Abstract: A method is described for controlling or exterminating moles through the use of a bait composition in the form of a gel, paste, or grease. The composition includes an attractant and an active ingredient capable of killing vertebrate pests. The composition is injected into a mole tunnel through a small diameter nozzle, tube or needle to avoid digging open the tunnel or causing it to collapse.

Abstract: The present invention provides an apparatus (400) (500) for abating edge material from a substrate, e.g., SOI. The apparatus includes, among other elements, a housing and a rotatable member (401) coupled to the housing. The rotatable member is a susceptor, which is relatively flat for securing a substrate. A movable dispensing head (421) is coupled to the housing and is overlying the rotatable member. The movable dispensing head (421) is operable to emit a stream of directed fluid to one or more locations of the susceptor. The apparatus also includes a fluid source, which is coupled to the movable dispensing head. The fluid source provides fluid to ablate material from the substrate.

Abstract: A cleaving tool provides pressurized gas to the edge of a substrate in combination with a sharpened edge to cleave the substrate at a selected interface. The edge of the tool is tapped against the perimeter of a substrate, such as a bonded substrate, and a burst of gas pressure is then applied at approximately the point of contact with the edge of the tool. The combination of mechanical force and gas pressure separates the substrate into two halves at a selected interface, such as a weakened layer in a donor wafer.

Abstract: A queueing system in a call center is adapted to queue voice mails as well as live telephone calls. In a preferred embodiment the calls include both connection-oriented switched telephony (COST) calls and Data Network Telephony (DNT) calls. Callers are enabled to leave voice mail as an alternative to waiting, and records of the voice mails are queued, preferably in the same queue processing the live calls. In some embodiments the call center is enabled to process e-mails, video mails and facsimile messages as well as live calls and voice mail messages, and all types of multimedia communication can be queued in the same queue according to prestored routing rules and priority rules.

Abstract: A telephony call-waiting system for clients having a computer with a video display unit (PC/VDU) and a public-switched telephony network (PSTN) telephone connected to the PSTN by a single line, keeps a status indication of the client's Internet connection status and, during periods of time the PC/VDU is connected to the Internet, alerts the client by an alert signal over the Internet connection of any waiting PSTN calls. In a preferred embodiment the client's PC/VDU is adapted to provide an audio and/or visual alert event when an alert signal is received, and to provide for a user-initiated response to an alert, accepting or rejecting a call. In the event a call is accepted, provision is made for connecting the accepted call to the client's PC/VDU as an IP call. In some embodiments several calls may be dealt with at the PC/VDU, and features are provided such as caller-ID on the client's VDU. Several ways of accomplishing the call-waiting system are taught.

Abstract: A call queueing system for a call center establishes virtual calls for callers, and allows the callers to disconnect and await a later callback when the virtual call is routed to an agent. Callers are connected to an IVR and informed that they may disconnect and await the callback. An IVR may also be used when the callback is made, informing the caller of the nature of the new call, and that they are now being connected to an agent. In some instances virtual calls may be sequenced in the same queue with real calls. The virtual call system may be initiated in a call center by exceeding load threshold, at particular time frames, and the like. A key is associated with each virtual call in a manner that the origination number of the call for whom the virtual call is entered may be retrieved when the call is routed to an agent. The system is adapted to work with all intelligent routing systems.

Abstract: A telephony call center system comprises an Internet connection adapted for receiving data from a WEB server, the data originating from the computer platform of a person browsing the Internet, including data identifying the browsing person, such as a telephone number, and indicating to the WEB server a desire of the browsing person to communicate with an agent at the call center. The communication desired may be (a) a request for an agent at the call center to receive a telephone call from the browsing person, or (b) a request for a call to be placed to the browsing person from the call center. In both (a) and (b) the practical result is a telephone conference between the browsing person and an agent at the call center. In the first instance (a), in response to the data from the WEB server to the call center, the call center provides to the WEB server, for transfer to the browsing person via the Internet, a telephone number of a routing point at the call center.

Abstract: Methods for producing genetically modified plants, particularly woody plants, and most particularly plants of the Eucalyptus and Pinus species, involve transformation of target plant material with a desired genetic construct and regeneration of the transformed plant material using an adventitious shoot bud system. The methods provide a high transformation efficiency and substantially reduce the duration of the transformation and regeneration protocols. Stem segments of a target plant are transformed using Agrobacterium-mediated techniques, and adventitious shoot buds are regenerated from the Agrobacterium-infected stem segments. Preferred culture media, including selection media, and improved plant culture techniques are disclosed.

Abstract: A technique for forming a film of material from a donor substrate. The technique has a step of introducing energetic particles in a selected patterned manner through a surface of a donor substrate having devices to a selected depth underneath the surface, where the particles have a relatively high concentration to define a donor substrate material above the selected depth and the particles for a pattern at the selected depth. An energy source is directed to a selected region of the donor substrate to initiate a controlled cleaving action of the substrate at the selected depth, whereupon the cleaving action provides an expanding cleave front to free the donor material from a remaining portion of the donor substrate.

Abstract: An economical hybrid wafer utilizing a lower-quality, lower cost transfer substrate to support a higher-quality thin film. A high-quality thin film (2101) is separated from a donor wafer (2100) and bonded to a transfer, or target, substrate (46). The donor wafer is preferably single-crystal silicon optimized for device fabrication, while the transfer substrate provides mechanical support. The thin film is not grown on the transfer substrate, and thus defects in the transfer substrate are not grown into the thin film. A low-temperature bonding process can provide an abrupt junction between the target wafer and the thin film.

