage swing requires the Miller capacitor to function with reversible polarity thus precluding the use of devices such as thin oxide capacitors typically used in integrated circuits and requiring instead that the capacitor to be a metal capacitor which is substantially larger than such thin oxide capacitors.
Additionally, in such low voltage applications, cascade stages, which would permit the use of still smaller compensation capacitors, can not be used to boost the current source impedance. Since such regulators require a large output transistor and the Miller compensation scheme requires the Miller capacitance to be substantially larger than the gate-drain capacitances of the output transistor, the Miller compensation scheme cannot be implemented in a practical design.
Still another prior art attempt employed respective parallel resistor-capacitor arrangements coupled to the source of each of the differential input transistors to provide lead compensation. In both this latter arrangement and in the Miller compensation scheme, the large output load capacitance is used as a dominant pole and the output drive circuit contributes a second pole to the circuit. Although this regulator works well with a 5 volt input voltage and a 3.3 output voltage it fails at lower voltages for it cannot maintain sufficient voltage across the capacitors and still provide an adequate voltage swing on the gate of the output device.
Accordingly when faced with these problems, the prior art could only degrade the performance of the entire integrated circuit and thus limit the conditions that would generate these problems.
Therefore to achieve the smallest chip size and to utilize the full performance capabilities of such integrated circuits, there now exists a need for a new and improved voltage regulator circuit which avoids all the above described problems associated with the prior art low voltage regulators used in large integrated circuits while achieving the full performance of the circuit, especially when employing input voltages below 5 volts.
The present invention avoids all the above described problems associated with the prior art circuits and achieves small size and full circuit performance at low input voltages, especially input voltages below 5 volts, and other desirable results by comparing, in a differential amplifier, the regulator circuit output to a reference voltage and generating a differential current to provide a current drive to the gate of a control transistor, which is, in turn, driven by second and third current sources capable of driving the control transistor from ground to voltage.

Integrated low voltage regulator for high capacitive loads

International Business Machine Corporation


An apparatus for increasing wear life of machine members includes a shaft assembly mounted on the machine. Also included are two or more power sources eccentrically aligned in relationship to the shaft assembly of the machine to form an acute angle between the shaft assembly and the two or more power sources. One or more pulleys is attached to the driven shaft which is included in the shaft assembly. One or more drums is attached to each of the drive shafts of each of the engines, and belts are mounted on the drums and pulleys to rotate the driven shaft of the machine.

Gravity, friction, velocity of rotation, and load forces applied during operation to bearings, drive shafts, driven shafts, rotors, and other components of driving and driven machines (collectively, "machine members") contribute to wear, fatigue and degradation of machine members. High speed circular rotation of shafts mounted in bearings gives rise to centripetal force, a force which is reacted to by centrifugal reaction. Angular velocity and angular acceleration of machine members subjected not only to high velocity but significant loads may also induce gyroscopic effects on machine members turning or rotating rapidly. Machine members also may be subjected to significant loads about the geometric and rotational axes of a machine member. As is commonly known, when two forces act on a shaft, pin, axle or similar rod or assembly (collectively, "shaft"), a torque is formed whose vector along an x-axis may produce a rotation about the y-axis known as precession. Such rotation may generate significant angular velocities. The gyroscopic effect and the torque may individually and collectively contribute to inducing rapid wear of shafts and bearings in which shafts are mounted. In any rotating or reciprocating machine in which angular accelerations and velocities are present, unbalanced forces may lead to high stresses and vibrations. Further, if the speed of a shaft or rotor is slowly increased from rest, a speed may be achieved at which a deflection increases suddenly, a phenomenon known as "whirling." A shaft which is balanced will rotate around the center of gravity or axis of rotation of a shaft. However, if the shaft rotates at an angular velocity, the shaft may deflect a distance from the center of gravity or axis of rotation due to centripetal reaction. Rotation also may induce undamped free vibrations. All of these forces and phenomena, and others, may contribute to rapid and excessive wear among machine members, particularly in machine members subjected to high loads and forces. This is particularly true, but not exclusively, in machine members associated with impact crushers. Excessive and rapid degradation and wear of machine members in crushers may cause significant down time, expensive delays in repair and replacement of machine members, and delays in use of the crushers while one or more worn machine member is identified, inspected, removed and replaced. Frequent replacement of machine members causes significant expense to the operator. Such delays, costs and expenses are compounded if the apparatus, such as an impact crusher, is located at a remote site.
For example, a wide variety of impact crushers are used in commerce to reduce the size of large earth materials to smaller sized and shaped aggregate. The construction industry trades employ a variety of impact crushers to reduce large aggregate to aggregate sizes and shapes required to satisfy construction specification for mixtures and admixtures of aggregate with cement and other ingredients, and for further processing of size reductions, chemical leaching, and other stages of use. Construction industry use of impact crushers is but one example of the need to reduce wear on machine members.
Generally, impact rock crushers provide a component for introducing aggregate into a device or devices for crushing the aggregate. Most impact crushers are designed to rely on centrifugal force to disperse large aggregate through the crusher, and to impact the larger aggregate against a variety of impact crusher components to break up, reduce in size, and ultimately eject from the crusher an aggregate composed of desired shapes, sizes and consistencies. Intense efforts have been made to achieve improvements in the design and construction of components of impact crushers to reduce the cost of acquiring and operating crushers, to enhance wear resistance of the component parts of crushers, and to facilitate rapid replacement of worn parts of crushers to enable the user of crushers to lose the least possible amount of time during which a crusher is inoperative due to worn parts.
Such improvements are exemplified by those shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,955,767 issued May 11, 1976 to Mason R. Hise, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,690,341 issued Sep. 1, 1987 to Mason R. Hise and Neil R. Hise, the latter being the inventor of the present invention (collectively, the "Hise Patents"). The Hise patents are instructive on the number and variety of components which may be included in an impact crusher and consequently exposed to wear during operation of an impact crusher. Due to significant loads and stresses placed on many components of impact crushers during operation, friction, fracture, impact, pulsation, angular velocity, and angular acceleration of rotating shafts, may cause driven shafts and bearings to wear rapidly. An impeller of an impact crusher is known to rotate at speeds from about 500 to about 2000 revolutions per minute. The rotation of an impeller, in combination with centrifugal force, creates a material flow of aggregate.
As a result of persistent use of an impact crusher, and the high forces applied to machine members during operation of an impact crusher, replacement of machine members causes down time to repair, refit, and replace machine members. Additional expenses are associated with replacing worn machine member, inventorying replacement components, and delivering a replacement machine members to what is often a remote site, to say little of the general frustration associated with having to stop the aggregate crushing process to replace worn machine members.
What is needed, therefore, is an apparatus for increasing the wear life of machine members during operation of a machine. Particularly what is needed is an apparatus for reducing wear of shafts and bearings associated with impact crushers.
In light of the above, it is an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus for increasing the wear life of machine members, particularly machine members exposed to considerable rotational and vibrational loads and forces.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus for increasing the wear life of machine members, particularly those members of a machine comprising bearings in which a driven shaft rotates, including a shaft which rotates in a bearing at high velocities and accelerations.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus for increasing the wear life of machine members, including bearings in machines requiring one or more of the bearings to be adjusted loosely in relation to the shaft or shaft assembly, rather than tightly on the driven or rotating shaft of the machine, thus increasing unbalanced radial loads on the bearing or bearings.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus for increasing wear life of machine members by reducing or dampening excessive vibrations in an apparatus in which two or more driving machines may be used to rotate a shaft or shaft assembly, thus increasing unbalanced harmonics in the machine members of a driven shaft or shaft assembly.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus for increasing the wear life of machine members while also permitting the user to increase the rotational speed of a driven shaft, and apply greater loads to the machine.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus for increasing the wear life of machine members by relieving pressures and forces on both driven shafts and bearings supporting the driven shafts.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus for increasing wear life of machine members, and a process for manufacturing an apparatus for increasing the wear life of machine members, which respectively are easy to use and to practice, and which are cost effective for their intended purposes.
These and other objects, features, and advantages of such an apparatus for increasing the wear life of machine members will become apparent to those skilled in the art when read in conjunction with the accompanying following detailed description, drawing figures, and appended claims.

