In systems and methods for computer-based selection of identifying input for differentiating classes, training regions (each of which is associated with a defined class) are specified in a training space that is organized by data bands according to selected definitions. Windows are defined in training elements associated with data locations in the training regions. Multiple training windows are defined in the training elements in a known band in the training data. Relevance measures for training windows represent an extent of likelihood of correctly identifying class for a test location based on data band, window position within the training element, and the frequency of occurrence of data symbols in training windows at the window position. The window having the highest value relevance measure is selected as the most relevant window. Multiple most relevant windows, together with their parameters, are selected as identifying input to facilitate class differentiation in test spaces.

Modern acquisition systems can often acquire large amounts of data that can potentially be used to associate subsets of that data to one of a finite set of classes. These classes may or may not be known at the time the data is collected.
However, once the classes of interest are specified only a part of the data may be relevant for differentiating these classes; much of the data may become irrelevant for this specific classification. The irrelevance can result from an absence of any information that by itself could contribute to the classification, or by the presence of information that could contribute to the classification but is redundant with other information already selected for inclusion in the classification operation.
Even individual data values may contain irrelevant information in the representation; for example high order positions may remain invariant or nearly invariant for all the classes of interest, low order positions may consist largely or entirely of random noise.
In many cases, there are advantages to differentiating between data that is relevant to the classification and data that is irrelevant. These include savings in bandwidth requirements resulting from the ability to save the most relevant data while discarding and/or not transmitting data that is known to be irrelevant. In other cases the advantages may lie in the ability to not collect or even not generate data that has been determined to be unnecessary for the classification.
One example of where such differentiation can be advantageous is in the interpretation of multispectral and hyperspectral "images". The normal human eye can combine images from three different spectral bands "red", "green", and "blue" and interpret the combination as a "color". Multispectral and hyperspectral images portray the same image scene in four or more, even hundreds, of bands and therefore can be very difficult for humans to interpret or even visualize.
Hyperspectral or multispectral images may be created in a variety of ways. The most common method is illuminating the scene with a broad spectrum source and using an imaging device that separates the incoming light so that light from each spectral band forms a separate image. Another method of creating such images is to illuminate a scene successively at different wavelengths using a tunable laser or other variable wavelength source. In this case the imaging device captures multiple images or "bands" in succession, one for each illumination wavelength band.
However hyperspectral images are generated, they contain large amounts of data. The problems with current hyperspectral image analysis resulting from high cost and complexity in dealing with such large volumes of data are well summarized by Jinchang Ren, Timothy Kelman and Stephen Marshall, "Adaptive clustering of spectral components for band selection in hyperspectral imagery", Proceedings of University of Strathclyde's Second Annual Academic Hyperspectral Imaging Conference, 17-18 May 2011 (hereinafter Ren et al. [2011]). To solve these problems, one practical solution is band selection, which aims to use fewer bands to represent the whole image while maintaining a good performance of analysis, i.e. removal of redundant information.
Ren et al. [2011] categorize the existing techniques for band selection into three main groups. The first group contains subspace-based approaches, which aim to project the original data onto certain subspace and extract the most discriminative components. Examples in this group include principal component analysis (PCA) and its variations, orthogonal subspace projection, and wavelet analysis.
The second group refers to optimization based feature selection approaches, using techniques like                Neyman-Pearson detection-theory based thresholding of signal energy,        Jeffries-Matusita distance based statistical significance test,        constrained energy minimization,        mutual information based (as disclosed by B. Guo, S. R. Gunn, R. I. Damper and J. D. B. Nelson, "Band selection for hyperspectral image classification using mutual information," IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters, 3(4): 522-526, October 2006. (hereinafter Guo et al., [2006]) and B. Guo, R. I. Damper, S. R. Gunn, and J. D. B. Nelson, "A fast separability-based feature-selection method for high-dimensional remotely sensed image classification," Pattern Recognition, 41(5): 1653-1662, May 2008 (hereinafter Guo et al. [2008]),        minimization of dependent information, as disclosed in J. M. Sotoca, F. Pla, and J. S. Sanchez, "Band selection in multispectral images by minimization of dependent information", IEEE Trans. Systems, Man, and Cybernetics (Part C), 37(2): 258-267, March 2007 (hereinafter Sotoca et al. [2007]),        classification-based inter-class distance, as disclosed by Sebastiano B. Serpico and Gabriele Moser, "Extraction of Spectral Channels From Hyperspectral Images for Classification Purposes", IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, vol. 45, no. 2, February 2007 (hereinafter Serpico and Moser [2007]), and        minimum estimated abundance covariance.
In the third group, clustering of bands is applied for dimensionality reduction, such as top-down hierarchical clustering using Ward's linkage criterion and Kullback-Leibler divergence measurement, minimizing mutual information in separating band ranges, as disclosed in C. Cariou, K. Chehdi, and S. Le Moan, "BandClust: an unsupervised band reduction method for hyperspectral remote sensing," IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters, 8(3):564-568, May 2011 (hereinafter Cariou et al. [2011]) and correlation-based subset clustering.
For those interested in selecting a small subset of the existing image data to represent the whole image while maintaining a good performance of analysis, i.e. removal of redundant information, the first group of techniques mentioned by Ren et al. [2011], is not relevant. Except for the method of Sotoca et al. [2007], the second set of methods generally makes use of available information regarding the specific classes that need to be differentiated. It stands to reason that these supervised methods, making use of class information, are the methods most likely to be successful in differentiating the specified classes.
The third group of techniques mentioned above is generally concerned with unsupervised methods for removal of redundant information, methods that do not make use of available known class information. The latter are therefore less likely to be successful in selecting a data subset optimized for differentiating a prespecified set of classes.
The methods and systems described herein are concerned with an improved method of supervised data selection, a method that makes use of available information regarding the specific classes that need to be differentiated. As such, they belong primarily to the second group of techniques identified above.
The advantages of information theoretic measures, specifically mutual information, for correlation have become widely recognized in recent years. Imaging applications include image registration, as disclosed by M. R., Sabuncu, "Entropy-based Image Registration", Ph.D. Thesis, Princeton University, November 2006 (hereinafter Sabuncu [2006]); P. Viola and W. Wells, "Alignment by maximization of mutual information", International Journal of Computer Vision, 24(2): 137-154, 1997 (hereinafter Viola and Wells [1997]); U.S. Pat. No. 7,639,896 to Z. Sun et al., as well as the second and third groups of feature selection techniques. Ren et al. [2011] describe, in detail, a method belonging to the third group of techniques, unsupervised classification. Their method uses measurement of mutual information between adjacent bands to identify clusters of similar bands so that redundant information can be removed.
Serpico et al. [2007] emphasize the difference between feature selection and feature extraction. The latter attempts to reduce the number of features by constructing new features based on combining the original features. The methods described by Ren et al., would generally be considered to be unsupervised feature selection. Serpico et al. construct new features to reduce the dimensionality. They demonstrate supervised feature extraction methods for optimizing correlations between the new features, treated as continuous variables, and classes that can also be treated as continuous variables. As such their methods are not appropriate for differentiating classes based only on qualitative descriptions. They do not make use of mutual information.
Xuexing Zeng, Suvitha. Karthick, Tariq S Durrani, John Gilchrist, "Exploiting Copulas for Optimising Band Selection for Hyperspectral Image Data Sequences", Proceedings of University of Strathclyde's Second Annual Academic Hyperspectral Imaging Conference, 17-18 May 2011 (hereinafter Zeng et al. [2011]) cite the need to develop an automated process for selecting bands that carry significant information and rejecting bands that carry redundant information, for effective hyperspectral image analysis. They mention a joint histogram method of estimating mutual information.
In working with information theoretic methods it is common to organize data and other information as histograms, i.e. as used herein, intended to include broadly arrays of discrete elements in terms of frequency distribution vs. class interval or range, not necessarily normalized.
After mentioning the joint histogram method of estimating mutual information, Zeng et al. [2011] dismiss the method because of the difficulty of reliably determining the optimum number of histogram cells (also known as bins). They then describe a method of estimating mutual information among spectral bands treated as continuous information in order to identify bands with strongest correlation with a reference image and minimum correlation with other bands. Whatever the potential advantages of their method for unsupervised band selection, if applied to supervised band selection it suffers from the need to approximate the true joint probability distribution function by an assumed one.
Guo et al. [2008] select and rank a number of bands based on approximate measures of mutual information between pairs of bands that are well correlated with the class but poorly correlated with one another. One mutual information calculation is required for each possible two-band combination. Therefore the number of required mutual information calculations increases very rapidly, roughly in proportion to the square of the number of bands present.
Guo et al. [2008] also emphasize the well-known fact that for a direct implementation of mutual information when multiple bands are involved the number of required histogram cells can quickly become unmanageable. Also, with a large cell count, the amount of available data may be insufficient to produce a representative population of the cells.
An additional disadvantage of the method described by Guo et al. [2008] is that it does not provide a measure of the remaining uncertainty after each new band has been selected into the subset to be retained.
Mutual information has also been applied to a wide variety of classification problems. For example U.S. Pat. No. 7,007,001 to Oliver et al. describes a method of using mutual information between observations and hidden states to minimize classification errors.
Therefore, it is desirable to simply and efficiently identify relevant data for class differentiation, as well as more precisely identify parameters of the relevant data. It is also desirable to reduce the amount of data that needs to be inter alia generated, collected, transmitted, stored, and/or processed for future classification. It is further desirable to reduce in cost, time, and effort the selection of identifying input for class differentiation, and to improve the predictive quality of the identifying input.