Abstract: Isolated polynucleotides encoding polypeptides expressed in mammalian fsn -/- lymph node stromal cells are provided, together with expression vectors and host cells comprising such isolated polynucleotides. In certain embodiments such polynucleotides encode members of the fibroblast growth factor receptor family. Methods for the use of such polynucleotides and polypeptides are also provided.

Abstract: A phase comparator circuit which can compare the phase of a target clock signal with the phase of a reference clock signal with a short comparison cycle. An auxiliary waveform representative of the incremental phase of each of the reference and target clock signals may be generated, and samples on the auxiliary waveforms may be compared to determine the relative phase. The result of the comparison can be used to adjust of the phase of the target clock signal. As several samples can be taken on the auxiliary waveforms, the present invention enables frequent phase comparisons. The frequent comparisons may enable the target clock signal to be synchronized quickly with the reference clock signal. The invention has particular application in display units using phase lock loops (PLLs).

Abstract: A system and method for routing telephone calls from a network-level routing station to individual ones of a plurality of call centers having computer telephony integration (CTI) servers at each call center for monitoring and controlling telephony switches at the call centers and at the network level. A separate data network interconnects the network-level CTI server and the call-center-level CTI servers. The system also includes a stat-server at the network level for storing status information related to all of the telephony switches, and a router at the network level. Routing of incoming calls at the network to the connected call centers is successfully accomplished wherein each of the CTI servers report status of call traffic at the connected telephony switches to the network level stat-server, and the network-level router routes calls to the call centers based on the information in the network-level stat-server.

Abstract: A multimedia call center includes facility for storing copies of transactions associated with the call center in a data repository, relating the transactions according to specific criteria, and an interactive interface for a user to access the files from a graphic string of identifiers representing the files, and to play the files, thereby reviewing the actual transactions. In a preferred embodiment text versions of non-text events may be prepared and related to the non-text stored files in a manner that the related text files may also be selected and reviewed by use of the same interactive interface. By data extraction applied to the text files, the text files and the non-text files associated with some text files may be related to one another by relational criteria, and other informational files may also be related to the stored event files.

Abstract: A plasma treatment system (200) for implantation with a novel susceptor with a cotoured underlying surface (201). The system (200) has a variety of elements such as a chamber in which a plasma is generated in the chamber. The system (200) also has a susceptor disposed in the chamber to support a silicon substrate, which has a surface. The contoured underlying surface deflects impinging ions in a direction away from the substrate surface, thereby reducing a possibility of particulate contamination on the substrate. In a specific embodiment, the chamber has a plurality of substantially planar rf transparent windows (26) on a surface of the chamber. The system (200) also has an rf generator (66) and at least two rf sources in other embodiments.

Abstract: A polishing pad (24) is rotated about an axis parallel to a surface (10) of a semiconductor wafer (12). The polishing pad (24) is supported by a roller (22) that receives fluid (38) and distributes the fluid through the polishing pad (24) across the surface of the wafer. The surface (10) of the wafer is moved in relation to the polishing pad so that the wafer surface is smoothed, or touch-polished, with or without the use of abrasive slurry. In one embodiment the wafer is rotated between an upper roller assembly (20) and a lower roller assembly (14). In another embodiment, the polishing pad is held at an angle to the surface of the wafer to remove a ridge of material from a donor wafer for re-use in a thin film transfer process.

Abstract: A cleaving tool provides pressurized gas to the edge of a substrate to cleave the substrate at a selected interface. A substrate, such as a bonded substrate, is loaded into the cleaving tool, and two halves of the tool are brought together to apply a selected pressure to the substrate. A compliant pad of selected elastic resistance provides support to the substrate while allowing the substrate to expand during the cleaving process. Bringing the two halves of the tool together also compresses an edge seal against the perimeter of the substrate. A thin tube connected to a high-pressure gas source extends through the edge seal and provides a burst of gas to separate the substrate into at least two sheets. In a further embodiment, the perimeter of the substrate is struck with an edge prior to applying the gas pressure.

Abstract: A method of generating an upsampled target pixel positioned between two lines of input source data includes the step of comparing pixels of different lines of the source data in a region surrounding the upsampled target pixel to be generated in at least two different directions. An interpolation direction based on the comparison is selected and interpolations between selected pixels of the source data in the determined interpolation direction are carried out to compute intermediate pixels on a line segment passing through the upsampled target pixel. An interpolation between the intermediate pixels is carried out to generate the upsampled target pixel. An apparatus for performing the method is also disclosed.

Abstract: The invention provides a novel retroviral packaging system, in which retroviral packaging plasmids and packagable vector transcripts are produced from high expression plasmids after stable or transient transfection in mammalian cells. High titers of recombinant retrovirus are produced in these transfected mammalian cells and can then transduce a mammalian target cell by cocultivation or supernatant infection. The methods of the invention include the use of the novel retroviral packaging plasmids and vectors to transduce primary human cells, including T cells and human hematopoietic stem cells, with foreign genes by cocultivation or supernatant infection at high efficiencies. The invention is useful for the rapid production of high titer viral supernatants, and to transduce with high efficiency cells that are refractory to transduction by conventional means.

Abstract: A hybrid IP backbone network spans geographic locations of two or more publicly-switched telephone networks and includes nodes with translation servers adapted to translate between data protocols compatible with the PSTNs and a data protocol compatible with the IP backbone network. Calls placed in one PSTN then may be routed to an IP node, translated to data-packet protocol, through the IP backbone to a second node having another translation server, and therethrough into another PSTN and thence to a final destination. In some embodiments data gateways and trunk gateways are also provided at and integrated with IP nodes in the IP backbone network.