The present invention provides various processes for selectively removing undesirably sized catalyst particles from a reaction system. In one embodiment, a plurality of catalyst particles, having a first median particle diameter, is withdrawn from the reaction system and is directed to a separation unit such as a counter flow cyclone separator. In the separation unit, the particles are separated into a small catalyst stream and a large catalyst stream, the small catalyst stream having a second median particle diameter less than the first median particle diameter, and the large catalyst stream having a third median particle diameter greater than the first median particle diameter. At least a portion of the small or large catalyst stream is then directed back to the reaction system in order to maintain a desirable particle size distribution therein.

Light olefins, defined herein as ethylene and propylene, serve as feeds for the production of numerous chemicals. Olefins traditionally are produced by petroleum cracking. Because of the limited supply and/or the high cost of petroleum sources, the cost of producing olefins from petroleum sources has increased steadily.
Oxygenates such as alcohols, particularly methanol, dimethyl ether, and ethanol, are alternative feedstocks for the production of light olefins. Alcohols may be produced by fermentation, or from synthesis gas derived from natural gas, petroleum liquids, carbonaceous materials, including coal, recycled plastics, municipal wastes, or any organic material. Because of the wide variety of sources, alcohol, alcohol derivatives, and other oxygenates have promise as an economical, non-petroleum source for olefin production.
In an oxygenate to olefin (OTO) reaction system, an oxygenate in an oxygenate-containing feedstock contacts a molecular sieve catalyst composition under conditions effective to convert at least a portion of the oxygenate to light olefins, which are yielded from the reaction system in a reaction effluent. As the feedstock contacts the molecular sieve catalyst compositions at high weight hourly space velocities and under extreme temperature and pressure conditions, a portion of the catalyst compositions can shear or break away, e.g., attrite, to form one or more smaller catalyst attrition particles. Some catalyst attrition particles are very small in size and are referred to as catalyst fines. Due to their relatively high surface area to mass ratios, a portion of the catalyst fines in the reaction system may become undesirably entrained with the reaction effluent and exit the reaction system therewith. Conversely, due to their relatively low surface area to mass ratios, larger particles tend to be selectively retained in OTO reaction systems. The selective retention of larger particles is particularly a problem for highly attrition resistant particles.
The build up of large catalyst particles in an OTO reaction system produces two undesirable effects. First, in a large particle rich reaction system, the circulating fluid bed will not operate as well, particularly with regard to circulation of catalyst within the standpipes. Second, the large particles that are selectively retained in the reaction system will tend to lose their effectiveness, e.g., activity and selectivity, with time. That is, the build up of large particles in the reaction system is undesirable because the larger particles will tend to decrease the overall effectiveness of the collection of catalyst particles contained in the reaction system.
One conventional technique for removing undesirably-sized catalyst particles includes non-selectively removing a fraction of all of the catalyst particles in the reaction system to make room for the addition of fresh catalyst. This technique for removing undesirably-sized catalyst particles is inefficient, however, because a significant portion of the desirably-sized catalyst particles are removed from the reaction system with the undesirably-sized catalyst particles.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,746,321 to Hettinger, Jr. et al. discloses the combination of a magnetic separator, a catalyst classifier, and/or a catalyst attriter, which wears off the outer layers of catalyst, yields more active catalyst of lower metal content with closer control of average particles size, and narrows particle size distribution providing improved fluidization properties and better activity and selectivity. The process is especially useful when processing high metal-containing feedstocks.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,573,559 to Friedman discloses replacing a bed of fluidized catalyst, which has become reduced in activity during use, with fresh fluidized catalyst, the average particle size of both catalysts being in the range of 40–400 mesh. The average size of the fresh catalyst differs from that of the partially spent catalyst by at least 10-mesh size and preferably 25 mesh. The fresh catalyst is introduced into the reactor under conditions such that the reaction temperature is not substantially increased, and at the same time catalyst is withdrawn from the reactor at a portion below the top level of the bed. The catalyst withdrawn is separated by particle size into fresh catalyst, which is returned to the reactor, and deactivated catalyst, which is regenerated. According to the '559 patent, the complete replacement of catalyst can be accomplished under normal operating conditions in from 20 to 48 hours.
In certain reaction systems, the removal of small catalyst particles may be desired. For example, if a reaction system implements catalyst compositions having low attrition resistance, then the catalyst compositions may, depending on reaction conditions, readily attrite and form catalyst fines. The increase in the proportion of catalyst fines in the reaction system will decrease the median particle diameter of the entire catalyst population in the reaction system, which may undesirably impact the fluidization characteristics within the reaction system. Undesirably high levels of fines may make it difficult to maintain desired fluid bed densities and thus adversely affect the reaction rates associated with the reaction zone. As a result, it may be desired to selectively remove small catalyst particles, e.g., catalyst fines, from a reaction system in order to maintain a desired particle size distribution in the reaction system.
In view of the importance of maintaining desirably-sized catalyst particles in reaction systems, particularly in OTO reaction systems, improved processes are sought for selectively removing undesirably-sized catalyst particles from OTO reaction systems. More specifically, improved processes are sought that can maintain a desirable catalyst particle size distribution in an OTO reaction system and thereby provide desirable fluidization and catalytic activity characteristics.

Selectively removing undesirably sized catalyst particles from a reaction system


Biopsy needle for bone marrow biopsies or the like including a cannula, a cannula housing supporting the cannula, and a stylet including a stylet cap supporting the stylet wherein the stylet engages into the cannula in a predetermined relationship and the stylet cap interlocks to the cannula housing. The cannula housing includes vertical wings extending outwardly from the housing for engagement with the palm of a physician's hand, a cannula having formed ends which engage and secure into the cannula housing, and an elongated button extending outwardly from the top of the cannula housing for detent locking with the stylet cap providing for alignment of the stylet to the cannula of the biopsy needle. The stylet includes a longitudinal member having a ground and buffered beveled end maintaining a knife-sharp edge around the tip, and the other end of the stylet is bent and molded into the stylet cap where the stylet cap includes a spring detent locking groove for interlocking with the button of the cannula housing. The stylet inserts into the cannula and with a twist locks about the top of the cannula with a positive digital sensory feedback signal to the physician.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to a surgical instrument and, more particularly, pertains to a bone marrow biopsy needle which can be either disposable or reusable. This needle includes a tubular cannula member having a flanged clip which is molded into the housing.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The prior art biopsy needles have all presented some type of drawbacks when used by the physician or surgeon, and which are particularly less than desirable. Some prior art instruments are disposable and cast with very few structural details attended to, with the result that the interlocking between the stylet and the cannula provides for considerable play and the instrument can come apart in the user's hands, resulting in injury not only to the patient but more so to the user by the sharp metal edges poking upwards into the physician's hands. Other prior art devices have some form of interlocking structure but the interlocking structure is not positive, resulting in play between the cannula and stylet during the process of incision into the patient resulting in considerable discomfort. Other types of prior art structures have numerous components which during surgery are not practical in utilization by the user due to the screwing and unscrewing of the fittings.
More importantly, all of the prior art devices have grips which do not really fit into the physician's hand to provide for positive gripping by the physician but have grips which are required to be engaged by the physician in a negative way making the process of biopsy as uncomfortable to the physician/surgeon using the biopsy needle as to the patient. The prior art has failed to recognize that the handles of a biopsy needle must securely engage into the physician's or surgeon's palm for optimum control of the instrument during a biopsy. It is also necessary that the stylet and cannula be engaged to each other during the biopsy process for providing total control to the physician or surgeon.
Prior art needles have secured cannula tubes into the cannula housing in numerous ways providing increased manufacturing processes, resulting in increased end cost to the patient. The prior art has been lacking a needle having a needle readily and cost effectively secured such as through molding into the cannula housing.
The present invention overcomes the disadvantages of the prior art references by providing a biopsy needle having a winged handle and detent locking between the stylet and cannula.


An oxidation method for a semiconductor process, which oxidizes a surface of a target substrate, includes heating a process container that accommodates the target substrate, and supplying hydrogen gas and oxygen gas into the process container while exhausting the process container. The oxidation method also includes causing the hydrogen gas and the oxygen gas to react with each other in the process container at a process temperature and a process pressure to generate water vapor, and oxidizing the surface of the target substrate by the water vapor. The process pressure is set at 2000 Pa (15 Torr) or more.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an oxidation method for a semiconductor process, which thermally oxidizes the surface of a target substrate by water vapor. The term "semiconductor process" used herein includes various kinds of processes which are performed to manufacture a semiconductor device or a structure having wiring layers, electrodes, and the like to be connected to a semiconductor device, on a target substrate, such as a semiconductor wafer or a glass substrate used for an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) or FPD (Flat Panel Display), by forming semiconductor layers, insulating layers, and conductive layers in predetermined patterns on the target substrate.
2. Description of the Related Art
In manufacturing semiconductor integrated circuits, a semiconductor substrate, such as a silicon wafer, is subjected to various processes, such as film-formation, etching, oxidation, diffusion, and reformation, in general. For example, oxidation includes oxidation of the surface of a mono-crystalline silicon film, and oxidation of a metal film. Particularly, a silicon oxide film formed by oxidation is applied to a device isolation film, gate oxide film, capacitor insulating film, or the like.
A vacuum oxidation method for forming a thin film under a vacuum pressure is disclosed, for example, in Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 57-1232 (patent publication 1), in which H2 and O2 are supplied into a vacuum furnace to perform hydrogen burning oxidation. Further, a wet oxidation method is disclosed, for example, in Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 3-140453 (patent publication 2), in which hydrogen and oxygen are burned within an external combustion apparatus using plasma to generate water vapor, which is then used for oxidation.
Another wet oxidation method is disclosed, for example, in Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 11-330468 (patent publication 3), in which hydrogen and oxygen are made to react with each other by a catalyst at a low temperature to generate water vapor, which is then supplied into a vacuum furnace. Furthermore, another oxidation method is disclosed, for example, in Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOHYO Publication No. 2001-527279 (patent publication 4) and Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2002-176052 (patent publication 5), in which hydrogen and oxygen are supplied into a vacuum furnace to generate activated species, which are used for oxidation.

