A heat-sensitive recording material comprising a support and a recording layer provided on the support, said recording layer containing a colorless or pale-colored basic dye and a color developer capable of forming a color upon application of heat, wherein a smectite clay or a combination of a synthetic hectorite clay and soap-free emulsion type binder is incorporated in at least one of layers constituting the recording material.

A heat-sensitive recording material utilizing a coloring reaction between a colorless or pale-colored basic dye and an organic or inorganic color developer by contacting the dye and the color developer through application of heat is well known. A heat-sensitive recording material of this type is widely used, for example, in a facsimile, a printer and as a recording medium for use in various calculators, because it is relatively inexpensive, a recording equipment containing it is compact and further is relatively easy to maintain.
Recently, either for the adaptability to multicolorization or for the use in an overhead projector (OHP), a transparent heat-sensitive recording material (whose support is a film) and the like with which recording can be performed directly by a thermal-head have been developed.
With extention of the application form, a heat-sensitive recording material is used under various conditions that the external circumstances are varied. Thus it is required for the heat-sensitive recording material to have excellent recording suitability so that a recording image can be obtained always stably. For this reason, various improvements have been proposed.
For example, when recording is performed under low humidity conditions, the friction between a recording equipment and a recording paper produces frictional charge, thereby decreasing the suitability for passing the recording paper and causing troubles such as paper plugging (jamming), sticking of the recording paper to the recording equipment, and break-down and abnormal or wrong operation of a thermal-head and other circuits. Therefore, a method of treating the recording material with various electroconductive substances such as metal oxides, metal halides, polymeric electrolytes, surfactants and hygroscopic substances is disclosed in, for example, JP-A-57-148687, JP-A-57-156292, JP-A-57-170794 and JP-A-57-199687. (The term "JP-A" as used herein means an "unexamined published Japanese patent application".) In accordance with this method, a considerably high improvement can be obtained.
In recent years, in order to obtain a heat-sensitive recording material excellent in a degree of resolution, a film or synthetic paper has been increasingly used as a support. When such a support is used, even if various electroconductive substances as described above are used, satisfactory results cannot be always obtained. Thus still more improvements have been desired.
That is, when a film or synthetic paper is used as a support, in particular, frictional charging under low humidity conditions is marked as compared with the case that the ordinary paper is used as a support. Thus even if electroconductive substances as described above are used, no satisfactory charge preventing effect can be obtained.
It may be considered to use a metal-based electroconductive agent, but such a use is expensive and therefore not desirable because of economical reason. Besides, the metal-based electroconductive agent tends to be readily colored and, as a result, it decreases the commercial value of the obtained heat-sensitive recording material. If a large amount of such an electroconductive substance is used in order to increase the electroconductivity, problems are produced such that undesirable fogging is produced in the recording material and that coagulation likely occurs where the electroconductive substance is a polymeric electrolyte. Also, use of a large amount of a hygroscopic substance is attended by such problems that the recording material becomes tacky under high humidity conditions and that blocking between recording materials occurs.
On the other hand, from the standpoints of the use as a transparent heat-sensitive recording material (e.g., one for OHP) or the adaptability to multicolorization, it is a pressing need to develop a heat-sensitive recording material which has excellent color reproductivity and high degree of transparency.


An image sensor includes a sensing layer, a transparent plate, and a first guided-mode resonance structure. The sensing layer includes sensing units configured to sense a light beam. The transparent plate is located above the sensing layer. The first guided-mode resonance structure is disposed on a first area of the transparent plate, and blocks a first waveband of the light beam from passing through.

Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates to an image sensor and an image capture device, and in particular to an image sensor and an image capture device having a guided-mode resonance structure.
Description of the Related Art
In general, a digital camera utilizes an image sensor to sense light and generate an image signal, and thus a picture taken by the digital camera can be generated according to the image signal. In addition, a spectrometer utilizes an image sensor to sense an infrared ray, ultraviolet light, and/or visible light.
As image sensors continue to develop, high-quality image signals are increasingly required. The image sensors using a backside illumination (BSI) technology having light-pipe structures to guide light to photodiodes. The image sensors have better photosensitivity and image quality.
Although image sensors have been generally adequate for their intended purposes, they have not been entirely satisfactory in all respects. Consequently, it is desirable to provide a solution for the problem of how to improve image sensors.


A system comprising an adjustment unit installed in an aircraft and configured to adjust a descent trajectory and associated prediction calculations as a function of an adjustment parameter. The system comprises information processing units for automatically calculating, on the ground and from recorded flight data, an effective value of a calculation parameter, and a corresponding theoretical value of the calculation parameter, with the help of an auxiliary performance database which is identical to a performance database installed in the aircraft, for identical flight conditions, and for deriving therefrom the adjustment parameter that will be used subsequently by the adjustment unit.

The present invention relates to a method and a system for adjusting the descent trajectory of an aircraft, in particular of a transport aircraft.
It is known that modern aircraft have onboard systems which make it possible, with the help of performance data described below, to calculate a flight plan, as well as associated predictions, and to guide the aircraft so that it follows the calculated flight plan.
On certain aircraft, the performance data are not reset by flight tests for the descent phases during which the engines of the aircraft are operating in idling mode and can therefore exhibit differences with respect to the real performance of the aircraft when it is delivered. Moreover, these differences can increase with the degradation of the aerodynamics or the wear of the engines during the service life of the aircraft.
In this context, means must be developed in order to model the descent performance of the aircraft as accurately as possible. As the performance data are notably used during a descent for determining the position of the start of descent point, a low quality model can give rise to a descent that is to early or too late, which can hamper the pilot's operation, give rise to thrust increases or to deployment of air brakes during the descent and to an overall excess fuel consumption.
New generation flight management systems, of the FMS (Flight Management System) type, generally comprise a functionality that allows the adjustment of the descent profiles and the predictions associated with these profiles, using for this purpose a value called an adjustment parameter. This functionality is able to vary the performance of the aircraft on both the descent and approach profiles.
However, this adjustment parameter depends on the type of the engines but not on the real capabilities of the aircraft.

Method and system for adjusting the descent trajectory of an aircraft


Statistically analyzing a discriminant variable generated by a discriminant voiced detector is done to determine the presence of the fundamental frequency in a changing speech environment. The detector is responsive to the discriminant variable to first calculate the average of all of the values of the discriminant variable over the present and past speech frames and then to determine the overall probability that any frame will be unvoiced. In addition, the detector calculates two values, one value represents the statistical average of discriminant values that an unvoiced frame's discriminant variable would have and the other value represents the statistical average of the discriminant values for voice frames. These latter calculations are performed utilizing not only the average discriminant value but also a weight value and a threshold value which are adaptively determined from frame to frame. The unvoiced/voiced decision is made by utilizing the weight and threshold values.

In low bit rate voice coders, degradation of voice quality is often due to inaccurate voicing decisions. The difficulty in correctly making these voicing decisions lies in the fact that no single speech parameter or classifier can reliably distinguish voiced speech from unvoiced speech. In order to make the voice decision, it is known in the art to combine multiple speech classifiers in the form of a weighted sum. This method is commonly called discriminant analysis. Such a method is illustrated in D. P. Prezas, et al., "Fast and Accurate Pitch Detection Using Pattern Recognition and Adaptive Time-Domain Analysis," Proc. IEEE Int. Conf. Acoust., Speech and Signal Proc., Vol. 1, pp. 109-112, April 1986. As described in that article, a frame of speech is declared voice if a weighted sum of classifiers is greater than a specified threshold, and unvoiced otherwise. The weights and threshold are chosen to maximize performance on a training set of speech where the voicing of each frame is known.
A problem associated with the fixed weighted sum method is that it does not perform well when the speech environment changes. The reason is that the threshold is determined from the training set which is different from speech subject to background noise, non-linear distortion, and filtering.
One method for adapting the threshold value to changing speech environment is disclosed in the paper of H. Hassanein, et al., "Implementation of the Gold-Rabiner Pitch Detector in a Real Time Environment Using an Improved Voicing Detector," IEEE Transactions on Acoustic, Speech and Signal Processing, 1986, Tokyo, Vol. ASSP-33, No. 1, pp. 319-320. This paper discloses an empirical method which compares three different parameters against independent thresholds associated with these parameters and on the basis of each comparison either increments or decrements by one an adaptive threshold value. The three parameters utilized are energy of the signal, first reflection coefficient, and zero-crossing count. For example, if the energy of the speech signal is less than a predefined energy level, the adaptive threshold is incremented. On the other hand, if the energy of the speech signal is greater than another predefined energy level, the adaptive threshold is decremented by one. After the adaptive threshold has been calculated, it is subtracted from an output of a elementary pitch detector. If the results of the subtraction yield a positive number, the speech frame is declared voice; otherwise, the speech frame is declared on unvoice. The problem with the disclosed method is that the parameters themselves are not used in the elementary pitch detector. Hence, the adjustment of the adaptive threshold is ad hoc and is not directly linked to the physical phenomena from which it is calculated. In addition, the threshold cannot adapt to rapidly changing speech environments.


