All The Claims

1. A method for incentivizing student achievement, comprising:
maintaining a database of at least one student and at least one attribute of each of said at least one student;
providing teachers access to an online system for providing input on said at least one attribute;
updating the database based on said input from said teachers;
permitting at least one business to offer at least one incentive to the at least one student, wherein each of the at least one student may only utilize each incentive based on a specific attribute specified by said at least one business, the specific attribute being based on said at least one attribute of said at least one student;
maintaining a database of said incentives provided by said at least one business;
enabling each of the at least one student to interact with the database of incentives using the online system and as a result of the interaction, providing a list of the incentives to the at least one student through the online system;
enabling each of the at least one business to interact with the database using the online system and provide an identification of a student seeking an incentive from the at least one business; and
in response to the provided identification, responding to the at least one business, in the affirmative or negative, as to whether a particular student seeking an incentive has the specific attribute for a particular incentive offered by the at least one business.
2. The method of claim 1 wherein the at least one attribute comprises grades.
3. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of determining a fee to collect from the at least one business based on interaction of the at least one business with the online system and then collecting the determined fee from the at least one business.
4. The method of claim 3, wherein the fee is collected from the at least one business providing incentives.
5. The method of claim 3, wherein the fee is collected from the at least one business based on the use of the incentives provided by the at least one business by the at least one student.
6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:
providing the at least one student with an identification device;
providing the at least one business with a secured data link device capable of interfacing with the identification device and connecting to the online system; and
performing the step of responding to the at least one business only when the particular student’s identification device is interfaced with the business’s secured data link device.
7. The method of claim 6, wherein the identification device is selected from the group consisting of a card having a magnetic stripe, a card having a barcode, a radio-frequency identification (RFID) transmitter, a near-field communication (NFC) transmitter, and a card having a QR code.
8. The method of claim 6, wherein the identification device provides the student access to an account selected from the group consisting of a credit account, a debit account, and a stored value account.
9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:
maintaining a database of at least one teacher and at least one teacher attribute corresponding to each said at least one teacher;
permitting the at least one business to offer at least one teacher incentive to the at least one teacher, wherein each of the at least one teacher may only utilize each teacher incentive based on a specific teacher attribute specified by said at least one business;
maintaining a database of said teacher incentives provided by said at least one business;
providing a list of the teacher incentives to the at least one teacher through the online system; and
responding to businesses, in the affirmative or negative, when queried by said at least one business as to whether a particular teacher has the specific attribute for a particular incentive.
10. The method of claim 9, wherein at least one teacher attribute corresponding to each of the at least one teacher is derived from the attributes of the students taught by each of the at least one teacher.
11. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one student comprises a plurality of students, further comprising:
designating a first group of students as mentor candidates based on their attributes;
designating a second group of students as mentee candidates based on their attributes; and
matching, using a processor, at least one mentor candidate with at least one mentee candidate.
12. The method of claim 11, further comprising providing a communication means to the mentor candidate and the mentee candidate matched in the matching step.
13. The method of claim 12, wherein the attributes of the mentor candidates are altered based on changes in the attributes of the mentee candidates matched with said mentor candidates.
14. A student incentive system, comprising:
a student database containing a plurality of student records, each of said student records comprising a student identifier and at least two student attributes, wherein each student identifier identifies a student;
an incentive database containing a plurality of incentive offers, each of said incentive offers comprising an incentive offered by a business and an attribute required for said incentive; and
an online system comprising:
a first interface providing access to the student database;
a second interface providing access to the incentive database; and
a verification interface that, when provided an incentive offer and a student identifier, determines using said first and second interfaces, if the student identified by the student identifier has the attribute required for the incentive of the incentive offer.
15. The system of claim 14, further comprising:
at least one student identifying device provided to each of at least one student and encoding the student identifier identifying said at least one student; and
at least one secured data link device provided to at least one business offering at least one incentive;
said secured data link device being configured to read the student identifier encoded on a student identifying device, connect to the verification interface of the online system, provide the previously read student identifier and at least one incentive offered by the business to the verification interface, and output the response of the verification interface.
16. The system of claim 15, wherein the student identifying device is selected from the group consisting of a card having a magnetic stripe, a card having a barcode, a radio-frequency identification (RFID) transmitter, a near-field communication (NFC) transmitter, and a card having a QR code.
17. The system of claim 14, wherein at least one student attribute is at least one academic grade.
18. The system of claim 15, wherein the student identifying device is also configured to provide the student access to an account selected from the group consisting of a credit account, a debit account, and a stored value account.
19. The system of claim 14, further comprising a mentorship system, said mentorship system comprising:
a mentor candidate selection system that selects students in the student database based on their attributes;
a mentee candidate selection system that selects students in the student database based on their attributes; and
a mentorship matching system coupled to said mentor candidate selection system and said mentee candidate system and that is configures to match mentor candidates and mentee candidates.
20. The system of claim 19, wherein the mentorship system further comprises a communication system that enables communication between mentor candidates and mentee candidates matched by the mentorship matching system.