Oxidation method for semiconductor process


Vacuum pressure is applied in a process for extrusion of fat-based confectionery materials, particularly chocolate, chocolate substitute and chocolate analog materials. In the process, a fat-containing confectionery material is fed to, into and through an extruder having a flow constriction and die to obtain an extrudate from the die under conditions of temperature, pressure, contraction ratio and extrusion rate so that the material and the extrudate obtained from the die are in a non-pourable state and so that the material is deformed plastically in the extruder and so that the extrudate is plastically deformable for a period of time, and in the process, the vacuum pressure is applied to the material at a point prior to passing the material through the flow constriction.

The present invention relates to the extrusion of fat-containing confectionery materials, particularly chocolate and more particularly to a process for the extrusion of solid or semi-solid chocolate.
European Patent Application No. 93114251.7, the entirety of which is hereby incorporated by reference, describes a process for plastically extruding a fat-containing confectionery material which comprises feeding the fat-containing confectionery material into an extruder and applying pressure to the fat-containing confectionery material in a substantially solid or semi-solid nonpourable form upstream of a flow constriction whereby the temperature, pressure, contraction ratio and extrusion rate are such that the fat-containing confectionery material is extruded and remains in a substantially solid or semi-solid nonpourable form to produce an axially homogeneous extruded product having a cross section that is of substantially the same profile as the die exit of the extruder, which is capable of retaining its shape and which has a temporary flexibility or plasticity enabling it to be physically manipulated, cut or plastically deformed before losing its flexibility or plasticity.
In Great Britian Patent Application No. 96 06285, the entirety of which is hereby incorporated by reference, describes a process for the continuous extrusion of chocolate or a fat-containing confectionery material using a screw extruder which comprises feeding the chocolate or fat-containing confectionery material into the screw extruder and generating a pressure to force the chocolate or fat-containing confectionery material in a substantially solid or semi-solid nonpourable form upstream of a flow constriction whereby the temperature of the screw, the temperature of the barrel wall, the screw speed, pressure, contraction ratio and extrusion rate are such that the chocolate or fat-containing confectionery material is extruded in a substantially solid or semi-solid nonpourable form to produce an axially homogeneous extruded product having a cross section that is of substantially the same profile as the die exit of the extruder, which is capable of retaining its shape and which has a temporary flexibility or plasticity enabling it to be physically manipulated, cut or plastically deformed before losing its flexibility or plasticity.
The temporary flexibility of the extruded fat-containing confectionery material obtained in the process of the above-mentioned patent applications may last for up to 4 hours or more, generally from 0.1 second to 2 hours or typically from 10 seconds to 1 hour. During this period of temporary flexibility, the extruded fat-containing confectionery material may be cut cleanly, which is in the extruded material after the temporary flexibility has been lost, and to a normal set chocolate, which has to be heated slightly for cutting, otherwise it would shatter owing to its brittleness. However, the appearance of the cut extruded chocolate is not always as attractive as desired because there may be whitish streaks or blotches on both the exterior surface and on the cut surface. The streaks or blotches give a streaky pattern similar to mouldy cheese.

Extrusion of fat-based confectionery with use of vacuum pressure


An inner tubular member of a subsea wellhead assembly carries a locking member that moves between a locked and unlocked positions lands within an outer tubular member having a grooved profile in its bore. The inner tubular member joins to a portion of the conductor casing extending from a low pressure wellhead housing above the mudline of the seafloor. In the locked position, the locking member engages the grooved profile on the outer tubular member to connect the outer tubular member and inner tubular member. The inner tubular member also carries a hydraulically actuated, axially moveable locking sleeve that slidingly engages the locking member to move the locking member between the locked and unlocked positions. An ROV supplies hydraulic fluid through an ROV port to actuate the locking sleeve.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to subsea wellhead assemblies, more specifically assemblies having a conuit with an upper portion capable of disconnecting from a lower portion that has been cemented into the well.
2. Background of the Prior Art
Subsea wells typically have a low pressure wellhead housing with a string of conductor casing suspended therefrom. A high pressure wellhead housing lands with in the low pressure wellhead housing and supports another string of casing suspended into the well. Additional intermediate hangers and strings of casing are supported within the high pressure wellhead housing which extend to deeper depths within the subsea well. In a typical subsea well, the outer casing suspended from the low pressure wellhead housing is embedded into the seafloor to a predetermined depth below the mudline.
When the well is abandoned after completing the exploratory drilling, many laws and regulations require that there cannot be any structure protruding above the seafloor. Several of the intermediate strings of casing are cut below the mudline to allow removal of the upper portion of those strings. The conductor casing suspended from the low pressure wellhead housing must also be cut to remove the low pressure wellhead housing. Cutting the conductor casing can be time consuming and does not allow for the conductor casing above the cut to be reused.


Teachings of this application include a computing network that may include multiple different data centers and/or server grids which are deployed in different geographic locations. In at least one embodiment, at least some of the server grids may be operable to provide on-demand, grid and/or utility computing resources for hosting various types of distributed applications. In at least one embodiment, a distributed application may be characterized as an application made up of distinct components (e.g., virtual appliances, virtual machines, virtual interfaces, virtual volumes, virtual network connections, etc.) in separate runtime environments. In at least one embodiment, different ones of the distinct components of the distributed application may be hosted or deployed on different platforms (e.g., different servers) connected via a network. In some embodiments, a distributed application may be characterized as an application that runs on two or more networked computers.

Traditional data centers tend to run a single operating system instance and a single business application on one physical server. This "one server, one appliance" model leads to extremely poor resource utilization. For example, it is not uncommon for a significant portion of data center resources to be unused for a majority of the data center's "up" time. Wasted resources include CPU, RAM, Storage, and Network Bandwidth. Additionally, many traditional data centers are typically implemented by combining a heterogenous mix of different servers, operating systems, applications and data. Consequently, deploying, managing, and reconfiguring software or hardware on physical servers and the data center's network infrastructure is mostly achieved via manual (e.g., human) labor, and it typically very time consuming. Additionally, in such data centers, the upgrading of servers typically involves a relatively slow and costly process. Further, in situations where workloads grow more rapidly than expected and place heavy demands on server resources, such traditional data centers face the problem of overutilizing their servers, which may result in business continuity being placed at risk.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Globally distributed utility computing cloud


A method for moving a rotor in a planar drive system having a first and second stator modules and a rotor. The stator modules are arranged at a distance, forming a gap. First and second magnetic fields are generated by the first and stator modules. The first and second magnetic fields hold the rotor in a vertical position, at a distance from a surface of the first and/or second stator module. The first and/or second magnetic fields have a first magnetic field strength to maintain the rotor in the vertical position, and may be used to change a horizontal position of the rotor. The first stator module has a first close range adjacent the gap, where the first magnetic field has a second field strength when the rotor is moved across the gap, greater than the first magnetic field strength.

Planar drive systems may be used, among other things, in automation technology, in particular in manufacturing technology, handling technology and process engineering. Planar drive systems may be used to move or position a moving element of a plant or machine in at least two linearly independent directions. Planar drive systems may comprise a permanently energized electromagnetic planar motor with a planar stator and a rotor movable on the stator in at least two directions.
In German patent application DE 10 2017 131 304.4 of 27 Dec. 2017, published as DE 10 2017 131 304 A1, a planar drive system is disclosed in which a rotor may be moved via a plurality of stator modules arranged next to one another. Magnetic drive fields are generated by means of conductor strips in the stator modules and interact with permanent magnets in the rotor in such a way that the rotor may be held suspended above the stator modules or driven by a traveling magnetic field. The traveling field may be generated across the edges of the stator modules and then pass over to an adjacent stator module.
With regard to the general design of stator modules and rotors, stator segments and conductor strips as well as with regard to energizing of the conductor strips in order to hold a rotor above a stator surface by means of magnetic fields generated by energizing of the conductor strips or to drive it by means of a travelling field, reference is made to the description of the German patent application DE 10 2017 131 304.4, in particular to the description of FIGS. 1, 2, 10, 11 and 12. With respect to these aspects, the disclosure content of German patent application DE 10 2017 131 304.4 is expressly incorporated by into the present patent application by back-referencing.

