DNA molecule length can be measured with high precision and efficiency by 1) using such means as electrophoresis gel migration to orient a DNA molecule having a fluorescence label at both its termini into a straight line by its passing through a migration path having in a portion of it an area not more than several micrometers in diameter, detecting the fluorescence label at both the termini at a predetermined location and measuring the interval between the detection of the fluorescence coming from one terminus and that of the fluorescence from the other or by 2) a DNA molecule bound to a fluorescence label at one terminus and to a particle at the other being led as a whole by such means as electric field application into an aperture smaller in diameter than the particle, leaving the particle fixed at the mouth of the aperture to stretch the DNA molecule and detecting the fluorescence position to measure the distance between the bound particle and the bound fluorescence label.

The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for measuring the length of a polynucleotide or biomolecular such as DNA, and is particularly concerned with measuring the length of a not less than 50, especially 100 kilobase long polynucleotide.
Such polynucleotide length measurement is one of the gene analysis means useful in fields like medical chemistry, biochemistry and genetics.
In the past, measuring the base length (or molecular weight) of a long DNA chain has been based on the use of gel electrophoresis migration which provides electric fields in a certain direction. Polyacrylamide gel is effective in separating DNA several bases to 2 kilobases long, and agarose gel is in use for separating DNA 1 to 20 kilobase long.
In conventional electrophoresis using electric fields in a certain direction, molecular sizes are separated in polyacrylamide gel or agarose gel according to the spatial spread of the molecules. To be more specific, the separation is based on whether spatially spread molecules pass through gel meshes. Larger molecules do not pass but become elongated. After all, these elongated molecules are separated according to their shorter diameters. In this case, however, the difference in the size of these elongated DNA molecules is no more than the difference in their seeming lengths. This is why long DNA cannot be separated with molecular sieves. Another conventional technique, pulsed field electrophoresis, varies pulsatively the electric field direction for electrophoresis in agarose gel in order to separate molecules tens of megabases to several megabases long.
A more detailed description of measuring by separation not less than 100 kilobase long DNA may be found in PCT International Publication WO 84/02001 and Nucleic Acid Research, vol. 16, pp. 7563-7582, by B.W. Birren, 1988. In this method, a mixture of giant DNA fragments subject to measurement is injected into wells in an electrolyte-containing gel matrix made of network polymers like agarose, the DNA is allowed to migrate as the direction of electric fields is varied pulsatively, and the DNA is separated according to the size. For instance, when migration is performed for 95 hours in a 0.7% concentration agarose matrix, the direction of 2 V/cm electric fields being varied an angle of +106 degrees with the migration direction every 30 minutes, it is possible to separate 3 to 10 megabase long DNA. The length of the DNA is considered to be measurable on the basis of the bandwidth of the separated DNA with about 10% errors. This pulsed field electrophoresis employs the dependence on elongated molecule lengths of the time taken by varying the direction of the orientation of the molecules by changing the direction of the electric fields (see pp. 364-370, Jikken Igaku, vol. 5 by Hasegawa and Kikuchi (1987)).
The above conventional technique makes it possible to obtain information on the length of very large DNA with pulsed field separation. But the problem is that the longer DNA, the longer time its separation takes. For example, it generally takes 3 or 4 days to separate 3 to 10 megabase long DNA. This conventional technique separates DNA according to the size, namely, the length difference while DNA termini travel through the gel, popping out from and popping in between network molecules composing the gel matrix. Naturally, as the distance of the travel through the gel is shorter, the separation worsens. Moreover, when migration is provided by high electric field intensity, heating impairs separation. Thus it is unfeasible that the conventional technique shortens the analysis time. Since the longer DNA, the longer migration it requires, the technique is not suitable for the practical use for separating not less than tens of megabases long DNA. Besides, the fact that the longer DNA, the longer migration it needs, and the larger bandwidth the separated DNA has deteriorates the precision of the length separation.
Furthermore, the above conventional electrophoresis including pulsed field electrophoresis separates and measures the measurement subject as a group of different molecule sizes, using the difference between molecule sizes and between electrophoresis rates. This deteriorates separation as the molecules are longer, and increases the volume that groups of the same molecule size occupy for a cause such as diffusion, resulting in inefficient separation of long molecules like DNA.
Pulsed field electrophoresis, which varies the electric field direction, uses radio isotope labels or ethidium bromide staining for the purpose of detection. To ensure sufficient detection sensitivity, many molecules (copies) of the same length are necessary and need to be prepared. The resolution for DNA size provided by this technique is not very high because of influences such as molecular heat diffusion, and the molecule length measurement precision is low.