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

What is claimed is:

1. An enhanced closed-loop power control method comprising the steps of:
setting an initial value of a power control variable;
detecting a strength of a terminal signal and comparing the detected strength with a reference signal strength;
transmitting a power control signal to a terminal according to the comparison result and the set power control variable value; and
analyzing the power control signal transmitted to the terminal for a predetermined reference time period and re-setting the power control variable.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein the terminal signal strength detecting step comprises the steps of:
periodically measuring a strength of the terminal signal; and
calculating an average of the measured signal strength when it reaches a time point of transmission of the power control signal.
3. The method of claim 1, wherein the power control variables include:
a reference signal strength;
a reference time;
a terminal signal measurement period;
a power control step-size;
a transmission period of a power control signal;
the maximum number of times of continuous transmission of the power control signal; and
the minimum number of times of continuous transmission of the power control signal
4. The method of claim 1, wherein the re-set power control variables are:
a power control step-size;
a transmission period of a power control signal;
the maximum number of times of continuous transmission and the minimum number of times of continuous transmission of the power control signal; and
a reference time.
5. The method of claim 1, wherein the terminal signal measurement period is set to be smaller than or the same as the transmission period of the power control signal.
6. The method of claim 1, wherein the power control variable resetting step comprises:
increasing a power control step-size and decreasing a transmission period of the power control signal, if the number of times of continuous transmission of the same power control signal is above the maximum number of times of continuous transmission;
decreasing a power control step-size and increasing a transmission period of the power control signal, if the number of times of continuous transmission of the same power control signal is below the minimum number of times of continuous transmission; and
not re-setting the power control step-size and the power control signal transmission period, if the number of times of continuous transmission of the same power control signal is between the maximum number of times of continuous transmission and the minimum number of times of continuous transmission.
7. The method of claim 1, wherein the power control operation is performed in a code division multiple access mode of communication system.
8. An enhanced closed-loop power control method comprising the steps of:
setting an initial value of a power control variable;
periodically measuring a strength of a terminal signal;
calculating an average of the measured signal strength when it reaches a transmission time point of a power control signal;
comparing the average signal strength with a reference signal strength;
transmitting the power control signal to a terminal according to the comparison result and the set power control variable value;
analyzing the power control signal transmitted to the terminal for a certain reference time and re-setting the power control variable.
9. The method of claim 1, wherein the power control variables include:
a reference signal strength;
a reference time;
a terminal signal measurement period;
a power control step-size;
a transmission period of a power control signal;
the maximum number of times of continuous transmission of the power control signal; and
the minimum number of times of continuous transmission of the power control signal
10. The method of claim 8, wherein the re-set power control variables are:
a power control step-size;
a transmission period of a power control signal;
the maximum number of times of continuous transmission and the minimum number of times of continuous transmission of the power control signal; and
a reference time.
11. The method of claim 9, wherein the terminal signal measurement period is set to be smaller than or the same as the transmission period of the power control signal.
12. The method of claim 8, wherein if the average signal strength is greater than the reference signal strength, the base station transmits a power down-adjusting signal to the terminal, while if the average signal strength is smaller than the reference signal strength, the base station transmits a power up-adjusting signal to the terminal.
13. The method of claim 8, wherein the power control variable resetting step comprises:
increasing a power control step-size and decreasing a transmission period of the power control signal, if the number of times of continuous transmission of the same power control signal is above the maximum number of times of continuous transmission;
decreasing a power control step-size and increasing a transmission period of the power control signal, if the number of times of continuous transmission of the same power control signal is below the minimum number of times of continuous transmission; and
not performing the power control variable re-setting step, if the number of times of continuous transmission of the same power control signal is between the maximum number of times of continuous transmission and the minimum number of times of continuous transmission.
14. The method of claim 8, wherein the power control operation is performed in a code division multiple access (CDMA) mode of communication system.
15. An enhanced closed-loop power control method comprising the steps of:
detecting a strength of a terminal signal;
comparing the detected strength of the terminal signal with a reference signal strength;
transmitting a power control signal to a terminal signal according to the comparison result; and
analyzing the power control signal transmitted to the terminal for a certain time and varying a power control step-size and a transmission period of the power control signal according to the number of times of continuous transmission of the same power control signal.
16. The method of claim 15, wherein the step of detecting a strength of a terminal signal comprising:
periodically measuring a strength of a terminal signal; and
calculating an average of the measured signal strength when it reaches a transmission time point of the power control signal.
17. The method of claim 15, wherein the step of varying a step-size and a transmission period of the power control signal comprises:
increasing the transmitted power control step-size and decreasing the transmission period of the power control signal, if the same power control signal is continuously transmitted above the certain maximum number of times;
decreasing the transmitted power control step-size and increasing the transmission period of the power control signal, if the same power control signal is continuously transmitted below the certain minimum number of times; and
maintaining the power control step-size and the transmission period of the power control signal, if the number of time of continuous transmission of the same power control signal is between the certain maximum number of times and the certain minimum number of times.
18. The method of claim 15, wherein the terminal signal measurement period is set to be smaller than or the same as the transmission period of the power control signal.
19. The method of claim 15, wherein if the measured strength of the terminal signal is greater than the reference signal strength, the base station transmits a power down-adjusting signal to the terminal, while if the measured strength of the terminal signal is smaller than the reference signal strength, the base station transmits a power up-adjusting signal to the terminal.
20. The method of claim 15, wherein the power control operation is performed in a code division multiple access mode communication system.

