An emitting source capable of radiating substantial energy in the near infrared spectrum and suitable for use in non-dispersive infrared gas analyzers or other devices is described. Operation can be steady state (DC) or pulsed at high frequency with excellent modulation characteristics. The device consists of a tungsten filament mounted across the pins of a small transistor outline header and centered at the focal point of a parabolic or other shaped reflector. The header assembly is enclosed by a resistance-welded cap and window assembly having a specially sealed sapphire or other suitable IR transmissive window. Fundamental to the operation of the inventive IR emitter is the incorporation of a getter within the header package configured to prevent oxidation degradation of the tungsten filament. An inert gas backfill limits filament evaporation and further extends apparatus lifetime.

It is known to employ infrared (IR) emitters in connection with dispersive and non-dispersive-type infrared spectrometers and gas analyzers. Applications are manifold, including medical and industrial gas detection and analysis. IR sources are employed in the carbon dioxide breath analysis of medical patients, alcohol breath analysis by law enforcement personnel, refrigerant gas leak detection, CO analysis for car exhaust, and so forth. In the various settings, the infrared source is typically a laser, a Nernst or Globar radiator, a semiconductor IR emitting diode, or electrically heated elements, such as wires or foil strips, which emit radiation in the infrared portion of the electromagnetic radiation spectrum. In most analytical systems, means are generally employed to modulate the infrared emission, including mechanical means such as a chopper wheel, whereby the emission is allowed or obstructed according to a predetermined cycle. The modulated beam passes through a sample volume that may include wavelength selective filters and strikes a photo detector which amplifies and conditions the signal for display.
Exemplary and illustrative devices in the prior art include those disclosed and taught in several recently issued U.S. patents, including: U.S. Pat. No. 4,859,859, to Knodle, et al, which discloses an infrared source comprising an electrically modulated, stable thick film mounted on a thin ceramic substrate. The source has good modulation but is limited to very low power.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,342,951 to Kocache et al teaches a miniature source of modulated infra-red energy comprising a very thin heated foil strip of low mass, mounted in a tensioned state by means of two resilient members, and a reflector positioned behind the wire to enhance the radiated energy. The source is hermetically sealed in an inert atmosphere with a cap with a plastic sealed window. The cap has an aperture through which the energy emerges, and which is sealed either with a window or a filter if a specific wavelength emission is desired.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,438,233 to Boland, et al, teaches an infrared lamp having a one-piece hollow body, a tungsten filament that emits broad band IR radiation, an optical window having an aperture for the radiation emission, an indium allow junction between the window and the body to seal the window, a pliable coating overlaying the indium junction and part of the body, and a gas contained within the body to prevent deterioration of the filament. While this device advances significantly over the prior art, an indium seal is fragile and easily broken, and any elastomer (i.e., pliable) coating employed to reduce the fragility will interfere with the use of a heat sink to control the temperature of the lamp. Finally, this lamp, to the knowledge of the present inventor, cannot be pulsed at frequencies useful for nondispersive IR gas analysis.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,838,016 to Johnson shows an IR radiation source comprising a radiation filament having a textured surface produced by seeded ion bombardment of a metal foil which is cut to a serpentine shape and mounted in a windowed housing. Specific ion bombardment texturing techniques tune the surface to maximize emissions in the desired wavelength range and to limit emissions outside that narrow range, particularly at longer wavelengths.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,864,144 to Laine, discloses an infrared (IR) radiation emitting device comprises a sinuous foil resistive element which emits IR radiation when heated by an electric current. The device is configured so that the resistive element emits radiation with a spatial intensity which substantially possesses a single axis. The resistive element may, for example, be configured as a substantially planar spiral.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,939,726 to the present inventor, discloses a pulsable infrared radiation (IR) source which can be used in nondispersive infrared gas analyzers. The pulsable IR source includes a narrow strip of thin metallic foil vertically mounted to the opposite sides of pins of a small transistor type (TO-5 or TO-8) header at the base of a large diameter deep reflector. Infrared radiation from both sides of the heated foil is directly reflected to form a highly efficient source. The foil can be oxidized or otherwise coated under controlled conditions to maximize its emissivity at operating temperatures up to approximately 1200 degrees K. The package is resistance welded with a cap and hermetically sealed window of a suitable material and filter as required to transmit the desired infrared spectrum. An appropriate inert backfill gas prevents further oxidation and enhances the pulsing capability.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,297,511 to Syllaios et al, teaches a high frequently infrared radiation emitter. The emitter includes a low-thermal-mass resistive membrane suspended by long thermal isolation arms over a substrate. The membrane is suspended over the substrate such that a resonant emitting cavity is formed between the membrane and the substrate. The low-mass, thermally isolated membrane design maximizes the temperature change induced by Joule heating of the resistive membrane and allows the emitted IR radiation to be modulated at high frequencies.
The foregoing patents and prior art devices disclosed and, to the knowledge and understanding of the present inventor, all other devices in the prior art, provide IR sources of either limited power or limited pulsability and modulation depth. For example, Cal-Sensors, Inc., of Santa Rosa, Calif., produces an IR emitter that is limited to no more than 727 degrees C. for its pulsable NiCr foil emitters and 900 degrees C. for its Kanthal wire coil steady state sources. Ion Optics, Inc., of Waltham, Mass. manufactures IR emitters limited to approximately 600 degrees C. The radiated power increases as the fourth power of the absolute temperature; thus, increasing the temperature of the filament is the best way to increase the output power. However, NiCr has an extremely short life span when operated above 800 degrees C. Thus the need for a durable and long lasting IR emitter having higher power and greater modulation depth has not been adequately addressed.
Reference to, and discussion of, the background art is intended to aid in discharging Applicant's acknowledged duty of candor in disclosing information that may be relevant to the examination of claims to the present invention. However, it is respectfully submitted that none of the above-indicated patents disclose, teach, suggest, show, or otherwise render obvious, either singly or when considered in combination, the invention described and claimed herein.


The invention relates to an emulsion polymerization process for preparing a latex binder for use in paint. The process involves reacting a water-soluble or water-dispersible polymerizable surfactant having a terminal allyl amine moiety with at least one ethylenically unsaturated monomer and ionic monomer at a pH from about 2 to about 7. Significantly lower levels of the polymerizable surfactants are required to control the latex particle size and to stabilize the latex particles at high solids content as compared to the amount of conventional anionic surfactants used to stabilize a latex.

Latex paints employ latex binders as film formers, pigment binders, fillers and the like. Latex binders are typically comprised of emulsion polymers. The properties that are desirable in latex binders used in paints are, uniform particle size, excellent mechanical stability (especially at high shear) and no coagulum. Additionally, the latex should dry to a clear, glossy and water resistant film. The properties that are desirable in latex-based coating compositions are freeze-thaw stability, good gloss, superior abrasion resistance, good block resistance, controlled drying time and good rheology.
Conventional anionic sufactants have been used to control the latex particle size and to stabilize the latexes at high solid contents. However, such anionic surfactants are not covalently bound to the polymer particles. Under high shear or under a few cycles of freeze-thaw tests, the anionic surfactants can be desorbed and their stabilizing properties in a latex system are lost. Moreover, such conventional surfactants are required to be present in an amount of at least about 3 pphm in the polymerization of the latex which has an adverse effect on the water resistance of the coating prepared using the latex due to the hydrophilicity imparted by the surfactant, and the unbound surfactant has a tendency to migrate to the surface of the coating in order to lower the surface tension.
An article in Advanced Materials, entitled "Microemulsion Polymerization: New Surfactant Systems by Counterion Variation", Vol. 8, No. 10, pp. 840-844 (1996), describes adjusting the geometry and polarity of a given surfactant by electrostatic coupling with the appropriate organic counter-ion, such as the generation of a very bulky, hydrophobic head group. Selected modifications of two standard surfactants, dodecyl sulfate and cetyl trimethylammonium ions were described. The process was micromulsion polymerization process.
An article in Progress in Organic Coatings entitled, "Polymerizable Surfactants", Vol. 20, pp. 325-337 (1992), describes the design of polymerizable surfactants and demonstrate their applicability in selected applications, such as alkyd emulsions, micro-emulsions of alkyds, emulsion polymerization and surface modification. Surface modification includes the polymerization of a monolayer adsorbed from aqueous solution and the crosslinking surfactants that have migrated to the surface.
An article in Macromolecular Chemistry, Macromolecular Symposium entitled, "Polymeric Surfactants in Emulsion Polymerization", Vol. 35/36, pp. 467-475 (1990), describes the stabilizing efficiency of a variety of amphipathic copolymers in aqueous emulsion polymerizations of styrene, methyl methacrylate and acrylonitrile. Using the number and the size of the particles as the criterion of stability, it was determined that the availability for anchoring of the backbone in the amphipathic graft copolymers was crucial for stability. A change in the backbone chain length with the same percent hydrophilic grafts was determined to have no effect on the outcome of the reaction.
An article in the Australia Journal of Chemistry entitled, "A Novel Composite Polymer Latex Technology", Vol. 42, pp. 2055-70 (1989) describes a polymerization process for preparing a latex wherein each particle contains a blend of two or more copolymers. The particles are sterically stabilized by a non-ionic reactive surfactant. The latex is prepared by suspension polymerization.

