A graphics-system texture memory (21) contains a plurality of texture maps, each of which represents a common texture image with a different spatial resolution. A given map's data that represent one region (66) in a texture space (58) is contained in a memory block (Block.sub.-- 0) that holds other maps' data for the same region, while a separate block (Block.sub.-- 1) contains that map's data representing a different region (74). This organization reduces the occurrence of memory-page changes during the computation of a display-pixel value.

The present invention is directed to texture mapping in computer graphics. It specifically concerns the manner in which a texture image is stored for use in texture mapping.
A situation commonly encountered in computer graphics is the need to render an image of an object whose surface has a detailed pattern. The surface's image is computed from digital samples of the pattern itself. That stored pattern image is known as a texture map.
Despite the name, a texture map is not limited to perturbations in surface normals; for instance, the "texture" image that it represents can be a color pattern, such as a plaid pattern in two-space, that "wallpapers" the surface of an object whose image is being computed.
FIG. 1 depicts in simplified form a typical system 10 for generating images of objects that have been defined by any of the many types of object descriptions ordinarily employed for this purpose. For example, in FIG. 2's object surface 11 may be represented as, say, a plurality of bicubic patches defined by parametric equations. That is, one way to define a surface segment is to use three-space parametric equations such as: EQU x=(a.sub.x3 s.sup.3 +a.sub.x2 s.sup.2 +a.sub.x1 s+a.sub.x0)(b.sub.x3 t.sup.3 +b.sub.x2 t.sup.2 +b.sub.x1 t+b.sub.x0) EQU y=(a.sub.y3 s.sup.3 +a.sub.y2 s.sup.2 +a.sub.y1 s+a.sub.y0)(b.sub.y3 t.sup.3 +b.sub.y2 t.sup.2 +b.sub.y1 t+b.sub.y0) EQU z=(a.sub.z3 s.sup.3 +a.sub.z2 s.sup.2 +a.sub.z1 s+a.sub.z0)(b.sub.z3 t.sup.3 +b.sub.z2 t.sup.2 +b.sub.z1 t+b.sub.z0),
where (x, y, z) is a location in three space, s and t are parameters that range, say, from 0 to 1 for all patches, and the a's and the b's are the stored coefficients that form the patch description. Of course, this is only one of the many object-description methods known to those skilled in the art.
To render the image, a scan-conversion process 12 in FIG. 1's output-image generator 13 converts this description into corresponding scan locations addressed by a picture-element ("pixel")-address calculator 14, and a pixel-value calculator 15 computes each pixel value drawn by a display system 16's display circuitry 17 to drive its display device 18, such as a computer monitor or printer. The scan-conversion process typically treats the display pixel as a small rectangle 19 (FIG. 2) in an object-space display plane, and it projects that rectangle onto the surface 11. This gives the location on the surface but not, say, its color. The pixel-value calculator 15 obtains the color from a texture image with which process 12 has "papered" the surface, mapping the surface into a is (typically but not necessarily two-dimensional) texture space 20.
Data in a texture memory 21 (FIG. 1) represent the texture image as values of texture elements ("texels") thereof just as the pixel-value calculator 15 represents the displayed image as values of output-image pixels. The texel values can be thought of as samples from a texture image that is continuous in, say, a two-dimensional (u, v) texture space. The mapping of the output pixel 19's projection 22 into the texture space defines an area 23 that may encompass a number of texels. If so, all of those texels' values need to be taken into account in order to produce an accurate pixel value. To compute the pixel value, the pixel-value calculator 15 may simply average all of those texel values, possibly after weighting some in accordance with the fraction of the associated texel that falls within the area 23. In other cases, more-complicated filtering may be employed. In any event, pixel-value computation requires that those texel values be located and fetched from the texture memory 20. This is the function of a texture-address-calculation circuit 24, which will be described presently.
Now, the need to fetch a plurality of texel values for each pixel-value computation can become onerous, as FIG. 3 illustrates. FIG. 3 depicts the object space and includes an edge view of the image plane 32. Tick marks 34 represent assumed pixel boundaries, and an eye 36 represents the viewpoint in accordance with which the object image is to be determined.
We assume that the texture image is to cover two planar surfaces 38 and 40. The projection of one pixel onto plane 38 is shown to cover approximately 4.times.4=16 texels. Fetching this many values for a single pixel is onerous enough, but plane 40 shows that the problem can become considerably worse.
To reduce this problem, the texture memory may store a texture image as a plurality of texture maps, each of which represents the texture image with a different resolution. A base pixel map represents the texture image as values of a large number of small texels. Pre-filtering the base texture map produces texture maps that express the texture image as the values of increasingly small numbers of increasingly large texels. Typically, although not necessarily, each successive texture map of a set consists of the values of texels whose linear dimensions are half those of the previous texture map's texels. These pre-filtered maps are often referred to as "mip maps." When the output-image generator 13 then requests texture data for use in calculating a given pixel value, it does so by way of an ordered triple (u, v, d), where u and v are spatial coordinates in the texture space and d is an indication of the spatial resolution with which the data should be represented. Generator 13 typically expresses u and v with sub-texel resolution. Similarly, it computes the quantity d as a continuous function of, say, the partial derivatives of the texture-space coordinates with respect to the display-space coordinates, and the result typically falls between d values that correspond to respective maps. From these values, the texture-address-calculation circuit 24 determines which texture maps and constituent locations contain the needed texel data.
Texels of more than one resolution may be required for a single pixel-value computation, so it is important that texture-memory accesses be performed rapidly even if data for a given pixel-value computation must be drawn from different maps. FIG. depicts a memory organization typically used in attempting to achieve this result. FIG. 4 treats the texture-memory address space as two-dimensional: the vertical position in FIG. 4 represents the value of certain of the address bits, and horizontal position in that drawing represents the value of the remainder. If the texture maps are stored in DRAM devices, for example, the vertical and horizontal positions may respectively represent the values of the row and column addresses sequentially applied to those devices.
The memory's largest segment 42, whose row- and column-address values are both at least twice those in any other segment, contains the base, finest-spatial-resolution texture map. FIG. 4 depicts the upper left corner of that segment as corresponding to the (u, v) origin, with u and v increasing with increasing column and row addresses, respectively. This map corresponds to, say, d=0. Another segment 44 represents the same image with the same range in (u, v), but the spatial sampling resolution is coarser by a factor of 2. This map may correspond to d=1. Segments 46 and 48 are successively coarser texture maps which may respectively correspond to d=2 and d=3. A final segment 50 is conventionally left empty.
This organization is more typically depicted as in FIG. 5, which shows its use for the three sets of texture maps required for a color texture image: segment 51 contains the highest-spatial-resolution red-component texel information, segment 52 contains highest-spatial-resolution green-component information, and segment 54 contains the highest-spatial-resolution blue texel information.
The memory organization of FIGS. 4 and 5 is considered advantageous for multiple-resolution texel-data retrieval because addresses for texel data in different maps corresponding to the same locations in texture space are simply shifted versions of one another. If segment 42 is an (atypically small) 8.times.8-location memory segment, for instance, then its lower-right location's binary address is (0111, 1111), while segment 42's lower-right location's address is (0011, 01 11), and that of segment 46 is (0001, 0011).

Texture memory organization based on data locality


A solid state photonics circuit having a liquid crystal (LC) layer for beam steering. The LC layer can provide tuning of an array of waveguides by controlling the application of voltage to the liquid crystal. The application of voltage to the liquid crystal can be controlled to perform beam steering with the light signal based on different tuning in each of the waveguides of the array. The waveguides are disposed in a substrate having an oxide or other insulating layer with an opening. The opening in the oxide layer exposes a portion of a path of the array of waveguides. The waveguides are exposed to the liquid crystal through the oxide opening, which allows the voltage changes to the liquid crystal to tune the optical signals in the waveguides.

There is an increasing demand for three dimensional (3D) video or image capture, as well as increasing demand for object tracking or object scanning. However, traditional methods of 3D imaging have significant drawbacks. LIDAR (light detection and ranging) systems are currently very expensive because they require precise assembly of expensive components. Additionally, because traditional 3D imaging systems require mechanical motion to scan the field of view, they tend to be bulky and power hungry.
A basic LIDAR system includes one or more light sources and photodetectors, a means of either projecting or scanning the light beam(s) over the scene of interest, and control systems to process and interpret the data. There are different technologies that can be applied for 3D imaging. Non-laser-based methods are based on stereoscopy or structured light, but they consume significant power to illuminate the entire scene at once, and work poorly in well-lit conditions such as bright daylight. Ultrasonic methods have relatively very poor spatial resolution. Laser light can be broadcast over the field of view, but then suffers from many shortcomings (power is used to illuminate the entire scene at once rather than being concentrated on one spot at a time, thus costing extra power), while directed laser light requires steering, which traditionally would rely on precision mechanical parts.
Descriptions of certain details and implementations follow, including a description of the figures, which may depict some or all of the embodiments described below, as well as discussing other potential embodiments or implementations of the inventive concepts presented herein.

Solid state LIDAR circuit with waveguides tunable to separate phase offsets


A computer including HI-FI stereo is provided. The BIOS of the computer including HI-FI stereo in the embodiment includes a function menu that shows selections of HI-FI stereo and general-purpose computer when the computer including HI-FI stereo is just booted up. The HI-FI stereo function is set up bypassing the routine procedure that is used to activate the operating system of the computer unit and plays associated AV data immediately, while the operating system is activated for setting up a general-purpose computer if the general-purpose computer selection is selected.