Methods and systems for computer-based selection of identifying input for class differentiation


A computer-implemented method for controlling and/or regulating a technical system, in which actions to be carried out on the technical system are first of all determined using an action selection rule which was determined through the learning of a data-driven model and, in particular, a neural network. On the basis of these actions a numerical optimization searches for actions which are better than the original actions according to an optimization criterion. If such actions are found, the technical system is regulated or controlled on the basis of these new actions, such that the corresponding actions are applied to the technical system in succession. The method is suitable, in particular, for regulating or controlling a gas turbine, wherein the actions are preferably optimized with respect to the criterion of low pollutant emission or low combustion chamber humming.

When controlling and/or regulating technical systems, it is often desirable to influence the operation of the technical system by carrying out corresponding actions in such a manner that the behavior of the technical system is optimized with respect to particular criteria. For example, when operating a gas turbine, it is useful to reduce the exhaust gas emissions produced by the turbine and to keep the combustion dynamics of the combustion chamber of the gas turbine (also referred to as combustion chamber humming) as low as possible. In this case, it is possible to influence, for example, parameters relating to the supply of gas to the combustion chamber of the gas turbine.
The prior art discloses computer-assisted methods which are used to determine an action selection rule, according to which actions are determined for corresponding successive states of the technical system which are characterized by suitable state variables of the system, which actions are optimal with respect to an optimization criterion, for example the above-mentioned low pollutant emission and low combustion chamber humming. Documents [1] DE 10 2007 001 025 A1 and [2] DE 10 2008 020 379 A1 describe the determination of an action selection rule on the basis of the learning of a recurrent neural network with training data comprising known states and actions. According to the action selection rule, an action sequence is output for a current state of the technical system taking into account past states on the basis of an optimality criterion. The action sequence can be determined in a short computing time during real operation of the technical system. However, in this case, it is not always ensured that the actions determined according to the action selection rule are optimal in the sense of the optimality criterion. Discrepancies may occur, in particular, when the states of the technical system, for which the action sequence is determined, are in operating ranges which are far away from the training data.

Method for controlling and/or regulating a technical system in a computer-assisted manner


A new and distinct Coreopsis plant named ‘Pink Lemonade’ characterized by yellow foliage, pink flowers, and a dwarf habit.

The present invention relates to a new and distinct plant of Coreopsis and given the cultivar name 'Pink Lemonade'. Coreopsis is in the family Asteraceae. This new cultivar originated from offspring located at the nursery in Canby, Oreg. and reproduced in tissue culture where further selections were made. This selection was made for its pink flowers.


A method for programming a resistive memory device includes: programming a resistive memory; generating a verification data based on comparison result of a voltage, which is generated from a current flowing through the resistive memory, and a verification reference voltage which is higher than a read reference voltage used for a normal read operation; and deciding whether to end a program operation based on the verification data.

1. Field
Exemplary embodiments of the present invention relate to a resistive memory device, and more particularly, to a programming method of the resistive memory device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, a data is recognized according to whether a fuse is cut by a laser or not in a resistive memory device. A fuse may be programmed in the stage of wafer. However, after the wafer is mounted on a package, it may be generally difficult to program the fuse.
An e-fuse is introduced and used to solve the problem. An e-fuse stores data by using a transistor which may change its electrical characteristic between a gate and a drain/source.
FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an e-fuse, which is formed of a transistor, operating as a resistor or a capacitor.
Referring to FIG. 1, the e-fuse is formed of a transistor T. A power source voltage is supplied to a gate G while a ground voltage is supplied to a drain/source D/S.
When a power source voltage of an ordinary level where the transistor T may operate is supplied to the gate G, the e-fuse can operate as a capacitor C. No current flows between the gate G and the drain/source D/S. However, when a high power source voltage, e.g., over-voltage where the transistor T may not normally operate, is supplied to the gate G, the gate oxide of the transistor T is destroyed to electrically short the gate G and the drain/source D/S, and then the e-fuse may operate as a resistor R. Current may flow between the gate G and the drain/source D/S. Based on the phenomenon, the data of an anti-fuse is recognized from the resistance value between the gate G and the drain/source D/S of the e-fuse. Herein, to recognize the data of the e-fuse, (1) the size of the transistor T has a large size to recognize the data without performing a sensing operation, or (2) an additional amplifier may be used to recognize the data of the e-fuse by sensing the current flowing through the transistor T having a small size. These two methods have limitation about integration degree, because the size of the transistor T constituting the e-fuse is required to be big, or each e-fuse has to be coupled with an amplifier for amplifying data.
FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating a memory device formed of an e-fuse, which is a resistive memory.
Referring to FIG. 2, the memory device includes a resistive memory M, a data line DL, a load 210, a sense amplifier 220, and a latch 230. Hereafter, an operation of programming the resistive memory M and an operation of reading data from the resistive memory M are described.
When the resistive memory M is programmed (or ruptured), a high voltage that can destroy a gate oxide of the gate G is supplied to the gate G of the resistive memory M. As a result, the resistive memory M operates as a resistor which has a relatively small resistance value, while a resistive memory M that may be not programmed operates as a capacitor which has a relatively great resistance value.
When the resistive memory M is read, a power source voltage of a level for a read operation is supplied to the gate G of the resistive memory M. As a result, a current path is formed from the resistive memory M to the data line DL and the load 210. Since the resistive memory M operates as a resistor when the resistive memory M is programmed, current flows through the load 210. Due to a voltage drop by the load 210, the level of a data voltage, which is a voltage of the data line DL, is increased. Since the resistive memory M operates as a capacitor when the resistive memory M may be not programmed, little current flows through the load 210. Therefore, the data voltage is in a low level near a ground level.
The sense amplifier 220 generates a data DATA by comparing the data voltage with a reference voltage VREF. The latch 230 latches the data DATA in response to a latch signal LAT_EN that is enabled after a predetermined time passes from a moment when the power source voltage is supplied to the gate G of the resistive memory M.
The gate oxide may be readily destroyed or hardly destroyed according to the characteristics of the resistive memory M. Therefore, after the resistive memory M is programmed, it is checked whether the resistive memory M is programmed normally by reading the data DATA, and when the resistive memory M may be not properly programmed, the resistive memory M is desirable to be programmed again.

Resistive memory device and programming method thereof


A process is provided for producing a foamed article of a thermoplastic resin composition having a relatively thicker solid skin layer exhibiting better appearance without occurrence of a swirl mark and having a foam structure of relatively uniform foam cell size with better foam cell configuration, which is light-weighing and superior in stiffness, in an easy and efficient manner, by causing the resin composition to foam up in a cavity of a mold.

