Compounds of Formula (I):

The present invention is directed to tri(cyclo) substituted amide compounds. In particular, the present invention is directed to amide compounds substituted i) at the carbonyl carbon with an ethyl/ethenyl attached to a nitrogen-containing six-membered heteroaryl ring and a saturated or unsaturated ring, and ii) at the amino with a nitrogen bearing heteroaryl ring, which are modulators of glucokinase and are useful in the prophylactic or therapeutic treatment of hyperglycemia and type II diabetes.
Glucokinase ("GK") is believed to be important in the body's regulation of its plasma glucose level. GK, found principally in the liver and pancreas, is one of four hexokinases that catalyze the initial metabolism of glucose. The GK pathway is saturated at higher glucose levels than the other hexokinase pathways (See R. L. Printz et al., Annu. Rev. Nutr., 13:463-496(1993)). GK is critical to maintaining the glucose balance in mammals. Animals that do not express GK die soon after birth with diabetes, while animals that overexpress GK have improved glucose tolerance. Activation of GK can lead to hyperinsulinemic hypoglycemia. (See, for example, H. B. T. Christesen et al., Diabetes, 51:1240-1246(2002)). Additionally, type II maturity-onset diabetes of the young is caused by the loss of function mutations in the GK gene, suggesting that GK operates as a glucose sensor in humans. (Y. Liang et al., Biochem. J. 309:167-173(1995)). Thus, compounds that activate GK increase the sensitivity of the GK sensory system and would be useful in the treatment of hyperglycemia—particularly the hyperglycemia associated with type II diabetes. It is therefore desirable to provide novel compounds that activate GK to treat diabetes.
International Patent Publication No. WO2001044216 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,353,111 describe (E)-2,3-disubstituted-N-heteroarylacrylamides as GK activators. International Patent Publication No. WO2002014312 and U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,369,232, 6,388,088, and 6,441,180 describe tetrazolylphenylacetamide GK activators. International Patent Publication No. WO2000058293, European Patent Application No. EP 1169312 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,320,050 describe arylcycloalkylpropionamide GK activators. International Patent Publication No. 2002008209 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,486,184 describe alpha-acyl and alpha-heteroatom-substituted benzene acetamide GK activators as anti-diabetic agents. International Patent Publication No. WO2001083478 describes hydantoin-containing GK activators. International Patent Publication No. WO2001083465 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,388,071 describe alkynylphenyl heteroaromatic GK activators. International Patent Publication No. WO2001085707 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,489,485 describe para-amine substituted phenylamide GK activators. International Patent Publication No. WO2002046173 and U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,433,188, 6,441,184, and 6,448,399 describe fused heteroaromatic GK activators. International Patent Publication No. WO2002048106 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,482,951 describe isoindolin-1-one GK activators. International Patent Publication No. WO2001085706 describes substituted phenylacetamide GK activators for treating type II diabetes. U.S. Pat. No. 6,384,220 describes para-aryl or heteroaryl substituted phenyl GK activators. French Patent No. 2,834,295 describes methods for the purification and crystal structure of human GK and discloses 3-cyclopentyl-2-pyridin-4-yl-N-thiazol-2-ylpropionamide as a GK ligand. International Patent Publication No. WO2003095438, published after the priority date of the present application, describes N-heteroaryl phenylacetamides and related compounds as GK activators for the treatment of type II diabetes. U.S. Pat. No. 6,610,846 describes the preparation of cycloalkylheteroaryl propionamides as GK activators. International Patent Publication No. WO2003000262 describes vinyl phenyl GK activators. International Patent Publication No. WO2003000267 describes aminonicotinate derivatives as GK modulators. International Patent Publication No. WO2003015774, published after the priority date of the present application, describes compounds as GK modulators. International Patent Publication No. WO2003047626, published after the priority date of the present application, describes the use of a GK activator in combination with a glucagon antagonist for treating type II diabetes. International Patent Publication No. WO2003055482, published after the priority date of the present application, describes amide derivatives as GK activators. International Patent Publication No. WO2003080585, published after the priority date of the present application, describes aminobenzamide derivatives with GK activity for the treatment of diabetes and obesity. International Patent Publication No. WO2003097824, published after the priority date of the present application, describes human liver GK crystals and their used for structure-based drug design. International Patent Publication No. WO2004002481, published after the priority date of the present application, discloses arylcarbonyl derivatives as GK activators.

Tri(cyclo) substituted amide glucokinase activator compounds

Abstract: Compounds of Formula (I):

Abstract: or pharmaceutically acceptable salts or N-oxides thereof, are useful in the prophylactic and therapeutic treatment of hyperglycemia and diabetes.


The invention provides a lighting device (1) comprising: —one or more light sources (10) configured to provide light source light (11); —a luminescent element (5) comprising an elongated light transmissive body (100); the elongated light transmissive body (100) comprising a luminescent material (120) configured to convert at least part of light source light (11) received at one or more radiation input faces (111) into luminescent material light (8), and the luminescent element (5) configured to couple at least part of the luminescent material light (8) out at the first radiation exit window (112) as converter light (101); wherein the light transmissive body (100) has a first index of refraction n1; —a beam shaping optical element (224) optically coupled with the first radiation exit window (112), the beam shaping optical element comprising a radiation entrance window (211) configured to receive at least part of the converter light (101); wherein the beam shaping optical element (224) has a second index of refraction n2; wherein: −0.75≤n1/n2≤1.25; 15 —the beam shaping optical element (224) or an optical connector (300) configured between the elongated light transmissive body (100) and the beam shaping optical element (224) comprise a glass material (310), wherein the glass material (310) is based on at least one or more of bismuth oxide, boron oxide, potassium oxide, lithium oxide, phosphorus oxide, lead oxide, tin oxide, antimony oxide, tellurium oxide, silicon dioxide, and vanadium oxide.

Luminescent rods are known in the art. WO2014/198619, for instance, describes a light emitting device comprising a light source adapted for, in operation, emitting light with a first spectral distribution, a first light guide comprising a first light input surface and a first light exit surface arranged opposite to one another, and further comprising an end surface extending perpendicular with respect to the first light input surface, and a second light guide comprising a second light input surface and a second light exit surface extending perpendicular with respect to one another. The first light guide is adapted for receiving the light with the first spectral distribution from the light source at the first light input surface, guiding the light with the first spectral distribution to the first light exit surface and to the end surface and coupling a part of the light with the first spectral distribution out of the first light exit surface into the second light guide and coupling another part of the light with the first spectral distribution out of the end surface. The second light guide is adapted for receiving light with the first spectral distribution coupled out of the first light guide at the second light input surface, guiding the light to the second light exit surface, converting at least a part of the light with the first spectral distribution to light with a second spectral distribution and coupling the light with the second spectral distribution out of the second light exit surface. WO2015/113979 A1 discloses a light emitting device with a light guide comprising a luminescent material, and multiple light source that couple light into the light guide. Converted light is coupled out of the light guide.

Light concentrator module with high refractive index interconnect


A method and system for improving robustness of context update messages in robust header compression are disclosed in the present document, wherein, the method includes: when sending the context update message, a compressor performing check processing on important fields in the context update message, generating a check code, and sending the check code and the context update message out together; and after receiving the context update message and the check code of the important fields in the context update message, a decompressor firstly performing checking on the important fields in the context update message, if the checking is passed, continuing to execute decompression processing, and if the checking is failed, discarding the context update message. With the present document, the probability of mistaking other compression packets for IR/IR-DYN messages due to bit errors of packet format fields can be reduced, and the correctness of packet format identification can be improved.