Method for moving a rotor in a planar drive system


An application that enables users to effectively utilize and manage knowledge and data the user posses and allows other users to effectively and seamlessly benefit from the user's knowledge and data over a computer network is also disclosed. A method of processing content created by a user utilizing a semantic, ontology-driven portal on a computer network is described. The semantic portal application provides the user with a content base, such as a semantic form or meta-form, for creating a semantic posting. The semantic portal utilizes a knowledge data structure, such as a taxonomy or ontology, in preparing a semantic posting based on the information provided by the user via the content base. The semantic portal application prepares a preview of a semantic posting for evaluation by the user. The semantic posting is then either modified by the user or accepted and posted by the user for external parties to view.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to computer software and Internet applications. More specifically, the invention relates to software enabling improved communication, management of knowledge, and connectivity among entities over a computer network.
2. Introduction
Present, widely used, public web portals typically organize information according to topics rather than type. In instances where information is organized by type, the various types between portals are often inconsistent and unstructured. The same portals also do not organize information (stored on behalf of its users) utilizing relationships that information has with other information, such as people and places, on the network or in the portal. Public portals organize data on the public web using public taxonomies and fail to display or convey information on connections between information and knowledge in their directories. Furthermore, they fail to organize personal or group information. Although enterprise portals are capable of organizing group or team information, they are often inaccessible to the public or to individuals and are expensive and monolithic. Even less utilitarian and intelligent with respect to organizing information are the popular online search engines which are completely unstructured and typically organize information and data by relevance to keywords.
Therefore, what is needed is a single location and application on a network where a user can organize public, group, and private/personal information and have this single, location accessible to the public. What is needed is a new, ontology-driven portal that organizes all three categories of data according to various "facets" using underlying ontologies to define each "facet" and wherein any type of information can be classified and linked to other types of information. That is, what is needed is an application that enables a user to effectively utilize and manage knowledge and data the user posses and allows other users to effectively and seamlessly benefit from the user's knowledge and data over a computer network.


A clock forwarding circuit of a semiconductor integrated circuit which increases an operation timing margin of a data receive port and reduces power consumption, and a clock forwarding method, are provided. In the clock forwarding circuit for performing the clock forwarding method, upon abnormal operation of the semiconductor integrated circuit, such as during power-up or initialization, the data receive port captures the amount of interconnection delay of a data line and generates a receive clock signal which is self-generated, from a delayed send clock transmitted from a data send port via the data line. On the other hand, when the circuit operates in a normal operation mode, the data receive port receives data transmitted from the data send port via the data line, in response to the self-generated receive clock. Accordingly, the amount of interconnection delay of the data line is previously captured and data is received in response to the self-generated receive clock. Thus, the operation timing margin of the data receive port is increased. Also, a separate clock line is not required, and the send clock is supplied to the data receive port via the data line only upon abnormal operation of the semiconductor integrated circuit, so that power consumption is reduced.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor integrated circuit, and more particularly, to a clock forwarding circuit in a semiconductor integrated circuit and a clock forwarding method.
2. Description of the Related Art
There are many individual circuits or blocks in an overall semiconductor integrated circuit. Data sending and receiving are carried out among the many blocks. In order to send and receive data, a data line and a clock line are connected between a data send port, i.e., a block for sending data, and a data receive port, i.e., a block for receiving data. However, the data line and the clock line present a load to the associated circuitry which depends on the length, thickness and shape of their conductors. Accordingly, when data and clock signals are transmitted respectively through the data and clock lines, interconnection delay occurs. In particular, when the interconnection delay time on the data line approaches or exceeds the period of a clock input to the data send port and data receive port, malfunction in the form of data errors may occur when data output from the data send port is transmitted to the data receive port through the data line. To prevent this, clock forwarding techniques are used to transmit data from the data send port to the data receive port without having to increase the period of the clock.
FIG. 1 shows a schematic block diagram of a prior art clock forwarding circuit 100. Referring to FIG. 1, the conventional clock forwarding circuit 100 includes a data sending latch 101, a clock sending latch 103, a data driver 105, a clock driver 107, a data line 109, a clock line 111, a clock generator 113, a first data receiving latch 115, a second data receiving latch 117, a selector 119, a third data receiving latch 121 and an unload control circuit 123. The data sending latch 101 and the clock sending latch 103 are included in a data receive port 102; and the clock generator 113, the first, second and third data receiving latches 115, 117 and 121, the selector 119 and the unload control circuit 123 are included in a data receive port 104.
In the prior art circuit of FIG. 1, the data being sent, in the form of a signal DATA, is applied to the data input line of the data sending latch 101; and the clock signal SCLK is applied to the clock inputs of the data sending latch 101 and the clock sending latch 103. The SCLK signal causes the DATA applied to latch 101 to appear at the Q output of latch 101. The SCLK signal is also frequency divided by latch 103 and appears at half its original frequency at the Q output of latch 103. The data signal is driven across data line 109 by data driver 105, and the frequency-divided SCLK signal is driven across clock line 111 by clock driver 107.
At the data receive port 104, the data signal on the data line 109 is applied to the data inputs of the two data receiving latches 115 and 117. The clock generator circuit 113 receives the frequency-divided SCLK signal and sends an in-phase version of the divided signal to the clock input of latch 115 and an inverted version of the clock signal to the clock input of latch 117. The latches 115 and 117 serve to restore the original clock frequency of the SCLK signal. Assuming that the latches 115 and 117 are forward-edge triggered, on the forward edge of the divided signal, the data is clocked through latch 115 to the selector 119. On the negative-going edge of the clock signal, data is clocked through latch 117 to the selector 119.
The unload control circuit 123 is used to control the selector 119 to select one of the data outputs from latch 115 or 117 in response to a target clock signal TCLK. The selected output is forwarded to the data input of the third data receive latch 121 in accordance with the timing of the TCLK signal. On the positive-going edge of the TCLK signal, the data selected by selector 119 appears at the Q output of latch 121 as the RDATA signal.
In the conventional clock forwarding circuit 100, interconnection delay time occurring on the data line 109 must be almost the same as interconnection delay time occurring on the clock line 111. Thus, the conductor of the data line 109 and the conductor of the clock line 111 must be designed and manufactured to have the same load. This places a very serious restriction on the design of the overall circuit, since the data line 109 and clock line 111 need to be designed to have the same length and thickness and must have similar proximal circuitry such that reactive impedances are similar.
In the conventional clock forwarding circuit 100, when the load of the data line 109 is different from that of the clock line 111, the interconnection delay of the data line 109 becomes different from the interconnection delay of the clock line 111. This reduces an operation timing margin of the data receive port 104. The clock signal SCLK is continuously generated and supplied to the data receive port 104 via the clock line 111 to synchronize data transfer. This tends to increase power consumption of the circuit.

Clock forwarding circuit in semiconductor integrated circuit and clock forwarding method


A liquid crystal display controller includes a circuit which generates a signal for driving a signal line with the polarity of the signal controlled by a control signal; an inductance element into which current flows in synchronization with the control signal; and a switching unit which connects selectively one of the inductance element and the circuit to the signal line. The signal line of a liquid crystal display device is driven by the inductance element, whereby the power consumption is reduced.

1. Field of the invention
The present invention relates to a liquid crystal display controller and a liquid crystal display control method each of which controls a liquid crystal display device.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the liquid crystal display device, the polarity of the voltage to be applied to a liquid crystal is periodically inverted to prevent deterioration in characteristics (polarity inversion driving). In the polarity inversion driving, signal line inversion driving is performed in which the polarity of a signal is inverted for a signal line (for example, Japanese Patent Laid-open Application No. HEI 3-51887).

Liquid crystal display controller and liquid crystal display control method


Implementations of the disclosed subject matter provide outputting an integrated interface to be displayed in a browser including a text-based interface of an application and an interface for a virtual mobile device separate from the text-based interface, where the virtual mobile device emulates operations and a user interface of a specific type of hardware mobile device. An indication of a communication may be received from a mobile device. A customer name associated with the mobile device may be obtained based on at least one of a certificate that includes the customer name retrieved by the server from a third party server, and a database record that includes the customer name that is retrieved by the server from a database. The obtained customer name may be displayed on the virtual mobile device portion of the integrated interface in association with the communication from the mobile device of the customer.

User interfaces for customer relationship management (CRM) applications and other applications have traditionally been text-based, including those applications that operate within a web browser. Communication applications, such as texting applications, have recently been integrated with the text-based interface of CRM applications, but such texting applications do not resemble texting applications of a mobile computing device that a user is familiar with. Such integrated texting applications typically require training to use, and are not intuitive for users.

Methods of providing an integrated interface that includes a virtual mobile device


The invention relates to a method and device for depositing at least one layer on at least one substrate in a process chamber. Said layer comprises several components and is insulating, passivating or electrically conductive. The components are vaporized in a tempered vaporization chamber by means of non-continuous injection of a liquid starting material or a starting material dissolved in a liquid using a respective injector unit. Said vapor is guided to the process chamber by means of a carrier gas. It is important to individually adjust or vary the material flow parameters, such as injection frequency and the pulse/pause ratio and the phase relation of the pulse/pauses to the pulse/pauses of the other injector unit, determining the time response of the flow of material through each injector unit. The pressure in the process chamber is less than 100 mbars, the process chamber is tempered and several series of layers are deposited on the substrate during one process step.