Latex binders for coatings incorporating a polymerizable surfactant having a terminal allyl amine moiety

National Starch and Chemical Investment Holding Corporation


A tail current source is provided. The tail current source may be used in amplifiers, in an error amplifier of an LDO, or the like, to achieve high PSRR. The tail current source includes a first current mirror, a capacitor, a resistive device, and a current mirror circuit. The current mirror circuit is operable to provide the tail current from an input current. The first current mirror is an n-type current mirror which diverts a small fraction of the DC current from the current mirror circuit. The capacitor and the resistive device are coupled in series with each other, and are coupled between VDD and the common gate node of the transistors in the n-type current mirror. Accordingly, the gates of the transistors in the first current mirror follow AC variations in VDD. This way, the effects of AC variations in VDD on the tail current are approximately cancelled.

It is desirable for voltage regulators used with portable battery-powered devices to have low output noise and a high Power Supply Rejection Ratio (PSRR). To meet these requirements in the circuit design of a regulator, it is common to use a high value of RC filter to get low noise performance for the reference voltage and thus low output noise for the regulator. High value of RC filters can be implemented via an on-chip resistor and an external bypass capacitor. The bypass capacitor can also improve PSRR at low frequency (below 10 KHz), but not high-frequency PSRR. By supplying the reference and part of the error amplifier with its own output voltage of a regulator (with Vout>1.8V), the PSRR can also be improved. This method, however, may not be used for low output voltage options (with Vout<1.8V). Also, for high frequency (over 10 KHz), the improvement in PSRR may still not be enough.
Currently, high PSRR LDO regulators, such as MIC5305 (with 150 mA maximum load from Micrel Semiconductor and claimed as the industry's highest PSRR LDO regulator) and TPS793xx (with 200 mA maximum load from TI), may offer over 70 dB PSRR with frequencies below 10 KHz. By using a 100 nF external bypass capacitor and a 1 μF output capacitor, the PSRR of MIC5305 may be 85 dB at 1 KHz, 65 dB at 10 KHz, and 48 dB at 100 KHz. If a 10 nF external bypass capacitor and a 10 μF output capacitor is used, TPS793xx may have a PSRR value of nearly 70 dB from 100 Hz to 10 KHz and 43 dB at 100 KHz.

Apparatus and method for a high PSRR LDO regulator


A relay device comprises: a routing controller configured to perform learning of routing information, which includes area information used to identify a relay area of communication packets and a network address of one or more other relay devices, and to determine a relay route of the communication packets, based on the learnt routing information; and a relay module configured to send the communication packets received by the relay device to a destination address of the received communication packets, based on the determined relay route. When the relay device receives a disaster notification packet notifying of a disaster area and when the determined relay route includes the disaster area, the routing controller changes the relay route to an alternative relay route that does not include the disaster area.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to routing control by a relay device configured to relay communication packets.
2. Description of the Related Art
JP2010-130161A disclosed solution To provide a traffic detour control system which can detour the traffic of each communication area properly according to the scale of an event, e.g. an earthquake or a typhoon, and increases the traffic volume of each communication area.

Relay device, network system and computer program product


A robot control system and method includes plural actuators provided on a robot, plural controller modules, each of which controls at least one of the actuators and includes a program to perform a motion and an ID, an adjustment module to register a control right of each controller module over the at least one of the actuators and to perform at least one motion when a request for the at least one motion is made, and an abstraction layer module to judge whether or not a detected controller module is a controller module having the control right over the at least one of the actuators by confirming the ID of the controller module, and to drive the at least one of the actuators by controlling execution of the controller module upon judging that the detected controller module is the controller module having the control right.

1. Field
Embodiments relate to a robot control system and method to execute a plurality of programs.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, robots are machines which have a joint system similar to that of a human and perform the same motions as those of human hands and legs using such a joint system.
Industrial robots for automation and unmanned operation of production in factories were the first to be introduced. Recently, vigorous development of service robots to supply various services to humans is underway.
Such service robots supply services to humans while performing walking through imitation of walking of humans, and perform image recognition processing and voice recognition processing, thereby communicating with humans at a higher intellectual level.
A robot possesses various modeled programs regarding motions, such as an emotional model, a motion model and a learning model. The robot makes a motion plan in response to an external factor, such as a user's action, according to these models and embodies the motion plan through driving of respective joint actuators or voice output, thereby achieving autonomous thought and motion control.
In such a robot, in order to simultaneously perform various motions of different joints, such as turning the head of the robot in a direction of noise while walking, the robot executes programs to perform the different motions using a plurality of controller modules, thereby simultaneously controlling the different joints.
However, in this case, collisions between the programs are generated, thereby causing serious problems, such as failure of the robot, environmental destruction and harm to humans.
Thus, the robot applies restriction to allow operation of only one controller module at a time, thereby preventing collisions between control commands of the various controller modules. But, in this case, there is a problem, such as a difficulty in simultaneously performing plural motions.


The present invention is an automatically interactive toy capable of responding to natural triggering events, such as motion in the vicinity of the toy, and providing a plurality of interactive responses. Specifically, the toy configuration senses a natural triggering event with a sensor which activates the interactive response. Upon the occurrence of the natural triggering event, the triggering sensors activates an actuator containing a motor and a series of gears. The motor drives the series of gears to create a response by a transformation mechanism. In the preferred embodiment, the transformation mechanism causes an object or toy configuration to transform from a closed to an open position. Thus, the toy or object may have one appearance when closed and a different appearance when opened to expose an inner chamber which may contain a secondary object or toy.

Toy manufacturers are constantly trying to design new and improved ways to capture and maintain a child's imagination. Unfortunately for toy manufacturers, there is no formula to decide whether or not a toy will be successful. In fact, in many cases, it seems completely arbitrary why one toy is successful and another similar toy is not.
For example, although there will always be a market for traditional dolls, today's most popular dolls are dolls that cry when the child pulls a string, dolls that laugh when the child pushes their stomach, or any doll that interacts with the child. The commonality between these toys is that they all interact with the child based on the child's manual inputs. Thus, any invention which enables a toy to more actively interact with the child is a considerable improvement over the prior art.
In addition, it is equally important for toys to interact naturally. Toys on the market today do not. For example, although it is natural for a baby to cry, it is not natural for a person to cause the baby to cry by pulling a string. Thus, besides increasing a toy's ability to interact, it is also a considerable improvement over the prior art to design a toy that interacts without requiring the child to intentionally initiate the response.
Another example of a presently successful toy design is the design of transformer toys. Transformer toys are toys that allow the child to manually change the toy from one form to another, like a toy that changes from an action figure into a car or a plane. These toys have been successful because they are really two toys in one, and they allow the child's imagination to envision the toy in at least twice as many possible scenarios. For instance, an action figure limits a child's imagination to a scenario associated with an action figure, but if the action figure changes into a car, the child may imagine any scenario which involves an action figure, or a car, or any scenario including the conversion of the toy from one form to the other. Thus, any invention which creates a new way to include two toys in one is a considerable improvement over the prior art, especially, if the toy is able to transform in response to a natural or indirect triggering event.
It will therefore be apparent that it is desirable and commercially attractive to provide a new type of toy which interacts with a child based on the occurrence of one or more natural triggering events. Such device would execute a plurality of automatically interactive responses based on one or more natural triggering events in order to automatically transform its shape. Such a transformation could cause the device to open to reveal an inner chamber. The effect would be to provide a child with a plurality of toys initially embodied in a single toy device.


