Author: claimsbot

1. A method for monitoring and controlling, from a host computer, the real-time logic state of a plurality of target devices in a boundary scan chain, comprising:
(a) displaying graphical representations of said target devices on a graphical display device connected to said host computer,
(b) running boundary scan operations on said target devices to collect information about said target devices and storing said information in said host computer for said displaying of graphical representation,
(c) updating said graphical representations with said information to visually indicate a current real-time logic state of said target devices,
(d) initiating and running boundary scan operations via a method that frees the user from generating, preparing, or otherwise creating test vectors,
(e) initiating and running boundary scan operations via a method that frees the user from supplying test executives, and
(f) whereby a human can view and manipulate a boundary scan enabled device via a graphical user interface.
2. The method of claim 1 further comprising modifying the attributes of said graphical representations to help organize and simplify monitoring of said boundary scan chain.
3. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing a plurality of virtual indicators to augment and simplify the display of boundary scan information.
4. The method of claim 3 wherein said indicators are graphical representations of light emitting diodes.
5. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing a plurality of virtual controls to augment and simplify the control of data in a boundary scan chain.
6. The method of claim 5 wherein said indicators appear as graphical representations of mechanical switches.
7. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing a graphical representation of an input-output port on said host computer used to perform boundary scan operations, whereby said input-output port graphical representation serves to visually remind the user which port is controlling the scan chain.

The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.

1. A computer-based method for providing an electronic service in a service environment of clients and electronic service providers for performing work via computer applications or devices comprising the steps of:
(a) receiving an electronic request message for electronic service at a client specified price, said request message containing at least one data field representing an electronic service level desired by said client;
(b) at an electronic service provider, generating a digital subsumption hierarchy of multiple service levels of said electronic service expressed in digital notation, wherein at least one of said service levels subsumes at least another one of said service levels provided that said at least one of said service levels offers at least the same quality of service as said at least another one of said service levels,
(c) testing a first service level, comprising a first conjunction of features, and a second service level, comprising a second conjunction of features, for subsumption hierarchy;
(d) determining if each feature in said first conjunction subsumes a corresponding feature in said second conjunction, if each said feature in said first conjunction subsumes said corresponding feature in said second conjunction, said first service level subsumes said second service level, otherwise said first service level does not subsume said second service level, wherein each of said features consist of a name and a value, and an arithmetic comparison or a negation;
(e) determining a given service level price by deriving a numerical quality value from quality factors associated with each of said features;
(f) generating an electronic quote message in response to said request, said quote message containing data representing the highest one of said service levels of which an associated one of said service providers is capable of delivering at said specified price and at no less than said service level desired by said client;
(g) sending said quote message to said client;
(h) receiving one of either a positive or negative notification message from said client in response to said quote message; and
(i) providing said electronic service upon receipt of said positive notification message.
2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the steps of adding a service definition to define a service either dynamically or when the system is initialized.
3. The method according to claim 1 wherein said step of providing said electronic service comprises prioritizing depending on the level of service requested in said electronic request message.
4. The method according to claim 1 further comprising the step of excluding a particular service level from said electronic quote when a capacity is reached.
5. A computer-based method for providing an electronic service quote in a service environment of clients and electronic service providers for performing work via computer applications or devices comprising the steps of:
(a) receiving an electronic request message for electronic service at a client specified price, said request message containing at least one data field representing an electronic service level desired by said client;
(b) at an electronic service provider, generating a digital subsumption hierarchy of multiple service levels of said electronic service expressed in digital notation, wherein at least one of said service levels subsumes at least another one of said service levels provided that said at least one of said service levels offers at least the same quality of service as said at least another one of said service levels,
(c) testing a first service level, comprising a first conjunction of features, and a second service level, comprising a second conjunction of features, for subsumption hierarchy;
(d) determining if each feature in said first conjunction subsumes a corresponding feature in said second conjunction, if each said feature in said first conjunction subsumes said corresponding feature in said second conjunction, said first service level subsumes said second service level, otherwise said first service level does not subsume said second service level, wherein each of said features consist of a name and a value, and an arithmetic comparison or a negation;
(e) determining a given service level price by deriving a numerical quality value from quality factors associated with each of said features;
(f) generating an electronic quote message in response to said request, said quote message containing data representing the highest one of said service levels of which an associated one of said service providers is capable of delivering at said specified price and at no less than said service level desired by said client; and
(g) sending said quote message to said client.
6. The method according to claim 5, further comprising the steps of:
(h) receiving one of either a positive or negative notification message from said client in response to said quote message; and
(i) providing said electronic service upon receipt of said positive notification message.
7. The method according to claim 6, wherein said service provider generates said quote message only if the data representing said highest one of said service levels capable of being delivered by said service provider is at least as high as said service level desired by said client.