Apparatus for increasing wear life of machine members


A hard disk drive includes a disk pack having at least one disk for recording and/or storing data and a spindle motor that support and rotates the disk, a base to which the disk pack is mounted, a cover that covers an upper surface of the base, and a respective filter disposed close to each of at least one of the major surfaces of the disk and extending in the radial direction of the disk including over at least an inner peripheral region of the disk. The filter has an absorbent layer capable of absorbing particles that come in contact with it. Particles on the surface of the disk, from the inner to the outer peripheral regions of the disk, are removed by the filter when the disk is rotated and the particles are flung off of the disk. Thus, particles will not damage the magnetic head(s) of the hard disk drive nor will the particles cause errors to occur in the recording and/or reproducing of data.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a hard disk drive. More particularly, the present invention relates to a hard disk drive having a filter for filtering particles within a casing of the hard disk drive.
2. Description of the Related Art
Hard disk drives (HDDs) are memory devices which can record and reproduce large amounts of data at high speed. Accordingly, HDDs are widely used as auxiliary memory devices for computer systems. Recently, there has been a demand for a compact HDD which can be used in portable electronic devices such as laptop computers, PDAs, and mobile phones. In fact, a compact HDD having a diameter of 0.85 inches, similar to that of a coin, has been actually developed and is expected to be used for mobile phones in the near future.
Typically, an HDD includes: a disk on which data is recorded, a spindle motor for rotating the disk, an actuator arm having a magnetic head that can record data on the disk and/or reproduce data from the disk, a support shaft that supports the actuator arm with the magnetic head disposed above a recording surface of the disk, and a voice coil motor (VCM) for swinging the actuator arm about the longitudinal axis of the support shaft to position the magnetic head over the disk. More specifically, the actuator arm is swung around the axis of the support shaft when power is applied to the spindle motor to rotate the disk and to the voice coil motor (VCM) to supply current to the voice coil motor (VCM). At this time, the magnetic head is moved over a recording surface of the rotating disk to read or write data from or onto the disk. Also, the HDD includes a base to which the aforementioned components are mounted, and a cover that is assembled to the base to enclose the components.
However, such an HDD is extremely vulnerable to particles such as dust or foreign materials. For example, particles can adhere to the recording surface of the disk. In this case, errors are very likely to occur during the recording and/or reproducing of data. Also, the magnetic head may be damaged. Accordingly, the base and cover of the HDD are generally assembled to each other after particles have been completely removed from the components that are to be enclosed by the cover. Regardless, particles can still intrude into the HDD during assembly or through air that enters the assembled HDD and remain on the disk. Each of the particles typically has a diameter of less than about 0.3 μm.
Thus, an air filter is provided on the cover to remove particles in the HDD. The air filter is disposed in a corner of the inner surface of the cover. The air filter is narrow and is oriented perpendicular to the recording surface of the disk. Therefore, the air filter filters particles thrown off of the outer peripheral portion of the disk due to the rotation of the disk.
However, the linear velocity of the outer peripheral portion of the rotating disk is greater than that of the inner peripheral portion thereof. Therefore, particles on the outer peripheral region of the disk are flung off of the disk at a relatively high velocity and are then trapped as they pass through the filter. In contrast, particles on the inner peripheral portion of the disk having a relatively low velocity. In particular, the linear velocity of the inner peripheral portion of a disk of a micro drive is low because the disk is small and the rate (RPMs) at which the disk is rotated is low. Thus, the particles on the inner peripheral portion of the disk tend not to move very far from the inner peripheral portion when the disk is rotating. Hence, these particles are never filtered out and the particles remain on the disk. Therefore, the magnetic head may be damaged by the particles or errors may occur during the recording and reproducing of data. Also, in a conventional HDD in which the disk has recording surfaces on both sides thereof, particles on the lower recoding surface of the disk are not removed by the filter.


The present disclosure relates to processing computer documents. According to one aspect, a method for locating an electronic document may include acquiring a source document of a target document to be located, wherein the target document has a sending-receiving relation with the source document. Metadata information of the source document may be extracted. The extracted metadata information may be packaged to generate a link to the source document, the link being used for locating the target document. According to an example method and the system, it may be possible to directly and automatically locate the target document having a sending-receiving relation with a source document based on a link to the source document containing metadata information without manually analyzing and extracting the related information on the source document or changing the existing access right to the source document and the target document.

The present disclosure relates to the technology of processing computer documents, and more specifically, to a technology of locating a document during the process of document processing with sending/receiving operations.
Currently, people can send and receive a document by various ways. Typical ways for sending/receiving documents include for example an email system, an instant messaging tool, and etc. Taking the email as an example, every email sent can be understood as an electronic document. In many cases, the sender of a mail needs to discuss with the receiver of the email about the content of the email sent previously, and thus the receiver of the email needs to acquire and open the email he received. At this point, the sender of the email has to manually inform the receiver of the email of such information of the email as the subject, the sending time and so on, for example by telephone or an instant messaging tool, in order that the receiver of the email manually look for the email in his inbox and open it. During this process, the sender of the email has to manually read the emails having been sent, to look for and record such information as the subject, the sending time and so on of the email, and the receiver of the email also needs to manually look for the email corresponding to the specific subject tile and the sending time in the inbox according to the information provided by the sender of the email, which is time-consuming and labor-intensive, and not convenient for both the email sending and receiving parties to fast locate the corresponding email sent and received.
There exists a technical solution of providing a document in the form of link. According to this technical solution, it is possible to expedite locating or opening a document pointed to by a link by clicking the link to the document. However, such a link is only a direct location link, which records the information of the location or address where a document is located. However, for the sender of a document, typically he has no access to the computer of the receiver of the document, and the receiver of the document has no access to the computer of the sender of the document either. Especially in the context of the email, an email sender has a completely different access right from the email receiver, therefore, even though the sender provides the location link to a sent email, the email receiver cannot open the sent email in the outbox of the sender pointed to by the link, nor can the email receiver open the corresponding email in the inbox of the receiver by using the link.

International Business Machines Corporation


A bias control circuit (200) for use with an RF amplifier (202) comprises a detector (R1) coupled to the RF amplifier (202) for detecting a DC current provided to the amplifier (202) from supply voltage (VCC). Thereafter, an adjustment circuit (206-210), coupled to the detector (R1) and the RF amplifier (202) adjusts the amplifier's bias voltage (V bias) as a function of the current draw in order to control the RF amplifier's quiescent operating point (bias current) and thereby optimize the RF amplifier's operation for selected operating performance characteristics like gain performance, intermodulation performance, and efficiency.

RF power amplifiers are used in a wide variety of communications and other electronic applications. These amplifiers are made up of one or more cascaded amplifier stages, each of which increases the level of the signal applied to the input of that stage by an amount known as the stage gain. Ideally, the input to output transfer of each stage is linear; a perfect replica of the input signal increased in amplitude appears at the amplifier output. In reality, however, all power amplifiers have a degree of non-linearity in their transfer characteristic. This non-linearity adversely effects various amplifier operating characteristics such as gain performance, intermodulation performance and efficiency.
Non-linear amplifier transfer characteristics gives rise to a phenomenon, hereinafter referred to as gain expansion. Gain expansion is caused by the change in the amplifier's base-emitter voltage due to rectification of input signal power in the base-emitter junction. In effect, the input signal power to an RF amplifier changes the amplifier's quiescent operating point. As a result, an RF amplifier's gain will increase as a function of the input signal power, thereby giving rise to the gain expansion phenomenon. Gain expansion is typically an undesirable characteristic exhibited by RF power amplifiers. This is especially true when the amplifier must operate across a wide dynamic range of input signals, like the multi-tone linear power amplifiers disclosed in patent application Ser. No. 07/855,172, filed Mar. 20, 1992, entitled HIGH DYNAMIC RANGE MODULATION INDEPENDENT FEED FORWARD AMPLIFIER NETWORK and assigned to the assignee of the present application. In such multi-tone applications, constant amplifier gain over a wide dynamic range of input signals is required.
This same non-linearity causes distortion of the amplifier's output signal so that it is no longer a perfect replica of the input signal. This distortion produces spurious signal components known as intermodulation products. Intermodulation products are typically undesirable because they cause interference, cross talk, and other deleterious effects on the performance of a system employing the amplifier. Of note, the quantity of intermodulation products generated by the amplifier is directly proportional to the magnitude of the signal applied to the amplifier's input.
Yet another RF power amplifier operating characteristic hampered by non-linear transfers is the amplifier's efficiency. By definition, an amplifier's efficiency is determined by POUT/PIN. The more efficient an amplifier is , the less input power required to achieve a desirable output level. Since gain expansion tends to distort the amplifier's output power level, it has the undesirable effect of decreasing an amplifier's efficiency at low output powers.
Accordingly, the prior art reflects various methods and devices designed to improve one or more of the amplifier's operating characteristics, typically at the expense of others. As will be appreciated, optimizing for any one parameter adversely effects the others, since they are all closely interrelated. Thus, while biasing the amplifier's quiescent operating point low tends to improve the amplifier's efficiency, intermodulation performance and saturation point, it nonetheless compromises the maximum gain available and the amplifier's gain flatness (constant gain over wide dynamic range). Conversely, while biasing the amplifier's quiescent operating point higher tends to improve the maximum gain available and the amplifier's gain flatness, it nonetheless compromises the amplifier's efficiency, intermodulation performance and saturation point.
It would be extremely advantageous therefore to provide a compensation circuit capable of equalizing an RF power amplifier's operating characteristics over a wide dynamic range of inputs, while avoiding the shortcomings of the prior art.

