A power management system includes a power management and load distribution (PMLD) circuit within an airplane coupled to an AC power source, at least one AC/DC conversion circuit operable to convert the AC power into a DC power, and at least one programmable output capability outlet (PPCO) circuit operable to receive the DC power. The PMLD circuit stores a predetermined maximum power limit, continuously measures a power output, and increases or decreases a power capability setting based on a comparison of the measured power output to the predetermined maximum power limit. The PPCO circuit includes a USB connector couplable to a personal electronic device (PED) of a passenger for charging the PED at an amount of DC power indicated by the power capability setting. The PPCO circuit is also operable to negotiate a power contract with the PED.

Commercial passenger aircraft conventionally include 115V AC, 400 Hz electrical systems to supply power for the operation of on-board electrical loads. The AC power source for aircraft is typically one or more engine-driven generators with a fixed power capacity. In such fixed power supply environment, additional ancillary electrical loads in the aircraft could result in an over-demand condition on the electrical system, i.e., the fixed capacity generators.
With that being said, there is an ever-increasing demand from passengers on commercial passenger aircrafts to power their portable personal electronic devices ("PEDs"), such as, for example, smart phones, tablets, laptops, etc. In addition, many commercial passenger aircrafts provide for wireless Internet connection to such PEDs, which even more so increases the consumer demand to use PEDs on a flight to access the Internet for personal, as well as, work purposes. However, the problem remains that aircrafts have a limited power supply. This increased demand for power supply to a multitude of passenger PEDs was not considered a part of the original aircraft design. Therefore, there is a need in the art for a power management system that prevents an over-demand condition on an aircraft's electrical system, while also being able to supply power to a variable number and type of passenger PEDs that may connect to the system during a flight.
Existing systems in the industry that manage the power available to passenger PEDs deny power to the passenger in some manner, such as, for example, disabling the power supply to passenger PEDs at a certain threshold. The primary reason why existing systems deny power to some or all passenger PEDs is that such loads on the aircraft's electrical system by, in some cases, a fairly large number of passengers (e.g., the typical Boeing 747-400 aircraft can transport up to 492 passengers) simultaneously demanding power for their PEDs could overwhelm the aircraft's electrical system, resulting in an unsafe condition. For example, modern PEDs, including laptops, smart devices, and tablets, can draw anywhere from 2.5 W to 100 W. Such power consumption multiplied by hundreds of passengers could overwhelm the aircraft's electrical system in an unsafe manner. At the same time, denial of power to passenger PEDs, while not necessarily unsafe, is still an undesirable outcome and will likely reduce passenger satisfaction.
Universal Serial Bus (USB) is an increasingly pervasive industry standard that defines cables, connectors, and communication protocols used in a bus for connection, data communications, and power supply between computers and electrical devices, such as portable personal electronic devices. USB has become rather commonplace on laptops, smart phones, and tablets.
A fairly recent USB connector, the USB Type C connector, has been released that is smaller than previous USB connectors, such as the Type A connector. The USB Type C connector also enables a connection with a USB receptacle with flipping enabled. The USB Type C connector builds on the most recent USB 3.1 protocol published by the USB Implementers Forum (http://www.usb.org/home). The USB Type C connector is also backwards compatible with older USB protocols.
Furthermore, a new USB Power Delivery (USB-PD) specification was recently developed to enable the delivery of higher power levels through the new USB cables and connectors. The specifications for this technology can be found at http://www.usb.org/developers/powerdelivery/. This technology was developed to create a universal power plug for laptops, tablets, smart phones, etc. that may require more than 5 volts (V) using cables and plugs compatible with existing USB solutions. The USB-PD specification defines a communication link between USB ports connected via a cable supporting USB-PD and connectors supporting USB-PD. The most recent USB-PD specification permits power consumption of up to 100 W to support high power consuming portable devices, such as laptops. Unfortunately, existing power management systems for commercial passenger aircrafts have not been designed to support such high power consuming devices within their fixed power supply environment.
Therefore, a need exists to overcome the problems with the prior art as discussed above.

USB power management and load distribution system


A photonic analog-to-digital signal conversion system can utilize an optical phase modulator configured to receive a first signal and a first optical pulse signal and to provide an optical phase—modulated pulse signal. A photonic processor can be configured to receive the optical phase—modulated pulse signal and the optical pulse signal and to provide an electronic first demodulated signal and an electronic second demodulated signal. A first comparator can be configured to receive the electronic first demodulated signal and provide a first compared signal, and a second comparator can be configured to receive the electronic second demodulated signal and provide a second compared signal. At least one logic circuit can be configured to receive the first compared signal and the second compared signal.

Analog-to-digital conversion techniques are used in a wide variety of applications. Communications and sensing devices frequently use analog-to-digital conversion to convert an analog signal to a digital signal. High speed analog-to-digital conversion is utilized in radio frequency (RF) receivers used in military, commercial and consumer applications. Products that utilize analog-to-digital signal conversion include, but are not limited to: electronic intelligence (ELINT) receivers, cell phones, wireless local area components, radars (e.g., synthetic aperture radar (SAR)), sensors, high frequency (e.g., 100 megahertz (MHz) and multi-Giga Hertz (GHZ)) systems, etc.
Optical or photonic analog-to-digital converters (pADC) can reduce the size, weight, and power requirements of the systems in which they are employed. The pADC generally includes at least one electronic analog-to-digital converter (eADC). The eADC is generally a high resolution ADC which adds to the size, weight and power usage of the pADC.
Accordingly, there is a need for an analog-to-digital conversion system and method configured for reduced size, cost, weight and/or power consumption. Further still, there is a need for an improved photonic analog-to-digital converter (pADC) system and method. Yet further, there is a need for an ADC with optimized quantization. Still further there is a need for a pADC that does not require a high resolution eADC. There is further a need for a pADC system and method that is less susceptible to optical clock amplitude changes. There is further a need for pADCs that uses one or more low resolution eADCs.
It would be desirable to provide a system and/or method that provides one or more of these or other advantageous features. Other features and advantages will be made apparent from the present specification. The teachings disclosed extend to those embodiments which fall within the scope of the appended claims, regardless of whether they accomplish one or more of the aforementioned needs.

Optical analog-to-digital conversion system and method with enhanced quantization


A mounting arrangement for mounting a cooler unit to a work machine has a traveling device, a machine body frame, an engine and the cooler unit disposed adjacent the engine. The arrangement includes a support deck provided in the machine body frame for supporting the cooler unit, an attachment unit for releasably fixing the cooler unit to the machine body frame and a movement mechanism provided between the cooler unit and the support deck, the movement mechanism allowing the cooler unit to effect a translational movement to change a distance relative to the engine.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a mounting arrangement for mounting a cooler unit to a work machine including a traveling device, a machine body frame, an engine and the cooler unit disposed adjacent the engine.
2. Description of the Related Art
With this type of work machine, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application "Kokai" No. 2002-294748, there is provided a first connecting means connected to an engine of the work machine, the first connecting means pivotally attaching a radiator connected to the engine to the frame so that the radiator may be pivoted about its lower edge, from its closed position where the radiator is located near the frame and its opened position where the radiator is located by a certain distance from the frame. This first connecting means includes a plurality of support members completely fixed to the frame in respective correspondence with the lower edge of the radiator. Each one of these support members has a saddle-like shape for allowing insertion of the lower edge of the radiator.
The above construction allows easy and speedy cleaning operations of the radiator and the cooling fan in the earth-moving work machine and allows also easy access by a worker's hand to other components of the machine that are attached to the rear portion of the radiator.
With the above-described conventional art, since the radiator is pivoted about its lower portion relative to the frame while the radiator is located at is mounted position, it is difficult to form a space for maintenance between the lower portion of the radiator and the engine.

Mounting arrangement for mounting cooler unit to work machine


Rank modulation has been recently proposed as a scheme for storing information in flash memories. Three improved aspects are disclosed. In one aspect the minimum push-up scheme, for storing data in flash memories is provided. It aims at minimizing the cost of changing the state of the memory. In another aspect, multi-cells, used for storing data in flash memories is provided. Each transistor is replaced with a multi-cell of mm transistors connected in parallel. In yet another aspect, multi-permutations, are provided. The paradigm of representing information with permutations is generalized to the case where the number of cells in each level is a constant greater than one. In yet another aspect, rank-modulation rewriting schemes which take advantage of polar codes, are provided for use with flash memory.

