An efficient method is proposed for the recovery of a trace amount of a gallium value from an aqueous solution containing a large amount of an aluminum salt as the principal solute as in the solution which is prepared by dissolving the precipitates obtained by neutralizing a Bayer's solution with carbon dioxide in hydrochloric or sulfuric acid. The method comprises admixing the aqueous solution with a water-soluble ferrocyanide compound, e.g., sodium ferrocyanide, as a precipitant of gallium ferrocyanide in such a controlled small amount as not to exceed 2.5 times by moles of the gallium ions in the starting solution so that coprecipitation of aluminum ferrocyanide is minimized.

The present invention relates to a method for recovering a gallium value from an aqueous solution of a crude aluminum salt. More particularly, the invention relates to a method for recovering a gallium value from an aqueous solution of an aluminum salt such as an aqueous solution of crude aluminum salt produced in the Bayer's process with an object to obtain a gallium material and to purify the solution of the aluminum salt relative to the content of gallium as an impurity.
As is well known, gallium is an element increasingly highlighted in recent years as a component element of various electronic functional devices such as light-emitting diodes, semiconductor lasers, field-effect transistors, magnetic sensors and the like and consumption of gallium compounds is rapidly increasing. In addition, the demand for gallium is expected to expand by leaps and bounds in the near future as a component element of so called compound semiconductors to replace traditional silicon semiconductors suitable for use as a high performance solar batteries and substrates of integrated circuits for high speed computers.
Occurrence of gallium is widely found throughout the crust of earth but gallium is a typical dispersed element for which no minerals or ores are known containing the element in such a concentration that the mineral or ore can be used as a natural raw material of the element in a metallurgical or refining process. In other words, any of known gallium resources richest in the content of gallium contains the element of gallium in a much lower concentration than the concentration having economical feasability as a raw material of the element. Accordingly, the resources of gallium currently in use are limited to the materials produced in the processing of a large amount of certain ores containing gallium in a concentration considerably higher than the average in the crust of earth. For example, it is known that a gallium value is contained in a somewhat increased concentration in solutions, precipitates flue dusts and the like in certain processes of chemical treatment of inorganic materials starting from bauxite and several zinc ores as a raw material and these in-process materials can be used as a starting material for obtaining the gallium value. Currently, gallium is obtained in most cases from the so-called Bayer's solutions produced in the manufacturing process of alumina starting from bauxite and precipitates obtained in the metallurgical process of zinc as the principal sources of gallium supply. Unfortunately, the concentration of gallium these sources still very low so that the economical utilizability of these gallium sources largely depends on the efficiency of the technology applied to the enrichment and recovery of the gallium value from the source materials.
The efficiency in the recovery of the gallium value in the prior art method is too low to be economically feasible despite the use of very specific and expensive adsorbents, extractants and solvents and the troublesomeness of the process in addition to the disadvantages of a great loss or consumption of the solvent and extractant and the instability of the adsorbent. Therefore, the technology for the recovery of a gallium value has been established only for the above mentioned gallium-containing materials as a gallium source in which the concentration of gallium is relatively high. For example, Bayer's solutions can be used as a gallium source in the prior art technology only when the content of gallium therein is 100 to 200 mg per liter or higher and no economical method is known for the Bayer's solution of lower gallium concentrations or for the solutions obtained in a low-alkalinity Bayer's process.
As is known, the principal solute in a Bayer's solution is sodium aluminate and, when the solution is neutralized by blowing carbon dioxide gas thereinto to decrease the alkalinity, both of the aluminum and gallium values precipitate in the form of hydroxide or basic carbonates which can be separated from the solution by a known method of solid-liquid separation. The thus obtained liquid portion can be transferred to the process for the recovery of sodium carbonate. The coprecipitates of both of a major amount of the aluminum value and a trace amount of the gallium value are dissolved in sulfuric or hydrochloric acid to give an aqueous solution of aluminum sulfate or chloride as the principal solute and the corresponding gallium salt as a trace impurity.
The above obtained aqueous solution containing the aluminum salt as the principal solute can of course be used as a source material of gallium provided that an efficient method is established for the recovery of the gallium value. Several known methods may be worthwhile for consideration as a method for the separation of the gallium value from an overwhelmingly large amount of the aluminum value including the methods of solvent extraction and anion exchange utilizing the greatly differing behavior of chloro-complex formation between these two elements, adsorption method by the use of a chelate resin, adsorptive resin or inorganic ion exchanger having selective adsorptivity for gallium and so on. These prior art methods are not satisfactory in respect of the efficiency for the recovery of the gallium value if not to mention the economical disadvantage as a consequence of the complicate process and the use of special and expensive solvents, extractants and adsorbents in large quantities. In particular, no practical method worthy to be considered is known for the recovery of the trace gallium value from an aqueous solution containing aluminum sulfate in a high concentration.
As a general guide principle, the method of precipitation utilizing a precipitation reaction is industrially the most Preferable for the recovery of a trace ingredient from an aqueous solution because the process is simple and convenient and suitable for the processing of a large volume of the solution if the precipitation reaction is complete by using a relatively small amount of the precipitant and no particular difficulties are encountered in the solid-liquid separation of the precipitates from the mother liquor. When recovery of a trace amount of a gallium value is intended from an aqueous solution of an aluminum salt in a high concentration, however, no practical precipitation method is known because the selective precipitation of the gallium value can never be complete as a consequence of the great similarity in the precipitation behavior of these two elements belonging to the same group in the Periodic Table.
It has long been known in the analytical chemistry since nearly a century ago that gallium ions can be precipitated from an aqueous solution by the addition of a soluble ferrocyanide. It is generally understood that, when selective precipitation of gallium is desired from an aqueous solution in the coexistence of aluminum ions, the precipitation reaction must be conducted in the presence of hydrochloric acid in a high concentration because aluminum ferrocyanide is not precipitated in an aqueous solution containing hydrochloric acid in a high concentration as is reported by P. B. Browning and L. E. Porter in American Journal of Science, volume 44, pages 221-224 (1917). In other words, this knowledge in the analytical chemistry teaches that coprecipitation of aluminum ferrocyanide with gallium ferrocyanide would predominantly take place when the concentration of hydrochloric acid is low in the aqueous solution. At least no attempts have been successful in recovering a gallium value by the precipitation method from an aqueous solution containing a large amount of an aluminum salt.

Method for recovering gallium value from aqueous solution of crude aluminum salt

Japan as represented by Director General of Agency of Industrial Science and Technology


A cathode-ray tube has an electron gun with a main focusing lens, wherein each electrode comprises a rectangular aperture whose large dimension is along the horizontal axis (Ox) and terminating at its two ends in two identical semi-ellipses of order n that are symmetric with respect to the axis of the gun (Z).

A conventional television tube comprises an almost plane faceplate or screen of rectangular shape. The screen is furnished on its internal face with a mosaic of patches of phosphors or pixels which, excited by an electron beam, emit light which may be blue, green or red, depending on the phosphor excited.
An electron gun sealed in the envelope of the tube is directed towards the centre of the screen and makes it possible to emit the electron beam towards the various points of the screen through a perforated mask (or shadow mask). The electron gun makes it possible to focus the electron beams onto the internal face of the screen carrying the phosphors and to make them converge there.
A deviating system placed around or on either side of the tube makes it possible to act on the direction of the electron beam so as to deviate its trajectory. Continual action of the deviating system thus allows horizontal and vertical scanning of the screen so as to scan the entire mosaic of phosphors.
Without deviation of the electron beam and with symmetric electrodes of the gun that create symmetric electric fields in the gun, the electron beam reaches the centre of the screen.
FIGS. 1a and 1b represent an example of an electron gun to which the invention is applied.
This electron gun comprises a cathode K emitting electrons by thermoemission. An electrode G1 in cooperation with the electrode G2 initializes the formation of an electron beam along the axis Z from the electrons emitted by the cathode.
The electrode G2 focuses the beam thus constituted to a focusing point, called the "crossover". The size of this focusing point is as point-like as possible. By way of example, the electrode G1 is at a static potential lying between earth and 100 volts. The electrode G2 is at a potential lying between 300 volts and 1200 volts.
The electrode G3 raised, according to this example, to a potential of between 6000 and 9000 volts helps to accelerate the electrons.
The electrode G4 raised to a potential substantially equivalent to that of the electrode G2 constitutes with the electrode G3 and the part of the electrode G5 facing G4 a prefocusing electron lens for the electron beam as is represented in FIG. 1b.
The electrodes G5, G6 and G7 constitute quadrupolar lenses and will induce a quadrupolar effect on the beam in such a way as to exert a compressive load on the electron beam in the vertical plane and a distortion in the horizontal plane. As described previously, the deformations of the beam are bigger at the periphery of the screen and in particular at the corners of the screen. They increase continuously from the centre of the screen to the periphery. The set of electrodes or quadrupole G5, G6, G7 must therefore carry out a precorrection as a function of the deviation of the beam. This correction must be carried out continuously in synchronism with the screen scanning system. The makeup of the quadrupole created by G5, G6, G7 and the control of the electrodes will be described later.
The device G7-G8 achieves a quadrupolar effect which tends to exert on the electron beam a compressive load in the horizontal plane and a distortion in the vertical plane as was described in relation.
The electrode G9 is the electrode which together with G8 constitutes the principal exit lens.
In a three-colour tube of "in-line" type, the electron gun makes it possible to handle three electron beams (red, green and blue) disposed in one and the same plane. For this purpose, the electron gun possesses electrodes furnished with three holes disposed in line for handling three electron beams.
The invention relates to the main focusing lens of an electron gun of "in-line" type used in three-colour cathode-ray tubes (CRT).
An electron gun is characterized by the following properties:                focus voltage Vf (FIG. 5) and anode voltage (FIG. 5) making it possible respectively to focus and to accelerate the electron beams to the screen. In the case of a Dynamic Focus Modulation gun (DFM gun), the focusing voltage is dynamic and called Vd (FIG. 5),        a "bias" which is defined as being the difference between Vd and Vf (bias=Vd−Vf) at the centre of the screen.        a "delta focus" which is defined as being the difference between the focusing voltage (Vdext) allowing the outer electron beams (red and blue beams for example) to focus at a point on the screen (at the centre for example) and the focusing voltage (Vdint) allowing the central beam (green beam for example) to focus at the same point. As a general rule, it is essential for the "delta focus=Vdext−Vdint" to be zero.        the convergence of the three electron beams (red, green and blue) at the centre of the screen is defined as the manner of impact on the screen of the outer beams (red and blue beams for example) with respect to the central beam on the screen (green beam for example).
Generally, the "delta focus" is corrected by modifying the diameters of horizontal holes (φH1, φHint=2Rhint and φHext=2RHext in FIG. 3a). In certain configurations, it is not possible to correct the entire delta focus by modifying these diameters through the use of hardware. It has therefore been necessary to find a new parameter for adjusting the "delta focus".
The invention makes it possible to adjust the "delta focus" by modifying the shape of the edges of the electrodes of the main focusing lens.