An apparatus is capable of reducing an overhead caused by a mute section in a wireless communication system that provides a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service. In the method, one or more terminals for providing the VoIP service during a next time section are determined. Mute section set information of a current time section and the next time section for the one or more terminals is determined. An amount of a resource of the next time section is allocated to at least one terminal whose next time section is not set to a mute section, wherein the amount of resource of the next time section is based on whether the current time section is set to a mute section or not set to a mute section.

In the case of providing a VoIP service, according to P. T. Brady, "A method for generating ON-OFF speech patterns in two way conversations," Bell syst. Technology Journal, vol. 48, pp. 2445-2472, September, 1969, an exponentially distributed ON-OFF system includes a section TON for substantially transmitting/receiving a VoIP packet, and a mute section TOFF that does not transmit/receive a VoIP packet.
A base station allocates a resource so that a terminal may transmit/receive a VoIP packet during a VoIP service section. However, a terminal that provides a VoIP service transmits/receives a VoIP packet substantially during only a section TON of a VoIP service section. Therefore, a resource allocated to the mute section TOFF included in the VoIP service section is wasted.

Apparatus and method for uplink scheduling in wireless communication system


There is described a fluid treatment system in which fluid to be treated is impinged under pressure on a radiation emitting surface. The fluid treatment system includes at least one radiation source having a radiation emitting surface and at least one nozzle element having a fluid discharge opening spaced from the radiation emitting surface. The fluid discharge opening is configured to impinge fluid to be treated on to at least a portion of the radiation emitting surface. The fluid treatment system is well suited to treating low transmittance fluid.

1. Field of the Invention
In one of its aspects, the present invention relates to a fluid treatment system. In another of its aspects, the present invention relates to a process for treating fluid.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Mixing devices are known in the art and have been used to promote fluid turbulence—for example, to improve contact between elements in the flow path. Industrial applications of mixing are widely varied, and include heat exchange, reactor engineering and non-reactive blending.
One specific area of reactor engineering where mixing has been used is in the design of fluid treatment devices, particularly fluid radiation treatment devices. A specific such fluid radiation treatment device includes ultraviolet (UV) disinfection devices for water and wastewater treatment. The performance of UV disinfection devices depends, at least in part, on providing a prescribed dose of UV radiation to all fluid elements passing through (or otherwise being treated by) the device.
The UV dose received by a fluid element is defined as the product of UV intensity and exposure time. The accumulated UV dose received by a fluid element exiting the device is the sum of the individual doses received at each position. Since the UV intensity is attenuated with the distance from the UV source, it is desirable to mix fluid elements from regions far from the UV source to regions of higher intensity nearer to the source, thereby ensuring they receive an adequate dose of UV radiation. This type of mixing is particularly desirable when the transmittance of UV radiation through the fluid being treated is low (e.g., less than about 30% per cm), causing an increase in the attenuation of UV intensity with distance from the source—this is commonly encountered in UV disinfection devices for the treatment of liquids such as wastewater.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,846,437 [Whitby et al. (Whitby)], assigned to the assignee of the present application, teaches turbulent mixing in a UV system. More specifically, Whitby teaches the use of one or more ring-shaped devices (e.g., washers) at predetermined locations on the exterior surface of each lamp unit in the system and/or ring-shaped devices upstream of each lamp unit to increase turbulent mixing of fluid passing by the lamp units. While such ring-shaped devices as taught in Whitby are useful in increasing turbulence between the lamp units, the turbulent flow of fluid tends to be of a random or non-ordered (e.g., isotropic) nature.
In many systems, such as those where the mixing zone is longitudinal with respect to the direction of fluid flow therethrough, it is desirable to have plug flow in the flow direction and effective mixing in the transverse (to flow) direction. A specific or ordered pattern of fluid flow in the mixing zone is desirable (e.g., a "particle" of fluid oscillating toward and away from the lamp as it passes longitudinally with respect thereto), which is in contrast to general mixing in all directions (i.e., in contrast to random mixing or turbulence taught by Whitby). A longitudinal vortex is an example of this type of flow pattern. Vortices can be formed actively through energy input to the fluid, such as by employing a motorized fluid impeller.
Another means of achieving vortex generation is through the use of a passive element which is designed to cause the formation of the desired flow pattern (vortex generator).
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,696,380, 5,866,910 and 5,994,705 [all in the name Cooke et al. (Cooke)] teach a flow-through photochemical reactor. The subject reactor taught by Cooke comprises an elongate annular channel in which is disposed an elongate radiation source. The channel includes static, fluid-dynamic elements for passively inducing substantial turbulent flow within the fluid as it passes through the channel. According to Cooke, each such static, fluid-dynamic element advantageously creates a pair of "tip vortices" in the fluid flow past each element. The "tip vortices" purportedly are counter-rotating about an axis parallel to the elongate annular chamber.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,015,229 [Cormack et al. (Cormack)], assigned to the assignee of the present application, teaches a fluid mixing device. The fluid mixing device comprises a series of "delta wing" mixing elements which cause the formation of vortices thereby improving fluid mixing. A specific embodiment of such a device illustrated in Cormack is the use of "delta wing" mixing elements to cause such vortex mixing between UV radiation sources in an array of such sources. This creates the potential for increasing distance between adjacent UV radiation sources in the array which, in turn, allows for a reduction in hydraulic head loss of the fluid flow through a UV disinfection system comprising the fluid mixing device.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,166,850 [Brunet et al. (Brunet)] teaches a fluid treatment device having at least one mixing element oriented in a manner to achieve improved mixing of the fluid. The fluid mixing device comprises at least one mixing element and is designed to create at least one vortex adjacent to a surface of the mixing device which is downstream of the mixing element. The mixing element comprises a centroid and is oriented in the fluid flow in a manner such that a first normal located at the centroid of the mixing element intersects a second normal emanating from the surface at the centroid of the mixing element such that the first normal, the second normal and the direction of fluid flow are in a non-planar relationship—see FIG. 2 of Brunet. This novel orientation of the mixing element results in improved fluid mixing. For example when the fluid mixing device is employed in a fluid treatment system such as UV disinfection system the improved fluid mixing is manifested in an improvement of UV dose delivery of the system. Additionally, in various preferred embodiments of the fluid mixing device taught by Brunet, such improved fluid mixing is accompanied by a reduction in hydraulic head loss of fluid passing through the system.
Despite the advances in the art made by Cooke, Cormack and Brunet, there is still room for improvement.
The systems taught by Cooke, Cormack and Brunet operate on the same general principle, namely that fluid is subject to some form of turbulence as it travels in a direction substantially parallel to the longitudinal axis of the elongate radiation source. The various mixing elements taught by Cooke, Cormack and Brunet create vortices and the like of varying degrees to optimize exposure of the fluid to radiation as the fluid travels in a direction substantially parallel to the longitudinal axis of the elongate radiation source. Unfortunately, for fluids having very low transmittance (e.g., transmittance less than 30% and as low as 5% or less), even with these enhanced mixing approaches, the fluid may not receive sufficient radiation to result in prescribed disinfection thereof.


The compounds of the present invention are represented by the following formula (I):