MBE allows the deposition of high-purity metal oxide layers, such as for example for praseodymium oxide layers on flat substrates. On the other hand, the edge coverage on patterned substrates is entirely inadequate. Good edge coverage is required for the production of electronic components with a high aspect ratio. By contrast, MOCVD and ALD can ensure good edge coverage for deposition on patterned substrates. Conventional MOCVD processes, which are based on liquid or solid precursors, use heated precursor containers to convert liquid precursors into the gas phase by means of a carrier gas. Most precursors for oxidic materials (or corresponding dilute solutions) generally are very volatile and are chemically and thermally unstable and change or decompose under such conditions, which means that the deposition is not reproducible. Therefore, various liquid precursor feed systems which are based on sudden vaporization of in each case small quantities of precursor by direct contact with heated surfaces have been developed for MOCVD. This entails drawbacks, such as vaporization properties which alter over the course of time as a result of the accumulation of deposits on the heated surfaces and the formation of particles. These drawbacks can be avoided by periodic injection of liquid precursors or solutions into a heated volume with subsequent contact-free vaporization. With conventional MOCVD, the poor atomic precision causes problems for example in the deposition of nanolaminates.

Process and apparatus for depositing single-component or multi-component layers and layer sequences using discontinuous injection of liquid and dissolved starting substances via a multi-channel injection unit


It is an object of the present invention to provide a separate type magnetic shield apparatus which has high access performance to a magnetically shielded space, in which magnetic shielding is very effectively achieved. In the separate type magnetic shield apparatus, first and second conductors 10a and 10b extending in the longitudinal axial line direction are provided on a curved magnetic shield outer side wall 3 of a first magnetic shield side wall body 2A at up and down symmetrical positions relative to the longitudinal plane Hp passing through the longitudinal axial line of the cylindrical space S to cause current to flow therethrough; first and second conductors 10c and 10d extending in the longitudinal axial line direction, on the curved magnetic shield outer side wall 3 of the second magnetic shield side wall body 2B, at up and down symmetrical positions relative to the horizontal plane Hp passing through the longitudinal axial line of the cylindrical space S to cause current to flow therethrough; and magnetic fluxes H coming horizontally to the first magnetic shield side wall body 2A and to the second magnetic shield side wall body 2B are deflected up and down by means of magnetic fields produced around the first and second conductors 10a, 10b, 10c and 10d, thereby preventing magnetic fluxes from flowing into the cylindrical space S.

For example, the magnetic field emitted from a human body such as that from brain or heart contains many important real-time biological pieces of information. When the cardiac magnetic field detected by a MCG detector such as 64 channel SQUID gradiometers, the electrophysiological function of heart can be two-dimensionally mapped. It is furthermore possible to obtain overwhelmingly more accurate and more diverse diagnostic pieces of information than those available by the method based on waveform analysis of electrocardiograph, such as time and space information of current vector flowing along the irritation conduction system.
Acute myocardiac infarction which is an epitome of ischemic heart diseases is believed to be one of the three major causes of death of Japanese. Expensive high-tech medical technologies are used for the cure thereof. If more accurate and more rapid diagnosis is possible, it would bring about considerable effects not only in the remarkable reduction of medical cost but also in life-saving.
Partly because of the lapse of only a short period of time from development of the magnetocardiograph, its popularization is still in an initial stage in spite of these rich potentialities.
One of the causes of this slow progress of popularization lies in a chamber type magnetic shield room made of permalloy which is expensive and inconvenient. The magnetic screening performance is not required to be so high as that required for cerebral magnetic field measurement, but here is an increasing demand for a flexible magnetic shield apparatus which permits measurement by bringing the patient together with his or her bed.
In other words, there is a demand for development of a separate movable type high-performance magnetic shield apparatus, not of the chamber type, which is applicable without difficulty for the measurement of biological magnetism such as cardiac magnetic field issued not only from a healthy person, but also from a bedridden patient.
The present inventors have therefore developed many component technologies for the purpose of developing a cylindrical-type light and high-performance magnetic shield apparatus. A magnetic shaking technology (Non-Patent Document 1); leakage inhibition of shaking magnetic field (Non-Patent Document 2); inhibition of magnetic noise caused by an external cause entering from an opening end (Non-Patent Documents 3 and 4); and further, integral forming of magnetic shield based on lamination structure using a carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRP) (Patent Document 1) are included.
In general, installation of a chamber-type shield apparatus afterward in the room results in a difference in floor height so that it is not easy to carry the patient, together with his or her bed, into the apparatus.
It is therefore suggested to simply divide the cylindrical shield into two and to make it movable as described in Patent Document 2. FIG. 12 illustrates an example of the separate type shield apparatus 100 having a structure in which divided pieces are arranged one to the right and the other to the left, and are joined at upper and lower positions.
According to this example, the separate type shield apparatus 100 has a structure in which at least any of two magnetic shield divided bodies 101 (101A and 101B) formed in a right-left-symmetrical shape is made movable to permit transportation of a patient together with his or her bed into the inner space.
However, the function of magnetic shield cannot be maintained with this configuration alone. Since, in the separate type shield apparatus 100, it is necessary to install SQUID gradiometers 200, and a space is formed at the joint between the two divided bodies 101A and 101B. Therefore, magnetic fluxes passing through this space (i.e., magnetic fluxes perpendicular to the joint) cannot be passed continuously, and the magnetic shielding effect fails here.    Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Application No. 2005-80775    Patent Document 2: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-179550    Non-Patent Document 1: Ichiro SASADA, study on magnetic shaking type magnetic shield for measuring weak magnetic fields, Journal of Japan Applied Magnetism Society, 27,855-861 (2003)    Non-Patent Document 2: Nakashima Y, Kimura T, Sasada I, Magnetic field leakage from a 45° angle magnetic shell and a reduction method for a high-performance magnetic shield, IEEE Trans. on Magn. 42(10)3545-3547 (2006)    Non-Patent Document 3: Saito T, Tashiro N, Sasada I, Active compensation effect in multi-shell shield with passive shell, Journal of Japan Applied Magnetism, 29, 567-570 (2005)    Non-Patent Document 4: Umeda Y, Tashiro N, Sasada I, Application of active cancellation to cylindrical magnetic shield, Electricity Society A, 123, (8), 790-796 (2003)

Kyushu University, National University Corporation


The present invention relates to a magnetic head actuator and a magnetic disk device in which a magnetic head is moved to a predetermined position by actuating an arm on a revolving magnetic disk. A magnetic head actuator comprises an arm in which a suspension for supporting a magnetic head is provided, the arm being actuated to move the magnetic head. A damper material is provided on at least one side of the arm, the damper material comprising a restriction material and a viscoelastic material, the restriction material suppressing vibrations of the arm, and the viscoelastic material absorbing vibrations of the arm.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a magnetic head actuator and a magnetic disk device, and more particularly to an actuator for a magnetic head and a magnetic disk device having the actuator in which the magnetic head is moved to a predetermined position by driving the arm on the revolving magnetic disk.
For example, in the magnetic disk device, such as a hard disk drive (HDD), the head slider of the magnetic head is lifted over the surface of the revolving magnetic disk and the magnetic-head element performs reading information from or writing information to the magnetic disk in the lifted state of the head slider. In recent years, in order to increase the recording density of the magnetic disk, reducing the lifting height of the head slider and making the magnetic-head element small have been proposed. In order to accurately position the magnetic-head element to the predetermined track of the magnetic disk whose recording density is thus increased, it is necessary to reduce the vibrations of the arm which is moved over the magnetic disk surface.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 1 shows an example of the conventional magnetic disk device 1. The state of the conventional magnetic disk device 1 in which the top cover is removed is illustrated in FIG. 1.
The magnetic disk device 1 generally comprises the housing 2, the magnetic disk 3, the actuator 4 for the magnetic head (called the head actuator 4), and the voice-coil motor 5.
The housing 2 is provided with the cover which is not illustrated, thereby preventing the inclusion of dirt in the magnetic disk device from the exterior and protecting the respective above-mentioned components 3 and 4 and 5 from damage. Moreover, the magnetic disk 3 is rotated at high speed with a predetermined rotation speed by the spindle motor which is not shown in FIG. 1.
As shown in FIG. 2 and FIG. 3, the head actuator 4 comprises the E-block 14 in which the plurality of actuator arms 6 (in this example, the five actuator arms) are provided. Moreover, the shaft hole 12 in which the shaft 8 embedded in the housing 2 is inserted is formed approximately in the center of the E-block 14. Furthermore, the coil 13 which constitutes part of the voice-coil motor 5 is arranged in the position which is opposite to the position where the actuator arm 6 is arranged with respect to the position of the shaft hole 12.
Each of the actuator arms 6 is a plate-like member which is made of aluminum. The actuator arms 6 are provided on the E-block 14 as mentioned above. The suspension attachment part 11 is provided at the leading edge of each of the actuator arms 6, and the suspension 7 on which the magnetic head is carried is attached to the suspension attachment part 11. Usually, the suspension 7 (which is not shown in FIG. 2 and FIG. 3) is fixed to the suspension attachment part 11 by crimping.
The voice-coil motor 5 comprises the coil 13 which is provided in the head actuator 4, the magnet which generates the magnetic force, and the yoke 5a which is provided for applying the magnetic force to the coil 13, etc.
The magnet is constituted so that the magnetic force generated by the magnet may penetrate the coil 13. By varying the current supplied to the coil 13, the force to cause the head actuator 4 to be rotated around the rotation axis of the shaft 8 is generated. Thereby, the head actuator 4 is rotated around the shaft 8 to move the magnetic head, attached to the leading edge of the actuator arm 6 through the suspension 7, to the predetermined position on the magnetic disk 3.
A description will be given of the actuator arm 6. In order to attain weight reduction of the actuator arm 6, the slot 15 is formed in the actuator arm 6 as the through hole which penetrates the actuator arm 6 in the direction perpendicular to the paper of the figure. Thus, the moment of inertia of the actuator arm 6 can be reduced by forming the slot 15 in the actuator arm 6. For this reason, it is possible to attain high-speed accessing of the head actuator 4 with the slot 15 for weight reduction being formed.
By the way, the actuator arm 6 in which the slot 15 is formed has various oscillation modes in the range from several kHz to several 10 kHz. FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining the oscillation characteristic of the head actuator in the conventional magnetic disk device of FIG. 1.
As shown in FIG. 4, the damping of the actuator arm 6 to the oscillation modes is very low because the actuator arm is formed by the integral structure of a metallic member. The damping coefficient ζ is on the order of 0.01. In other words, the resonance scale factor at the time of resonance will become about 50 times. This means that a great peak of the resonance occurs at the time of resonance, and the positioning accuracy of the head actuator will deteriorate.
On the other hand, the recording density of the magnetic disk is doubled every year as mentioned above, and the track density (TPI) is increased at an annual rate of 50% or more. Therefore, in order to increase the track density, it is necessary to raise the positioning accuracy.
In the latest magnetic disk device, the track pitch of 0.4 micrometers is attained, and the permissible NRRO (the oscillation accuracy) amounts to 50 nm.
Especially, in the case of the high-speed rotation disk (10,000 rpm, 15,000 rpm), when the air flow generated inside when the magnetic disk 3 is rotated at high speed collides with the actuator arm 6, the aerodynamic vibrations of the actuator arm 6 occur. The state in which the actuator arm 6 is oscillated by the natural vibration during the aerodynamic vibration is shown at the positions (about 7.6 kHz, 12.0 kHz) indicated by the arrows A and B in FIG. 4.
Although the high-speed accessing of the head actuator 4 is intended by forming the slot 15, if aerodynamic vibrations occur on the actuator arm 6 and there is the excitation by the natural vibration of the actuator arm 6, then the positioning accuracy will fall by the vibrations of the actuator arm 6. For this reason, it is very difficult to accurately position the magnetic head at the predetermined position.