Cathode-ray tube having an electron gun with an improved main focus lens


Aspects of the present disclosure describe techniques for detecting anomalous data in an encrypted data set. An example method generally includes receiving a data set of encrypted data points. A tree data structure having a number of levels is generated for the data set. Each level of the tree data structure generally corresponds to a feature of the encrypted plurality of features, and each node in the tree data structure at a given level represents a probability distribution of a likelihood that each data point is less than or greater than a split value determined for a given feature. An encrypted data point is received for analysis, and anomaly score is calculated based on a probability identified for each of the plurality of encrypted features. Based on determining that the calculated anomaly score exceeds a threshold value, the encrypted data point is identified as potentially anomalous.

Aspects of the present disclosure relate to detecting anomalous data in encrypted data sets, and more specifically to techniques for detecting anomalous data in encrypted data sets without decrypting the underlying encrypted data.
Internet of Things (IoT) devices may generate a significant amount of data for analysis. The data captured and recorded by IoT devices may include various types of data, some of which may be confidential. For example, in an industrial environment, IoT devices may record environmental and other process-related data, such as processing temperature, pressure, and time, ambient environmental information, and other information that, if revealed, may reveal protected information about various industrial processes. In another example, in a medical environment, IoT devices may record information that is subject to legally-imposed privacy requirements (e.g., HIPAA). As another example, IoT devices in a power generating station may expose information such as turbine runtime, total power generated, and other information that should not be exposed outside of the power generating station.
Because IoT devices generally have limited storage capabilities and data from an individual IoT device may not provide usable, actionable insights, the data generated by IoT devices may be transmitted to another location for storage. In some cases, this location may be a cloud data store in which storage space is shared among multiple customers. To protect the IoT data from being exposed, owners of IoT devices may encrypt the data prior to committing the data to a cloud data store. Generally, by encrypting data, parties without the appropriate key to decrypt the data (e.g., the cryptographic key used to encrypt the data in a symmetric key algorithm, the private key component of a public-private key pair, etc.) may be practically prevented from decrypting the encrypted data. For example, assuming a cryptographic algorithm that is not cryptographically broken (i.e., an algorithm for which a brute force attack is practical or for which a brute force attack is impractical but weaknesses exist that allow for data to be decrypted using less keys than the size of a key space), 2keySize operations may be required to decrypt the data using a brute force attack. Because a brute force attack on cryptographic schemes with large key sizes is computationally impractical, data encrypted using these cryptographic schemes is generally secure.
While data encryption may preserve the privacy of the underlying data, typical cryptographic schemes (e.g., AES, Blowfish, etc.) may not allow for operations to be performed on the underlying data without decrypting the data. Because decrypting data in order to train a model to identify anomalous data indicative of potential problems with an IoT device by definition exposes the underlying data to attack, other cryptographic schemes may need to be used in order to generate the model. These cryptographic schemes generally are homomorphic encryption algorithms that allow for some mathematical operations to be performed on the underlying data. While homomorphic encryption techniques allow for mathematical operations to be performed on the underlying data without decrypting encrypted data, a system performing mathematical operations on homomorphically encrypted data may not be able to easily perform other operations on the homomorphically encrypted data, such as splitting a data set into portions greater than a given value and less than the given value.

Efficient unsupervised anomaly detection on homomorphically encrypted data

International Business Machines Corporation


A method for purifying an impure aqueous hydrogen peroxide solution, which comprises passing an impure aqueous hydrogen peroxide solution through. (a) a cation exchange resin layer, a halogen-containing porous resin layer and an anion exchange resin layer in this order, or PA1 (b) a halogen-containing porous resin layer, a cation exchange resin layer and an anion exchange resin layer in this order, or PA1 (c) a halogen-containing porous resin layer and a cation/anion mixed-bed resin layer in this order to contact said solution with each resin.

(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for purifying an impure aqueous hydrogen peroxide solution to obtain a highly purified aqueous hydrogen peroxide solution which contains each metal cation, each anion and organic impurities in a very small amount, respectively.
(2) Description of Related Art
Aqueous hydrogen peroxide solutions are in wide use not only as a reagent but also in many fields such as bleaching, chemical polishing and the like. In recent years, the utilization of an aqueous hydrogen peroxide solution has spread to the field of semiconductor production where said solution is used for the cleaning, etching, etc. of water; in this connection, an aqueous hydrogen peroxide solution of high purity has become necessary.
That is, in the production of a semiconductor, particularly VLSI, its memory capacity and number of elements have increased and, in parallel therewith, its dimension of minimum pattern has become very fine. When the aqueous hydrogen peroxide solution which is used for the cleaning of VLSI contains impurities and fine particles, the particles adhere onto the surface film of the VLSI, causing a thinning of the oxide film or a
25 deterioration of the voltage resistance of the SiO.sub.2 film. Further when impurities diffuse onto the Si substrate, there occurs an increase in leakage current and a shortening of carrier life, causing a decrease in yield of product LSI and a deterioration of properties of said LSI.
Thus, in the production of a semiconductor, it is required to develop an aqueous hydrogen peroxide solution of high purity which contains fine particles and impurities in a very small amount.
As mentioned above, in the field of semiconductor production, the chemical agents used therefor are desired to contain impurities in as small an amount as possible because the impurities contained in said agents greatly affect the quality of the product obtained. In particular, the aqueous hydrogen peroxide solution used for cleaning a semiconductor is required to have a very high purity and to contain each metal cation in an amount of not more than 5 ppb (.mu.g/kg), each anion in an amount of not more than 10 ppb and organic impurities in an amount of not more than 5 ppm (mg/kg) in terms of total organic carbon amount.
Meanwhile, hydrogen peroxide is currently produced in industry mainly by the autoxidation of anthrahydroquinone (this process is hereinafter referred to as the anthraquinone process). The aqueous hydrogen peroxide solution produced by the anthraquinone process contains a very small amount of impurities, and the amount is ordinarily about 10-500 mg/l in terms of total organic carbon amount.
Said aqueous hydrogen peroxide solution further contains, as impurities, ordinarily about 5 ppb to about 10 ppm of each of various metal cations and about 10 ppb to about 10 ppm of each of various anions as a result of dissolution of construction materials of production and storage facilities, addition of additives, etc.
In order to remove these impurites to obtain a purified aqueous hydrogen peroxide solution, there have conventionally been known several methods as shown below, and some of them are employed in actual use.
(a) Japanese Patent Publication No. 3816/1953
This patent document discloses a method comprising contacting an aqueous hydrogen peroxide solution with a sulfonated aromatic hydrocarbon type cation exchange resin to remove mainly the metal cations contained in said aqueous hydrogen peroxide solution.
(b) U.S. Patent No. 3297404
This patent document discloses a method for removing the anion impurities contained in an aqueous hydrogen peroxide solution by using an anion exchange resin having a quaternary ammonium group of carbonate and/or bicarbonate form.
(c) Japanese Patent Publication No. 26095/1971
This patent document discloses a method for removing by adsorption the organic impurities contained in an aqueous hydrogen peroxide solution by using a resin having a reticulate molecular structure obtained by crosslinking with divinylbenzene but having no ion exchange group.
(d) Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 156004/1988
This patent document discloses a method for removing by adsorption the organic impurities contained in an aqueous hydrogen peroxide solution by using a halogen-containing porous resin having a true specific gravity of 1.1-1.3.
Any of the above known methods for purification of an aqueous hydrogen peroxide solution, however, is unable to provide an aqueous hydrogen peroxide solution of such high quality as to allow its use in the production of a semiconductor, particularly LSI. That is, any of the above known methods cannot provide a high purity aqueous hydrogen peroxide solution containing each metal cation in an amount of no t more than 5 ppb, each anion in an amount of not more than 10 ppb and organic impurities in an amount of not more than 5 ppm.
For example, in the method using a cation exchange resin, metal cation impurities can be removed but anion impurities increase because a part of the SO.sub.3 H group which is the ion exchange group of said resin is deteriorated by the action of hydrogen peroxide and dissolves in the form of SO.sub.4.sup.2-.
Also, in the method using a halogen-containing porous resin, organic impurities can be advantageously removed but anion impurities increase because a part of the halogen in said resin dissolves.
There have also been proposed methods for purifying an aqueous hydrogen peroxide solution, which use a plurality of ion exchange resins in combination. For example, Poland Patent No. 55,378 discloses a method comprising passing an aqueous hydrogen peroxide solution through a cation exchange resin, an anion exchange resin and a cation/anion mixed-bed resin in this order to contact the solution with each resin. This method, however, is unable to remove organic impurities.
Thus, in any of the conventionally known methods, it has been impossible to obtain a high quality aqueous hydrogen peroxide solution containing each metal cation, each anion and organic impurities in respective amounts of not more than the above mentioned levels.