Due to limitations of physical condition, compared with a wired link, a wireless link in a mobile communication system has a lower transmission rate and a higher bit error rate. In order to be able to effectively utilize the limited wireless channel bandwidth resources, a Robust Header Compression (ROHC) technology is introduced. A core of ROHC is using information redundancy between packets of service streams to transparently compress and decompress information in a packet header between nodes connected directly. The ROHC technology is described in the document RFC3095 of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), and the IETF made modifications on the ROHC technology in February, 2007, and the modified document is RFC4815.
A Context is an extremely important concept in the ROHC, which includes a compressed context and a decompressed context. A current state information set compressed by a compressor is called as the compressed context; and a current state information set decompressed by a decompressor is called as the decompressed context. The context contains relevant information of the previous one or more packet headers in the same packet stream, such as static fields and quoted reference values used during compressing and decompressing, and so on. In addition, the context also contains other information describing the packet stream, such as a changing way of an IPID field, a changing step size of a timestamp field, a current state and mode, and a clock precision and so on.
Initialization and Refreshment (IR) message is mainly used for establishing a new context or used for refreshing static information and dynamic information of the context (the dynamic information can be not contained). The compressor and decompressor can achieve the object of establishing the context and updating all information of the context by sending and receiving the IR messages and then increase robustness of the compression and decompression, which enables the subsequent compressed packets to be decompressed correctly.
Initialization and Refresh-Dynamic part (IR-DYN) message is mainly used for establishing or refreshing dynamic information of the context. The compressor and decompressor can achieve the object of establishing or synchronizing context dynamic information by sending and receiving the IR-DYN messages. A difference between the message and the IR message is that only the dynamic information is contained, and when the dynamic information of the context is damaged, the entire context can be repaired with the message, which enables the compressed packets received subsequently to be decompressed correctly.
In a case that a feedback channel exists, the decompressor in the ROHC can send an acknowledgement (ACK) and a Not acknowledgement (NACK) or a Static-Not acknowledgement (STATIC-NACK) to the compressor. The acknowledgement means that an acknowledgement message can be sent to the compressor after the decompressor decompresses the compressed packets successfully, which enables the compressor to perform state transition faster and improves the compression efficiency; and the Not acknowledgement means that the decompressor notifies the compressor to perform a context update, which improves the robustness of the entire algorithm of ROHC.
Currently, the ROHC supports the compression and decompression of data packets of the types of UNCOMPRESSED, IP/User Datagram Protocol (UDP)/Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP), IP/UDP and IP/Encapsulating Security Payload (ESP), and the corresponding Profile types are Profile0, Profile1, Profile2 and Profile3 respectively. There is only one context with regard to the Profile0, there is one or more contexts with regard to the other Profile types, and each context is identified through a Context Identifier (CID).
A context of the ROHC Profile0 type corresponds to all uncompressed data packets, and each context of the other Profile types corresponds to one packet stream. A packet stream is determined by all key fields (i.e. a STATIC-DEF field) in the packet stream. For example, with regard to an IPv4/UDP/RTP packet stream, it is jointly determined by a source address and a destination address of the part of IPv4, a source port number and a destination port number of the part of UDP, and a Synchronization Source Identifier (SSI) field of the part of RTP.
After receiving an original data packet, the compressor of ROHC is required to firstly judge a Profile type to which the packet belongs and then search for a context to which the packet belongs in a context linked list of the Profile type corresponding to the packet, if no context is found, it establishes a new context and adds the new context into the linked list. If a corresponding context is found, all fields in the current packet and corresponding fields in the context are compared and encoded, a type of the compressed packet required to be sent is decided, and the compressed packet is encapsulated according to an expected packet format and sent.
It can be seen from the above that the IR message and IR-DYN message play an important part in the whole process of compression and decompression. Since the ROHC itself is applied in the wireless link to improve the wireless link bandwidth utilization rate, but the bit error rate of the wireless link is comparatively high, bit errors may occur in the IR message and IR-DYN message during a transmission process of the wireless link, and a Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC) of IR message and IR-DYN message with bit errors will be failed. If the CRC of the IR message is failed, a decompressing party needs to send the STATIC-NACK to a compressing party under a No Context (NC) state of Bidirectional Optimistic mode (O mode) or Bidirectional Reliable mode (R mode), it requests the compressing party to continue to send the IR messages, and performs refreshing on the static information and dynamic information of the context in time; if the CRC of the IR-DYN message is failed, the decompressing party sends the STATIC-NACK to the compressing party under the NC state of the O/R modes, it requests the compressing party to send the IR messages to refresh the static information and dynamic information of the context in time. If the CRC of an IR/IR-DYN packet is failed under other states of the decompressor, processing is performed according to a CRC failure flow ruled in the protocol, if K1 checks in the received N1 update packets are failed under a Full Context (FC) state, it is required to send the NACK to the compressing party, and if K2 checks in the received N2 update packets are failed under a Static Context (SC) state, it is required to send the STATIC-NACK to the compressing party, which is used to perform the request updating on corresponding dynamic and static contexts.
When feedbacks are sent, it is required to carry a Context Identifier (CID) in a feedback packet and notify the compressing party of a compressed context required to be updated. Since bit errors may occur in the IR/IR-DYN packet, a CID value parsed out by the decompressing party may well be incorrect, and if this CID is written into the feedback packet, it will be caused that a group of compressor and decompressor originally in efficient compression and decompression perform unnecessary updating, which reduces the compression efficiency and wastes the bandwidth of wireless link. Moreover, if the packet format is mistakenly coded by the wireless link, the following series processing is redundant, which wastes the system resources seriously.

Method and device for improving robustness of context update message in robust header compression


Novel herpes viral protease crystalline structures are identified which have an active site formed by the three amino acids Ser, His and His. Also disclosed are methods of identifying inhibitors of these proteases and/or active sites.

Herpesviridae is a family of envelope DNA viruses comprising three subfamilies, alpha, beta and gamma herpesviridae. The alpha subfamily includes herpes simplex virus (HSV) 1 and 2, and varicella zoster virus (VZV). The beta subfamily includes cytomegalovirus (CMV) and human herpes virus 6 (HHV-6) and human herpes virus 7 (HHV-7). The gamma subfamily includes Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)and human herpes virus (HHV-8).
The human herpes viruses are responsible for a variety of disease states from sub-clinical infections to fatal disease states in the immunocompromised. As one example, VZV is known to cause a number of serious diseases: chickenpox, shingles and post-herpetic neuralgia [S. Straus, Ann. Neurol., 35:S11-S 12 (1994)]. As another example, HSV-1 is acquired in childhood when it causes a self-limiting gingivostomatitis. The virus remains latent in the dorsal root ganglia and is reactivated later in life as cold sores in about one third of the population. HSV-1 is also a cause of keratitis, resulting in more than 300,000 cases per year in the US. HSV-2 is usually acquired through sexual contact and gives rise to genital herpes. Human CMV is a ubiquitous opportunistic pathogen that can result in life threatening infections in congenitally infected infants, immunocompromised individuals and immunosuppressed cancer and transplant patients.
Each of these members of the herpes virus families encodes a serine protease that is essential for its replication [F. Liu, & B. Roizman, J. Virol, 65:5149-5156 (1991) (Liu I); F. Liu & B. Roizman, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 89:2076-2080 (1992) (Liu II). F. Liu & B. Roiznan, J. Virol, 67:1300-1309 (1993) (Liu III); A. R. Welch et al., J. Virol, 67:7360-7372 (1993) (Welch I); E. Z. Baum et al., J. Virol, 67:497-506 (1993); J. T. Stevens et al., Eur. J Biochem., 226:361-367 (1994); A. R. Welch et al., J. Virol., 69:341-347 (1993) (Welch II); D. L. Hall & P. L. Darke, J. Biol. Chem., 270:22697-22700 (1995); Weinheimer et al., J. Virol, 67:5813-5822 (1993); M. Gao et al., J. Virol., 68:3702-3712 (1994); C. L. DiIanni et al., J. Biol. Chem., 268:25449-25454 (1993) (DiIanni I); C. L. DiIanni et al., J. Biol. Chem. 269:12672-12676 (1994) (DiIanni II); P. J. McCann III et al., J. Virol., 68:526-529 (1994)]. These proteases each provide a potential target for therapeutic intervention.
The proteases from these viruses are encoded as precursor proteins that catalyze their own cleavage to produce an N-terminal domain of approximately 28 kDa having full or increased catalytic activity. These protease domains show some degree of sequence homology--20% to 40% identity between members of different subfamilies and as high as 90% identity within each subfamily. They show little sequence homology to any other known protein, including the absence of the conserved G-X-S/C-G-G [SEQ ID NO: 12] for chymotrypsin-like and G-T-S-M/A [SEQ ID NO: 13] for subtilisin-like proteases. The known herpes virus proteases all cleave a peptide bond between an alanine and a serine, but their substrate specificity beyond the scissile bond are different [A. Welch et al., J. Virol. 69, 341-347 (1993)].
Each known serine protease has its characteristic set of functional amino acid residues arranged in a particular three dimensional configuration to form an active site. Knowledge of the active site of such proteases and their three dimensional structure permits the use of methods of structure-based drug design to identify, and develop inhibitors of the proteases [C. Verlinde and W. Hol, Structure, 2:577-587 (July 1994); 1. D. Kuntz, Science, 257:1078-1082 (August 1992)]. Because the proteolytic activity of the herpesvirus-encoded protease plays an essential role in virus capsid maturation, inhibitors of the protease would thus inhibit infectious virus particle formation and thereby exert an antiviral action. For serine proteases of which trypsin is a protype, the active site is formed by Ser, His and Asp [H. Neurath, Science, 224:350-357 (April 1984)]. These three residues are known as the catalytic triad.
There is a need in the art for novel protease active sites and catalytic sequences to enable identification and structure-based design of protease inhibitors, which are useful in the treatment or prophylaxis of viral diseases caused by viruses of the herpes family, as well as other diseases in which the target enzyme may share catalytic domains with those of the herpes family.

Proteases, compositions capable of binding to said site, and methods of use thereof


Magnetic particles are used as the solid phase to carry out immunoassay. In a reaction vessel, the magnetic particles are mixed with a sample containing TSH as an analyte and a labeled antibody. A chemiluminescent label material is bound onto the magnetic particles with an immunoreaction. A fluid including the above mixture is introduced to a chamber inside a flow through cell, the chamber being sized to have a width greater than a depth. The magnetic particles in the fluid are trapped by a magnet so as to be spread in the planar form over a predetermined area within the chamber, while useless materials are discharged outwardly of the chamber. The chamber is then filled with a buffer solution containing an attractant. By applying a voltage to electrodes disposed in the chamber, the label material on the magnetic particles is excited to emit an electro-chemiluminescence. The luminescence is detected by a photomultiplier.