Photovoltaic devices are used to convert light into electrical energy. Photovoltaic devices are characterized by their efficiency with which they can convert incidental light to useful electrical energy.
Traditionally, photovoltaic devices have been made of various inorganic semiconductors, e.g., crystalline, polycrystalline, and amorphous silicon, gallium arsenide, cadmium telluride, and others. Devices utilizing crystalline or amorphous silicon dominate commercial applications, and some have achieved high efficiencies. However, it is difficult and expensive to produce efficient crystalline-based devices, especially of large surface area, due to the inherent difficulties in producing large crystals without significant efficiency-degrading defects. Further, high efficiency amorphous silicon devices have problems with stability.
Recently, organic photovoltaic (OPV) devices are being researched and developed to achieve acceptable photovoltaic conversion efficiencies with economical production costs. However, since the energy conversion efficiencies of OPV devices are still low in comparison to their inorganic counterparts due to mainly very weak molecular orbital coupling and subsequent low carrier mobility of organic semiconductor, the industrial production of organic solar cells is not yet economical. One promising approach to circumvent the problem of low carrier mobility and small exciton diffusion bottleneck and thus to increase the overall energy conversion efficiencies of organic solar cells is the utilization of hetrojunction OPV or dispersed heterojunction OPV with a donor-acceptor system, consisting of n- and p-type conducting materials in a double layers separately (hetrojunction OPV) or a single layer prepared by blending the two n- and p-type materials (dispersed heterojunction OPV). The success and efficiency of dispersed hetrojunction OPV is largely depend on the domain size of interpenetrating donor-acceptor network whose size is ideally in the range of 10 nm. Since the degree of interpenetrating phase separation and the domain size depend on the choice of the solvent, speed of evaporation, solubility, miscibility of the donor and acceptor, etc., controlling the morphology of the organic compound in dispersed heterojunction devices is critical.
One way of controlling the morphology of an organic compound is to produce a molecular heterojunction by covalently linking electron-donor and acceptor molecules. Due to their unique optical and electrical properties, molecular heterojunction materials, i.e., donor-acceptor linked molecules, are likely to have important applications in OPV devices and, thus, have triggered intense scientific research.
Among the electron-donor and acceptor materials that are capable of producing a molecular heterojunction, oligothiophene and perylene tetracarboximide functional units have been extensively studied since the former preserves its typical charge-transport and self-assembling properties, while the latter provides high molar absorptivity in the visible region as well as electron-accepting properties. For example, Cremer et al., "Perylene-Oligothiophene-Perylene Triads for Photovoltaic Applications," Eur. J. Org. Chem., 3715-3723 (2005) discloses acceptor-donor-acceptor triad systems consisting of head-to-tail-coupled oligo(3-hexylthiophenes) integrated between two terminal perylenemonoimides which can be used for organic solar cells. In addition, Chen et al., "Oligothiophene-Functionalized Perylene Bisimide System: Synthesis, Characterization, and Electrochemical Polymerization Properties," Chem. Mater., 17:2208-2215 (2005) describes perylene bisimides derivatives functionalized with two oligothiophene substituents. Further, Xiaowei et al., "A High-Mobility Electron-Transport Polymer with Broad Absorption and Its Use in Field-Effect Transistors and All-Polymer Solar Cells," J. Am. Chem. Soc. 129:7246-7247 (2007) discloses a copolymer of perylene diimide and dithienothiophene building blocks exhibiting broad absorption ranging from the visible to the near infrared regions. Huang et al., "Size Effects of Oligothiphene on the Dynamics of Electron Transfer in π-Conjugated Oligothiophene-Perylene Bisimide Dyads," J. Phys. Chem. C 112:2689-2696 (2008) discloses the preparation of a series of π-conjugated perylene bisimide dyads having two oligothiophene moieties, while PCT International Publication No. WO 08012584A describes several perylene tetracarboximides as hole-transporting materials for light emitting devices.
However, none of the above compounds disclosed in the art exhibits sufficiently high efficiency, charge carrier mobility, or stability when utilized in OPV devices. It would thus be desirable to develop perylene tetracarboximide derivatives that have potentials for ideal electron donor for fullerene derivative [6,6]-phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM), high photovoltaic conversion efficiencies and are stable for OPV device applications.

Perylene tetracarboximide derivatives for photovoltaic devices

Abstract: wherein M is represented by the following formula:

Abstract: with R1, R2, R3, R4, R5, R6, R7, R8, R10, R11, X1, X2, X3, L, a, b, c, d, e, x, y, and z defined herein.


A tension-exerted hoop for plastic and rubber articles comprises a tension-exerted (lock) hoop made up of a plurality of flexible wires wound into a hoop-shaped configuration wherein the flexible wires are respectively twined and bundled up via multiple thin filaments into identical-diameter wires each having a combining coarse surface defined by protruded and recessed sections at the outer periphery thereon. Therefore, when the tension-exerted hoop are housed inside plastic or rubber material of an air-filled container, the plastic or rubber material can penetrate into fissures formed among the thin filaments and securely bind with the coarse surfaces to create double layers of penetrative binding engagement thereby, increasing the binding area between the plastic or rubber material and the tension-exerted (lock) hoop so as to prevent the tension-exerted (lock) hoop from collapse and detachment during the repeated inflation and deflation operation of the air-filled plastic or rubber container thereof.

The present invention is related to a tension-exerted hoop for plastic and rubber articles, comprising a tension-exerted (lock) hoop made up of a plurality of flexible wires wound into a hoop-shaped configuration wherein the flexible wires are respectively twined and bundled up via multiple thin filaments into identical-diameter wires each having a combining coarse surface defined by protruded and recessed sections thereon so that plastic or rubber material of an air-filled container can penetrate into fissures formed among the thin filaments thereof and securely bind with the combining coarse surfaces of the flexible wires to create double-layer binding engagement thereby, increasing the binding area between the plastic or rubber material and the tension-exerted (lock) hoop so as to prevent the tension-exerted (lock) hoop from detachment during the repeated inflation and deflation operation of the air-filled plastic or rubber container thereof.
Please refer to FIG. 1. A conventional tension-exerted hoop for plastic and rubber articles includes a tension-exerted (lock) hoop 10 that can be housed to the interior of a shock-resistant air bag 21 of a vehicle 20 as shown in FIGS. 2, 3, or a coupling ring 31 of a tire 30 as shown in FIG. 4. The tension-exerted (lock) hoop 10 is made up of a plurality of smooth-surface and identical-diameter flexible wires 11 that are wound into a hoop-shaped configuration and are bound by plastic or rubber material 211, 311 of an air-filled container like the anti-shock air bag 21 or the tire 30 as shown in FIG. 5.
There are some disadvantages to such conventional tension-exerted (lock) hoop. Most of all, the tension-exerted (lock) hoop 10 is directly twined and made by multiple smooth-surface and identical-diameter flexible wires 11, and the plastic or rubber material 211, 311 of the air-filled container like the anti-shock air bag 21, or the tire 30 thereof can simply coat to the fissures formed among the flexible wires 11 and wrap around the outer surface of each flexible wire thereof. During the process of repeated inflation and deflation of the air-filled container, the plastic or rubber material 211, 311 without secure binding engagement thereof tends to get peeled off from the tension-exerted (lock) hoop 10. Thus, the tension-exerted (lock) hoop 10 can easily get loosened and fail to be stably located in the operation thereof.

Tension-exerted hoop for plastic and rubber articles


Disclosed herein is a method and a video generator for generating video response to user queries. The video generator receives a visual image of a character of interest from the user and generates a frontal face of the visual image. Further, facial expressions of the character of interest are mapped with an audio/video sequence of one or more textual responses for generating a human like video response to the user queries. In an embodiment, the video generator detects gender of the character of interest, and modulates and matches voice of the video response based on the gender of the character of interest. The instant method can synthesize a video with the face of a character of interest to the user, thereby providing a wholesome communication experience to the user.

Presently, virtual assistant systems are not capable of mimicking and simulating a human-to-human communication experience. A virtual assistant which is engaged in a dialogue with a human being should be able to present a human like interface, having a match between facial expression, eye movement and lip movement and utterances communicated during the dialogue.
Further, the personality and other characteristics such as gender of the virtual assistant should be able to match with the user's preferences. Ideally, the user should be able to Interact with the virtual assistant as if it were a real interaction. This may be necessary to provide a wholesome communication experience to the user.

System and method for generation of human like video response for user queries


A wall structure, which may be in the form of a prefabricated unit, provides privacy for an enclosure while also enabling good ventilation. It comprises a planar array of angularly oriented, parallel slats that overlap one another as viewed in a direction generally normal to the plane. The slats are attached to support structure by brackets that are identical to one another.

The interiors of enclosures of various kinds will commonly require ventilation, and when they are intended for human use it is often important that privacy screening against visual intrusion be afforded as well. Leaving doors and windows open to permit air flow may compromise privacy, however, as may the provision of natural light-admitting skylights.
While it is of course old and well known to mount louver boards in windows and other openings for the purpose of enabling air flow and light admittance (while also serving to shed rainwater), considerable effort and skill is required for making such installations, particularly if they are to be functionally optimal and aesthetically pleasing. As far as is known, no wall structure for ventilating an enclosure, while also affording privacy against visual intrusion, has heretofore been provided, such structure being facile and economical to construct, aesthetically attractive, and highly effective for its intended purposes.


Methods of inducing a safe immune response against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) in a human subject in need thereof, including administering to the subject a composition including recombinant adenovirus including a nucleic acid encoding an RSV Fusion (F) protein including the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 1, and a pharmaceutically acceptable carrier, in a total dose of from about 1×1010 to about 2×1011 viral particles (vp), are described.