A pumping system comprising: (a) an inlet adapted for connection with a supply of low pressure water; (b) a filtration unit in fluid communication with the inlet, wherein the filtration unit filters impurities from the low pressure water so as to discharge a flow of filtered water; (c) a pump in fluid communication with the filtration unit, the pump adapted to discharge a flow of pressurized water; (d) a valve manifold in fluid communication with the pump, the valve manifold comprising at least two discharge ports, the valve manifold operable to individually actuate each discharge port so as to regulate fluid flow therethrough, each discharge port being capable of discharging a stream of high pressure water; and (e) at least a respective number of outlets as discharge ports, each outlet in fluid communication with a respective discharge port so as to receive the stream of high pressure water.

As used herein the term "dry-bulb temperature" (Tdb) is usually referred to as air temperature, the air property that is most familiar. Dry-bulb temperature can be measured using a thermometer. The dry-bulb temperature is an indicator of heat content.
As used herein, the term "wet-bulb temperature" (Twb) represents how much moisture the air can evaporate. This temperature can be measured with a thermometer that has the bulb covered with a water-moistened bandage and with air flowing over the thermometer.
As used herein, the term "relative humidity" (RH) is the ratio of the water vapor pressure (Pv) to the vapor pressure of saturated air at the same temperature (Pvs), expressed as a percentage. The moisture-holding capacity of air increases as air is warmed. In practice, relative humidity indicates the moisture level of the air compared to the air's moisture-holding capacity. The moisture holding capacity of air increases dramatically with an increase in temperature.
As used herein, the term "dew point temperature" (Tdp) is the temperature at which water vapor starts to condense out of air. Above this temperature, the moisture will stay in the air.
As used herein, the term "enthalpy" (H) is the energy content per unit air weight, typically measured in units of British thermal units per pound of dry air (Btu/lbda).
Evaporative cooling is a passive conditioning method that has been effectively utilized for thousands of years. However, despite its wide spread use in many areas of the country, its full benefits have yet to be realized. Evaporative cooling is energy efficient, environmentally benign and cost-effective. The evaporative cooling process is the simultaneous removal of sensible heat and addition of moisture to the air. Simply described, it is the movement of air across a moisture source, which produces a decrease in temperature.
In order to escape the pressures of modern life many people are transforming their homes into an oasis of serenity among the chaos of the outside world. Some of these transformations include improving the aesthetic features of their house, the material possessions contained therein, and the aesthetic features of their yards. However, no matter how aesthetically pleasing one makes their house or yard if the environmental factors (temperature and/or humidity) in that area is not within comfortable ranges that area may not be used. In many regions of the world, the climate is too hot and/or too dry to comfortably enjoy the outdoors (including patios, loggias, and porches). Similarly, the climate in many regions affects indoor comfort to the extent that people are unable to truly enjoy their homes. Accordingly, people have recognized the need to adjust local environmental factors to more suitable levels to maximize the enjoyment of their home and/or yard.
Thus, it is a goal of the present invention to provide an effective pumping system to deliver a plurality of regions or zones (such as patios, loggias, and porches) with a supply of high-pressure water that may be atomized to affect local environmental factors (such as temperature and humidity).
In view of the present disclosure or through practice of the present invention, other advantages may become apparent.