The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for immunoassay utilizing the reaction between an antigen and an antibody, and more particularly to an analyzing method and an analyzer in which magnetic particles are used as the solid phase for an immunoreaction.
The immunoreaction forming an immunocomplex is employed to determine antigens and antibodies in biological samples such as serum and urine. When reacting the solid phase and the liquid phase, it is customary to employ a labeled antibody as a reagent and to measure the liquid phase after the reaction by using a detector. Known examples of the label are a radioisotope, an enzyme, a colored particle, a fluorescent material, a luminescent material, etc.
Japanese patent laid-open Hei-3-46565 teaches enzyme immunoassay which is performed by using magnetic particles coated with a polymer having a reactive radical. The absorbance or the fluorescent intensity of the liquid phase is measured in this prior art.
WO 87/06706 teaches, as label agents, many examples of materials emitting a chemiluminescence and materials emitting an electro-chemiluminescence. It is suggested that, of those materials, an organic compound of ruthenium or osmium is preferable as a label for the electro-chemiluminescence. This prior art also teaches that, after an immunoreaction is progressed using magnetic particles as the solid phase, the solid phase is magnetically separated from the liquid phase and an electro-chemiluminescence is measured for the liquid phase. Such a process of separating the bound component and the free component is called B/F separation.
While the above two prior arts measure the liquid phase, U.S. Pat. No. 4,141,687 teaches it to measure a label on the solid phase. More specifically, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,141,687, magnetically attractable particles are used as the solid phase, a radioactive atom is used as the label, and an immunoreaction is progressed in a flow path. After the immunoreaction, a reaction mixture is introduced to flow through a magnetic trap. At this time, the liquid phase passes through the magnetic trap, but the solid phase is held in the trap. After washing, the solid phase is released from the magnetic trap and then introduced along a conduit to pass through a downstream coil, followed by measurement of its radioactivity by a scintillation counter.

Immunoassay method and analyzer using magnetic particles


A system and method for operating a power amplifier comprising the steps of determining a first impedance generated by a first amplifier component of the power amplifier, determining a second impedance generated by a second amplifier component of the power amplifier, and, adjusting the first impedance or the second impedance to an optimal impedance condition by altering a current ratio of a current delivered by the first amplifier component and a current delivered by the second amplifier component.

In modern telecommunications, there is a common use of amplifiers to amplify signals which are transmitted over a communication network. With telecommunication being more and more accessible and common, there is a need to improve the quality and efficiency of the amplifiers which are used to amplify signals for telecommunication purposes.
As modulated signals which are common for wireless communications such as CDMA-2000, WCDMA and LTE generally have a high peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) which in turn has demanded a different type of amplifiers to operate efficiently.
To operate with these types of modulated signals, the power amplifiers have to be very linear in order to prevent in-band distortion and out-of-band emission. As such, one option to achieve this is to operate the amplifier at a large back-off region far from saturation. However, this inevitably leads to low efficiency as well as a higher than normal power consumption of the amplifier. Various other options are available to improve the efficiency in operating the power amplifiers, but whilst these have solved one problem, they have, by their presence, introduced other inefficiency issues on operating the amplifiers.

System and method for operating a power amplifier and a load modulation network


An apparatus and a method for successively conveying a series of sheets are disclosed. The apparatus has a first conveyer for conveying a sheet in a sheet conveying direction at a first speed and a second conveyer disposed spaced vertically away from the first conveyer for conveying the sheet in the same direction at a second speed. The second conveyer has a region overlapping with the first conveyer at least for a distance corresponding to a dimension of the sheet, e.g. the width of veneer sheet, as measured in the sheet conveying direction. A suction mechanism is disposed in said overlapping region for transferring by suction the sheet in the entirety of its dimension from the first conveyer to the second conveyer and holding by suction the sheet against the second conveyer. The sheet is further moved by the second conveyer, e.g. to a sheet stacking station.

The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for conveying a sheet. More specifically, the invention relates to a method for successively conveying a series of sheets, such as veneer sheets, wherein a sheet being conveyed by a first conveyer is transferred to a second conveyer without subjecting the sheet to a tension acting in the sheet conveying direction and also to an apparatus for practicing the method.
In stacking sheets into a pile, it takes a given length of time for one sheet to be stacked completely onto the top of the pile of sheets. In conveying a series of sheets successively and subsequently stacking them one after another uninterruptedly into a pile, any two adjacent sheet being conveyed must be spaced apart for a distance that is long enough to prevent a sheet from arriving at the stacker while its preceding sheet is still in the process of being stacked and from hindering the stacking motion of the preceding sheet. To prevent such trouble, it has been practiced to enlarge the spacing between any two adjacent sheets being conveyed so that the time interval before a sheet arrives at the stacker after its preceding has reached the stacker is longer than the above given length of time that is necessary for a sheet to be stacked completely. Alternatively, a series of sheets being conveyed are divided into two different conveyance paths each having a stacker and every other sheet is transferred to each of the path. In stacking sheets at each of the stackers, a long time is allowed for a sheet comes to the stacker after its preceding sheet has been stacked.
Referring to FIG. 28 showing a known veneer sheet stacking apparatus according to the background art pertaining to the present invention, numeral 100 designates a first conveyer moving at a speed v10 and numeral 101 a second conveyer disposed in alignment with the first conveyer 100 and moving at a speed v11 that is faster than v10. A plurality of veneer sheets 102 are conveyed by the first conveyer 100 with a relatively small spacing between any two adjacent veneer sheets 102. The spacing between the veneer sheets 102 is enlarged by transferring them from the first conveyer 100 to the second conveyer 101 traveling faster than the first conveyer 100.
In such apparatus, however, a veneer sheet 102 just being transferred from the first conveyer 100 to the second conveyer 101 is subjected to a tension caused by the difference in conveying speeds of the first and second lower conveyers 100 and 101. The veneer sheet 102 is stretched apart by the tension acting in the direction perpendicular to the grain of the veneer sheet and it may be broken and rendered unusable.
The apparatus further includes a third conveyer 103 disposed downstream of and spaced above the second conveyer 102 at a distance that is greater than the thickness of the veneer sheet 102 and overlaps with the second conveyer 101. The third conveyer 103 travels at a speed v12 that is faster than v11. The second conveyer 101 has an air blower 104 located in the region overlapping with the third conveyer and operable to blow air constantly upward. Reference numeral 105 designates a stop for stopping a veneer sheet being conveyed by the third conveyer 103 at a given stacking position and reference numeral 106 a stacking stand on which a pile of stacked sheets 102 is supported.
When a veneer sheet 102 being conveyed by the second conveyer 101 enters the overlapping region of the second and third conveyers 101, 103, it is pressed against the third conveyer 103 by air blowing from the blower 104. Then, the veneer sheet 102 is moved at the speed v12 in arrow direction by virtue of the frictional force that the veneer sheet 102 receives from the third conveyer 103. Air is blown no more against the veneer sheet 102 after it has moved past the blower 104. Subsequently, the veneer sheet 102 is dropped while moving further leftward as seen in the drawing, hits against the stop 105 and then is dropped onto the top of the pile of veneer sheets 102.
As shown in FIG. 28, however, a veneer sheet designated by reference symbol 102a and subjected to the air blowing from the blower 104 will firstly have its leading end portion lifted and pressed against the third conveyer 103. Therefore, the pressed portion of the veneer sheet 102a is moved at the speed v12 while the portion of the veneer sheet 102a on the second conveyer 101 is moved at the speed v11, with the result that the veneer sheet 102a is subjected to a harmful tension which may cause the veneer sheet, if it is weak against the tension, to be broken. Furthermore, the veneer sheet 102a has a middle sloped portion which is in contact with neither the second conveyer 101 nor the third conveyer 103 and the weight of this middle portion creates tension against the leading end portion of the veneer sheet 102a which is in contact with the third conveyer 103. As a result, breakage of veneer sheet may occur.
Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus and a method for conveying a sheet which solve the above problems by moving a sheet in its entire dimension as measured in the sheet conveying direction in transferring the sheet from one conveyer to another conveyer.

Apparatus and method for conveying a sheet


There is provided a system and method for creating tactile content by using an audio stream. The method includes capturing an audio stream using a microphone, processing the audio stream to generate an audio data stream, executing a haptic algorithm using the audio data stream to generate an activation pattern for a plurality of actuators, and activating the plurality of actuators according to the activation pattern. The activation pattern is generated from the audio data stream based on both a frequency of the audio stream and triggering sounds in the audio stream. The plurality of actuators include both voice coils and vibrating motors.

Entertainment technologies deliver rich multi-dimensional, high-resolution, and highly immersive visual and audio experiences to a user. Augmenting these entertainment technologies with high-resolution haptic feedback devices significantly enhances the experience of the user leading to a deeper sense of immersion and believability. However, current haptic feedback devices are only able to capture audio streams and vibrate all actuators arranged in a pre-defined configuration similarly. As such, current haptic feedback systems are not able to process the captured audio streams in order to create haptic feedback patterns for the actuators that give the user a deeper sense of immersion and believability. This leaves the current haptic feedback devices homogenous, static, and dull.


In apparatus and method for stability controlling a vehicular attitude for a vehicle, a slip angle (BETA) of a vehicle body to a vehicular forwarding direction is derived on the basis of a detected yaw rate, a derived vehicle body speed, and a detected lateral acceleration acted upon the vehicle body, a controller determines whether an oversteer condition occurs and/or determined whether an understeer condition occurs, and a braking liquid pressure from a control purpose liquid pressure source is supplied through one of two braking pressure distribution conduits so as to give a braking force to be applied to one of front left and right road wheels which is directed to suppress a yaw moment when the oversteer condition occurs. When the understeer condition occurs, the liquid pressure in the control purpose liquid pressure source is supplied to one of the two braking distribution conduits so as to give the braking force to be applied to one of the front left and right road wheels so as to develop the yaw moment.