There is provided a voice activity detection method for indicating an active voice mode and an inactive voice mode. The method comprises receiving an input signal having a plurality of frames, determining whether each of the plurality of frames includes an active voice signal or an inactive voice signal, determining a second reflection coefficient for each frame determined to include the inactive voice signal, comparing the second reflection coefficient with a reflection threshold, and selecting the active voice mode if the second reflection coefficient is greater than the reflection threshold. The method may further comprise selecting the inactive voice mode if the second reflection coefficient is not greater than the reflection threshold. The method may also comprise analyzing the input signal to determine an energy level of the input signal, and selecting the active voice mode if the energy level is greater than an energy threshold.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to voice activity detection. More particularly, the present invention relates to a tone detection algorithm for a voice activity detector.
2. Related Art
In 1996, the Telecommunication Sector of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU-T) adopted a toll quality speech coding algorithm known as the G.729 Recommendation, entitled "Coding of Speech Signals at 8 kbit/s using Conjugate-Structure Algebraic-Code-Excited Linear-Prediction (CS-ACELP)." Shortly thereafter, the ITU-T also adopted a silence compression algorithm known as the ITU-T Recommendation G.729 Annex B, entitled "A Silence Compression Scheme for Use with G.729 Optimized for V.70 Digital Simultaneous Voice and Data Applications." The ITU-T G.729 and G.729 Annex B specifications are hereby incorporated by reference into the present application in their entirety.
Although initially designed for DSVD (Digital Simultaneous Voice and Data) applications, the ITU-T Recommendation G.729 Annex B (G.729B) has been heavily used in VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) applications, and will continue to serve the industry in the future. To save bandwidth, G.729B allows G.729 (and its annexes) to operate in two transmission modes, voice and silence/background noise, which are classified using a Voice Activity Detector (VAD).
A considerable portion of normal speech is made up of silence/background noise, which may be up to an average of 60 percent of a two-way conversation. During silence, the speech input device, such as a microphone, picks up environmental noise. The noise level and characteristics can vary considerably, from a quiet room to a noisy street or a fast-moving car. However, most of the noise sources carry less information than the speech; hence, a higher compression ratio is achievable during inactive periods. As a result, many practical applications use silence detection and comfort noise injection for higher coding efficiency.
In G.729B, this concept of silence detection and comfort noise injection leads to a dual-mode speech coding technique, where the different modes of input signal, denoted as active voice for speech and inactive voice for silence or background noise, are determined by a VAD. The VAD can operate externally or internally to the speech encoder. The full-rate speech coder is operational during active voice speech, but a different coding scheme is employed for the inactive voice signal, using fewer bits and resulting in a higher overall average compression ratio. The output of the VAD may be called a voice activity decision. The voice activity decision is either 1 or 0 (on or off), indicating the presence or absence of voice activity, respectively. The VAD algorithm and the inactive voice coder, as well as the G.729 or G.729A speech coders, operate on frames of digitized speech.
FIG. 1 illustrates conventional speech coding system 100, including encoder 101, communication channel 125 and decoder 102. As shown, encoder 101 includes VAD 120, active voice encoder 115 and inactive voice encoder 110. VAD 120 determines whether input signal 105 is a voice signal. If VAD 120 determines that input signal 105 is a voice signal, VAD output signal 122 causes input signal 105 to be routed to active voice encoder 115 and then routed to the output of active voice encoder 115 for transmission over communication channel 125. On the other hand, If VAD 120 determines that input signal 105 is not a voice signal, VAD output signal 122 causes input signal 105 to be routed to inactive voice encoder 110 and then routed to the output of inactive voice encoder 110 for transmission over communication channel 125. Further, VAD output signal 122 is also transmitted over communication channel 125 and received by decoder 102 as coding mode 127, such that at the other end, coding mode 127 controls whether the coded signal should be decoded using inactive voice decoder 130 or active voice decoder 135 to produce output signal 140.
When active voice encoder 115 is operational, an active voice bitstream is sent to active voice decoder 135 for each frame. However, during inactive periods, inactive voice encoder 110 can choose to send an information update called a silence insertion descriptor (SID) to the inactive decoder, or to send nothing. This technique is named discontinuous transmission (DTX). When an inactive voice is declared by VAD 120, completely muting the output during inactive voice segments creates sudden drops of the signal energy level which are perceptually unpleasant. Therefore, in order to fill these inactive voice segments, a description of the background noise is sent from inactive voice encoder 110 to inactive voice decoder 130. Such a description is known as a silence insertion description. Using the SID, inactive voice decoder 130 generates output signal 140, which is perceptually equivalent to the background noise in the encoder. Such a signal is commonly called comfort noise, which is generated by a comfort noise generator (CNG) within inactive voice decoder 130.
Due to an increase in deployment and use of VoIP applications, certain deficiencies of speech coding algorithms and, in particular, existing VAD algorithms have surfaced. For example, it has been experienced that the VAD erroneously may go off (indicative of inactive voice) at the tail end of a voice signal, although the voice signal is still present. As a result, the tail end of the voice signal is cut off by the VAD. FIG. 2 is an illustration of this first problem, where VAD 120 goes off at point 210, where voice signal still continues, and thus VAD 120 cuts off the tail end of voice signal 212. In other words, the CNG matches the energy of the tail end of the voice signal (i.e. energy of the signal after VAD goes off) for generating the comfort noise. Because the matched energy is not that of a silence or background noise signal, but the matched energy is that of the tail end of a voice signal, the comfort noise that is generated by the CNG sounds like an annoying breathe-like noise.
In a further problem, it has been determined that existing VADs occasionally misinterpret a high-level tone signal as an inactive voice or background noise, which results in the CNG generating a comfort noise by matching the energy of the high-level tone signal.
Other VAD problems may also be caused due to untimely or improper initialization or update of the noise state during the VAD operation. It is known that the background noise can change considerably during a conversation, for example, by moving from a quiet room to a noisy street, a fast-moving car, etc. Therefore, the initial parameters indicative of the varying characteristics of background noise (or the noise state) must be updated for adaptation to the changing environment. However, when the background noise parameters are not timely or properly updated or initialized, various problems may occur, including (a) undesirable performance for input signals that start below a certain level, such as around 15 dB, (b) undesirable performance in noisy environments, (c) waste of bandwidth by excessive use of SID frames, and (d) incorrect initialization of noise characteristics when noise is missing at the beginning of the speech. As an example, when the incoming signal starts with silence followed by a sudden change in the level of noise signal, existing VADs do not initialize the noise state correctly, which can lead to the noise signal following the silence erroneously being considered as the active voice by the VAD. As a result of this improper initialization of the noise state, the VAD may go on during background noise periods causing an active voice mode selection, where the bandwidth is wasted for coding of the background noise.
Therefore, there is an intense need for a robust VAD algorithm that can overcome the existing problems and deficiencies in the art.

Tone detection algorithm for a voice activity detector


After a first device (e.g., a host node in a shared data clustered system that stores a two-way mirrored volume) in a network creates or modifies a description of a layout for a data volume, the first device transmits separate copies of the data volume layout description to a pair of second devices, respectively, for storage in respective memories thereof. The first device may be a host node, and the pair of second devices may be first and second data storage systems. The first device and the pair of second devices are configured so that I/O transactions are transmitted between the first device and either of the pair of second devices. In other words, the first device is contained in a network layer that is different from the network layer that contains the pair of second devices.

Many business organizations and governmental entities seek fast and inexpensive access to large amounts of data stored in storage area networks. FIG. 1 illustrates relevant components of an exemplary data system 10 for storing data. Data system 10 consists of a host node 12 coupled to a storage area network (SAN). The SAN consists of data storage systems 14 and 16 and SAN switch 18.
Host node 12 takes form in a computer system (e.g., a server) having one or more processors and a memory for storing data or instructions. Host node 12 executes an operating system and a volume manager. Volume managers, such as Volume Manager™ provided by VERITAS Software Corporation of Mountain View, Calif., are systems for organizing and managing the distribution of data of a volume across one or more storage devices. Volume and disk management products from other product software companies also provide a system for organizing and managing the distribution of volume data across multiple storage devices.
Host node 12 may be coupled to one or more client computer systems (not shown). Host node 12 generates input/output (I/O) transactions for reading data from or writing data to the data volume contained in data storage systems 14 and 16. These I/O transactions are transmitted to data storage systems 14 and 16 via SAN switch 18.
Each of the data storage systems 14 and 16 includes a plurality of storage devices such as hard disks (not shown). For example, data storage system 14 includes three hard disks designated A1-A3, while data storage system 16 includes three hard disks designated B1-B3. Each of the data storage systems 14 and 16 also include one or more processors for processing I/O transactions received from host node 12 as will be more fully described below.
As noted above, host node 12 executes a volume manager. The volume manager organizes the hard disks and storage objects (e.g., subdisks, extents, plexes, etc.) created from the hard disks to form a data volume. In organizing these hard disks, the volume manager creates a description of how the data volume is organized or laid out. There are many different ways to organize a data volume from underlying hard disks and storage objects. The layout description relates the storage objects to each other or to the hard disks of the data storage systems.
Properties of the storage depend on how the volume manager organizes the data volume. In theory, there are a large number of ways to organize the data volume. Popular storage types include spanning storage (using storage from several devices to make a larger volume), striped storage (interleaving block ranges between devices to increase performance), and mirrored storage (storing extra copies of the data to improve reliability). Data system 10 will be described with host node 12 aggregating the hard disks and storage objects of data storage systems 14 and 16 to form mirrored volume storage.
A mirrored volume replicates data over two or more plexes of the same size. For purposes of explanation, host node 12 aggregates hard disks and storage objects to form a two-way mirrored volume. In this two-way mirror, a logical block number i of a volume maps to the same block number i on each mirrored plex. A two-way mirrored volume corresponds to RAID 1.
FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary volume layout description for the exemplary two-way mirrored volume stored within systems 14 and 16 of FIG. 1. More particularly, FIG. 2 consists of two plexes (i.e., plex 1 and plex 2). Plex 1 consists of three subdisks designated subdisk 1-subdisk 3, while plex 2 consists of three subdisks designated subdisk 4-subdisk 6. FIG. 2 also shows that subdisk 1-subdisk 3 are allocated from contiguous regions of hard disks A1-A3, respectively, while subdisks 4-subdisk 6 are allocated from contiguous regions of hard disks B1-B3, respectively. The layout description illustrated in FIG. 2, is stored within memory of host node 12. It is noted that the volume manager can modify the layout description as the volume manager modifies the organization of the data volume. For example, the volume manager may create new, change existing, or destroys storage objects of the volume.
Host node 12 uses volume layout description for many purposes. For example, host node uses the volume layout description illustrated in FIG. 2 when writing data to or reading data from the data volume. To illustrate, when host node 12 seeks to write data D to block x of the mirrored data volume example, host node 12 accesses the volume layout description shown in FIG. 2 to determine the location of the plexes to be updated with data D. In the illustrated example, the volume layout description indicates that data D is to be written to plex 1 and plex 2 aggregated from hard disks located in data storage systems 14 and 16, respectively.
Because the plexes are located in different data storage systems, host node 12 must generate and transmit separate I/O transactions to write data D to the data volume. More particularly, host node 12 generates first and second I/O transactions for writing data D to block x in plex 1 and plex 2, respectively. The first and second I/O transactions are sent to data storage systems 14 and 16, respectively. Data storage systems 14 and 16 process the first and second I/O transactions, respectively, and write data D to respective hard disks. A high frequency of I/O transactions transmitted between host node 12 and data storage systems 14 and 16 may burden the data system 10.