1. A process for the production of homogeneously packed opal-like or inverse opal-like sphere-based crystals comprising:
(a) adding a sufficient amount of a suspension of monospheres having a particle size of 20 nanometers to 30 microns to a flat moving bed porous filtration membrane so as to form a layer thickness on the flat moving bed of 50 microns to 5 mm;
(b) moving the monospheres on the moving bed filtration membrane substantially horizontally over a vacuum filtration zone, and applying a sufficient substantially constant vacuum filtration pressure to the monospheres to obtain crystalline homogeneously packed monospheres;
(c) processing the packed monospheres for stabilization, said processing comprising heating andor chemically bonding the crystalline packed monospheres.
2. A process according to claim 1, wherein processing of the packed monospheres for stabilization comprises infiltrating the packed monospheres with a chemical bonding agent.
3. A process according to claim 2, wherein the infiltrating step is accomplished while the packed monospheres are moving on the vacuum bed filtration membrane and while a vacuum filtration pressure is being applied to the packed monospheres.
4. A process according to claim 2, further comprising curing the chemical bonding agent.
5. A process according to claim 1, wherein the monospheres comprise SiO2.
6. A process according to claim 1, wherein the monospheres comprise a polymeric material.
7. A process according to claim 1, for the production of inverse opal-like sphere based crystals wherein
in step (c) the packed monospheres are processed for stabilization by infiltrating the packed monospheres with a bonding agent; and further comprising
(d) removing the monospheric material to obtain an inverse opal-like structure comprising air-spheres.
8. A method according to claim 7, wherein the infiltrating step is accomplished while the packed monospheres are moving on the vacuum bed filtration membrane and while a vacuum filtration pressure is being applied to the packed monospheres.
9. A process according to claim 7, wherein the bonding agent comprises SiO2, Al2O3, TiO2, SnO2, Fe2O3, ZrO2, CeO2 or Y2O3.
10. A process according to claim 6, wherein the polymeric material comprises polystyrene, polymethacrylate, or polyvinyltoluene.
11. A process according to claim 1, wherein the suspension has a concentration of monospheres of 2\u201350% by weight of solids.
12. A process according to claim 11, wherein the concentration is 10% to 20% by weight.
13. A process according to claim 1, wherein the vacuum pressure is about 400 to about 600 mm Hg.
14. A process according to claim 11, wherein the vacuum pressure is about 400 to about 600 mm Hg.
15. A process according to claim 12, wherein the vacuum pressure is about 400 to about 600 mm Hg.
16. A process according to claim 1, wherein the monospheres have a particle size in the range of 100 nanometers to 10 microns.
17. A process according to claim 14, wherein the monospheres have a particle size in the range of 150\u2013450 nanometers.
18. A process according to claim 1, wherein the monospheres are deposited in a layer thickness of about 200 microns to 1 millimeter.
19. A process according to claim 16 wherein monospheres are deposited in a layer thickness of about 200 microns to 1 millimeter.
20. A process according to claim 17, wherein monospheres are deposited in a layer thickness of about 200 microns to 1 millimeter.
21. A process according to claim 1, wherein the pores of the porous filtration membrane is equal to or slightly smaller than the spheres to be filtered.

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 optical recording medium, wherein at least two optical recording layers are stacked with an interlayer therebetween; and wherein
said interlayer is comprised of at least one substantially uniform layer of ultraviolet curing resin film that is formed on a separate mataterial layer prior to contacting either of the optical recording layers.
2. An optical recording medium as set forth in claim 1, wherein said interlayer is a film obtained by curing a stacked structure including at least one layer of ultraviolet curing resin film and at least one layer of a coating film of an ultraviolet curing liquid resin composition.
3. An optical recording medium as set forth in claim 1, wherein an uneven shape corresponding to a recording pit or a guide groove is formed into said interlayer.
4. An optical recording medium as set forth in claim 2, wherein an uneven shape corresponding to a recording pit or a guide groove is formed into said coating film of an ultraviolet curing liquid resin composition.
5. An optical recording medium, wherein at least two optical recording layers are stacked with an interlayer therebetween; and wherein
said interlayer is comprised of at least one layer of ultraviolet curing resin film that is formed on a separate material layer prior to contacting either of the optical recording layers, the layer of ultraviolet curing resin having a thickness variation of less than +\u22121 \u03bcm.
6. An optical recording medium, wherein at least two optical recording layers are stacked with an interlayer therebetween; and wherein
said interlayer is comprised of at least one layer of ultraviolet curing resin film that is approximately 75% or more of a total thickness for the interlayer, the remaining portion of the interlayer being substantially comprised of liquid resin.
7. The optical recording medium according to claim 6, wherein said interlayer has a thickness variation of less than +\u22121 \u03bcm.