The present invention relates to apparatus and method for controlling a stability of a vehicular attitude using a vehicular braking system, particularly, the apparatus and method described above in which a braking force is controlled according to a variation in the vehicular attitude so as to stabilize the vehicular attitude.
A Japanese Patent Application First (unexamined) Publication No. Heisei 6-247269 published on Sep. 6, 1994 exemplifies a previously proposed vehicular attitude control apparatus.
In the above-identified Japanese Patent Application Publication, a vehicular attitude angle (.beta.) is determined according to a yaw rate and a vehicular steering angle and, where the vehicular attitude angle (.beta.) exceeds a limit value, a vehicular attitude purpose controller determines that it is a time to start the control and varies a wheel cylinder pressure in a vehicular braking system through a hydraulic pressure development equipment so that the attitude angle (.beta.) is increased or such a situation that it is impossible for the attitude angle to be developed during a vehicular turning is avoided.
It is a general practice in a vehicle that vehicular braking pressure distribution conduits are of two mutually crossing types by which wheel cylinders arranged around from left and right road wheels are mutually connected and by which wheel cylinders arranged around front right road wheel and rear left road wheel are mutually connected and the two mutually crossing vehicular braking pressure distribution circuits are connected to a master cylinder (which serves to develop a braking operation responded liquid pressure).
If the above-described vehicular attitude control apparatus described in the above-identified Japanese Patent Application First Publication is applied to the braking system in which the two separate braking pressure distribution conduits are disposed, suppose that a liquid pressure from a control purpose liquid pressure source such as a pump is supplied to the wheel cylinders arranged around the front left and right road wheels or arranged around the same sided front and rear road wheels.
In this case, since the two braking pressure distribution conduits are interrupted from the master cylinder, suppose also that a vehicular driver operates a braking element to demand the braking during an execution of the vehicular attitude control.
In this case, since the two separate braking pressure distribution conduits are interrupted from the master cylinder, the liquid pressure developed in response to the braking demand by the driver is not supplied to the corresponding wheel cylinders. Consequently, the braking operated liquid pressure according to the driver's intention cannot be developed in the braking system.
To solve this problem, a force applied to the braking element to demand the braking or the liquid pressure in the master cylinder may be detected and the liquid pressure corresponding to the detected force or liquid pressure may be considered to be supplied to the corresponding wheel cylinders from the control purpose liquid pressure source. However, the above-described countermeasure introduces a complication of control and an expensive detector for detecting the force or liquid pressure in the master cylinder is needed. In addition, the complicated control and the complicated structure in the vehicular attitude control apparatus may be resulted in a reduction of reliability.

Apparatus and method for stability controlling vehicular attitude using vehicular braking system


The method of manufacturing the optical fiber having the Bragg grating includes the steps of applying heat from a heat source to a predetermined portion of the optical fiber and thus diffusing impurities existing in a core of the optical fiber into a cladding of the optical fiber, so as to adjust an effective refractive index for a guided mode in the fiber corresponding to a predetermined wavelength, exposing UV light from an optical source to a phase mask having a periodic surface relief structure, and fabricating the Bragg grating having a predetermined period in the optical fiber using diffraction and interference of the UV light due to the periodic surface relief structure of the phase mask.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an optical fiber and, more particularly, to an optical fiber having a Bragg grating, which allows light in a specific wavelength band to be selected out of light propagating through the core of the optical fiber by reflecting light having a wavelength that satisfies a Bragg condition and transmitting light having a wavelength that does not satisfy the Bragg condition.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, a fiber Bragg grating is manufactured utilizing an optical refractive index modulation effect that is generated when Ultra Violet (UV) rays are irradiated onto a core of the silica optical fiber in which impurities, such as germanium, boron, and phosphorous are doped in the core of the optical fiber.
When light is allowed to be incident on the optical fiber having a fiber Bragg grating, light with a wavelength that satisfies a Bragg condition is reflected, and light with a wavelength that does not satisfy the Bragg condition is transmitted. The wavelength that satisfies the Bragg condition is referred as a Bragg wavelength or a resonant wavelength. The fiber Bragg grating using such characteristics is generally used as a filter to select light in a specific wavelength band, and has been attracting a lot of interest from several years ago until now, as an optical device having various application fields.
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a conventional method of manufacturing the fiber Bragg grating.
Referring to FIG. 1, in the conventional fiber Bragg grating manufacturing method, a periodic interference pattern 142 is directly formed in the core 131 the optical fiber using a phase mask 120 and UV light 110. This method employs a diffractive optical element (the phase mask 120) to spatially modulate the UV light beam. The phase mask 120 may be formed either holographically or by electron-beam lithography. When viewed from the side, the periodic surface relief structure 121 has square wave shapes. To manufacture the fiber Bragg grating, the optical fiber 130 is located near the one surface of the phase mask 120 having the periodic surface relief structure 121 to such an extent that the optical fiber 130 almost comes in contact with the one surface of the phase mask 120. The UV light 110 perpendicularly irradiated onto the phase mask 120 is diffracted due to the periodic surface relief structure 121 of the phase mask 120.
The phase mask 120 is made from flat slab of silica glass which is transparent to UV (ultra-violet) light. On one of the flat surfaces, a one dimensional periodic surface relief structure 121 is etched using photolithographic techniques. The shape of the periodic pattern approximates a square wave in profile. The optical fiber 130 is paced almost in contact with the corrugations of the phase mask 120 as shown in FIG. 1. Ultraviolet light 110 which is incident normal to the phase mask 120 passes through and is diffracted by the periodic corrugations 121 of the phase mask 120.
Normally, most of the diffracted light 111, 112, and 113 is contained in the +1, 0, −1 diffracted orders. However, the phase mask 120 is designed to suppress the diffraction into the zero-order 112 by properly controlling the depth of the corrugations in the phase mask. In practice, the amount of light 112 in the zero-order can be reduced to less than 5% with approximately 40% of the total light intensity divided equally in the ±1 orders 111 and 113. The two ±1 diffracted order beams 111 and 113 interfere to produce a periodic pattern that photoimprints a corresponding grating in the optical fiber 130. If the period of the phase mask grating 120 is Λmask, the period of the photoimprinted index grating 141 is Λmask/2.
However, when the fiber Bragg grating is manufactured using the conventional method, the period of the phase mask grating 120 is constant, so that the resonant wavelength of the fiber Bragg grating is fixed. For example, if the predetermined resonant wavelength of a grating is λ1, the conventional method is problematic in that a new phase mask 120 having a new period must be used, or the optical fiber 130 used to manufacture the fiber Bragg grating operated at the wavelength λ1 must be replaced with a new optical fiber having another refractive index so as to manufacture a fiber Bragg grating operated at the new wavelength other than the wavelength λ1.
Accordingly, the conventional method is disadvantageous in that, since the optical fiber 130 or the phase mask 120 must be replaced with a new optical fiber or a new phase mask, so that additional costs are required only to adjust the resonant wavelength.

Optical fiber having bragg grating and method of manufacturing the same

Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute


A method for producing a single crystals by preferential epitaxial growth of {100} face, comprising the steps of (1) growing the crystal on a single crystal {100} substrate; (2) forming on the side of the grown crystal a surface parallel to a {100} face different from the {100}face in the growth direction, and (3) growing the crystal on the formed {100} surface; and the steps (2) and (3) being performed once or more than once. A method for producing a single-crystal diamond using a metallic holder for the single-crystal diamond having a crystal holding portion which is raised above an outer peripheral portion of the holder, is part from the outer peripheral portion of the holder, and has a recessed shape. The methods enable the production of a large single-crystal diamond in a comparatively short time at low cost.