1. Field of Invention
The present invention generally relates to a computer, and more particularly, to a computer including HI-FI stereo.
2. Description of Related Art
In line with technological advancement, the computer has become an absolutely necessary product in modern lives, a truth is that computers take a position getting more and more important in peoples daily works and family lives.
Computer hardware has had great advancement in computing speed and data processing power recently. Nowadays, computers have treated as a widely used multimedia audio-video (AV) equipment with the helps of the technology advancements regarding the field of the optical disk system used for data storage media. However, although modern computers have performance no worse than that of the legacy mainframe systems, which still offers unsatisfied AV effects due to their limited architecture. Although many engineers have offered lots of developments in sound cards and make their designs being more powerful than before. However, any listener cannot be satisfied with the playing AV effects offered by the modern computer systems since the playing ones are far less than that of a 5.1 channel audio system. On the other hand, the commonly used cabinets of the conventional computer systems contain fixed front panel and any housed peripheral device such as a CD-ROM drive may expose its front panel to facilitate the tray movements. The computer cabinet cannot be designed with more aesthetically appealing modeling, which makes the appearances of the conventional computer systems far away from a commonly used stereo system.
Furthermore, it is significant a time-costly way for employing a general-purpose computer used as an AV stereo system because the general-purpose computer system cannot play AV data until computer operating system such as the commonly used Windows system has been started up completely. Customers have to wait for a long time while the operating system is in booting.


An analysis system may receive a request to determine a cause of underdelivery for an ad (“query content item”). Properties of the query content item can be processed through a matching model to determine properties of a bid request, thereby generating a bid request. The generated bid request also includes a request for the content server to return a report in response to the bid request regarding ad selection decisions. The bid request may be submitted to the content server, which causes the content server to define a set of candidate content items and select at least one of the candidate content items to submit bids on behalf of in response to the bid request. The content server also provides a report in regarding ad selection decisions. Thus, if the query content item is one of the ads that were not selected, the report may include factors contributing to the query content item not being selected.

Content publishers such as websites or web applications may designate a certain portion of their display interface as paid content space for displaying paid content such as advertisements, either as a primary or supplementary revenue source. In order to maximize such revenue, a publisher (e.g., an owner of a domain or application) may offer, through a bid request, a display instance of the paid content space to a paid content provider through an electronic bidding process. The winning paid content provider's content item is then displayed on the display interface of the content publisher for at least one instance. An electronic content server may facilitate the bidding process between the publisher and the paid content provider by selecting an appropriate content item in response to receiving a bid request from the publisher, and bidding on behalf of the paid content provider. The result of this process may be based on many factors, including certain properties of the content item and certain properties of the bid request. The paid content provider may pay per certain number of impressions or each time the content item is clicked on. The paid content provider may define certain cost parameters of a content item such as a maximum commitment amount (e.g., maximum bid price) for a certain number of impressions or a click, and a budget for the total amount to spend over a period of time. However, the situation may occur in which the budget defined for a certain content item is not being spent in its entirety, referred to as underdelivery. This may indicate that the paid content provider is not being effectively serviced by the content exchange and the content exchange is not generating optimal revenue.

Simulating bid requests for content underdelivery analysis


There is provided a matching circuit, in which a main-matching block and a sub-matching block are connected in series. The sub-matching block includes: a series matching block of which one end is connected to the main-matching block; and a parallel matching network connected to the other end of the series matching block. At a first frequency f1, the connection point of the series matching block and a first parallel matching block is caused to be in an open state for a radio-frequency signal, and the connection point of the first parallel matching block and the second parallel matching block is caused to be in a short state for the radio-frequency signal. Impedance matching is performed by the main-matching block and the series matching block at the first frequency f1, and is performed by the main-matching block and the sub-matching block at the second frequency f2.

In recent years, with diversification of services provided by radio communication, there is a demand for multiband operation in radio equipment capable of dealing with information in plural frequency bands. For example, two frequency bands, which are 5.2 GHz and 2.4 GHz bands, are specified in the respective standards of Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) 802.11a/b/g that are the technical standards of wireless Local Area Network (LAN).
As one of the devices implemented in the radio equipment, a power amplifier is used that amplifies signals of a radio frequency band and supplies the signals to an antenna. A power amplifier is one of such devices that consume a large amount of power in a radio circuit, and are required to operate at a high efficiency. Generally, in the design of a radio circuit, optimization has been made for only a specific frequency band. In the design of a power amplifier, for example, the optimization includes obtaining a high output power and a high efficiency. It is therefore difficult to design such a circuit that is optimized for both of the aforementioned two different frequency bands, for example. For this reason, it is generally configured such that a switch selectively changes the circuits optimally designed for respective frequency bands.
FIG. 1 illustrates an example of the circuit configuration generally employed for a power amplifier (dual-band power amplifier) capable of amplifying signals of two frequency bands. For example, it is assumed that the center frequencies of the two frequency bands are set, such as f1=5.2 GHz and f2=2.4 GHz. A dual-band power amplifier 900, as illustrated in FIG. 1, is provided with: an amplifier 921 designed exclusively for the frequency band of the center frequency f1 (hereinafter, simply referred to as frequency band of the frequency f1 or frequency band of f1, the same applies to f2); and an amplifier 922 designed exclusively for the frequency band of the center frequency f2. Either the amplifier 921 or the amplifier 922 is chosen by switching a single-pole double-throw (SPDT) switch 911 connected to an input terminal 931 and an SPDT switch 912 connected to an output terminal 932, according to the operating frequency, namely the frequency f1 or f2.
Koji Chiba, Isao Hirakodama, Toru Takahashi, Naoki Naruse and Hisashi Yoshinaga, "Mobile Terminals" NTT DoCoMo Technical Journal, Vol. 14, No. 1, for example, discloses such a conventional technique.
Each of the amplifiers 921 and 922 of FIG. 1 includes: an input-side matching circuit 971; an amplification device 972; and an output-side matching circuit 973, as depicted in FIG. 2. The performance of the amplifier depends on the characteristics of the amplification device and those of the matching circuits. It is therefore important to optimize the matching circuits at the frequency bands at which the amplifier operates. The circuit configuration of the dual-band power amplifier 900 of FIG. 1 allows each amplifier to use the matching circuit optimized for the frequency band only for the amplifier. The two amplifiers each provided with such optimized matching circuits are switched by the SPDT switches according to the operating frequency band. Hence, if the insertion loss of the SPDT switch is sufficiently small, the amplifier with the characteristics of high output and high efficiency will be available, accordingly.
Such a dual-band power amplifier requires two systems of circuits, in total, which includes an amplifier for the frequency f1 and an amplifier for the frequency f2. This causes a problem that the number of components such as the input and output matching circuits, amplification devices, etc will be increased. The increased number of the components also causes other problems that the device size is increased, and in addition, the power consumption in the whole circuit is increased by the power consumption in each component.
In addition, there is another problem that the output power is lowered by the insertion loss of the SPDT switch used for output in particular, thereby decreasing the efficiency.
Furthermore, when a combined signal of two frequency bands is simultaneously amplified with a high efficiency in each of the frequency bands, it is necessary to employ a splitter and a combiner for the SPDT switches 911 and 912, respectively. This has a drawback of increasing the circuit size (see Japanese Patent Application Laid Open No. 2003-504929, for example).
Thus, there exists a need for a dual-band power amplifier capable of amplifying a combined signal of two frequency bands at each of the frequency bands simultaneously without providing two systems of circuits for the amplifier for f1 and the amplifier for f2. There also exists a need for a matching circuit capable of performing the impedance matching on the combined signal of the two frequency bands, suited for such a dual-band power amplifier, at each of the frequency bands simultaneously. It should be appreciated that since such a matching circuit can be broadly used for a device that has to perform impedance matching between the signals of two frequency bands, such a matching circuit is not limited to be used in the dual-band power amplifier.

Matching circuit and dual-band power amplifier


An open roof construction for a vehicle comprising a roof opening that can be closed by a panel of which at least the rear edge can be pivoted upward and downward. A three-dimensional body is provided on the underside of said panel to influence the air flow, near the rear edge of the panel. The three-dimensional body generates swirls in the air flow over the panel.