RF amplifier bias control method and apparatus


An information service system includes a contents service provider for providing contents data of a content together with an application software for providing an informational service intended by the content, a service center for collecting the contents data and the application software provided by the contents service provider, and terminals of plural kinds coupled with the service center through communication. The service center includes an information service control means for providing the informational service suitable for the kind of the terminal by executing the application software collected from the contents service provider, and the terminal uses the informational service provided by the service center.

In recent occurrence of technical development, a navigation system conventionally used independently as a single unit is connected to, for example, an information network for navigating a vehicle or similar purposes. Japanese Patent Document JP-A-2003-316385 discloses this type of vehicle navigation system.
However, an information receiving side of the information network includes various kinds of mobile devices, such as a personal computer (PC), a cellular phone, a personal digital assistance (PDA), and a display terminal of a navigation system. Therefore, the information suitably received by the personal computer does not necessarily fit into a cellular phone. That is, for example, a low resolution and a smaller size of a display on the cellular phone does not provide good usability to a user of the cellular phone. As a result, contents service provider (CSP) can not successfully provide a useful feature of the contents to the user of the information network. Further, the contents of the CSP are not equally adapted for the use in the mobile devices such as the display terminal of the navigation system or the like.


An electro-optical system for adjusting beam to beam power non-uniformity in a multi-beam scanning system is disclosed. The electro-optical system consists of N×M array of light beams and N×M array of photodetectors wherein optical means deflect the light beams onto a photodetector array. A circuit consisting of N×M array of programmable laser drivers programmed with uniformity values for each light beam and having an N×M array of feedback loops is used to adjust the power intensity of each beam through the programmable laser drivers wherein each programmable laser driver uses the photodetector array summed with non-linearity inputs to adjust for beam to beam power uniformity correction.

The present invention relates generally to the field of optical imaging. More specifically, the invention relates to xerographic printers and, more particularly, to xerographic printers that incorporate a Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Laser (VCSEL) array whose output is corrected by beam intensity variations through the use of process control electronics.
Polygon Raster Output Scanner (ROS) printers typically consist of a modulating laser light source, a polygon scanning beam deflector, an optical system of lenses and mirrors, a xerographic marking engine and the electronics to control printer operation. The ROS is positioned in an optical scan system to write an image on a moving photoreceptor surface. In the ROS system, a modulated beam is directed onto the facets of a rotating polygon mirror, which then sweeps the reflected beam across the photoreceptor surface. Each sweep exposes a raster line to a linear segment of a video signal image.
However, the use of a rotating polygon mirror presents several inherent problems. Bow and wobble of the beam scanning across the photoreceptor surface result from imperfections in the mirror or even slight misangling of the mirror or from the instability of the rotation of the polygon mirror. These problems typically require complex, precise and expensive optical elements between the light source and the rotating polygon mirror and between the rotating polygon mirror and the photoreceptor surface. Additionally, optically complex elements are also needed to compensate for refractive index dispersion that causes changes in the focal length of the imaging optics of the ROS.
The modulating laser light source may consist of a Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Laser (VCSEL) array. The VCSEL array may be either a one or two-dimensional array of individual laser sources. Each individual laser source in the VCSEL array has a corresponding drive circuit which may be used to generate a beam to expose a corresponding area on a moving photoreceptor in response to video data information applied to the drive circuits of the VCSEL array. The photoreceptor is advanced in the process direction to provide a desired image by the formation of sequential scan lines generated by the beam to beam exposure delivered from the VCSEL array.
Current beam to beam uniformity correction in multi-beam ROS systems multiplexes one photo detector and one loop-back system among all the beams. This is accomplished by sequentially selecting each beam and comparing the output of the photo detector for that beam with a "reference" to decide whether to increase or decrease the power intensity in the selected beam. This sequential detection and power adjustment process takes a few micro-seconds per beam. In a high performance multi-beam ROS system the beam to beam uniformity correction has to be fine-tuned for each beam per scan line. In a VCSEL ROS system incorporating a two-dimensional array for producing a plurality of beams, the sequential beam to beam uniformity correction may take up to a few hundred micro-seconds. This uniformity correction scheme presents an amount of delay time for each line to be printed such that it renders the sequential multiplexing of all the beams unusable for high speed/high performance platforms.


An improved method is provided for extruding ePTFE tube (12) for use in medical applications. A tube (12) of PTFE is extruded, preferably in an extrusion process, using counter-rotated die components (22, 26). The die component (16) is maintained at a constant temperature during processing. The resulting green tube (12) has enhanced fibrous state formation in a direction perpendicular to the direction of extrusion. The PTFE green tube (12) is then subjected to secondary operations such as stretching and expansion to yield medical product. The ePTFE tube (12) structure is defined by nodes interconnected by elongate fibrils. Both the nodes and fibrils are substantially randomly tilted with respect to the longitudinal axis of the tube (12). This particular structure yields a tube (12) which exhibits a high degree of radial tear strength useful in medical applications.

The use of products formed of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) in medical applications is well known. Products such as implantable grafts, implantable patches, catheter tubing and the like may be derived from extruded tubing of PTFE.
PTFE tubing is normally manufactured by a paste extrusion process. Screw injection extrusion which is typical of most thermoplastics may not be effectively used with PTFE because PTFE resin does not exhibit sufficient fluidity even when heated. In the paste extrusion process a "green tube" is formed. A green tube is a tube of PTFE that must be subjected to secondary operations before it yields a usable medical product. Such secondary operations may include stretching and expanding the tube under various conditions of time, pressure and temperature. The paste extrusion process tends to produce a tube which has a fibrous state where its fibrils are generally longitudinally aligned in the direction of extrusion. This fibrous state formation is particularly evident where the PTFE paste includes a lubricant to assist in extrusion. Extruded tubes having fibrils longitudinally aligned in this fashion exhibit low radial or hoop strength. Such a tube is highly susceptible to tearing or rupturing.
Attempts have been made to modify the structure of extruded PTFE tubing. Such attempts seek to manufacture extruded PTFE tubing having non-longitudinally aligned fibrils where the fibrous state formation includes fibrils aligned transversely to the extrusion direction. One attempt in the vascular graft art is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,743,480. This technique employs a screw tip on the extrusion mold to reorient the fibrils during the paste extrusion process. The pitch of the screw tip tends to twist the fibrils during extrusion.
In the mechanical art area, U.S. Pat. No. 4,225,547 employs counter-rotation to manufacture pipes and wire jackets. In this example, the mandrel and the outer portion of the extrusion die are counter-rotated with respect to one another. While this tends to orient the fibrils in both the longitudinal and transverse direction, as set forth in the '547 patent a suitable product is only obtained by establishing during extrusion a temperature gradient where the die temperature is substantially higher than the initial temperature of the paste preform entering the die apparatus. In this process, the die is therefor heated to a temperature significantly above the initial paste temperature. As is set forth in the '547 patent, elevating the temperature of the die over that of the incoming paste while counter rotating the die components, subjects the product to thermal expansion and enhances the fibrous-state formation in the direction perpendicular to the direction of extrusion.
However, the process described in the '547 patent has several disadvantages. First, it is difficult to maintain predictable processing parameters where a temperature gradient is relied upon. Further, it is difficult to maintain an environment where a temperature gradient must be established and maintained. In addition frictional heating of the paste due to contact with rotational members precludes establishment of a reproducible steady state extrusion condition where a fixed temperature gradient must be maintained. Finally, the compressible nature of PTFE pastes, coupled with their high coefficient of expansion make operation under a fixed temperature gradient highly undesirable.
It is therefore desirable to provide a process for producing a PTFE tube where fibrous-state formation is enhanced thereby resulting in a tube having higher radial strength, without the need to maintain a precise temperature gradient during processing.

Method for manufacturing expanded polytetrafluoroethylene products


A method of providing corrosion inhibition to copper, nickel, aluminum, zinc, tin, lead, beryllium, carbon steel, various alloys of such metals, and galvanized coatings in evaporative cooling water applications approaching zero liquid discharge that are specifically attacked by cooling water with residuals of corrosive chemistry or ions such as ammonia/ammonium ion, chloride, high TDS, OH−, or high pH. The method includes applying azoles inhibitors (such as TTA, BTA, etc.) at residuals of 0.25 mg/L to 200 mg/L or greater (as azoles) to the cooling water application and operating with a combination of high TDS (greater than 2500 mg/L) and high pH (greater than 9.0), while maintaining low total hardness (less than 200 mg/L as CaCO3).