Method for purifying impure aqueous hydrogen peroxide solution


Segments within a power network of an integrated circuit are calculated utilizing information generated during design and placement. The performance of logic blocks within the integrated circuit is simulated to obtain an estimated maximum current requirement for each logic block. After obtaining an estimated maximum current requirement for each logic block, the estimated maximum current flow through each power net segment is obtained by summing the estimated current requirements for each logic block which draws current through the power net segment. Based on this estimated maximum current flow through each power segment, a width for each power net segment is calculated. After widths have been calculated, a check may be made to assure that a predetermined electromigration limit is not exceeded. When projected current flow through a power net segment will result in an exceeding of the predetermined electromigration limit, the width of the power net segment is increased.

The present invention concerns a method for generating widths for segments of power busses (nets) in integrated circuits.
Within an integrated circuit, power nets are used to provide current to logical circuitry. Power nets are networks of wires which carry a power voltage or a ground voltage to the logical circuitry of an integrated circuit. When placing and sizing power nets, it is desirable to minimize the space the power nets use on the integrated circuit. However, it is also necessary that the power nets provide sufficient current so that during switching of logic circuitry, the voltage on the power nets will remain within a designated voltage range. Further, the power nets must be of significant width so that electromigration does not affect circuit performance.
Power routers are used to route power nets on an integrated circuit. For examples of existing power routers, see M. Beardslee, J. Burns, A Casotto, M. Igusa, F. Romeo, and A. Sangiovanni-Vincentelli, Mosaico: An Integrated Macro-Cell Layout System, MCNC International Workshop on Placement and Routing, 1988, Session 6.1; S. Chowdhury, Optimum Design of Reliable IC Power Networks Having General Graph Topologies, Design Automation Conference, 1989, pp. 787-790; or W-M Dai, H. H. Chen, R. Dutta, M. Jackson, E. S. Kuh, M. Marek-Sadowska, M. Sato, D. Wang, and X-M Xiong, BEAR: A New Building-Block Layout System, Int'l Conference on Computer Aided Design, 1987, pp. 34-37. Modern technologies, however, continue to allow the design of larger integrated circuits with increasingly higher gate densities, faster operating frequencies and have higher power dissipation. Since power nets often occupy more than ten percent of available circuit area, it is desirable to develop techniques which allow reduction in the size of power nets without sacrificing circuit performance.

Method for sizing widths of power busses in integrated circuits


A method and system for intelligent guided shopping. The system includes a computing device. The computing device has a processor and a storage device storing computer executable code. The computer executable code, when executed at the processor, is configured to provide inference models based on user search data. Each of the inference models includes nodes and edges between the nodes. Each of the edges pointing from a first node to a second node is characterized with a probability value. The probability value represents a probability of searching a second keyword corresponding to the second node after searching a first keyword corresponding to the first node.

The background description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently named inventors, to the extent it is described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description that may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly nor impliedly admitted as prior art against the present disclosure.
E-commerce has been a significant part of social life, and online retail platforms provide billions of merchandise products for sale. When a user enters a search query on an e-commerce platform to find products that match his/her interest, the query may not include sufficient information to locate the exact product. Therefore, after receiving a keyword entered by the customer, the platform may suggest a next search keyword based on some specific product attributes (like color, price, brands, etc.). It's hard for such suggestion to capture the user's real interests or intentions.
Therefore, an unaddressed need exists in the art to address the aforementioned deficiencies and inadequacies.

System and method for intelligent guided shopping

BEIJING JINGDONG SHANGKE INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.

JD.COM AMERICAN TECHNOLOGIES CORPORATION


A method of forming a crosslinked chitosan polymer comprises contacting cosan with a basic solution of an epihalohydrin compound and heating the resulting mixture to a temperature and for a time sufficient to effect crosslinking of the chitosan. The crosslinked chitosan polymer exhibits water insolubility and biodegradability.

The increased use of synthetic plastic materials in packaging applications is simultaneously imposing increased environmental and ecological hazards owing to the nonbiodegradability of such plastics. Accordingly, there is a great need for a plastic packaging material which is water-insoluble and has low oxygen permeability in order to provide storage stability to the packaged contents, yet which is biodegradable upon disposal. At least one partially biodegradable copolymer has been disclosed as comprising a mixture of starch and polyethylene. After disposal, the starch degrades and initiates the breakdown of polyethylene into disposable fragments. However, a significant disadvantage of this type of copolymer resides in its long degradation time which is reported to be from several months to several years or more and the non-biodegradability of the PE fragments. Accordingly, a need still exists for the discovery of additional, totally biodegradable plastic materials.

Method of forming a crosslinked chitosan polymer and product thereof

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


Assays which aid in diagnosing systemic lupus erythematosus and rheumatoid arthritis are disclosed. One assay tests urine samples for the presence or absence of an RNA polymerase I antibody which specifically binds with RNA polymerase I antigen and another assay tests for the presence or absence of an RNA polymerase I antigen that specifically binds with an antibody to RNA polymerase I.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to methods of diagnosing and monitoring rheumatic diseases. More particularly, the invention involves several related assays: an assay for the diagnosis of rheumatic disease, an assay for the differential diagnosis of rheumatic disease, an assay for determining the severity of the disease condition and an assay for determining the prognosis of a rheumatic disease.
2. Description of Related Art
Autoimmune diseases are defined as diseases which affect an individual in a manner to cause antibodies to be produced against constituents of the individual's own tissues. Autoimmune diseases may be classified into two broad categories: systemic and organ-specific diseases. The rheumatic diseases include a group of disorders which are within the systemic category. The group includes systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), mixed connective tissue disease, rheumatoid arthritis (RA), Sjogren's syndrome, and scleroderma.
The cause of RA is unknown. Typically, a patient's clinical and pathological findings and disability are the result of chronic inflammation of synovial membranes. Spontaneous remissions and exacerbations are characteristic of the disease. SLE is a chronic, inflammatory disease of unknown cause which may affect the skin, joints, kidneys, nervous system, serous membranes and other organs. The classic clinical course of the disease is characterized by periods of remissions and relapses.
The systemic nature and relatively nonspecific symptoms of the diseases, particularly SLE and RA, often make the diseases difficult to diagnose and difficult to distinguish. An assay method which would enable the clinician to distinguish and discriminate between SLE and RA is highly desired.
Therapeutic agents such as prednisone, azathioprine, methotrexate and cyclophosphamide are used to treat SLE and other rheumatic diseases. These therapeutic agents, however, produce undesirable side effects and adverse reactions because they act by suppressing the immune system. Therefore, the dosages administered require careful control. In addition, it is possible to discontinue administration of the therapeutic agents when the disease goes into remission, which often happens with SLE, but at the first signs of relapse, the therapeutic agent must be readministered. Thus, there is also a need for a test which can be used to monitor the severity of rheumatic disease so that the dosages of such therapeutic agents can be adjusted, discontinued or resumed.
Traditionally, clinicians use a combination of tests and observations to determine the severity of SLE disease and to adjust drug therapy accordingly. For example, the Lupus Activity Criteria Count (LACC) as described by Urowitz, et al., J. Rheumatol., 11,783 (1983) is frequently used. A LACC score of +2 or greater indicates "active" disease. The presence of each of the following is counted as +1:
1. arthritis; PA1 2. abnormal blood tests: greater than 4000 white blood cells (WBC) per milliliter, CH50 (complement) values of less than 150, or anti-double-stranded DNA antibody titer of greater than 450; PA1 3. new rash, hair loss or oral ulcers; PA1 4. pericarditis; PA1 5. central nervous system involvement: seizures or psychosis; PA1 6. vasculitis; and PA1 7. urine tests: greater than five red blood cells (RBC) per milliliter.
In addition, because glomerulonephritis is cased by SLE, tests of kidney function (such as those for proteinuria and blood urea nitrogen [BUN]) are also used to monitor the severity of disease.
Conventional diagnostic tests for rheumatic diseases, such as SLE, have been based upon the detection of autoantibodies to DNA or to nuclear antigens in the patient's blood. Some of these serum tests are described in the following patents.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,234,563 describes a method for detecting serum anti-DNA antibodies and serum antibodies to extractable nuclear antigens (ENA) in SLE patients. DNA-methylated bovine serum albumin conjugates or thymic extracts are used as capture antigens in such assays to detect serum anti-DNA or anti-ENA antibodies.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,897,212 describes a direct radioimmunoassay for detecting serum anti-DNA antibodies in SLE patients. The serum is incubated with radioactively labelled DNA, and anti-DNA antibodies are measured by determining the amount of radioactive label in the resulting precipitate.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,997,657 describes a method to detect anti-nuclear protein antibodies in serum using a dry slide technique. The method involves fixing thymus cell extract to a glass slide, incubating the serum sample on the slide and indirect immunofluorescent detection of bound antibodies.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,314,987 describes a method of diagnosing rheumatic diseases based upon patterns of fluorescent antinuclear antibodies, followed by testing for anti-DNA or anti-ENA antibodies. More specifically, the method allows for the interpretation of existing tests and is therefore limited by the accuracy of such tests.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,582,793 describes a method for the diagnosis of rheumatic diseases based upon the detection of serum antibodies specific for RNA polymerase I antigen, or its individual subunits.
Such methods require the use of the patient's serum as the test sample for the detection of antibodies. There is a need, therefore, for methods which detect antigens, as well as antibodies, that are characteristic of rheumatic diseases and which use body fluids which are obtainable through noninvasive as well as invasive techniques. The present invention is primarily directed to the detection of such antigens and antibodies in the patient's urine so that the assay can be performed without the need for the invasive collection of test samples.