A method for controlling a communication apparatus includes communicating with an external device through close proximity wireless communication, receiving a remote control signal transmitted from a remote controller, storing a remote control setting which enables or disables an operation of the remote controller, making a determination as to whether a connection between the communication apparatus and the external device through the close proximity wireless communication is established, and controlling an operation of the remote controller for the communication apparatus on the basis of the determination.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to communication apparatuses and methods for controlling the communication apparatuses. In particular, the present invention relates to a communication apparatus capable of performing close proximity wireless communication with an external device and a method for controlling the communication apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, there have been developed systems using close proximity wireless communication technology and having a communication range of several centimeters to several tens of centimeters. Close proximity wireless communication is characterized by having a high transfer rate, a short communication range, and thus less impact on other wireless systems. Therefore, close proximity wireless communication technology is suitable for use in wireless data communication between devices that can be placed close to each other.
For example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 7-141537 discloses a contactless-medium processing apparatus in which a reader/writer is capable of reading and writing information from and to a card having a built-in antenna when the card is brought close to the reader/writer.
In addition to the card, communication terminals (e.g., mobile phones) having a contactless data communication function similar to that of the foregoing card are known today.
However, for data transmission etc., a known close proximity wireless communication apparatus requires the user to press buttons and perform other operations while holding his/her own device close to the apparatus. Therefore, it is difficult for the user to perform complicated operations, such as selecting data to be transmitted and giving instructions to transmit the data.
As a solution to such a problem, the user may use a remote controller to remotely control a close proximity wireless communication apparatus without directly manipulating it. Remotely controllable apparatuses generally allow the user to select whether to accept an operation of a remote controller. Therefore, every time close proximity wireless communication is performed, the user has to check the remote control setting of the apparatus and change the setting, as necessary, to accept an operation of the remote controller. This is a cumbersome process for the user.

Communication apparatus and method for controlling the communication apparatus


A bra comprises a pocket in a wing of the bra; the pocket may be made from the wing components or may be a separate structure; the pocket may comprise a closure, such as a zipper; the bra may comprise a high-tack material to prevent slipping of the bra when items are in the pocket.

The following description includes information that may be useful in understanding the present invention. It is not an admission that any of the information provided herein is prior art or relevant to the presently claimed invention, or that any publication specifically or implicitly referenced is prior art.
Current women's apparel does not provide many places to put personal items. Purses are a favored location for personal items, but they are bulky, expensive, are a target for theft, can be easily stolen, occupy hands and arms, can be difficult to keep track of while dancing or socializing, small items can be lost in them, are subject to being searched in various venues (such as airports, courts, and sporting events) causing delay and embarrassment, and can cause potential health problems—such as misalignment of the spine—due to weight and asymmetric weight distribution on the bearer.
Pockets are another place to put personal items. Pockets, however, are not typically found in dresses and skirts and, even when found in a garment, the pocket and/or items placed in the pocket may alter the fit or appearance of the garment in an undesirable way. Also, typical pockets can be picked and items in a pocket can be broken, such as when a person sits down with an item in a pocket. Boots also may be used to store personal items, though they are seasonal, difficult to access quickly, lack security, the item may cause discomfort when in the boot, and boots may clash with a desired outfit. Thigh holsters are also used to store personal items, though they can be difficult to access through or under pants, they can be uncomfortable, constrain movement, items in them are easily dislodged, and they are another item to remember to don and manage. Fanny packs are frequently not considered fashionable or feminine, lack organization, and are another item to remember to don and manage. Travel belts are frequently considered masculine, may not match attire, may be too thick for daily use, may be considered unprofessional, and may be difficult to access. Hands may hold personal items, but then the hand(s) are occupied, the item(s) in the hands may be exposed to weather, the items may be dropped, and socialization opportunities will be reduced when the hands are occupied. Bra cups are sometimes used to store items, between cups or inside of a cup. Bra cups, however, lack security, items can slip out, the items can be exposed to perspiration, and it may be inappropriate or inconvenient to access the bra cup to retrieve an item.
For some decades, bras have been designed with pockets to accommodate personal items. In many instances, the bra pockets were designed with "secret" pockets with limited or difficult access, or assume access only to the front of the bra, provide difficult to access pocket openings, provide only enough space for a key or similar small item, do not provide sufficient space to enclose larger items such as mobile phones, do not provide a closure which both allows access to and limits accidental release of enclosed items, require integration with the bra cup (which causes difficulties with the wide range of sizes and styles of bra cups), do not protect items from perspiration, and/or do not provide a closure or realistic opportunity for a closure (such as a zipper).
Needed is a bra with a pocket, which pocket provides sufficient space to be accommodate a mobile phone or other mobile computing device, a driver's license, credit card, key-card, medical device, or similar, wherein the bra and pocket, even with items in the pocket, is reasonably discrete, wherein access to the pocket is simple, wherein the entire interior of the pocket can be accessed with only one hand, wherein the pocket may be made to protect items from perspiration, and wherein the bra and pocket can be manufactured without customization of or integration with the bra cup.