This invention is directed toward corrosion inhibition in evaporative cooling water applications. More particularly, this invention is directed toward the use of azoles inhibitors in combination with high Total Dissolved Solids (TDS), high pH, and low total hardness.
With respect to the inhibition of corrosion for metals benefiting from the discoveries disclosed herein, the most common examples cited are copper and copper alloys because of their good thermal and workability properties for heat transfer and fabrication, and their inherent properties for bio-fouling resistance and corrosion resistant oxide formation under water chemistry conditions addressed by prior art applications. More specifically, these discoveries focus on corrosion inhibitor performance in water chemistry conditions that are the result of evaporative cooling water systems that operate with water chemistry approaching Zero Liquid Discharge (ZLD) in order to conserve water and reduce environmental discharge impact, such as permitted by corrosion and scale inhibition methods recently disclosed by Duke, et al. in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,929,749; 6,940,193; 6,998,092; and 7,122,148, all of which are herein expressly incorporated by reference. Such method water chemistry may approach or exceed seawater TDS concentration, but seawater applications are typically pH neutral (pH 7.4 to 8.7 in evaporative cooling water) and also contain high hardness concentrations in evaporative cooling water applications.
Corrosive attack of copper by ammonia in water is well known in the water treatment industry, and presents a particular challenge to reuse of wastewater sources that contain ammonia in cooling water systems that use copper and other metals and alloys which are vulnerable to ammonia. Ammonia and ammonium ion are reported to exist in equilibrium as both the ammonium ion and ammonia gas in the pH 7 to 11 range. The equilibrium shifts toward increased ammonium ion concentration as pH approaches 7 and to increased ammonia gas concentration as pH approaches 11. Ammonia gas is volatilized from water by heat, pH elevation and circulating over a cooling tower, typical of ammonia stripper design. With cooling water pH control at greater than pH 9, total ammonialammonium ion residuals will be reduced to lower ranges by such tower stripping. Dilute aqueous concentrations of ammonia/ammonium ion (less than 200 mg/L as NH4+) are easily measured by such procedures as Chemetrics test procedure K-1500 which converts and measures the total residual as ammonium ion.
Relative to seawater (high TDS), as reported by Tuthill et al. in Experience with Copper Alloy Tubing, Waterboxes and Piping in MSF Desalination Plants, IDA World Congress on Desalination and Water Reuse, Volume I, Sessions 1 to 3, October 1997, Madrid, Spain, the corrosion resistance of copper nickel alloys depends upon formation of a protective film. Film formation is referred to sometimes as "passivation". Film formation is affected by pH, time, aeration, velocity, temperature, pollution and other factors. There is generally an inner cuprous oxide film, Cu2O, and an outer cupric oxide, CuO, film. Although cuprous oxides and cupric oxides are the principal components of the films, the lattice usually includes other metallic ions, including iron, nickel, aluminum, calcium, sometimes silicon and other species. Principal anions include chlorides, hydroxides, carbonates, bicarbonates and oxides. There is no fixed composition in these films.
Tuthill also reports that time is a major factor in film formation and also in the degree of protection the film affords. Tuthill referred to studies that have shown that corrosion rates of copper nickel alloys in seawater may gradually decrease over time for periods up to 7 years, with example corrosion rate data for C70600 reduced from approximately 1.9 mpy to about 0.6 mpy over that time frame. Temperature also has a major influence on the rate of film formation. At higher temperatures the film forms and matures faster. At lower temperatures, the film forms and matures more slowly. Another major factor influencing film formation is pH. Tuthill referred to studies that reported on film formation for C70600, C71500 and C68700 alloys in seawater found no film formation below pH 6. The unfilmed corrosion rates were high, of the order of 35 mpy (0.89 mm/yr.). At higher pH, corrosion rates for these metals were reported to be lower at normal rates for seawater. Tuthill also reported corrosion rates for these three copper tubing alloys in seawater systems, depending on chlorination practices, varied from less than 1 mpy to 3.2 mpy. Corrosion behavior in fresh, brackish and higher salinity waters is quite similar to performance in seawater.
Tuthill also reports that ammonia is sometimes encountered in the seawater feed to desalination plants. In the presence of air and ammonia, aluminum brass is subject to stress corrosion cracking. Aluminum bronze is more resistant, while copper nickel alloys are highly resistant to ammonia stress corrosion cracking. Ammonia also tends to increase the general corrosion rates of copper alloys. Copper nickel alloys have been reported to be three orders of magnitude more resistant than aluminum brass.
Nitrogen-containing compound, such as benzotriazoles, are commonly used as antioxidants and corrosion inhibitors for copper and copper alloys in many environments and applications. The lone electron pairs on the nitrogen will coordinate with the metal substrate and will result in a direct attach in the case of cyanate esters, and a parallel attach in the case of triazines, isocyanurates, and blocked isocyanates by physical absorption. The lone electron pairs of the nitrogens further facilitate the coordination of the nitrogen atoms to the Cu substrates in the event any oxidation occurs to form Cu+ or Cu2+ ions or oxides. In the case of the triazines and isocyanurates, the functional group can be any reactive or polymerizable functional group, and preferably is an epoxy, allyl, vinylether, hydroxyl, acrylate or methacrylate group. In the case of the polyfunctional cyanate esters and isocyanates, these groups themselves are homo-polymerizable or are reactive with complementary reactive groups, such as, epoxy, carboxyl, hydroxyl and amine functionalities.
Such nitrogen containing inhibitors, referred to as azoles in the water treatment industry, include the more commonly applied Tolytriazole (TTA), Benzotriazole (BTA), and variations of chemical structure that produce comparable inhibiting films on metal surfaces including 4-(alkyl)substituted benzotriazole and 5-(alkyl)substituted BTA where the alkyl group (CnH2n+1) has n=1 to 18. Note: n=1 for CH3 in tolyltriazole which is a mixture of 4-methylbenzotriazole and 5-methylbenzotriazole. The 5-(n-butyl) benzotriazole which was patented by Betz is an example of n=4 in the n-butyl alkyl group C4H9.
Use of azoles corrosion inhibitor chemistry for metals is known in evaporative cooling water treatment, often being combined with other inhibitors that rely on control of TDS at lower and less corrosive concentrations by blow down wastage of tower water, and control at neutral pH (i.e., pH between 6.0 pH and 9.0) by use of blow down wastage or acid feed for pH control to limit scale formation. Such systems do not typically control hardness at less than 200 mg/L (as CaCO3) as this condition increases water corrosiveness. Azoles inhibitors have also been used to inhibit corrosion of copper by ammonia/ammonium ion in systems operated within prior art control ranges for pH and TDS. Inhibitor use and consumption by blow down wastage is significant, thus these application are costly and environmentally inefficient.
Use of azoles as corrosion inhibitors to protect metals is known in closed system corrosion inhibition applications. Such applications often combine azoles with other inhibitors used in non-evaporative closed loop systems such as engine cooling systems and closed system cooling loops that have minimal water and inhibitor losses. However, such applications of azoles in closed systems operate without high TDS concentrations in the cooling water since there is no evaporation and concentration of makeup water chemistry. As such, inhibitor use and consumption are limited and their application is cost efficient.

Cooling water corrosion inhibition method

Water Conservation Technology International, Inc.


A method for transferring information between multiple buyers and multiple vendors is provided. Information is received from a plurality of sources. This information corresponds to a plurality of products. This information is stored in a first database. A request is received. The request concerns a portion of the information stored in the first database. The request is then retrieved from the first database and posted to a second database. Access is provided to subsets of the second database to a plurality of subscribers.

Traditional inventory management systems were internally focused (i.e., only concerned about a particular customer or a particular vendor), and insight into inventory on hand was limited to each party's own staff. As a result, inventory management systems for both customers and vendors were limited to managing current stock on hand and alerting responsible parties when to re-order certain products. Any visibility into a customer's inventory level by a vendor or a vendor's stocking level by a customer was established through a specific arrangement and proprietary computer system integration.
Another obstacle was that, in most vendors' and most customers' internal systems, inventory, production, sales management, billing, etc. were very often based on many separate computer systems. These systems lacked the standardization afforded by a common communicative language, one that would enable an efficient data exchange. Furthermore, this lack of standardization prevented not only vendors from proactively managing their customers, but also prevented different departments of the same customer from accurately viewing product stocking and consumption rates.
There is, therefore, a need to provide a method and system for transferring information between multiple buyers and multiple sellers that overcomes the above-stated disadvantages.