Methods of diagnosing and monitoring rheumatic diseases


Apparatuses, systems, and methods are provided that enable automatic diagnosis and repair of notification signal disruptions associated with a mobile device and a mobile application stored thereon.

Push notifications can be provided to mobile devices having mobile applications installed thereon. Diagnosis of failure by a mobile device to receive and/or display such push notifications is a manual and laborious task fraught with error. Through applied effort, ingenuity, and innovation, many of these identified deficiencies and problems have been solved by developing solutions that are in accordance with the embodiments of the present invention, many examples of which are described in detail herein.

Notification signal disruption diagnosis and repair


A delivery system for delivery of a radially expandable device to an implantation site in a patient, the delivery system including an elongated tubular member comprising a distal tip and an outer surface, first and second balloon portions spaced proximally from each other and the distal tip along a length of the tubular member, an annular space between the first and second balloon portions, a plurality of clip deployment tubes extendably moveable relative to the outer surface of the tubular member, and a plurality of clips, wherein each clip is moveable within a length of one of the clip deployment tubes between a retracted position and a deployed position.

One of the two atrio-ventricular valves in the heart is the mitral valve, which is located on the left side of the heart and which forms or defines a valve annulus and valve leaflets. The mitral valve is located between the left atrium and the left ventricle, and serves to direct oxygenated blood from the lungs through the left side of the heart and into the aorta for distribution to the body. As with other valves of the heart, the mitral valve opens and closes predominantly due to the fluid forces exerted on the leaflets by the changing pressures within the chambers of the heart.
The mitral valve includes two moveable leaflets that open and close in response to differential pressures on either side of the valve. Ideally, the leaflets move apart from each other when the valve is in an open position, and meet or "coapt" when the valve is in a closed position. However, problems can develop with valves, which can generally be classified as either stenosis, in which a valve does not open properly, or insufficiency (also called regurgitation), in which a valve does not close properly. Stenosis and insufficiency may occur concomitantly in the same valve. The effects of valvular dysfunction vary, with mitral regurgitation or backflow typically having relatively severe physiological consequences to the patient. Regurgitation, along with other abnormalities of the mitral valve, can increase the workload placed on the heart. The severity of this increased stress on the heart and the patient, and the ability of the heart to adapt to it, determine the treatment options that are available for a particular patient. In some cases, medication can be sufficient to treat the patient, which is the preferred option when it is viable; however, in many cases, defective valves have to be repaired or completely replaced in order to adequately restore the function of the heart.
One situation where repair of a mitral valve is often viable is when the defects present in the valve are associated with dilation of the valve annulus, which not only prevents competence of the valve but also results in distortion of the normal shape of the valve orifice. Remodeling of the annulus is central to these types of reconstructive procedures on the mitral valve. When a mitral valve is repaired, the result is generally a reduction in the size of the posterior segment of the mitral valve annulus. As a part of the mitral valve repair, the involved segment of the annulus is diminished (i.e., constricted) so that the leaflets may coapt correctly on closing, and/or the annulus is stabilized to prevent post-operative dilatation from occurring. Either result is frequently achieved by the implantation of a prosthetic ring or band in the supra annular position. The purpose of the ring or band is to restrict, remodel and/or support the annulus to correct and/or prevent valvular insufficiency. Such repairs of the valve, when technically possible, can produce relatively good long-term results.
However, valve repair is sometimes either impossible, undesirable, or has failed, leaving valve replacement as the most viable option for improving operation of the mitral valve. The two general categories of valves that are used for mitral valve replacement are mechanical valves and bioprosthetic or tissue valves. A wide variety of mechanical valves are available that accommodate the blood flow requirements of the particular location where they will be implanted; however, the use of these mechanical devices in the body can increase the risk of clotting in the blood stream, which can lead to a heart attack or stroke. Thus, mechanical valve recipients must take anti-coagulant drugs for the rest of their lives to minimize the potential of blood clots. The use of tissue valves advantageously eliminates the need for such anti-coagulant drugs; however, tissue valves do not typically last as long as mechanical valves and may need to be replaced at some later point in the patient's life. To implant either mechanical or tissue valves, a surgical procedure is typically used that involves opening the patient's chest to access the mitral valve through the left atrium, and then implanting the new valve in position.
To simplify surgical procedures and reduce patient trauma, there has been a recent increased interest in minimally invasive and percutaneous replacement of cardiac valves. Such a replacement of a heart valve typically does not involve actual physical removal of the diseased or injured native heart valve, but instead includes delivery of a replacement valve in a compressed condition to the native valve site, where it is expanded. One example of such a replacement procedure for a pulmonary valve includes inserting a replacement pulmonary valve into a balloon catheter and delivering it percutaneously via the vascular system to the location of a failed pulmonary valve. There, the replacement valve is expanded by a balloon to compress the native valve leaflets against the right ventricular outflow tract, thereby anchoring and sealing the replacement valve. In the context of percutaneous pulmonary valve replacement, a replacement pulmonary valve may be implanted to replace native pulmonary valves or prosthetic pulmonary valves located in valved conduits.
The percutaneous valve implantation procedures described above typically involve the movement of a compressed valve through at least some portion of the vasculature of the patient to the delivery site, and are therefore particularly well-suited for implanting relatively small valves, such as pulmonary valves or aortic valves. Similarly, reaching the area of the mitral valve percutaneously to reshape, repair, or replace the mitral valve can be difficult due to the challenging path through which repair devices must travel in order to reach the mitral valve area. However, there is a continued desire to be able to be able to improve mitral valve replacement devices and procedures to accommodate the physical structure of the heart without causing undue stress to the patient during the operation on the heart, such as providing devices and methods for repairing or replacing the mitral valve percutaneously. In addition, there is a desire to provide similar repair and/or replacement devices and procedures for areas of the heart other than the mitral valve, such as the annulus of any of the other valves of the heart or any similar orifice having a rim of tissue to which a device can be delivered percutaneously.