Magnetic head actuator and magnetic disk device having damper material attached to actuator arm


A powder containing Fe—Ni nano-particles and a method for manufacturing the powder, wherein the powder containing Fe—Ni nano-particles includes a carrier and Fe—Ni nano-particles. The carrier is a ceramic particle with size of about micro-meter (μm). Fe and Ni atoms of the Fe—Ni nano-particles exist simultaneously on the surface of the carrier by electroless plating technology. The atomic ratio of the Fe and Ni atoms can be controlled by changing the relative concentration of the plating solution and the plating condition. The method for manufacturing the powder containing Fe—Ni nano-particles includes the following steps: preparation process, sensitization process, activation process, electroless plating process, and after-deposition process. The manufactured powder has small volume and large surface area. The contact chance between Fe/Ni bimetal and chlorinated organic substance is largely increased. It can be used to treat various environmental pollutants or for some catalytic reactions.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a powder containing Fe—Ni nano-particles and its manufacturing method, and particularly to a powder having a film of Fe—Ni nano-particles deposited on the surface. The powder containing Fe—Ni nano-particles has very small volume and very large surface area. The contact chance between Fe/Ni bimetal and chlorinated organic substance is largely increased. It can be used to treat various environmental pollutants or for some catalytic reactions, and particularly to treat the organic pollutants containing chlorine in environment.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The chlorinated organic substance generally has strong toxicity, which are rather dangerous to the human body and the environment of living things. For example, tetrachloroethene (PCE) and carbon tetrachloride (CT) have been proved to be able to cause cancer on human body, and the other various chlorinated organic substance are also possible for human to cause cancer. The chlorinated organic substance such as chloroform (CF), trichloroethene (TCE), dichloromethane (DCM), PCE and CT etc. are widely used in industry. They are chiefly used for degreasing, dyeing, cleaning and printed circuit manufacturing processes. These kinds of compounds are rather stable and not easy to be resolved. Their resolvability in water is low and easy to accumulate in soil and underground water so that they after become the general pollutants in soil and underground water. Therefore, besides to make law to prevent the chlorinated organic substance from entering the environment, the place that has been polluted by the chlorinated organic substance must be treated and remedied as quickly as possible.
The chlorine atom has high electronegativity and can adsorb electrons from neighborhood, so the most carbons in the chlorinated organic substance exist at relatively high oxidation state and the chlorine in the chlorinated organic substance can be resolved and removed by the reduction method. Because the iron metal has rather high reducing power, i.e. able to provide electrons, it can be used to resolve various chlorinated organic substance such as chlorinated methane, chlorinated ethane, trichloroethene, tetrachloroethene, trichloroethane, and trichloromethane etc.
Although the iron metal can effectively resolve the chlorinated organic substance, it would occur that the pH value does increase in the dechlorine process and the surface of the iron particle does form some iron oxide in the environment containing water and is covered up, so the activity of the iron is reduced and the ability for resolving the chlorinated organic substance is lowered.
In order to improve the drawback of the iron metal as stated above, the second kind of metal such as Pd, Ni, Ag, Cu, and Au is added in the iron to form bimetal, keep the dechlorine activity for iron surface and promote the reaction of dechlorine. Among these metals, Ni has catalysis and anti-corrosion in water, so it is relatively often used to form Fe/Ni bimetal for dechlorine.
The ability of bimetal, for removing the chlorinated organic substance, is higher than iron metal. For resolving the chlorinated organic substance, the dechlorine substance needs possess both the reducing power and large surface area. The more the surface area, the higher the dechlorine power. Therefore, it is necessary that the bimetal is made into micro-particles with large surface area. The micro-particle of metal as a dechlorine agent cannot only promote the surface contact and reaction but also increase the penetrative power in the contaminated soil to promote the treatment effect.
The volume of the metal particle must be decreased to increase its surface area. If the volume of the metal particle is too small, it will quickly penetrate through the soil and easily flows away. Therefore, the time of contact and reaction between metal and chlorinated organic substance becomes too short and the effect of removing chlorinated organic substance by metal is lowered. The problem of penetration and loss of the metal particle must also be considered when the volume of the metal particle is reduced to increase the surface area.
In addition, it is rather difficult in technique how to make micro-particles of Fe—Ni bimetal, especially particles with nanometer size. In the prior technique, the nano-particles of iron metal are first made, and subsequently the iron nano-particles are put into the solution containing Ni++ to make the Fe atoms on the surface of the particles be replaced by the Ni atoms. The reducing reaction is shown in the following:Ni+++Feo→Fe+++Nio
But the Fe—Ni particles made by this way are strictly not the real Fe/Ni bimetal, they are only the iron particles of which surface are covered with a film of Ni. Only the film of Ni can touch the chlorinated organic substance to proceed the reducing and resolving reaction, and the Fe atoms inside have no chance to touch the chlorinated organic substance at all.
In order to get the real Fe—Ni nano-particles, of which Fe and Ni atoms can simultaneously exist on the surface of the particles and have the same chance to touch with chlorinated organic substance and proceed reducing and catalyzing reaction, and to prevent the particles in the contaminated soil from flowing away due to their small volume. Therefore, the present invention provides a powder and its manufacturing method, which can solve the all problems as stated above.

Powder containing Fe-Ni nano-particles and its manufacturing method


A combined imaging/HIFU probe includes an imaging scan head, a HIFU transducer, and an outlet port that delivers a flow of fluid across the HIFU transducer. At least a portion of the body cavity is filled with fluid in which the probe is immersed. The fluid provides a coupling for transmission of ultrasound energy between the probe and the patient. A flow of fluid may also be used to flush obstructions from an area of tissue near the HIFU transducer. Further described herein is a cuff to help retain fluid in the body cavity, a regulator to regulate fluid flow with respect to the body cavity according to a desired fluid pressure, and a cover for the HIFU transducer that has at least one perforation defined therethrough to allow fluid to flow through the cover. Further disclosed herein are methods of deploying a combined imaging/HIFU probe in a body cavity.

High intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) has been used as a non-invasive precise treatment modality for internal pathological conditions such as tumors and abnormal vascular or nerve conditions. While diagnostic ultrasound has a focal intensity typically around 0.1 W/cm2, high intensity focused ultrasound is of 4-5 orders of magnitude greater in focal intensity, typically in the range of 1,000 to 10,000 W/cm2. HIFU energy, focused at locations deep in tissue, leaves the intervening tissue between the HIFU source and the focus unharmed. At the HIFU focus, however, the focal temperature may quickly exceed 70° C., and thereafter reach 100° C., the boiling point of tissue water, depending on the application of the HIFU energy. The high focal tissue temperature generated by the HIFU energy can rapidly cause tissue disruption. The thermal effect of tissue destruction is augmented further by the mechanical effect of HIFU energy. The combined thermal and mechanical effect at the tissue focus of the HIFU is being used for the treatment of uterine fibroid tumors, prostate hyperplasia or cancer, liver cancer, malignant bone and soft tissue sarcoma and internal bleeding.
Since HIFU treatment is mostly directed to internal pathological conditions, which cannot be visually seen, the use of radiologic imaging of those pathologies deep in the tissue is necessary for the therapy. MRI is being used to guide HIFU treatment of internal fibroids. Transabdominal ultrasound-guided HIFU treatment of liver tumors and uterine fibroids is also being practiced.
Recently, transvaginal ultrasound image-guided HIFU treatment of uterine fibroids has been developed. Similar technology can be applied to endometrial ablation and treatment of cervical neoplasia and HPV lesions. In order to properly treat the deep uterine pathologies, such as fibroids, it is preferred that the tumor along with the surrounding uterine tissue be visualized in real time throughout the HIFU treatment process. Both clear imaging by diagnostic ultrasound and achievement of HIFU tissue effect at the target area are important when conducting image-guided HIFU therapy.
In order to use ultrasound energy to image the structures of an area for treatment, the imaging scan head traditionally has to be in direct and firm contact with the tissue in continuum to the tissue of the target area. This engagement of the imaging scan head to the tissue may be supplemented by a coupling medium which can effectively transmit the ultrasound between the scan head and the tissue. For example, ultrasound gel is traditionally used to couple an ultrasound scan head and the skin on a person's abdomen to visualize intra-abdominal structures. The coupling material, such as ultrasound gel, is of similar acoustic transmission characteristics as that of the tissue to prevent an acoustic aberrance at the scan head-tissue interface. For example, if there is air or other obstructions between the scan head and the skin, the ultrasound imaging will become distorted or non-observable due to the difference of acoustic impedance of the air or other obstructions from that of the tissue. The ultrasound gel as a coupling medium replaces the air at the interface and enables clearer imaging of the underlying structures.
A conventional HIFU transducer generating therapeutic ultrasound energy likewise should be in direct engagement of the tissue in continuum with the target in order for the ultrasound energy to be effectively transmitted and focused at the target area to achieve the therapeutic effect. Generally, a coupling medium of similar acoustic characteristics as the tissue is used to connect the HIFU transducer with the tissue to enable optimal transmission and focusing of HIFU energy. Disengagement of the imaging scan head or the HIFU aperture from the tissue without a mechanism of coupling tends to interfere with the image-guided HIFU treatment of the target tissue.
For example, performing transvaginal ultrasound image-guided HIFU treatment of uterine fibroids requires a physical contact to obtain a proper engagement and coupling of an imaging probe and a HIFU transducer to the cervix and vaginal fornices. The imaging scan head needs to be placed firmly against the cervix and is generally pushed up towards the top of the anterior fornix to obtain optimal ultrasound images of the pelvic organs. Ultrasound gel is used to enhance the coupling between the scan head and tissue. Disengagement between the scan head and the cervix-fornices typically results in poor image quality. The HIFU transducer, which may be in a fixed relationship to the imaging head, engages the cervix, mostly towards the posterior fornix. Due to its size, the HIFU transducer also typically partially rides on the surface of the cervix that has the cervical os in its center. A fixed spatial relationship between the imaging head and the HIFU aperture presents an obvious challenge: optimal engagement of the imaging head with the tissue at the cervix may disengage the HIFU transducer from the cervical tissue toward the posterior fornix and vice versa. The variability of the dimensions and shape of the cervix and vaginal fornices among women makes it very difficult to design a probe that can optimize the simultaneous engagement of both the imaging and HIFU heads to the cervix and vaginal fornices. As noted earlier, when using conventional ultrasound systems, disengagement of the imaging head from the cervical tissue results in poor images of the pelvic organs. Disengagement of the HIFU transducer from the tissue toward the posterior fornix results in intervening air space that can cause aberration of the HIFU effect and even undesirable local heating at the tissue interface.
Thus, there is a need to provide consistent clear imaging of the target tissue and the HIFU effect at the target tissue to help guide movement of the HIFU focus throughout the procedure. Furthermore, there is a need for a more global approach for the engagement and coupling of both an imaging component and HIFU component to the tissue in a body cavity. These needs and other shortcomings in the prior art are addressed herein.

Methods and apparatus for engagement and coupling of an intracavitory imaging and high intensity focused ultrasound probe


An insulating film forming composition having good mechanical and insulating properties comprises a silica sol having a good dispersion stability, an organic siloxane polymer and a hydrophobic organic solvent, wherein the silica sol has primary-particles having an average particle size of 5 to 15 nm and secondary-particles having an average particle size of 70 to 100 nm, and the combined amount of said primary and secondary silica particles is in the range of 2 to 50% by weight based on the sum of the silica particles and organic siloxane polymer.

In development of ultra large scale integration (ULSI) technology, there has emerged the problem of increased capacitance of intra- and interlayers, causing signal delays. Therefore, many attempts have been made to develop an insulating layer matrix for reducing the capacitance of intra- and interlayers.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,853,808 discloses a composition comprising an organic siloxane polymer and a silsesquioxane polymer; European Patent Publication No. 0 997 497 A1 discloses a composition obtained from a mixture of various alkoxysilanes; and Korean Patent No. 343938 discloses an organic siloxane composition obtained from cyclic siloxane monomers. These organic siloxane polymers may provide insulating films having a relatively low dielectric constant, but, the films thus prepared have poor mechanical properties.
Meanwhile, techniques using a porous silica as a matrix for an insulating film have been suggested (Japanese Patent Application Publication Nos. 1997-315812, 1997-313812 and 2003-249495; U.S. Pat. No. 6,261,357; and European Patent Publication No. 0 992 556 A1): an insulating film is prepared using porous silica particules whose surface is treated with an alkoxy silane, halogenated silane, etc. Also, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 1999-50007 discloses a silica nanocluster to be used in a low dielectric film. However, the above techniques have disadvantages in that the porosity which affects the dielectric constant of the resulting film is difficult to control.

Insulating film composition having improved mechanical property


A network node device and method of determining a communication route to one or more other network nodes through a network. The method includes sending current routing information to a network management server (NMS), and receiving new or supplemental routing information from the NMS, this supplemental routing information determined by the NMS based on the current routing information of the network node and of the one or more other network nodes. The supplemental routing information may include lateral route information identifying designated routing nodes that form lateral band(s) of nodes that span the network, each lateral band including gate node(s) as entrances/exits to the lateral band. The method may further include determining, based on the supplemental routing information, a route to one or more of the other network nodes. A lateral band may facilitate a route through a chokepoint or other abnormal topological layout.

Routing is an important aspect of network communications, and the specific routing technique(s) used may differ depending on the type of network(s) involved. For example, mesh networks differ from internet protocol or IP-based networks (e.g., IPv4/IPv6-based local area networks (LANs) or wide area networks (WANs)). While their differences may present various limitations and constraints, these differences may also provide benefits of each type of network over the other. For example, one would not typically see the IP suite of routing protocols (e.g., RIP (routing information protocol), OSPF (open shortest path first), IGRP (interior gateway routing protocol), EIGRP (enhanced interior gateway routing protocol), IS-IS (intermediate system to intermediate system), BGP (border gateway protocol, etc.)) applied to mesh networks and mesh routing protocols (e.g., RPL (routing protocol for low-power and lossy networks)) applied to IP-based (e.g., LAN/WAN) networks, even though all of the IP protocols are self-forming, where nodes rely on routing information from other nodes (e.g., neighboring nodes or other nodes) in the network. One reason why IP-based routing protocols may not be ideal in a mesh network is that neighboring nodes in a mesh network may not be as reliably connected (e.g., with cables or high-powered persistent wireless (e.g., radio) paths, such that the topology may be constantly changing. One reason why a mesh-based routing protocol (e.g., RPL) may not be ideal in an IP-based network is because RPL uses "vertical" (up/down) paths, as discussed in more detail below.
One significant difference between a mesh network and an IP-based (e.g., LAN/WAN) network is that a mesh network consists of a cluster of nodes with a single head node, or root node. This head node is the ultimate access point for all of the nodes of the mesh network, and the mesh network nodes can access other mesh network nodes, or even devices beyond the head node, via the head node. Due to this characteristic of mesh networks, communications in a mesh network traverse in an up/down manner only, where a communication from one node to another node may need to traverse up the network, through the head node, and down the network to reach another node (even a node that may be in closer proximity than the head node). In many mesh networks, this routing through a single head node may take more time and may also create congested network traffic, which may worsen the closer the communication comes to the head node.
A network congestion scenario is demonstrated in network 100 of FIG. 1, where one or more network nodes 102 may send communications to root node 104 via a vertical communication path 106. More congested traffic 108 can be seen closer to root node 104. Many communications today need to go from one node to another (as opposed to to/from a root node or even beyond the root node (if applicable)), and may only be able to do this via the root node using typical vertical communication routing protocols, such as RPL. This seems inefficient and an unnecessary usage of many network nodes that have no need themselves for the communication and are already heavily burdened with other communications.
As stated earlier, RPL is a self-forming route protocol, where each network node may learn its routes from its adjacent neighbors, which in turn learn their routes from their adjacent neighbors, and so on, in an ad-hoc fashion. This concept is described in RFC 6997 (M. Goyal et al., "Reactive Discovery of Point-to-Point Routes in Low Power and Lossy Networks," IETF Internet Draft, August 2013). An example of this can be seen in FIG. 2, where network nodes 202 are querying their adjacent neighbors. While self-forming route protocols have advantages such as self-organization, flexibility, lack of reliance on another entity, and self-healing capability (e.g., route repairing when a network node goes down), these protocols tend to be less scalable. For at least these reasons, a solution that can benefit from the advantages of self-forming routing while minimizing the disadvantages is desired.
In the drawings, the leftmost digit(s) of a reference number may identify the drawing in which the reference number first appears.