The present invention relates to a foamed article having a solid skin layer and a core part both made of single thermoplastic resin composition and to a process for producing such foamed article.
Thermoplastic resins, in particular, polyolefin resins have found wide applications in industry. Since polyolefin resins has no content of chlorine, they do not emit noxious gases on incineration. The extent of application thereof has rapidly been developed as environment-favoring materials, since they permit also recycled use. In particular, in the field of automotive industry, there have been a demand for parts made of a polyolefin resin which are light-weighing and are superior in the stiffness and so on.
Injection molded foamed articles, which are produced by injection-molding such a polyolefin resin while causing it simultaneously to foam up, have been in practical use as the polyolefin resin products. In general, a foamed article produced by injection-molding a polyolefin resin composition containing a foaming agent with simultaneous foaming is inferior in the appearance and in the strength and has lower commercial value as compared with molded article without foaming, since foam cells are found also within the surface layer of the foamed article.
Therefore, it has been practised, in an application field, for example, automotive parts, in which greater importance is placed on seeking for better appearance, to provide the foamed article with a skin layer, by covering the inner face of the cavity of foaming mold with a skin layer prepared preliminarily in a separate process step and, then, injecting the molten foaming resin composition thereinto, in order to build up a foamed article covered with the skin layer, or by applying a skin layer onto the injection molded foamed article.
However, the conventional practice given above has problems that the procedures are complicate and that the spent or wasted articles are difficultly brought into recycled use, as the skin layer and the core part of the foamed product are made of different resins.
For solving these problems, a technique has been proposed in which a solid skin layer is formed on the external face of the foamed molded article at the same time with the molding of the foamed article.
For example, Japanease Patent Kokai Hei 4-144721 A discloses a technique in which a molten resin is injected into a metal mold while receding the mold. This prior technique has some problems that the molten resin can hardly be filled fully up to peripheral portions of the mold cavity with a trend of easy occurrence of short shot, therefore thicker skin layer is difficult to obtain and the distribution of sizes of foam cells became rough.
Japanese Patent Kokai Hei 4-214311 A discloses a technique in which a molten resin is injected into a metal mold while receding it and, then, the metal mold is moved once to the direction for closing it to form a solid skin layer, whereupon foaming is effected under recession of the metal mold. However, this prior technique has problems in that wavy flow marks (in the following referred to sometimes as swirl marks) may be apt to occur on the surface of the foamed article and that the process steps are intricate and require extended process cycles. When flow marks, such as the swirl marks, are formed on the surface of the foamed article, the appearance of the article is debased, prohibiting thus use of such an article for a non-coated article, such as those recently found uses for the interior and exterior furnishings of automobile.
Japanese Patent Kokai Hei 8-300391 A describes a technique in which a molten resin is injected into a metal mold held in a fixed state and the mold is then cooled in the state as such, whereupon foaming is effected while receding the metal mold. However, this prior technique has problems in that the foam cells formed are irregular in sizes resulting in an inferior heat insulation and lower mechanical strength, that the process requires prolonged procedures and that swirl marks due to flow of the molten resin on the surface of the foamed article are not able to exclude.
Japanese Patent Kokai Hei 10-128795 A described a technique in which a molten resin is injected into a metal mold in a fixed state of the mold to fill up it, whereupon foaming is effected at once while receding the metal mold. However, this prior technique has some problems in that some reduction in the foaming expansion ratio should be endured, when it is attempted to increase the solid skin layer thickness, and vice versa.
Starting from the stand of the technique as given above, the inventors reached a solution in which a part of the raw material is first injected into a restricted cavity of the metal mold, whereupon the remaining part of the raw material is injected into the cavity while relieving the restriction of cavity space. By this technical measure, it has now been made possible to produce a molded foamed article having a thicker solid skin layer with a high foaming expansion ratio.
The present invention further provides a technique in which occurrence of flow marks, such as swirl mark and so on, can be excluded, whereby foamed articles capable of serving for non-coated articles as, for example, automobile interior and exterior parts can be produced.
The first object of the present invention is to provide a process for producing a light-weight foamed article of superior stiffness from a thermoplastic resin composition in an easy and efficient manner, wherein the said foamed article has a solid skin layer made of the same thermoplastic resin composition as that of its core part and the sizes of the foam cells are relatively uniform with better cell configuration.
The second object of the present invention is to provide a process in which a foamed article made of a thermoplastic resin composition and having a solid skin layer of relatively greater thickness can be produced at a higher foaming expansion ratio in an easy and efficient manner.
The third object of the present invention is to provide a process which can afford to produce a foamed article made of a thermoplastic resin composition in an easy and efficient manner, in which a solid skin layer having no flow mark, such as swirl mark, and, thus, providing better appearance can be formed easily.
The above objects are attained by the present invention which consists in a process for producing a foamed article of a thermoplastic resin composition and in a foamed article produced by such process as given in the following:
(1) A process for producing a foamed article of a thermoplastic resin composition by causing the said resin composition to foam up in a cavity of a mold, comprising
a primary injection step in which a part amount of the thermoplastic resin composition is injected into the mold cavity defined by a stationary mold element and a movable mold element settled at a position confining the mold cavity to a smaller volume than the total volume of the thermoplastic resin composition necessary for making up the complete foamed article, while imposing a clamping pressure on the movable mold element so as to settle it at the said position,
a secondary injection step subsequent to the primary injection step, in which the residual amount of the thermoplastic resin composition is further injected into the mold cavity, while drawing the movable mold element back from the position settled for the primary injection step so as to increase the cavity volume, and
a foaming step subsequent to the secondary injection step, in which injection of the thermoplastic resin composition is stopped and the movable mold element is further drawn back so as to permit the thermoplastic resin composition to foam up,
wherein the thickness L0 of the mold cavity at the start of the primary injection step is in the range from 1.0 to 1.5 mm, the injection time of the primary injection step is 1.5 seconds or less and the pressure imposed on the movable mold element in the primary injection step is in the range from 5 to 20 MPa with respect to the sectional area of the mold cavity in the projection onto the mold base plane.
(2) The process as defined in the above (1), wherein the ratio of the thickness L0 of the mold cavity at the start of the primary injection step relative to the thickness L1 at the end of the secondary injection step, namely, L0/L1, is in the range from 0.3 to 1.0.
(3) The process as defined in the above (1) or (2), wherein the recession of the movable mold element subsequent to the secondary injection step begins within 5 seconds from the termination of the secondary injection step.
(4) The process as defined in any one of the above (1) to (3), which comprises further a step of compressing the foamed article, in which the movable mold element is pressed onto the foamed article within 60 seconds from the termination of the foaming step.
(5) The process as defined in any one of the above (1) to (4), wherein the thermoplastic resin composition comprises a polyolefin resin and a foaming agent.
(6) The process as defined in the above (5), wherein the polyolefin resin is a polypropylene resin.
(7) The process as defined in the above (5) or (6), wherein the polyolefin resin has a melt flow rate, determined according to ASTM D 1238 at 230xc2x0 C. under a load of 2.16 kg, in the range from 30 to 200 g/10 min.
(8) A foamed article of a thermoplastic resin composition, which is produced by the process as defined in any one of the above (1) to (7).
(9) The foamed article as defined in the above (8), wherein the solid skin layer has a thickness in the range from 0.1 to 0.7 mm.
(10) The foamed article as defined in the above (8) or (9), wherein the foaming expansion ratio is in the range from 1.05 to 5 times of the non-expanded original volume.
(11) Automotive parts as foamed articles, which are produced by the process as defined in any one of the above (1) to (7).

Foamed article of thermoplastic resin composition and process for producing it


A method comprises: selecting a circuit pattern or network of circuit patterns in a layout of an integrated circuit (IC) to be fabricating using double patterning technology (DPT). Circuit patterns near the selected circuit pattern or network are grouped into one or more groups. For each group, a respective expected resistance-capacitance (RC) extraction error cost is calculated, which is associated with a mask alignment error, for two different sets of mask assignments. The circuit patterns in the one or more groups are assigned to be patterned by respective photomasks, so as to minimize a total of the expected RC extraction error costs.

In semiconductor fabrication processes, the resolution of a photoresist pattern begins to blur at about 45 nanometer (nm) half pitch. To continue to use fabrication equipment purchased for larger technology nodes, multi-exposure methods have been developed.
Multiple exposure or multi-patterning technology (MPT) involves forming patterns on a single layer of a substrate using two or more different masks in succession. If only two masks are used for patterning a layer, the technique is referred to as double exposure. One form of double exposure is referred to as double patterning technology (DPT). In DPT, first and second masks are used sequentially to pattern the same layer. As long as the patterns within each mask comply with the relevant minimum separation distances for the technology node, the combination of patterns formed using both masks may include smaller spacings than the minimum separation distance.
DPT is a layout splitting method analogous to a two-color problem for layout splitting in graph theory. For example, if two masks are to be used (double patterning, DPT), it is customary to refer to the patterns as being assigned one of two "color types", where the color corresponds to a photomask assignment.
If there is any mask alignment error, the patterns formed by the second photomask are shifted relative to the patterns formed by the first photomask. A pattern formed by the second photomask can be closer to, or further from, a given pattern formed by the first photomask, causing the parasitic resistance-capacitance (RC) coupling between the patterns to differ from the couplings computed by RC extraction, which are used for timing analysis.

Method and system for photomask assignment for double patterning technology

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd.


Triaxial connector adapters for connecting triaxial cables. Triaxial connector adapters provided in accordance with the present invention allow connection of triaxial cables having different bend radii, thereby ensuring that monitoring instruments in, for example, the nuclear power industry, can be sealed in accordance with federal regulations. Furthermore, triaxial connector adapters disclosed herein provide quick, efficient and safe retrofitting of existing monitoring instruments which use standard large bend radius triaxial cables. The triaxial connector adapters comprises triaxial housings for providing an outer shield conductor for the triaxial connector adapter and interfacing to a first triaxial cable, inner shields interfaced with the triaxial housings for providing an inner conductor for the triaxial connector adapter and carrying electric current through the triaxial connector adapter, center conductors interfaced with the inner shields for carrying electric current through the triaxial connector adapter, and connectors interfaced with the triaxial housings for connecting a second triaxial cable to the triaxial connector adapters and electrically interfacing the first triaxial cable with the second triaxial cable.

Triaxial cables have been used for carrying electrical signals between detectors and monitoring instruments for some time. Many industries utilize triaxial cables for carrying signals from detectors to monitoring instruments. The nuclear power industry particularly uses triaxial cables to transmit various types of signals from detectors placed in and around a nuclear reactor to instruments which may be located some distance away from the detectors.
Generally, triaxial cables are comprised of three sheathed conductors. A center conductor carries electric current to the monitoring instrument corresponding to an electrical signal from a detector. A second conductor, generally denoted as an "inner shield," functions as return conductor for the electric current in the center conductor. An outer conductor functions as an outer conducting shield and prevents stray electromagnetic signals from impinging on the two inner conductors of the triaxial cable. Insulating layers are usually placed between the three conductors in the triaxial cable to electrically separate the conductors from one another.
Triaxial cables utilized in the nuclear power industry between detectors and monitoring units can carry voltages of up to about 2500 volts DC or small current signals in a range of about 10 picoamps to about 1 milliamp. Additionally, small pulse signals from neutron counters in a range from about 1 millivolt to about 10 millivolts may be carried on triaxial cables used in nuclear power monitoring equipment.
There are many types of triaxial cables which may be utilized to carry signals from detectors to monitoring equipment. Examples of such cables are the RG-11 triaxial cable, the RG-58 triaxial cable, and the RG-59 triaxial cable. The most common triaxial cable used in the nuclear power industry is the RG-11 triaxial cable which ensures minimal attenuation of detector signals and minimum interference of detector signals as they are transmitted over the cable to the monitoring instrument.
Termination of the RG-11 cable is usually within an instrument cabinet where the cable is connected to the instrument through a male or female RG-11/u connector. The physical construction of an RG-11 triaxial cable precludes bending it in any arc with a bend radius of less than 6 inches. If less than a 6-inch bend radius is encountered, the center conductor of the RG-11 cable may migrate through the insulation and voltage arcing between the inner conductors may occur, or shorts may develop with a concomitant loss of signal as a result. However, there is usually an insufficient area to maintain more than a 6-inch bend radius between the rear cabinet door and the instrument and therefore for instruments which use RG-11 cables, the rear cabinet doors are usually left open to prevent the RG-11 cable from being forced into a bend radius of less than 6 inches.
Today, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission enforces closing of the instrument cabinet doors to ensure safety. Thus, there is a need in the art for a practical solution for using existing RG-11 triaxial cables with nuclear monitoring instrumentation having RG-11 instrument bulkhead connectors while complying with federal regulations. Replacement of the RG-11 triaxial cables and associated instrument bulkhead connectors is not practical since the associated downtime, costs, testing and calibration times are all too high. A possible solution is to interpose a smaller, more flexible triaxial cable having a smaller bend radius between the termination end of the RG-11 cable and the connector on the instrument while maintaining signal integrity through a splice of the two cables and associated connectors.
Potential triaxial cables are the RG-58 and RG-59 triaxial cables, both which have a bend radius of about 2-3 inches. However, heretofore no existing connector adapter has been produced or designed for connecting different sized triaxial cables together. Furthermore, it is not practical to change from triaxial cables to coaxial cables using a coaxial connector adapter since loss of the outer shield found in a triaxial cable when a coaxial cable is used creates a substantial opportunity for introducing signal interference and noise during monitoring of a particular process in a nuclear power plant.
There is therefore a long-felt need in the art for a triaxial connector adapter which interfaces RG-11 to RG-58, RG-11 to RG-59, and RG-11 to RG-11 triaxial cables while maintaining total signal integrity and isolation through the connector adapter. Furthermore, triaxial connector adapters should permit changing the mating interface of BNC, TNC or RG-59 triaxial connectors.