Method and system for transferring information between multiple buyers and multiple sellers


Methods and systems for protecting a secured network are presented. For example, one or more packet security gateways may be associated with a security policy management server. At each packet security gateway, a dynamic security policy may be received from the security policy management server, packets associated with a network protected by the packet security gateway may be received, and at least one of multiple packet transformation functions specified by the dynamic security policy may be performed on the packets.

The TCP/IP network protocols (e.g., the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and the Internet Protocol (IP)) were designed to build large, resilient, reliable, and robust networks. Such protocols, however, were not originally designed with security in mind. Subsequent developments have extended such protocols to provide for secure communication between peers (e.g., Internet Protocol Security (IPsec)), but the networks themselves remain vulnerable to attack (e.g., Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks).
Most existing approaches to protecting such networks are reactive rather than proactive. While reactive approaches may identify the source of an attack and assist in subsequent mitigation efforts, in most instances, the attack will have already been successfully launched.
Proactive solutions, however, have often been deemed untenable due to an inability to scale to larger networks. A significant challenge associated with building a scalable proactive solution is the need to filter substantially all network traffic at a high resolution. In a large network, where traffic volumes may be enormous, the time required to provide high resolution filtering has traditionally been thought to render a proactive solution infeasible.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


A method for resource management in MapReduce architecture. The method includes: determining a ratio r of an input data amount of a Map task and an output data amount of the Map task and an average size R of a record in Map output results; determining a memory size Memory_size that can be allocated to the Map task corresponding to a Map slot; according to the determined r, R and Memory_size, determining an input split size appropriate for the Map task; and allocating an input split with the input split size in a MapReduce job to be processed to the Map task occupying the Map slot. An apparatus for same is also provided.

Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the MapReduce architecture, and more specifically, to a method and apparatus for resource management in the MapReduce architecture and a MapReduce architectural system having such an apparatus.
Description of Related Art
The MapReduce architecture is a programming model for the parallelized computation of large-scale data sets (larger than 1 TB, for example). MapReduce may distribute large-scale operations on data sets to computing nodes over a network under the control of a master node for distributed processing, so as to improve execution speed and efficiency for the large-scale data sets. The MapReduce may divide a MapReduce job, such as word frequency statistics on a large amount of data, into multiple Map tasks and multiple Reduce tasks, wherein the output of the Map tasks is input to the Reduce tasks.
Currently, the MapReduce architecture has almost 200 systematic parameters. A user may set some or all of these systematic parameters to specify resources available for processing a MapReduce job and how to use these resources. However, the settings of these systematic parameters are determined artificially based on such as experiences of the user, regardless of the processing capacity and/or resource situations of a node. The systematic parameters obtained in this way are usually not optimal. For example, systematic parameters set by a user may lead to some issues including low processing efficiency of a node.
For instance, provided an input split size to be processed by a Map task in the MapReduce is 1000 MB, and its corresponding output data is 300 MB. If the Map task is assigned with 100 MB memory after occupying a Map slot, because the amount of its output data is larger than the memory amount, each record obtained after the Map operation has to be, at first, spilled to a disk as an intermediate result. Then the Map task will fetch the intermediate results from the disk by three times, sort and merge them, and spill a final Map output result to the disk for the access by Reduce tasks.
In this case, due to the overlarge input split of the Map task, the Map output result has a data amount (300 MB) larger than the memory size (100 MB) available for the process of the Map task, causing a problem that the data obtained by performing the Map operation on the input data need to be spilled to the disk at first and a final Map output result can be obtained only after multiple times of repeated read/write processes performed on the disk, which may produce severe impacts on processing efficiency.

Resource management in MapReduce architecture and architectural system

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION


Embodiments of an invention for method, apparatus, and instructions for safely storing secrets in system memory are disclosed. In one embodiment, a processor includes a hardware key, an instruction unit, and an encryption unit. The instruction unit is to receive an encryption instruction and a compare instruction. The encryption instruction is to have a first plaintext input value. The compare instruction is to have a second plaintext input value. The encryption unit is to, in response to the encryption instruction, encrypt the first plaintext input value using the hardware key to generate a ciphertext value, and, in response to the compare instruction, decrypt the ciphertext value using the hardware key to generate a plaintext output value and compare the plaintext output value to the second plaintext input value.

1. Field
The present disclosure pertains to the field of information processing, and more specifically, to security in information processing systems.
2. Description of Related Art
Passwords, private or confidential information, and other secrets are used by and stored in many information processing systems. Therefore, many techniques have been developed to attempt to store secrets in a system memory of an information processing system such that they cannot be discovered or altered. However, many of these techniques may be vulnerable to cold-boot or hardware-based attacks. For example, an attacker having physical access to a system may isolate or remove system memory chips from the rest of the system to circumvent the protections provided by a memory controller, a chipset, software running on a processor, or any other system components, and then directly read out their contents to discover passwords, keys, protected content, and other secret information stored in them.
Even if the value of the secret is hashed before being stored in the system memory, the system may still be vulnerable to attack. For example, a hashed value of a system login password, instead of the system login password itself, may be stored in a system memory. Then, a login password input by a user may be hashed and compared to the hashed value stored in the system memory before allowing the user to access the system. In this situation, although an attacker cannot read the login password from the system memory, if he is able to read the hashed value, he may be able to use a dictionary attack or other approach on a different system to obtain a value that, when hashed, results in a match that allows him to gain access to the system.

Method, apparatus, and instructions for safely storing secrets in system memory


The invention relates to a method for microscoping an object with a (phase-measurement) interference microscope with extremely high resolution, in which the light beam of a light source is divided into at least two coherent part beams, of which at least one serves for illuminating the object, and whereby the part beams are interferingly combined again and supplied to an interference figure detector screened into image zones, for achieving a resolution beyond the diffraction limit. Furthermore, the invention relates to an interference microscope, preferably for carrying out the above method. The method according to the invention is characterized in that by means of a zooming system with adjustable enlargement, said system being connected upstream of the interference figure detector, an enlargement is adjusted by which the location uncertainty to be determined is allocated to a part zone of an image zone of the detector screen by using for the zoom adjustment through a feedback the image information of the interference figure detector of at least one preceding picture recording on the basis of a phase image computed therefrom.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a method of microscoping an object with an interference microscope with extremely high resolution, by which method the object is illuminated through a lens by means of a light source, whereby the light beam of the light source is divided by a beam divider into at least two coherent part beams, of which at least one serves for illuminating the object, and the part beams, following illumination of the object and, if need be, of a reference object, are interferingly combined again and supplied to an interference figure detector screened in figure zones, for producing at least one interference figure, and based on the figure information of one or a plurality of interference figure(s), a phase image is calculated by means of a suitable algorithm, for obtaining a resolution beyond the diffraction limit, i.e., a location uncertainty .DELTA.x to be determined on the object smaller than one half wavelength of the light used.
Furthermore, the invention relates to an interference microscope, for example of the Linnik-type, with a light source for illuminating an object; with a beam divider for dividing the light beam emitted by the light source into at least two coherent part beams, of which at least one is intended for illuminating the object; and with an interference figure detector screened in figure zones, for example a pixeled CCD-line, for generating an interference figure of the interfering part beams, preferably for carrying out the aforementioned method.
2. The Prior Art
Techniques of phase-measurement interference microscopy are known, for example from the report by Catherine Creath "Phase-Measurement Interferometry Techniques", published in E. Wolf, Progress in Optics XXVI, Amsterdam 1988, pp 350-393.
In an interference microscope, it is generally possible to convert the intensity pattern--which is formed in the plane of the image by interference of the object wave and a coherent reference wave--into a phase image, namely by scanning or recording the image through a screened interference figure detector, and by further processing the obtained image or a number of images by a software algorithm. Various algorithms and their advantages or merits are reviewed in the report cited above.
Especially the four-step procedure, the so-called four-bucket-method addressed in the above-cited report in chapter 3.4, plays a role for the present invention, said method being explained in the following as background knowledge. This is done in view of the fact that according to the type of microscopy specified above, the objective is to achieve through interference microscopy a resolution beyond the diffraction limit, i.e., of a location uncertainty to be determined smaller than half the wavelength of the light used, a so-called super resolution.
The so-called four-bucket algorithm uses four intensity images in order to obtain a phase image. The intensity in a (two-beam) interference pattern can be described by: EQU l(x,y)=a.sup.2 (x,y) (1+.mu.(x,y) cos .phi.(x,y), (1)
whereby a(x,y) is the real amplitude, .mu.(x,y) is the band contrast (modulation depth), and .phi.(x,y) is the phase image to be obtained. This intensity distribution is scanned by the detector. For pixels (i,j) of a CCD-detector, the following is obtained thereby: EQU I(i,j)=a.sup.2 (i,j)(l+.mu.(i,j) cos .phi.(i,j)). (2)
Various types of microscopes can be used in this connection as interference microscopes, for example Mirau, Nomarski, etc. However, a microscope of the Linnik-type is preferred. Such microscopes are described, for example in H. Beyer and H. Riesenberg, "Handbuch der Mikroskopic" (Handbook of Microscopy), Berlin, 1988, chapter 6.2.
With a microscope of the Linnik-type (as it is shown in FIG. 1), a light beam is divided by means of a beam divider into an object beam and a reference beam, whereby the object beam is reflected in this case by the object, and the reference beam is reflected by a reference mirror. Subsequently both beams are interferingly supplied to the detector. The reference mirror is movable in the direction of the reference beam.
For the application of the aforementioned four-step method or the so-called four-bucket method, the reference mirror is moved with respect to its original position across each of the distances 1/4.lambda., -1/8.lambda., and 1/8.lambda., whereby .lambda. is the wavelength of the light used from the light source. From this, the following four images are obtained: EQU I.sub.1 =a.sup.2 (1+.mu.cos .phi.) (3) EQU I.sub.2 =a.sup.2 (1-.mu.cos .phi.) EQU I.sub.3 =a.sup.2 (1-.mu.sin .phi.) EQU I.sub.4 =a.sup.2 (1+.mu.sin .phi.).
The pixel coordinates were omitted for said four equations for reasons of convenience.
The equations (3) show that the following is applicable to each pixel: EQU tan .phi.=I.sub.4 -I.sub.3 (4) EQU I.sub.1 -I.sub.2.
Of course, .phi. is obtained between -.pi./2 and +.pi./2. A development method would be required for greater values. The specified algorithms are available in commercially available software. However, all phase-measurement algorithms as described in the cited paper by Creath suffer from the addressed problem of limitation for the value of .phi., in any case up to a certain degree.
The aforementioned four-bucket algorithm has an advantage and a drawback as compared to other algorithms as described in the paper cited above. The advantage consists in that said algorithm is relatively insensitive to detector non-linearities. The drawback consists in that the algorithm is relatively sensitive to errors in the /2-phase steps and thus with respect to the positioning of the reference mirror. This makes the commonly used digital interferometer systems less suitable for the desired high resolution (super-resolution). In practical application, they achieve an accuracy of (only) up to .lambda./100, and this only under particularly favorable circumstances, whereas an accuracy of .lambda./1000 is desired or required for refined experiments of super-resolution. The aforementioned four-bucket algorithm is nevertheless the best candidate for improving the accuracy in view of the desired accuracy.