Distribution of data volume virtualization


Provided is a technique of enabling high-compression crimping without breaking a crimp terminal while forming a recessed portion promoting a wire crimp portion of the crimp terminal to cut into a conductor in the wire crimp portion. The crimp terminal according to the invention includes a wire crimp portion, which is crimped to a conductor of a wire and includes a first crimp portion crimped to a base side of the conductor and a second crimp portion crimped to a tip end side. A recessed portion for promoting a cutting-in effect is formed in an inner surface of the wire crimp portion. A recessed portion formed in the second crimp portion is divided in a terminal width direction or is shallower than a recessed portion formed in the first crimp portion. Alternatively, the recessed portion is omitted and a recessed portion is formed only in the first crimp portion.

1. Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a crimp terminal which is crimped to an end of a wire provided on an automobile or the like, a terminal-provided wire including the crimp terminal, and a manufacturing method thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
To attach a terminal to an end of an insulated wire, there is conventionally often used a crimping technique. The crimping is performed by caulking a conductor barrel formed in advance on the terminal onto the end of a conductor of the insulated wire by use of a die.
This crimping technique, however, involves a difficulty of setting a crimp height of the conductor barrel. A low crimp height has a merit of lowering contact resistance between the conductor barrel and the conductor because the compression ratio of the conductor (a ratio between a sectional area of the conductor before crimping and that after crimping) is lowered, or in other words, crimping is performed with a high compression of the conductor, while causing a demerit of decreasing mechanical strength, in particular tensile strength against an impact load (more specifically, the holding strength by which the crimp terminal holds the wire), because of a high reduction rate of the conductor sectional area. On contrary, a high crimp height has a merit of maintaining high mechanical strength by securing a high compression ratio, that is, by suppressing a degree of the conductor compression, while raising the contact resistance between the conductor barrel and the conductor of the wire.
For solving the problem, as disclosed in Patent Document 1, for example, there is well known a conventional technique for increasing the strength with which the terminal holds the wire and effectively lowering the contact resistance: the technique includes forming a serration of a plurality of recessed grooves arranged in a parallel direction to an axial direction on an inner surface of a wire crimp portion of the crimp terminal, which surface is caulked to the conductor on the end of the wire. The serration increases a contact area between the wire crimp portion of the crimp terminal and the conductor. Furthermore, edges of the serration, particularly edges extending orthogonally to a terminal axis direction, cut into the conductor, thereby increasing the holding strength of the conductor by the wire crimp portion and lowering the contact resistance.
This technique of forming recessed grooves, however, has the other following problems.
Depending on the type of the wire onto which the crimp terminal is crimped, it may be required to set the compression ratio of the conductor due to crimping low to more highly compress the conductor. For example, in the case of the conductor formed of aluminum or aluminum alloy, on the surface of which an oxide film that will be a factor of deteriorating contact resistance tends to be formed, there is required to perform a high compression by setting the crimp height considerably lower than the case of the conductor formed by, for example, copper or copper alloy, in order to lower the contact resistance sufficiently against the oxide film.
Thus crimping with a high compression involves marked plastic deformation of the terminal crimp portion in the crimp terminal (in particular, axial stretch and thickness reduction). Accordingly, crimping the terminal crimp portion forming the recessed grooves described above may involves breaking the part forming the recessed grooves, that is, the part having a locally small thickness. This means that forming a recessed portion such as a serration in the terminal crimp portion will be extremely limited to a minimum of the compression ratio of the crimping, that is, a delimitation of the high compression. Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Application Publication No. H10-125362

Crimp terminal, terminal-provided wire, and manufacturing method thereof


The present invention relates to at least one novel anti-alpha-V subunit antibodies, including isolated nucleic acids that encode at least one anti-alpha-V subunit antibody, alpha-V subunit, vectors, host cells, transgenic animals or plants, and methods of making and using thereof, including therapeutic compositions, methods and devices.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to antibodies which bind to the alpha-V subunit of the integrin family of cell adhesion receptors, including specified portions or variants thereof. The antibodies of the invention are specific for at least one alpha-V subunit of a heterodimeric integrin receptor, such as an alpha-V-beta-1, alpha-V-beta-3, alpha-V-beta-5, alpha-V-beta-6, or alpha V-beta-8 heterodimeric integrin protein or fragment thereof. The invention also relates to nucleic acids encoding such anti-alpha-V subunit antibodies, complementary nucleic acids, vectors, host cells, and methods of making and using thereof, including therapeutic formulations, administration and devices.
2. Related Art
Integrins are a superfamily of cell adhesion receptors, which exist as heterodimeric transmembrane glycoproteins. They are part of a large family of cell adhesion receptors which are involved in cell-extracellular matrix and cell-cell interactions. Integrins play critical roles in cell adhesion to the extracellular matrix (ECM) which, in turn, mediates cell survival, proliferation and migration through intracellular signaling. The receptors consist of two subunits that are non-covalently bound. Those subunits are called alpha and beta. The alpha subunits all have some homology to each other, as do the beta subunits. The receptors always contain one alpha chain and one beta chain and are thus called heterodimeric. Both of the subunits contribute to the binding of ligand. Eighteen alpha subunits and eight beta subunits have been identified, which heterodimerize to form at least 24 distinct integrin receptors.
Among the variety of alpha chain subunits is a protein chain referred to as alpha V. The ITAGV gene encodes integrin alpha chain V (alphaV). The I-domain containing integrin alpha V undergoes post-translational cleavage to yield disulfide-linked heavy and light chains, that combine with multiple integrin beta chains to form different integrins. Alternative splicing of the gene yields 7 different transcripts; a, b, c, e, f, h, j altogether encoding 6 different protein isoforms of alphaV. Among the known associating beta chains (beta chains 1, 3, 5, 6, and 8; 'ITGB1', 'ITGB3', 'ITGB5', 'ITGB6', and 'ITGB8'), each can interact with extracellular matrix ligands. The alpha V beta 3 integrin, perhaps the most studied of these, is referred to as the vitronectin receptor (VNR). In addition to providing for cell attachment to other cells or to extracellular proteins such as vitronectin (alphaVbeta3) and fibronectin (alphaVbeta6), the integrins are capable of intracellular signaling which provides clues for cell migration and secretion of or elaboration of other proteins involved in cell motility and invasion and angiogenesis. The alpha V integrin subfamily of integrins recognize the ligand motif arg-gly-asp (RGD) present in fibronection, vitronection, VonWillebrand factor, and fibrinogen.
It has been established that integrins which are alpha-V containing heterodimers, particularly alpha-V/beta-6, the receptor for fibronectin, are involved in adhesion of carcinoma cells to fibronectin and vitronectin. This is especially true for carcinoma cells arising from the malignant progression of colon cancer (Lehmann, M. et al. Cancer Res 1994, 54(8), 2102-7. Furthermore, integrin expression in colon cancer cells is regulated by the cytoplasmic domain of the beta-6 integrin subunit which signals through the ERK2 pathway (Niu, J. et al. Int. J. Cancer 2002, 99(4), 529-537) and beta6 expression is associated with secretion of gelatinase B, an enzyme involved in tumor cell invasion and metastatic mechanisms (Agrez, et al. Int. J. Cancer 1999, 81(1), 90-97).
There is now considerable evidence that progressive tumor growth is dependent upon angiogenesis, the formation of new blood vessels, to provide tumors with nutrients and oxygen, to carry away waste products and to act as conduits for the metastasis of tumor cells to distant sites (Gastl et al., Oncol. 54:177-184). Recent studies have further defined the roles of integrins in the angiogenic process. During angiogenesis, a number of integrins that are expressed on the surface of activated endothelial cells regulate critical adhesive interactions with a variety of ECM proteins to regulate distinct biological events such as cell migration, proliferation and differentiation. Specifically, the closely related but distinct integrins αVβ3 and αVβ5 have been shown to mediate independent pathways in the angiogenic process. An antibody generated against αvβ3 blocked basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) induced angiogenesis, whereas an antibody specific to αVβ5 inhibited vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) induced angiogenesis (Eliceiri, et al., J. Clin. Invest. 103: 1227-1230 (1999); Friedlander et al., Science 270: 1500-1502 (1995)). Therefore, integrins and especially the alpha V subunit containing integrins, are reasonable therapeutic targets for diseases that involve angiogenesis such as disease of the eye and neoplastic disease, tissue remodeling such as restenosis, and proliferation of certain cells types particularly epithelial and squamous cell carcinomas.
Non-human mammalian, chimeric, polyclonal (e.g., anti-sera) and/or monoclonal antibodies (Mabs) and fragments (e.g., proteolytic digestion or fusion protein products thereof) are potential therapeutic agents that are being investigated in some cases to attempt to treat certain diseases. However, such antibodies or fragments can elicit an immune response when administered to humans. Such an immune response can result in an immune complex-mediated clearance of the antibodies or fragments from the circulation, and make repeated administration unsuitable for therapy, thereby reducing the therapeutic benefit to the patient and limiting the readministration of the antibody or fragment. For example, repeated administration of antibodies or fragments comprising non-human portions can lead to serum sickness and/or anaphylaxis. In order to avoid these and other problems, a number of approaches have been taken to reduce the immunogenicity of such antibodies and portions thereof, including chimerization and humanization, as well known in the art. These and other approaches, however, still can result in antibodies or fragments having some immunogenicity, low affinity, low avidity, or with problems in cell culture, scale up, production, and/or low yields. Thus, such antibodies or fragments can be less than ideally suited for manufacture or use as therapeutic proteins.
Accordingly, there is a need to provide human antibodies to anti-integrin alpha-V subunit antibodies or fragments thereof that overcome one or more of these problems, as well as improvements over known antibodies or fragments thereof.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Anti-integrin antibodies, compositions, methods and uses


A common mode reactor between a DC converter and an AC converter to reduce common mode voltage from current source drives. Smoothing reactors are also placed in the DC current path. Additionally, a combined DC smoothing inductor and common mode reactor can be built on a common core. The single core can be a three legged core having two coils.