By utilizing recovered polyvinyl butyral in the production of carpet backcoatings, the amount of waste polyvinyl butyral that is landfilled or otherwise disposed of is significantly reduced, as is the need for manufacturing polyvinyl butyral. The recovered polyvinyl butyral is size reduced and then utilized by itself or with other ingredients to provide a composite used in the manufacture of a useful product (like carpet backing), and then the composite material is used to make the useful product (such as carpet backing, which is used as a primary or secondary backcoating in the manufacture of new carpeting or as a precoat, main back coat or combination precoat/main back coat in the manufacture of new carpet tile). In addition, waste carpet may optionally be used with the recovered polyvinyl butyral as a filler material; thus, further reducing the amount of waste that is landfilled or incinerated.

In the conventional manufacture of floor coverings such as carpeting, pile carpets, carpet tiles or the like, the pile yarns or other carpet face materials are held in place by a primary backing and typically backcoatings, precoats, and/or main backcoats as well as possibly other layers associated with the carpeting. At least some of these backcoatings, precoats and maincoats (particularly latex, ethylene vinyl acetate or other polymer-based backings) use different ingredients as important components thereof.
The present invention utilizes post-consumer and/or post-industrial polyvinyl butyral (referred to herein as waste, recovered or recycled PVB, all of which are considered interchangeable and the same for this invention) as all, nearly all or part of the backcoating, precoat and main backcoat compositions for floor coverings such as carpeting, pile carpets and carpet tiles. In preferred embodiments, the invention utilizes: (a) mixtures of recycled PVB, plasticizer and filler as a backcoating composition, (b) mixtures of recycled PVB, plasticizer, ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) and filler as a backcoating composition (defined herein as a "coating" composition), (c) mixtures of recycled PVB, tackifier composition(s), EVA and filler (and, optionally, a plasticizer) as a coating or precoat and main backcoat compositions (precoat and main backcoat compositions are defined herein as "coat" compositions), (d) mixtures of recycled PVB, plasticizer, anionic surfactant and filler as precoat and main backcoat compositions, or extruded alone or in combination with fillers or other additives either onto a substrate to be inserted into the structure of a floorcovering or other coated item, or extruded directly onto the partially constructed item. These recycled PVB compositions exhibit excellent chemical and physical properties, including long term durability and compatibility with other floorings (e.g., carpet paddings and subfloors).
Increased usage and disposal of various polymer materials, environmental awareness, government regulations concerning the disposal of polymers, and technical difficulties encountered in the re-usage of disposed polymers have created the need for acceptable recycling usages of disposed (waste) polymers. Disposed PVB is one type of polymer for which there are few acceptable recycling usages because of, among other things, its various adjuvants and contaminants.
PVB is used in large quantities in safety glass for vehicles, some buildings and certain other applications. Sources of disposed PVB include the dismantling of vehicles and the waste from manufacturing safety glass for vehicles such as automobiles, trucks, buses, et cetera. According to the present invention, the PVB can be separated from the glass via commercial windshield glass recycling methods or via commercial recovery methods associated with safety glass manufacturing. For example, the glass from the safety glass can be recovered by crushing, grinding and milling of the scrap safety glass, which yields small glass particles and PVB. The resulting glass particles are then recycled. The resulting PVB is typically disposed of in landfills or by incineration. Instead of disposal, the present invention recycles the PVB.
According to the present invention, it has been found that recycled PVB can be processed and used in certain carpet coating and coat compositions so as to alleviate the environmental and related problems identified above. In the present invention, the recycled PVB is obtained from the aforementioned commercial methods as pellets, particles or powders, for example, pellets or particles preferably about 1/16 inch to about ⅜ inch, or powder preferably between about 10 and 16 mesh. Processing comprises separating the PVB from glass and other components through shredding and density differences using conventional equipment, and grinding the PVB to the desired sizes using conventional equipment, which can be accomplished at ambient conditions, and can include, at various points in the separating and grinding process, the separation of various glass and metal contaminants. Conventional processing such as the Andela Windshield Pulverizing System, the commercial system used by Dlubak Glass Company of Upper Sandusky, Ohio, or any other system that uses a series of shredders, grinders and/or separators, can be used to reduce the chips to the foregoing sizes for employment in the compositions of the invention. The recycled PVB that can be used in the present invention can contain adjuvants or contaminants such as plasticizers, glass, sand, et cetera, which greatly assists with near complete recycling. The commercially obtained recycled PVB in the foregoing sizes may have minute amounts of glass, metal, or other adjuvants or contaminants, which are typically not in sufficient amounts to adversely impact the present invention. According to the present invention, undesired adjuvants and/or contaminants can be removed by conventional processing either before or after size reduction of the recycled PVB.
The present invention preferably utilizes plasticizers in conjunction with the recycled PVB in order to prepare certain carpet backing compositions. Acceptable plasticizers for use with the recycled PVB of the invention include, but are not limited to, butyl benzoate, benzyl benzoate, butyl oleate, and blends with each other and other plasticizers. In some 10 cases, the plasticizer may be replaced with or blended with any number of glycol products, including but not limited to poly (oxy) ethylene glycol, 1,3 propanediol and others.
For carpet tile precoats, the present invention also preferably utilizes a poly(ethylene oxide) polymer such as POLYOX™ (supplied by Dow) in a preferable amount of about 0.5-10% by weight of the composition. This ingredient improves the runnability on coating equipment.
The invention can also utilize tackifiers that include, but are not limited to, hydrocarbon resins, other tackifiers, and mixtures thereof.
The particular carpet coating and coat compositions of the present invention may also comprise a filler or filler mixture. The preferred fillers are calcium carbonate, recycled carpet material ground to filler size, and mixtures thereof or in combination with other materials. The calcium carbonate is preferably about ninety-nine percent or greater crushed limestone, and less than about one percent crystalline. The calcium carbonate is preferably of a size typically known in the carpet industry for laminating compounds.
The recycled carpet that can be used as filler in the present invention can be obtained in several ways. For example, during typical carpet manufacturing processes, waste carpeting is produced, which is typically landfilled or incinerated. In addition, when new carpets are installed in place of old carpeting, the used, waste carpeting (which is post-consumer waste carpeting) is removed from a building and is typically landfilled or burned. Instead of landfilling or incinerating these waste carpets, the present invention can use them as recycled carpet filler material. According to the present invention, the components of the recycled carpet are separated and ground to filler size by using standard shredding, grinding and separation techniques.
The recycled carpet can contain calcium carbonate or like mineral fillers, which can be retained and used in the compositions of the present invention. In certain waste carpets, other materials, such as thermoplastic resins, form constituent parts of the waste material together with the calcium carbonate filler and can also be retained and used in the compositions of the present invention. Use of this recycled carpet material eliminates, or at least significantly reduces, the amount of landfilling or other waste disposal that is necessary for waste carpeting.
As noted above, instead of using any freshly mined limestone calcium carbonate as the filler for a carpet backing composition, recycled waste carpet containing calcium carbonate as well as a thermoplastic resin (from new carpet production and/or from post-consumer waste) can be used as a filler material in the present invention. The recycled material may also be used in conjunction with fresh calcium carbonate, e.g., freshly mined and crushed limestone, as well as fresh thermoplastic resin.
The carpet backing compositions and carpet backing of the present invention are prepared in and by conventional heated systems that are used to prepare standard types of carpet backing. The systems, however, do not need to be heated. The inventive compositions are beneficially designed to be applied to the back of carpets and carpet tiles by conventional coating and application equipment.
According to a preferred aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of recycling PVB comprising substantially sequentially: (a) collecting recovered PVB, (b) size reducing the recovered PVB, (c) processing the recovered PVB with other ingredients, (d) creating a composite material useful in the manufacture of a useful product, and (e) making the useful product using the composite material. Steps (c) and (d) can be combined to result in the processing of recovered PVB, appropriately sized, with other ingredients to create a composite material useful in the manufacture of a useful product (e.g., primary or secondary backcoating for carpets, or precoats, main backcoats or combination precoat/main backcoats for carpet tiles).