Method and interference microscope for microscoping an object in order to obtain a resolution beyond the diffraction limit (high resolution)


A circuit element that may generate or be affected by noise or electromagnetic interference may be substantially surrounded by one or more encircling plugs. The encircling plug may be closed by an interconnection layer. The plug may be grounded to reduce the electromagnetic interference or noise generated by or coupled to said passive circuit element.

This invention relates generally to integrated circuits including integrated circuits with passive components such as inductors or capacitors and integrated circuits with active elements such as transistors.
A variety of integrated circuits may include passive components such as inductors or capacitors. For example, radio frequency circuits utilized in connection with radio transceivers or cellular telephones may include both logic elements, mixed signal elements and analog elements.
In some cases, noise or electromagnetic interference produced by the passive or active components may interfere with the operation of other passive or active components or components formed in the same substrate with the passive components. For example, complementary metal oxide semiconductor structures may be formed that define logic elements as well as radio frequency elements having passive components. Integrated capacitors or inductors may be formed over the same substrate that includes logic elements. The substrate may be formed of silicon or germanium material as examples.
In many cases, the high frequency radio frequency devices may be formed on separate integrated circuits to avoid interference between logic devices and components that operate in radio frequency range. This avoids the problem of noise being coupled through the substrate. However, using separate integrated circuits significantly increases the cost of the combined circuitry. Integration of more components into the same integrated circuit generally reduces costs. Moreover, integration into the same circuit normally also results in higher performance.
Thus, there is a need for techniques that facilitate the formation of active and passive circuit components, operating for example a high frequencies, on the same semiconductor substrate that also includes other components such as logic devices.

EMI and noise shielding for multi-metal layer high frequency integrated circuit processes


An Fe—Co—B alloy target, in which the largest inscribed circle depictable in regions containing no boride phases in its cross-sectional microstructure has a diameter of 30 μm or less. Its composition is represented by (FeXCo100−X)100−YBY (by atomic percentage), wherein 5≦X≦95, and 5≦Y≦30.

Recent drastic progress of magnetic recording technologies provides large-volume drives, resulting in higher recording densities of magnetic recording media. However, if a higher recording density were sought in magnetic recording media of an longitudinal magnetic recording system widely used at present, recording bits would have to be too small to record by a recording head, needing much higher coercivity. Accordingly, investigation has been conducted to provide a perpendicular magnetic recording system to increase a recording density.
The perpendicular magnetic recording system uses a magnetic film having an easy axis of magnetization orientated in a perpendicular direction to the recording surface, suffering from little decrease in read-write characteristics because of small demagnetization in bits in a high recording density, and thus suitable for a high recording density. A two-layer recording medium having a magnetic recording layer and a soft magnetic layer for an increased recording sensitivity has been developed for the perpendicular magnetic recording system. As the soft magnetic film of the two-layer recording medium, the use of a soft magnetic film of an Fe—Co—B alloy has been proposed (see US 2002/0058159A1).
Development has been actively conducted recently to provide magnetoresistive random access memories (MRAMs), etc. as devices comprising tunnel magnetoresistive (TMR) elements. The use of the soft magnetic Fe—Co—B alloy film for such TMR device has been proposed (see JP 2003-304010 A).
A magnetron sputtering method is generally used for the formation of soft magnetic films for the two-layer media and soft magnetic films for the TMR devices. The magnetron sputtering method is a method in which a magnetic flux is leaked from a magnet disposed on the back of the target to a target surface, and a plasma is focused in the leaked magnetic flux region, to achieve a high-speed film formation. Accordingly, if the target had high permeability, a sufficient leaked magnetic flux would not be formed on the target surface. Accordingly, the target should have as small permeability as possible.

Fe-Co-B alloy target and its production method, and soft magnetic film produced by using such target, and magnetic recording medium and TMR device


A bedding component includes a top portion having a gel foam, a middle portion having a foam layer with at least one gel disc, and a bottom portion having a foam core.

1. Field of the Invention
Mattresses with multiple layers are disclosed herein.
2. Description of the Background of the Invention
Mattress manufacturers have made significant improvements in mattress comfort in recent decades. Some of the innovations that have contributed to the improvements in comfort are the introduction of foams and layering structures. A primary foam material used in mattress construction is polyurethane foam.
Foams have numerous characteristics, including density and firmness, that contribute to the "feel" of the mattress. Density refers to the amount of gas-containing cells within a foam matrix. Firmness refers to the rigidity of the matrix, such as polyurethane, itself. Therefore, by varying the density and firmness of a foam, one may provide a mattress having a different "feel." Further, by combining layers of different types of foams, a multitude of different mattresses possessing a broad spectrum of "feel" may be produced. While foam mattresses have achieved broad acceptance for their comfort, they have traditionally had performance issues related to their thermal comfort and support.
Many traditional foams have a closed cell structure. The closed cell structure results in restricted air flow in the mattress and makes the foam a thermal insulator with poor heat transfer characteristics. Consumers complain that the mattresses cause them to be too hot while sleeping. Another problem with traditional foam mattresses is the support provided to an individual on the mattress. Many foams are not able to conform well to the curves of an individual's body and provide poor support by focusing the individual's weight on a couple of points on the foam rather than along the entire length of the foam adjacent to the individual's body. This is due to a phenomenon referred to as "bottoming out" where the individual's weight on the foam compacts the foam to a point where resilience is lost. Typical foams bottom out and exhibit a hard "feel" as they are compacted by the weight of an individual's body.
In light of the above, there exists a need for an improvement in the materials and methods used for manufacturing mattresses to provide greater thermal comfort and progressive support. Incorporation of new materials into mattresses that improve air flow and cooling through better heat dissipation is desirable. Moreover, the use of materials that simultaneously improve heat dissipation while providing better progressive support would provide a marked improvement in the bedding industry.


