A method for converting light hydrocarbons to synthesis gas employs a silicon carbide-supported catalyst that catalyzes a net partial oxidation reaction. A unit exchanges data with a unit. After transferring the scale patterns onto a wafer surface, the effective coherent factors are read from the maximum scale marks for respective scale patterns on the wafer surface. In other embodiments, the file system allocator can monitor a ratio of free space to total space corresponding to each logical block.