The present disclosure generally relates to data storage devices, systems and methods. In various examples, data modulation techniques in data storage devices such as flash memory devices are described.
Flash memories are one type of electronic non-volatile memories (NVMs), accounting for nearly 90% of the present NVM market. See, for example, the Web site of Saifun Semiconductors Ltd. (available at www.saifun.com) and Web-Feet Research, Inc. (available at www.web-feetresearch.com). Today, billions of flash memories are used in mobile, embedded, and mass-storage systems, mainly because of their high performance and physical durability. See, for example, P. Cappelletti et al., Chapter 5, "Memory Architecture and Related Issues" in Flash memories, Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1st Edition, 1999), and E. Gal and S. Toledo, ACM Computing Surveys, 37(2):138-163 (2005). Example applications of flash memories include cell phones, digital cameras, USB flash drives, computers, sensors, and many more. Flash memories are now sometimes used to replace magnetic disks as hard disks, such as the 64 GB hard disk by SanDisk (see "SanDisk launches 64 gigabyte solid state drives for notebook PCs, meeting needs for higher capacity," available at the Web site URL of http://biz.yahoo.com/cnw/070604/sandisk.html?.v=1). See also the Web article on the 256 GB hard disk by PQI ("PQI unveils 256 GB solid state drive," available at the URL of vvww.guru3d.com/newsitem.php?id=5392). Based on the popular floating-gate technology, the dominance of flash memories is likely to continue.
Some problems exist that may limit the improvement of flash memories with respect to their speed, reliability, longevity, and storage capacity. Flash memories may have a limited lifetime due to the quality degradation caused by block erasures; a flash memory can endure only about 105˜106 block erasures before it becomes no longer usable (see S. Aritome et al., Proceedings of the IEEE, 81(5):776-788 (1993), and P. Cappelletti et al., ibid. Removing charge from any single cell for data modification may require the block to be erased and all the 105 or so cells in it to be reprogrammed (or programmed to another block). The writing speed may be constrained by a conservative cell-programming process that is about ten times slower than reading. One purpose of such conservative programming is to avoid over-programming, a serious error that may only be correctable by block erasure and reprogramming. Data reliability may be limited by errors caused by charge leakage, disturbs, and the like. See S. Aritome et al., ibid; P. Cappelletti et al., ibid; and P. Pavan et al., Proceedings of The IEEE, 85(8):1248-1271 (August 1997). The errors become more common when multi-level cells are used to increase the storage capacity.

Rank-modulation rewriting codes for flash memories


The present invention relates to methods for reducing microbial contamination on carcass, meat, or meat product; or on surfaces used in processing the carcass, meat, or meat product; employing compositions including medium chain peroxycarboxylic acid, and to the compositions. The methods include applying a medium chain peroxycarboxylic acid composition to carcass, meat, meat product or surface.

The cleaning of carcass, meat, or meat product can be an unsanitary and time consuming task. Further, without a cleaning routine that effectively reduces microbial population on carcass, meat, or meat product, any number of problems may arise. For example, meat can retain pathogens or infectious microbes (E. coli) or become increasingly more contaminated if viscera is allowed to rupture or is not properly removed. Further, incomplete cleaning of the meat can also result in the presence of infectious microbes making the meat unsuitable for consumption.
Conventional processes for cleaning meat or meat products employ antimicrobial agents such as lactic acid or conventional peroxycarboxylic acid compositions. Conventional peroxycarboxylic acid compositions typically include short chain peroxycarboxylic acids or mixtures of short chain peroxycarboxylic acids and medium chain peroxycarboxylic acids (see, e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,200,189, 5,314,687, 5,409,713, 5,437,868, 5,489,434, 6,674,538, 6,010,729, 6,111,963, and 6,514,556). Use of some conventional antimicrobial agents can result in changed color of the carcasses, and conventional treatment with hydrogen peroxide results in bleached and bloated carcasses.
The heightened concerns of consumers over the organoleptic purity and safety of meat products and the stringent economies of the meat and poultry industry have resulted in an ongoing need for meat product sanitizing compositions and processes which provide increased sanitization with organoleptic and environmental purity.

Methods for washing carcasses, meat, or meat products with medium chain peroxycarboxylic acid compositions


A method and apparatus allows fault recovery in a digital computer based control system whereby system upsets induced by external transient noise conditions can be accommodated. A CPU is coupled to its main memory and its I/O interfaces by a common address/data bus, these three elements being susceptible to having data thereon or therein corrupted by transient noise. Also coupled to the bus, but in a hardened environment, are first and second supplemental memories which, under memory control, operate on alternating even and odd computational frames defined by the CPU's real-time clock to store the same words as are then being entered into the CPU's main memory. As computational frames are entered into one or the other of these two memories by eaves-dropping on the common bus, the other supplemental memory is transferring its contents to a backup memory which is also housed in the noise-immune environment. The backup memory is connected in a read-only mode to the address/data bus and, because of the manner of operation, always contains the computational frame that is delayed one cycle of the CPU's real-time clock from the frame in progress. Should a transient upset occur, it may be followed by a transfer of the information from the backup memory into the computer's main memory such that computations can then continue with data that is uncorrupted.

I. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to a method and apparatus for increasing the reliability of digital computing systems, and more particularly to an improved error recovery technique in complex digital computer based control systems.
II. Discussion of the Prior Art
As the reliability and performance of digital computers have steadily improved, they have become the predominant technology for control systems. For example, in avionics systems, digital computers are now considered for such concepts as fly-by-wire or autoland in which a digital computer is interposed between the pilot and the aircraft control surfaces. In such systems, the safety of the aircraft depends on continued faultless performance of the digital control system.
To achieve the requisite reliability in such applications, prior art systems have typically resorted to hardware redundancy with majority voting. Typically, a minimum of three identical processing elements are configured to perform identical control computations on identical data inputs. In the event a disparity occurs between the multiple processing elements, the minority result(s) is ignored and one of the majority results is used to effect the control function. A majority-of-three voting allows the system to tolerate a single failure while majority-of-five allows the system to tolerate up to two failures. In more elaborate systems, a persistently failing unit may be voted out of the system and replaced with a so-called "hot spare".
Various forms of redundancy synchronization, voting and fault monitoring have been proposed or employed in the past. However, while it is recognized that these mechanisms influence the type of recovery technique a particular system may employ, this invention addresses only a manner of recovery and not these other mechanisms.
A fault condition may be induced by a permanent failure of the digital circuitry, in which case it is considered a "hard fault". Alternatively, it may be induced by a transient phenomena which results in an incorrect result, but does not, in fact, damage or alter the subsequent operation of the circuitry. This condition is classified as a "soft fault" or "soft error". Soft errors may be induced by various transient conditions, such as electromagnetic interference (EMI), inherent noise, lightning, electromagnetic pulses (EMP), or high energy radio frequency (HERF). In this specification, the term "external transient noise condition" is intended to include all of the above sources.
As newer digital technology is introduced, the trend seems to be that the amount of energy necessary to change the state of a memory element or a logic element is reduced, thereby making these elements more susceptible to upset due to EMI, lightning, EMP, or HERF. With careful design, the susceptibility of the control system circuitry to such transient conditions can be greatly reduced. However, it is generally not practical to harden the entire control system to the extremes of any and all interference which may be encountered in an avionics application. It is, therefore, important that safety-critical digital control systems be able to tolerate transient upsets without affecting the performance of the critical application.
Recognizing that transient upsets will occur in certain applications, it is highly desirable to provide an error recovery mechanism whereby a processing element can be restored to a functional condition following a soft error. With an error recovery mechanism, the hardware redundancy can be reserved to cover only the hard error conditions, thereby increasing the overall system reliability. The error recovery mechanism further provides a clear diagnostic distinction between soft and hard errors and, therefore, practically eliminates the incidences of unconfirmed removal whereby a functionally good processing element is falsely suspected of being faulty due to upsets.
One well-known method of effecting soft error recovery is to design the control algorithm around a computational frame where the time interval of the computational frame generally corresponds to the sampling interval of the control system. When a soft error is detected, the computer is reset to a known state corresponding to the beginning of the current computational frame and the control algorithm is restarted. Soft error recovery in a majority-voting redundant system imposes yet another constraint. The faulty computing element must not only be rolled back to the beginning of the computational frame, but must also be restarted in synchrony with the other computing elements. While it is recognized that the relationships between the redundancy elements within a system impact the operation of the system, this invention defines a method of fault recovery and does not address redundancy management concerns.
Prior art redundant digital systems have provided recovery from transient disturbances to the digital circuitry with a "transfusion" of data. Following the detection of a digital circuit upset, "transfused" data is transmitted from the unaffected redundant digital circuits to the upset digital circuits in order to restore the upset circuitry to the identical state as the unaffected circuits. For example, in a system comprised of three digital processing lanes, if one lane is determined to be faulty by the voting logic, it is isolated. The remaining two lanes then transmit the current state variables necessary to complete the recovery. The isolated lane then resumes processing in synchrony with the active lanes and is readmitted to the system after performing a given number of computation frames without another detected fault. It is possible that a single transient disturbance might cause an upset in each of the redundant processing elements. In this instance, the redundancy is defeated and the system crashes, since there is no source of valid data available for transfusion.
A further limitation of prior art approaches is that the software required to perform the data transfusion, in the event of a fault, is specific to both the application being performed and the level of redundancy and the redundant architecture employed in the system.
It is highly desirable, and in some instances imperative, that fault-tolerant techniques such as soft-error recovery be totally transparent to the software and independent of the context of the control application.