Adjustable output power supplies are commonly required in a wide variety of industrial applications, specifically to control the operation of an AC motor. Common prior art practice has been to create a two-portion drive, having an input portion to convert AC to DC and an output portion converting DC to adjustable AC. Both the AC to DC and the DC to AC portions of the drive will typically use solid state switching components. FIG. 1A shows a typical current source drive circuit. Such current source drives have three main disadvantages versus Pulse Width Modulated (PWM) voltage source drives; namely common mode output voltage, input harmonics, and variable input power factor. Of these disadvantages, the common mode output voltage may be the most critical, because its solution has traditionally required either a full rated input transformer or special motor insulation. These solutions can be expensive in both the cost of the additional equipment and in the physical space requirements associated with full rated transformers. FIG. 1a shows a typical current source drive circuit, a six-pulse rectifier converts three phase AC power from a utility to DC current. The neutral of the utility is usually grounded. This DC current flows through an inductor to a second converter (DC to AC), where it is converted back into three phase AC at a different or varying frequency. When the semiconductor switches are fired in either the input or output converters, there is a step change of voltage across the DC inductor. Even when the inductor is divided equally between the positive and negative paths as shown in FIG. 1a, half of the step change in voltage appears between the input and output neutrals. Since the input neutral is grounded, the entire voltage appears between the motor windings and ground. This voltage is called "common-mode" because it appears equally in all three output phases. In practice it increases the stress on the motor winding insulation. In some instances, the peak common-mode voltage can equal the peak line-to-neutral output voltage, which doubles the line-to-ground voltage on the motor. Two prior solutions to deal with the common-mode voltage are to increase the motor insulation to protect against the winding to ground, common-mode voltage; or to supply a full KVA rated input isolation transformer, which allows the input neutral to support the voltage. The problem in utilizing this type of drive with existing or older motors is that the option of increasing the motor insulation is not readily available. Utilizing full rated isolation transformers on the input provides the necessary common voltage isolation, but can be quite costly and requires additional space and maintenance for the transformer. While utilization of this type of drive with new motors can be effective if higher rated insulation is applied through the motors when purchased, this increases the cost of the motor, and does not reduce the common-mode voltage and its potential disadvantages. Because in certain configurations the above-described drive may have significant operating and cost advantages, it would be desirable to eliminate or greatly reduce the common-mode voltage at a minimum cost in this type of drive.

Apparatus and method to reduce common mode voltage from current source drives


A vessel energy management system for controlling power supply to and from a propulsion system of a vessel. The energy management system has a motor-generator unit adapted to receive power from a prime mover of the vessel, a frequency converter, an energy storage unit, and a controller. According to different embodiments, the energy storage unit includes one or more capacitors, super capacitors or ultra capacitors. The controller determines an instantaneous power requirement of the propulsion system and an average power generated by the prime mover. A comparator compares the instantaneous required power and average power. If the instantaneous required power exceeds the average power, the motor-generator unit receives energy from the energy storage unit. If the instantaneous required power is less than the average power, the motor-generator unit supplies power from the prime mover to the energy storage unit.

Ships of all types try to reduce operating costs as much as possible in order to be competitive. The main engine operates most efficiently if it has a sufficient and substantially constant power demand, but this is difficult to achieve, other than in calm conditions. In increased sea states, the energy required to move the vessel varies between the peaks and troughs of the waves, or swell, often in a cyclical manner, similar to a sine wave. The ship needs to have sufficient power to cope with the maximum expected power requirement, but at other parts of the cycle, that power is not used.


A device package includes at least one semiconductor device having at least one electrode of an elongated length. The device package also includes at least one conductive pad that extends parallel to the elongated length of the electrode. A terminal lead may be integral with the conductive pad. A plurality of wirebonds of about the same length may electrically connect the conductive pad and the elongated electrode of the semiconductor device. As another alternative, a second semiconductor device may be mounted to the conductive pad and a plurality of wirebonds may electrically connect this second device and the elongated electrode of the first semiconductor device.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to semiconductor device packages and more specifically, relates to wirebonded semiconductor device packages having semiconductor devices that include elongated electrodes.
2. Description of the Art
III-nitride based power semiconductor devices, such as Gallium Nitride (GaN) based devices, are desirable for power applications. Example III-nitride based devices include diodes, unidirectional switches, and bi-directional switches. These devices are lateral conductive devices with the power electrodes and control electrodes disposed along a top surface of the devices and with the bottom surface of the devices being electrically non-conductive.
For example, referring to FIG. 1A there is shown a top plan view of a III-nitride unidirectional switching device 10. Device 10 includes a drain electrode 22 and a source electrode 23, which are arranged as interdigitated portions. As shown, each of these electrodes also includes an elongated runner 21 or 24 that extends substantially along the length of the device along respective edges. Runner 21 is connected to the interdigitated portions of drain electrode 22 and runner 24 is connected to the interdigitated portions of source electrode 23. Wirebonds may be formed to the runners to interface with the electrodes. Device 10 also includes a gate electrode 20 formed in a serpentine shape between drain electrode 22 and source electrode 23.
Similarly, referring to FIG. 1B there is shown a top plan view of a III-nitride bi-directional switching device 30. Device 30 may have a form as disclosed in U.S. Publication No. U.S. 2005-0189561 (U.S. patent application. Ser. No. 11/056,062), entitled "III-Nitride Bidirectional Switch," by Daniel M. Kinzer et al., and assigned to the assignee of the present application. The contents of U.S. Publication No. U.S. 2005-0189561 are hereby incorporated by reference as if fully set forth in its entirety herein.
Device 30 includes first and second power electrodes 25 and 26, which are arranged as interdigitated portions. Again, each power electrode includes an elongated runner 42 or 40 that extends substantially along the length of the device, with runner 42 being connected to respective portions of power electrode 25 and runner 40 being connected to respective portions of power electrode 26. Similar to above, wirebonds may be formed to these runners to interface with the power electrodes. Device 30 also includes first and second gate electrodes 32 and 34, with portions of each electrode being disposed between the power electrodes. Elongated runners 46 and 48 are also provided, with runner 46 electrically connecting the portions of gate electrode 32 and runner 48 electrically connecting the portions of gate electrode 34. By controlling each gate electrode, the switch may conduct current in either a forward direction or a reverse direction. Accordingly, either power electrode may serve as the drain or source electrode.
Similarly, for a III-nitride based diode, the device may only include power electrodes.
In general, it is desirable to adapt conventional device package formats, such as TO-220 and SIP package formats, to house III-nitride based semiconductor devices. For example, referring to FIG. 2 there is shown a TO-220 device package 100 of the prior art, this package having a III-nitride based device 101 disposed therein. In this example, device 101 is a III-nitride based unidirectional switching device having a source electrode 23, drain electrode 22, and a gate electrode 20. Device package 100 also includes a lead frame 102 that has a die pad 104 and a plurality of terminal leads, such as leads 110-118. As shown in FIG. 2, the respective bond pads 110a-118a of these terminal leads are typically arranged so as to lie across the bottom of the device package adjacent to the lower edge of die pad 104. Device package 100 also includes a protective housing 105 that covers device 101 and at least a portion of the top surface of lead frame 102.
As shown in FIG. 2, the electrically non-conductive bottom surface of device 101 is mounted to die pad 104 using an adhesive such as solder, epoxy adhesive, or the like, thereby exposing the electrodes along the top surface of the device. Source electrode 23 of device 101 may be electrically connected to terminal lead 112 through a plurality of wirebonds 120 that extend from the runner of the electrode to bond pad 112a. Similarly, drain electrode 22 of device 101 may be electrically connected to terminal lead 118 through a plurality of wirebonds 121 that extend from the runner of the electrode to bond pad 118a. Gate electrode 20 of the device may be electrically connected through wirebond 122 to bond pad 112a of terminal lead 112.
Significantly and as shown in FIG. 2, because the runners of the power electrodes of III-nitride based devices are elongated and because the bond pads of the terminal leads of conventional device packages are typically formed along the bottom of the package, the plurality of wirebonds between respective power electrodes and bond pads are long and of varying/unequal lengths, thereby making the device packages unsuitable. For example, as shown in FIG. 2, the plurality of wirebonds 120 of source electrode 23 and the plurality of wirebonds 121 of drain electrode 22 are long and of varying/unequal lengths. Notably, the long length of the wirebonds increases package resistance, adds unwanted inductance, and also increases cost. The length of the wirebonds also makes the wirebonds susceptible to wire sweep during the mold process of forming protective housing 105. In addition, the unequal lengths of the respective wirebonds of given electrode results in the wirebonds having different resistances, which causes unequal current distribution across the wirebonds. Significantly, the varying lengths of the wirebonds also result in unequal current distribution in the III-nitride based device.
It is noted that similar problems like those described above also occur when packaging silicon based devices that include one or more elongated electrodes.