(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of producing single crystal, and to single-crystal diamond obtained by the method.
(2) Description of the Related Art
Diamond possesses outstanding properties as semiconductor, and is hence expected to be used as a material for semiconductor devices such as high-frequency high-output devices, ultraviolet radiation luminescence devices, and the like. To bring such semiconductor devices into practical use, it is essential to supply large single-crystal substrates suited to device fabrication processes at low cost.
The growth of single-crystal diamond is mainly performed by high-pressure high-temperature synthetic methods, gaseous phase synthetic methods, and the like. Of these methods, high-pressure high-temperature synthetic methods wherein diamond is deposited and grown from a high-pressure high-temperature solvent have enabled the practical growth of carat (gemstone)-class large single crystals. However, these methods only produce single-crystal diamond substrates of about up to 10 mm diameter due to the limitations of the apparatus size, and it is therefore difficult to produce larger single-crystal diamonds.
In contrast, microwave plasma CVD is known as a promising gaseous phase synthetic method. In this method, the growth of single-crystal diamond takes place under a reduced-pressure atmosphere in a stream of hydrogen and methane gases, using plasma formed by microwave electric discharge. However, this method poses problems in that the growth face barely enlarges during the crystal growth process as occurs in other semiconductor materials, and that the growth rate is extremely low: only up to about 10 μm per hour. For these reasons, it requires very long processing times when attempting to produce large single-crystal diamonds, and is therefore unfeasible for producing large single-crystals.
As reported recently, in homoepitaxial growth of diamond by microwave plasma CVD, the growth of single-crystal diamond at a growth rate exceeding 100 μm per hour is possible by adding a small amount of nitrogen to a reaction gas of hydrogen and methane (Chayahara, Y. Mokuno, Y. Takasu, H. Yoshikawa, N. Fujimori; Diamond Relat. Mater. 13 (2004), 1954-1958).
However, preferentially {100} surfaces grow in this method, and it is difficult to enlarge crystal size by expanding the grown surface. Further, polycrystallization take places at the edges during the crystal growth process, thereby actually reducing the grown surface and failing to grow long crystal.
Furthermore, abnormal grain grows during the process of crystal growth from which hole-like (pipe-shaped) defects are formed and propagate in the growth direction. Once such defects are formed, the defects cannot be filled in by subsequent crystal growth.
For these reasons, it is difficult to grow a large single-crystal diamond by homoepitaxial growth using a microwave plasma CVD method.
By the way, when diamond crystals are grown at high growth rates by a microwave plasma CVD method, polycrystalline diamonds may deposit on the substrate holder. The polycrystalline diamonds tend to separate and be heated or shattered during the crystal growth. As a result, problems arise in that measuring the growth temperature using a radiation thermometer becomes difficult, polycrystalline diamond grains are taken into crystals by which defects are formed, etc. In view of this, the growth of film having a certain degree of thickness requires steps of growing a crystal to a predetermined thickness, discontinuing the growth, cleaning the substrate holder, followed by regrowing the crystal and repeating these steps to enlarge the crystal.
In this repetition of growth, although it is most desirable to polish the grown surface of the diamond evenly at every growth, such processing is difficult because a diamond is the hardest material. Therefore, attaining a polished surface having the surface smoothness suitable for regrowth is very time and cost consuming.

National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology


An apparatus and method for recognizing a voice command for use in an interactive voice user interface are provided. The apparatus includes a command intention belief generation unit that is configured to recognize a first voice command and that may generate one or more command intention beliefs for the first voice command. The apparatus also includes a command intention belief update unit that is configured to update each of the command intention beliefs based on a system response to the first voice command and a second voice commands. The apparatus also includes a command intention belief selection unit that is configured to select one of the updated command intention beliefs for the first voice command. The apparatus also includes an operation signal output unit that is configured to select a final command intention from the selected updated command intention belief and to output an operation signal based on the selected final command intention.

1. Field
The following description relates to a technology for recognizing a voice command, and more particularly, to an apparatus and method for recognizing a voice command in an interactive voice user interface.
2. Description of the Related Art
Today's interactive voice interfaces have expanded into many different devices that include systems for booking a plane or a train and systems for withdrawing money like automated teller machines (ATMs). To properly use a system equipped with an interactive voice interface, there must be an appropriate dialogue model set in the system. In general, there are two representative dialogue models for recognizing a voice command, a rule-based dialogue model and a statistical dialogue model. The rule-based dialogue model uses a hypothesis that may be formulated according to a dialogue between a user and an interactive voice system to recognize the intention of the user. However, the rule-based dialogue model is required to enter frequently-used utterances, and all possible answers for the utterances, into an interactive voice system, thus making it difficult to properly handle various voice recognition errors.
The statistical dialogue model makes a probabilistic assumption based on the probabilities of results from voice recognition, and an appropriate response to an input voice command is determined based on those probabilistic assumptions. The statistical dialogue model, unlike the rule-based dialogue model, does not require all the possible utterance responses to be configured. In addition, the statistical dialogue model involves confirming the input voice command upon the occurrence of a voice recognition error and can thus contribute to the establishment of a stable dialogue model.
However, the statistical dialogue model may not be able to operate properly, especially when a user gives multiple commands or requests multiple searches at the same time. Problems may also occur when the intention of the user is not consistent throughout the course of the dialogue between the user and the interactive voice system. For example, a problem may occur when a user continues to issue commands that belong to different domains as compared to those of previous commands because the statistical dialogue model simply accumulates and updates the intentions of previous commands, but may struggle to keep up with changes in the intention of the user.

Apparatus and method for recognizing voice command


A combine harvester operates with an axial separating device for separating a crop flow picked up by the combine harvester into a plurality of partial flows. A partial flow composed of grain and non-grain components is fed by a separation surface of the axial separating device to a cleaning unit disposed downstream. The axial separating device is configured to manipulate a local concentration gradient of the partial flow that is output by the axial separating device caused by a tilt of the combine harvester. The extent of the manipulation is controlled individually depending on the tilt of the combine harvester.

The invention relates to a combine harvester comprising an axial separating device for separating a crop flow picked up by the combine harvester into a plurality of partial flows, the axial separating device including means for manipulating a local concentration gradient of a partial flow output caused by the tilt of the combine harvester and method for operating thereof.
Combine harvesters comprising an axial separating device for separating a crop flow picked up by the combine harvester into a plurality of partial flows, where a partial flow composed of grain and non-grain components is fed by way of a separation surface of the axial separating device to a cleaning unit disposed downstream thereof are known. In harvesting processes that take place in a plane, a substantially uniform output of the partial flow from the axial separating device becomes established. Consequently, downstream devices such as the cleaning device are likewise loaded with crop in a uniform manner. But when harvesting is performed on a sloped hillside, the force of gravity causes harvested crop to accumulate on the downhill side when transferred from the header into the feed rake, while the concentration of crop decreases on the uphill side. This results in a crop local concentration gradient forms. This crop local concentration gradient continues as processing takes place within the combine harvester and continuously increases.
EP 1 284 098 A1 makes known a combine harvester of the initially mentioned type, which comprises an axial separating rotor for separating a crop flow into a plurality of partial flows. The partial flows contain the useful material and waste material in different concentrations. A cleaning unit is disposed downstream of the axial separating rotor, to which a partial flow composed of grain and non-grain components is fed in order to separate them from each other. The axial separating rotor is enclosed by a separation surface, which is formed of wire crating and comprises two sections having a plurality of openings. The separation surface of the axial separating rotor, which is subdivided into the two sections, comprises, in the first, upstream section thereof, a plurality of plates staggered in the circumferential direction, while the second section is formed only of wire grating in the conventional manner.
Each of the plates of the first section is pivotable about an axis that is parallel to the longitudinal axis of the axial separating rotor. To this end, the plates are mechanically coupled to one another in order to influence their pivot setting by way of a common linear actuator. To ensure that the portion of non-grain components in the partial flow output by the axial separating rotor remains small, the first section of the separation surface is closed in the crop-inlet region starting in the upstream direction in order to obtain an accumulation of grain in the outer region of the crop circulating in the axial separating rotor. The shifting of the earliest separation region in the upstream direction is controlled depending on the quantity of waste material that is separated out by way of the partial flow of useful material.
The aforementioned axial separating rotor significantly increases performance during harvesting travel in the plane, under certain harvesting conditions. But if the combine harvester begins to tilt transversely to the conveyance direction, for example, during travel along an incline, the local concentration of the partial flow output by the axial separating rotor increases on the downhill side. This occurs because the load in the header is greater on the downhill side due to the force of gravity, and therefore the separation thereof on the input side results in an additional loading of a cleaning unit disposed downstream of the axial separating rotor. The performance of the combine harvester on the sloped hillside therefore decreases.

Combine harvester comprising an axial separating device and method for operating a combine harvester

CLAAS Selbstfahrende Erntemaschinen GmbH


High density packaging of semiconductor devices on an interconnection substrate is achieved by stacking bare semiconductor devices atop one another so that an edge portion of a semiconductor device extends beyond the semiconductor device that it is stacked atop. Elongate interconnection elements extend from the bottommost one of the semiconductor devices, and from the exposed edge portions of the semiconductor devices stacked atop the bottommost semiconductor device. Free-ends of the elongate interconnection elements make electrical contact with terminals of an interconnection substrate, such as a PCB. The elongate interconnection elements extending from each of the semiconductor devices are sized so as to reach the terminals of the PCB, which may be plated through holes. The elongate interconnection elements are suitably resilient contact structures, and may be composite interconnection elements comprising a relatively soft core (e.g., a gold wire) and a relatively hard overcoat (e.g., a nickel plating).