Method and device for percutaneous valve annuloplasty


The image forming apparatus includes: an ink discharge device having a plurality of full line type inkjet heads, each of the inkjet heads having a nozzle row; an ink supply device; a first curing device which irradiates ultraviolet light for causing the droplets of the ink to semi-cure to a degree whereby the droplets of the ink discharged from the inkjet head on the upstream side do not mix with the droplets of the ink discharged by a next one of the inkjet heads situated on a downstream side in the direction of relative conveyance, the first curing device including an ultraviolet light source including a group of light emitting elements arranged in a linear form and disposed between the inkjet heads of the respective colors; and a second curing device which irradiates ultraviolet light for performing main curing of the droplets of the ink.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus and method, and more particularly to an image forming apparatus and an image forming method which forms images on a recording medium by discharging ink from an inkjet head. Furthermore, the present invention relates to an image forming apparatus and an image forming method suitable for forming color images by discharging inks of a plurality of colors onto a recording medium by means of full line type inkjet heads having a nozzle row spanning a length corresponding to the entire printable width.
2. Description of the Related Art
There is an inkjet type image forming apparatus using ultraviolet curable ink (so-called UV ink). Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2002-347232 discloses a technology comprising a heating unit for heating the ink provided between a full line type recording unit which discharges light-curable ink, and a light irradiating section for irradiating UV light for curing ink, onto ink that has been discharged onto a recording medium. The evaporation of the ink solvent is accelerated by the heating unit, and hence the speed of the curing speed of the ink becomes faster.
However, the action of the heating unit disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2002-347232 contributes to the evaporation of the ink solvent, while making little contribution to curing of the ink. Therefore, even if a heating unit is disposed immediately after each head, as illustrated in FIG. 7 of Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2002-347232, droplets are still ejected from a subsequent (downstream) head while the ink discharged from an upstream head is in a liquid state on the recording medium, and hence there is interference between droplets on the surface of the recording medium, and bleeding of the colors due to color mixing. Consequently, image quality declines.
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2003-11341 discloses that an active light beam be irradiated within 10 seconds of the discharge of all inks required to form an image, when using inks of a plurality of colors. This composition is, however, for irradiating an activating light beam after inks of all of the required colors for image formation have been ejected, and therefore, similarly to Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2002-347232, color bleeding occurs due to mixing of the colors.
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2003-127517 discloses that, after spraying ink droplets onto a recording medium, ultraviolet light having a wavelength of 340 to 400 nm is irradiated for 0.1 to 10 seconds, whereupon ultraviolet light having a wavelength of 280 to 400 nm is irradiated for 10 to 1000 seconds. Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2003-127517 discloses that light is irradiated from a curing light source by dividing the wavelength range and the irradiation time of the curing light source into two stages; however, it does not disclose the positional relationship between the head and the irradiation light source, and it is unclear at what timing the irradiation of light is actually performed.
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2003-191594 discloses that a device is provided in order to vary the irradiation conditions of an activating light beam, as desired, after ink has been deposited. Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2003-191594 describes varying the irradiation conditions of the activating light source, namely, the irradiation time, the irradiation timing, the irradiation intensity, the irradiation energy, the type of light source, the irradiation surface area, the angle of incidence, and the wavelength characteristics; however, it does not disclose a composition for the apparatus which indicates the positional relationship between the irradiation light source and the head, and it is unclear what kind of device (apparatus) is used to achieve this.
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2003-182048 discloses a method for forming images by creating print data in such a manner that there is no mutual interference between adjacently positioned dots on the recording medium, and repeating an operation of printing (discharging ink) and an operation of ultraviolet curing, on the basis of the print data. Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2003-182048 forms an image progressively by repeating the operations of a print section and an ultraviolet curing section, and therefore it is difficult to achieve high-speed output. Furthermore, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2003-182048 does not describe the positional relationship between the head and the UV irradiation device.
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2003-11343 discloses a composition for a shuttle scan type inkjet recording apparatus which forms images by moving a recording head reciprocally, in which the deposition of ink onto the recording medium is divided into a plurality of actions based on the reciprocal movement of the recording head, and ultraviolet light is irradiated between each deposition action. Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2003-11343 states that ink is fixed by irradiation of ultraviolet light between the respective ink deposition actions performed by a shuttle scanning type of system, and the amount of light irradiated must be sufficient to fix the ink. However, if ultraviolet light of an amount required to fix the ink is irradiated in the vicinity of the head, then the ink inside the nozzle is hardened by the random reflection from the print medium, and the like, and this can lead to discharge errors.
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2001-1512 discloses an inkjet printer comprising an image forming section which discharges ink onto paper in sheet form (print object) and a pressurizing section which pressurizes the printing object formed with an image by the image forming section. This printer is composed in such a manner that a gloss finish is applied to the image by pressurizing and flattening the surface undulations of the ink on the image formed on the print object by the image forming section. Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2001-1512 is a technology which assumes that a pigment-based ink or dye-based ink is used as the printing ink. However, technology using ultraviolet curable type ink is known in inkjet type image forming apparatuses. Various merits are obtained by using an ultraviolet curable ink, namely, images can be formed onto recording media of various types and hence the recording medium can be selected from a wide range, and the like. However, if an ultraviolet curable ink is used within the technical scope described in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2001-1512, problems arise in that fracturing and peeling occurs in the ink surface when the ink is flattened by pressurization.


A catalytic bead sensor or a semiconductor sensor is operated in a manner in which the power requirement is greatly reduced. The reduction in power is accomplished by operating the sensor at a temperature less than the desired operating temperature in the absence of a combustible gas and increasing to the desired operating temperature when the sensor is exposed to a combustible gas.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a method of reducing power for a catalytic bead or semiconductor sensor in a gas detector by operating the sensor at a temperature lower than the desired operating temperature in the absence of a combustible gas and increasing the temperature to the desired operating temperature for accurate measurement when the sensor detects a combustible gas.
2. Description of Related Art
Gas detectors including catalytic bead (pellistor) sensors or semiconductor (MOS) sensors are widely used to detect the presence of combustible gases or vapors for safety and environmental purposes and to provide a warning of potentially explosive conditions to protect life and properties.
A catalytic bead sensor typically contains two ceramic beads coated onto platinum wire coils, a sensing bead and a compensating bead. The sensing bead is impregnated with a noble metal catalyst, which promotes combustion of the combustible gases or vapors, while the compensating bead does not contain a catalyst, but compensates for environmental effects such as humidity and ambient temperature. The sensor is typically connected to two arms of a Wheatstone bridge. When a voltage is applied across the bridge, resistive heating of the platinum wire coils and hence the beads takes place. In the presence of a combustible gas or vapor, catalytic combustion takes place on the sensing bead and generates combustion heat, causing an increase in the bead temperature and thus the sensing bead wire resistance. The Wheatstone bridge measures changes in the resistance of the sensing bead wire resistance and thus provides an output signal. Detailed descriptions on this type of gas sensor can be found, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,200,011, 3,092,799, 4,313,907 and 4,416,911, and in Mosley, P. T. and Tofield, B. C., xe2x80x9cSolid State Gas Sensorsxe2x80x9d, Adams Hilger Press, Bristol, England (1987).
A catalytic bead sensor is typically operated at a desired temperature of about 500xc2x0 C. with a power consumption of 230-350 mW for portable gas detectors. The desired operating temperature of about 500xc2x0 C. is chosen so that all combustible gases, including methane, that require the highest bead temperature can be detected, and so that the sensor is operated under diffusion-limited conditions to provide the best accuracy and stability. The runtime of a portable gas detector operated by a battery pack is typically 10-20 hours and is largely determined by battery capacity and power usage. It would be desirable to design a portable gas detector with a small battery size and a small detector size, and therefore it would be extremely desirable to operate a catalytic bead sensor at significantly reduced power.
Several approaches have been described in the prior art to reduce the operating power of the catalytic bead sensor:
1) The first approach is to design a catalytic bead sensor that consumes low power. For example, it has been reported that a catalytic sensor fabricated by silicon micro-machining techniques has power consumption as low as 60 mW. The micro-machined catalytic sensor, however, typically possesses a very low resistance to catalyst poisons and thus a short lifetime. Furthermore, commercial micro-machined catalytic sensors are rarely available at this time. Examples of such a sensor are described in Krebs, P., and Grisel, A., Sensors and Actuators B, 13-14, 155-158 (1993); U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,813,764, 5,820,922 and 5,599,584; European Patent Application EP 0,697,593A1; and PCT application WO 00/14307.
2) The second approach is to use a catalytic bead sensor that is comprised of only a sensing bead, which is expected to reduce power to half of that for a two-bead catalytic sensor at the expense of performance. A gas detector with a single bead sensor typically has a large response to ambient temperature and humidity. For example, the Model GX-2001 of RKI Instruments, Inc. (Japan) uses such a single bead catalytic sensor.
3) The third approach is to apply pulsed power to a catalytic bead sensor. Since it typically takes 2 seconds to reach the desired operating temperature, pulse operation typically allows updating the signal output once every few seconds instead of a continuously updating signal output. For example, the Model GX-2001 of RKI Instruments, Inc. (Japan) also uses pulsed power to reduce power consumption. Examples of using pulsed power for a catalytic bead sensor are described in Japanese Provisional Utility Model Publication No. 14595, Japanese Provisional Patent Publication No. 03-233699 and U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,020,480, 6,348,872.
4) The fourth approach is to use a catalytic bead sensor in conjunction with an oxygen sensor as described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,442,994. When the oxygen sensor indicates an expected oxygen concentration in ambient atmosphere, the catalytic bead sensor is turned off, and when the oxygen sensor indicates a reduced oxygen concentration, which means some of the oxygen may have been displaced by a combustible gas, the catalytic bead sensor is turned on. However, this method depends on oxygen concentration in ambient environment and thus is only an indirect detection of the presence of a combustible gas. Furthermore, some combustible gases with very small Lower Explosive Limits (LEL) can lead to only small changes in the output signal of the oxygen sensor, which are within the variation range of the oxygen sensor in ambient atmosphere. Thus, relying on variations in the oxygen sensor output is potentially dangerous.
5) The fifth approach is to use a battery management scheme that allows efficient use of battery power. Examples of the battery power managing methods are described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,252,375 and Electronic Engineering Times, 72 (2002-01-07). The Scout MultiGas Monitor of Scott Technologies, Inc. applies this approach to extend the run time up to 50 hours.
Semiconductor sensors, which are based on metal oxide semiconductors such as tin oxide, for detecting combustible gases are well known in the prior art. They rely on adsorption of a combustible gas onto a heated oxide surface with a desired temperature in the range of typically 100-500xc2x0 C. The adsorption produces an electric conduction change in the metal oxide itself, which are related to the concentration of a combustible gas in surrounding atmosphere. A semiconductor sensor is typically composed of an electric heater, two electrodes, and a metal oxide bead surrounding the heater and electrodes. Power consumption is also an important concern when this type of sensor is used in a portable gas detector.
Therefore, it is desirable to have a method of significantly reducing power for a catalytic bead sensor or a semiconductor sensor, which can be used with commercially available combustible gas sensors and allow for continuous measurement of the atmosphere to be monitored.
It is therefore an object of the invention is to provide a method to significantly reduce power consumption of a catalytic bead sensor or a semiconductor sensor.
Another object of the invention is to provide a power reduction method that allows for direct measurement of a combustible gas.
A further object of the invention is to provide a power reduction method that can be used with commercially available combustible gas sensors.
A still further object of the invention is to provide a method to operate a catalytic bead or semiconductor sensor at reduced power while retaining sensor performance in accuracy, repeatability, response time, and poisoning resistance.
A still further object of the invention is to provide a method to operate a catalytic bead sensor or a semiconductor sensor at reduced power while increasing sensor lifetime by reducing catalyst-sintering rate.
According to the invention, power reduction is accomplished by operating a sensor which utilizes a heated surface, at a temperature which is lower than a defined, desired operating temperature for a period of time during which combustible gas, as defined by an electrical parameter output of the sensor, is below a threshold level. When the combustible gas level detected by the sensor is at least the threshold level, the operating temperature of the sensor is increased to the desired operating temperature. The lower temperature is a temperature at which the sensor operates, i.e. a temperature at which the gas is oxidized on the sensor surface, but a temperature at which accuracy and/or stability of the sensor is not adequate for normal operation.
Adjustment of the operating temperature of the sensor is accomplished by varying the parameters of the electrical supply to the sensor. Thus, voltage, current, or power is supplied, which is lower than the voltage, current, or power necessary to raise the sensor to the desired operating temperature.
The sensor of the invention may include both a sensing element and a compensating element, or may include only a sensing element.
According to an aspect of the invention, power reduction is accomplished by operating a sensor with pulses of electricity, where the duration of the pulse is adjusted, optionally in combination with the pulse voltage, current or power, to achieve an operating temperature which is lower than the desired operating temperature to save energy in the absence of a combustible gas or to achieve the desired operating temperature in the presence of a combustible gas.
According to another aspect of the invention, a sensor is calibrated at the desired operating temperature, and preferably also calibrated at the lower operating temperature, with a known concentration of a combustible gas.
According to a further aspect of the invention, the sensor is periodically switched from the lower operating temperature to the desired operating temperature to clean the sensor surface by removing adsorbed compounds.