Fault recovery mechanism, transparent to digital system function


A system for detecting a conflict of interest between entities includes a server and a database. The server defines categories and stores information at the database arrangement. A category to be evaluated is selected for detecting whether or not two given entities have a conflict of interest. A tree structure is created with the category and child and descendent categories of the category. The category and the child and descendent categories are hierarchically arranged as nodes of the tree structure. For the two given entities a conflict potential value is computed for each node of the tree structure. A conflict index value based upon the conflict potential value of that node for each of the two given entities is computed. A conflict of interest between the two given entities is detected if the conflict index value (c) of a node of the tree structure matches at least one predefined criterion.

Conventionally, an entity (such as a client) seeking a service engages another entity (such as a service provider) having expertise in performing tasks associated with the service; the service, for example, is a combination of intellectual processes and real physical processes, for example involved with the production of a real physical product. For example, an inventor (or client) may engage a patent attorney (or service provider) to secure patent rights for his or her invention. As may be evident, the service provider may be engaged by multiple clients at a same time. Therefore, the service provider may have knowledge of multiple areas of technology. Often, clients prefer to engage service providers with prior knowledge and experience in an area of technology that the client operates in. Therefore, a situation may arise when the service provider with prior experience in an area of technology may be approached for providing services by multiple clients operating in the same area of technology. Additionally, the service provider may be aware of critical confidential information pertaining to such clients. Moreover, such multiple clients may be competitors with conflicting interests.
While providing services to such multiple clients, the service provider may be faced with various problems, described as follows. Firstly, the service provider has a responsibility for providing best possible service to all clients. In such instance, the service provider's awareness of information pertaining to one client may be beneficial for other clients. Therefore, the service provider may be faced with a dilemma between duty of confidentiality towards the clients and responsibility for providing best possible service to the clients. Secondly, the service provider may also be faced with a duty to disclose all matters relevant to proceedings to a court (duty of candour) and duty of confidentiality towards clients. It may be evident that such instances may cause conflicts of interest between the clients and the service providers.
Conventional techniques to identify such possible conflicts of interest include comparing information pertaining to a new client against areas of technology that were previously or are currently being handled by the service provider. However, accuracy (or correctness) of such techniques largely depends on the service provider, and are therefore prone to errors. In an example, the service provider may mistakenly overlook some areas of technology with possible conflict of interest. In another example, the service provider may conceal awareness of possible conflict for professional or personal gain of the service provider. Further, implementation of such conventional techniques may be cumbersome, and may require significant amount of processing.
Therefore, in light of the foregoing discussion, there exists a need to overcome the aforementioned drawbacks associated with conventional techniques for identifying a conflict of interest between entities, such as clients and service providers.

Method and system for detecting conflict of interest


An object of the present invention is to identify cancer antigen proteins specifically expressed on the surface of cancer cells and to provide a use of antibodies targeting such proteins as therapeutic and/or preventive agents for cancer. The present invention relates to, for example, a pharmaceutical composition for treatment and/or prevention of a cancer, which comprises, as an active ingredient, an antibody or fragment thereof having an immunological reactivity with an MCEMP1 protein having an amino acid sequence shown in any one of the even numbered SEQ ID NOS: 2 to 8 or an amino acid sequence having 80% or more sequence identity with the amino acid sequence, or with a fragment of the MCEMP1 protein comprising 7 or more consecutive amino acids.

In recent years, a variety of antibody medicines for cancer treatment that target antigen proteins on cancer cells have come into existence. The antibody medicines used as cancer-specific therapeutic agents exhibit drug efficacy to a certain extent, and thus they have been gaining attention. However, many of target antigen proteins are also expressed on multiple normal cells. As a result of antibody administration, not only cancer cells, but also normal cells on which a target antigen has been expressed can be damaged, thereby causing a side effect, which becomes problematic. Hence, it is expected that, if it becomes possible to identify cancer antigens that are specifically expressed on the surface of a cancer cell and to use antibodies targeting such antigens as medicaments, then treatment with antibody medicines that cause fewer side effects could be realized.
It has been reported that Mast Cell-Expressed Membrane Protein 1 (MCEMP1), a type 2 transmembrane protein, is expressed on cell membranes in a manner specific for mast cells, suggesting the possibility that the protein participates in mast cell differentiation, immune response, and allergic response (Non Patent Literature 1). However, none of the previous reports show that the MCEMP1 protein has immunity inducing activity against cancer cells and is thereby useful for treatment or prevention of cancers.

Method for treating cancer by administration of antibodies that bind to extracellular region portion of MCEMP1 protein


An objective optical element to be used for an optical pickup device for performing reproducing and/or recording of information to a first optical information recording medium and a second optical information recording medium by converging a light beam having a wavelength λ1 (640 nm≦λ1≦670 nm) on the first optical information recording medium having a protective substrate thickness t1, and by converging a light beam having a wavelength λ2 (400 nm≦λ2≦415 nm) on the second optical information recording medium having a protective substrate thickness t2; wherein an optical system magnification m1 satisfies a relation of |m1|<0.01, and wherein an optical system magnification m2 satisfies a relation of |m2|<0.01.

In recent years, research and development concerning the so-called high density optical disc have been proceeding. In the high density optical disc, the recording density of an optical information recording medium (an optical disc) is increased by the use of a blue laser beam having a wavelength of about 400 nm, and then the storage capacity of the optical information recording medium is increased.
As the standards of the high density optical disc, for example, a standard regulating the numerical aperture (NA) on an image side of an objective lens to be about 0.85 and the thickness of a protective substrate to be about 0.1 mm, and a standard regulating the NA and the thickness of the protective substrate to be about 0.65 and about 0.6 mm or less, respectively, at the same level as those of a conventional digital versatile disc (DVD) are known. In the following description, a high density optical disc having an NA of about 0.65 and the thickness of a protective substrate of about 0.6 mm will be referred to as an "advanced optical disc (AOD)".
Then, various techniques pertaining to optical pickup devices compatible with such high density optical discs and conventionally wide used optical discs such as DVD's and compact discs (CD's) have been proposed. For example, one of them is disclosed in Unexamined Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2002-298422.
Because the compatible optical pickup device uses optical beams each having a different wavelength from each other (for example, about 400 nm for the AOD, and about 650 nm for the DVD), the compatible optical pickup device is required to correct spherical chromatic aberrations caused by the wavelength difference into a level at which no troubles are caused practically.
Moreover, for example, when the so-called mode hop, at which the wavelength of a light beam instantaneously changes, is generated at the time of increase of the power of the light beam emitted from a light source, the problem that the position of a converging spot formed on an optical axis shifts from an information recording surface of an optical disc into an optical axis direction is caused. Consequently, it is necessary to perform a correction for decreasing the quantity of a change of the converging spot in the optical axis direction before and after the wavelength change to suppress axial chromatic aberrations.
In particular, in the AOD, the quantity of the wavelength change at the time of the mode hop is large owing to the relatively large NA of about 0.65 and the short of the wavelength of the light beam being about 400 nm. Consequently, there is the problem that the quantity of the shift of the converging spot is large.
The objective lens disclosed in the above-mentioned publication suppresses a chromatic aberration on an axis caused by a change of the wavelength of a blue laser beam without excessively correcting the chromatic aberration on the axis in a DVD, by proving a diffractive structure (a diffraction lens structure) on an optical surface on one side of an objective lens, and by adopting beams having different orders of diffraction on a short wavelength side and a long wavelength side.
However, because the publication does not disclose any techniques for correcting the spherical chromatic aberration caused by a difference between wavelengths, there is the case where information cannot be recorded or reproduced appropriately when a plurality of recording media such as a high density optical disc and a DVD is used.

Objective optical element, optical pickup device, and optical information recording and reproducing device