Wirebonded device packages for semiconductor devices having elongated electrodes


A method of evaluating a stimulation operation includes: receiving parameter information for the stimulation operation, the stimulation operation including injecting an acid stimulation fluid into an earth formation along a selected length of a borehole from a tubular disposed in the borehole; and generating, by a processor, a thermal model based on one or more energy balance equations that account for at least a first heat source and a second heat source, the first heat source expected to produce heat during the stimulation by a chemical reaction between an acid in the stimulation fluid and the formation, and the second heat source including expected geothermal heat from the formation.

Various techniques may be employed to stimulate hydrocarbon production in subterranean formations. For example, acid stimulation may be performed, in which an acid is flowed downhole within a tubular disposed in a borehole, and released into the borehole to treat the formation and stimulate fluid flow into or from the formation. After release of the acid from the tubular, hydrocarbons are received by the tubular.
Temperature and fluid flow measurements of wellbores in earth formations may be utilized to monitor stimulation processes. Examples of temperature measurement systems include Distributed Temperature Sensing (DTS) technologies, which utilize fiber optic cables or other devices capable of measuring temperature values at multiple locations along the length of a wellbore. DTS can be used to measure, for example, a continuous temperature profile along the wellbore.

Modeling acid distribution for acid stimulation of a formation


According to one embodiment of the invention, a method for secured execution of commands is described. Initially, a second electronic device authenticates a first electronic device and registers the first electronic device as a trusted device. Thereafter, up receipt of a message with one or more embedded commands, such commands are executed without any pre-established communication protocol if the message is from the registered first electronic device.

Field
Embodiments of the invention relate to the field of secured communications. More specifically, one embodiment of the invention relates to a system and method for embedding commands within a message where any embedded command is processed upon confirmation that the message originated from an authenticated electronic device.
General Background
For the last decade, major advancements in high-technology have occurred, and such advancements continue to occur at an accelerated pace. As a result, product development cycles have become increasingly shorter over the years, which have posed a number of problems.
For instance, one problem is that, by needing to release products at a greater pace in order to compete in the marketplace, there are times when the released product does not have all of its intended features. Hence, it has become increasingly important to be able to have rudimentary control over an electronic product after release, such as being able to expand and upgrade the electronic product over the Internet.
As an example, in accordance with conventional communications schemes, servers are authorized to only send certain commands for remote control of clients, namely those commands that are provided in accordance with a communication protocol agreed upon by the servers and clients beforehand. For instance, software updates may require a particular protocol to be followed prior to execution of the command, where the command is unable to execute if the protocol cannot be performed.
Likewise, security protections, such as security codes, may be used to prevent unauthorized commands from being utilized. However, these security codes, once broken, expose the device to unauthorized control by a server.

System and method for performing commands from a remote source


Systems, methods and apparatus to resolve join packet RPF vector attribute conflicts in a network by adding an identified proxy to a proxy list, the proxy being valid if it is reachable and if a valid PIM adjacency exists on one of the next route hops, and selecting one of multiple valid proxies within the proxy list according to a hierarchy of selection mechanisms.

A Multicast Distribution Tree (MDT) or "tree" is used to connect a source or transmitter router to all destination or receiver routers. The source or transmitter router forms the root node of the MDT, while the destination or receiver routers form the leaf nodes of the MDT.
One way of creating an MDT is by using Protocol Independent Multicast (PIM). Nodes may join and leave a MDT at any time using PIM Join/Prune messages, as described in more detail in the various related Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) protocols. A PIM Join message sent by a given node identifies one or more multicast distribution trees that that node wishes to join. Each tree is identified by the combination of a multicast group address and a source address (where the source address is possibly a "wild card"). Under certain conditions it can be useful, when joining a tree, to specify additional information or attributes related to the construction of a desired tree to be joined, such as a desired Reverse Path Forwarding (RPF) vector attribute as detailed in IETF Request for Comment (RFC) 5496. The RPF vector attribute specifies a proxy address or "proxy" to reach the source address.
IETF RFC 5384 of November 2008 entitled "The Protocol Independent Multicast (PIM) Join Attribute Format" describes a modification of the Join message that allows a node to associate attributes with a particular tree. The attributes are encoded in Type-Length-Value format.
Since it is possible for a router to receive conflicting attribute information from different downstream routers for the same type, RFC 5384 contemplates a "Conflicting Attribute" default procedure. Specifically, attribute information propagated upstream that results in conflicting attribute preferences is resolved via a tie-breaking mechanism to select the "better" attribute (e.g., selecting based upon the attribute from the PIM adjacency with the numerically smallest IP address). When a particular attribute type is specified, the specification may include a conflict resolution procedure specific to that type. If so, that conflict resolution procedure must be used instead of the RFC 5384 default procedure.
Thus, each time a "better" proxy is learned in the RPF vector attribute, that proxy is selected. In the case of selecting a "better" proxy, the process to switch to the better proxy will cause a prune to be sent to the original proxy and a join to be sent to the new ASBR. The pruning of the tree rooted at the original proxy will result in traffic loss, the duration of which will depend upon the time it takes to set up a tree with the new proxy. This Join/Prune process is repeated each time a "better" proxy is selected, resulting in network churned loss of state and other undesirable impact to the network.

System, method and apparatus to resolve RPF-vector attribute conflicts


A solenoid-operated valve for use with fuel cells has a valve housing made of aluminum, for example and having first through third heating medium passages defined therein. A valve seat disposed in and fastened to the valve housing is made of stainless steel, for example. A valve head has a disk which can be seated on and unseated off a valve seat member of a valve seat. The valve head is coupled by threaded surfaces to the distal end of a movable member which is displaceable when a solenoid is energized. The movable member is made of a magnetic metallic material, and the valve head is made of a corrosion-resistant metallic material such as stainless steel or the like, for example.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a solenoid-operated valve for discharging a reaction gas and/or residual water from fuel cells of a fuel cell system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Solid polymer membrane fuel cell devices have a stack of cells each comprising a solid polymer electrolyte membrane sandwiched between an anode and a cathode that are disposed one on each side of the solid polymer electrolyte membrane. For operating such a stack of cells, hydrogen is supplied as a fuel to the anode and air is supplied as an oxidizing agent to the cathode. Hydrogen ions are generated at the anode by a catalytic reaction, and move through the solid polymer electrolyte membrane to the cathode where they cause an electrochemical reaction to generate electric power.
A fuel cell system including the above stack has an air compressor for supplying air as a reaction gas to the cathodes and a pressure control valve for supplying hydrogen as a reaction gas to the anodes under a pressure depending on the pressure of the air that is used as a signal pressure. In the fuel cell system, the pressure of the reaction gas supplied to the anodes with respect to the pressure of the reaction gas supplied to the cathodes is adjusted to a predetermined pressure for thereby achieving a predetermined power generation efficiency, and the flow rates of the reaction gases supplied to the fuel cell stack are controlled to obtain a desired fuel cell output.
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2004-183681 discloses a discharge valve for discharging a reaction gas and/or residual water from fuel cells, the discharge valve being disposed at an appropriate position in either an air discharge passage interconnecting an air discharge port and an air discharger or a passage between a hydrogen discharger and a hydrogen discharge port.

Solenoid-operated valve for use with fuel cells


A dynamic random access memory structure is provided, each active area of a memory unit cell is distributed individually in a substrate, and deep trench patterns are designed to have a checkerboard-like arrangement in the substrate. Also, there is a constant space between each deep trench pattern in a row. Further, long bit line contact plugs are located to electrically connect active areas of two diagonally neighbor memory unit cells, and a contact hole is formed on each long bit line contact plug to enable bit lines contact the long bit line contact plugs so two diagonally neighbor memory unit cells are controlled by the same bit line.

1. Field of Invention
The invention relates to a dynamic random access memory structure and, in particular, to a dynamic random access memory structure with checkerboard-like deep trench patterns to increase the density of devices.
2. Related Art
Dynamic random access memory (DRAM) devices are widely used in integrated circuits (IC) of the electronic industry for binary data access. As the densities of the semiconductor circuits become higher, the sizes of semiconductor devices also have to decrease. Therefore, the capacitor design in DRAM in recent years turns to three-dimensional in order to satisfy the strict requirement in current leaking that happens to small-size devices. Some even design the DRAM memory unit cell into one that consists of vertical transistors in deep trenches (DT) and DT capacitors in order to effectively increase the device density.
Although vertical transistors and DT capacitor structures can increase the memory unit cell density in the DRAM, the DT patterns are further designed to have a mirror-type symmetric structure (see FIG. 1) in order to further save the layout space.
As shown in FIG. 1, the substrate 100 is formed with an active area 102, DT patterns 104, and bit line contact holes 106. The vertical arrangement of the DT patterns 104 is in the word line direction, while the horizontal arrangement is in the bit line direction. A shallow trench isolation region 108 is provided between each two active areas 102 as electrical insulation. A feature of this conventional structure is that a memory unit cell 111 and its neighbor memory unit cell 112 have a mirror-type DT pattern 104 to form a mirror-type device symmetric structure. The memory unit cells 111, 112 share one contact hole 106.
Therefore, the DRAM device with mirror-symmetric DT patterns uses the feature that two neighboring memory unit cells share one contact hole 106 to effectively save layout space. However, some of the DT patterns 104 are so close that are connected to form short-circuit defects during the manufacturing process, deteriorating the quality of the devices. This type of DT short-circuit defects 110 is more serious as the aspect ratio of the DT patterns 104 increases.
Therefore, how to let the memory unit cells keep sharing contact holes and at the same time prevent the DT short-circuit defects from happening is important for the production of DRAM devices with higher densities.