Server-assisted routing in network communications


Systems and methods are described herein for a media guidance application that detects, and responds to, a user's review of video content on a media device. The media guidance application detects a rewind operation during playback of a video comprising a media asset. In response, the media guidance application determines if the playback position reached during the rewind operation occurs during a first break in the media asset and, if so, identifies objects depicted in the video at the playback position, and presents auxiliary video relating to an object at a second break in the media asset.

While watching a video, a user may see an object which interests him or her. The user may wish to learn more about the object. This results in the user either attempting to identify the object and manually searching for information relating thereto, or simply hoping for a serendipitous return of the object in the video. If the user is unable to identify the object with certainty, or if the object is not displayed again during the video, the user may be unable to learn more about the object.

Systems and methods for presenting auxiliary video relating to an object a user is interested in when the user returns to a frame of a video in which the object is depicted


System and methods for locating a computer user are described wherein the computer either periodically updates a network server with its location, or updates the network server when asked by the server to do so. The network server can be a mobile computer. The user's computer determines its physical location using a location tracker service and then transmits this location information to the server, which stores it in its memory. The information stored includes the physical location of the computer, the time when the location was identified, a name identifying the user of the computer, and an indicator, which indicates whether or not the user was active on the computer during a specified time interval prior to the transmission. The location of the user is deemed to be the last known location of the computer used by the user. If the user is logged onto more than one computer, the location of the user is deemed to be the last known location of the computer that indicates the user as being active.

The proliferation of lightweight, portable computing devices and high-speed wireless local area networks (LANs) has enabled users to remain connected and be able to compute while on the move inside buildings and on campus areas around buildings. This new paradigm has given birth to a new class of applications that are "location aware." The goal of mobile computing in many instances is to enable a user to interact effectively with his or her physical surroundings. One example of such an interaction is to track physical locations of network users, particularly mobile users. Doing so allows one network user to query the network for a location of another network user and to receive a reasonably accurate response.
One component of these systems is the actual tracking system, which determines the user's location. The Global Positioning System (GPS) is one example of a technology, which enables the creation of inexpensive and portable systems that can help locate and track users. GPS systems currently are used to provide direction to drivers through an in-vehicle system; provide location and tracking information for marine navigation; and allow shipping companies to locate and track individual shipments. However, the GPS system relies on an unobstructed view of several satellites, making its use for tracking users who are indoors ineffective.
To overcome this obstacle, alternate technologies have been developed to locate and track users or objects in an indoor environment. One such system uses tags placed on the items that are to be tracked. In an electronic sense, the tags can be either active or passive, and they communicate with base stations. The base stations are physically linked together through a wired or wireless network. Each tag transmits a unique code to identify itself. The location of the tag can thereby be determined to be in the vicinity of the base station with which the tag last communicated.
Such tag-based tracking and location systems require a significant installation of specialized base stations. A tag-based system can only determine the location of the tags as being "near" a particular base station. As a result, a large number of base stations must be installed to achieve a sufficiently high resolution. Furthermore, obtrusive tags have to be placed on every item that is to be tracked or located, and in the case of infrared tags, the system operates only when there is a line of sight between the tag and a base station. For these reasons, tag-based systems have shown very limited success.
Another technology has been developed which uses radio frequency transmissions from base stations and mobile units to track the location of mobile units. This technology is described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/513,155, entitled "Using a Derived Table of Signal Strength Data to Locate and Track a User In a Wireless Network, and in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/513,355, entitled "Locating and Tracking a User in a Wireless Network Through Environmentally Profiled Data."
In this system, a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) is utilized for locating and tracking users. A WLAN consists of base stations connected to a wired network, and mobile devices that are "connected" to the WLAN through radio frequency signals with the base stations. The signal sensing ability of both the base station and the mobile device are used to determine the location of the mobile device, and thus the location of the user of the mobile device. In particular, the strength of the signals received from several base stations is measured by the mobile device. The mobile device then compares the signal strength from each of the base stations to a pre-computed table containing the base stations' signal strength at various known locations of the mobile device. From this comparison, the mobile device determines its location. Alternatively, the signal strength from the mobile device can be measured at a number of base stations. This signal strength is then compared by a central computer to a pre-computed table containing the mobile computer's signal strength at the base stations for various known locations. From this table, the central computer determines the location of the mobile computer.
Although the mobile computer can identify its location using this system, a problem remains as to how one user, say User A, who is logged onto a network on a fixed or mobile computer can locate another mobile computer or, more likely, the person using the mobile computer, say User B. This problem has been solved for finding stationary users, since the requesting user, User A, can simply determine the location of a network access point to which the stationary user's, User B's, computer is connected and use that location to infer his or her location. But since, by definition, a mobile user can be physically located virtually anywhere within the coverage of the network, the problem becomes significantly more difficult to solve.
Yet another problem exists when one user is logged onto more than one computer in a network. Current systems and methods don't allow for distinguishing between the computers to identify where the user may be physically located.

Systems and methods for locating mobile computer users in a wireless network


A semiconductor unit is composed of an analog unit, a digital unit, a signal line through which a signal is transmitted from the analog unit to the digital unit, an electric source line Vdd1 through which a high voltage is applied to the analog unit, an electric source line Vdd2 through which the high voltage is applied to the digital unit, an electric source line Vss1 through which a low voltage is applied to the analog unit, an electric source line Vss2 through which the low voltage is applied to the digital unit, and a protective circuit arranged between the electric source lines Vss1 and Vss2. The protective circuit functions to electrically connect the electric source line Vss1 and the electric source line Vss2 in cases where an electric potential difference between the electric source lines Vss1 and Vss2 exceeds a prescribed value. Similar protection can be provided between the high voltage source lines Vdd1 and Vdd2 or between the signal line and the second source lines Vdd2 and Vss2.. In a semiconductor unit having a lengthy section of an electric source line connected between first and second circuits, a protective circuit short cuts the lengthy section of the electric source line.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a semiconductor unit having two or more types of electric source systems.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Hereinafter, a conventional semiconductor unit is described with reference to drawings. There are many types of semiconductor units which have two or more types of electric source systems separated from each other. As a representative unit, a semiconductor unit having a digital section and an analog section is known. In general, voltages applied by the different electric source systems in one semiconductor unit differ from each other. However, in at least one case the voltages applied by the different electric source systems in one semiconductor unit are the same.
An example of a conventional semiconductor unit shown in FIG. 1 has an analog section as a first circuit and a digital section as a second circuit. The analog section includes an analog circuit 1, an output circuit 3 and an input protective circuit 5. The digital section includes a digital circuit 2 and an input circuit 4. The first and second circuits are connected with each other through a signal line S1 between the output circuit 3 and the input circuit 4 of the respective first and second circuits.
An electric source voltage applied to the analog section is supplied through electric source lines Vdd1 and Vss1, and an electric source voltage applied to the digital section is supplied through electric source lines Vdd2 and Vss2. The electric source line Vdd1 is separated from the electric source line Vdd2, and the electric source line Vss1 is separated from the electric source line Vss2.
In the above configuration, a signal is output from the analog circuit 1 through the output circuit 3 to the digital section. Thereafter, the signal is input to the input circuit 4, an inverter, through the signal line S1 and is transmitted to the digital circuit 2.
Also, another conventional semiconductor unit shown in FIG. 2 has an analog section composed of an analog circuit 11, an output circuit 13 and an input protective circuit 15 and a digital section composed of a digital circuit 12 and an input circuit 14. The first and second circuits are connected with each other through a signal line S1. An electric source voltage applied to the analog section is supplied through electric source lines Vdd and Vss, and an electric source voltage applied to the digital section is supplied through the same electric source lines Vdd and Vss. In the above configuration, the path for the electric source line Vss takes a long way around because of a design requirement and the electric source line Vss becomes lengthy.
In these prior art circuits, certain surges applied to input terminals NT or to a low potential side terminal Vss1 or Vss cause semiconductor units to fail in spite of the protection provided by the input protection circuit 5 or 15.


The invention relates to a process for preparing .alpha.,.omega.-C.sub.4 -C.sub.20 -alkenols by catalytic monodehydration of .alpha.,.omega.-alkanediols over a catalyst system comprising the combination of aluminum phosphate and barium phosphate. The gas-phase dehydration which occurs over this catalyst at temperatures of from 300 to 500.degree. C. advantageously combines selectivity with a high space-time yield while simultaneously enabling a high throughput over the catalyst.