In the method, step (a) may be practiced to collect substantially only post-consumer recovered PVB, substantially only post-industrial recovered PVB (e.g., from new product manufacturing), or a blend of both. As stated above, PVB can be separated and recovered from used or discarded safety glass via commercial windshield glass recycling methods or via commercial recovery methods associated with safety glass manufacturing. Post-consumer recovered PVB or post-industrial recovered PVB can be processed to remove certain contaminants or adjuvants by using any conventional technique, if desired or necessary.
In the method, step (b) may be practiced by reducing the recovered PVB to a certain size by conventional techniques [such as grinding using conventional grinders]. For use in carpet backing, it is preferable to reduce the recycled PVB to about 1/16 inch for sizing through a 40 mesh screen. For extruding or other melt applications such as a heated slot, the standard ⅜ inch size generated in the size reduction of windshields can be used. For use in carpet tile back coats (precoats or main backcoats), it is preferable to reduce the recycled PVB so that about 90% or more of the PVB can pass through a standard number 12 sieve (Tyler 10 mesh; 1.70 mm or 0.0661 inch), but less than or equal to about 10% may pass through a standard number 18 sieve (Tyler 16 mesh; 1.0 mm or 0.0394 inch).
In the method, step (c) may be practiced to utilize calcium carbonate as a filler material, where the calcium carbonate is a size commonly used in the carpet industry for laminating compounds. In addition, step (c) may be practiced to utilize as a filler ingredient substantially only post-consumer waste carpeting, substantially only post-industrial waste carpeting (e.g., from new carpeting manufacture), a blend of both, or a blend with fresh calcium carbonate. In this regard, and for their additional disclosures, pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/686,798, pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/782,518, and pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/986,058 filed Nov. 7, 2001, issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,786,988 on Sep. 7, 2004, are hereby incorporated by reference in their entireties. If desired or necessary, post-consumer waste carpeting can be cleaned by any conventional cleaning technique before use in the present invention. While the method can be typically practiced utilizing all of the face yarn, primary backing and backcoatings of the waste carpeting, the method may further comprise separating the face yarn and primary backing from waste carpet backcoating to produce a substantially face yarn and primary backing-free waste carpet backcoating, and using substantially only the waste carpet backcoating. Also, various waste carpet backings may be separated from each other so as to use only one particular carpet backing, such as the primary or secondary backcoating.
In the method, step (c) may be practiced to utilize an acceptable plasticizer such as butyl benzoate, benzyl benzoate, butyl oleate, and blends thereof or in combination with other acceptable plasticizers for carpet backing compositions. In an embodiment of the present invention, the plasticizer may be present in amounts of about 1-30% by weight based on the total weight of the composition, and further embodiments include about 1-20% by weight or about 5-30% by weight depending on the other ingredients of the composition. The plasticizer may be replaced with or blended with any number of glycol products, including but not limited to poly (oxy) ethylene glycol, 1,3 propanediol and others. In an embodiment of the present invention, the glycol product may be present in amounts of about 1-30% by weight based on the total weight of the composition, and further embodiments include about 1-20% by weight or about 5-30% by weight depending on the other ingredients of the composition. For extrusion coating, plasticizers and glycol products are not needed.
In the method, step (c) may be practiced to utilize EVA, an acceptable tackifier such as a hydrocarbon resin blend, and various mixtures thereof. The EVA can be used in the present invention without a tackifier. The EVA can be Elvax™ (supplied by du Pont), Escorene™ (supplied by Exxon) or similar types. The tackifier can be Escorez™ ECR 171, supplied by Exxon, XR-4231 supplied by Arizona Chemical or other similar resins. Promising results may also be obtained by using Eastoflex™ resins (supplied by Eastman).
In the method for preparing carpet tile precoat or precoat/maincoat backing compositions, step (c) may be practiced to utilize an anionic surfactant such as Novawet PPW™ (supplied by Boehme-Filatex) or similar anionic surfactants. Water may also be utilized. For example, for carpet tile type applications, it is preferable to use PPW as part of the system. Water is optional and may only be present as a medium to carry the mixture. Consequently, steps (c) and (d) may be combined as one step to create a composite.
In the method, step (d) may be utilized to create the composite material, which can be applied to substrates that subsequently become part of a carpet or carpet tile.
In another method of producing a carpet tile type product or a replacement for traditional PVC coated carpet products, 100% by weight recycled PVB or blends of recycled PVB and carpet filler (e.g., calcium carbonate in filler size and/or recycled waste carpet material ground to filler size) may be created and then extruded onto a fiberglass stabilizing scrim of the type common to carpet tile manufacturing, either spunbonded or woven, or onto primary or secondary backings such as those common for broadloom or tile carpets, or directly onto the back of tufted or woven floorcovering.
The invention can also employ as additional optional steps, in advance of step (c), collecting waste carpeting, processing the waste carpeting to provide a first material from the waste carpeting, which may contain a filler and a thermoplastic resin, and reducing the first material to a predetermined size in a range of about 50-100 to about 95-325, wherein the first number represents the percentage of the first material which will pass through a mesh screen having a mesh size corresponding to the second number.
Additionally, the composite material may be processed in molten form to have a viscosity in the range of about 10,000 to about 30,000 CPS. The latter viscosity range is particularly useful for forming a primary or secondary backcoating for carpeting.
Conventional machines, processes and techniques known in the carpet industry can be employed to practice the steps of the present invention, including standard mixing and heating systems used to manufacture carpet backing compositions and carpet backings in step (e) of the method.
In one embodiment of the useful product formed hereby, the carpet product may have a primary or secondary backing or backcoating made from greater than 0% and up to about 100% by weight recycled PVB. In another embodiment of the useful product formed hereby, the carpet product may have a primary or secondary backing or backcoating made from greater than 0% and up to about 50% by weight recycled PVB based on the total weight of the primary or secondary backing or backcoating, about 1-10% by weight EVA, about 30-40% by weight tackifier resin, about 0-55% by weight filler (or greater than 0% and up to about 55% by weight filler), wherein the filler comprises calcium carbonate and/or recycled waste carpet material, and, optionally, about 1-30% by weight plasticizer. In a further embodiment of the useful product formed hereby, the carpet product may have a primary or secondary backing or backcoating made from greater than 0% and up to about 20% by weight recycled PVB primary or secondary backing or backcoating, about 0-10% by weight EVA, about 30-40% by weight tackifier resin, about 0-55% by weight filler (or greater than 0% and up to about 55% by weight filler), wherein the filler comprises calcium carbonate and/or recycled waste carpet material, and, optionally, about 1-20% by weight plasticizer.
In another embodiment of the useful product formed hereby, a carpet tile product may have a precoating, backcoating or combined precoating/backcoating made from about 1-100% by weight recycled PVB based on the total weight of the precoating, backcoating or combined precoating/backcoating. In another embodiment of the useful product formed hereby, a carpet tile product may have a precoating, backcoating or combined precoating/backcoating made from about 15-60% by weight recycled PVB based on the total weight of the precoating, backcoating or combined precoating/backcoating, about 10-25% by weight plasticizer, about 0.25-10% by weight anionic surfactant, about 20-60% by weight filler, wherein the filler comprises calcium carbonate and/or recycled waste carpet material, and about 0-10% by weight water.
It will be appreciated that the recycled PVB compositions and methods of the invention are useful to form carpet primary and secondary backings, backcoatings and carpet tile precoats, backing coats and combination precoat/backing coats. The invention also further comprises making new carpeting with the carpet backcoatings made from recycled PVB.

Recycled polyvinyl butyral compositions and uses


The objects of the present invention are to solve low test efficiency and low accuracy which are problems encountered in the conventional methods for testing myelotoxicity of a drug by observing smears. To this end, markers for discriminating and identifying hematopoietic stem cells and blood cells at various differentiation stages in bone marrow are identified. From this point of view, cell surface antigens are specified. Thus, it is found that the myelotoxicity of a drug can be evaluated with a high efficiency at a high accuracy by using flow cytometry to analyze for a change in the quantity of bone marrow-derived cells expressing the cell surface antigens after administration of the drug to an animal.