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a highly contagious childhood pathogen of the respiratory tract which is believed to be responsible for ˜200,000 childhood deaths annually. In children younger than 2 years, RSV accounts for approximately 50% of the hospitalizations due to respiratory infections, with a peak of hospitalization occurring at 2-4 months of age. It has been reported that almost all children will have experienced infection with RSV by the age of two, and repeated infection during life is attributed to low natural immunity. In the elderly, the RSV disease burden is similar to those caused by non-pandemic influenza A infections.
RSV is a paramyxovirus, belonging to the subfamily of pneumovirinae. Its genome encodes for various proteins, including the membrane proteins known as RSV Glycoprotein (G) and RSV fusion (F) protein which are the major antigenic targets for neutralizing antibodies.
Unlike the RSV G protein, the F protein is conserved between RSV strains; which makes it an attractive vaccine candidate able to elicit broadly neutralizing antibodies. The F protein is a transmembrane protein and it is incorporated in the virion membrane from cellular membrane during virus budding. The RSV F protein facilitates infection by fusing the viral and host-cell membranes. In the process of fusion, the F protein refolds irreversibly from a labile pre-fusion conformation to a stable post-fusion conformation. The protein precursor, F0, requires cleavage during intracellular maturation by a furin-like protease. There are two furin sites, cleavage of which results in removal of a p27 peptide and formation of two domains: an N-terminal F2 domain and a C-terminal F1 domain (FIG. 1). The F2 and F1 domains are connected by two cystine bridges. Antibodies against the fusion protein can prevent virus uptake in the cell and thus have a neutralizing effect. Besides being a target for neutralizing antibodies, RSV F contains cytotoxic T cell epitopes (Pemberton et al, 1987, J. Gen. Virol. 68: 2177-2182).
Despite 50 years of research, there is still no licensed vaccine against RSV. One major obstacle to the vaccine development is the legacy of vaccine-enhanced disease in a clinical trial in the 1960s with a formalin-inactivated (FI) RSV vaccine. FI-RSV vaccinated children were not protected against natural infection and infected children experienced more severe illness than non-vaccinated children, including two deaths. This phenomenon is referred to as 'enhanced disease'.
Since the trial with the FI-RSV vaccine, various approaches to generate an RSV vaccine have been pursued. Attempts include classical live attenuated cold passaged or temperature sensitive mutant strains of RSV, (chimeric) protein subunit vaccines, peptide vaccines and RSV proteins expressed from recombinant viral vectors, including adenoviral vectors. Although some of these vaccines showed promising pre-clinical data, no vaccine has been licensed for human use due to safety concerns or lack of efficacy.
The most potent RSV neutralizing antibodies bind to a particular site (site zero) on the RSV F protein which is only exposed when the RSV protein is in its pre-fusion conformation which makes this particular conformation very attractive as a vaccine antigen. However, the F protein in its pre-fusion conformation is very unstable and readily undergoes a major conformational shift to the post-fusion conformation. Due to its instability the pre-fusion conformation thus has a propensity to prematurely refold into the stable postfusion conformation. This phenomenon is an intrinsic feature of the protein both in solution and on the surface of the virions.
Vaccine candidates based on the RSV F protein have failed due to problems with e.g. stability, purity, reproducibility, and potency. Indeed, despite many efforts to produce a vaccine against RSV that contain pre-fusion forms of RSV F protein, no stable pre-fusion RSV F polypeptides have been described that have been tested in humans.
Therefore, a need still exists for safe and effective vaccines and methods of vaccinating against RSV. The present invention aims at providing such methods for vaccinating against RSV in a safe manner.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method for the safe induction of immunity against RSV


A surface-emitting laser device includes a transparent dielectric layer provided in an emitting region and configured to cause a reflectance at a peripheral part to be different from a reflectance at a central part in the emitting region. In the surface-emitting laser device, the thickness of a contact layer is different between a region having a relatively high reflectance and a region having a relatively low reflectance in the emitting region. The contact layer is provided on the high refractive index layer of an upper multilayer film reflecting mirror, and the total optical thickness of the high refractive index layer and the contact layer in the region having the relatively low reflectance is deviated from an odd number multiple of a one quarter oscillation wavelength of laser light emitted from the emitting region.

In a VCSEL (Vercial Cavity Surface Emitting Laser) device, it is important to suppress oscillations in a high-order side mode in terms of its application. Therefore, various attempts have been made to achieve this feature. Among them, it is particularly effective to make a reflectance difference between the central part and the peripheral part of an emitting region to suppress the oscillations in the high-order side mode. In this regard, various methods have been disclosed.
For example, Patent Document 1 discloses a surface-emitting laser device in which a layer structure made of a semiconductor material and having a luminous layer arranged between an upper reflecting mirror layer structure and a lower reflecting mirror layer structure is formed on a substrate. An upper electrode having a circular shape in a plan view is formed above the upper reflecting mirror layer structure. An opening part is formed inside the upper electrode and a transparent layer partially covering the front surface of the opening part is formed with respect to the oscillation wavelength of oscillation laser light. Here, a circular SiN film whose optical thickness is an odd number multiple of λ/4 is formed on an emitting surface, thereby reducing a reflectance in the peripheral part of an emitting region.
Further, Patent Document 2 discloses a surface-emitting semiconductor laser having a laser structure in which a first multilayer film reflecting mirror, an active layer having a luminous central region, a second multilayer film reflecting mirror, and a side mode control layer are laminated on a substrate in this order. In the laser structure, one of the first multilayer film reflecting mirror and the second multilayer film reflecting mirror has a quadrate current injection region in which the intersection point of diagonal lines corresponds to the luminous central region. The second multilayer film reflecting mirror has a light emitting port provided in a region corresponding to one of the diagonals in the current injection region and has a pair of groove parts provided on both sides of the light emitting port. The side mode control layer is provided corresponding to the light emitting port and structured such that the reflectance of a peripheral region other than a central region corresponding to the luminous central region in the light emitting port is lower than that of the central region. Here, as the side mode control layer, a structure in which plural types of dielectric films are alternately laminated with each other to make a reflectance difference is disclosed as well as a structure using one type of dielectric film (see, for example, a fifth embodiment of Patent Document 2). Moreover, the second multilayer film reflecting mirror in the peripheral region of the light emitting port is removed by etching to reduce the reflectance of the peripheral region (see, for example, a fourth embodiment of Patent Document 2).
Further, Patent Document 3 discloses a surface-emitting laser device having a layer structure in which a lower reflecting mirror, an active layer, and an upper reflecting mirror are laminated in this order, and has a current confinement layer provided inside the lower reflecting mirror or the upper reflecting mirror. This surface-emitting laser device has a semiconductor layer provided on the upper reflecting mirror and having a first region showing a first reflectance with respect to oscillation laser light and a second region showing a second reflectance with respect to the oscillation laser light inside the boundary surface of a current confinement region defined at least by the current confinement layer. Here, the thickness of a GaAs layer at the output surface is made different between a central part and a peripheral part by about λ/4 as an optical thickness, thereby reducing the reflectance of the peripheral part.
However, the surface-emitting semiconductor laser device disclosed in Patent Document 1 has a limit in the effect of suppressing the oscillations in the high-order side mode.
Further, in the surface-emitting semiconductor laser disclosed in Patent Document 2, the structure, in which the plural types of dielectric films are alternately laminated to form the side mode control layer, increases the number of processes of manufacturing the surface-emitting semiconductor layer, which is not desirable in terms of mass production and manufacturing cost.
Furthermore, in the surface-emitting semiconductor laser disclosed in Patent Document 2, when the second multilayer reflecting mirror in the peripheral region of the light emitting port is removed by etching, the multilayer reflecting mirror has a smaller reflectance than a dielectric per one pair. Therefore, in order to obtain a large reflectance difference, it is necessary to remove many layers. At this time, if the layers are removed by wet etching, it is presumed that the cross sections of the layers are inclined and the reflectance difference is likely to become unstable at a boundary between a high reflectance region and a low reflectance region.
Further, in the surface-emitting laser device disclosed in Patent Document 3, when the GaAs layer is increased to have an optical thickness of about λ/4 so as to make a large reflectance difference, an inconvenience such as a reduction in luminous efficiency due to an increased absorption loss occurs.    Patent Document 1: JP-A-2001-156395    Patent Document 2: JP-A-2007-201398    Patent Document 3: JP-A-2003-115634

Surface-emitting laser device, surface-emitting laser array, optical scanner, image forming apparatus, and method for manufacturing surface-emitting laser device


Compositions and methods for controlling prepathological and pathological protein assembly or aggregation using picolinic acid, analogs, or derivatives thereof are described. The compositions of the invention, capable of solubilizing a conformationally altered protein, comprise a carboxylic acid anion of picolinic acid, its analogs, or derivatives thereof and a cation. According to the methods of the invention, conformationally altered protein assembly or aggregation in an animal is prevented or reversed by introducing the compositions of the invention to the conformationally altered protein. The compositions can be administered systemically by injection, oral administration, inhalation, transdermal, or other routes of administration. The compositions and methods can be used to treat diseases manifested by conformationally altered protein assembly or aggregation including, but not limited to Alzheimer""s disease, spongiform encephalopathy, cerebral amyloid angiopathy, Parkinson""s disease, frontal temporal dementia, Pick""s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Huntington""s disease and Creutzfelds-Jakob disease.