The invention relates to an open roof construction for a vehicle having a roof opening which can be closed by a panel of which at least the rear edge can be pivoted upward and downward, and wherein a body for locally influencing the air flow is provided on the underside of said panel, near said rear edge.
In an open roof construction of the type to which the present invention relates, which comprises a panel whose rear edge can be pivoted upward and downward (a so-called tilt panel), objectionable noises, in particular whistling noises, are produced in the open position of the panel. These noises, which depend on the pivoting angle and the driving speed of the vehicle, among other things, are produced especially (but not exclusively) during the first stage of pivoting the panel from the closed position to an open position. The noises that are produced are highly objectionable to the occupants of the vehicle. The cause of the objectionable noises is to be found inter alia in the underpressure generated above the roof of the vehicle as a result of the air flow over the panel, which causes the air to be drawn out from the interior of the vehicle through a gap that is formed at the location of the upwardly pivoted rear edge of the panel.
In the past, attempts have been made to prevent the occurrence of these objectionable noises. German patent no. 4016791 discloses an open roof construction for a vehicle, wherein the means for locally influencing the air flow is made up of a strip projecting downwards near the rear edge of the panel, on the free ends of which projections are present for influencing the air flow. The function of the strip provided with projections is to disturb coherent flow structures through the aforesaid gap. The means used in this prior art solution has a substantially two-dimensional shape (after all, with a minimum dimension in the direction of flow), whose dimension in a direction perpendicular to the panel surface is considerable. Accordingly, one drawback of this prior art solution is the fact that the obstruction in the gap that is formed by said means needs to be compensated by a greater pivoting movement of the rear edge of the panel if it is desired to maintain an unchanged effective gap between the rear edge of the panel and the roof of the vehicle. The increased pivotability, however, makes it necessary to adapt the technical construction of the panel (in particular the parts thereof that are to effect the movement of the panel) with all the concomitant drawbacks thereof (among which an increased space requirement for construction parts, higher cost, etc.).
An open roof construction according to an aspect of the present invention has at least one three-dimensional body that generates swirls in the air flow. The term xe2x80x9cthree-dimensional bodyxe2x80x9d is used to indicate the difference with the prior art, wherein said means described above has a substantially two-dimensional plate-shaped part. According to the present invention, on the other hand, a three-dimensional body is used, wherein the third dimension, seen in the direction of flow, is considerable. In particular, it is this dimension, in the direction of flow, that contributes to the generation of swirls in the air flow. The swirls disturb the air flow to such an extent that objectionable background noises, such as whistling, do not occur.
In one embodiment of the open roof construction according to the present invention, the height of the three-dimensional body, measured in a direction perpendicular to the panel, is in an order of approximately three times the thickness of the panel. In this embodiment, the obstruction of the flow that is caused by the three-dimensional body is minimized, so that minimal adaptation, if any, of the pivoting height of the rear edge of the panel is required. Furthermore it is advantageous with regard to the generation of swirls if the three-dimensional body includes at least one windward surface (i.e. facing towards the air flow) and at least one leeward surface (i.e. facing away from the air flow). The generation of swirls takes place at the transition between the two surfaces. In a further embodiment, of at least a portion of one or all of the windward and leeward surfaces is oriented obliquely to the surface of the panel.
In another embodiment, the three-dimensional body includes sharp transition edges between a respective windward surface and a respective leeward surface on its rear side, seen in the direction of flow, wherein the edges include an angle with the direction of flow.
As a result of said angle (which may have any desired value), swirls are generated in the air flow at the location of said sharp transition edges, which swirls lead to the formation of so-called vortex streets. The dimensions of the vortex streets depend on the location on the transition edge where the swirls are generated. The location where the swirls are generated can be altered to cover a large range of frequencies (with respect to the objectionable background noises that occur) and prevent objectionable background noises occurring over the entire frequency range. In the case of small panel openings, the total swirling of the exiting air flow aids in preventing objectionable noises.
In another embodiment, the three-dimensional body includes windward surfaces and leeward surfaces that gradually blend into one another. A sharply defined transition edge is lacking in this embodiment, however, the (gradual) transition between the windward and leeward surfaces can nevertheless lead to the generation of swirls.
Generally a number of three-dimensional bodies will be arranged beside and/or behind each other. These bodies may or may not be arranged adjacent to each other.
In addition, geometric shapes can be used for the three-dimensional bodies. For example, it is possible to use a three-dimensional body that comprise of a block having a zigzag rear edge and/or front edge, wherein the block extends substantially transverse to the panel. The sharp transition edges that produce the swirling effect are formed at least at the location of said zigzag rear edge and/or front edge.
Another embodiment is a three-dimensional body which comprises a tetrahedron, one surface of which coincides with the underside of the panel having one corner point of the surface pointing in the direction of flow, or in a direction opposite thereto. When the tetrahedron has a corner point of the surface pointing in the direction of flow, the tetrahedron has a windward surface, wherein the windward surface diverges in the direction of flow with respect to the panel surface, with two mutually converging (in the direction of flow) leeward surfaces adjoining the surface. The transition edges between the diverging surface and the two converging surfaces produce a swirling effect. If the corner point of the tetrahedron points in a direction opposite the direction of flow, there are two mutually diverging windward surfaces, and one leeward surface, which converges with respect to the panel surface.
It is also possible to use a so-called NACA vortex turbulator as the three-dimensional body. This is a wedge-shaped body, which was developed by NACA (the predecessor of the present US NASA) for generating swirls.
It is possible to attach the aforesaid three-dimensional bodies to an existing panel after manufacture, but it is also possible to form the bodies thereon during the production stage. In the latter case, the three-dimensional body can be integral with the panel. Thus the three-dimensional body may form part of the so-called panel encapsulation, which forms the underside (interior side) of the panel.


A system and method is provided for coordinating wireless bandwidth usage of a common frequency band by wireless nodes in two disjoint networks, such as an infrastructure (“IS”) network and an ad hoc (“AH”) network. When AH nodes move into the transmission range of an access point of the IS network, they register with the access point and listen to the access point to tell them when they are allowed to transmit data over a given transmission channel. The access point coordinates the bandwidth usage by broadcasting ad hoc mode poll signals to indicate that the ad hoc nodes may transmit over the channel, and sending infrastructure mode poll signals to indicate that a wireless node in the IS network can transmit over the given channel. The access point makes a fraction of the bandwidth available for communications by the wireless AH nodes in its transmission range, while guaranteeing the rest of the bandwidth for wireless nodes in the IS network.

Devices using network communications over wireless links are becoming increasing popular. Wireless links typically transmit data over radio frequency channels but may operate over other carrier frequency ranges, such as infrared. Most radio frequency based wireless networks are designed to operate in two basic modes: the infrastructure mode and the peer-to-peer or ad hoc mode. In the infrastructure ("IS") mode, which is also sometimes referred to as the managed network mode, each wireless network node communicates with the other nodes through an access point ("AP") node of the IS network. The access point functions as a bridge, repeater, gateway, and firewall between wireless nodes and wired nodes of the network. The access point may also apportion bandwidth to the wireless IS nodes to ensure the quality of the communications.
In the ad hoc ("AH") mode, a wireless node communicates directly, i.e., in a peer-to-peer fashion, with other nodes within its RF range without going through an intermediate node such as the access point of the IS network. Ad hoc wireless network connections are useful when close-by users want to communicate with each other in places where no IS network exists, or when they fail to be authorized by the access point of an existing IS network.
At a given location, there may be an IS network coexisting with an AH network whose range overlaps with that of the IS network. Moreover, the IS wireless devices and AH wireless devices may try to communicate over the same frequency channel. The two networks, however, are disjoint in that the nodes in one network generally are not able to directly communicate with the nodes in the other network. When wireless devices of different networks try to transmit over the same channel, conflicts in bandwidth usage may arise. For example, in one scenario, a sales representative is waiting at an airport lounge to catch a flight. The airport has a public local area network (LAN) that supports an IS wireless network and has an access point in the lounge. To use the few remaining minutes before his flight takes off, he decides to download his email and some power point files from his corporate network over a wireless link through the airport's IS network so that he can work on his upcoming customer presentation during his long flight. Being short on time he negotiates with the airport's IS network some additional bandwidth for his session to allow him to complete his downloads quickly. In the meantime, a group of students who are located close to him and equipped with computers and wireless LAN cards start to communicate with each other wirelessly over an AH network that uses the same frequency channel as the airport's IS network. A computer of one of the students may attempt to transmit at the same time the sales representative's computer attempts to transmit, resulting in a conflict. When the two computers detect this conflict, both of them enter into a back-off state and try later to retransmit when the frequency channel is clear. As a result, the AH network formed by the students adversely affect the bandwidth guarantees promised to the sales representative by the IS network.

System and method for coordinating bandwidth usage of a communication channel by wireless network nodes


A charge forming device includes a body with a fuel and air mixing passage, a bypass passage that communicates with the fuel and air mixing passage, a throttle valve and a choke valve. The throttle valve is movable between idle and wide open positions and operable to control at least in part the fluid flow through the fuel and air mixing passage. The choke valve is movable between an open position permitting a substantially free flow of air into the fuel and air mixing passage and a closed position at least substantially restricting air flow into the fuel and air mixing passage. A bypass valve is movable between an open position and a closed position to selectively permit fluid flow through the bypass passage. The bypass valve is movable toward its open position when the throttle valve is displaced at least a threshold amount away from its idle position.

Small internal combustion engines may be used in various devices including recreational vehicles and garden implements such as chain saws, lawn mowers and string trimmers. Some of these devices have pull cord type starting systems that require a retractable cord to be pulled by a user of the device to start it. In a recoil starter mechanism, pulling the cord rotates a recoil pulley which, through a one way clutch, rotates a crank shaft of the engine to start the engine.