1. A method for making a catalyst composition, comprising the steps of combining dawsonite or a dawsonite derivative with a catalytic active element.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein the dawsonite derivative comprises amorphous alumina or mesoporous alumina.
3. The method of claim 2, wherein the dawsonite derivative is formed by heat-treating the dawsonite under conditions sufficient to calcine the dawsonite and convert the dawsonite to amorphous alumina.
4. The method of claim 3, wherein the heat treatment is carried out at a temperature in a range of about 300 degrees Celsius to about 600 degrees Celsius.
5. The method of claim 3, wherein the amorphous alumina is treated in an aqueous medium at a temperature above the boiling point of the aqueous medium, so as to convert the amorphous alumina to a mesoporous form.
6. The method of claim 5, wherein the aqueous treatment comprises immersing the amorphous alumina in boiling water.
7. The method of claim 5, wherein the aqueous treatment comprises steam treatment of the amorphous alumina.
8. The method of claim 1, further comprising the following steps after combining dawsonite with the catalytic active element;
(a) heat-treating the activated dawsonite material under conditions sufficient to calcinate the activated dawsonite material and convert the activated dawsonite material to an activated amorphous alumina material; and
(b) treating the activated amorphous alumina material in an aqueous medium at a temperature above the boiling point of the aqueous medium, so as to convert the amorphous alumina material to a mesoporous form.
9. The method of claim 8, wherein the heat treatment is carried out at a temperature in a range of about 300 degrees Celsius to about 600 degrees Celsius.
10. The method of claim 8, wherein the aqueous treatment comprises immersing the activated amorphous alumina in boiling water.
11. The method of claim 8, wherein the aqueous treatment comprises steam treatment of the activated amorphous alumina.
12. The method of claim 1, wherein combining dawsonite or the dawsonite derivative with the catalytic active element comprises impregnating or disposing the catalytic active element on at least one surface of the dawsonite or the dawsonite derivative.
13. The method of claim 1, wherein combining dawsonite or the dawsonite derivative with the catalytic active element comprises doping the dawsonite or the dawsonite derivative with the catalytic active element.
14. The method of claim 13, wherein doping comprises exchanging the catalytic active element with a cation of the dawsonite.
15. The method of claim 1, wherein the catalytic active element comprises gallium, indium, rhodium, palladium, ruthenium, iridium, or combinations thereof.
16. The method of claim 1, wherein the catalytic active element comprises a transition metal selected from the group consisting of silver, platinum and gold.
17. The method of claim 1, wherein the catalytic active element is present in an amount of at least about 3 weight percent, based on the total weight of the catalyst composition.
18. The method of claim 1, further comprising heat treatment of the catalyst composition under conditions sufficient to calcine the catalyst composition.
19. The method of claim 1, further comprising disposing the catalyst composition on a monolithic substrate.
20. The method of claim 1, wherein the catalyst composition has a surface area in a range of about 200 m2gm to about 500 m2gm.
21. The method of claim 20, wherein the catalyst composition has a surface area in a range of about 300 m2gm to about 450 m2gm.
22. A method for making a catalyst composition for reducing nitrogen oxides, comprising the steps of:
(a) heat-treating dawsonite under conditions sufficient to convert the dawsonite to an amorphous alumina;
(b) treating the amorphous alumina in an aqueous medium at a temperature above the boiling point of the aqueous medium, so as to convert the amorphous alumina to a mesoporous alumina; and
(c) combining a catalytic active element with the mesoporous alumina, to form the catalyst composition.
23. A method for making a catalyst composition for reducing nitrogen oxides, comprising the steps of:
(a) heat treating dawsonite under conditions sufficient to calcine the dawsonite and convert dawsonite to an amorphous alumina,
(b) combining a catalytic active element with the amorphous alumina to form a catalytic active element-activated amorphous alumina, and
(c) treating the catalytic active element-activated amorphous alumina in an aqueous medium at a temperature above the boiling point of the aqueous medium, so as to convert the catalytic active element-activated amorphous alumina to a catalytic active element-activated mesoporous alumina, to form the catalyst composition.
24. A method for making a catalyst composition for reducing nitrogen oxides, comprising the steps of:
(a) combining a catalytic active element with dawsonite to form a catalytic active element-activated dawsonite,
(b) heat-treating the catalytic active element-activated dawsonite under conditions sufficient to calcine the dawsonite and convert the catalytic active element-activated dawsonite to a catalytic active element-activated amorphous alumina; and
(c) treating the catalytic active element-activated amorphous alumina in an aqueous medium at a temperature above the boiling point of the aqueous medium, so as to convert the catalytic active element-activated amorphous alumina to a catalytic active element-activated mesoporous alumina, to form the catalyst composition.