Not Applicable.
Not Applicable.
This invention relates to compositions and methods for the treatment of degenerative diseases. More specifically, the invention relates to pharmaceutical compositions and methods for the treatment of degenerative diseases related to aggregation or assembly of conformationally altered proteins including, but not limited to Alzheimer""s disease, cerebral amyloid angiopathy, Parkinson""s disease, frontal temporal dementia, Pick""s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Huntington""s disease, bovine spongiform encephalopathy and Creutzfeld-Jakob disease.
Assembly or aggregation of conformationally altered proteins is thought to be a major cause of prepathological and pathological conditions including amyloidoses, prion diseases, and other common degenerative diseases. Conformational alterations from xcex1-helical or random coil to xcex2-sheet conformation are believed to be required for the conversion of normally soluble and functional proteins into insoluble and pathogenic states. Examples of such insoluble proteins include: Beta-Amyloid Precursor Protein (APP) and Beta-Amyloid (xcex2A) in amyloid plaques of Alzheimer""s Disease (AD), Familial AD (FAD) and cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA); xcex1-synuclein deposits in Lewy bodies of Parkinson""s disease; Tau in neurofibrillary tangles in frontal temporal dementia and Pick""s disease; Superoxide Dismutase in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis; Huntingtin in Huntington""s disease; and Prion Protein (PrP) in Creutzfelds-Jakob disease (CJD). These conformationally altered insoluble proteins are composed mostly of fibrils formed by the assembly or aggregation of xcex2-sheet monomers. It is believed that abnormal binding of a metal ligand in the metal-binding sites of the normal, soluble proteins is a major factor in the pathogenesis and continued pathology of the resulting diseases. It has also been suggested that certain forms of these diseases may be inherited. However, no methods currently exist to definitively link these diseases to genetic inheritance.
Currently, there is no effective therapy for PrP infection. There are also no treatments currently available that target the conformational changes from xcex1-helical or random coil to xcex2-sheet conformation to treat cerebral amyloid angiopathy, Parkinson""s disease, frontal temporal dementia, Pick""s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Huntington""s disease. AD therapeutic agents such as acetylcholinesterase (AChE) inhibitors that enhance cholinergic neurotransmission by hindering the breakdown of acetylcholine have been approved by the FDA. This approach, however, does not retard the progression of the underlying neurodegenerative disease.
Nonspecific chelation therapy has become increasingly promoted as a therapy for AD and other diseases manifested by the aggregation or assembly of conformationally altered proteins. However, the growing practice of intravenous infusions of well-known nonspecific chelators such as ethylene-diamine-tetraacetic acid (EDTA) can lead to systemic metal ion depletion, making its use less desirable.
Therefore, novel compositions and methods are needed to treat diseases caused by the prepathological and pathological assembly or aggregation of proteins causing amyloidoses, prion diseases and other degenerative diseases that inhibit or reverse the progression of the underlying neurodegenerative disease and do not result in metal ion depletion.
In overcoming the above disadvantages, it is an object of the invention to produce compositions that may be used to successfully treat degenerative diseases.
Accordingly, and in one aspect of the invention, a composition capable of solubilizing a conformationally altered protein that includes a carboxylic acid anion of picolinic acid, analogs, or derivatives, thereof and a cation is provided, wherein the composition is not zinc picolinate, chromium picolinate, molybdenum picolinic, iron picolinic, manganese picolinate, copper picolinate, boron picolinate or vanadium picolinate.
In a second aspect of the invention, the above-described composition of the invention comprises picolinic acid, its analogs, or derivatives.
In a third aspect of the invention, the above-described composition of the invention comprises fusaric acid.
In a fourth aspect of the invention, a method of preventing or reversing conformationally altered protein assembly or aggregation in an animal is provided that includes introducing picolinic acid, its analogs, or derivatives to the conformationally altered protein.
In a fifth aspect of the invention, a method of preventing or reversing conformationally altered protein assembly or aggregation in an animal is provided that includes introducing fusaric acid to the conformationally altered protein.
In a sixth aspect of the invention, a method of treating conformationally altered protein assembly or aggregation in an animal is provided that includes administering a therapeutically effective amount of the above-described compositions of the invention.
These and other objects, advantages and features of the invention will become apparent to those persons skilled in the art upon reading the details of the compounds and methods more fully described below.

Methods and compositions for controlling protein assembly or aggregation


Embodiments of the invention enable the flying of a slider to be lowered and increase recording density with a simple configuration in a magnetic disk apparatus. In one embodiment, a magnetic disk apparatus comprises a magnetic disk including tracks for recording data; a magnetic head slider disposed with a magnetic head that flies over the rotating magnetic disk and records data to, or plays back data from, the magnetic disk; and a control device that controls the operation of the apparatus. Slider flying height data that vary inside the tracks are prerecorded in the tracks of the magnetic disk. The control device controls the operation of the magnetic head slider with respect to the magnetic disk on the basis of the slider flying height data recorded in the tracks.

The present invention relates to a magnetic disk apparatus and a control method thereof, and is particularly suitable for a magnetic disk apparatus disposed with a magnetic head slider that operates by flying over a rotating magnetic disk and a control method thereof.
With respect to magnetic disk apparatus, methods have been proposed in recent years which measure the flying height of a slider using a playback signal from a magnetic head slider or information obtained at the time of signal playback by a magnetic head. For example, in the method of measuring the flying height of a slider disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,777,544 (Patent Document 1), data for measuring the flying height of a slider are recorded in a data area of a magnetic disk and a readback signal is used to measure the flying height of the slider. This method has the advantage that the flying height of the slider can be measured even after the magnetic disk apparatus has been assembled.

Controlling head flying height in a data storage device

Hitachi Global Storage Technologies Netherlands B.V.


Contemplated compositions and methods are employed to bind in vitro and in vivo to an α4β2 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor in a highly selective manner. Where such compounds are labeled, compositions and methods employing such compounds can be used for PET and SPECT analysis. Alternatively, and/or additionally contemplated compounds can be used as antagonists, partial agonists or agonists in the treatment of diseases or conditions associated with α4ββ2 dysfunction.

Nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) belong to the superfamily of ligand-gated ion channels and are distributed widely in the human and nonhuman brain. At least 17 different subunits are currently known, which can coassemble in several ways resulting in 3 distinct types of nAChRs: (a) heteromeric receptors found in neuromuscular junctions, (b) heteromeric receptors found in the neurons, and (c) homomeric receptors also found in the neurons. These receptors mediate some effects of the endogenous neurotransmitter acetylcholine (ACh) and are also the biologic target of the tobacco alkaloid nicotine, which is known to mimic the actions of ACh at these receptors. Subunit compositions determine functional properties such as ion selectivity, conductance, channel open times, rate of desensitization, and sensitivity to certain neurotoxins.
Several nAChRs have been identified and characterized pharmacologically and have distinct patterns of distribution in the brain. For example, the nicotine α4β2 receptor subtypes are thought to play a role in various diseases, including various brain disorders (e.g., Alzheimer's disease), behavioral disorders (e.g., schizophrenia or substance abuse), various neoplasms (e.g., lung cancer), and other diseases (see e.g., J Neurobiol. 2002; 53:633-640). It has been suggested that the loss of the α4β2 receptors may be an early presymptomatic marker for Alzheimer's disease (Prog Neurobiol. 2000; 61:75-111). These neuronal receptors may also be involved in the addiction to nicotine in chronic tobacco users, and tobacco use may increase the number of the α4β2 receptor sites (Annu Rev Pharmacol Toxicol. 1996; 36:597-613).
Therefore, and not surprisingly, the development of noninvasive imaging methods using PET and SPECT of the α4β2 receptor system has gained significant interest. For example, in previously known methods, PET studies have been performed with 11C-nicotine. However, the moderate affinity of nicotine for the α4β2 receptors resulted in relatively rapid clearance, and thus precluded its usefulness as a radiotracer. Based on the discovery of epibatidine binding to the α4β2 receptor (see e.g., Mol. Pharmacol. 1994; 45:563-569), various PET and SPECT radioligands have been developed (e.g., Behav Brain Res. 2000; 113:143-157), including various epibatidine analogs (e.g., WO 2005/000806) and pyridylether analogs that have been radiolabeled with 11C, 18F, 76Br, or 123I. Structures of these ligands are depicted in FIG. 1. Still other radioligands have been prepared in an effort to optimize in vivo imaging properties (see e.g., Bioorg Med. Chem. 2001; 9:3055-3058; J Nucl Med. 2004; 45:878-884; Bioorg Med. Chem. 2003; 11:5333-5343). However, toxicity issues and undesirable kinetic parameters have slowed the progression of these radiotracers for human studies. Nonetheless, human SPECT studies have now begun with 5-123I-A85380, and PET studies have begun with 2-18F-A85380 and, more recently, with 6-18F-A85380 (for structures, see FIG. 1).
Still further known α4β2 nAChR ligands include those described in EP 1 185 521, WO 2002/076434, and WO 2002/57275, with agonist activity, and various plant derived compounds (e.g., tetrahydroberberine, tetrahydropalmatine, stepholidine) with agonist and antagonist activity were described in WO 2004/069144. Other known agonist compounds include metanicotine compounds and azaadamantane-type compounds as presented in WO 2001/082978, and various substituted hexahydro-1H-pyrrolizines as discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,733,912.
It should be noted that almost all of the PET and SPECT radioligands developed thus far for the α4β2 nAChR subtype have been agonists, and only few selected α4β2 ligands with antagonistic activity were described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,691,365. Other known antagonists include lophotoxin, neosurugatoxin, and erysodine (J. Med. Chem. (1997) 40: 4169-4194). It has been suggested that α4β2 nAChRs may occur in 4 possible conformations: (a) a resting state, when no agonist is present; (b) an activated state, when an agonist is present and the ion channel is open; (c) a transiently desensitized state, when the ion channel is closed for small lengths of time (i.e., seconds); and (d) a desensitized state, when the ion channel is closed for longer periods of time. ACh is known to bind with different affinities to these different states (e.g., ACh has higher affinity for desensitized states). Remarkably, there are no published data that would indicate whether antagonists also would have different affinities for the various states, and/or whether their in vivo binding pattern would be different compared with that of the agonists such as 2-18F-A85380. Only recently, a derivative was prepared that included a 18F-radiolabel attached to the N-pyrrolidine ring ([18F]3-[1-(3-fluoropropyl)-(S)-pyrrolidin-2-ylmethoxy]-pyridine in: J. Label Compd Radiopharm. 2003; 46:1261-1268). While that compound revealed good in vitro affinity for the α4β2 receptor, no specific data were provided on the differential active states in the nicotinic ACh receptor. Moreover, in vivo studies failed to provide conclusive images or data that would co-localize the PET signals with known locations for the α4β2 receptor.
Therefore, while there are numerous radioligands for receptors of the α4β2 receptor type known in the art, all or almost all of them suffer from one or more disadvantages. Consequently, there is still a need to provide improved compositions and methods for radioligands for receptors of the α4β2 receptor type.