A bodied siloxane resin comprises M, Q, and T-propyl units and is capped with additional M units. The bodied siloxane resin contains less silanol groups than the bodied siloxane resin before being capped with additional M units.

Siloxane resins are important in many applications, such as protective coating applications.
One particular subclass of siloxane resins, bodied siloxane resins, has found particular utility in protective coating applications. However, bodied siloxane resins may be unstable, and their properties may degrade over time. For example, the molecular weight of the bodied siloxane resins may increase after aging. This aging may also lead to an increase in the viscosity of the bodied siloxane resin, or the viscosity of a solution containing the bodied siloxane resin. This increase in viscosity is particularly undesirable in protective coating applications.
While the use of bodied siloxane resins in protective coating applications has led to desirable properties, a need exists to alter the properties of the bodied siloxane resins used in such compositions.

Method of preparing a bodied siloxane resin including M, Q, and T-propyl units and capped with additional M units


A new and distinct cultivar of Chamaesyce plant named ‘Dochastaduclewhi’, characterized by its relatively compact, mounding to semi-trailing plant habit; moderately vigorous growth habit; freely branching habit; freely flowering habit; and inflorescences with multiple white-colored flower bracts.

The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Chamaesyce plant, botanically known as Chamaesyce hypericifolia and hereinafter referred to by the name 'Dochastaduclewhi'.
The new Chamaesyce plant is a product of a planned breeding program conducted by the Inventor in Rheinberg, Germany. The objective of the program is to create and develop new freely branching Chamaesyce plants with mounding plant habit, early flowering and multiple white-colored flowers per inflorescence.
The new Chamaesyce plant originated from a cross-pollination by the Inventor in July, 2017 of a proprietary selection of Chamaesyce hypericifolia identified as code number EW-0030, not patented, as the female, or seed, parent with a proprietary selection of Chamaesyce hypericifolia identified as code number EW-0008, not patented, as the male, or pollen, parent. The new Chamaesyce plant was discovered and selected by the Inventor as a single flowering plant within the progeny of the stated cross-pollination in a controlled greenhouse environment in Rheinberg, Germany in May, 2020.
Asexual reproduction of the new Chamaesyce plant by terminal vegetative cuttings in a controlled greenhouse environment in Rheinberg, Germany since June, 2020 has shown that the unique features of this new Chamaesyce plant are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations of asexual reproduction.


Designed to afford a novel microorganism promoting gastric juice secretion and having platelet increasing activity, and to afford a pharmaceutical agent composed of a product secreted by the novel microorganism. The novel microorganism, international deposit number: NITE BP-295, belongs to the species Bacillus pumilus, and is characterized by taking either form of coccus and bacillus, and makes figure-eight movement. The novel microorganism of the present invention is the novel microorganism having the gene represented by SEQ ID No: 1, and an object of the present invention is to afford the microorganism and a gastric juice secretion-promoting composition composed of the product secreted by the novel microorganism.