Combustible gas detector and method for its operation


A method of processing a substrate including depositing a low dielectric constant film comprising silicon, carbon, and oxygen on the substrate and depositing an oxide rich cap on the low dielectric constant film is provided. The low dielectric constant film is deposited in the presence of low frequency RF power from a gas mixture including an organosilicon compound and an oxidizing gas. The low frequency RF power is terminated after the deposition of the low dielectric constant film. The oxide rich cap is deposited on the low dielectric constant film in the absence of low frequency RF power from another gas mixture including the organosilicon compound and the oxidizing gas used to deposit the low dielectric constant film.

1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to the fabrication of integrated circuits. More particularly, embodiments of the present invention relate to a method and apparatus for processing a substrate that includes depositing an oxide rich cap on a low dielectric constant film.
2. Description of the Related Art
Semiconductor device geometries have dramatically decreased in size since such devices were first introduced several decades ago. Since then, integrated circuits have generally followed the two year/half-size rule (often called Moore's Law), which means that the number of devices that will fit on a chip doubles every two years. Today's fabrication plants are routinely producing devices having 0.13 μm and even 0.1 μm feature sizes, and tomorrow's plants soon will be producing devices having even smaller geometries.
In order to further reduce the size of devices on integrated circuits, it has become necessary to use conductive materials having low resistivity and to use insulators having low dielectric constants (k<4) to reduce the capacitive coupling between adjacent metal lines. Recent developments in low dielectric constant films have focused on incorporating silicon (Si), carbon (C), and oxygen (O) atoms into the deposited films to form low dielectric constant organosilicate films.
The development of organosilicate films that have very low dielectric constants as well as desirable thermal and mechanical properties has been challenging. Often, films made of a Si, C, and O network that have a dielectric constant less than 2.5 exhibit poor mechanical strength and are easily damaged by subsequent substrate processing steps, such as chemical mechanical polishing, causing failure of the integrated circuit.
Plasma processes, such as plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD), are increasingly being used to replace thermal processes in the deposition of low dielectric constant films including silicon, carbon, and oxygen. However, one problem that has been encountered with plasma processing in integrated circuit fabrication is device damage that occurs as a result of exposure of a device to plasma conditions. It is believed that a non-uniform plasma environment may result in arcing or electric field gradients that lead to device damage.
While the susceptibility or degree of device damage typically depends at least partially on the stage of device fabrication and the type of device, many types and stages of devices can experience plasma-induced damage (PID). However, in particular, devices containing an insulating or dielectric layer deposited on a substrate are often susceptible to PID, as charges accumulate on the surface of the dielectric layer. Furthermore, as the size of device features is becoming smaller, dielectric layers are becoming thinner, and devices are becoming increasingly susceptible to PID.
Another undesirable characteristic of some low dielectric constant organosilicate films is high tensile stress. High tensile stress in a film can lead to film bowing or deformation, film cracking, film peeling, or the formation of voids in the film, which can damage or destroy a device that includes the film.
Thus, there remains a need for an improved method of depositing low dielectric constant films that minimizes plasma-induced damage and reduces tensile stress in the films.


According to the present invention, there is proposed a method of adding/detecting an adaptive and extendable segment index for re-segmentation and an apparatus thereof. According to the present invention, the method of adding a segment index comprising steps of determining whether a re-segmentation happens; looking for in a re-segmentation header of a current block a bit indicating the end of the re-segmentation header and the start of other information if it is determined a re-segmentation happens; and inserting two bits immediately before the bit indicating the end of the re-segmentation header and the start of other information, a first bit indicating a higher level re-segmentation has happened, and a second bit indicating one part generated in this re-segmentation.

At the current stage, the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) is discussing the RLC PDU re-segmentation related topics. Among others, one key issue is how to indicate the position of each segment in its original RLC PDU, so as to guarantee the receiver can order each segment correctly and assemble them into the original RLC PDU.
3GPP has determined that RLC PDU re-segmentation must support the following requirements:                The number of re-segmentation is unlimited;        The RLC PDU segment can be re-segmented; and        The RLC PDU header overhead for re-segmentation indication should be as low as possible.
Some companies have commented that the number of re-segmentation will not be very high in real situation, for example, 2 or 3 maybe the major case. However, we cannot exclude the higher-numbered re-segmentation scenario, which maybe rare cases.
Two solutions on how to indicate each RLC PDU segments have been proposed in the prior art:                Solution 1: Offset;        Solution 2: Segment index which only supports a limited number of re-segmentation.
These two solutions are described respectively below.                Solution 1: Offset
In the solution, a 16-bit field "Offset" is added in each RLC-PDU segment to indicate its first byte's position in the original RLC PDU. The 16-bit field is determined according to a peak rate of 100 Mbit in LTE (Long Term Evolution) DL (downlink).
FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram for explaining the Offset solution.
As shown in FIG. 1, it is assumed that the original RLC PDU is segmented into 3 parts, including RLC PDU segments 1-3. The RLC PDU segment 2 is further segmented into RLC PDU segments 4 and 5 when it is re-transmitted. That means, the receiver finally receives RLC PDU segments 1, 3, 4, 5. In each segment, one field "Offset" with a 16-bit fixed size is used to indicate the start position of each segment in the original RLC PDU.                In RLC PDU segment 1, the Offset indicates its first byte's position is A in the original RLC PDU;        In RLC PDU segment 2, the Offset indicates its first byte's position is B in the original RLC PDU;        In RLC PDU segment 3, the Offset indicates its first byte's position is D in the original RLC PDU;        In RLC PDU segment 4, the Offset indicates its first byte's position is B in the original RLC PDU; and        In RLC PDU segment 5, the Offset indicates its first byte's position is C the original RLC PDU.
It is obvious that the receiver (Rx) can order each segment correctly in an order of segment 1, segment 4, segment 5 and segment 3, according to their "Offset" fields.
The bits of the Offset fields transmitted in the Uu interface are calculated as follows:                When the RLC PDU segment 1 is transmitted, a 16-bit Offset field is sent in the Uu interface;        When the RLC PDU segment 2 is transmitted, a 16-bit Offset field is sent in the Uu interface;        When the RLC PDU segment 3 is transmitted, a 16-bit Offset field is sent in the Uu interface;        When the RLC PDU segment 4 is transmitted, a 16-bit Offset field is sent in the Uu interface;        When the RLC PDU segment 5 is transmitted, a 16-bit Offset field is sent in the Uu interface.
Then totally 16*5=80 bits are transmitted when the Rx has received all the segments.
On one hand, the solution has the advantages as follows:                The unlimited re-segmentation is supported; and        The segment can be re-segmented.
On the other hand, the solution has the drawbacks as follows:                The 16-bit Offset field leads to a big RLC PDU header overhead; and        Some companies prefer to use the segment index solution.        Solution 2: Segment Index
In this solution, a fix-sized Sub-segment Index (SegInd) is added in each segment to indicate its order in the original RLC PDU.
FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram for explaining the Segment Index solution.
As shown in FIG. 2, a 4-bit "SegInd" field is attached in each segment to show its order in the original RLC PDU. It is clear that the original RLC PDU can only be segmented into for example 24=16 blocks.
For example, 0000, 0001 and 0002 are set for segments 1, 2, 3 respectively, as respective segment indexes. However, Re-segmentation of segment 2 into segments 4 and 5 can not be supported in this solution, because the segment index SegInx cannot be set correctly in such case.
On one hand, this solution has the advantages as follows:                Less bits used for the segment index SegInx compared to the 16-bit Offset field help to decrease the segment header overhead, especially when the support segment number is small, which maybe the major case in real situation.
On the other hand, this solution has the drawbacks as follows:                The un-limited re-segmentation can not be supported; and        The further re-segment of a segment can not be supported.
Therefore, one solution is needed which introduces small re-segmentation header overhead at low re-segmentation level, while is adaptive for supporting un-limited high re-segmentation level. Such solution is proposed according to the present invention to satisfy such requirement.