According to a process of DE-C-29 04 518, .alpha.,.omega.-C.sub.4 -C.sub.20 -alkenols having purities of above 85% are synthesized by catalytic dehydration of the corresponding .alpha.,.omega.-C.sub.4 -C.sub.20 -diols using neutral, simple or mixed pyrophosphates of lithium, sodium strontium or barium or mixtures of these compounds as catalyst. The disadvantage of this process is, on the one hand, the formation of significant proportions of alkanols and, on the other hand, the formation of other by-products increases significantly at conversions of >80% and considerably at conversions of .gtoreq.90%.
EP-B-O 195 943 takes up this prior art and teaches a process for preparing pure .alpha.,.omega.-C.sub.4 -C.sub.20 -alkanols having purities of over 90% by catalytic dehydration of the corresponding .alpha.,.omega.-C.sub.4 -C.sub.20 -diols, wherein .alpha.,.omega.-C.sub.4 -C.sub.20 -diols are selectively and partially dehydrated at temperatures of from 300 to 500.degree. C. in the presence of catalysts comprising simple or mixed phosphates of elements of Group II of the Periodic Table doped with alkali metal or alkaline earth metal compounds, where the catalyst is obtained by preparing a catalyst composition by use of alkaline earth metal orthophosphate or alkaline earth metal hydrogen phosphate or by reacting an alkaline earth metal compound with phosphoric acid to give the corresponding phosphate and adding alkali metal or alkaline earth metal compound, if desired shaping this composition, subsequently drying it and then calcining it at temperatures of from 350 to 950.degree. C., to give .alpha.,.omega.-C.sub.4 -C.sub.20 -alkanols having purities of over 90% at conversions of over 90%.
The catalysts used meet technical requirements in terms of selectivity and operating life, but do not offer a satisfactory solution in terms of the mass throughput, i.e. the effective amount of material which can be passed over the catalyst at a reduced residence time, which is important from a production point of view. The measure frequently employed for the effective throughput over the catalyst is the LHSV, which gives the ratio of starting material flow to catalyst volume. In EP-B-O 195 954, LHSVs of from 0.25 to 0.45 ml/(ml.multidot.h) are given for the throughput over the catalyst in the process described.
It is an object of the present invention to achieve a high selectivity linked to a high space-time yield in the gas-phase dehydration of .alpha.,.omega.-alkanediols, specifically 1,6-hexanediol, by selection of a suitable catalyst system.

Process for preparing .alpha., .omega.-alkenols


In a pump apparatus of the present invention, a portion of fluid sent to a fluid-sending destination is circulated to a pumping driving chamber on one side of a cylinder through a circulation passage. The pump apparatus includes a switching valve which switches inflow and outflow of the circulated fluid with respect to the pumping driving chamber. The switching valve is connected to a piston rod through a link mechanism, and mechanically carries out the switching operation using a pumping driving force.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a pump apparatus and, more particularly, to a pump apparatus capable of obtaining a high discharge pressure with a low driving pressure and is used when seawater or dirty water is allowed to pass through a semipermeable membrane, e.g., a reverse osmosis membrane to obtain drinking water.
2. Description of the Related Art
As shown in FIGS. 8 and 9, a conventionally known pump apparatus (e.g., JP-B 3-21208 (1991)) of this kind comprises a pump body 100 having a cylinder 101 and a plunger 102, a manual lever (not shown) which allows the plunger 102 to reciprocate in the cylinder 101, a filter (reverse osmosis membrane) 130, a suction passage 103 which sucks liquid (seawater or dirty water) from outside into a pumping chamber 100a of the pump body 100, a sending-out passage 104 for sending out the liquid in the pumping chamber 100a to the filter, a supply passage 131 for flowing, to outside, the water which was purified through the filter 130, a circulation passage 105 for circulating condensed water which did not pass through the filter 130, into a driving chamber 100b of the pump body 100, a discharge passage 106 for discharging the condensed water outside from the driving chamber 100b, and a switching valve (cross valve) 110 which switches a communication state with respect to the driving chamber 100b toward the circulation passage 105 or the discharge passage 106. This conventional pump apparatus can rock the manual lever with a slight force utilizing a liquid pressure of the condensed water generated at the time of pumping operation. In FIGS. 8 and 9, dotted arrows show a direction of flow of fluid, and arrows A and B show reciprocating direction of the plunger 102.
The switching valve 110 includes a cylindrical hole 111 formed in a manifold (not shown) which covers an outside of the pump body 100, a shuttle 112 accommodated in the cylindrical hole 111 and provided at its outer peripheral surface with a pair of first recessed peripheral groove 112a and second recessed peripheral groove 112b, a plug 113 which liquid-tightly seals an end opening of the cylindrical hole 111, a rod shaft 114 which penetrates the plug 113 and which is connected to one end of the shuttle 112, and a button 115 mounted on one end of the rod shaft 114. Formed between the pump body 100 and the manifold are a first flow-in passage 116 for allowing a portion of liquid in the pumping chamber 100a to flow into a first chamber 111a formed on a deep side within the cylindrical hole 111, a second flow-in passage 117 for allowing a portion of condensed water in the driving chamber 100b into a second chamber 111b formed on the side of the rod shaft 114 in the cylindrical hole 111, and a communication passage 118 which switches a communication state between the circulation passage 105 and the discharge passage 106 through one of the pair of recessed peripheral grooves 112a and 112b by means of the reciprocation operation of the shuttle 112. A flow-out hole 105a of the circulation passage 105 is in communication with the first recessed peripheral groove 112a of the shuttle 112, and the discharge passage 106 is in communication with the second recessed peripheral groove 112b. A reference numeral 121 represents an intake valve, a reference numeral 122 represents a discharge valve, and a reference numeral 123 represents a relief valve.
A basic operation when liquid is sent out by this conventional pump apparatus (JP-B 3-21208 (1991)) will be briefly explained. The manual lever is rocked to move the plunger 102 of the pump body 100 up (in the direction of the arrow B) from a state shown in FIG. 8 to a state shown in FIG. 9 toward one end of the pump body 100. With this operation, liquid flows into the pumping chamber 100a through the suction passage 103 from outside. On the other hand, if the plunger 102 is moved down (in the direction of the arrow A) from the state shown in FIG. 9 to the state shown in FIG. 8, the liquid is sent to the filter 130 through the sending-out passage 104 from the pumping chamber 100a, and a portion of the liquid which passed through the filter 130 flows out as purified drinking water through the supply passage 131. At that time, a portion of the liquid in the pumping chamber 100a flows into a second chamber 111a of the switching valve 110 through the first flow-in passage 116, pushes and moves the shuttle 112, switches the first recessed peripheral groove 112a and the communication passage 118 into the communication state, and condensed water which is remaining liquid and which did not pass through the filter 130 passes through the circulation passage 105, the first recessed peripheral groove 112a of the switching valve 110 and the communication passage 118 and is circulated into the driving chamber 100b. A liquid pressure of this circulated condensed water cooperates with a force applied to the manual lever to move the plunger 102 down. That is, since a pressure existing in the pump system is balanced, the pumping operation can be carried out only by adding a slight force to the manual lever. Thereafter, if the plunger is again moved up (in the direction of the arrow B), the condensed water in the driving chamber 100b flows into the second chamber 111b of the switching valve 110 through the second flow-in passage 117, the shuttle 112 is moved by the liquid pressure, the second flow-in passage 117 and the discharge passage 106 are switched to the communication state through the second recessed peripheral groove 112b, and the condensed water in the driving chamber 100b is discharged out.
In the case of this pump apparatus, however, when the pumping operation is started, air in the driving chamber 100b is discharged and liquid is smoothly sucked into the pumping chamber 100a. Therefore, it is necessary to carry out the following operation. That is, the button 115 is pressed by a finger (at a pressure of about 1.06 kg/cm2 (15 psi), the shuttle 112 is forcibly moved to the deep end of the cylindrical hole 111 to close the flow-out hole 105a of the circulation passage 105 and to open the discharge passage 106 (see FIG. 9), and air in the driving chamber 100b must be discharged into the discharge passage 106 through the communication passage 118 and the second recessed peripheral groove 112b of the switching valve 110. This button-pressing operation is an adjusting operation required until the pump apparatus functions normally, and it is necessary to continue this operation until the liquid flows out from the discharge passage 106 and air in the pump system is discharged in some degrees (until a pressure of about 5.62 kg/cm2 (80 psi) is generated). That is, if the pump system is filled with liquid, the shuttle 112 reciprocates (switching of the switching valve 110 normally functions) in the cylindrical hole 111 with appropriate timing by a liquid pressure generated by the reciprocating movement of the plunger 102, and condensed water normally flows into the driving chamber 100b and is normally discharged from the driving chamber 100b. However, in an initial state of the pumping operation, since air exists in the pump system, the internal pressure (liquid pressure) in the driving chamber 100b is insufficient and a frictional resistance in a dry state is caused between the shuttle 112 and the cylindrical hole 111. For this reason, the shuttle 112 can not easily move to the deep side in the cylindrical hole 111, and since the switching valve 110 can not switch with appropriate timing, air can not be discharged. There is a structural cause that since a passage for flowing fluid into the driving chamber 100b and for discharging fluid from the driving chamber 100b is the single communication passage 118, the fluid reversely flows through the communication passage 118 immediately after the flow-in and flow-out are switched by the switching valve 110, and the fluid can not flow easily.