Labeled ALPHA4BETA2 ligands and methods therefor

The Regents of the University of California


A motorized drive system and method for articulating an articulated joint having a motor and an elastic cable. The elastic cable is operatively connected to both the motor and the articulated joint such that the motor articulates the joint via the elastic cable. In addition, the elastic cable is adapted to be sufficiently elastic such that the motorized drive system is configured to use one motor for each degree of freedom through which the articulated joint moves.

Advances in the mechanical, electrical, and controls arts are bringing robots and similar mechanical devices closer to achieving physical tasks traditionally performed by humans. As such, many of these robots require articulated joints to complete these tasks. For example, some state-of-the-art legged robots walk with bipedal movement to traverse from one point to another. Many of these articulated joints employ joint-mounted motors to articulate the articulated joint. Such joint-mounted motors simplify controls for the articulated joint, but result in joint assemblies that are heavy and bulky.
A cable-driven joint is known to reduce the weight and size on these articulated joints. Rather than mounting the motor on the joint, the motor is mounted to a main body of the robot. Accordingly, non-stretchable cables extend from the body-mounted motor to the articulated joint assembly so that the joint may articulate as desired. While body-mounted motors successfully reduce the weight of the articulated joint, the cable-driven joint is more difficult to control because non-stretchable cables generally require an additional motor for each joint. Thus, the overall weight, cost, and complexity of the robot tend to increase for cable-driven joints.
Furthermore, both the joint-mounted drive unit and the non-stretchable cable-driven drive unit create rigidity in the articulated joint not present in biological joints, such as human joints. This rigidity leaves the articulated joint susceptible to forces and impacts that create imbalance and stress in the robot and increases energy consumption in order to overcome the impact. More particularly, energy consumption is increased, because the energy cannot be effectively absorbed and transferred into kinetic energy while propelling the body forward. This is in stark contrast to a biological joint that is capable of absorbing and transferring kinetic energy for this purpose. Thus, joint-mounted and non-stretchable cable motorized drive units for use with mechanical articulating joints are presently less capable than the biological counterpart.
There is a need for a motorized drive system and method for articulating a mechanical joint, such as the mechanical joint of a robot, that addresses present challenges and characteristics such as those discussed above.

Motorized drive system and method for articulating a joint


A method of fixing a problem with a user interface includes receiving information about the page in an optimization server. The page includes a display element. The information is received from a client with a request for code. Source data of the user interface is received by the client from a server distinct from the optimization server. The method further includes determining that an element on the user interface is associated with a known problem and associated fix. The fix includes modification of the element. An expected conversion rate of the user interface with the modified element is higher than prior to the modification. The method also includes generating code for modifying the element in accordance with the fix and providing the code to the client. The client displays the user interface with the modified element based on the source. Modifying the element does not include modifying the source.

The present disclosure relates generally to optimizing a user interface. The present disclosure more specifically relates to providing elements for a web page that are optimized to improve the conversion rate of the web page.
Interactive elements of a user interface, such as in a web page, electronic kiosk, mobile or tablet application, etc., such as buttons and forms, may be activated by a user taking some action, such as clicking on the button with a mouse cursor or entering text into the form. Interacting with such elements may result in a conversion, meaning that the user reaches a goal of, e.g., the web page, such as completing a purchase or signing up for a mailing list. The user also may interact with elements that take the user away from the goals of the web page, such as by navigating to another web page by clicking on an advertisement or other link.


A ratchet wrench in which the body and an integrally formed handle are of molded plastics material. The body includes a head formed with an opening which contains the ratchet mechanism. A metal bar embedded in the handle during the plastics molding process substantially enhances the physical strength of the wrench, and metal clamp plates overlying and seated in recesses in opposed principal surfaces of the wrench are bolted to each other, and are coupled to internal core components in the head of the wrench to secure the ratchet mechanism in place. The metal bar in the handle imparts structural stability and integrity as well as increased mechanical strength to the composite assembly.

The present invention relates to a ratchet wrench having structural components which include both metals and plastics compositions. More particularly, the invention is directed to a ratchet wrench having a plastics body and handle with cooperating reinforcing and augmenting outer metal plate structures as well as a metal bar contained within the molded wrench body and the wrench handle.
Ratchet wrenches with bodies or body components of plastics material are not unknown in the art, and such tools have take various forms and structural arrangements. In some of these tools, mechanical strength has been sacrificed or compromised to achieve weight reduction and to reduce production costs. In others, the adoption of plastics as a structural medium has not been without a sacrifice of durability and functional reliability. The recognized advantages inherent in the adoption of plastic as a structural medium in a fabrication of tools such as ratchet wrenches notwithstanding, no completely satisfactory composite structural assembly has heretofore been devised. It is, therefore, a principal aim of the present invention to provide a ratchet wrench having a body, including a head portion and a handle of plastics composition, in combination with outer and internal metal components so that functional reliability and structural strength are ensured and shortcomings and inadequacies of prior art devices are obviated.

Ratchet wrench having an internally reinforced handle


A process for efficiently producing an agglomerate resulting from removal of impurities from a water-base latex of rubbery polymer particles or dry Powder thereof and producing a dispersion having rubbery polymer particles dispersed in an organic solvent, and a process for efficiently producing a resin composition of low impurity content, in which the state of dispersion of rubbery polymer particles is excellent, from the above dispersion. In particular, a rubbery polymer particle agglomerate of low impurity content is obtained by first mixing a water-base latex of rubbery polymer particles with an organic solvent exhibiting partial solubility in water, bringing the resultant mixture into contact with water to thereby form a rubbery polymer particle agglomerate, and thereafter separating the water phase from the agglomerate/water phase mixture. Further, a resin composition of low impurity content having rubbe, polymer particles favorably dispersed is obtained by first adding an organic solvent to the above agglomerate, mixing the obtained dispersion with a polymerizable organic compound having a reactive group, such as an epoxy resin, and thereafter distilling off volatile components.