Charge forming device with controlled air bypass


The leading end portion of a caulking pawl portion formed in the end portion of a pipe main body is formed integrally with the pipe main body through the side surface portion of the caulking pawl portion which has a larger width in the longitudinal direction thereof than the width of the leading end portion in the longitudinal direction thereof. At the same time, the leading end portion of the caulking pawl portion is also formed integrally with the cap side end of the side surface portion of the caulking pawl portion.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a pipe which can be manufactured by molding a plate member into a cylindrical-shaped member and then connecting one side edge portion of the cylindrical-shaped member and the other side edge portion thereof to each other.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, in a heat exchanger such as a capacitor or the like, a tank main body is manufactured from a pipe member which is formed of aluminum.
And, conventionally, such pipe member is manufactured in such a manner that, as shown in FIG. 6, a plate member 11 is molded into a cylindrical-shaped member and, after then, one side edge portion 11a of the cylindrical-shaped member and the other side edge portion 11b thereof are connected together by brazing R.
However, in such conventional pipe member 13, if the pipe member 13 is heated up to a high temperature within a brazing furnace for the purpose of brazing, then, as shown in FIG. 7, with a point A as the center thereof, one side edge portion 11a and the other side edge portion 11b of the pipe member 13 are opened, which makes it difficult to braze together one side edge portion 11a and the other side edge portion 11b of the pipe member 13 with accuracy.
In view of this, conventionally, as shown in FIG. 8, there is employed a method in which one side edge portion 11a and the other side edge portion 11b of the pipe member 13 are previously spot welded W together at intervals and, after then, one side edge portion 11a and the other side edge portion 11b of the pipe member 13 are brazed to each other.
However, in the above-mentioned conventional manufacturing method, because one side edge portion 11a and the other side edge portion 11b of the pipe member 13 are previously spot welded W together at intervals, there arises a problem that a large number of man-hours are necessary to manufacture the pipe member 13.
Conventionally, as a method which has solved this problem, there are known a pipe and a method for manufacturing the same as follows.
FIGS. 9 to 11 respectively show the above-mentioned pipe; that is, this pipe is manufactured in such a manner that a plate member 15 is molded into a cylindrical-shaped member, and one side edge portion 15a and the other side edge portion 15b of the cylindrical-shaped member are connected to each other to thereby form a pipe main body 17.
Also, as shown in FIG. 9, in the pipe main body 17, there are formed a plurality of fitting portions 19 which are spaced at given intervals from one another.
Each of the fitting portions 19, as shown in FIG. 10, includes a securing portion 21 which is formed integrally with one side edge portion 15a of the pipe main body 17, and a caulking pawl portion 23 which is formed integrally with the other side edge portion 15b of the pipe main body 17 and also with which the securing portion 21 can be fitted from inside.
And, the leading end portion 23a of the caulking pawl portion 23 is bent and is stored in a securing recessed portion 25 formed on the side of one side edge portion 15a of the pipe main body 17.
In the present pipe, if the securing portion 21 formed integrally with one side edge portion 15a of the pipe main body 17 is fitted with the caulking pawl portion 23 formed integrally with the other side edge portion 15b of the pipe main body 17, then one side edge portion 15a and the other side edge portion 15b of the pipe main body 17 can be positively contacted together at a given position thereof, with the result that one side edge portion 15a and the other side edge portion 15b of the pipe main body 17 can be positively connected together at a given position without using spot welding.
Also, since the leading end portion 23a of the caulking pawl portion 23 is stored in a securing recessed portion 25 formed on the side of one side edge portion 15a of the pipe main body 17, the leading end portion 23a of the caulking pawl portion 23 is prevented from projecting beyond the outer periphery of the pipe main body 17, thereby being able to manufacture a pipe which is entirely free from troublesome projections.
However, in this pipe, as shown in FIG. 9, because the width W of the side surface portion 23b of the caulking pawl portion 23 is set equal to the width W of the leading end portion 23a thereof, when the leading end portion 23a of the caulking pawl portion 23 is bent, as shown in FIG. 12, the bent portion 23c of the caulking pawl portion 23 provides a relatively large arc shape. This raises a problem that it is difficult for the leading end portion 23a of the caulking pawl portion 23 to hold the-securing portion 21 positively.
In view of the above, a pipe shown in FIG. 13 which can solve the above-mentioned problem has been previously developed.
Here, FIG. 13 shows the details of the main portions of the pipe disclosed in the present cited publication; in particular, in this pipe, the width H1 of the side surface portion 27b of a caulking pawl portion 27 in the longitudinal direction thereof is set larger than the width H2 of the leading end portion 27a of the caulking pawl portion 27 in the longitudinal direction thereof.
Also, the leading end portion 27a is formed in the central portion of the side surface portion 27b, while the two edges 27c of the leading end portion 27a are formed at positions spaced apart from the two edges 27d of the side surface portion 27b.
That is, in the present pipe, because the width H1 of the side surface portion 27b of the caulking pawl portion 27 in the longitudinal direction thereof is set larger than the width H2 of the leading end portion 27a of the caulking pawl portion 27 in the longitudinal direction thereof, the rigidity of the leading end portion 27a is sufficiently lower than the rigidity of the side surface portion 27b, and also because the two edges 27c of the leading end portion 27a are formed at positions spaced apart from the two edges 27d of the side surface portion 27b, the two edges 27c of the root portion 27e, which is connected to the side surface portion 27b, of the leading end portion 27a are weak in strength. Due to these two factors, the leading end portion 27a of the caulking pawl portion 27 can be bent at and from the base portion 27e thereof into a given shape.
That is, the leading end portion 27a of the caulking pawl portion 27 can be bent into a given shape easily and positively.
However, in the above-mentioned pipe, as shown in FIG. 14, there is a possibility that the caulking pawl portion 27 can be situated in the neighborhood of the end portion of the pipe main body 28 thereof. In this case, when the cylindrical-shaped portion 29a of a cap 29 is fitted with the outer periphery of either end of the pipe main body 28, the cylindrical-shaped portion 29a of the cap 29 interferes with the edge of the side surface portion 27b of the caulking pawl portion 27, which makes it difficult to bring the cylindrical-shaped portion 29a of the cap 29 into fitting engagement with the pipe main body 28 with accuracy.
That is, in this pipe, the pipe main body 28 must provide different lengths according to uses but, for easy manufacture and design of the pipe, it is desirable that the setting position of the caulking pawl portion 27 to be formed in the pipe main body 28 can be used in common as much as possible. Therefore, depending on the length that is required of the pipe main body 28, there is a fear that the cylindrical-shaped portion 29a of the cap 29 can interfere with the edge of the side surface portion 27b of the caulking pawl portion 27.


Systems and methods for a functional and ornamental vehicle accessory are provided. The vehicle accessory includes a housing and a mounting mechanism for coupling the accessory to a vehicle. The vehicle accessory can also include a light source or light conducting member. Wiring for electrically connecting the light source can be included such that the vehicle accessory can illuminate during a variety of vehicle functions. The vehicle accessory can also operate as a communication hub for the vehicle.

Auxiliary warning lights have been incorporated on sides of motor vehicles to provide a means of communicating the intentions of an operator thereof to adjacent vehicles, such as, the intention to change traffic lanes or make a turn. Such lights are advantageous in providing notice to an adjacent vehicle that may be located in a blind spot and positioned such that the signaling vehicle's tail lights are not visible to the adjacent vehicle's operator. While incorporation of such auxiliary warning lights is relatively straightforward on work-type vehicles it becomes a more complex problem when passenger-type vehicles are involved due in part to the importance of aesthetic appearance. Other considerations which can apply to any type of vehicle include the need to position the lights so as to minimize any impact on the vision of the vehicle operator.
In addition to providing transportation, motor vehicles have become a visible symbol of what type of person someone is. For instance, some wealthy people perceive expensive automobiles as a status symbol, while a rugged individualist will often drive a sport-utility type vehicle. Other people like to express themselves by painting their vehicles bold colors, or by decorating their vehicles with a variety of custom, personalized items. As a result of the high number of people who customize their vehicles, a large market has been created which caters exclusively to after-market vehicle products.

Functional and ornamental vehicle accessories


An integrated semiconductor circuit having a first and a second portion of a substrate, in which a power semiconductor circuit structure and a logic circuit structure are respectively formed. The metallization having a power metal layer and an in relative terms thinner logic metal layer, the two metal layers being located directly above one another in this order, without an intermetal dielectric between them, only in the first portion above the power semiconductor circuit structure, and an uninterrupted conductive barrier layer being located at least between the power metal layer and the intermediate oxide layer and also between the power metal layer and the contact regions and electrode portions of the power semiconductor circuit structure which it contact-connects, and to a method for fabricating it.

Power semiconductor components which combine DMOS power transistors with large scale integrated logic impose particular demands on the metallization. To allow bonding to an active area, i.e. directly above the DMOS transistor cells, on the one hand a metal thickness of at least 3.0 μm is required. On the other hand, the logic metallization should be patterned as finely as possible in order to achieve a high packing density. However, this considerably limits the thickness of the metallization layer which can be used in the logic circuit structure.
With new power semiconductor circuit technologies, the problem is arising whereby the metal thicknesses which are required over the power DMOS transistor structure can no longer easily be patterned with the required fineness in the region of the logic circuit. In a modern power semiconductor technology, for example, a thickness of the power metallization of 3.5 μm and the following logic design rules are requirements: metal width: 1.6 μm; metal interconnect spacing: 1.6 μm and contact hole size: 1.2 μm. With a logic metallization thickness of 1.0 μm, these feature sizes can be produced without difficulties using current processes.
The problem of using finely patterned metal interconnects in the logic circuit structure to intelligently and inexpensively connect a thick power metallization has hitherto been solved by the circuitous route of a relatively expensive two-layer metallization. It is therefore desirable to simplify the metallization integration in order to reduce the process costs and enhance the competitiveness of modern technologies.
The present applicant has pursued the following solution approaches with a view to solving the problem described above in the technologies for the fabrication of integrated power semiconductor circuits:
I. In one technology for integrated power semiconductor circuits which is in production with the applicant, a 3.2 μm thick AlSiCu layer is sputtered on after the contact hole patterning and this layer is then patterned by plasma-chemical means using photoresist as a mask. This is followed by passivation and imide processing. The contact and metallization structures are relatively large, allowing this simple fabrication method which includes only one metallization level to be used.
II. Another technology which is in use with the present applicant for the fabrication of integrated power semiconductor circuits uses a significantly more complex two-layer metallization. After the contact hole patterning, a 1.0 μm thick AlSiCu layer is sputtered on and then once again patterned by plasma-chemical means using photoresist as a mask. Then, an oxide-nitride layer sequence is deposited and removed again above the DMOS surfaces and the contact-connection pads during the via etch. A further 2.5 μm thick AlSiCu layer is applied by sputtering and removed again using a photographic technique and a wet-chemical etch over the entirety of the logic surfaces apart from the logic contact-connection pads. As a result, a metallization thickness of 3.5 μm is achieved above the DMOS power transistor and in the contact-connection pads, whereas a passivated wiring with relatively small structures can be produced in the logic circuit. The metallization process is concluded by an imide processing operation.
In electrical terms, the intermetal dielectric is not required, since only a single metal level is used for wiring of the logic circuits. Consequently, the function of the intermetal dielectric is restricted to forming an etching stop for the wet-chemical power metal patterning and protecting the logic circuit metallization level below.
In view of the statements made above, it is an object of the present invention to provide an integrated semiconductor circuit of the type described in the introduction, as well as a method for fabricating it, which make it possible to realize an inexpensive and reliable logic and power metallization without the deposition and patterning of an intermetal dielectric for current and future integrated power semiconductor circuits.