Commonly-owned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/152,812 filed Nov. 16, 1993 (now U.S. Pat. No. 4,576,211, issued Dec. 19, 1995), and its counterpart commonly-owned copending "divisional" U.S. patent applications Ser. Nos. 08/457,479 filed Jun. 1, 1995 (status: pending) and Ser. No. 08/570,230 filed Dec. 11, 1995 (status: pending), all by KHANDROS, disclose methods for making resilient interconnection elements for microelectronics applications involving mounting an end of a flexible elongate core element (e.g., wire "stem" or "skeleton") to a terminal on an electronic component coating the flexible core element and adjacent surface of the terminal with a "shell" of one or more materials having a predetermined combination of thickness, yield strength and elastic modulus to ensure predetermined force-to-deflection characteristics of the resulting spring contacts. Exemplary materials for the core element include gold. Exemplary materials for the coating include nickel and its alloys. The resulting spring contact element is suitably used to effect pressure, or demountable, connections between two or more electronic components, including semiconductor devices.
Commonly-owned, copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/340,144 filed Nov. 15, 1994 and its corresponding PCT Patent Application No. PCT/US94/13373 filed Nov. 16, 1994 (WO95/14314, Published May 26, 1995), both by KHANDROS and MATHIEU, disclose a number of applications for the aforementioned spring contact element, and also disclosed techniques for fabricating contact pads at the ends of the spring contact elements. For example, in FIG. 14 thereof, a plurality of negative projections or holes, which may be in the form of inverted pyramids ending in apexes, are formed in the surface of a sacrificial layer (substrate). These holes are then filled with a contact structure comprising layers of material such as gold or rhodium and nickel. A flexible elongate element is mounted to the resulting contact structure and can be overcoated in the manner described hereinabove. In a final step, the sacrificial substrate is removed. The resulting spring contact has a contact pad having controlled geometry (e.g., sharp points) at its free end.
The present invention addresses and is particularly well-suited to making interconnections to modern microelectronic devices having their terminals (bond pads) disposed at a finepitch. As used herein, the term "fine-pitch" refers to microelectronic devices that have their terminals disposed at a spacing of less than 5 mils, such as 2.5 mils or 65 .mu.m. As will be evident from the description that follows, this is preferably achieved by taking advantage of the close tolerances that readily can be realized by using lithographic rather than mechanical techniques to fabricate the contact elements.

Stacking semiconductor devices, particularly memory chips


Article for magnetic heat exchange having a mantle enveloping at least one core, wherein the core comprises a plurality of grains having a magnetocalorically active material.

1. Field
Described here is an article for magnetic heat exchange and methods of manufacturing it.
2. Description of Related Art
The magnetocaloric effect describes the adiabatic conversion of a magnetically induced entropy change to the evolution or absorption of heat. Therefore, by applying a magnetic field to a magnetocaloric material, an entropy change can be induced which results in the evolution or absorption of heat. This effect can be harnessed to provide refrigeration and/or heating.
Magnetic heat exchange technology has the advantage that magnetic heat exchangers are, in principle, more energy efficient than gas compression/expansion cycle systems. Furthermore, magnetic heat exchangers are environmentally friendly, as ozone depleting chemicals such as CFC's are not used.
Magnetic heat exchangers, such as that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,676,772, typically include a pumped recirculation system, a heat exchange medium such as a fluid coolant, a chamber packed with particles of a magnetic refrigerant working material which displays the magnetocaloric effect, and a means for applying a magnetic field to the chamber.
In recent years, materials, such as La(Fe1-aSia)13, Gd5(Si,Ge)4, Mn(As,Sb) and MnFe(P,As) have been developed which have a Curie Temperature, Tc, at or near room temperature. The Curie Temperature translates to the operating temperature of the material in a magnetic heat exchange system. Consequently, these materials are suitable for use in applications such as building climate control, domestic and industrial refrigerators and freezers, and automotive climate control.
Further developments of these materials have been directed towards optimizing the composition so as to increase the entropy change and to increase the temperature range over which the entropy change occurs. This enables smaller applied magnetic fields to be used to achieve sufficient cooling and a stable refrigeration cycle to be achieved over a larger temperature range. These measures aim to simplify the design of the heat exchange system as the smaller magnetic fields can be produced by a permanent magnet rather than requiring an electromagnet or even a superconducting magnet. However, further improvements are desirable to enable a more extensive application of magnetic heat exchange technology.

Article made of a granular magnetocalorically active material for heat exchange


An optical glass contains as glass ingredients, by weight: 0-8% SiO2; 34.5-46% B2O3; 2.6-6% Li2O; 21-38% ZnO; 0-40% La2O3; 0-35% Gd2O3; and 0-15% Y2O3, with the total content of La2O3+Gd2O3+Y2O3 accounting for 10-40%. The optical glass also has a predetermined index of refraction and a predetermined dispersion.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical glass and to an optical elements formed thereof. More particularly, the invention relates to an optical glass suitable for mold-pressing and to an optical element formed of such an optical glass.
2. Description of Related Art
One method of fabricating an optical element such as a glass lens is so-called mold-pressing. In mold-pressing, a lens is directly molded by pressing glass heated to above the yielding temperature thereof (hereinafter also represented by "At") between a pair of heated metal molds—an upper and a lower mold. This involves less fabrication steps than other conventional methods of molding lenses which involve the grinding and polishing of glass, and thus permits fabrication of lenses with less time and at lower costs. Mold-pressing has therefore come to be widely employed in recent years to fabricate optical elements such as glass lenses.
There are mainly two types of mold-pressing: one involving reheating and the other involving direct-pressing. In mold-pressing of the reheating type, a gob preform or a polished preform having largely the shape of the finished product is prepared, and this preform is then reheated to above the softening point and press-molded between a pair of heated metal molds—an upper and a lower mold—so as to be formed into the shape of the finished product. On the other hand, in mold-pressing of the direct-pressing type, molten glass from a glass melting furnace is poured directly into a heated metal mold and is press-molded so as to be formed into the shape of the finished product.
In mold-pressing of either type, when glass is molded, the pressing metal mold needs to be heated to near or above the glass transition temperature (hereinafter also represented by "Tg"). As a result, the higher the Tg of glass, the more prone the pressing metal mold is to surface oxidation and to alteration in the metal composition, and thus the shorter the useful life of the pressing metal mold, resulting in higher fabrication costs. Deterioration of the metal mold may be alleviated by performing molding in an atmosphere of an inert gas such as nitrogen. The control of the atmosphere, however, requires a complicated design in molding equipment, and the use of the inert gas incurs a running cost, leading to higher fabrication costs. Thus, it is desirable that glass used in mold-pressing have as low a Tg as possible. On the other hand, during mold-pressing, and during the cooling of the molded product, if the glass has a high linear expansion coefficient in the temperature range of 100-300° C., thermal stress is so great that the molded product is prone to cracking and chipping. In particular, in mold-pressing of the direct-pressing type, which involves rapid cooling of the molded product, the molded product frequently develops cracks. Thus, to prevent cracking and chipping of the molded product, it is desirable that grass have a low linear expansion coefficient.
Against this background, various technologies for lowering the Tg of glass have been studied, of which examples are proposed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,713,419, in U.S. Pat. No. 6,251,813, and in JP-A-2001-130924.
Some of the optical glasses proposed in the patent documents mentioned above do have low Tg's but have, disappointingly, high linear expansion coefficients, causing cracking and chipping in the molded product during mold-pressing and during the cooling of the molded product.


In one application for containing and remediating contaminants in sediments, employing a geocomposite eliminates the need for a thick cap or removal and subsequent ex situ treatment of the sediment. A geocomposite with at least one layer of reactive material is placed over the area to be remediated. A layer of available surcharge materials such as sand, gravel, or riprap covers the geocomposite. The weight of the surcharge materials causes pore water to flow from the sediment through the reactive layer or layers. Contaminants may be trapped in this reactive layer or layers. A top or bottom layer, or both a top and bottom layer, may be provided to inhibit incursion from outside the sediment layer, while permitting appropriate flow direction of pore water into the reactive layer or layers.

Conventional isolation or treatment of contaminated soils and sediments is by either "capping" or removal. Capping may use natural materials such as soils or gravel, or geosynthetic layers, or a combination of any of these.
Capping systems comprised of soil or gravel layers are relatively thick and prone to erosion and disturbance. This may cause mixing with the adjacent contaminated soil or sediment. In sub-aqueous applications, such as harbors or shipping channels, thick caps may present obstructions to ships. The cap may be damaged by the turbulence caused by ship traffic as well as by direct contact. Additionally, these thick caps are not designed to interact with any contaminant chemicals that may be in the pore fluid.
Contaminated sediment (sub-aqueous or otherwise) may be removed for ex situ treatment, simple off-site storage, or both. However, sub-aqueous sediment removal is expensive and can result in significant contaminant re-suspension in the overlying water column during removal of the sediment.
Embodiments of the present invention address the above deficiencies in a cost-effective manner.

Method of containing and at least partially remediating contaminants in soils, including sediments

The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Army


A method and apparatus for moving a robotic vehicle relative to a structure. A set of tracks associated with a base of the robotic vehicle may be deployed. A number of attachment units associated with the set of tracks may be aligned with a corresponding portion of a number of structural members of the structure in a forward sequence as the set of tracks is deployed. The number of attachment units may be secured to the corresponding portion of the number of structural members in the forward sequence.