Blood cells are produced from cells called hematopoietic stem cells through a process of proliferation and differentiation. The hematopoietic stem cells and blood cells at various differentiation stages are present in bone marrow. The discrimination and identification of the hematopoietic stem cells and blood cells in bone marrow and examining the change of the number or ratio thereof are scientifically and industrially significant for evaluating the toxicity of a drug including a medicine to the hematopoiesis in bone marrow.
In order to evaluate the toxicity to the hematopoiesis, it is necessary to discriminate and identify the hematopoietic stem cells and blood cells in bone marrow and clarify what actions occur in each lineage or differentiation stage. It is thought that there is a possibility of changing the number of erythroblasts and reticulocytes, for example in the case of drugs having toxicity to erythrocytes and varying the number of myelocytes (myeloblasts, promyelocytes, myelocytes, metamyelocytes or the like) or lymphocytes present in bone marrow in the case of drugs acting on leukocytes (lymphocytes, granulocytes or the like).
A method for preparing a smear, morphologically discriminating cells with human eyes by microscopic observation and identifying the cells has hitherto been mainly used for evaluating the toxicity to the hematopoiesis in bone marrow. The smear is prepared by thinly smearing a collected bone marrow sample on a slide glass and used by usually subjecting the smear to May-Grünwald and Giemsa staining or the like, then observing cell morphology under an optical microscope and determining how the ratio of respective cells varies. However, it is necessary to observe a large number of cells by a skilled person in charge of tests for evaluating the toxicity by the method and there are many subjects in the method in aspects of quality and quantity of date and time. Therefore, establishment of a method by which the problems can be overcome has been desired.
Flow cytometers have been utilized for collecting various qualitative or quantitative parameters in individual cells in fields of studies on cell biology, immunology and hematology. The flow cytometers are apparatuses designed to keep cells in a state of a suspension, passing the suspension through a fluid system at a high speed, instantaneously analyzing optical and electric signals obtained from the respective cells through a detecting part and studying and elucidating biological features of the respective cells. For example, the flow cytometers are utilized for measurement of the nucleic acid amount, enzyme activity, calcium influx, cell membrane potential, pH and the like (Malin-Berdel, J. and Valet, G. 1980. Cytometry 1:222-228; Phillip, R. et al. 1995. Cytometry 23: 322-329). It is known that the blood cells can be discriminated and identified by determining the quantity of expression of a cell surface antigen characteristic to each species of the cells by using the flow cytometers, for example, CD2 (Williams, A. F. et al. 1987.J. Exp. Med 165:368-380) and CD8 (Brideau, R. J. et al. 1980. Eur. J. Immunol. 10: 609-615) are known as specific for lymphocytes; CD11b is known as specific for granulocytes and myelocytes (Tamatani, T. F. et al. 1993. Eur. J. Immunol. 23: 2181-2188), CD18 (Tamatani, T. M. 1991. Eur. J. Immunol. 21: 627-633), CD45 (Sunderland, C. A. 1979. Eur. J. Immunol. 9: 155-159), CD45R.(Kroese, F. G. M. 1986, Adv. Exp. Med. Biol. 186: 81-89), CD90 (Campbell, D. G. 1981. Biochem. J. 195: 15-30) and the like are known as cell surface antigens recognized to be common to leukocytes. CD71 is known as a cell surface antigen correlating with the proliferating activity of cells (Jefferies, W. A. 1985. Immunolgy 54: 333-341).
The fact that rapid analysis can mechanically be carried out for a large number of cells with a small amount of a sample in a short time is cited as features of the method for using flow cytometers. Furthermore, the fact that the accuracy control important to assurance of data quality can be conducted and objective test data can be obtained is also cited as the features.
Johanna and Fridtjof describe the identification and isolation of respective progenitor cells of hematopoietic stem cells, myelocytes, lymphocytes and erythrocytes in normal adults or fetuses by using CD34, CD38, a cell adhesion molecule (L-selectin, CD18, CD33, CD44, CD48, CD49e, CD50 or CD52) and/or growth factor receptors (SCFR, GM-CSFR, IL-6R, gp130/IL-6R and IL-7R) as markers with flow cytometers (WO95/12813).
Terstappen describes the identification and discrimination of cell populations in peripheral blood or bone marrow in normal adults or fetuses using CD45 and CD71 as markers with flow cytometers [JP-A 6-27017 (hereunder, JP-A means "Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication")].
Loken describes the discrimination and identification of bone marrow cells in normal adults by combining CD45 with various cell surface antigens (CD15, CD16, CD10, CD34, CD20, CD19, CD14, CD3 and CD11b) with flow cytometers (JP-A 1-161153).
In the above studies, it is shown that the method with the use of flow cytometers is useful when peripheral blood cells or bone marrow cells derived from human adults or fetuses; however, it is not disclosed that the method with the use of flow cytometers is similarly useful for experimental animals.
In general, it is not thought that facts confirmed in humans about what cell surface antigens are expressed in what blood cell in a process for proliferation and differentiation stages from hematopoietic stem cells can directly be extended to other animal species.
The above reports take the hematopoietic stem cell transplantation or the like into consideration, and the discrimination and identification of specific cell populations are considered as the main purpose of utilization. In order to utilize the method with the use of flow cytometers for evaluating the toxicity of drugs, it is, however, necessary to use cell surface antigen markers suitable for the purposes as an index.
It is heretofore not clear at all whether a suitable marker is present or whether the marker is actually useful even. if the marker is present. Namely, it is necessary to elucidate the correspondence of toxicological change of the number or the ratio of specific cell populations with the drugs possessing the hematopoietic toxicity to the change of the marker in question.
The above reports do not describe whether or not the identification and discrimination of cell populations can be carried out even for bone marrow cells derived from experimental animals by analyzing the cell surface antigens as markers with flow cytometers. Furthermore, the reports do not describe whether or not the markers in the reports are useful for evaluating the toxicity of a drug to hematopoiesis in bone marrow. Accordingly, the possibility of carrying out toxicity tests using experimental animals with flow cytometers could not be foreseen even on the assumption of the above reports.
Since the cell populations in bone marrow is heterogeneous as compared with peripheral blood, it is necessary to find out cell surface antigens to be an appropriate marker for discriminating and identifying the lineage of cells or differentiation stage with the use of flow cytometers. And then, it is necessary to elucidate that the utilization of the markers is useful for evaluating toxicity of a drug to hematopoiesis in bone marrow.
The flow cytometers are heretofore scarcely utilized in fields of toxicity. tests. Absence of investigation and substantiation of practicality and usefulness essential to utilization in toxicity tests, especially lack of data on expression patterns of cell surface antigens in hematopoietic stem cells in bone marrow of experimental animals (rodents such as rats) used in the toxicity tests or blood cells at various differentiation stages is cited as main reasons.
Examples of analyzing reticulocytes in peripheral blood with a flow cytometer and reporting that the evaluation of toxicity to erythrocytic hematopoiesis can be carried out by inventors of the present invention are cited as examples of utilizing the flow cytometer in toxicity tests (Miura, D. 1999. J. Toxicol. Sci. 24: 306). In the case of reticulocytes, measurement of the amount of intracellular RNA is a useful marker for identifying cells, and the investigation and substantiation as to establishment and usefulness of the method for testing using the flow cytometer can be made. However, there is no knowledge on what markers may be used for the method for testing toxicity to bone marrow hematopoiesis, especially leukocyte hematopoiesis with the flow cytometer.

Method of testing myelotoxicity with the use of flow cytometer


A cryptographic system makes everyday data objects, such as a document or conversation, unreadable to anyone other than the owner or those currently having permission to access the data objects. The cryptographic system is transparent by requiring no additional effort on the part of any user in the encryption/decryption process other than entering a user identifier and password. Each document is encrypted with a unique encryption key. Changes to data object access permissions are immediately honored and enforced by enabling or disabling access to certain decryption keys. Decryption of data objects requires information known only to the owner of the data object or those permitted to access the data object. This decryption information is not stored anywhere in the system.

1. Field
This invention relates to cryptographic systems.
2. Description of Related Art
Encrypting documents to be exchanged often requires the difficult task of keeping track of and managing encryption software and sets of encryption and decryption keys. Typically a user must first obtain a set of keys as well as complex encryption software and then know which keys to use in encrypting and decrypting information. Often a user may spend a large amount of time managing encrypting and decrypting information. A user may forget which keys to use or how to use the encryption/decryption software if the user has not used the application recently. A user may likewise lose or forget where the necessary keys are stored.
Further, the encrypted information and/or keys may be transferred on various unsecured media between processing devices or systems that may allow for interception of keys and encrypted information. This interception of the keys and/or encrypted information may lead to the unauthorized decryption of encrypted information. For public systems, authentication and certification of publicly available keys requires additional effort to prevent passive theft of data and tampering with data during transmission and storage.
Also, it may be difficult to remove authorization or permissions for particular users to decrypt encrypted information. If encrypted information is being transferred to multiple users at various processing devices and then one user should no longer be permitted access to the information, new encryption/decryption software and/or keys may have to be sent to all the other users in order to make sure that the disallowed user is not likely to obtain the information. This is typically only possible with public, two-way systems. Most document encryption sharing systems (that are not public) are one-way. Once a user has access, they generally always have access. There is generally no way to revoke a user's permission in RSA methods or other similar cryptography methods.
In the following description, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of embodiments. It will be obvious, however, to one skilled in the art, that embodiments may be practiced without some or all of these specific details. In other instances, well known process steps have not been described in detail in order not to unnecessarily obscure a particular embodiment.

System, processing device, computer program and method, to tranparently encrypt and store data objects such that owners of the data object and permitted viewers are able to view decrypted data objects after entering user selected passwords


A system clock synchronization apparatus, for use in a mobile communication system, supplies a GPS clock received from a GPS reception module to a Radio Frequency clock generation module and selects a candidate system clock. The candidate system clock is selected from among plural candidate system clocks having different phases, which can be most stably synchronized with a reference synchronization time signal as the final system clock. The apparatus includes a Global Positioning System reception module; a Radio Frequency clock generation module that generates a system reference clock and outputs an RF clock generated by synchronizing the system reference clock to the GPS clock in phase; and a system clock generation module that generates multiple candidate system clocks having different phases using the RF clock and selects one of the candidate system clocks which generates in a range of an enable duration of the reference synchronization time signal.