Integrated semiconductor circuit having a logic and power metallization without intermetal dielectric


A method and apparatus for controlling quality in a foundry having a plurality of core shooting machines which produce individual cores which are assembled to produce multi-part core assemblies which serve as foundry molds. The cores are removed from the shooting machines and at least selected cores are measured in a non-contacting manner. The measured data are then compared with stored desired values which may be determined by an analysis of an acceptable core, and any core having measured data which deviate from the stored desired values is rejected. Thus, the production of defective castings is avoided.

The invention relates to a method of controlling the quality in core or shell shooting machines, wherein a molding material is forced by means of a shooting device into an openable tool and solidified therein to form a component of a mold--core, shell, or the like--and wherein the mold component is removed when the tool is open.
Basically the present invention relates to the field of foundry practice. To produce castings, foundry cores or foundry molds are generally made as separate parts, combined, and joined together to form a casting mold or core assembly. Thereafter, these core assemblies are filled with molten metal for producing, for example, a metallic workpiece. In mass production the core assemblies that are to be filled with molten metal pass one after the other through the production line.
In this connection, it is quite especially important that the workpieces cast in the core assemblies require an extremely long cooling phase, which will often last over several hours. Only after this cooling phase, is it possible to inspect the cast workpiece or product. Consequently, it is possible to find only several hours after casting and, thus, likewise several hours after the core shooting operation, whether or not the part cast in the core assembly is entirely free of defects.
In the event that a defective core is used, it will be possible to detect a reject resulting therefrom during the casting only after hours following the production of the core. Should in this instance the defect on the core again be a systematic, recurrent defect, rejects would be produced for hours before the defect is found on the cast product. The defective cores that are accountable for these rejects may originate, on the one hand, from defects in the tool of the core shooting machine and, on the other hand, from damage that occurs while handling, transporting, or assembling the cores. In any event, it is not justifiable to be able to detect defects and, thus, rejects, only after completion of the casting operation, or during an inspection of the cooled castings.
Core and shell shooting machines of the above-described kind have been known from practice for decades. Only by way of example, reference may be made to DE 31 48 461 C1.
DE 44 34 798 A1 discloses likewise a core and shell shooting machine, in which at least one visual inspection of the tool is provided. In the long run, the visual inspection disclosed in DE 44 34 798 A1 is impractical, inasmuch as the tool cannot be constantly observed, in particular within the scope of a fully automatic production. For a visual inspection, a skilled operator would have to observe the tool constantly, i.e., after each shooting operation. Even if such a visual observation or inspection were to go forward, the destiny of an ejected core that is to be further transported would be left open, since--as aforesaid--defects or damage may also occur while handling, transferring, or even assembling the cores.
It is therefore the object of the present invention to provide a method of controlling quality in core or shell shooting machines, wherein it is possible to recognize rejects and to prevent--systematically--repeating rejects. Furthermore, it is an object to provide an apparatus for shooting cores and shells with the use of the method in accordance with the invention.

Method for quality control in core or shell shooters and a device for core or shell shooting


A touch display is disclosed including a display module, a polarizer disposed on the display module, and a plurality of touch electrodes at least partly coated on the polarizer, wherein the touch electrodes are formed by nano-silver. Since the touch electrodes formed by nano-silver is employed in the display, a multifunctional touch display is provided. A method for making the touch display is also disclosed.

This Application claims priority of China Patent Application No. CN 201310410710.7, filed on Sep. 9, 2013, and the entirety of which is incorporated by reference herein.
Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates to displays, and more particularly relates to a touch display and a method for manufacturing the touch display.
Description of the Prior Art
Display is an output device for presentation of information and has been widely used. According to the different designs, the displays can be divided into a cathode ray tube (CRT) display, a light emitting diode (LED) display, a liquid crystal display (LCD) and plasma (PDP) displays, and so on.
General electronic device often requires an output device and an input device to display electrical signals and receive operating instructions. Conventional display can only output electrical signals for the user, as for receiving operating instructions from the user, an additional input device (such as a mouse or a keyboard) is required. However, the incorporation of multiple devices with single feature will increase the complexity of the electronic device, and it is difficult to achieve light and thin.
Therefore, there is room for improvement within the art.

Touch display comprising a polarizer with integrated nano-silver touch electrodes and method for manufacturing the same


A seal arrangement for a silo combustor includes a first casing and a second casing each forming a passageway for a gas, an end portion of the first casing being disposed radially inside an end portion of the second casing such that the first and the second casing form an overlapping region having a radial gap. A segmented seal has at least two adjacent segments disposed in the overlapping region so as to seal the radial gap, wherein the first casing includes at least one opening disposed in a region between the at least two adjacent segments.

A silo-type combustor usually comprises a combustion chamber, which is supplied with a fuel from above and compressed air, and a hot gas casing through which the hot combustion products are supplied from the combustion chamber to a turbine. The hot gases expand through the turbine.
The compressed air is supplied to the combustion chamber through an annular channel, which surrounds the combustor casing. The flow of hot gases and the flow of compressed air are therefore in opposing directions. The compressed air has further the function of cooling the combustor chamber casing and the hot gas casing.
The lower part of the combustion chamber is called the combustor inner liner (CIL). The combustor inner liner and the hot gas casing have an overlap, where the tip of the combustor inner liner is located inside of the upper part of the hot gas casing. In order to avoid mechanical contact and resulting fretting a gap is provided between the combustor inner liner and the hot gas casing. As the compressed air is at a higher pressure than the hot gases flowing through the combustor inner liner and the hot gas casing, the pressure difference would cause leakage of compressed air from the annular channel into the hot gas flow, thus reducing the amount of air available for combustion. A seal is therefore provided in the gap to prevent any leakage.
The seal consists of a set of segments, which may or may not overlap. One seal design is called a belt seal. In this seal arrangement the segments are assembled circumferentially around the casing, whereby the individual segments are assembled with overlap and tightened by a spring. Their connection allows some movement relative to each other, and therefore they form a flexible structure, which accommodates the possible deformation of the combustor inner liner and the hot gas casing due to thermal expansion. Hooks welded onto the hot gas casing hold the belt seal segments. The interfaces between the seal segments are circumferentially located on the hot gas casing at the same positions as the hooks.
The belt seal structure accommodates a deformation of the combustor casing due to thermal expansion and a resulting variation in the radial gap between the combustor inner liner and the hot gas casing. The overlapping sections of the belt seal substantially prevent leakage past the seal in the axial direction. There are however still small gaps between the segments, which lead to leakages in the radial direction. The amount of leakage air is small and has no appreciable impact on the combustion air supply. These leakages can however, due to vortex formation, cause ingestion of hot gas into the gap between the combustor inner liner and the hot gas casing. This results in local overheating. This overheating may occur on the combustor inner liner as well as on the hot gas casing, in the same position where the holding hooks and the interface between the segments is located. These hot spots lead to increased oxidation and a reduced life of the combustor inner liner and of the hot gas casing.