1. Technical Field
The present invention, involving a novel microorganism belonging to the species Bacillus pumilus, relates to a novel microorganism, and to its secretory products and plasmids employing them, having an activity that prompts the secretion of gastric juice, countering gastric-acid decrease due to chronic gastritis.
2. Description of the Related Art
For gastric ulcers, duodenal ulcers, and other peptic ulcers, drugs (such as gastric-acid secretion blockers, and gastric antacids) that suppress digestive fluids and other visceral-wall invasive factors, and drugs (such as mucoprotective agents) that reinforce defense mechanisms have been used. Nevertheless, although promoting gastric-acid secretion presumably should be effective in patients with chronic gastritis, particularly atrophic gastritis, the present situation is that gastric-juice promoters that are nontoxic to living organisms have not been developed.
In cases of Helicobacter pylori infection, which is one of the causes of gastric ulcers, chronic gastritis is engendered, ultimately ending in inducing ulcers and cancer. That is, the bacteria is deleterious to the gastric condition; yet the reality is that a microorganism that improves the gastric condition while being a kindred microbe has yet to be discovered.
Accordingly, the discovery of a gastric-health meliorating microorganism antagonistic to H. pylori has been desired. Meanwhile, the manufacture of therapeutic agents utilizing discovered novel microorganisms and their secretory products has been an issue.

Microorganism having gastric-juice promoting activity, and its secretory product


A mounting arrangement for use at an interface between a movable machine component and a stationary foundation includes a substantially planar foundation plate adapted for attachment to the foundation; and a plurality of slide-plate assemblies secured to the foundation plate, each slide-plate assembly comprising a mounting plate, a backing plate, and a low-friction pad overlying the backing plate, the plurality of slide-plate assemblies adapted to engage a footplate of the movable machine component.

This invention relates to slide-plates that allow relative movement between two surfaces with minimal friction, and in particular, slide-plates used at the interface between large rotating machinery components and a stationary foundation.
In large rotary machines such as steam turbines, an associated exhaust hood must be permitted to move axially due to thermal expansion of the steam turbine. Typical exhaust hood thermal expansion is on the order of about ¼ inch, but larger machines may move as much as 1.25 inches. The exhaust hood supports one of the turbine bearings and the low pressure rotor which are sensitive to exhaust hood deflections. As a result, the sliding interface must not negatively impact the bearing stiffness, and must not change elevation over the sliding span.
Current slide-plate techniques includes the use of greased metallic plates as well as flexible vertical plates called "flex legs." However, such techniques impart large forces on the turbine components due to weight, coefficient of friction, and/or large displacements.

Low-friction slide-plates for rotary machines


The present examples provide circuits, systems, processes, and the like for providing precision course guidance, typically for improved positive course guidance below published minimum descent altitude or decision altitude, including just in time calculations of obstacle free flight paths. The calculated flight path may be presented in the context of a synthetic scene of the environment surrounding the aircraft. To provide precision course guidance, exemplary avionics systems, processes and the like, as described below may be utilized.

Take off and landing procedures and other flight operations, can vary depending upon the type of weather conditions present, if it is day or night, the terrain, and the like. Adverse conditions may call for instrument landings which may be more constrained than a landing in clear conditions. For example the path of an aircraft may be more constrained. If the aircraft misses a landing it may have to go back to a known position to reinitiate the procedure, even if a more efficient path might be possible. This type of operation can be inefficient, for the aircraft, and for air traffic control, especially with increased air traffic at airports, and in the skies.
The presently available types of path choices may be due to the limitations of the aircraft instruments during operations under adverse conditions and providing a corresponding safety buffer for the aircraft. Under such atmospheric conditions it may be desirable to provide an improvement to such exemplary instrumented flight procedures.

System supporting flight operations under instrument meteorological conditions using precision course guidance