Described herein are method and apparatus for producing instantly cookable pasta including various kinds of pasta and Chinese and Japanese noodles, and an encased instantly cookable pasta produced by such method and apparatus. According to the invention, part of raw dough of a starting mixture, which contains wheat flour as a major component, is subjected to preliminary steam-cooking, and then mixed with the remaining uncooked part of the starting mixture. The resulting mixture is then processed through shaping, steam-cooking and drying stages to obtain instantly cookable pasta, enshrouding the instantly cookable pasta product in a water-permeable casing before shipment. Due to suppression of thermal degeneration of gluten, the instantly cookable pasta possesses favorable resiliency and is free of the smell inherent to raw wheat flour and cohesion of individual pasta cords. In order to restore the cooked edible state, the encased pasta can be put in hot water together with the casing, permitting hot water to impregnate uniformly into the pasta. The water-permeable casing facilitates the handling of the pasta in cooking and improves its restorative quality to obtain cooked pasta of palatable touch and flavor.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to encased instantly cookable pasta including various types of pasta and Chinese and Japanese noodles, and method and apparatus for producing such instantly cookable pasta.
2. Background of the Invention
Generally, a variety of pasta, Chinese noodle and Japanese noodle are available in an uncooked, semi-cooked or dried form. When serving noodle as a cold dish, it is usually boiled in water for a predetermined time period, scooped up into a wire basket and then washed with cold water in a bowl or the like.
Upon boiling wheat or buckwheat noodle or vermicelli or Chinese noodle, exudation of starch components is likely to occur, forming slimy covering on the surfaces of noodle threads. In order to remove the slimy covering, which impairs not only the palatable touch of the noodle but also the flavor of the soup, the boiled noodle is usually washed in cold or hot water provided separately from the first-mentioned hot water in which the noodle was boiled. Immediately before being served, the noodle is warmed again in fresh hot water.
However, a difficulty is often encountered in that the noodle threads are apt to break off or flow out when taking them out of boiling water or when washing them with hot or cold water. Besides, each time when washing noodle in water, a wire basket or other container has to be provided to collect the washed noodle, taking a great deal of time and effort. While washing in water, the individual noodle threads have to be separated from each other with meticulous skill to remove the slimy covering to a sufficient degree without breakage of the noodle threads, since the slimy covering would otherwise impair the flavor of the soup as mentioned hereinbefore.
In case of instantly cookable noodle which can restore cooked edible state upon boiling in hot water for 3 to 5 minutes, the noodle is usually formed into a structure which is porous, reduced in thickness or hollowed to shorten the time of restoration at the sacrifice of cord strength as compared with dry noodle or vermicelli. Therefore, if the instant-cooking noodle is thrown into hot boiling water, it is swirled in the boiling water and caused to lose the "aldente" consistency to such a degree as would impair its taste. Especially, hollowed Bucatini type instantly cookable spaghetti is susceptible to the loss of "aldente" consistency when swirled in boiling hot water, resulting in problems such as degraded taste of the spaghetti itself, irregularities in the degree of cooking or ready breakage of the individual cords while being eaten.
Aside from the problems which arise when boiling the pasta in preparation of a meal, the instantly cookable pasta has the following problems.
As known, for example, from Japanese Patent Publication No. 49-15780 and its corresponding U.S. Pat. No. 3,537,862 (hereinafter referred to simply as "the other prior art" for brevity), it has been the usual practice to produce instant-cooking pasta by mixing (kneading) strong wheat flour or the like with 20-40 wt % of water, forming the resulting mixture into raw pasta cords or strips of a predetermined shape with the use of a suitable shaping means such as shaping rollers or extruder, cooking the shaped pasta in steam, and drying the cooked pasta.
In the just-mentioned other prior art method in which uncooked raw pasta cords from a pasta shaping means are subjected to steam-cooking and drying treatments, it is necessary to steam the raw pasta cords to a sufficient degree to obtain an instantly cookable pasta with a relatively shortened time of restoration, by increasing the rate of .alpha.-conversion in the steam-cooking treatment. However, a difficulty arises in that the individual cords of the pasta tend to stick to each other as a result of exudation of starch components induced by water deposition on the pasta cords under the steam-cooking treatment, making it difficult to turn the pasta into edible state uniformly on preparation of a meal due to bondage, cohesion and deformation of the individual pasta cords.
In this connection, as described in Japanese Patent Publication 56-39614 and corresponding U.S. Pat. No. 4,368,210, the applicants proposed a method of producing instantly cookable pasta by accelerating a-conversion of starch components by subjecting a kneaded mixture of wheat flour and water to preliminary steam-cooking, shaping the resulting mixture into a predetermined form, for example, into a strip- or cord-like form, and, if necessary, depositing water or the like on the surface of the shaped pasta strip or cord, followed by a steam-cooking treatment and drying. This method can suppress exudation of starch at the time of the steam-cooking treatment to prevent cohesion of individual pasta strips or cords, but still has a difficulty in thermally converting all of the gluten content in the kneaded mixture into a desirable gluten structure at the time of the preliminary steaming, resulting in pasta strips or cords which are hardened to an excessive degree and lack elasticity in terms of tasteful touch to the mouth, the pasta strips or cords being increased only in viscosity to give a sticky touch to the teeth instead of a palatable feeling. Besides, the high viscosity after the preliminary steam-cooking makes it difficult to form the pasta cords or strips by the use of shaping rolls.
Further, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application 63-248366 discloses a method of shaping a starting mixture into linear pasta cords by extrusion without preliminary steam-cooking, and loosely separating the individual pasta cords by depositing an emulsion on the surfaces thereof after a primary steam-cooking treatment, followed by secondary steam-cooking and drying treatments. In this case, however, the time for the primary and secondary steam-cooking treatments has to be prolonged as a whole for cooking the elongated linear pasta cords or strips of a greater thickness or breadth free of waves or crimps like spaghetti. Since the individual pasta cords (strips) have a greater area of contact, they tend to stick to each other during the cooking treatments in the absence of effective means for preventing bondage of the pasta cords or strips, failing to improve the palatable feeling in terms of smoothness and resiliency.


Air gaps are provided to reduce interference and resistance between metal bit lines in non-volatile memory structures. Metal vias can be formed that are electrically coupled with the drain region of an underlying device and extend vertically with respect to the substrate surface to provide contacts for bit lines that are elongated in a column direction above. The metal vias can be separated by a dielectric fill material. Layer stack columns extend in a column direction over the dielectric fill and metal vias. Each layer stack column includes a metal bit line over a nucleation line. Each metal via contacts one of the layer stack columns at its nucleation line. A low temperature dielectric liner extends along sidewalls of the layer stack columns. A non-conformal dielectric overlies the layer stack columns defining a plurality of air gaps between the layer stack columns.

1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present disclosure are directed to high density semiconductor devices, such as non-volatile memory, and methods of forming the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
In most integrated circuit applications, the substrate area allocated to implement the various integrated circuit functions continues to decrease. Semiconductor memory devices, for example, and their fabrication processes are continuously evolving to meet demands for increases in the amount of data that can be stored in a given area of the silicon substrate. These demands seek to increase the storage capacity of a given size of memory card or other type of package and/or decrease their size.
Electrical Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory (EEPROM), including flash EEPROM, and Electronically Programmable Read Only Memory (EPROM) are among the most popular non-volatile semiconductor memories. One popular flash EEPROM architecture utilizes a NAND array having a large number of strings of memory cells connected through one or more select transistors between individual bit lines and common source lines. FIG. 1 is a top view showing a single NAND string and FIG. 2 is an equivalent circuit thereof. The NAND string depicted in FIGS. 1 and 2 includes four transistors 100, 102, 104 and 106 in series between a first select gate 120 and a second select gate 122. Select gate 120 connects the NAND string to a bit line via bit line contact 126. Select gate 122 connects the NAND string to a common source line via source line contact 128. Each of the transistors 100, 102, 104 and 106 is an individual storage element and includes a control gate and a floating gate. For example, transistor 100 includes control gate 100CG and floating gate 100FG, transistor 102 includes control gate 102CG and floating gate 102FG, transistor 104 includes control gate 104CG and floating gate 104FG, and transistor 106 includes control gate 106CG and floating gate 106FG. Control gate 100CG is connected to word line WL3, control gate 102CG is connected to word line WL2, control gate 104CG is connected to word line WL1, and control gate 106CG is connected to word line WL0.
Note that although FIGS. 1 and 2 show four memory cells in the NAND string, the use of four transistors is only provided as an example. A NAND string can have less than four memory cells or more than four memory cells. For example, some NAND strings will include eight memory cells, 16 memory cells, 32 memory cells, or more.
The charge storage elements of current flash EEPROM arrays are most commonly electrically conductive floating gates, typically formed from a doped polysilicon material. Another type of memory cell useful in flash EEPROM systems utilizes a non-conductive dielectric material in place of a conductive floating gate to form a charge storage element capable of storing charge in a non-volatile manner. Such a cell is described in an article by Chan et al., "A True Single-Transistor Oxide-Nitride-Oxide EEPROM Device," IEEE Electron Device Letters, Vol. EDL-8, No. 3, March 1987, pp. 93-95. A triple layer dielectric formed of silicon oxide, silicon nitride and silicon oxide ("ONO") is sandwiched between a conductive control gate and a surface of a semi-conductive substrate above the memory cell channel. The cell is programmed by injecting electrons from the cell channel into the nitride, where they are trapped and stored in a limited region. This stored charge then changes the threshold voltage of a portion of the channel of the cell in a manner that is detectable. The cell is erased by injecting hot holes into the nitride. See also Nozaki et al., "A 1-Mb EEPROM with MONOS Memory Cell for Semiconductor Disk Application," IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits, Vol. 26, No. 4, April 1991, pp. 497-501, which describes a similar cell in a split-gate configuration where a doped polysilicon gate extends over a portion of the memory cell channel to form a separate select transistor.
Memory cells of typical non-volatile flash arrays are divided into discrete blocks of cells that are erased together. That is, the block contains the minimum number of cells that are separately erasable together as an erase unit, although more than one block may be erased in a single erase operation. Additionally, more recent memories may provide erasing in smaller units than blocks. Each block typically stores one or more pages of data, where a page includes the minimum number of cells that are simultaneously subjected to a data programming and read operation as the basic unit of programming and reading, although more than one page may be programmed or read in a single operation. Each page typically stores one or more sectors of data, the size of the sector being defined by the host system. An example is a sector of 512 bytes of user data, following a standard established with magnetic disk drives, plus some number of bytes of overhead information about the user data and/or the block in which it is stored.
As demands for higher densities in integrated circuit applications have increased, fabrication processes have evolved to reduce the minimum feature sizes of circuit elements such as the gate and channel regions of transistors. As the feature sizes have decreased, modifications to the traditional NAND memory array have been made to, among other things, decrease parasitic capacitances associated with small feature sizes. Additionally, bit lines, source lines, vias and related circuitry continue to be scaled to smaller feature sizes. With smaller features, the demands on the materials from which they are formed continue to increase. In many instances, traditional processes and materials are unable to meet performance constraints at smaller feature sizes.