In one embodiment, a method includes gasifying a fuel source using a first oxygen stream supplied from an air separation unit (ASU), discharging a gasifier blowdown from a gasification and scrubbing system configured to gasify the fuel source, generating a grey water from the gasifier blowdown, and biologically treating the grey water in a reactor using a second oxygen stream supplied by the ASU.

The subject matter disclosed herein relates generally to gasification processes, and the treatment of grey water produced in gasification processes.
Fossil fuels, such as solid coal, liquid petroleum, or biomass, may be gasified for use in the production of electricity, chemicals, synthetic fuels, or for a variety of other applications. Gasification involves reacting a carbonaceous fuel and oxygen at a very high temperature to produce synthesis gas, commonly referred to as syngas, which is a fuel containing carbon monoxide and hydrogen. Syngas combusts more efficiently and cleaner than the fuel in its original state before gasification.
One byproduct of the gasification process is grey water. Grey water may include fine particles of ash, metals, ammonia, and organic matter. Unfortunately, some of these by-products are undesirable for a number of reasons. For example, solids in the grey water and/or certain corrosive materials in the grey water can have detrimental effects on plant equipment (e.g., piping, valves) and, therefore, affect the overall operation of the plant. Furthermore, it may be desirable to maintain the concentration of certain of the gasification by-products below a certain level in the grey water prior to discharge from, or re-use within, the plant.

Gasification waste water treatment using air separation unit oxygen


An automatic scripting of objects of various complexities in a relational database includes creating a hierarchical object tree from a single or multiple reference object reference passed into the system. Duplicate object references are eliminated in the formation of the hierarchical tree. A dependency list is generated from the hierarchical tree. The dependency list represents a linear list of objects sequenced in the manner they should be created to satisfy dependency constraints. A script is generated from the dependency list which permits the deployment of varying complexity objects onto a target database. Script is generated by instantiating each object in the dependency list and calling a pre-constructed script method on the object. Each phase may be operated independently.

The structured query language (SQL) is an American National Standards Institute (ANSI) standard used to communicate with a relational database. SQL is the standard language for relational database management systems. SQL statements are used to perform tasks such as update data or retrieve data from a relational database. Although many database systems use SQL, many of them also have their own additional proprietary extensions that are usually only used on their system. However, the standard SQL commands such as "Select", "Insert", "Update", "Delete", "Create", and "Drop" can be used to accomplish many things that one desires to do with a relational database.
Relational databases are generally structured as tables containing rows and columns. The data entries for any row and column intersection, or cells, normally conform to a set of data constraints that are used to define the data types allowed in the cells. One historical problem with such data entries is the lack of definition for large and complex objects which may be desired to be placed in a database. Constraints on the SQL data types utilized generally limit the kinds of data that can be entered into a relational database such as SQL. A large object, if placed into a SQL database, could slow down database processing or utilize system resources such as memory and processing time to accommodate one or more bulky and complex objects.
Scripting queries and utilizing objects in a relational database such as SQL can be both time consuming and expertise intensive. The author of such script must understand the dependencies of the new and complex object in relation to other objects in order to properly instantiate the object along with appropriate metadata onto the target relational database. This scripting expertise may be beyond the experience of the average user who wishes to utilize his relational database for tracking and searching of complex objects related to his business, for example. Alternately, system managers may use scripting to assist in the maintenance of relational databases. This scripting activity takes time and care to prepare and run. Auto generation of script for relational databases concerning complex objects currently cannot be easily accomplished.
Thus, there is a need for a unifying representation for objects desired to be referenced and acted upon in a SQL database. Additionally, there is a need for a mechanism to generate script to facilitate the deployment of objects into relational databases such as SQL for both application and system maintenance work. The invention addresses the aforementioned needs and solves them with various systems, methods and techniques that create complex dependency trees and lists and modify these to generate script without requiring intricate knowledge of the relational database metadata structures.

Database object script generation method and system


A control system and method of advertisement exposure are provided, in which the control system for advertisement exposure includes: a communication unit for communicating via a network with a multiplicity of client terminals, each including a web browser having a main area where a predetermined webpage is output and a sub area different from the main area; a storage unit for storing advertisement information and information about an incentive created to correspond to the advertisement information and offered to a user; and a control unit for outputting the advertisement information to at least one of the main are and sub area, and accumulating a corresponding incentive depending on an amount of viewing by plural users for the advertisement information to output information about the accumulated incentive to the sub area of the web browser. Accordingly, the advertisement information can be exposed more effectively through the web browser.

An online advertisement market and a shopping market are the markets which aim to effectively expose advertisement or shopping information to many customers and lead products or services (hereinafter, referred to as collectively "products") into product purchase after all. To achieve this purpose, a variety of advertisement techniques or shopping revitalization techniques are being introduced.
In one example, the present applicant applied for patent, entitled "member-integrated rewards point offering system and method of offering the same" (Korean Patent Application Nos. 10-2006-45900 and 10-2006-56655), which can motivate advertisement viewing and achieve shopping revitalization by making it possible that rewards earned upon a plurality of customers' viewing an advertisement are accumulated in real time by integrated processing, and when a certain customer makes a product purchase, the accumulated rewards are offered as a discount rate of a corresponding purchase price.
In order to more effectively utilize such an invention as "member-integrated rewards point offering system and method of offering the same", it is necessary to further increase the frequency of exposure of advertisement information and the amount of viewing by users for the advertisement information.
However, the conventional advertisement exposure method, which simply exposes advertisement information on a web page output through a web browser, has a limitation in greatly increasing the frequency of exposure of advertisement information and the amount of viewing by users for the advertisement information.

Control system and method for advertisement exposure


A vehicle seat assembly with a structural seat back to accommodate the seat belt loads applied to the seat back by a belt system which is carried by the seat assembly. The seat back includes a reinforced beam along one side to accommodate these loads with a recliner mechanism along the same side of the seat assembly coupled to the reinforced member to resist forward rotation of the seat back caused by seat belt loads applied thereto. The seat assembly is configured to be as similar to conventional seat assemblies as possible to minimize the need to redesign the non-structural components of the seat assembly. The seat assembly includes many features found in current production seat assemblies such as a fore and aft adjuster, an adjustable lumbar support, a seat cushion lift mechanism and a seat back recliner. The seat belt loads have been efficiently managed to avoiding adding unnecessary structure and weight.