A removable handle for use in handling semi-conductor wafer processing cassettes includes a horizontally extending front coupling bar with coupling channels on each end for engaging flanges on the cassette. A handle includes a body portion which is mountable to and extends transversely from the coupling bar. A grip portion extends angularly from the body and is furnished with contoured finger portions. The grip includes a finger trigger for actuating a spring biased resilient plunger mechanism to engage the sidewall of the cassette and secure it to the coupling bar. The grip also includes a thumb latch for releasing the plunger mechanism, in resonse to the spring bias, and allowing the handle to be disengaged from the cassette.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to semi-conductor wafer handling equipment, and more particularly, to a removable handle for semi-conductor wafer processing cassettes.
2. History of the Prior Art
In the manufacture of semi-conductor devices, such as integrated circuits, a plurality of devices are formed on a single circular wafer of silicon material. The wafer is typically circular and on the order of 6 inches in diameter. The wafers are put through a number of sequential processing steps, including coating them with photo-resists, exposing them to the optical patterns formed on photo masks, and passing them through both liquid and gaseous treating environments.
The processing of a silicon wafer containing a plurality of semi-conductor devices requires a high degree of cleanliness and sterility in the environment in order to produce acceptable devices. The ability of a semi-conductor device to perform satisfactorily from both an electrical and mechanical standpoint depends on the nature and quality of the materials forming the various layers of the device. The chemical composition of these materials must be extremely pure. The introduction of any foreign matter into the environment where the wafers are being processed results in a decrease in the "yield" of the wafer. The yield is the number of devices that can pass the required electrical tests of the device after the processing has been completed. This is usually expressed as a fraction of the total number of devices processed on the wafer. Thus, the higher the purity of the processing environment and processing techniques used in manufacturing the semi-conductor devices, the greater the yield and hence the greater the financial return to the manufacturer.
Silicon wafers are generally handled in inert plastic frames containing a plurality of vertically arranged dividers. Each divider defines a pocket to receive a silicon wafer and holds it securely in a vertical orientation while isolating it from adjacent wafers. The plastic frame and divider assembly is generally referred to as a "cassette." A typical industrial cassette will hold on the order of 60 wafers for processing. The cassettes must be physically moved by operators from processing station to processing station where the cassettes are placed into indexing mechanisms forming part of the processing machinery of each station. The wafers are automatically removed and again placed into cassettes by the indexing mechanisms after the processing step at each station has been completed. To guard against the introduction of impurities into the silicon wafer processing environment, the operators all wear caps, gowns and surgically sterile rubber gloves when they are handling the cassettes. In addition, the operators frequently change gloves, sometimes three to four times per day, to reduce the amount of contaminants effecting the wafer processing environment. The manner in which even gloved operators handle the cassettes has been shown to have a substantial impact upon the number of unwanted particles found contaminating the surface of the wafer. This, of course, results in impurities and defective devices on the wafer. It has also been noted that each individual operator seems to have a fairly consistent yield rate which is apparently somehow connected with the manner in which that operator handles the wafer cassettes.
It has been shown by tests that the contact of the wafer cassette by a surgically gloved human hand also produces a certain level of impurities in the wafers closest to the contact. In order to avoid such contact, various cassette handling tools have been proposed within the industry including elongate single handles, latching tongs, and other mechanisms for increasing the minimum distance between the operator and the cassette. However, there are a number of inherent disadvantages in the prior art wafer cassette handling tools. Many of the prior art tools require two handed operation and thereby decrease operator dexterity. Such tools prevent the operator from having one hand free to provide stability and backup in the event it is needed. Additionally, the two handed operation doubles the risk of contamination due to the close location of two hands to the wafers. A single cassette full of finished silicon wafers may be worth on the order of $25,000.00 and as such must be handled cleanly, carefully and securely. Other proposed cassette handles have included loose fitting devices which temporarily engage the cassette for handling. These devices are subject to slippage, droppage and disconnection due to the non-rigid attachment of the handle to the cassette.
It would thus be desirable to provide an easy to use removable handle for a wafer cassette which can be selectively and rigidly attached to the cassette for as long as necessary in the processing operation. The handle should be quickly detachable from the cassette for reuse with another unit. The detachable handle of the present invention provides such a device.