A method is described for non-destructive measurement of vitality of biological cells, especially for determination of apoptosis, in which the at least one cell is exposed to high-frequency alternating, especially rotating, electric fields and/or impedance test fields, and at least one rotation measurement, one dielectrophoresis measurement and/or one impedance measurement is performed with the cell for at least one frequency range or individual frequencies, from which at least one measurement parameter is determined that is characteristic of the vitality state of the cell.

The invention relates to a method for the non-destructive measurement of the vitality of biological cells, especially for non-destructive determination of apoptosis of cells. The method according to the invention furthermore allows the distinction of apoptotic cells from vital cells and necrotically damaged cells. Furthermore, the present invention relates to a method for identification of substances which influence apoptosis.
In nature, cell death occurs in two different manifestations, as necrosis and apoptosis. Necrosis is cell death caused by an unspecific physical or chemical damage. By injury of the barrier function of the plasma membrane, its semipermeability for ions (especially Ca2+, Na+, K+) is disturbed. This results in massive ion and solution influx into the cell, which causes the cell to swell and finally rupture. Thus, compartmentation of the cell is abolished and the cell content is spilled. Subsequently, this process causes inflammatory reactions in the organism. Usually, necrotic damages take place within seconds to minutes.
In contrast to this, apoptosis is a programmed cell death. Apoptosis is an organized process, which is needed during the development and maintenance of an organism to eliminate unwanted or damaged cells without harming the organism in total. It is controlled by receptors (glucocorticoid receptor, TNFR, Fas, NGFR) and usually depends on de novo protein synthesis. Cellular proteases (ICE, caspases) and endonucleases become activated. Since almost all cells of an organism can undergo apoptosis, the trigger of the apoptotic process must be under permanent and strict physiological control. From the pure phenomenological viewpoint, apoptosis can be divided into six successive stages: 1. shrinkage, 2. zeiosis (plasma membrane protuberances), 3. chromatin collapse, 4. collapse of the cellular nucleus, 5. fragmentation of the nucleus into smaller units and fragmentation of cellular DNA, 6. separation of apoptotic vesicles (Thompson, C. B., 1995, Apoptosis in the pathogenesis and treatment of disease, Science 267: 1456-1462). Throughout the entire process, the barrier function of the plasma membrane is maintained. The triggering of apoptosis occurs through both internal signals of the organism as well as through external influences, such as radiation, chemical substances or reagents. Apoptosis is a process the first signs of which may develop only hours later. In contrast to necrotic cells, apoptotic cells are recognized and removed by neighbouring cells or macrophages (Orrenius, S., 1995, Apoptosis: molecular mechanisms and implications for human disease, J. Internal Medicine 237: 529-536). Here, no inflammatory reaction occurs.
Newer studies demonstrate that a multitude of diseases is based on disturbances in the regulation of apoptosis. Diseases associated with blockage of apoptosis include forms of cancer, such as carcinomas with p53 mutations and hormone-dependent tumours; autoimmune diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes mellitus; and viral infections, such as infections with herpes viruses, pox viruses and adenoviruses. Diseases which may be caused by an increased rate of apoptosis include particularly AIDS; neurodegenerative disorders, such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease; the effects of toxins, such as liver diseases from large amounts of alcohol (Thompson, C. B., 1995, Apoptosis in the pathogenesis and treatment of disease, Science 267: 1456-1462).
For this reason, a multitude of methods based on apoptosis-specific parameters have been developed for determination of apoptosis. These methods, for example, are based on the determination of the phosphatidylserine portion of the extracellular cell surface by annexin V binding, determination of hypoploid nuclei, determination of cytosolic cytochrome C or caspase concentration, or the determination of caspase activation.
Detection is performed by microscopic, fluorescence-based and biochemical procedures. Electron microscopy and phase contrast microscopy, for example, detect the morphological appearance during apoptosis, such as shrinkage, membrane protuberances, and the presence of micronuclei (S. Verhaegen 1998, Microscopical Study of Cell Death via Apoptosis, European Microscopy and Analysis). However, quantification of apoptosis in a sample by microscopy requires a high degree of judgement on the part of the investigator, and manual counting of the cells after optical evaluation, or suitable image processing software.
A further well-known method for detection of apoptosis in a sample of suspended cells requires the use of a flow cytometer. Here, fluorescence dyes staining DNA are used (K. H. Elstein and R. M. Zucker 1994, Comparison of Cellular and Nuclear Flow Cytometric Techniques for Discriminating Apoptotic Subpopulations, Experimental Cell Research 211, 322-331), or a biochemical method is employed in which the process of DNA fragmentation is visualized by incorporation of nucleotides with fluorescent labels (e.g. TUNNEL method, R. S. Douglas, A. D. Tarshis, C. H. Pletcher, P. C. Nowell and J. S. Moore, 1995, A simplified method for the coordinate examination of apoptosis and surface phenotype of murine lymphocytes, Journal of Immunological Methods 188, 219-228). Also, specific fluorescently labelled probes are used for cell surface molecules. An example of such a probe is fluorescenctly labelled annexin V (G. Koopman, C. P. M. Reutlingsperger, G. A. M. Kuijten, R. M. J. Keeshen, S. T. Pals and M. H. J. van Oers, 1994, Annexin V for Flow Cytometric Detection of Phosphatidylserine Expression on B Cells Undergoing Apoptosis, Blood 84,5, 1415-1420) which binds to phosphatidylserine on the cell surface and thus visualizes the restructuring of the plasma membrane in the early apoptotic stage. However, all flow-cytometric methods for the measurement of apoptosis require calibration of the method and the system. In addition, a high number of cells (approx. 106) is required for analysis.
Other methods for the detection of apoptosis require the destruction of all cells in a sample and the gel-electrophoretic or biochemical detection of DNA fragmentation (M. Leist, F. Gantner, I. Bohlinger, P. G. Germann, G. Tiegs and A. Wendel, 1994, Murine Hepatocyte Apoptosis Induced In Vitro and In Vivo by TNF-a Requires Transcriptional Arrest, The Journal of Immunology 153, 1778-1788). These biochemical methods are procedures with several steps in which several reagents are used. This results in a very long time of analysis of up to 6 hours. In addition, several hundred cells are needed for one analysis.
Due to the relevance of disturbed regulation of apoptosis in association with a multitude of diseases, the study of apoptosis is also a central part of the search for new pharmaceutical agents, of the evaluation of their activity against diseases as well as in environmental analytics. Generally, a compound which influences apoptosis must not only be capable of modulating apoptosis but also of permeating the intact cell membrane. Furthermore it is assumed that a multitude of cellular receptors, proteins, cell components and cofactors influences the process of apoptosis in living cells.
Therefore, a multitude of screening methods has already been developed for the identification of substances which influence apoptosis, which are based on the determination of apoptosis-specific parameters in the cell or in cell-free systems.
For example, WO 98/02579 describes a screening assay for the identification of apoptosis-regulating substances in a cell-free system. Here, several apoptosis-specific parameters, such as cytochrome c or CPP32 protease activity, are determined as measures of apoptosis. For screening, a supernatant obtained at 100,000×g from the cytosol of non-apoptotic cells is employed. The determination of substances influencing apoptosis was performed by addition of test compounds to this supernatant which may have negative, positive or no effect on apoptosis. The results obtained in this way are compared to those of a reference substance.
WO 98/55615 describes a screening assay for determination of therapeutically active substances influencing apoptosis. Cell-free assays are described which are designed to study compounds that compete with cytochrome c for binding to apaf-1. Furthermore, assays for determination of substances influencing apoptosis are also described which are based on the study of the proteolytic cleavage of caspase-3 precursors in presence or absence of potential substances influencing apoptosis.
In WO 99/18856, a method is described for the detection of substances for induction or inhibition of enzymes of the apoptosis cascade, especially caspases. The method is performed with whole cells or tissues. In order to do so, a portion of the cells is treated with the test compounds and fluorescenctly labelled reporter molecules, whereas another fraction is treated only with the reporters, as control. A change in fluorescence compared to the control sample indicates that a substance to be tested influences enzymes of the cascade.
Taken together, all currently known methods for determination of apoptosis or apoptosis-modulating substances have a multitude of disadvantages. Thus, they frequently require a great deal of time due to elaborate experimental steps and in addition require large quantities of, for example, antibodies, dyes and other reagents that can enter the cell. Furthermore, most of the methods are based on final cell lysis, eventually leading to destruction of the cells. Other investigated parameters, such as e.g. annexin V, are not specific for apoptosis, still other methods require a large number of cells. Furthermore, many methods are only suited to study late stages of apoptosis which frequently do not occur in vivo, since the apoptotic cells have already been taken up by neighbouring cells or macrophages by phagocytosis in this stage.
Frequently used cell-free assays, such as the determination of cytochrome c and other apoptosis-specific markers, are not suitable for determination of the ability of substances affecting apoptosis to pass through the intact cell membrane.
Furthermore it is though that different cell types have different receptors and cofactors for modulation of apoptosis. For this reason it is not possible to find specific or organ-specific apoptosis modulators with cell-free assays.
Due to the fact that in most of the known methods the importance of cellular receptors and other cofactors is neglected, the danger of identification of false-positive or false-negative substances influencing apoptosis is high, since these substances do not show any or do not show the expected effect in living cells. In addition, substances influencing apoptosis that modulate apoptosis indirectly through one of these receptors or cofactors are not detected.
Considering these disadvantages of the known methods, it would be desirable to have a method available that is suitable for the unambiguous identification of apoptosis and determination of substances which modulate apoptosis. This method should be able to recognize apoptosis in an early stage, and should be easily performable, even with whole cells.
Dielectrophoretic techniques, such as e.g. the dielectric single particle spectroscopy (R. Pethig and G. H. Markx, 1997, Applications of dielectrophoresis in biotechnology, Trends in Biotechnology 15, 426-432) and electrorotation (T. Schnelle, T. Müller and G. Fuhr, 1999, Dielectric single particle spectroscopy for measurement of dispersion, Medical & Biological Engineering & Computing 37, 264-271) are already known as such.
Also, devices for the measurement of electrorotation in combination with the use of optical tweezers are already known (T. Schnelle, T. Müller, C. Reichle and G. Fuhr, 2000, Combined dielectrophoretic field cages and laser tweezers for electrorotation, Applied Physics B, Lasers and Optics, Springer-Verlag) and automatic signal uptake (C. Reichle, T. Müller, T. Schnelle and G. Fuhr, 1999, Electro-rotation in octopole micro cages, Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics 32, 2128-2135; De Gasparis, Wang, Yang, Becker and Gascoyne, 1998, Meas. Sci. Technol. 9, 518-529).
The object of the present invention is to provide an improved method for non-destructive measurement of vitality, especially for the detection of apoptosis, in biological cells. The invention is intended to allow the provision of an improved method for identification of substances influencing apoptosis.