The present invention relates to a vehicle seat assembly and in particular to a seat assembly that also carries a seat belt system and is configured to withstand the high seat belt loads incurred during a vehicle collision.
Vehicle seat belt systems are typically mounted directly to the vehicle structure. For example, most belt systems have the belt retractor mounted to the vehicle floor pan with the belt webbing extending upwardly along the B-pillar of the vehicle to a D-ring mounted to the pillar. The webbing then extends downward to a belt end connected to the vehicle floor adjacent to the retractor. A clasp is slidably movable between the end of the seat belt anchored to the vehicle floor and the D-ring on the B-pillar. A buckle is attached to the vehicle floor on the opposite side of the seat. When the clasp is pulled across the user and inserted into the buckle, the webbing forms a lap belt and a shoulder belt to retain the occupant in the seat assembly.
The position of the vehicle seat assembly in the vehicle is adjustable in at least the fore and aft direction. With adjustment, the seat assembly is moved relative to the seat belt attachment points such that it can become inconvenient and uncomfortable for a seat occupant to use the seat belt. For example, if the vehicle seat is moved to its forwardmost position, it may be difficult to reach back to grasp the seat belt clasp along the B-pillar. In addition, with the seat moved forward, the shoulder belt may rub across the occupant's neck creating a discomfort. If the seat is adjusted to its rearwardmost position, the shoulder belt may be located too far forward relative to the occupant such that the person's torso can move forward some distance unrestrained by the shoulder belt.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a three point seat belt system comprising a lap belt and a shoulder belt that is mounted to and carried by the seat assembly itself so that regardless of the position of the seat assembly in the vehicle, the belt system remains in a constant position relative to the seat assembly and seat occupant.
It is another object of the invention, of course, to provide a seat assembly capable of withstanding the seat belt loads incurred during a vehicle collision.
It is also an object of the invention to provide a seat assembly that is as structurally similar to current production seat assemblies to minimize nonstructural changes to the seat assembly.
It is a further object of the invention to include in the seat assembly of this invention features commonly found in seat assemblies such as a seat back recliner, a fore and aft seat adjuster, an adjustable lumbar support mechanism and a vertical lift mechanism to raise the seat cushion.
The seat assembly of the present invention includes a pair of fore and aft extending fixed rails disposed along the lateral sides of the seat assembly with each rail having a track portion adapted to engage with the track portion of a pair of slide rails mounted on each fixed rail. The slide rails include the previously mentioned track portion as well as a riser portion extending upwardly from the track portion. The seat cushion pan is coupled to the slide rails through a four bar linkage mechanism used to raise and lower the seat cushion.
The seat back frame is pivotally mounted to the slide rails and extends generally upwardly from the rear of the seat cushion in a conventional manner. The seat belt system includes a belt retractor attached to an upper slide rail along one side of the seat assembly near the rear of the seat assembly. The belt extends from the retractor upwardly through the seat back to the top of the seat back where the belt projects forwardly from the seat cushion and extends downwardly along the same side where the belt end is attached to the slide rail. A buckle assembly is attached to the slide rail on the opposite side of the seat assembly and a clasp is slidably carried by the belt webbing between the belt end and the upper end of the seat back. When the clasp is pulled over the user's body and inserted into the buckle, the belt webbing is drawn out of the retractor forming a shoulder strap and a lap belt.
To accommodate the seat belt loads applied to the seat back. The back frame is formed with a beam extending generally upwardly along the side of the seat back to which the belt retractor and belt end are attached. The beam has a tapered closed-section that compensates for the increasing moment along its length to provide uniform material stress. The beam is of a hollow structure which tapers in an upwardly direction so as to reduce the quantity of material used in the beam at the upper end where the moment carried by the beam is reduced.
The overall seat back frame structure is a quadrilateral with the upright beam forming one side of the quadrilateral. An upright member on the opposite seat side as well as upper and lower cross members are formed of a hollow tube, flattened in portions, and of significantly lesser structural capability than the upright beam. For lateral stability a diagonal brace (truss) extends from the upper end of the upright beam to the lower end of the opposite vertical frame member. The diagonal beam also has a flattened tubular structure.
The seat recliner mechanism is a single sided recliner on the same side of the seat as the seat belt assembly and is used to resist forward rotation of the seat back caused by seat belt loads applied to the seat back. The recliner mechanism includes a brace pivotally connected to the upright beam of the seat frame and extending downwardly and forwardly to a pivotal coupling with the upper slide rail. The forward end of the brace carries a nut through which a lead screw, rotatably carried by the sliding rail, is threaded whereby rotation of the lead screw moves the brace fore and aft along the slide rail to adjust the position of the seat back.
A seat back dump feature can be included in the seat assembly for use as the front seat in a two-door vehicle. The dump feature is made possible by providing the pivotal coupling of the brace to the seat back frame with a selectively releasable mechanism to enable the seat back to pivot forward to a dump position without readjustment of the seat back recliner mechanism being required.
A mechanical adjustable lumbar support mechanism is provided in the seat back and includes a support paddle carried by a single piece bent wire to move the paddle in and out relative to the seat cushion.
Further objects, features and advantages of the invention will become apparent from a consideration of the following description and the appended claims when taken in connection with the accompanying drawings.

Vehicle seat assembly with structural seat back to accommodate seat belt loads applied to seat back


Disclosed is a method for adjustably controlling a light by concurrently tracking and controlling one or more lighting devices and apparatus thereof. The light device is connected to a control unit and is provided with at least one power switch. The control unit is provided for recognizing a switch operating code and for performing an adjustable controlling or an operating of each lighting device. Therefore, the present invention can provide more convenience and completeness of lighting configuration.

A technology of lighting is for lighting a specific environment or a place by use of various lighting devices. The conventional lighting technology, in which a fluorescent lamp is mostly well-known, employs a gas-discharge lamp that generates a light by discharging electricity through an ionized gas. The mainstream of the current lighting technology applies a light emitting diode (LED) as a light source. A LED is manufactured as a LED light in form of a lamp, a light bulb, a light panel and the like to be widely used for indoor lighting and outdoor lighting.
In a prior art, in addition to a turn on and a turn off operations, if a function of adjustable controlling a light device is desired, it is necessary to modify the conventional power switch to a complicated power controller, or to modify a light device to connect with a central computer for controlling operation. However, these modifications are not only expensive in the installation but the user usually can not get used to the complicated control for the controller as compared with the conventional operation. Moreover, the conventional adjustably controlling effect is not as perfect as desired, so that a user's requirement can not be met.

Method for adjustably controlling light and apparatus thereof


A circuit for controlling the velocity of the spindle motor in an electronic device using a disk is disclosed. Particularly, an abnormal rotation preventing circuit is disclosed which monitors the angular velocity of the spindle motor and forcibly controlls it to rotate within a predetermined velocity range when it deviates from the predetermined range. The duty value of a phase difference between two signals among first, second and third phase control signals for driving a three-phase motor is measured. Then, the phase difference is counted and the velocity is sampled. An abnormal rotation control signal is generated when the sampled velocity deviates from the predetermined range. The motor's velocity is then forcibly controlled so as not to deviate from the predetermined range, thereby preventing abnormal rotation of the motor.

The present invention relates to a velocity control of a spindle motor which drives the rotation of a disk in an electronic device using a disk, and more particularly to a circuit for preventing an abnormal rotation.
Generally, a spindle motor is a motor to control the rotation of a disk used as a recording medium in a compact disk player (hereinafter referred to as "CD player") and applied devices thereof. Systems for controlling the velocity of the spindle motor at a constant linear velocity are used in such devices as a CD player, a CD-I, a CD-ROM, a CD-ROMXA, etc.
As for CD players, the spindle motor has an angular velocity of a certain range to maintain a constant linear velocity for the inner and outer circumferences of the disk. Also, since the constant linear velocity has a range of 1.2m/s to 1.4m/s, if the constant linear velocities during writing and reading are not the same, the data cannot be read properly. That is, the control of the linear velocity depends on the recorded data.
Conventionally, to control the spindle motor, the frequency and phase of a radio frequency (RF) signal read from an optical pickup are compared with a reference clock. Then, the phase difference is used as a control signal for a spindle servo, thereby controlling the velocity of its motor.
However, in the above case, when there is a vibration or a shock due to the outer environment, focusing is not correct. Accordingly, precise control of the linear velocity cannot be accomplished, so that the data recorded on the disk cannot be read properly. Then, a signal processor cannot make a phase-comparison, and accordingly the spindle motor may be speeding forward or backward in many cases. This is because the outer environment is not taken into account. Accordingly, a control circuit which can keep the angular velocity of the spindle motor within a constant range, even under abnormal conditions, is required to solve such a problem.

Circuit for preventing abnormal rotation of a spindle motor


An organoluminescent compound. The compound has formula (I)

The present invention relates to an compound, and more specifically to a compound used in an organic light-emitting diode.
Organic electroluminescent devices are popular in flat panel display due to their high illumination, light weight, self-illumination, low power consumption, simple fabrication, rapid response time, wide viewing angle, and no backlight requirement.
When an external electric field is applied to an organic electroluminescent device, electrons and holes are injected from cathode and anode, respectively, and then recombined to form excitons. Energy is further transported from excitons to luminescent molecules with continuous application of an electric field. Finally, luminescent molecules emit light converted from energy. A common organic electroluminescent device structure comprises an ITO anode, a hole transport layer, an emitting layer, a hole blocking layer, an electron transport layer, and a cathode. A complex organic electroluminescent device, however, may further comprise a hole injection layer disposed between an anode and a hole transport layer or an electron injection layer disposed between a cathode and an electron transport layer to improve injection efficiency of carriers, reducing driving voltage or increasing recombination thereof.
With development of synthesis techniques, various synthetic organic compounds for use in organic electroluminescent devices have been provided, with organic luminescent materials containing carbazole structure discussed herein. Currently, these luminescent materials containing carbazole structure have been used as hole transport material as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,660,410, J.P. PG-Pub. No. 2004071500, and G.P. Pat. No. 03/080761A1, as phosphorescent material as disclosed in J.P. Pat. No. 08-003547 and 09-310066, or as fluorescent material as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,649,772 and J.P. Pat. No. 07-150138.
Such related arts, however, do not disclose use of the organic luminescent materials containing carbazole structure in blue fluorescent devices. Additionally, related structures of substituted groups in 3,6-positions and nitrogen atom of carbazole are still simple, suitable for synthesis of more complicated structures. Thus, synthesis of novel blue fluorescent materials has a great potential in development of luminescent materials.

Compound and organic light-emitting diode and display utilizing the same

Abstract: wherein X1 and X2 independently represent C10-25 aryl, heteroaryl, stilbenyl, silylaryl, or arylsilyl; n represents an integer of 0 to 2; L represents aryl or heteroaryl; and A1, A2, and A3 independently represent aryl or heteroaryl. The invention also provides an organic light-emitting diode and a display utilizing the organoluminescent compound.