Methods and apparatuses for adding/detecting an adaptive and extendable sequence index


A washing machine is disclosed. The washing machine includes a sensing unit to sense various kinds of inputs, an output unit to display an operation state of the washing machine, a door display unit disposed at a door to display a light pattern, a memory to store a plurality of input information corresponding to a plurality of commands, and a controller to determine whether the sensed input matches with any one of the input information when the sensing unit senses an external input, and control at least one of the output unit and the door display unit to be driven in response to the matched input information.

In general, a laundry treatment apparatus includes a washing machine, a drying machine, and a washing and drying machine.
The washing machine is an apparatus that performs washing, rinsing, and spin-drying to remove contaminants from laundry, such as clothes and bedclothes, using water, detergent, and mechanical action. The washing machine is classified as a top load type washing machine in which a drum, in which laundry is placed, is rotated about a vertical shaft or a front load type washing machine in which a drum, in which laundry is placed, is rotated about a horizontal shaft.
The drying machine is an apparatus that supplies hot air to clothes to be dried to dry the clothes. In the drying machine, clothes to be dried are introduced into a rotary drum and hot air or cool air is supplied into the drum to dry the clothes.
The washing and drying machine is an apparatus having both a washing function and a drying function. In the washing and drying machine, laundry, such as clothes, is introduced into a rotary drum and a desired function is selected to wash or dry the laundry.
The laundry treatment apparatus may have a door to open and close a drum, in which laundry, such as clothes, is placed. In the busy life of today, it is important for a washing machine to provide the remaining time of a washing operation. Various researches have been conducted into washing machines configured to intuitively provide users with the remaining time of a washing operation.

Washing machine and control method thereof


The purpose of the intake system, which is disposed in a limited space above the engine, is to improve engine performance by preventing increase in both temperature and resistance of intake air, and also to reduce noise of the intake air. In the intake system, a rear wall extending downwardly is formed in a lower half body that is joined to a rear end of an engine cover, and a mounting frame section for attaching an element is formed in a rear wall section. An upstream-side casing is formed forward of the rear wall section. An intake duct has a downstream end connected to a front surface of the upstream-side casing adjacent to a transmission. Further, the intake duct extends widthwise of the vehicle and has an upstream end opened to the side edge of the engine cover adjacent to the transmission. A resonance chamber casing is joined to the side departing from the transmission through a communication pipe forward of the upstream-side casing. The resonance chamber casing is formed to extend along the full width of the engine cover so as to cover the front of the intake duct.

The engine mounted in an engine room of the vehicle is equipped with the intake system for introducing the intake air to cylinders. In the intake system of the engine, an element of an air cleaner removes the dust in the intake air, a resonance chamber reduces the intake noise, and an intake manifold introduces the intake to the respective cylinders.
There are some conventional intake systems of the engine which include an air cleaner that has an element disposed between upper and lower casings and that is integrated to an engine cover covering the top of the engine. Such conventional intake systems are disclosed in JP Laid-Open No. H11-125158 and JP Laid-Open No. 2003-161217.
However, in the conventional intake system of the engine, a filtering surface of the element located between the upper and lower casings is positioned generally horizontally. On this account, the intake air that flows generally horizontally along a lower surface of the engine cover should turn in a vertical direction (up and down) to pass the element. This results in an undesirable increase in the resistance of the intake air.
Also, the conventional intake system of the engine includes an intake duct for introducing the outside air to the air cleaner that extends longitudinally of the vehicle along the lower surface of the engine cover. On this account, when a resonance chamber casing that is connected to the air cleaner through a communication pipe is formed on the lower surface of the engine cover, an inner space of the engine cover is divided into two right and left spaces by the intake duct. The capacity of the resonance chamber is therefore not large enough, which detriments the effect of silencing noise and the intake noise cannot be reduced significantly.
Further, in the conventional intake system of the engine as disclosed in JP No. H11-125158, an inlet section of an upstream end of the intake duct opens to a front surface of the engine cover. On this account, the hot wind having passed a radiator forward of the engine is introduced upwardly along the engine and is inhaled by the intake duct, which increases the temperature of the intake air taken into the intake duct.
The purpose of the present invention is to provide an intake system of the engine which is disposed in a limited space above the engine, improves the engine performance by preventing increase in both the temperature and the resistance of the intake air, and also reduces intake noise.


A recording apparatus includes a paper supply tray 31 that is provided on an upstream side of a transport direction in which recording paper P is transported, and which can feed the recording paper P from a first aperture portion 21 provided in a housing 20, a guide member 33, which is provided in the paper supply tray 31 wall surface portion 21a of the housing 20, and an ink tube 50 that passes through gap sections S1 and S2 between the guide member 33 and the wall surface portion and supplies ink from an ink accommodation portion 60 which is provided outside the housing 20 to a recording head 43 that is attached to a carriage 41.

As shown in PTL 1 and PTL 2 for example, among recording apparatuses, there are recording apparatuses that supply ink to a recording head that a recording apparatus is provided with using an external tank that stores ink. In this kind of recording apparatus, the external tank is provided outside a housing of the recording apparatus, and it is possible to supply ink from the external tank to the ink head that is inside the housing through an ink tube.


An axial flow pump for a blood circulating pump for the circulation of blood, the rotor the rotor being constructed and arranged to impel blood in a downstream direction upon rotation of the rotor about its axis in a forward circumferential direction. The rotor is provided with hydrodynamic thrust bearing surfaces, each such thrust bearing surface being constructed and arranged to apply a hydrodynamic force to the rotor with a component of the force in the downstream direction upon rotation of the rotor in the forward circumferential direction.

Heart pumps are typically used in the later stages of heart disease or after trauma to the heart, when the heart itself is too weak or otherwise incapable of creating sufficient blood pressure and blood circulation to satisfy body function.
Various heart pumps are already in use for the purpose of augmenting or replacing the blood pumping action of damaged or diseased hearts. Heart pumps are commonly used in three situations: (1) for acute support during cardio-pulmonary operations; (2) for short-term support while awaiting recovery of the heart from surgery; or (3) as a bridge to keep a patient alive while awaiting heart transplantation. The pumps may be designed to provide at least one of right or left ventricular assist, although left ventricular assist is the most common application in that it is far more common for the left ventricle to become diseased or damaged than it is for the right ventricle.
Intravascular pumps comprise miniaturized pumps capable of being percutaneously or surgically introduced into the vascular system of a patient, typically to provide left or right heart support, or even total heart support. Various types of intravascular pumps include radial flow centrifugal pumps and axial flow pumps. One form of axial flow heart pump is disclosed in co-pending, commonly assigned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/322,746 ("the '746 application"), the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference herein. An axial flow pump according to certain embodiments of the '746 application uses magnetic or electromagnetic forces, for example, to power a magnetic rotor placed within a flow path of blood moving into or out of the heart. An electromagnet, or stator, is positioned around the outside of a tubular casing containing the flow path, whereas the rotor is disposed inside the casing. The axis of the rotor is coincident with the axis of the casing.
The rotor is magnetic. The stator typically is a set of electrically conductive coils. The rotor is energized by a power source with alternating currents through the coils to create a rotating magnetic field. That is, the field is directed transverse to the axis of the tubular casing, and the direction of the field rotates about the axis of the casing. As the field rotates, the rotor spins about its axis. The rotor is configured with vanes which impel the blood in a downstream direction along the axis as the rotor turns in a forward direction of rotation. The circumferential surface of the rotor includes hydrodynamic bearing surfaces. As the rotor turns, these surfaces generate radial forces which hold the rotor radially centered in the casing and out of contact with the wall of the casing. The magnetic field of the stator tends to keep the rotor at a fixed axial position, in alignment with the stator. This effect is commonly referred to as the "axial stiffness" of the stator. The power source may be implanted somewhere within the body of the patient or may be external to the patient, as is known in the art.
Axial flow cardiac pumps are efficient, compact and reliable. However, the forces associated with axial flow cardiac pumps can present problems. As the rotor impels the blood in the downstream direction, the blood applies thrust forces to the rotor. These thrust forces urge the rotor in the upstream direction. Moreover, the static pressure of the blood downstream from the rotor is greater than the static pressure of the blood upstream from the rotor. The pressure differential also urges the rotor in the upstream direction along the axis. Under certain flow conditions, especially at lower flow volumes and/or higher rotational speeds, the axial stiffness of the stator may not be capable of counteracting the axial forces on the rotor. In this case, the rotor may even contact a mechanical stop, such as a narrowed portion of the casing, which is provided as a backup or emergency restraint. Such contact can cause wear on the rotor and casing, which in turn can shorten the life of the pump and cause other undesirable effects.