Method for measuring the vitality of cells

Perkinelmer Cellular Technologies Germany GmbH


A zoom lens of the rear focus type is disclosed, including, from front to rear, a first lens unit of positive refractive power, a second lens unit of negative refractive power, a third lens unit of positive refractive power and a fourth lens unit of positive refractive power, the second lens unit being moved toward the image side when zooming from the wide-angle end to the telephoto end, while moving the fourth lens unit to compensate for the image shift with zooming, and focusing being performed by moving the fourth lens unit. The third lens unit consists of a positive single lens having an aspheric surface. The fourth lens unit includes a negative first lens and a positive second lens, and at least one of lens surfaces of the the first and second lenses is aspherical. Letting the overall focal length of the third and fourth lens units in the wide-angle end be denoted by f3,4, the focal length of the entire lens system in the wide-angle end is denoted by Fw, the distance from the last lens surface to an image plane which is shortest in an entire zooming range when focusing on an infinitely distant object is denoted by Fb, and the zoom ratio denoted by Z, the following conditions are satisfied: ##EQU1##

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to zoom lenses of the rear focus type and, more particularly, to high range, large relative aperture zoom lenses of the rear focus type having a range of 8 to 10 and F-number of about 1.8 and having a short total length, to be used in photographic cameras, video cameras, or broadcast cameras.
2. Description of the Related Art
It has been known to make the focusing provision in a lens unit other than the front or first lens unit of a zoom lens for a photographic camera or video camera. The so-called rear focus type, among others, has found its use in an increasing number of zoom lenses.
The advantages that the zoom lenses of the rear focus type of zoom lens, generally have as compared with an ordinary type which, when focusing, moves the first lens unit, are that the effective diameter of the first lens unit gets small, making it easier to minimize the bulk and size of the entire lens system, and that close-up photography, particularly macrophotography, becomes easy to perform, and further that, since the focusing lens unit is of relatively small size and light weight, a weaker driving power for that lens unit is sufficient, thereby allowing focusing to be performed quickly and easily.
As examples of such a rear focus type zoom lens, mention may be made of Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. Sho 63-44614, in which, where, as counted from the object side, a first lens unit of positive refractive power, a second lens unit of negative refractive power for varying the focal length, a third lens unit of negative refractive power for compensating for the image shift with zooming and a fourth lens unit of positive refractive power, totaling four lens units, constitute a so-called 4-unit zoom lens wherein the third lens unit is moved to effect focusing. This feature has to secure a space for movement of the third lens unit. Accordingly, the physical length tends to increase.
In Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. Sho 58-136012, the zooming section is constructed with three or more lens units, one of which is made movable for focusing.
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Applications Nos. Sho 62-24213 and Sho 63-247316 disclose a zoom lens having four lens units of which the first, when counted from the object side, is of positive refractive power, the second is of negative refractive power, the third is of positive refractive power and the fourth is of positive refractive power, wherein the second lens unit is moved to vary the focal length and the fourth lens unit is moved to compensate for the image shift with zooming and is given the focusing function.
In Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. Sho 58-160913, a first lens unit of positive power, a second lens unit of negative refractive power, a third lens unit of positive refractive power and a fourth lens unit of positive refractive power are arranged in this order from the object side, wherein the first and second lens units are moved to vary the focal length, while the fourth lens unit is moved to compensate for the image shift with zooming, whereby one or two or more of these lens units are moved to effect focusing.
Recently, in the field of art of video cameras, an image sensing means in the form of a solid-state image sensor (CCD) has been reduced in size. In more detail, a solid-state image sensor of as small a size as 1/3 or 1/4 in. is used in place of one of conventional size, or 2/3 or 1/2 in. With the reduction in size of the solid-state image sensor, there is a demand for even more of a reduction in the size of the zoom lens which is to be used therewith.
With respect to the photographic lens for use in the video camera, the distance from the last lens surface to the image sensing plane, i.e., the back focal distance, is relatively long so that the dust or foreign particles on the last lens surface do not have a bad influence on the image projected on the image sensing plane.
If, as the design of the zoom lens adapted to, for example, the 1/2 in. image sensor is used in making up a zoom lens for the 1/4 in. image sensor, the dimensions of the zoom lens are reduced merely in proportion, however, the back focal distance, too, gets proportionally (1/2 times) shorter. Then, the foreign particles on the last lens surface cast their appreciable shadow on the image sensing plane of the image sensor, giving rise to a problem that the image quality is lowered. For this reason, the zoom lens for a video camera has, despite the reduction of the size of the image sensor, to have its back focal distance kept longer than a predetermined value.
In general, the use of the rear focus type in the zoom lenses leads to possibilities of minimizing the bulk and size of the entire lens system and also of speeding up the focusing process.
In turn, however, the variation of aberrations with focusing is caused to increase, giving rise to a problem in that the optical performance is very difficult to keep high throughout the entire range of object distances while still permitting minimization of the size of the entire lens system to be achieved. Particularly, for a large relative aperture and high range zoom lens, another problem arises in that good stability of optical performance is very difficult to obtain throughout the entire zooming range as well as the entire focusing range.


A photosensitive element which comprises a substrate having a release surface; a photosensitive layer having a photosensitizer, pigment, and mixture of binders with different solubility characteristics; and an adhesive layer coated directly on the photosensitive layer. The adhesive solution dissolves one of the resins in the photosensitive layer but does not dissolve the photosensitizer and the resin used to bind the pigment. During overcoating of the adhesive on the photosensitive layer, an increasing gradient of the soluble resin towards the adhesive layer and a decreasing gradient of the photosensitizer and nonsoluble resin is formed.