A disposable pump head and canister assembly is provided having a disposable pump head having an upper housing with an input port and an output port, and being configured to be engaged to a motor so as to pump fluid into the input port, through the disposable pump head, and out the output port, the upper housing configured to couple to a support plate via a plurality of upper housing flexible tabs that snap fit to corresponding structure of the support plate and configured to be frictionally engaged to a motor so as to pump fluid into the input port, through the disposable pump head, and out the output port; and a canister having an exterior wall portion, a cover and a latching arrangement, where the exterior wall portion is configured so as to form an interior cavity dimensioned to receive the disposable pump head, and where the cover is configured to close and be latched to the exterior wall by the latching arrangement so as to frictionally engage the disposable pump head and the motor.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a pump head; and more particularly to a pump head that is disposable.
2. Brief Description of Related Art
It is known in the art that after some applications, operations, or procedures, a pump must be cleaned and sanitized before a next application, operation or procedure. This cleaning and sanitizing process can result in unwanted delay and adverse exposure to certain media, including the potential for cross contamination of materials. Currently, in the marketplace known techniques include using peristaltic pumps for such applications, along with diaphragm pumps that require cleansing and/or sanitizing between product batches. Other shortcomings of these known techniques also include the maintenance time and the potential for contact with the fluids being pumped.
In view of this, there is a need in the industry for a new technique for use in such applications, operations or procedures, where the maintenance is simple, which allows for easy change of materials being pumped so there is no need for cleaning and/or sanitizing, so the next application, operation and procedure may be started with less delay or exposure to the media being pumped, and which may even allow for a simple disposal that will eliminate the potential for cross contamination of materials.
The present invention provides such a new technique, consistent with that described herein.


Hip joint assemblies, and posable toy figures that incorporate the hip joint assemblies, including a pelvis housing having a front portion and a back portion, where the front and back portions in combination define side openings in the pelvis housing, and a contoured friction plate vertically disposed within the pelvis housing. The hip joint assembly further includes two leg sections, each leg section having a disk member attached via a hip post, and each leg combined with the pelvis housing so that the disk member lies within the pelvis housing and the hip post passes through a side opening so that the face of the disk member abuts a face of the contoured friction plate, and the frictional interaction between the disk face and the friction plate renders the attached leg posable as it pivots around the axis defined by its hip post.

Children enjoy a variety of toy figures, such as action figures and dolls, which can be manipulated to simulate real life activities, and assume natural poses and positions. Hopefully, these toy figures stimulate the imaginations of children by providing a variety of play options.
One way of increasing available play options is to provide toy figure toys with numerous movable joints, constructed from durable, strong, moldable plastic. Preferably, the toy figures are posable, and include joints that will stay in a given position once they have been manipulated. Such toy figures may often incorporate frictional joints to render the figures more posable.
Examples of posable action figures having movable parts and joints may be found in U.S. Patent Publications U.S. Pat. No. 1,579,367, U.S. Pat. No. 1,939,677, U.S. Pat. No. 3,731,426, U.S. Pat. No. 3,874,112, U.S. Pat. No. 3,992,807, U.S. Pat. No. 3,995,394, U.S. Pat. No. 4,310,927, U.S. Pat. No. 4,988,323, U.S. Pat. No. 5,079,778, U.S. Pat. No. 5,394,766, U.S. Pat. No. 5,419,729, U.S. Pat. No. 5,516,322, U.S. Pat. No. 5,664,983, U.S. Pat. No. 6,022,263, U.S. Pat. No. 6,267,640, U.S. Pat. No. 6,439,952, U.S. Pat. No. 6,478,653, U.S. Pat. No. 6,514,119, U.S. Pat. No. 6,568,984, U.S. Pat. No. 6,638,136, U.S. Pat. No. 6,805,606, U.S. Pat. No. 6,830,497, U.S. Pat. No. 6,869,331, U.S. Pat. No. 7,566,256, US20030027488, US20030162477, US20050112993, US20070149089, US20080194176, and US20080261484; and foreign patent publications CH646612, EP582020, FR2657536, GB2342758, GB2346815, JP04288187, JP06023154, JP06277367, JP2004305275, JP2005344936, and JP62128719. The complete disclosures of the above patents and patent applications are herein incorporated by reference for all purposes.