In mobile communication systems, a channel card is configured to use different system clocks depending on the Bandwidth (BW). For instance, 500 MHz system clock is used for 8.75 MHz BW, 56 MHz system clock for 10 MHz BW, and 44.8 MHz system clock for 5 MHz BW. In a picocell channel card of WiBro system, 44.8 MHz system clock is used.
Meanwhile, a radio communication apparatus includes an RF block and a digital block. Typically, the RF block uses a system clock which minimizes the phase noise, and the digital block is designed to acquire stable Pulse per 2 Seconds (PP2S) signal, which is a reference signal for data processing. The 44.8 MHz system clock, used in the WiBro picocell, is locked based on the GPS clock (10 MHz in general) received from GPS satellites. In this case, however, the frequency of the 10 Mhz GPS clock is not an integer multiple of the 44.8 Mhz used in the WiBro picocell channel card, whereby the phase of 10 Mhz GPS signal is not accurately synchronized to that of the 44.8 Mhz.
In order to overcome this problem, an additional logic is used for converting the 10 MHz frequency of GPS signal to an integer multiple of the system reference clock of 44.8 MHz used in the WiBro picocell channel card. However, this conventional method has drawbacks in that the additional logic is likely to distort the reference frequency clock output by the GPS reception module so as to degrade the quality of the system clock and increases whole manufacturing costs.

System clock synchronization apparatus and method for mobile communication system


An application system for applying a substance over a predetermined surface includes a frame movable over the predetermined surface, a pressurized carrier source, a vessel containing the substance. The system further includes a first conduit for conveying the substance from the vessel to at least one nozzle and a second conduit for conveying a pressurized carrier from the pressurized carrier source to the at least one nozzle for applying a mixture of the pressurized carrier and the substance over the predetermined surface. The system further includes a cover laterally surrounding the at least one nozzle for minimizing overspray of the mixture, the frame carrying the pressurized carrier source, the vessel, the first conduit, the second conduit, and the cover.

Flat roofs often utilize rolls of ethylene propylene diene terpolymer (EPDM) and thermoplastic polyolefin (TPO) roofing materials, sometimes referred to as rubber roofing. The process for applying adhesive, such as foam adhesive for installing these materials over the flat roof surface is outlined in the manufacturer's specifications. Prior application methods have utilized multiple roofers to each spray one small path of adhesive at a time while an additional worker pulls the canisters alongside. This arrangement substantially increases the number of manhours for a given job. Additionally, the use of multiple roofers spraying individually results in potential inconsistent spray patterns/depths, and even gaps of coverage, as the inconsistencies lead to adhesive canisters emptying at varied rates. The same can be said of other large surfaces where adhesive is used (warehouses, box stores, etc.), though the description herein focuses primarily on roofing applications. To install a roll of rubber roofing on large, flat roof areas, adhesive must first be sprayed evenly, side to side over the supporting surface to be covered/protected, the spray nozzle held approximately 12 inches above the material. The roofers spraying adhesive begin at one end of the area being sprayed, and walk backwards away from the one end, staying in stride with the other roofers spraying the adhesive, as well as the person pulling the cart carrying the foam canisters. The result of the spray foam application is dependent on factors including, but not limited to, the roofers' training, experience, accuracy, competency, and fatigue level.
What is needed is an apparatus or system that can be easily used to create a uniform application of the adhesive according to manufacturer's standards, while maximizing productivity and minimizing the labor-intense and time-consuming process currently employed by the construction industry (roofing, flooring, sealing, etc.).


The present invention generally relates to an end effector that utilizes a gripping mechanism to grip a peripheral edge of the wafer and secure the wafer to the end effector. In one embodiment, the gripping mechanism includes a pair of gripper arms that pivot between a wafer-loading position and a wafer-engaging position. In another embodiment, an active plunger moves linearly between the wafer-loading and wafer-engaging positions. Both the gripper arms and the plunger device are driven by a motor assembly. A force feedback system monitors the force the gripping mechanism exerts on the wafer and, based on the amount of force, controls the operation of the motor assembly to dynamically adjust the position of the gripping mechanism.

Various types of wafer-handling robots are known for transporting the wafers to and from the FOUP and among processing stations. Many such robots employ a robotic arm having a spatula-shaped end that is inserted into the cassette to remove or insert a wafer. The spatula-shaped end of the robotic arm is commonly referred to as an end effector. One type of end effector secures the wafer contact surface to the wafer by a vacuum source. The vacuum source pulls the bottom surface of the wafer into contact with the entire wafer contact surface.
With many workpieces, and certainly with semiconductor wafers, the surfaces of the workpieces can be easily damaged if the wafer-handling robot contacts the top or bottom surface of the wafer. Because of this, the wafer-handling robot should preferably contact only the peripheral edge of the wafer, or at most, the bottom surface within a narrow distance from the edge (known within the semiconductor industry as the "edge exclusion zone"). A wafer-handling robot must load wafers into and unload wafers from a wafer processing apparatus with a high degree of precision to avoid contacting the critical surfaces of the wafer.
FIG. 1 illustrates a conventional wafer-handling end effector. The wafer-handling robot 10 supports a wafer 12 by a wafer blade 11 that has a proximal end 12 and a distal end 14. The distal end 14, in this configuration, has two spaced apart and substantially parallel fingers—a first finger 16 and a second finger 18. The first finger 16 includes a distal wafer support 20 that contacts the wafer 12 either along the peripheral edge or the Exclusion Zone. The second finger 18 also includes a distal wafer support 22 that contacts the wafer in a similar manner.
The wafer blade 11 also includes proximal wafer supports 24 and 26. The proximal wafer supports 24 and 26 also contact the wafer 12 either along the peripheral edge of the wafer 12 or along the Exclusion Zone. The distal wafer supports 20 and 22 include a backstop portion to prevent the wafer 12 from sliding off the wafer blade 11 during transport. A wafer 12 is not always perfectly positioned on the wafer blade 11 such that the peripheral edge of the wafer rests against the wafer supports 20 and 22 at all times. Sudden movement or high rotational speeds by the wafer handling robot 10 may throw the wafer 12 against the supports 20 and 22 and cause damage to the wafer 12, or cause the wafer 12 to slip over the wafer supports 20 and 22 and off the blade 11. An example of an end effector similar to that shown in FIG. 1 is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,077,026, issued to Schultz, entitled "Programmable Substrate Support For a Substrate Positioning System," which is assigned to Asyst Technologies, Inc., and is incorporated herein by reference.
As the robot speed and acceleration increase, the amount of time spent handling each wafer and delivering each wafer to its next destination is decreased. The desire for speed, however, must be balanced against the possibility of damaging the wafer or the film formed on the wafer. If a robot moves a wafer too abruptly, or rotates the wafer blade too fast, the wafer may slide off the blade, potentially damaging the wafer. Further, particle contaminants may result if the wafer slides around on the end effector. In addition, movement of the wafer on the wafer blade may cause substantial misalignment of the wafer. A wafer that is not aligned may result in inaccurate processing or even additional particle generation.
Wafer handling robots that grip the wafer by its peripheral edge exist today. By way of example only, one type of robot end effector includes an active contact point that moves between a retracted wafer-loading position and an extended wafer-engaging position that urges the wafer against a pair of distal wafer supports. Another example of a robot end effector includes a pair of arms that grip the peripheral edge of the wafer after the wafer is placed on the blade. The active contact point and the pair of arms retract and extend through a vacuum or pneumatically actuated mechanism. Vacuum and pneumatic actuation mechanisms provide poor control of the maximum force exerted on the wafer, because velocity of the active contact point or the arms cannot be controlled.
After the end effector lifts a wafer off a cassette support, the active contact point (or the pair of arms) extends to contact the peripheral edge of the wafer and push the wafer against the distal wafer supports. The active contact point holds the wafer in place on the wafer blade. A vacuum actuated gripping device, for example, cannot stop or vary its speed between the retracted wafer-loading position and the extended wafer-engaging position.
An end effector that incrementally controls the motion of the gripping device, which prevents damage to the wafer, is a desirable feature. An end effector having a real-time force feedback system that monitors the force exerted on the wafer is also a highly desirable feature.


This application discloses a media file presentation method, a client application, and a plug-in. The method includes: sending a media information obtaining request to a plug-in installed in the client application, so that the plug-in obtains first brief information and second brief information of a media file from a server based on the media information obtaining request; and receiving a notification message for the media file from the plug-in; and presenting the first brief information at a first presentation position according to the notification message, and then presenting the second brief information at a second presentation position, the media file being obtained and presented when an operation performed by a user on the second brief information is received.

Based on rapid development of intelligent terminals, a user may install various application programs (APP) on an intelligent terminal, to browse or view various media files. When the user opens an APP on the intelligent terminal for the first time, a type of information about a media file is pushed to a user. For example, a static advertisement picture is presented, an advertisement video is played, a public service propaganda film is played, and so on. After the presentation of this media information is complete, a main interface of the APP is displayed.

Media file presentation method, client application, and plug-in

TENCENT TECHNOLOGY (SHENZHEN) COMPANY LIMITED


In some embodiments, a cache may include a tag array and a data array, as well as circuitry that detects whether accesses to the cache are sequential (e.g., occupying the same cache line). For example, a cache may include a tag array and a data array that stores data, such as multiple bundles of instructions per cache line. During operation, it may be determined that successive cache requests are sequential and do not cross a cache line boundary. Responsively, various cache operations may be inhibited to conserve power. For example, access to the tag array and/or data array, or portions thereof, may be inhibited.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention is related to the field of power management in processors, and more particularly to power management of cache arrays and similar structures.
2. Description of the Related Art
As the number of transistors included on an integrated circuit "chip" continues to increase, power management in the integrated circuits continues to increase in importance. Power management can be critical to integrated circuits that are included in mobile devices such as personal digital assistants (PDAs), cell phones, smart phones, laptop computers, net top computers, etc. These mobile devices often rely on battery power, and reducing power consumption in the integrated circuits can increase the life of the battery. Additionally, reducing power consumption can reduce the heat generated by the integrated circuit, which can reduce cooling requirements in the device that includes the integrated circuit (whether or not it is relying on battery power).
In an integrated circuit that includes one or more processors, power management is balanced with the need for high processor performance. To improve performance, the processor often implements caches and/or other similar data structures that provide rapid access to instructions or data that would otherwise require a significantly longer time to obtain (e.g., from an external memory). However, accessing a cache often involves multiple tag value comparisons, word-line discharges, and/or other circuit operations that can consume significant amounts of power.