Trench capacitor dynamic random access memory featuring structurally independent symmetric active areas


A multi-function electronic appliance (1) includes an appliance body (2), an operation display unit (3), rollers (14) and spring pieces (20). The appliance body (2) is provided with a plurality of upright walls (10c). In the upright wall (10c), a guide groove (16) is formed. A through-hole (17) is opened in the guide groove (16). The operation display unit (3) is moves between the position where it covers the front face of the appliance body (2) and the position where it partially opens at least a part of the front face. The roller (14) is provided so as to be rotatable at the upper end of the operation display unit (3) and engaged with the guide groove (16). The spring piece (20) includes an attaching segment (21) attached to the appliance body (21) and an elastic deforming segment (22). The elastic deforming segment (22) advances into the guide groove (16) through the through-hole (17) and urges the roller (14) toward the front face when the operation display unit (3) covers the front face. In such a configuration, a user can obtain good tactile feel when it is operated.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an electronic appliance having an operation panel provided with a display unit and various kinds of operation buttons, which is mounted in a motor vehicle that is a moving body.
2. Description of the Related Art
The instrument panel of a motor vehicle is equipped with a "car stereo" that is an electronic equipment. The car stereo includes an appliance body attached to the instrument panel and an operation panel equipped with a display unit such as a liquid crystal (LC) display and various operating buttons.
The appliance body incorporates a CD player, MD (Mini disc) player, a CD-ROM player serving as a navigation device, etc. The operation panel serves to display on the LC display the map information in the navigation device and the reproducing status of the CD player and MD player. The operation panel is equipped with touching switches or push buttons used when the operation command for various functions of the navigation device, CD player and MD player is executed.
In order to limit the installing space, the above car stereo has an inserting inlet where the above CD, MD or CD-ROM can freely taken in or out from the side (referred to the front face) facing a user of the appliance body. The operation panel of the car stereo is made slide-movable over the distance from the position where it covers the front face to the position where it opens at least a part of the front face. Therefore, the operation panel is attached to the appliance body so as to have a slight gap on its portion.
In the above car stereo, with the operation panel located at the position where it opens at least a portion of the front face, the CD, MD or CD-ROM is taken out from and in the appliance body. After the CD, MD or CD-ROM has been inserted in the appliance body, the operation panel is moved to the position where it covers the front face. Then, the touch switch or various push buttons are operated to drive the CD player, MD player or CD-ROM player. Thus, the information representative of the reproducing status of these players is displayed on the LC display.
In the above conventional car stereo, the operation panel is slide-movable between the position where it covers the front face and the position where it opens a part of the front face. In order to prevent the operation panel from vibrating owing to the vibration of the motor vehicle to generate foreign sound, an elastic body such as a cushion is attached to the front face of the appliance body. In this case, when the operation panel is located at the position where it covers the front side, the elastic body is pushed toward the rear side of the operation panel so that it is compressed. Owing to the restitution of the elastic body, the operation panel is urged toward the user.
When the user pushes the touch switch or push buttons against the urging force of the elastic body, the operation panel will move slightly. Therefore, the operation panel moves in the same direction as the pushing direction. Accordingly, good tactile feel cannot be given to the user.


An injection mold for molding a lens barrel is disclosed. The injection mold includes a female die, a male die and a screw die. The female die and the male die are correspondingly connected to two ends of the screw die. The female die, the male die and the screw die cooperatively define a mold cavity. The female die includes a female die plate and a female die core protruding from the female die plate. The male die includes a male die plate and a male die core protruding from the male die plate. The male die defines a through hole passing through the male die plate and the male die core. An air gap is formed between the distal ends of female die core and the male die core, the air gap is communicated with the mold cavity and the through hole.

1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to injection molds, particularly, to an injection mold for molding a lens barrel of a camera module.
2. Description of Related Art
In a camera module, a lens barrel is configured for receiving lenses, spacers, etc. Referring to FIG. 2, a typical lens barrel 100 includes a cylindrical side wall 10, an end wall 20 connected to an end of the side wall 10. The side wall 10 defines a receiving space 101 for receiving lenses etc. The end wall 20 defines a light-incident hole 201 communicating with the receiving space 101 of the side wall 10. Nowadays, such a lens barrel 100 is mainly manufactured by injection molding. The injection mold includes a female die and a male die. The female die and the male die together define a molding cavity therebetween. The lens barrel 100 is formed in the molding cavity. The light-incident hole is formed at a portion where the female die and the male die join together. However, the joint is typically positioned at a central portion of the mold cavity. When the lens barrel 100 is being molded, the air in the mold cavity may not be totally exhausted and remain near the joint. Thus, the obtained light-incident hole may not be shaped as designed. As a result, imaging function of a camera module with the lens barrel will be deteriorated.
What is needed, therefore, is an injection mold to overcome the above mentioned problems.


Provided is a variable resistive element which performs high speed and low power consumption operation. The variable resistive element comprises a metal oxide layer between first and second electrodes wherein electrical resistance between the first and second electrodes reversibly changes in accordance with application of electrical stress across the first and second electrodes. The metal oxide layer has a filament, which is a current path where the density of a current flowing between the first and second electrodes locally increases. A portion including at least the vicinity of an interface between the certain electrode, which is one or both of the first and second electrodes, and the filament, on an interface between the certain electrode and the metal oxide layer is provided with an interface oxide which is an oxide of at least one element included in the certain electrode and different from the oxide of the metal oxide layer.

In recent years, a capacity of non-volatile semiconductor memory devices, such as flash memories, has significantly increased, and products having a capacity of approximately 4 gigabytes have been sold at a price of approximately several tens of thousands of yen. In particular, a commercial value of portable or mobile memories, such as USB memories, has been increasing in such a manner as to grab a market that had been occupied by magneto-optical discs. In addition, the capacity of several gigabytes is sufficient for the storage in portable music players. Portable music players equipped with a non-volatile semiconductor memory device that is a solid element successfully appeal to users as being fundamentally superior as a solid element memory with regards to resistance to vibration, reliability and power consumption over portable music players equipped with a hard disc that has been spreading rapidly, and thus, are expected to be a mainstream storage system for portable or mobile products for music and images as described above.
In the case where a further increase in the capacity and reduction in the cost per bit are realized in the future, it would be possible for the non-volatile semiconductor memory devices to be used as the storage system for portable or mobile products which records and replays videos, and therefore, the next generation non-volatile semiconductor memory devices have been researched. In particular, the next generation non-volatile semiconductor memory devices may substitute for DRAMs used as a main memory in current information apparatuses if they can maintain a low cost and small cell area (not more than 4F2:F is the minimum processing size in manufacturing process) which are advantages of flash memories and overcome the following restrictions due to the principle of operation of flash memories: (1) high voltage for program/erasure (requiring a booster circuit), (2) slow operation for program/erasure (in particular, time for erasure exceeding 100 μsec), and (3) the limited number of times memory can be written (less than 106 times). As a result, it becomes possible to implement a so-called "instant on computer" which starts up instantly at the time of use and of which the power consumption is infinitely close to zero during standby.
Although non-volatile memory elements based on their own principles, such as ferroelectric memories (FeRAM) and magnetic memories (MRAM) have been researched and developed as candidates for this next generation non-volatile semiconductor memory device, it is difficult to outperform flash memories in such features as low cost per byte and small cell area.
Under such circumstances, phase change memories (PRAM), resistance change memories (RRAM) and the like attract interest because there is a possibility that they may exceed the low cost per bit of the flash memories. The resistance change memories are referred to herein as non-volatile memory devices where the electrical resistance can be changed when a voltage (or a current) not less than a threshold voltage (or a threshold current) is applied to a variable resistor sandwiched by electrodes in such a manner that this state of resistance is maintained in a non-volatile manner even after the application of a voltage (or a current) is once released, and information corresponding to different states of resistance can be stored.
For example, the following Patent Document 1 and Non-Patent Document 1 disclose "methods for changing the resistance value by applying a voltage pulse having a different polarity to a thin film made of a perovskite substance sandwiched between a pair of electrodes." However, the perovskite substance has a problem in an affinity with general semiconductor processes, and therefore, a resistance change memory made of a binary oxide having a high affinity with semiconductor processes and a simple composition has been attracting interest, as disclosed in the following Patent Document 2. Patent Document 2 discloses a "non-volatile memory device characterized in that the data storing substance layer is a transition metal oxide film made of NiO, V2O5, ZnO, Nb2O5, TiO2, WO3 or CoO having different resistance properties for different voltages and a resistance which suddenly rises in a predetermined voltage range." In fact, the following Non-Patent Document 2 reports an example of a non-volatile resistance change memory element where NiO, TiO2, ZrO2 or HfO2, which are binary transition metal oxides, is sandwiched between an upper electrode and a lower electrode. In addition, the following Non-Patent Document 3 discloses a resistance change memory element in such a form that two electrodes are electrically connected via a metal with which a hole penetrating through an insulating film is filled in.
Patent Document 1: U.S. Pat. No. 6,204,139
Patent Document 2: Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2004-363604
Non-Patent Document 1: Liu, S. Q. et al. "Electric-pulse-induced reversible Resistance change effect in magnetoresistive films," Applied Physics Letter, Vol. 76, pp. 2749-2751, 2000
Non-Patent Document 2: Back, I. G. et al. "Highly Scalable Non-volatile Resistive Memory using Simple Binary Oxide Driven by Asymmetric Unipolar Voltage Pulses," IEDM Technical Digest, pp. 587-590, 2004
Non-Patent Document 3: Ogimoto, Y. et al. "Resistance switching memory device with a nanoscale confined path," Applied Physics Letter, Vol. 90, 143515, 2007