A carbon dioxide separation system for a fuel cell system having a small volume and weight of a separation device and of a membrane, at simultaneous increase of the separated volume of carbon dioxide, comprises a separation device for containing a fluid phase, a carbon dioxide phase, and a two phase fluid including fluid and carbon dioxide. The separation device comprises a two phase fluid inlet, a fluid outlet, a carbon dioxide outlet, a carbon dioxide separation membrane, and a flow restrictor creating a backpressure which presses separated carbon dioxide through the carbon dioxide separation membrane. The flow restrictor comprises at least one narrow aperture, and is mounted downstream of the separation device. The carbon dioxide separation membrane is positioned in the separation device in such a manner that at least a part of the total membrane area is arranged above a two phase fluid level and is in touch with carbon dioxide contained in the separation device above the two phase fluid level.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a carbon dioxide separation system for a fuel cell system and, more particularly, to a device for separating a carbon dioxide gas from a fuel stream in a direct fuel cell system, especially in a direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) system, which is used to supply power to a mobile electronic device.
2. Related Art
FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) system disclosed in U.S. Patent Publication No. 2004/016389A1.
Referring to FIG. 1, a fuel cell stack 10 has an air inlet 11 and an air outlet 13. An air pump or fan 12 supplies reaction air to a stack cathode through the air inlet 11. A heat exchanger 50 is mounted in an outlet stream of a fuel cell cathode. A fan 55 is used to cool the heat exchanger 50, leading to a cooling of the outlet stream and a condensation of water. A two phase flow exits the heat exchanger 50 at an outlet 52. Downstream of the heat exchanger 50, a water separator 60 is mounted in order to separate liquid water from an air stream. The separated water is fed back to the anode cycle of the fuel cell system by a condensation pump 70, while the residual air is vented through an air venting outlet 61 to the ambience.
One indispensable function of the DMFC system is the separation of carbon dioxide from the outlet stream coming out of a stack fuel outlet 16. This outlet stream comprises a mixture of methanol, water and carbon dioxide. For a proper function of the fuel cell, the carbon dioxide has to be separated from the stream prior to the recycling of the fuel stream back into the fuel cell stack 10.
An anode cycle for diluted fuel, comprising a carbon dioxide separator 20 mounted downstream from the stack fuel outlet 16, removes carbon dioxide from the reaction stream and vents it to the ambience through a venting opening 21. In a mixer 22, the reaction stream is mixed with pure fuel from a fuel tank 30. A fuel pump 23 feeds the diluted fuel back to a fuel inlet 15 of the fuel cell stack 10.
European Patent Publication EP 1 383 191 A1 discloses another possible embodiment of a carbon dioxide separation device. Here, the carbon dioxide separation is accomplished in a compartment filled with a fuel mixture having an inlet connected to a stack fuel outlet and an outlet connected to the circulation pump. Carbon dioxide bubbles are separated from the fuel mixture by gravity during the stay time of the fuel mixture within the separation compartment. On top of this separation compartment, a water separator is mounted. There are openings between the carbon dioxide compartment and the water separator leading to the feeding of separated carbon dioxide to the air venting outlet and the separated water into the carbon dioxide separation device (back into the anode cycle), both operations occurring through the action of gravity. The main disadvantage of this embodiment is the strong dependence on the orientation of the device, i.e. the device essentially works only in an upright position. This may also pose problems when the separation device has to be integrated into a flat system set-up as required, for example, for a notebook docking station.
Another embodiment of a carbon dioxide separation device is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,869,716. Here, the gas separation takes place across a hydrophobic membrane which forms a conduit component around the fuel stream of two phase fluid containing fluid and carbon dioxide. The backpressure needed to press the carbon dioxide through the separation membrane is formed either by a cone-type design of the hydrophobic conduit or by a hydrophilic passageway at the outlet end of the conduit.
The problem with that solution is that it is difficult to manufacture and system-integrate such a tubular hydrophilic membrane with a small diameter. Due to the condensation of water in the compartment which transfers the carbon dioxide to the ambience, the relatively narrow channels might be blocked.
In general, the diffusion rate of a gas across a porous membrane is essentially proportional to the pressure difference between both faces of the membrane, i.e., a higher pressure difference allows for a smaller membrane area, and thus a smaller separation device.
The presented means for creating backpressure only lead to a limited pressure, and thus to a requirement for a relatively large area of separation membrane.

Carbon dioxide separation system for fuel cell system

Maetun-dong, Yeongtong-gu, Suwon-si, Gyeonggi-do


An integrated DRAM-NVRAM, multi-level memory cell is comprised of a vertical DRAM device with a shared vertical gate floating plate device. The floating plate device provides enhanced charge storage for the DRAM part of the cell through the shared floating body in a pillar between the two functions. The memory cell is formed in a substrate with trenches that form pillars. A vertical wordline/gate on one side of a pillar is used to control the DRAM part of the cell. A vertical trapping layer on the other side of the pillar stores one or more charges as part of the floating plate device and to enhance the DRAM function through the floating body between the DRAM and floating plate device. A vertical NVRAM wordline/control gate is formed alongside the trapping layer and is shared with an adjacent floating plate device.

Memory devices are typically provided as internal, semiconductor, integrated circuits in computers or other electronic devices. There are many different types of memory including random-access memory (RAM), read only memory (ROM), flash memory, dynamic random access memory (DRAM), and synchronous dynamic random access memory (SDRAM).
Conventional DRAM cells are comprised of a switching transistor and an integrated storage capacitor tied to the storage node of the transistor. Charge storage is enhanced by providing appropriate storage capacity in the form of a stacked capacitor or a trench capacitor in parallel with the depletion capacitance of the floating storage node. DRAM cells are volatile and therefore lose data when the power is removed.
DRAMs use one or more arrays of memory cells arranged in rows and columns. Each of the rows of memory cells is activated by a corresponding row line that is selected from a row address. A pair of complementary digit lines are provided for each column of the array and a sense amplifier coupled to the digit lines for each column is enabled responsive to a respective column address. The sense amplifier senses a small voltage differential between the digit lines and amplifies such voltage differential.
Due to finite charge leakage across the depletion layer, the capacitor has to be recharged frequently to ensure data integrity. This is referred to in the art as refreshing and can be accomplished by periodically coupling the memory cells in the row to one of the digit lines after enabling the sense amplifiers. The sense amplifiers then restore the voltage level on the memory cell capacitor to a voltage level corresponding to the stored data bit. The permissible time between refresh cycles without losing data depends on various factors such as rate of charge dissipation in the memory capacitor.
As computers become smaller and their performance increases, the computer components should also go through a corresponding size reduction and performance increase. To accomplish this, the capacitors and transistors of DRAM cells can be reduced in size. This has the effect of increased speed and memory density with decreased power requirements.
However, a problem with decreased capacitor size is that sensing a conventional DRAM cell requires a minimum value of capacitance per cell. As the capacitor gets smaller, the capacitance is reduced. This has become a scalability challenge for DRAM.
For the reasons stated above, and for other reasons stated below which will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon reading and understanding the present specification, there is a need in the art for a more scalable DRAM cell.

Integrated DRAM-NVRAM multi-level memory


In a transmission electron microscope, an electron beam flux of a cross section constricted conically over a reference specimen is made to hit the reference specimen. The flux includes electron beams hitting the specimen at incident angles which spread conically in the direction of irradiation. The beams are focused onto a fluorescent screen at positions which are different in distance from the center according to the incident angles. A transmission image of the beam flux is gained. A Fourier transform is performed for each of inspection regions set on the transmission image. Aberration coefficients C1, C2, . . . , Ci are calculated from the obtained, Fourier-transformed images by image processing. Aberration in the imaging lenses is corrected. Consequently, the aberration can be corrected by finding the aberration coefficients C1, C2, . . . , Ci from only one transmission image. The number of transmission images or the acquisition time is reduced.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a transmission electron microscope for correcting aberrations in electron beams transmitted through a specimen.
2. Description of Related Art
In recent years, transmission electron microscopes have tended to have higher resolutions. The resolution of a transmission electron microscope is chiefly limited by aberration in the electrical lens system that focuses the electron beam onto a fluorescent screen or the like. Accordingly, in a known procedure, the resolution is improved by measuring aberration in the lens system and correcting the aberration in the lens system based on the data obtained by the measurement (see, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. H7-220669 (page 1, FIG. 1)).
In the measurement of the aberration, the electron beam is made to hit an amorphous reference specimen at various angles of irradiation. A transmission image formed on the fluorescent screen at each angle of irradiation is recorded as digital information about a transmission image. Since the information about the transmission image contains information about the aberration in the lens, quantitative information about the aberration is gained by image analysis, and aberration coefficients for electrically correcting the lens system are found from the information about the aberration. Fumio Hosokawa, "Automatic Tuning of TEM Using Diffractograms", Journal of the Japanese Society of Microscopy, 2001, Vol. 36, No. 2, p. 115.
However, with the background art described above, much labor and time are required to gain information about transmission images. That is, in order to derive quantitative information about aberration by image analysis, it is necessary that information about many transmission images be gained by varying the angle of irradiation at which an electron beam is repeatedly made to hit a reference specimen.
Especially, when accurate aberration information or information about higher-order aberrations is derived, it is necessary that the angle of irradiation of the electron beam be varied more finely and that information about more transmission images be image-processed. In this case, still more labor and time are required to gain information about transmission images.
Consequently, it is important to realize a transmission electron microscope which can complete acquisition of transmission image information providing a basis of aberration information in a short time and which quickly corrects aberration.


A hose-end sprayer has a selectively rotatable rotary valve received within the transverse bore of a housing which includes a carrier liquid inlet passage, a chemical liquid inlet passage and a discharge passage. The valve has a carrier liquid duct and a chemical liquid duct opening into the carrier duct for interconnecting the inlet passage in a first rotative position of the valve, and the valve is capable of closing the inlet passages in a second rotative position of the valve. The rotary valve is selectively rotatable in a third position for interconnecting the liquid passage only with the discharge passage in a rinse position of the valve. Container venting is isolated from a valve chamber in which the rotary valve operates to avoid entry of carrier liquid into the container through the open vent in the ON position of the valve upon its selective rotation.