1. Field
The present disclosure relates generally to robotic vehicles and, in particular, to a method and apparatus for moving a robotic vehicle within a space using a set of tracks and attachment units associated with the set of tracks.
2. Background
In certain situations, operations may need to be performed within a space that is difficult to access or a space within which moving is difficult. For example, the space may be a confined space that is restricted in width, height, area, volume, or a combination thereof. In some cases, access to the space may be limited by the entrance into the space. In other cases, moving through a space may be difficult because a continuous and smooth surface is not present.
The interior of a wing box for an aircraft may be an example of one type of space that may be difficult to access and within which moving can be difficult. In some cases, the entire interior of a wing box may be considered one space. In other cases, each wing bay within the wing box may be considered a different space.
Currently, performing operations within the interior of a wing box may be more difficult than desired. For example, to perform an operation within a wing bay inside the wing box, a human operator may need to enter the wing bay through an access port. However, the access hole that is the entrance into the wing bay may be limiting in size. Further, the confined nature of the wing bay may hinder the ability of the human operator to perform operations within the wing bay. Still further, the presence of structures, such as stringers, mounted to the inner skin panels of the wing box may impede movement of the human operator through the wing box.
In some cases, a robotic arm may be used to perform operations within a wing box. For example, a robotic arm, supported by a base located outside of the wing box, may reach into the wing box through an access port. However, some currently available robotic arms have limited reach. Consequently, these types of robotic arms may be unable to perform certain types of operations.
Some currently available robotic vehicles may be small enough to enter a wing box through an access port. However, moving these robotic vehicles through the wing box may be more difficult than desired and, in some cases, infeasible. In particular, moving these robotic vehicles over the inner skin panels of the wing box and over structures, such as stringers, mounted to the inner skin panels may be more difficult than desired and, in some cases, infeasible. Additionally, providing power to these robotic vehicles such that the robotic vehicles may maneuver and perform operations within these spaces may be more difficult than desired. Therefore, it would be desirable to have a method and apparatus that take into account at least some of the issues discussed above, as well as other possible issues.

Method and apparatus for moving a robotic vehicle


Voids in via holes in integrated circuits have been effectively removed by heating the vias to a relatively low temperature and then subjecting the entire structure (including the vias) to artificial gravitational forces. Said forces may be steadily applied, as in centrifuging, or they may be applied intermittently by using a jerking motion which is repeated several times. A number of different ways for implementing such jerking motion are described. These include magnetic repulsion, vertical pulling by a motor, and providing a pressure differential between the top and bottom sides of the integrated circuit holder.

(1) Field of the Invention
The invention relates to the general field of semiconductor integrated circuits, more particularly to methods for removing voids in conductive vias in integrated circuits.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
As integrated circuits grow ever denser, the devices and the wires that connect them need to shrink in size. This required size reduction also applies to the conductive vias that are used to make electrical connections between wires at different levels. When the diameters of the via holes get to be less than about 0.5 microns, it becomes increasingly more difficult to fill them completely and reliably so that metal is guaranteed to extend across the entire gap between the two levels that are being connected.
This problem of filling very small diameter via holes is illustrated in FIGS. 1a and 1b. In FIG. 1a, via hole 1, having vertical sidewalls, has been etched through insulating layer 2. The latter was previously deposited onto layer 3 of conductive wiring. FIG. 1b shows how a problem of completely filling such a via hole can arise. Instead of extending all the way to layer 3 by filling via hole 1, layer 4 of next level wiring has penetrated only part way which has resulted in the formation of void 5.
During the deposition of layer 4, atoms of 4 would reach the bottom of via hole 1 only if they happened to be travelling almost exactly parallel to the vertical sidewalls of 1. All other atoms would condense on these sidewalls some distance from the bottom of the hole which would quickly fill near the top, effectively preventing even the few correctly oriented atoms from reaching the bottom.
A number of solutions to this problem have been proposed in the prior art. For example, as shown in FIG. 2, a tapered via hole 21 may be used. This leads to good hole filling but limits the density of vias that can then be achieved. Subjecting the structure to high temperatures and/or pressures, after top metal deposition, has also been proposed. These methods, while potentially effective, are not totally satisfactory. High temperatures add to the thermal budget (total energy needed to manufacture the structure) and also introduce the possibility of causing unwanted changes in other parts of the structure. High pressures require expensive specialized equipment and also introduce a safety risk into the operation.
Since one of the embodiments of the present invention involves the use of centrifuging, we note that centrifuging has been described in the prior art as a method for improving the concentration of filler particles in composite materials. For example, Noordegraaf et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 5,002,115 March 1991) describe a method for evenly dispersing filler particles or fibers, such as silicon carbide, in a metal matrix, such as zinc. A mesh that holds the fiber particles is placed above an empty mould and a cover plate with a hole is placed over the mesh. Molten metal is poured through the hole and, under the influence of the centrifuging action, is forced through the mesh into the mould, taking filler particles with it.
Ahmad (U.S. Pat. No. 3,716,461 February 1973) is also an improved method for forming a composite material. The matrix metal is formed by means of electrodeposition, the filler particles being suspended in the electrolyte. The rate at which filler particles settle is increased by centrifuging so their concentration in the electro-formed material is similarly increased.
We are unaware of any published applications of artificial gravity that has been generated by methods other than centrifuging. In a pending application by the same inventor, (patent application Ser. No. 08/703,919 filed Aug. 22, 1996) artificial gravity, generated in several different ways, was used to assist in the planarizing of the surface of an integrated circuit. The present invention uses similar technology for generating the artificial gravity but, beyond that, is quite unrelated to Ser. No. 08/703,919.

Metallization process using artificial gravity


A data interface is provided for point-to-point communications between two devices, such as a read channel and a disk controller in an HDD system. An interface for communications from a transmitting device to a receiving device comprises a data bus configured to communicate m bits of data and a corresponding n bit data tag, wherein a given n bit data tag identifies a data type of a corresponding m bits of data on the data bus. An acknowledge signal from the receiving device optionally indicates that data on the data bus has been received and that the data on the data bus can be changed to a new value. A valid flag optionally indicates when a new predefined m-bit data value and corresponding n-bit tag value are on the data bus.

Disk-based storage devices such as hard disk drives (HDDs) are commonly used to provide non-volatile data storage in a wide variety of different types of data processing systems. In such disk-based storage devices, a read channel typically sends Servo data to a disk controller over a 3-wire interface (up to 2 bits per cycle) or by requesting a register address over a standard Advanced Peripheral Bus (APB) or an Advanced High Performance Bus (AHB). A need remains for improved data interfaces for point-to-point communications between two devices, such as a read channel and a disk controller in an HDD system.

Data interface for point-to-point communications between devices

Avago Technologies General IP (Singapore) Pte. Ltd.


A stamper and a transfer apparatus that utilizes the stamper, which is capable of accurately transferring its own pattern onto an article, such as a substrate, without being affected by any distribution of convex portions on the stamper surface or any contour of the substrate. The stamper has a fine concave-convex pattern on a surface thereof for forming a fine structure on a substrate using a pressing machine. The stamper is flexible and includes a buffer formed on an opposite side to the side on which the concave-convex pattern is formed. The buffer has a longitudinal distribution of moduli of elasticity.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a stamper for forming a fine pattern or a structure on a substrate. It also relates to a transfer apparatus using the stamper.
2. Background Art
FIG. 3 schematically illustrates the process of forming a mask pattern on a thin film provided on a substrate by applying an organic resin to the substrate and then molding the organic resin with a stamper. A stamper 104 is moved over a substrate 101 on which a thin film 103 and an organic resin layer 102 have been formed, while pressing evenly the stamper onto the organic resin layer 102 that has not been cured, thereby transferring a pattern formed on the stamper onto the organic resin layer 102. After the transfer of the pattern, the organic resin layer 102 is heated or irradiated with light so as to cure the organic resin layer 102 and thus fix its shape, thereby forming a mask pattern 105 to be used as a protective mask for etching. Using this mask pattern 105, the thin film 103 is etched such that the thin film is removed except where the film is masked by the mask pattern 105, thereby pattering the thin film (see JP Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 5-80530 A (1993) (par. 0023 to 0028 and FIG. 1), for example).
As a method of allowing only the concave-convex pattern on the surface of the stamper to be transferred in spite of irregularities in the thickness of the stamper or bulges on the back surface of the stamper, the following is known. FIG. 4 shows a process of transferring the shape of the stamper to a photosensitive resin 112 by pressing a base plate 111 onto the resin 112. Behind the stamper 113 are disposed a member 117, a two-sided adhesive tape 116, a resilient member 115 and a vinyl sheet 114. Thus, any irregularities in the thickness of the stamper 113 or bulges on the back surface of the stamper can be absorbed by the resilient member 115 disposed behind the stamper (see JP Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 5-73968 A (1993) (par. 0011 and FIG. 1), for example).
Of the aforementioned conventional techniques, the one illustrated in FIG. 3, whereby the pattern is transferred to the resin on the silicon substrate, employs a rigid body made of a light-transmitting organic resin or glass as the stamper. The surface of the stamper or the silicon substrate has height irregularities on the order of several micrometers. These height irregularities pose an obstacle in accurately transferring fine structures on the order of micrometers or less.
This problem can be overcome by producing the stamper with a flexible material such that the stamper can accommodate the contour of the substrate. However, in order to allow such a flexible stamper to follow the contour of the substrate accurately, a buffer must be disposed on the back surface of the stamper. As such a buffer, the resilient member that is used in the other conventional technique, namely the transfer process illustrated in FIG. 4, could be used.
When the flexible stamper is pressed onto the resin on the substrate, the areas on the surface of the stamper that have many convex portions come into contact with the resin first. As a result, these areas receive a larger resistance from the resin than other areas on the stamper surface and are warped, such that the pattern on the stamper surface cannot be correctly transferred to the resin. Such unevenness in the transfer cannot be solved by the use of the resilient member in the transfer process for photosensitive resin as shown in FIG. 4, whereby force is applied to the entire surface of the stamper in an equal manner.
It is therefore the object of the invention to provide a stamper capable of accurately transferring the pattern on the stamper to a transferred item without being influenced by the distribution of the convex portions on the stamper surface or irregularities of the substrate, a transfer apparatus that utilizes such stamper.