Variable resistive element, manufacturing method for same, and non-volatile semiconductor memory device

National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology


A projection television has a rear projection screen including a Fresnel lens and a lenticular lens, and a smoke sheet. The screen is characterized in that a dye or a pigment is mixed into the lenticular lens sheet or the smoke sheet which thereby has a waveform selection transmittance having the following transmittance values:. .gtoreq.65% when incident light wavelength is <490 nm. PA1 .ltoreq.60% when incident light wavelength is 490 nm-660 nm.. wherein the transmittance, for incident light wavelength 490 nm-580 nm., is substantially different from the transmittance when the wavelength is 580 nm.-660 nm.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a projection television (hereunder abbreviated as TV) in which an image formed on the screen of each of three cathode ray tubes, (hereunder abbreviated as CRTs) respectively corresponding to red, green and blue colors (hereunder referred to as red, green and blue CRTs, respectively) is magnified and projected therefrom on a rear projection screen (i.e., a large screen).
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 9 illustrates a conventional projection TV in which images formed on the screens of red, green and blue CRTs 1, 2 and 3 are respectively magnified by a lens 4 corresponding to red light, a lens 5 corresponding to green light and a lens 6 corresponding to blue light and are projected on a conventional two-sheet rear projection screen 34 which is a combination of two lens sheets, namely, a Fresnel lens sheet 7 and a lenticular lens sheet 8 as shown in FIG. 10.
Further, as illustrated in FIG. 10, black stripes 10 are provided on the surface, from which no light is utilized, of the lenticular lens sheet 8 of the conventional rear projection screen 34 as a countermeasure to prevent a deterioration of contrast measured under presence of external light irradiated thereon (hereunder sometimes referred to simply as "external-light contrast" or as "external-light contrast" ratio), which is caused due to reflection of external light thereon. The conventional rear projection screen 34, however, has a defect in that sufficient contrast cannot be obtained due to reflection of external light caused by a lens surface 11 of the lenticular lens sheet 8 or by an inner light-diffusing material of the sheet 8.
Thus, for the purpose of improving contrast, a further conventional rear projection screen has been developed, in which dye or pigment is added to the lenticular lens sheet 8. Further, there has been developed another conventional rear projection screen 35 wherein a lens sheet 9, into which dye or pigment is mixed (incidentally, such a lens sheet is referred to simply as a smoke sheet in the instant application), is provided in front of the lenticular lens sheet 8 as illustrated in FIG. 9, with the aim of decreasing reflection of external light and improving contrast. Such an improved conventional rear projection screen 35, however, has a drawback in that the optical transmittance (i.e., the screen gain) thereof decreases.
Results of measurement of performance (e.g., transmittance) of the conventional rear projection screens are shown in FIG. 11. As is seen from this figure, the transmittance of the conventional three-sheet screen 35 provided with the smoke sheet 9 having substantially uniform transmittance (e.g., 70%) in addition to the Fresnel and lenticular lens sheets is smaller than that of the conventional two-sheet rear projection screen 34 by 30%. Conversely, the "external-light contrast" of the screen 35 is greater than that of the screen 34 by 29%. The luminance of the screen 35, however, is 70.7% of that of the screen 34 (namely, is less than that of the screen 34 by 29.3%). Thus, there occurs a deterioration in luminance as indicated by a bar B of FIG. 7. As is apparent from the foregoing results, in the case of the conventional screen provided with not only the Fresnel and lenticular lens sheets but the smoke sheet, of which the transmittance is nearly uniform in the case where incident rays are visible ones, there inevitably occurs a deterioration in luminance in spite of increase in "external-light contrast".
A method for increasing CRT power has been proposed as a countermeasure to compensate the deterioration in luminance, which is caused by employing the smoke sheet in addition to the Fresnel and lenticular lens sheets. The transmittance of the smoke sheet 9, however, is nearly uniform in case that the wavelength of light impinging thereon is of visible region. It is, therefore, necessary for establishing the same color temperature (i.e., 9000.degree. K. corresponding to white) as of the conventional two-sheet screen 34 to increase beam currents respectively applied to the CRTs 1, 2 and 3 while a ratio of the magnitude of the beam current flowing through each of the red, green and blue CRTs to the total magnitude of the sum of the beam currents (hereunder referred to simply as a beam-current ratio) is maintained as in the case of employing the screen 34, which is indicated by a bar E of FIG. 8.
If a beam current, which is equal to a maximum current rating, flows through the blue CRT, the luminance of the blue CRT cannot be increased any more (incidentally, the beam-current ratios in the case of employing the conventional screen 34 is indicated by a bar D of FIG. 8).
Further, in the case where the conventional screen 35 is used, even if the beam current flowing through each of the red and green CRTs is less than or equal to a corresponding maximum current rating, the beam current flowing through each of the red and green CRTs cannot be increased if the beam current, which is equal to the maximum current rating, flows through the blue CRT. Thus, increase in luminance is not possible. Namely, the conventional screen 35 has a defect in that when the "external-light contrast" is increased, luminance decreases. The present invention is created to eliminate the defect of the conventional screen.
It is, accordingly, an object of the present invention to provide a projection TV which employs a wavelength-selection-type screen, the transmittance of which varies with the wavelength of light impinging thereon, and utilizes power of each CRT thereby minimizing the decrease in luminance when the "external-light contrast" is increased.

Projection television with a wavelength-selection-type rear projection screen

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


A web browser checks availability of hot links on a displayed web page. The web browser requests header information from one or more servers for a plurality of hot links on the displayed web page. In response to receipt of the header information for one of the hot links, the web browser indicates on the displayed web page that the one hot link is available. In response to failure to receive the header information for another of the hot links, the web browser indicates on the displayed web page that the other hot link is not available.

The present invention relates generally to web browsers and deals more particularly with a web browser which automatically checks availability of hot links on a displayed web page before the user selects the hot links.
The world wide web (WWW) comprises a multitude of computer servers, respective databases which are managed by the servers and contain web pages and a network by which clients can communicate with the servers and thereby request and load web pages of interest. Each of the clients includes a "web browser" which is an interface to the user and the WWW. One common web browser is the Netscape Navigator (tm) web browser licensed by Netscape Communications Corporation. The Netscape Navigator web browser is further described in "Hands on Netscape" by David Sachs, Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, N.J., 1996 ISBN013240284X.
Each web page has a "URL" address which comprises an access method/protocol designation such as hypertext transport protocol (HTTP) as a prefix, a server name, and the requested data as a suffix. The server name typically includes a "domain name" which is the name of a company, educational institution or other organization that owns the server. The request indicates a web page associated with the server. There are different ways that a client can obtain a web page. If the client knows the URL, the client can directly request the web page from the server. However, if the client only knows the server name, the client can address the server name and in response, the server will present the "home page" for the server. The home page (and other web pages) typically includes tags or "hot links" which reference other associated web pages. When the user selects a hot link, the web browser requests the respective web page from the corresponding server.
In recent years there has been a large increase in the number of servers, web pages and "network traffic" on the WWW. The expansion of the WWW, while advantageous for information exchange, has lead to various problems. The network may become congested, slowing or even preventing traffic. A server may be too busy with other requests to service every request it receives. A server may even be deleted altogether although it continues to be addressed via hot links of various web pages. Many web pages are not managed properly and some have been deleted altogether although they continue to be referenced by hot links on other web pages. Consequently, when a user requests a web page by a hot link or URL, often the web page cannot be accessed immediately or ever for that matter. This wastes the user's time and causes dissatisfaction with the WWW.
An IBM Web Browser Intelligence tool gives the user valuable information to avoid some of the time wastage. The IBM Web Browser Intelligence tool automatically "pings" each server referenced by a hot link on a web page when the web page is initially loaded and displayed. If the server is in existence and is available to process the ping request, the server responds with a simple acknowledgment of its existence. The IBM Web Browser Intelligence tool also estimates the time required to fetch web pages managed by this server by measuring the time between the sending of the ping request and receipt of an acknowledgment from the server. (The actual fetch time will also depend on the length of the HTML and associated graphics and the performance and workload of the server and web page storage media when the actual fetch request is made). The IBM Web Browser Intelligence tool then indicates to the user which servers currently exist and the approximate fetch rate as follows. Red dots adjacent to a hot link indicate that the server is not currently available or very slow to respond. Yellow dots adjacent to a hot link indicate that the respective server is currently available but the fetch rate is slow. Green dots adjacent to a hot link indicate that the respective server is currently available and the fetch rate is fast. The IBM Web Browser Intelligence tool re-pings each server associated with each hot link at a user specified interval to update the availability status of every hot link. Despite the significant value of the IBM Web Browser Intelligence tool, it does not determine whether particular web pages managed by the server are available.
Another web browser tool actually loads into a client buffer all web pages referenced by the hot links on another web page when this other web page is initially loaded and displayed. This makes the hot linked web pages immediately available to the user when the user selects the hot links. However, this web browser tool causes substantial network traffic to load all the web pages, and the user will not ordinarily want to view the web pages referenced by all hot links of the displayed web page.
A general object of the present invention is to automatically determine availability of web pages referenced by hot links on a displayed web page before the user selects the hot links.
A more specific object of the present invention is to make this determination without congesting the network.
Another specific object of the present invention is to periodically and selectively update the availability status of web pages corresponding to the hot links without congesting the network.

Web browser which checks availability of hot links

International Business Machines Corporation