Switches of a switching circuit used to control operation of an electric motor such as in an electrically powered vehicle connect respective windings of the electric motor as a single phase inductor during battery charging. The inductor can then store inherent low frequency, second order ripple power and return that power to a load presented by a battery during battery charging to deliver substantially constant current. Storage of ripple power in the inductor allows the capacitance value, size, weight and cost of a filter capacitor of a power factor correction circuit providing input power to a battery charger to be reduced by an order of magnitude or more. Direction of current flow through the inductor is periodically reversed to avoid magnetizing the motor.

To improve efficiency and reduce environmental pollution in urban areas, vehicles powered by electricity have been made commercially available and are increasing in popularity. Efficiency of electric powered vehicles such as automobiles, trucks, and railroad vehicles is improved over fossil fuel-powered vehicles since no power is consumed when the vehicle is not in motion and some of the power consumed during acceleration or hill-climbing can be recovered by using the electric motor of the vehicle as a generator during braking and coasting even though the weight of batteries and electrical controls for the motor is a significant contribution to the overall weight of the vehicle.
For that reason and to avoid the additional weight of strengthening structure to support very large batteries, battery power storage capacity and, consequently, the range of the vehicle is compromised and there is a need to frequently re-charge the batteries in electric-powered vehicles. When re-charging is performed, electrical power is generally provided from the so-called power distribution grid or a generator operating from so-called renewable resources such as solar panel and wind farms that also supply power with alternating current (AC), for efficiency of transmission, to other loads. Therefore, battery chargers and many other devices are required to include power factor correction (PFC) circuits and filters in order to avoid reflecting noise back to the power source or distribution system and devices connected to it.
A PFC circuit seeks to control transfer of power from an AC source such that the current drawn by a load is aligned in phase with the AC voltage for efficiency of power transfer. This is usually accomplished for loads operating on direct current (DC) power by rectifying the AC input voltage and using a converter including one or more pulse width modulated switches or other switching control arrangement to regulate the current drawn from the source to match the phase of the input voltage. A boost converter is usually the converter topology of choice for charging batteries for electric-powered vehicles since the DC voltage required is substantially higher than the peak of the AC voltage available.
Boost converters operate by switching power from a rectifier connected to a power source through an inductor such that the volt-second balance of the voltage developed across the inductor increases the peak voltage at the inductor output. This periodic high voltage must then be filtered because the product of sinusoidal voltage and current variation inherently produces a large low frequency, second-order (e.g. second harmonic of the AC frequency) power ripple which has required a very large-valued filter capacitor to achieve adequate regulation since a fluctuating voltage is not efficient for charging of batteries and may, over time, compromise the power storage capacity of the batteries. Therefore, a large filter capacitor has generally been required to store the power in the low frequency ripple.
The entire battery charging apparatus must be designed for a particular vehicle or vehicle model since electric powered vehicles have different power requirements, different power storage capacities and operate at different voltages but must be capable of receiving power from a standardized power source such as the power distribution grid. Therefore, a filter capacitor capable of storing the power in the power ripple during battery charging must be of significant volume and weight and must be carried in the vehicle. Thus, the size and weight of the filter capacitor (sometimes referred to as a DC-bus capacitor) may compromise operation of the vehicle by occupying space, reducing vehicle payload space, and causing consumption of some level of power (e.g. to accelerate its weight) but is not involved in actual operation of the vehicle but only used during battery charging while the vehicle is stationary.

Energy storage for power factor correction in battery charger for electric-powered vehicles

Virginia Tech Intellectual Properties, Inc.


A drive system includes a rotary drive unit for rotating a shaft and a linear drive unit for moving the shaft in a linear direction. To improve efficiency and shelf life, an energy storage is mechanically connected to the shaft for biasing the shaft to seek a linear movement in opposition to the linear direction. The energy storage absorbs the kinetic energy of the shaft and releases it again subsequently.

The present invention relates, in general, to a drive system, and more particularly to a drive system of a type having a rotary drive unit for setting a shaft in rotation, and a linear drive unit for moving the shaft in a linear direction.
It would be desirable and advantageous to provide an improved drive system which obviates prior art shortcomings and which reduces energy consumption and has a long service life.

Drive system for linear and rotary movements


An integrated mixed tap water and conditioned water faucet assembly has a pull-out sprayer head and a spout. The spout has an upwardly extending portion, a downwardly extending dispensing portion and a bight extending between the upwardly extending portion and the downwardly extending dispensing portion. A conditioned water housing and the sprayer head are disposed at a lower end of the downwardly extending dispensing portion and extend downwardly therefrom.

This section provides background information related to the present disclosure, which is not necessarily prior art.
Integrated tap water and conditioned water dispenser faucets are sometimes used for sinks, typically kitchen sinks, and control the dispensing of mixed tap water and one or more types of conditioned water, depending on the configuration of the faucet. The types of conditioned water can include, by way of example and not of limitation, hot water from a hot water dispenser (such as near boiling hot water from a near boiling hot water dispenser), chilled water, filtered cool water, carbonated water, and the like. The faucet has a spout assembly having a spout, a tap water mixing valve and conditioned water valve which are typically disposed in respective valve bodies of a body of the faucet. The tap water mixing valve is fluidly coupled to sources of hot and cold tap water and is adjustable via a handle to dispense hot and cold tap water and mix the hot and cold tap water being dispensed in varying amounts depending on the position of the tap water mixing valve. The faucet also has a conditioned water valve that is adjustable via a handle to dispense the conditioned water. The conditioned water valve is fluidly coupled to a source of conditioned water or to a source of cool water, which may be filtered water, in the case of a hot water dispenser. The spout has a mixed tap water line and a conditioned water line therein that fluidly couple outlets of the tap water mixing valve and an outlet of the conditioned water valve to a dispensing end assembly of the spout.
Where the conditioned water is near boiling water provided by a non-pressurized hot water dispenser, an inlet of the conditioned water valve is coupled to the source of cool water, such as filtered water, and an outlet of the conditioned water valve is also coupled to an inlet of the conditioned water line through the hot water dispenser. More specifically, the outlet of the conditioned water valve is fluidly coupled to a water inlet of the hot water dispenser and a hot water outlet of the hot water dispenser is fluidly coupled to an inlet of the conditioned water line. When the conditioned water valve is opened, water flows through it from the source of cool water into the inlet of the hot water dispenser, which then forces hot water to flow out of the hot water dispenser into the conditioned water line. The spout may also have a vent line that fluidly couples a vent of the hot water dispenser to the dispensing end assembly of the spout assembly. In the case where the near boiling water hot water dispenser is a pressurized hot water dispenser, a water outlet of the hot water dispenser is fluidly coupled to the inlet of the conditioned water valve and the outlet of the conditioned water valve is fluidly coupled to the inlet of the conditioned water line without going through the hot water dispenser.
EP 2 975 185 A1 shows an integrated tap water and hot water dispenser faucet having an L-shaped spout having a horizontal portion with a pull-out sprayer head at the end through which mixed water is dispensable and which can be pulled out horizontally from the end of the spout. A hot water outlet is disposed in the horizontal portion of the spout spaced inwardly from the sprayer head. Another type of integrated tap water and hot water dispenser faucet has a J-shaped spout. Currently available integrated tap water and conditioned water dispenser faucets having a J-shaped spout do not include a pull-out sprayer head. Space issues within the valve body and J-shaped spout present a design concern in providing a pull-out sprayer head in integrated tap water and conditioned water dispenser faucets having a J-shaped spout. Another design concern is the requirement that conditioned water cannot exit through the pull-out sprayer head.

Integrated mixed tap water and conditioned water faucet assembly with pull out sprayer head


A batch process for making a resin includes adding at least one portion of colored resin material to a resin base material of another color and mixing the combination including the colored material only sufficiently to incomplete blend the colored material into the base mix so that the colored material is only partially dispersed in the resin base. The multicolored product may be foamed or unfoamed material.

Plastic resin products having a multicolored effect, such as stripes added or laminated to a resin material of a different color, are known. It is also known to produce solid colored resin material by adding colorant to a resin batch before mixing.
Japanese Patent No. 70-029,381 describes a foam polyolefin having a fine homogeneous closed-cell structure The foam is crosslinked, and is made by a batch process.

Method for making multicolored resin material and product thereof