This application relates to a hose-end sprayer of the type set forth in U.S. Pat. No. 6,378,785, commonly owned herewith. This invention is an improvement over the venting feature disclosed in that patent, and the entirety of the disclosure of U.S. Pat. No. 6,378,785 is specifically incorporated herein by reference.
A hose-end sprayer is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,578,776 which includes a venting feature as required to replenish aspirated product from the container with air to avoid container collapse and any malfunctioning of the system. The sprayer has a cylindrical control valve 20 positioned in a cylindrical transverse bore 22 for rotation between ON and OFF positions. Valve 20 includes a sealing portion 63 that forms an annular seal with bore 22 around the interface between chemical passage 32 and a first passage 56 formed in the valve. The sprayer head assembly includes a vent passage 52 defined by a small hole formed in head 14 of the assembly. The vent passage communicates with the interior of the container and with the interior of cylindrical bore 22. Sealing member 64 on the valve includes a vent channel 68 which, in the valve open position, is aligned with vent passage 52. Accordingly, channel 68 allows passage 52 to communicate with gaps that are formed between valve 20 and its bore 22 such that in the valve open position vent passage 52 communicates with atmosphere. In the closed position of the valve, a portion of sealing member 64 overlies vent port 52 to interrupt communication with its vent channel 68 to thereby close the vent in the valve closed position. When valve 20 is rotated into its closed position, carrier passage 46, chemical passage 32, and vent passage 52 are all closed by the valve.
The sprayer head assembly of the U.S. Pat. No. 6,578,776 patent thus includes a valve chamber in communication with chemical and carrier liquid passages, with the valve movably positioned within the valve chamber. The vent passage is in communication with the valve chamber so as to likewise communicate with the carrier passage, in the valve open positions, via the gap between valve 20 and its transverse bore 22.
The drawback with such a venting system for this type of sprayer is the tendency during the vent/valve open position for liquid from the carrier passage to enter the container through the gap between 20 and 22, through vent channel 68 and through vent passage 52. This unwanted liquid, i.e., water, dilutes the chemical product in the container during repeated usage of the sprayer thus reducing the effectiveness of the chemical.


A steering device is attached to a submersible swimming pool cleaner for aiding in turning the cleaner away pool side wall engaging positions and thus allowing the cleaner to move across pool surfaces for performing its cleaning function. The steering device includes elongated rods extending from a connector fitting attached to the pool cleaner hose connector. Driven gears of the pool cleaner connector drive the steering device and cause rod ends engaging a pool side wall to lift and push the cleaner away from the side wall. The fitting and thus the rods are freely rotatable through a limited arc about an axis of rotation of the connector, defined by movement of a gear tooth between stop prongs. The ability of the rods to rotate freely within this arc overcomes a problem of excess drag to the cleaner by the steering device. Further, the rods extend radially outward and downward form the fitting such that the rod tips engage the side wall and initiate a ratchet-like action against the side wall surface which results in an upward force acting on the cleaner for reducing friction between cleaner ground engaging portions and the pool bottom wall surface, thus making it easier to rotate the cleaner for movement along pool surfaces to be cleaned.

1. Field of Invention
The invention relates generally to steering of swimming pool cleaners, and more particularly to the steering of pool cleaners operable with a suction hose attached to a rotatably driven hose coupling.
2. Description of Background Art
Typically, when the contour of a pool surface is such that a portion of the cleaner body is able to contact the pool side walls while another portion of the cleaner is in contact with the pool bottom surface, the cleaner has a likely chance of becoming stuck against the pool surfaces. This is often the case for pool side walls which are generally perpendicular to the pool bottom surface, a "square bottomed" pool. In such circumstances, the drag induced on the cleaner body will over-ride or may substantially impair the cleaner operation and its normal steering operations, causing the cleaner to remain in one position or stay at that position for an inordinate amount of time. Further, the cleaner may be forced to travel parallel to the side wall, or along pool steps. The results are improper pool cleaner operation and an inadequate pool cleaning.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,521,933 describes a random steering device for a submerged suction cleaning head for cleaning swimming pools in which there is a suction hose connecting with the head in a direction generally perpendicular to the surface on which the suction head moves. The steering device operates by intermittently applying torque about the axis of the suction hose where it enters the suction head. The torque is applied by a water motor driven by water flowing from the suction head along the suction hose.
U.S. Patent No. 5,404,607 describing a self-propelled submersible suction cleaner transfers a vibratory movement of an oscillator located within a flow path of a suction chamber for propulsion of the cleaner over a submerged surface of a pool. The oscillator vibratory movement is also converted to a unidirectional rotation of a gear train for rotating the cleaner to improve on the random movement of the cleaner over the pool surface and to maneuver the cleaner away from obstacles such as pool steps which can often stop cleaner movement, as earlier suggested. Flow through the cleaner flow path is caused by connecting the suction chamber to a filter pump and motor by a flexible hose, well known in the art. The hose is connected to a pool cleaner coupling which is rotatably connected to the gear train for rotating the coupling and thus the cleaner about the flexible hose. By its very nature, the flexible hose has rotational play and does not completely transfer the rotational forces applied by the rotating coupling to rotation of the cleaner.
The present invention provides an additional steering mechanism for such pool cleaners by providing a level of steering force from other than the rotating flexible hose.

Method for dislodging a submersible swimming pool cleaner


A buccal patch is provided comprised of desmopressin and a matrix of a configuration and size as to fit into the buccal cavity and adhere to the oral mucosa so as to dispense desmopressin through transmucosal absorption into the bloodstream.

1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates, in general, to a novel pharmaceutical composition containing biologically-active desmopressin, a vasopressin-based oligopeptide, in combination with a matrix buccal patch. More particularly, the invention is generally concerned with a buccally-administered solid pharmaceutical composition containing various doses of the active component dispersed in a buccal patch matrix. The invention allows reproducible, patient-friendly administration of the drug even when the patient has nasal congestion since one usual mode of administration of desmopressin is by nasal drops or spray. The composition is well-tolerated by patients of all ages, is just a effective as when administered by nasal drops or spray, provides prolonged and reliable action and can be stored at room temperature.
2) Description of the Related Art
It has long been recognized that natural vasopressin has useful biological effects, such as antidiuresis, vasoconstriction of visceral blood flow and release of hematological clotting factors. Its utility, however, is limited by its short half-life as well as by its well-known systemic pressor effect which includes cardio-toxicity.
A variety of analogs of vasopressin have been synthesized in an effort to modify the properties of vasopressin and provide products having increased pharmaceutical utility. For example, vasopressin has been modified by desamination of cysteine in position 1 and replacement of arginine by its D-isomer at position 8 to yield desmopressin, hereinafter also referred to as "dDAVP". Desmopressin, which is immune to enzymatic cleavage as of the 1-2 and 8-9 C--N bonds, exhibits prolonged antidiuretic action and virtually no pressor action or cardio-toxicity. For example, see U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,497,491 and 4,235,881. In further modifications, the disulfide bridge has been replaced with a thioether linkage (--CH.sub.2 S-- or --SCH.sub.2 --) or an ethylene (--(CH.sub.2 --) linkage. See also U.S. Pat. No. 3,980,631.
These vasopressin-based oligopeptides have been administered by a variety of routes and in combination with a variety of pharmaceutical carriers and additives. For example, dDAVP has been administered intranasally, subcutaneously, intravenously and intramuscularly in physiological saline at pH 4.
Various attempts have also been made to effectively orally administer vasopressin-based oligopeptides, particular dDAVP. It has been traditionally accepted that such peptides are cleaved into inactive fragments in the gastrointestinal tract with little nonapeptide adsorption taking place. dDAVP has been incorporated in gelatin-based sub-lingual lozenges (A. Grossman et al. "Two new modes of desmopressin (dDAVP) administration", British Medical Journal May 17, 1980, 1215). A difficulty with sub-lingual lozenge is the necessity for the patient to restrain tongue movement so as not to swallow it and the fact that the sub-lingual salivary glands are very productive of secretion, which carries off a variable and unknown quantity of the drug to be swallowed.
Additionally, dDAVP has been formulated into an orally administered (swallowed) composition in the form of a tablet with various fillers and inert constituents. The effective claimed dosage would appear to be 100-200.times.the intravenous level, but a difficulty remains with all swallowed forms of oligopeptides--there will be a considerable patient-to-patient and day-to-day (in one and the same patient) variation in how much of the dosage is enzymatically cleaved and what fraction remains intact to be absorbed. Furthermore, if any such tablet or lozenge is gelatin-based, the water content will limit stability--thus, both the lozenges and the oral tablets are stored at 3.degree.-8.degree. C. Finally, the time-of-onset of any activity from a dose presented in the gut will vary from patient to patient and, in the same patient, from day to day.
It is known in the art that various chemical compositions can be administered to patients through the mucous membranes of the body. Suppositories for rectal/vaginal administration are well known as well as nasal sprays and drops. More recently, the patent literature has disclosed the administration of pharmaceutically active chemicals through the mucous membrane of the mouth. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,764,378 which issued Aug. 16, 1988 to A. D. Keith et al. there is disclosed a buccal drug dose form for the transmucosal administration of drugs using an erodible matrix. A wide variety of other issued patents, both foreign and domestic are cited therein which pertain directly or indirectly to buccal drug dose forms and their methods of use. However, while the claims therein include heat-sensitive active substances such as Desmopressin, Calcitonin and Growth Hormone, no data has been presented therein, or elsewhere, that oligopeptides and protein hormones can survive the about 40.degree. C. and one to two hour conditions used to include a drug in the given matrices. For Desmopressin no data has, to date, been presented at all. For Calcitonin and Growth Hormone the only data given are the approximate composition of the carrier mix and the statement that the latter hormones could be mixed therein, without mention of their chemical state and activity after mixing.
Accordingly, one or more of the following objects will be achieved by the practice of the present invention. It is an object of this invention to provide a pharmaceutical composition in the form of a buccal patch which contains biologically active desmopressin. A further object is to provide a composition in the form of a patch which is stable and can be stored at room temperature for extended periods of time. Another object of the present invention is to provide a method for administering desmopressin to a patient in need of such treatment and who at that time is experiencing nasal congestion. A still further object of the invention is to provide a method whereby desmopressin can be administered to a patient rapidly and in a manner which provides a sustained release of a continuous, even dosage over a period of time. These and other objects will readily become apparent to those skilled in the art in light of the teachings herein set forth.