Reducing cache power consumption for sequential accesses


The present invention provides compositions and methods for preparing a nucleic acid library in a multi-purpose buffer (e.g., employing whole genome amplification), where nucleic acid purification is not required between or during steps. In certain embodiments, small amounts of starting nucleic acid (e.g., genomic DNA) are employed and the steps are accomplished in a single container. In some embodiments, the nucleic acid library is subjected to sequencing methodologies or rolling circle amplification.

In many fields of research such as genetic diagnosis, cancer research or forensic medicine, the scarcity of genomic DNA can be a severely limiting factor on the type and quantity of genetic tests that can be performed on a sample. One approach designed to overcome this problem is whole genome amplification. The objective is to amplify a limited DNA sample in a non-specific manner in order to generate a new sample that is indistinguishable from the original but with a higher DNA concentration. The aim of a typical whole genome amplification technique is to amplify a sample up to a microgram level while respecting the original sequence representation.
The first whole genome amplification methods were described in 1992, and were based on the principles of the polymerase chain reaction. Zhang and coworkers (Zhang, L., et al. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 1992, 89: 5847-5851; herein incorporated by reference) developed the primer extension PCR technique (PEP) and Telenius and collaborators (Telenius et al., Genomics. 1992, 13(3):718-25; herein incorporated by reference) designed the degenerate oligonucleotide-primed PCR method (DOP-PCR).
PEP involves a high number of PCR cycles, generally using Taq polymerase and 15 base random primers that anneal at a low stringency temperature. Although the PEP protocol has been improved in different ways, it still results in incomplete genome coverage, failing to amplify certain sequences such as repeats. Failure to prime and amplify regions containing repeats may lead to incomplete representation of a whole genome because consistent primer coverage across the length of the genome provides for optimal representation of the genome. This method also has limited efficiency on very small samples (such as single cells). Moreover, the use of Taq polymerase implies that the maximal product length is about 3 kb.
DOP-PCR is a method which generally uses Taq polymerase and semi-degenerate oligonucleotides (such as CGACTCGAGNNNNNNATGTGG (SEQ ID NO: 12), for example, where N=A, T, C or G) that bind at a low annealing temperature at approximately one million sites within the human genome. The first cycles are followed by a large number of cycles with a higher annealing temperature, allowing only for the amplification of the fragments that were tagged in the first step. This leads to incomplete representation of a whole genome. DOP-PCR generates, like PEP, fragments that are in average 400-500 bp, with a maximum size of 3 kb, although fragments up to 10 kb have been reported. On the other hand, as noted for PEP, a low input of genomic DNA (less than 1 ng) decreases the fidelity and the genome coverage (Kittler et al., Anal. Biochem. 2002, 300(2), 237-44).
Multiple displacement amplification (MDA, also known as strand displacement amplification; SDA) is a non-PCR-based isothermal method based on the annealing of random hexamers to denatured DNA, followed by strand-displacement synthesis at constant temperature (Blanco et al., 1989, J. Biol. Chem. 264:8935-40, herein incorporated by reference). It has been applied to small genomic DNA samples, leading to the synthesis of high molecular weight DNA with limited sequence representation bias (Lizardi et al., Nature Genetics 1998, 19, 225-232; Dean et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 2002, 99, 5261-5266; both of which are herein incorporated by reference). As DNA is synthesized by strand displacement, a gradually increasing number of priming events occur, forming a network of hyper-branched DNA structures. The reaction can be catalyzed by the Phi29 DNA polymerase or by the large fragment of the Bst DNA polymerase. The Phi29 DNA polymerase possesses a proofreading activity resulting in error rates 100 times lower than the Taq polymerase.
What is needed are whole genome amplification methods that do not require nucleic acid purification between or during steps, and/or that can be accomplished in a single container.

Nucleic acid sample preparation methods and compositions


A geyser pump includes an air chamber having an air chamber interior, a generally U-shaped bubble-forming loop external to and disposed in fluid communication with the air chamber and a liquid delivery conduit disposed in fluid communication with the bubble-forming loop. A liquid recirculation/transfer system having an orifice disk assembly and a geyser pump is also disclosed.

Air lift liquid pumps are pumps which move a liquid from a tank or vessel by injecting air into the lower end of a pipe submerged in the liquid inside the tank or vessel. The buoyancy of the injected air forms air bubbles which rise rapidly in the pipe and push a portion of the liquid above the bubbles out of the pipe. Air lift liquid pumps are capable of a wide range of liquid flow rates and lift capabilities. A geyser pump is a particular type of air lift liquid pump in which air over time is concentrated into successive bubbles, each of which may completely fill a section of a submerged pipe. Each bubble forces a large portion of the liquid above it out of the pipe such that the liquid is removed from the tank or vessel in volumetric increments.
A geyser pump is needed which is amenable to a variety of applications and is capable of moving large volumes of water at high velocity.


A method is disclosed which uses the Langmuir-Blodgett method to coat a substrate with multiple monomolecular single layers by immersing the substrate through a first layer of a first enclosure of a tank having first and second enclosures on a common subphase, and then withdrawing the substrate through a second layer in the second enclosure. The steps are repeatable to provide as many different single layers as required.

This invention relates to a method of making asymmetric Langmuir-Blodgett films by depositing monomolecular layers on a substrate. More specifically, this invention comprises a method for depositing two or more different monomolecular layers onto a substrate.
Monomolecular layers of organic compounds find a large number of applications, especially in the field of electronics. For example, monomolecular layers are used in forming metal-insulator-metal structures in which the thickness of the dielectric insulator layer must be controlled with a particularly high degree of accuracy.
One known method for producing and depositing monomolecular layers of amphiphillic molecules is the well known Langmuir-Blodgett method, described in the Journal of The American Chemical Society, Volume 57 (1935) pages 1007-1010.
The Langmuir-Blodgett method consists of forming a monomolecular layer at the surface of a tank filled with a liquid subphase such as water. In the Langmuir-Blodgett method a solution of amphiphillic molecules dissolved in a solvent which is not miscible with the subphase liquid in the tank is spread onto the liquid surface. Amphiphillic molecules are those having a hydrophobic first end and a hydrophiphillic second end lined up side by side in a particular direction. When the solvent evaporates a loosely packed monomolecular layer is formed on the surface of the subphase. A transition of the monomolecular layer thus formed from a state of gas or liquid to a solid state is then achieved by reduction of the surface area of the layer by compressing it to a predetermined surface pressure. The resulting monomolecular layer is deposited onto the surface of a substrate by passing the substrate through the compressed layer while maintaining the layer at a predetermined surface pressure during the period of deposition.
A standard method for compressing the monomolecular layer consists of using a leak tight moving barrier which moves over the liquid surface of the tank. By displacing the barrier, the area of the monomolecular layer which had previously been formed at the liquid surface of the tank is reduced to bring the layer to the desired surface pressure.
In a conventional Langmuir-Blodgett system, the substrate is passed through the monomolecular layer on the surface of the subphase to coat the substrate with a single layer. On the return trip through the subphase, a second layer is applied, and this second layer is undesirable for many applications. In the method provided in accordance with this invention, the substrate is passed through each of a plurality of monomolecular layers in only one direction, so that only a single coating of a particular layer is applied.
Other Langmuir-Blodgett systems are described in a number of U.S. Patents. For example, Albrecht et al U.S. Pat No. 4,722,856 discloses a system for maintaining the pressure of a monomolecular layer on the surface of a subphase substantially constant. Barraud et al U.S. Pat. No. 4,599,969 discloses a tank with a single trough having a movable barrier for controlling surface pressure of the monomolecular layer. The mechanical arrangement of Barraud's barrier would be suitable for use in each of the troughs used in accordance with this invention. Ono, U.S. Pat. No. 4,779,562 shows a system in which the substrate is held fixed while the subphase is raised, thereby eliminating the need for lowering and raising the substrate.
None of the known prior art uses a two trough system in which the substrate is first coated with a single monomolecular layer by first immersing the substrate through a layer on the surface of a common subphase in one of the troughs, then moving the substrate laterally below the surface to the second trough, where it is coated with a second different layer by withdrawing the substrate from the subphase and through the second layer.

Method of making asymmetric Langmuir-Blodgett films

The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Air Force


A vehicle seat comprises a reclinable seatback (2), a seat bottom (3) movable in a front-and-rear direction, a pretensioner (41) for moving the seat bottom (3) rearward, and brackets (21, 21) attached to a vehicle body. The seat bottom is attached to the brackets so as to move in the front-and-rear direction, the seatback is rotatably attached to the brackets, and the pretensioner moves the seat bottom relatively rearward with respect to the brackets. When the seat bottom is moved rearward by the pretensioner, a front portion of the seat bottom is moved upward.

Conventionally, there is known a pretensioner for restricting an unpreferable forward movement of a seat occupant by rearwardly moving a vehicle seat when a large external force acts on a vehicle body by vehicle collision and the like.
When a collision detector detects vehicle collision, the conventional mechanism moves a vehicle seat in its entirety, that is, a seat bottom and a seatback rearward.    Patent Document 1: JP 2001-130354 A1

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Seat bottom pretensioner for vehicle seat