In the lithographic printing process, a printer will often prepare a number of metal based lithographic printing plates which are used to reproduce a colored image many thousands of times. One problem in the art is that metal based presensitized printing plates are expensive and errors in the image can cause considerable unnecessary expense. It has therefore become usual to produce a relatively inexpensive color proof to assist a printer in estimating the quality of a set of transparent color separations before starting the expensive printing process. These color proofs are used to judge the color quality that will be obtained during the actual printing process. The proof must be a consistent duplicate of the desired image. Visual examination of a color proof should reveal the color rendition to be expected and any defects on the separations which might need to be altered before making the printing plates.
Color proofing sheets for multicolored printing can be made by using a printing press or proof press. This requires taking all the steps necessary for actual multicolor printing. Therefore, this method of color proofing is itself costly and time consuming. Alternate color proofing methods have been developed to overcome these disadvantages. There are two general types of photoimaging methods for making color proofs; namely the overlay type and the single sheet type.
In the overlay type of color proofing, a separate transparent plastic support is used for producing each color separation film image. A number of such supports, each carrying colored images are then superimposed upon one another and held on a white sheet to produce a color proof. The overlay type of color proofing method has the disadvantage that the superimposed plastic supports tend to distort and darken the color proof, and the impression of the color proof thus prepared becomes different from copies actually obtained with a conventional printing press. Its primary advantage is that it is quickly prepared and can serve as a progressive proof by combining two or more colors in register.
In the single sheet type of color proofing method, a color proofing sheet is prepared by successively producing images of different colors from different color separation films onto a single receptor sheet. This is done by using a single opaque support and by applying toners, photosensitive solutions or coatings of photosensitive materials of corresponding colors on the support in succession. An advantage of the single sheet type of color proof is that the color saturation is not influenced by superimposed plastic supports. This method more closely resembles the actual printing process and eliminates the color distortion inherent in the overlay system.
The present invention relates to improved negative-working and positive-working proofing sheets of the single sheet, solid layer transfer class. Color proofing films of this type are composed of a sheet substrate, a colored photosensitive layer on the sheet, and an adhesive layer disposed on the photosensitive layer.
An example of a negative-working, single sheet approach is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,671,236. The presensitized element comprises a substrate having a release surface, a pigmented photosensitive layer in contact with the release surface, a pressure sensitive adhesive layer, and a barrier layer between the photosensitive layer and the adhesive layer. The primary function of the barrier layer is to prevent pigment staining on the adhesive during development. The element is used by laminating it to a receiver via the adhesive layer. The substrate is removed, the photosensitive layer is exposed, and the material is processed in a solvent medium. These steps are generally repeated three times to produce a multicolored proof.
An example of a positive-working, single sheet approach is given in U.S. Pat. No. 4,260,673. The presensitized element comprises a substrate having a release surface, a pigmented photosensitive layer in contact with the release surface, a heat sensitive adhesive layer, and a binder layer between the pigmented layer and the adhesive layer. The binder layer comprises a photosensitive compound and prevents pigment staining of the adhesive. The element is processed like the negative-working element in U.S. Pat. No. 3,671,236.
Examples of negative-working and positive-working, single sheet approaches without preventative layers between the photosensitive and adhesive layers are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,650,738 and 4,659,642, respectively. The presensitized elements comprise a sheet having a release surface, a colored photosensitive layer in contact with the release surface, and an adhesive layer directly adhered to said colored layer. The colored photosensitive layer comprises compatible resins to form a substantially uniform layer. The present invention improves upon this method by using an admixture of resins which have a certain type of solubility difference with respect to one another. The result is an intentionally formed gradient of the resin within the colored photosensitive layer. By this means, one resin preferentially migrates to the substrate while the other is conversely preferentially presented to the adhesive layer during adhesive overcoating. An advantage which is attained is that images produced with a gradient resin mixture are more stable at elevated temperatures than nongradient resins or resin mixtures.

Color proofing system having a graduated layer of resins with different solubilities


A device for removing an inserted-and-beat-up weft on weaving machines employs a rotary stripping brush with agitation hairs and also tangentially-oriented feed jets situated on an exterior periphery of the brush.

The present invention relates to a device for automatically removing an inserted-and-beat-up weft on weaving machines.
A general aim common to all producers of weaving appliances is to increase their useful performance. This aim can be realized in several ways, among them by minimizing the time required to repair weft defects; i.e., incorrectly-inserted wefts. For this purpose, automatic devices for weft-defect removal can be used.
For removing an incorrectly-inserted weft, many solutions are known The most widely used solution utilizes the fact that incorrectly-inserted wefts remain connected with the supply on a metering member after pick and beat-up procedures have been carried out. In the next step, after a short reverse motion of the weaving machine and loosening of the incorrectly-inserted weft from the interlacing by the warp threads, another weft, still connected with the incorrectly-inserted weft, is picked to the shed end side. By pulling this weft, the incorrectly-inserted weft is removed.
Several drawbacks are inherent to this solution. The need to keep the incorrectly-inserted weft in connection with the supply on the metering member imposes heavy demands on the reaction speed of the locking device, which prevents the inserted weft from being separated. Another major drawback consists in the described device failing to remove wefts that have suffered rupture during the pick so that one weft part is woven-in on the entering side of the weaving machine, and the other part is woven-in on the shed end side.
Eliminating the drawbacks of the known solutions is an object of the present device. The object of the present invention is realized in a device for automatically removing inserted-and-beat-up wefts. The device comprises a rotary stripping brush including on an exterior periphery agitation hairs for urging an inserted-and-beat-up weft away from a grip of a shed. The rotary stripping brush further includes gaseous feed jets on an exterior periphery of the brush for urging, in cooperation with the agitation hairs, the inserted-and-beat-up weft away from the grip of the shed.
Amongst the advantages of the present device, it becomes unnecessary to ensure that the weft to be unravelled is unseparated from the supply on the metering member; further, the possibility exists to remove several (more than one) preceding wefts; and, finally, it permits removal even of wefts that have suffered rupture during machine operation. Owing to these advantages, the present device is superior to the known devices.

Brush device for removing a beat-up weft


Disclosed is a capacitor for a semiconductor device, comprising: a lower electrode formed over a predetermined lower structure on a semiconductor substrate; an aluminum oxynitride film formed over the lower electrode and having a low leakage current characteristic; a yttrium oxynitride film formed over the aluminum oxynitride film and having a higher dielectric constant than the aluminum oxynitride film; and an upper electrode formed over the yttrium oxynitride film, and a manufacturing method thereof.

Generally, a capacitor for a semiconductor device should have a capacitance higher than a predetermined level, and for the purpose of increasing the refresh time of a semiconductor device, especially, a DRAM or the like, continuous research and development have been carried out so as to have a lower leakage current characteristic.
Meanwhile, with the high integration of a semiconductor device, the surface area occupied by each region of the semiconductor device decreases gradually. As such, the surface area for forming a capacitor in the semiconductor device also decreases, which makes it uneasy to obtain sufficient capacitance and low leakage current characteristics.
Hereinafter, the problems of a capacitor for a semiconductor device and a manufacturing method thereof in the prior art will be described in more detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.
FIGS. 1a to 1g are cross sectional views of a conventional manufacturing process of a capacitor. Referring to these drawings, the prior art problems of a capacitor for a semiconductor device and a manufacturing method thereof will be described below.
Firstly, as shown in FIG. 1a, a structure of bit line electrodes 2 and the like is formed over a predetermined lower structure 1 formed on a semiconductor substrate (not shown) in which active regions are defined by a device isolation film (not shown).
Continually, as shown in FIG. 1b, an interlayer insulating film 3 made of an oxide film or the like is deposited on the entire surface of the top part of the above structure, and a nitride film 4 is deposited as a barrier layer on the interlayer insulating film 3.
Then, as shown in FIG. 1c, the nitride film 4 and the interlayer insulating film 3 are etched by a photoetching process to thus form a contact hole. The contact hole exposes the surface of the lower structure 1, especially the surface of a plug (not shown) connected to a junction of the semiconductor substrate (not shown) corresponding to a storage node located between the bitline electrodes 2.
Continually, as shown in FIG. 1d, a conductive polycrystalline silicon is deposited over the entire surface of the resultant material, so that the contact hole may be buried by the polycrystalline silicon. Then, a planarization process is performed on the resultant material until the nitride film 4 is exposed, to thus form a contact plug 5 within the contact hole.
Next, as shown in FIG. 1e, an oxide film 6 is deposited on the entire surface of the top part of the structure, and thereafter a predetermined region of the oxide film 6 is etched through a photoetching process, to thus expose the top part of the contact plug 5 and a predetermined region of the nitride film 4 in the peripheral part thereof. The region where the oxide film 6 is to be etched is directly related with the surface area of a lower electrode of a capacitor to be formed later, and is set as wide as possible, considering the clearance distance from the capacitor of an adjacent cell.
Continually, a polysilicon film is deposited over the entire surface of the resultant material, and thereafter the portion deposited on the oxide film 6 is removed from the deposited polysilicon film by chemical mechanical planarization (CMP) or the like. Then, the remaining oxide 6 portion is selectively etched and removed, to thus form a capacitor lower electrode 7 as shown in FIG. 1f.
Next, as shown in FIG. 1g, a dielectric film 8 is deposited on the top part of the structure. As the dielectric film, a multilayered oxide film-nitride film-oxide film is formed (i.e., an ONO film). Then, a capacitor upper electrode 9 is formed on the resultant material, thereby completing the manufacturing of the capacitor.
However, the capacitor structure including the dielectric film 8 using a prior art single ONO film cannot satisfy both the sufficient capacitance and low leakage current characteristic.
Accordingly, a dielectric film formed of AlON (aluminum oxynitride) has been used so as to improve the leakage current characteristic. In this case, however, although the interface characteristics are excellent and thus the leakage current characteristics are good, recent needs for capacitors demanding a high capacitance cannot be met due to a low capacitance characteristic.
In this way, as the integration degree of semiconductor devices is increased, capacitors utilizing a single dielectric film cannot satisfy both the capacitance and leakage current characteristics that the capacitors should have.