A system for detecting single-shot pulse contrast includes a correlator generating a correlation signal, a spectral filter filtering light signals having wavelengths different from the correlation signal, a fiber array comprising a plurality of fibers with different lengths for transmitting the correlation signal in parallel forming parallel correlation signals, and a fiber bundle bounding the fibers at the end thereof for converging the parallel correlation signals, wherein due to different lengths of the fibers, the parallel correlation signals are converted into serial correlation signals at end of the fibers, a plurality of fiber attenuators spliced into at least one of the fibers respectively for attenuating the parallel correlation signals, a detector for detecting the serial correlation signals to produce analog signals, an A/D convertor converting the analog signals to digital signals, and a computer for processing the digital signals for retrieving the single-shot pulse contrast.

1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a laser pulse measurement technique, and more specifically to a method and system for detecting single-shot pulse contrast based on fiber array.
2. Description of Related Arts
Any discussion of the prior art throughout the specification should in no way be considered as an admission that such prior art is widely known or forms part of common general knowledge in the field.
Focused intensity in excess of 1020 W/cm2 now can be reached by high-power laser systems based on chirp pulse amplification, which may find many applications such as plasma physics, high-order harmonic generation, inertial confinement fusion, or quantum electrodynamics. In the systems with such high intensities, however, reflections, scattering, amplified spontaneous emission, or incomplete temporal compression may result in considerable pedestal or pre-pulses and post-pluses. The contrast, defined by the ratio of the peak intensity of the main pulse to its background, especially in the leading part, is therefore one of the most important parameters of a high-power laser pulse. For example, the absolute intensity of the long pedestal or pre-pulse must be under the threshold of pre-plasma generation for a clean light-matter interaction experiment. The higher the peak intensity, the higher the contrast is required. This, of course, necessitates a more delicate design of the laser system and/or pulse's cleaning technique for higher peak intensity to meet the experiment criteria. On the other hand, it also challenges the diagnostic technique for pulse contrast, which is necessary for experimental data analysis and system optimization.
Current diagnostic techniques for pulse contrast are typically based on nonlinear correlation, in which a clean reference is obtained by second-harmonic generation (SHG) of the to-be-characterized pulse. Sum-frequency generation (SFG) or difference-frequency generation (DFG) may serve as the nonlinear process for correlation, and the dependence of the third harmonics or the idler on temporal delay is measured to reveal the information of the shape and contrast of the primary pulse. One of the most important specifications of such an instrument is its dynamic range, which determines the ability to distinguish the utmost difference of the signal levels. For a specific detection system the strongest signal detected must be kept below the saturation level, which is accomplished commonly by attenuation using a calibrated neutral density filters(s) [NDF(s)]. At the low end, the noise level sets the bottom limit of the detectable signal. The noise level sets the bottom limit of the detectable signal. The noise limit is indeed the most severe problem that restricts the obtainable dynamic range. Stray light suppression and using detector with low noise and high sensitivity are thus preferable. In a time-scanning configuration for characterizing repetitive pulses, a lock-I amplifier or boxcar averager may be used to increase the dynamic range by 1-2 orders of magnitude. In addition, a larger dynamic range could be achieved in principle by further increasing the intensity of the input beam while increasing the attenuation of the signal peak.
Although a dynamic range in excess of 1011:1 has been demonstrated for repetitive millijoule input pulses in a time-scanning mode, it is typically about 106-107:1 for single-shot technique, which is especially desirable for high energy/high-power laser systems operating at extremely low repetition rate or even non-repetitively, the information of the shape and contrast is obtained from an isolated pulse. Third-order correlation based on SHG-SFG cascaded processes is widely used. Variation of the time delay is realized by intersecting the two interacting beams and/or tilting the pulses onto the SFG crystal, and the correlation in time is then transformed into a spatial intensity distribution. Currently the pulse correlation trace in a single-shot measurement is recorded by a multi-element detector capable of parallel measurement such as a diode array. To increase the measurable contrast a calibrated attenuator is normally positioned to reduce the central portion of the signal while leaving the low-level pedestal un-attenuated. The poorer dynamic range in a single-shot mode, when compared to that of a time-scanning mode, is largely due to the performance limits in its detection system. The attenuator for the central signal reduction, the width of which is narrower than that of the signal beam, will inevitably introduce extra noise through edge scattering or diffraction. Furthermore, the diode array for parallel measurement is much less sensitive than a photomultiplier tube (PMT) in a time-scanning setup, particularly when techniques for improving the signal-to-noise ratio, such as lock-in amplification or boxer averaging, are precluded in a single-shot measurement.

Method and system for detecting single-shot pulse contrast based on fiber array


A flexible sealing tube is described that is adapted to be installed in and extend along a bore in the ground for use in a system for exchanging of energy with the ground. The flexible sealing tube has a first tube end to be installed at an inner part of said bore, and the flexible sealing tube is closed in the first tube end. The flexible sealing tube also has a first channel and a second channel extending in a longitudinal direction (L) of the flexible sealing tube, the first and second channels being in fluid connection with each other. The first and second channels are formed by the flexible sealing tube.

Systems for extracting energy from the ground by utilizing a temperature differential between the ground and the environment are known. Current systems typically use a closed rigid tubing system installed in a bore, in which tubing system liquid is pumped to extract energy, such as heating or cooling, from the ground. The liquid is pumped around within the tubing system and, for example, to a heat exchanger in a heat pump.
Energy wells conventionally have depths of between about 100 and 200 meters. The ground water level is often a few meters below ground level and the systems for extracting energy from the ground typically employ heat pumps that take advantage of the substantially constant temperature of the ground at depths greater than approximately 2 meters below ground to source and sink thermal energy necessary to heat and cool the structure, respectively.
There are different layers at different levels in the ground and these layers are of different quality. The layers may constitute of different types of rock, but there may also be layers of sand or gravel of different fraction which may reduce the strength of the walls of the borehole. The borehole may therefore risk bringing unwanted particles into the borehole with the ground water flowing in the ground and particularly in the smaller particle comprising layers or even collapse of the walls of the bore hole.
The amount of energy which may be extracted from the ground depends on several factors, such as the extension of the bore, the temperature of the surrounding ground water and/or the earth crust, the ground water transporting amount around the borehole and the capacity of the installed system for extraction of temperature differences between the surrounding ground and the circulating liquid in the tubing system.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a simplified, convenient system for exchanging energy with a ground with an improved efficiency and a simplified and cost-efficient method for manufacturing such system.

Flexible sealing tube and method for producing the same


The present invention discloses a solution for adjusting a horizontal orientation of a graphic. The solution can include a step of identifying a graphic object having a first horizontal orientation, which is to be changed to an opposite horizontal orientation. A determination as to whether the graphic object has an odd number of pixels along an x-axis can be made. When determination results are positive only, a pixel shift can be applied to the graphic object. A matrix transform can be applied to the software object regardless of the determination results. The software object can be visually presented upon a display after the applying step.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of graphic manipulations and, more particularly, to adjusting left-to-right graphics to a right-to-left orientation using transformations with adjustments for line width and pixel orientation.
2. Description of the Related Art
Modern software programs are often written in an internationalized form to permit a user to choose a language for interactions. Changes to a base language can change a language of menu items, tips, help content, and the like. For example, a user of an internationalized word processing program can often configure the program for English, Spanish, French, German, Hindu, Chinese, Arabic, Hebrew, and other popular languages. Base code of an internationalized program lacks language specific labels. Instead, unique keys are used in the base code, which correspond to a language specific items that are associated with these unique keys. Language specific substitutions can occur at compile time for an internationalized software application or at runtime. Even when software is not internationalized to permit a user to adjust a language, a software development team is often forced to create different variants of a base program adjusted for a national language of a target market. Thus, one variant of a software program is customized for English, another for Spanish, another for Arabic, and so forth.
Changing a language of a software application can involve more than just replacing letters and words from one language to another. Language adjustments can also involve changing an orientation of graphical elements. For example, in a left-to-right language, graphics and text typically start at a top left corner of a window and flow towards the right. For instance, a tree control can expand to the right when a user clicks on an expansion indicator (+/−) and a vertical scroll bar can appear on a right side of a window. In a right-to-left language, however, the same tree control can expand to the left when a user clicks on an expansion indicator and a vertical scroll bar can appear on a left side of a window.
At present, there are two ways to deal with orientation adjustments. A first is to create two versions of all base code, one for a left-to-right orientation and another for a right-to-left orientation. This approach is time consuming, costly, and maintenance intensive. A second approach is to write all base code for a specific orientation and to apply an adjustment algorithm to change an orientation of graphical objects before they are rendered. This second approach is often referred to as mirroring.
Some toolkits exist that provide software tools for mirroring graphics. Unfortunately, pre-existing toolkits produce error prone results. Sometimes mirrored graphics resulting from mirroring tools are properly rendered and other times mirrored graphics appear to be "off by a few pixels." At present, developers have been forced to either use pre-existing toolkits having pixel adjustment issues when mirroring is enabled or to implement orientation adjustments from scratch using application specific code.

Adjusting left-to-right graphics to a right-to-left orientation or vice versa using transformations with adjustments for line width and pixel orientation

International Business Machines Corporation