The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.

1. An active waveguide on a substrate comprising:
a waveguide core comprising:
a layer of monocrystalline silicon disposed on the substrate,
a layer of a first dielectric material on the layer of monocrystalline silicon, and
a slab of monocrystalline silicon on the layer of the first dielectric material, where the slab and a silicon body of a transistor are formed from the same monocrystalline silicon on the same substrate,

a cladding comprised of a plurality of dielectric materials,
where at least one of the plurality of dielectric materials is comprised of a salicide block layer used during the fabrication of a transistor,
a plurality of doped regions in the slab of monocrystalline silicon,
where at least one of the plurality of doped regions is doped at the same time with the same dopant as a doped region in the structure of a transistor on the same substrate,
a plurality of ohmic contacts, each of which is formed in a region of the plurality of doped regions in the slab of monocrystalline silicon,
where at least one of the plurality of ohmic contacts is formed at the same time with the same material as an ohmic contact in the structure of a transistor on the same substrate, and
a plurality of conductive plugs coupling each of the plurality of ohmic contacts to at least one of a plurality of metal layers of an integrated circuit, where at least one of the plurality of conductive plugs is formed at the same time with the same material as a conductive plug coupling an ohmic contact of a transistor on the same substrate with the same one of a plurality of metal layers.
2. The active waveguide of claim 1, wherein the substrate is comprised of a layer of silicon dioxide disposed on a layer of monocrystalline silicon.
3. The active waveguide of claim 2, wherein the substrate,
the layer of monocrystalline silicon disposed on the substrate,
the layer of dielectric material disposed on the layer of monocrystalline silicon and
the slab of monocrystalline silicon disposed on the layer of dielectric material, comprises a wafer.
4. The light scattering element of claim 1, wherein the layer of dielectric is comprised of silicon dioxide and is used to electrically isolate the transistor from the slab of monocrystalline silicon.
5. The light scattering element of claim 1, wherein the cladding includes a bottom cladding comprised of the top layer of the substrate.
6. The light scattering element of claim 1, wherein the cladding includes a layer of dielectric material formed at the same time as the sidewall passivation for the silicon body of a transistor.
7. The light scattering element of claim 1, wherein the cladding includes a plurality of layers of dielectric material formed at the same time as a plurality of dielectric materials used as a gate spacer for a transistor.
8. The light scattering element of claim 1, wherein the cladding includes a layer of dielectric material formed at the same time as a contact punch-through layer for a transistor.
9. The light scattering element of claim 1, wherein the cladding includes a layer of dielectric material formed at the same time as an inter-level dielectric for a transistor.
10. The light scattering element of claims 6, 7, 8 or 9, wherein the layer of dielectric material included in the cladding is selected from the group comprising: silicon dioxide, silicon oxynitride and silicon nitride.
11. The light scattering element of claim 1, wherein at least one of the plurality of dielectric materials is selected from a group of dielectrics used at the same time to form a dielectric element of a transistor,
where the group of dielectrics comprises: a contact punch-through layer, an inter-layer dielectric film, a gate spacer, a salicide block, a dielectric spacer, a sidewall passivation film, an isolation dielectric, an oxide spacer and a field oxide.
12. The light scattering element of claim 11, wherein thermal oxidation is used to form a sidewall passivation film,
where the sidewall passivation film is used as one of a plurality of dielectric materials for the optical waveguide and is formed at the same time as the sidewall passivation film for the body of a transistor.
13. The light scattering element of claim 1, wherein at least one of the plurality of dielectric materials is selected from the group comprising: SiO2, SiCOH, SiCOF, Si3N4, SiON, BPSG and silicon-based materials including one or more of the following elements: oxygen, carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen, boron, phosphorus, fluorine and arsenic.
14. The light scattering element of claim 1, wherein the transistor is selected from the group comprising: a CMOS transistor, a BiCMOS transistor, a bipolar junction transistor (BJT) and a junction FET (JFET) transistor.
15. The light scattering element of claim 1, wherein the salicide block layer is used as a gate spacer during the fabrication of a transistor on the same substrate.
16. The active waveguide of claim 1, wherein an ohmic contact is comprised of a metal silicide.
17. The active waveguide of claim 1, wherein a conductive plug is comprised of tungsten.
18. The active waveguide of claim 1, further comprising fabrication of a local interconnection between a pair of transistors, at the same time as fabricating a local interconnection for coupling an ohmic contact on the slab of monocrystalline silicon with an ohmic contact on a transistor.
19. The active waveguide of claim 18, wherein the local interconnection is comprised of a material selected from the group comprising: tungsten and aluminum.