A process is provided for the bioconversion of a carbon substrate to 1,3-propanediol by a single organism utilizing microorganisms, such as, Citrobacter, Enterobacter, Clostridium, Klebsiella, Aerobacter, Lactobacillus, Aspergillus, Saccharomyces, Zygosaccharomyces, Pichia, Kluyveromyces, Candida, Hansenula, Debaryomyces, Mucor, Torulopsis, Methylobacter, Escherichia, Salmonella, Bacillus, Streptomyces and Pseudomonas, containing the genes encoding for an active glycerol or diol dehydratase enzyme by contacting these organisms with a carbon substrate under the appropriate fermentation conditions. Specifically, Citrobacter and, Klebsiella provide the source of exogenous genes for such active dehydratase enzyme.

1,3-Propanediol is a monomer having potential utility in the production of polyester fibers and the manufacture of polyurethanes and cyclic compounds.
A variety of chemical routes to 1,3-propanediol are known. For example ethylene oxide may be converted to 1,3-propanediol over a catalyst in the presence of phosphine, water, carbon monoxide, hydrogen and an acid, by the catalytic solution phase hydration of acrolein followed by reduction, or from hydrocarbons such as glycerol, reacted in the presence of carbon monoxide and hydrogen over catalysts having atoms from group VIII of the periodic table. Although it is possible to generate 1,3-propanediol by these methods, they are expensive and generate waste streams containing environmental pollutants.
It has been known for over a century that 1,3-propanediol can be produced from the fermentation of glycerol. Bacterial strains able to produce 1,3-propane-diol have been found, for example, in the groups Citrobacter, Clostridium, Enterobacter, ILyobacter, Klebsiella, Lactobacillus, and Pelobacter. In each case studied, glycerol is converted to 1,3-propanediol in a two step, enzyme catalyzed reaction sequence. In the first step, a dehydratase catalyzes the conversion of glycerol to 3-hydroxypropionaldehyde (3-HP) and water, Equation 1. In the second step, 3-HP is reduced to 1,3-propanediol by a NAD+-linked oxidoreductase, Equation 2. The 1,3-propanediol is not metabolized further and, as a result,Glycerol→3-HP+H2O  (Equation 1)3-HP+NADH+H+→1,3-Propanediol+NAD+  (Equation 2)accumulates in high concentration in the media. The overall reaction consumes a reducing equivalent in the form of a cofactor, reduced β-nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH), which is oxidized to nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+).
The production of 1,3-propanediol from glycerol is generally performed under anaerobic conditions using glycerol as the sole carbon source and in the absence of other exogenous reducing equivalent acceptors. Under these conditions, in e.g., strains of Citrobacter, Clostridium, and Klebsiella, a parallel pathway for glycerol operates which first involves oxidation of glycerol to dihydroxyacetone (DHA) by a NAD+-(or NADP+-) linked glycerol dehydrogenase, Equation 3. The DHA, following phosphorylation to dihydroxyacetone phosphate (DHAP) by a DHA kinase (Equation 4),Glycerol+NAD+→DHA+NADH+H+  (Equation 3)DHA+ATP→DHAP+ADP  (Equation 4)becomes available for biosynthesis and for supporting ATP generation via e.g., glycolysis. In contrast to the 1,3-propanediol pathway, this pathway may provide carbon and energy to the cell and produces rather than consumes NADH.
In Klebsiella pneumoniae and Citrobacter freundii, the genes encoding the functionally linked activities of glycerol dehydratase (dhaB), 1,3-propanediol oxidoreductase (dhaT), glycerol dehydrogenase (dhaD), and dihydroxyacetone kinase (dhaK) are encompassed by the dha regulon. The dha regulons from Citrobacter and Klebsiella have been expressed in Escherichia coli and have been shown to convert glycerol to 1,3-propanediol.
Biological processes for the preparation of glycerol are known. The overwhelming majority of glycerol producers are yeasts but some bacteria, other fungi and algae are also known. Both bacteria and yeasts produce glycerol by converting glucose or other carbohydrates through the fructose-1,6-bisphosphate pathway in glycolysis or the Embden Meyerhof Parnas pathway, whereas, certain algae convert dissolved carbon dioxide or bicarbonate in the chloroplasts into the 3-carbon intermediates of the Calvin cycle. In a series of steps, the 3-carbon intermediate, phosphoglyceric acid, is converted to glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate which can be readily interconverted to its keto isomer dihydroxyacetone phosphate and ultimately to glycerol. Although biological methods of both glycerol and 1,3-propanediol production are known, it has never been demonstrated that the entire process can be accomplished by a single organism.
Neither the chemical nor biological methods described above for the production of 1,3-propanediol is well suited for industrial scale production since the chemical processes are energy intensive and the biological processes require the expensive starting material, glycerol. A method requiring low energy input and an inexpensive starting material is needed. A more desirable process would incorporate a microorganism that would have the ability to convert basic carbon sources such as carbohydrates or sugars to the desired 1,3-propanediol end-product.
Although a single organism conversion of fermentable carbon source other than glycerol or dihydroxyacetone to 1,3-propanediol would be desirable, it has been documented that there are significant difficulties to overcome in such an endeavor. For example, Gottschalk et al. (EP 373 230) teach that the growth of most strains useful for the production of 1,3-propanediol, including Citrobacter freundii, Clostridium autobutylicum, Clostridium butylicum, and Klebsiella pneumoniae, is disturbed by the presence of a hydrogen donor such as fructose or glucose. Strains of Lactobacillus brevis and Lactobacillus buchner, which produce 1,3-propanediol in co-fermentations of glycerol and fructose or glucose, do not grow when glycerol is provided as the sole carbon source, and, although it has been shown that resting cells can metabolize glucose or fructose, they do not produce 1,3-propanediol. (Veiga DA Cunha et al., J. Bacteriol. 174, 1013 (1992)). Similarly, it has been shown that a strain of Ilyobacter polytropus, which produces 1,3-propanediol when glycerol and acetate are provided, will not produce 1,3-propanediol from carbon substrates other than glycerol, including fructose and glucose. (Steib et al., Arch. Microbiol. 140, 139 (1984)). Finally Tong et al. (Appl. Biochem. Biotech. 34, 149 (1992)) has taught that recombinant Escherichia coli transformed with the dha regulon encoding glycerol dehydratase does not produce 1,3-propanediol from either glucose or xylose in the absence of exogenous glycerol.
Attempts to improve the yield of 1,3-propanediol from glycerol have been reported where co-substrates capable of providing reducing equivalents, typically fermentable sugars, are included in the process. Improvements in yield have been claimed for resting cells of Citrobacter freundii and Klebsiella pneumoniae DSM 4270 cofermenting glycerol and glucose (Gottschalk et al., supra.; and Tran-Dinh et al., DE 3734 764); but not for growing cells of Klebsiella pneumoniae ATCC 25955 cofermenting glycerol and glucose, which produced no 1,3-propanediol (I-T. Tong, Ph.D. Thesis, University of Wisconsin-Madison (1992)). Increased yields have been reported for the cofermentation of glycerol and glucose or fructose by a recombinant Escherichia coli; however, no 1,3-propanediol is produced in the absence of glycerol (Tong et al., supra.). In these systems, single organisms use the carbohydrate as a source of generating NADH while providing energy and carbon for cell maintenance or growth. These disclosures suggest that sugars do not enter the carbon stream that produces 1,3-propanediol. In no case is 1,3-propanediol produced in the absence of an exogenous source of glycerol. Thus the weight of literature clearly suggests that the production of 1,3-propanediol from a carbohydrate source by a single organism is not possible.
The problem to be solved by the present invention is the biological production of 1,3-propanediol by a single organism from an inexpensive carbon substrate such as glucose or other sugars. The biological production of 1,3-propanediol requires glycerol as a substrate for a two step sequential reaction in which a dehydratase enzyme (typically a coenzyme B12-dependent dehydratase) converts glycerol to an intermediate, 3-hydroxypropionaldehyde, which is then reduced to 1,3-propanediol by a NADH-(or NADPH) dependent oxidoreductase. The complexity of the cofactor requirements necessitates the use of a whole cell catalyst for an industrial process which utilizes this reaction sequence for the production of 1,3-propanediol. Furthermore, in order to make the process economically viable, a less expensive feedstock than glycerol or dihydroxyacetone is needed. Glucose and other carbohydrates are suitable substrates, but, as discussed above, are known to interfere with 1,3-propanediol production. As a result no single organism has been shown to convert glucose to 1,3-propanediol.
Applicants have solved the stated problem and the present invention provides for bioconverting a fermentable carbon source directly to 1,3-propanediol using a single organism. Glucose is used as a model substrate and the bioconversion is applicable to any existing microorganism. Microorganisms harboring the gene for a dehydratase are able to convert glucose and other sugars through the glycerol degradation pathway to 1,3-propanediol with good yields and selectivities. Furthermore, the present invention may be generally applied to include any carbon substrate that is readily converted to 1) glycerol, 2) dihydroxyacetone, or 3) C3 compounds at the oxidation state of glycerol (e.g., glycerol 3-phosphate) or 4) C3 compounds at the oxidation state of dihydroxyacetone (e.g., dihydroxyacetone phosphate or glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate).

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Processes for the bioconversion of a fermentable carbon source to 1,3-propanediol by a single microorganism