Capacitor for a semiconductor device and manufacturing method thereof


A container assembly that is adapted to retain an amount of dry ice therein and be disposed within a cooler as a cooling source is provided. The container assembly includes a base and a lid assembly that seal together to provide an inner space to receive the dry ice. The container also includes an attached valve assembly and an outlet hose. The valve assembly is disposed on a side surface of the container to allow for an outflow of carbon dioxide gas produced by the dry ice within the container assembly. The hose is attached to the valve and fastened at its end to an inside surface of the cooler providing a flow of cold carbon dioxide gas to the interior of the cooler as the dry ice sublimates.

Spending time in the great outdoors is among the most popular fair weather leisure time activities. Whether it is fishing, camping, at a picnic or having a cookout, a great deal of time is spent preparing and consuming a meal. A common piece of equipment common to all of these activities is an insulated cooler that keeps food and beverages cold in the same manner a refrigerator does. While these coolers do an admirable job of keeping food cold, they do require periodic replenishment of ice on a very frequent basis. Many people turn to the use of dry ice to allow for longer time periods between ice replenishment, and to provide for colder temperatures. However, such ice needs to be separated or insulated from the cooler as well as the stored food, or damage to either as a result of the very cold temperatures will result. Additionally, since the dry ice "melts" directly into carbon dioxide, it must be provided with a way to leave the cooler, or an over pressurization condition can result. Further, an excessive build-up of carbon dioxide gas within the cooler may affect the taste of the foods stored within. Accordingly, there exists a need for a means by which dry ice can be used in a cooler to keep food cold, but without the disadvantages as described above.


An undersea hydraulic coupling having a poppet valve movable between an open and a closed position is disclosed. The poppet valve operates without substantial fluid pressure exerted axially against the face of the poppet valve. When the poppet valve is opened, radial passages are interconnected through an annular cavity between the poppet valve body and the valve bore.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates, in general, to hydraulic couplings, and specifically to hydraulic couplings used in undersea drilling and production applications. More particularly, the invention involves pressure balanced poppet valves for couplings wherein passages are positioned to allow connection or disconnection of the coupling and opening and closing the poppet valves in each member without substantial fluid pressure exerted axially against the face of each poppet valve.
2. Description of the Related Art
Subsea hydraulic couplings are old in the art. The couplings generally consist of a male and a female member with sealed fluid passageways connecting therebetween. The female member generally is a cylindrical body with a relatively large diameter longitudinal bore at one end and a relatively small diameter longitudinal bore at the other. The small bore facilitates connections to hydraulic lines, while the large bore seals and slidingly engages the male member of the coupling. The male member includes a cylindrical portion at one end having an outer diameter approximately equal to the diameter of the large bore in the female member of the coupling. The male member also includes a connection at its other end to facilitate connection to hydraulic lines. When the cylindrical portion of the male member is inserted into the large bore of the female member, according to various embodiments of the device, fluid flow is established between the male and female members.
Problems arise with the use of hydraulic couplings in relatively high pressure systems due to the high axial forces imposed on the male and female members during the coupling operation and during their use. In such couplings, it is necessary for the fluid force opposing the face of the male or female member to be overcome and the fluid force on each valve member to be overcome before fluid communication is established between the members. In a relatively high pressure system, high forces imposed on the members and the valves in the members may render the connection of the male member very difficult. Also, during use, fluid pressure is exerted between the male and female members in such as way as to tend to separate them. The force necessary to join the members, and open the valves in each member, and the resultant tendency of the body members to separate and urge the valves closed are characteristic problems in the prior art. High pressure systems and undersea applications also experience problems associated with sealing the junction between the male and female members.
Ideally, hydraulic couplings should, as far as possible, be pressure balanced, so that fluid pressure does not hinder connection, urge separation of the male and female members, or urge the valves towards the open or closed position. Preferably, to prevent loss of fluid during coupling or uncoupling, the valve means in each member opens automatically on coupling and closes automatically on uncoupling. Finally, the coupling should employ seals which can withstand high pressures as well as the corrosive effects of undersea or other adverse environments. The present invention solves all of these needs and requirements.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,754,780 to Robert E. Smith III, a pressure-balanced hydraulic coupling is disclosed, wherein fluid communication between the male and female coupling members is through radial fluid passages in the members. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,694,859 to Robert E. Smith III, an undersea hydraulic coupling and metal seal is shown. The metal seal is ring-shaped and is pressure energized to seal radially between the female member and the outer surface of the male member. In U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,832,080 and 5,099,882 to Robert E. Smith III, pressure-balanced hydraulic couplings with metal seals are disclosed. Like the coupling in U.S. Pat. No. 4,754,470, fluid communication is through radial fluid passages in the male and female members. Metal seals are positioned between the circumference of the male member and the central bore of the female member, such that the radial fluid passages are between the seals. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,754,780, 4,694,859, 4,832,080, and 5,099,882 are incorporated herein by reference.

Pressure balanced poppet valve for hydraulic couplings


A system and method for providing successive approximation, such as can be used by a successive approximation converter or by a coherent undersampling digitizer. The system comprising a memory having a successive approximation value and a comparison system configured to receive and amplify the difference between a test signal and the successive approximation value and to convert the amplified signal to a digital signal. A multi-bit analog to digital convert can be used to convert the amplified signal to a digital signal.

A typical successive approximation converter has one input, a test input, coupled to a signal to be approximated, and the other input receives a successive approximation value generated by a logic circuit commonly referred to as a successive approximation register (SAR). During each clock cycle, a comparator produces an output used by the successive approximation register to produce the next successive approximation value. Consequently, the successive approximation register performs one bit of conversion per clock cycle. For example, for a successive approximation register having N bits, where N is an integer greater than zero, the N bit successive approximation register requires N clock cycles to perform the conversion.
For example, for a comparator that has the test input connected to the negative input and the successive approximation register connected to the positive input with a reference voltage (Vref), during the first clock period compares the test input to the most significant bit (MSB) of the successive approximation value, e.g., the most significant bit of the successive approximation register is raised high. If the output of the comparator remains high, then the input lies somewhere between 0 and Vref/2, and the MSB is reset to 0. However, if the comparator output is low, then the input signal is somewhere between Vref/2 and Vref, and the MSB is set high. During the next clock period, the MSB-1 bit is evaluated in the same manner. This procedure is repeated such that at the end of N clock periods all N bits have been resolved.
The test input can be sampled by using a sample and hold to freeze the voltage. Alternatively, coherent undersampling digitizers (CUD) have been developed that sample a repeating waveform repeatedly at the same point in its period, but each sample occurs during a different cycle. The coherent undersampling digitizers sample at a rate less than the Nyquist rate, which is possible because of the repetitive nature of the test stimuli. Repetitive sampling allows the sampling theorem to be satisfied without directly sampling a signal at greater than twice the highest frequency component of the signal. The CUD architecture is useful for testing new devices, as frequently the new device being tested operates at a speed that is faster than the testing equipment.
The CUD architectures employs a high-speed comparator, strobed by a divided down version of a clock source to make the successive approximation decisions. The stimulus for the device under test (DUT) is produced by a high-speed signal generator, which is driven by a clock source, which can be different than the clock source used for making successive approximation decisions.
Since the comparator strobe slips to the next sampling point on each rising edge, a modified SAR approach is used. Instead of iterating on the same sampling point N times, the conversion is performed in a shuffled order. The first S strobes (where S is an integer greater than zero indicating the number of sampling points on the repetitive test waveform) will determine the most significant bits, e.g. MSB[0] through MSB[S−1]. The next S strobes will determine MSB-1[0] through MSB-1 [S−1], which continues until LSB[0] through LSB[S−1] are determined. Using this algorithm, all of the sample points are computed simultaneously and the CUD uses a S×N memory to store the results. Alternatively, the CUD can determine each sample point individually by ignoring strobes for sample points between the sample point being determined, e.g., determine MSB[0], skip S−1 strobes, determine MSB-1[0], skip S−1 strobes . . . until LSB[0] is determined, and repeat for each sample point.
Implementations of these and other architectures have worked very well for high-speed low-resolution applications, such as for example capturing a sub-nanosecond rising edge of a square wave. However, attempts at medium speed, high-resolution sampling have proven problematic. Some of the difficulties at higher resolution are due to the inherent hysteresis of the comparator circuitry. For example, when the successive approximation register's digital to analog converter's voltage approaches that of the input signal, the comparator must make a decision based on a small voltage difference. Comparator hysteresis can also introduce non-linearity and corrupt the measurement. The effects of hysteresis thus can limit the effective resolution of the SAR or digitizer to an unacceptable level.

System and method for successive approximation