Heretofore, in a case of producing a rubbery polymer from an aqueous latex of rubbery polymer particles, it has been practiced a method of at first obtaining a coagulate by various methods and then removing water or solvent from the coagulate followed by drying.
As a method of obtaining the coagulate, it has been proposed, for example, (1) a method of adding an inorganic electrolyte or acid as a coagulant, (2) a method of adding a nonionic polymer coagulant), (3) a method of bringing an organic solvent into direct contact with a latex, (4) a method of heating or freezing a latex, (5) a method of providing mechanical shearing force, or a method of appropriately combining them.
In this case, as a measure for removing an emulsifier and an electrolyte derived from the polymer and, further, impurities such as an inorganic electrolyte used as the coagulant from the obtained coagulate, a method of bringing the coagulate into contact with water has been adopted generally. However, for removing such impurities, not only a great amount of water is necessary but also impurities can not be removed sufficiently at present. Further, a method of cleaning by an organic solvent has also been used, but this complicates the steps to make the process industrially disadvantageous.
On the other hand, cured products of polymerizable organic compounds having reactive functional groups, for example, cured products of epoxy resins are excellent in various aspects such as dimensional stability, mechanical strength, electric insulation property, heat resistance, water proofness and chemical resistance. However, cured products of epoxy resins have low fracture toughness to sometimes show extremely brittleness and such nature often results in problems in wide range of application uses.
As one of methods for solving the problems, it has been attempted toblenda rubbery ingredient in an epoxy resin. Among all, a method of blending a rubbery polymer previously prepared into a particulate shape by using, for example, a polymerization method in an aqueous medium typically represented by emulsion polymerization, re-dispersion polymerization or suspension polymerization is considered to provide various advantages compared, for example, with a method of dissolving and mixing non-crosslinked indefinite rubber ingredient to an epoxy resin and then causing phase separation in the curing process thereby forming a dispersion phase of the rubber ingredient in an epoxy resin cured product continuous phase, such that the state of dispersion is less changed depending on the blending and curing conditions, in principle, and the rubber ingredient does not intrude to the continuous phase of the epoxy resin cured product by previously crosslinking the rubber ingredient thus causing less lowering of the heat resistance and the rigidity, and various production processes have been proposed.
For example, (6) a method of heating apartially cross linked rubbery random copolymer particles prepared by emulsion polymerization using a nonionic emulsifier or the like to a temperature higher than a cloud point of the emulsifier, thereby coagulating them, then optionally washing the coagulate with water and mixing the same with an epoxy resin (for example refer to JP Nos. 1708498, 2751071, and JP-A No. 5-295237), (7) a method of mixing a rubbery polymer latex and an epoxy resin and then evaporating off a water content to obtain a mixture (for example, refer to JP-A No. 6-107910), and (8) a method of mixing a rubbery polymer latex with an epoxy resin under the presence of an organic solvent to obtain a mixture (for example, refer to the specification of U.S. Pat. No. 4,778,851) are disclosed.
Since the method (6) described above is a method of obtaining a coagulate by the use of a coagulant, mainly, an inorganic electrolyte, impurities such as an emulsifier which is deposited to the polymer or confined in the coagulated polymer upon coagulation can not be removed sufficiently while a greater amount of water is used at present. Further, since the rubbery polymer particles are intensely adhered to each other by coagulation also including coagulation by heating, it requires pulverization or re-dispersion operation with a considerable large mechanical shearing force upon mixing with the epoxy resin, and it is often difficult to uniformly re-disperse the rubbery polymer particles in the epoxy resin while a larger amount of energy is used.
In the method (7) above, impurities such as emulsifier and electrolyte derived from the polymer are left as they are and, in addition, since the epoxy resin is only slightly soluble in water, even when a considerably large mechanical shearing force is applied, it still leaves a not-yet-mixed portion, and lumpy coagulate are sometimes formed in the not-mixed portion.
Since the method (8) described above does not include coagulating operation, an epoxy resin composition with the rubbery polymer being re-dispersed uniformly can be obtained easily, but a great amount of water content present together with the organic solvent in the system (mixture) (the water content more than the amount which the organic solvent can solve) has to be separated or evaporated off. However, separation of the organic solvent layer and the aqueous layer requires much time such as one day and one night, or the organic solvent layer and the aqueous layer are difficult to be separated substantially since they form a stable emulsified suspension. Further, in a case of removing the water content by evaporation, a great amount of energy is necessary and, in addition, water soluble impurities such as an emulsifier or sub-starting materials usually used in the production of rubbery polymer latexes remain in the composition to degrade the quality as well. Accordingly, removal of the water content is troublesome in any of the methods of separation or removal by evaporation, which can not be said industrially preferred.
An object of the present invention is to provide, as a process for producing rubbery polymer particles refined from an aqueous latex of rubbery polymer particles, an efficient production process of obtaining a loose flocculate from the rubbery polymer particles obtained in the state of an aqueous latex without using a coagulant under the presence of an organic solvent and discharging the impurities to the aqueous phase and, preferably, provide a further efficient production process capable of reduce the cost of equipment by a continuous processing. Further, it intends to provide a process for producing a resin composition conveniently and efficiently that can uniformly mix and disperse rubbery polymer particles in a polymerizable organic compound having a reactive functional group thereby remarkably decreasing impurities such as an emulsifier or an electrolyte derived from the polymer particles, by re-dispersing a loose flocculate again in the organic solvent and mixing the same with the polymerizable organic compound having the reactive functional group.

Process for producing rubbery polymer particle and process for producing resin composition containing the same


A projector includes: a light source device that emits a laser beam toward a projected surface; a scanning unit that scans the laser beam emitted from the light source device; a light diffusion member that diffuses the laser beam used for scanning by the scanning unit; and a converging unit that converges the laser beam going out from the light diffusion member on the protected surface.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a projector for displaying an image by projecting a light beam emitted from a light source device on a projected surface.
2. Related Art
A projector of a rear projection type that displays an image by scanning a screen (projected surface) with a laser beam has been proposed in the related art. In this projector, since complete black can be displayed by stopping supply of the laser beam, a high-contrast display is possible in comparison with, for example, a projector that employs a liquid crystal light valve. Since the laser beam is high in directivity, a projection optical system can be simplified. Therefore, the projector can be formed into a compact and simple structure. In addition, color display is achieved easily by combining a plurality of colors of laser beams such as red, green and blue, and since the laser beam is high in monochromaticity, the color display with high color purification is achieved.
As the projector of the rear projection type, a projection type laser image display device employing a red laser source, a green laser source, and a ultra-violet laser source is proposed (for example, see JP-A-7-67064). The projection type laser image display device disclosed in JP-A-7-67064, a fluorescent material is applied on a screen, and hence the laser beams emitted form the red laser source and the green laser source are dispersed on the screen surface. The laser beam emitted from the ultra-violet laser source is excited by the fluorescent material, which generates blue light. This blue light is diffused on the screen surface.
In the case in which the projector of the rear projection type as described above is employed, there is a problem such that dazzling, which is called "scintillation" or "speckle" may occur in the laser beam projected onto the screen. According to the projection type laser image display device disclosed in JP-A-7-67064, since the laser beam is diffused on the screen, occurrence of the dazzling cannot be resolved satisfactorily. When the screen is accidentally damaged by means of an unexpected cause, the laser beam may be irradiated directly toward the outside without being diffused. Therefore, the reliability of the entire device is not sufficient.


System and method for detecting malware on a target computer system having a bootable device. Boot process information stored on the bootable device that at least partially defines a boot process of the target computer system is obtained, along with physical parameter data defining a storage arrangement structure of the bootable device. The boot process of the target computer system is emulated based on the boot process information and on the physical parameter data. The emulation includes executing instructions of the boot process information and tracking data accessed from the bootable device. A data structure representing the data accessed from the bootable device is stored during the emulation of the boot process. The data structure can be analyzed for any presence of boot process malware.

Securing computer systems from attack by malware, i.e., harmful programs such as viruses, trojans, worms, rootkits, and the like, is an evolving challenge as perpetrators of malware constantly develop new technologies. Of particular concern are pieces of malware known as bootkits, which change the computer system boot process. These are among the hardest-to-detect malware for contemporary computer systems. Infiltration in the boot process allows a piece of harmful code to bypass the existing protection features, hide itself and complicate the computer's ability to detect and remove the harmful process.
The computer boot process has a number of steps, which include testing and initialization of hardware, operating system boot and automatic loading of user applications. The earlier in the boot sequence that a harmful can take control, the harder it is to counter the threat. One goal of an anti-malware program is to take control of the boot sequence before it is taken over by a piece of harmful code, which will allow the anti-virus program to monitor and detect abnormalities and suspicious data.
Today, anti-rootkit technologies are known and used for this purpose, examples of which are described in U.S. Patent Applications, Pub. No. 2006/480774 and 2007/873583. These approaches are designed as operating system drivers which modify the operating system boot process, track further boot process activities and, if necessary, block and delete harmful boot programs. These technologies are effective only for threats aiming to infiltrate the operating system and do not allow detection of bootkits loaded before the operating system. Bootkits modify the boot process at the earliest stage by changing the boot record. When combined with rootkit technologies, such programs become unreachable for conventional protection features installed on a computer system.
One approach for combating this type of malware uses external boot technologies, examples of which are disclosed in Publications No. EP1995936668 and WO2007069245. When booting from external devices, the computer's malware is not loaded and can be detected during conventional anti-virus scanning of the file system, hard drive, etc. Drawbacks of this type of approach include the need for specialized external disks or devices, and the need for users to take specific, targeted actions to carry out the evaluation of boot process malware by employing the external boot technology.
At least for the above reasons, a solution is needed that provides practical and automated detection of bootkit-deployed malware.

System and method for detecting malware targeting the boot process of a computer using boot process emulation


A complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) circuit incorporating a substrate and a gate wire over the substrate. The substrate comprises an n-type field effect transistor (n-FET) region, a p-type field effect transistor (p-FET) region and an isolation region disposed between the n-FET and p-FET regions. The gate wire comprises an n-FET gate, a p-FET gate, and gate material extending transversely from the n-FET gate across the isolation region to the p-FET gate. A first conformal insulator covers the gate wire and a second conformal insulator is on the first conformal insulator positioned over the p-FET gate without extending laterally over the n-FET gate. Straining regions for producing different types of strain are formed in recess etched into the n-FET and p-FET regions of the substrate.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of growing embedded compressive and a tensile strain-inducing materials in source/drain (S/D) regions of a p-type field effect transistor, p-FET, and an n-type field effect transistor, n-FET, respectively, of a complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) circuit in a gate first flow for manufacture. In particular, the method uses a reactive ion etch (RIE) to form recesses within the S/D regions of the transistors of the CMOS circuit for successive epitaxial growths of the two embedded strain-inducing materials. More particularly, the CMOS circuit includes a gate wire between extending from a gate of an n-FET, over an isolation region, to a gate of a p-FET.
2. Description of the Related Art
Numerous performance and economic advantages have been achieved by the scaling of semiconductor devices to smaller dimensions. For example, the scaling of metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistors (MOSFETs) has lead to shorter channel lengths, increased switching speeds, and greater circuit densities.
Scaling transistors to smaller dimensions is limited by characteristics of the transistor's performance. For example, shorter channel lengths of smaller dimensioned transistors can produce undesired variability of threshold voltages and increased drain leakage currents. One means of improving transistor performance for transistors showing such short channel effects is to introduce an appropriate mechanical stress into source/drain (S/D) regions that surround a channel of a transistor. It is known that a compressive stress induced in the channel of a p-FET by, for example, a proximate silicon germanium (SiGe) layer, will enhance majority charge carrier mobility within the p-FET's channel, and thus, enhance the p-FET's performance, and that a tensile stress, induced in the channel of an n-FET by, for example, a proximate silicon carbon (SiC) layer, will enhance majority charge carrier mobility within the n-FET's channel, and thus, enhance the n-FET's performance. It is also known that an embedded layer of a strain-inducing material, i.e., a layer formed coplanar to or below the surface of the substrate, can produce larger stresses on the channel of a transistor, when compared to a layer of the same strain inducing material formed above the surface of the substrate.
Typically, when strain-inducing materials are introduced into the S/D regions proximate to the channels of n-FET and p-FET transistors in a gate first flow for the manufacture of a CMOS circuit, two separate processes are used. A first process may include: depositing a first protective layer over both n-FET and p-FET regions of the CMOS circuit, each transistor region including a gate stack formed on a substrate and S/D regions formed within the substrate; forming a first hard mask over the n-FET region; a first reactive ion etch to remove the first protective layer over the p-FET region and to form recesses within the S/D regions adjacent to the p-FET gate stack; and epitaxially growing SiGe within the recesses adjacent to the p-FET gate stack. Subsequently, the first hard mask covering the n-FET region is removed and a second process follows. The second process may include: depositing a second protective layer over both the n-FET and p-FET regions of the CMOS circuit, each transistor region including a gate stack formed on a substrate and S/D regions formed within the substrate; a second reactive ion etch to remove the second protective layer over the n-FET region and to form recesses within the S/D regions adjacent to the n-FET gate stack; and epitaxially growing SiC within the recesses adjacent to the n-FET gate stack. Subsequently, the second S/D mask covering the n-FET region is removed. Thus, the two separate processes include depositing a first protective layer over both the n-FET and p-FET regions, a first reactive ion etch to remove a portion of the first protective layer that covers the n-FET region, depositing a second protective layer over both the n-FET and p-FET regions, and a second reactive ion etch to remove a portion of the second protective layer that covers the p-FET region.
A gate wire is a basic component of CMOS circuits and is formed by a "wire" of gate material, for example, polysilicon, that includes a gate of an n-FET transistor at one end of the wire, a gate of a p-FET transistor at the other end of the wire, and gate material extending between the n-FET gate and the p-FET gate. In an area located between the n-FET and p-FET regions, the gate wire overlies a substrate of insulating material, which electrically isolates the n-FET region from the p-FET region. A gate wire is used, for example, at the input of a CMOS inverter circuit.
Manufacturing a CMOS circuit that includes a gate wire is problematic, when the two separate processes for introducing strain-inducing materials into S/D regions of n-FET and p-FET transistors in a gate first flow are used. The two processes include formation of a first hard mask over the first protective layer in the n-FET region and of a second hard mask over the second protective layer in the p-FET region. Subsequently, each of the protective layers is removed by first and second reactive ion etches over transistor regions not covered by a hard mask. However, with small dimensions, for example, CMOS transistors of 22 nanometer node technology or smaller, the probability of a misalignment of a few nanometers in the placement of the first hard mask and the second hard mask at a junction between the n-FET and the p-FET regions is significant. It has been shown that misalignment of the two hard masks can result in CMOS circuit defects, caused by either non-overlap or overlap of the protective layers deposited on a gate wire disposed between the n-FET and the p-FET regions.
Referring to FIG. 1A, a top view shows a misalignment of two non-overlapping hard masks 102, 104 relative to a portion of a gate wire 105 disposed between n-FET and p-FET S/D regions 106, 108, respectively, in a CMOS circuit formed by a gate first flow, while FIG. 1B shows a transverse section of a portion of the CMOS circuit through a transverse section line A-A of the gate wire 105 in FIG. 1A. In FIG. 1A, the first hard mask 102 of the first process covers a portion of a first protective layer (not shown) including the n-FET S/D region 106. A first reactive ion etch removes the remaining portion of the first protective layer not covered by the first hard mask 102, including a non-overlap region disposed between the n-FET and p-FET S/D regions 106, 108. Etching the first protective layer in the non-overlap region, however, exposes the underlying gate wire 105. The first hard mask 102 is then removed. The second hard mask 104 of the second process covers a portion of the second protective layer (not shown) including the p-FET S/D region 108. A second reactive ion etch removes the remaining portion of the second protective layer not covered by the second hard mask 104, including the non-overlap region. However, etching the second protective layer in the non-overlap region also exposes the underlying gate wire 105.
Referring to FIG. 1B, a first protective layer 112 is disposed over the gate of the n-FET S/D region 106, i.e., the left-end of gate wire 105, that had been masked by the first hard mask 102, while the second protective layer 114 is disposed over the gate of the p-FET S/D region 108, i.e., the right-end of gate wire 105, that had been masked by the second hard mask 104. The gate wire 105, however, is exposed in the non-overlap region created by the two non-overlapping hard masks 102, 104. In the exposed non-overlap region, epitaxial growth of a strain-inducing material, meant to fill the recesses etched in the S/D regions of the transistors adjacent to their gate stacks, can occur on the exposed polysilicon gate material and cause defects in a subsequent silicidation process in the manufacture of the CMOS circuit.
Referring to FIG. 2A, a top view shows a misalignment of two overlapping hard masks 202, 204 on a portion of a gate wire 205 formed disposed between n-FET and p-FET S/D regions 206, 208, respectively, in a CMOS circuit, while FIG. 2B shows a transverse section of the portion of the CMOS circuit through the transverse section line A-A of the gate wire 205 in FIG. 2A. In FIG. 2A, the first hard mask 202 of the first process covers a portion of the first protective layer (not shown) including the n-FET S/D region 206 and an overlap region, which comprises a portion of the first protective layer to be subsequently covered by the second hard mask. A first reactive ion etch removes the remaining portion of the first protective layer not covered by the first hard mask 202. The second hard mask 204 of the second process covers a portion of a second protective layer (not shown) including the p-FET S/D region 208 and the overlap region, upon which the first protective layer has been deposited. A second reactive ion etch removes the remaining portion of the second protective layer not covered by the second hard mask 204. When the second hard mask 204 is removed, the second protective layer is disposed on that portion of the layer, which was covered by the second hard mask, and over the first protective layer, which had been deposited on the overlap region. That is, the overlap region is covered by both the first and second protective layers.
Referring to FIG. 2B, a first protective layer 212 is disposed over the gate, i.e., the left-end of the gate wire 105 of the n-FET 106 region, and the overlap region that had been masked by the first hard mask 102, while a second protective layer 214 is disposed over the gate, i.e., the right-end of the gate wire 105 of the p-FET S/D region 108, and the overlap region that had been masked by the second hard mask 104. Hence, the gate wire 105 is covered by two overlapping first and second protective layers in the overlap region. The increased thickness of the two overlapping protective layers, relative to the thickness of the one protective layer over each of the n-FET and p-FET gates, becomes problematic when the gate wire 105 is to be subsequently silicided both at the overlap region, which is a common junction for the gate inputs of a CMOS inverter, and over the individual n-FET and p-FET gates of the CMOS circuit. In a robust process to remove the relatively thicker overlapping first and second protective layers from the gate wire 105 in the overlap region, the relatively thinner protective layer over each of the n-FET and p-FET gates is subject to silicide-gate electrical shorts, caused by removing sidewalls of the n-FET and p-FET gate stacks.
There remains a need for an efficient and economical method of manufacturing a CMOS circuit of small dimensions in a gate first flow that prevents the problems, described above, in a method including epitaxial growth of strain-inducing materials in S/D regions of an n-FET and p-FET connected by a gate wire.

Method for growing strain-inducing materials in CMOS circuits in a gate first flow

International Business Machines Corporation


An electronic device includes an input assembly and an output assembly, to be respectively used for data input and data output, a support assembly, to at least support the input assembly or the output assembly and to enable either of the input assembly or the output assembly to stand on a base, and a connector mechanism, to connect the input assembly and/or the output assembly to the support assembly, and to enable the input assembly and/or the output assembly to rotate relative the support assembly in various dimensions. The electronic device according to embodiments of the present disclosure is rotatable in multiple dimensions to meet user's needs in variable position adjustments.

There are more and more multi-tasking operations when using computers. People often need to use multiple screens or even multiple electronic devices for collaborative use, thereby improving work efficiency. At present, notebook computers can already facilitate dual-screen display applications with the support of graphics cards. However, in these existing dual-screen designs, the second screen is often a detachable screen, which is not portable and does not support displays through large angular rotations and turns. It can be seen that at least some of the above-mentioned existing dual-screen notebook computers are not user friendly and present defects in their structure and use. Further improvement is needed.

Data processing method, device, and electronic apparatus