Method for providing a transmission link includes providing a proxy equipment including cache or buffer, establishing a streaming connection or session between the proxy equipment and the mobile terminal, upon request of a service from the terminal requesting streaming data, receiving and storing at the equipment the requested streaming data from a server intended for the mobile terminal and forwarding the received and stored streaming data from the proxy equipment to the mobile terminal if the mobile terminal is detected to be under the coverage of and/or connected to the discontinuous coverage network, where when the request for the service by the mobile terminal is received by the proxy equipment, the proxy equipment establishes a continuous data and signaling transmission link with the server to receive the requested streaming data, and a discontinuous data transmission link with the mobile terminal to forward the received streaming data to the mobile terminal.

The invention is based on a priority application EP04291578.5 which is hereby incorporated by reference.
The present invention concerns the field of the telecommunications, more particularly in relation to services available through mobile terminals connectable to communication networks.
The present invention concerns more specifically a method and a system allowing to provide streaming data transmission, and associated services, to a mobile terminal, in particular from a streaming server.
In a discontinuous coverage network (also known as "info-station" system), downstream data flows (necessary to provide certain services at a mobile terminal) are managed and handled by taking into account the specific nature of the connection.
Thus, when a streaming service is considered, it would mean that the streaming server must have the ability to deliver discontinuously the data in a different manner for each mobile terminal according to its particular situation.
In fact, legacy streaming servers deliver the data regularly, at the bit rate of the media and not more. This is actually generally mandatory, among others for multicast sessions like "time staggered" or "live event" sessions. As a matter of fact, in such multicast sessions, the server cannot adapt its behaviour to a particular user.
The RTP (Real-time Transport Protocol) standard has defined a "translator function" which takes in charge the "per-user customisation" of the source coding, in the purpose of adapting the throughput of the data flow for a specific user depending on the bandwidth he/she can rely on.
Nevertheless, this known function does not handle the discontinuous aspect of the user's connectivity, and its impact on the provided quality and continuity of service.
It is a main aim of the present invention to overcome the aforesaid drawbacks and restrictions of the prior art.
To this end, the present invention concerns first a method for providing a transmission link, adapted for a streaming data traffic, to a mobile terminal connected to a discontinuous coverage network, characterised in that said method comprises the steps of:                providing a proxy equipment comprising cache or buffer means for receiving and storing at said equipment streaming data intended for said mobile terminal,        establishing a streaming connection or session between said proxy equipment and said mobile terminal, upon request of a service from said terminal requiring streaming data,        forwarding streaming data from said proxy equipment to said mobile terminal when this latter is detected to be under the coverage of and/or connected to said discontinuous coverage network.
According to a main feature of the invention, when the request for a service requiring streaming data sent by the mobile terminal is received by the proxy equipment, this latter establishes a continuous data and signalling transmission link with the server providing the requested service and a discontinuous data transmission link with said mobile terminal.

Method and system for providing a transmission link for streaming traffic


In a device for protecting a work spindle (2) that is rotatably supported in a spindle head (4A, 4B) of a processing machine and/or a tool (3) clamped in the work spindle (2) from collisions with obstacles in the processing chamber (1) of the processing machine, a plurality of distance sensor modules (6) are arranged on or in a spindle nose (4B) that forms the termination of the spindle head (4A, 4B) toward the processing chamber (1) such that they point toward the processing chamber (1) and are connected to a common signal processing unit (8). When an obstacle is present in a predetermined area of the processing chamber (1), this signal processing unit generates a warning signal based on the measuring signals delivered by the individual distance sensor modules (6). An output (15) of the signal processing unit, at which the warning signal is generated, is connected to the machine control (16) of the processing machine. The distance sensor modules (6) preferably consist of radar or ultrasonic sensor modules.

When programming and setting up a machine tool, operating errors may result in the tool or the work spindle colliding with a work piece arranged in the processing chamber during its displacement in the x, y or z direction. This causes damages to bearings, deformations of shafts, crack formations or material fractures on tool, spindle or mounting components. These damages are associated with significant repair costs, particularly when optically invisible damages are overlooked and the further processing of the work piece is continued with a damaged system.
Mechanical safety measures have been proposed in order to solve this problem. For example, DE 10 2007 032 498 A1 proposes to support a work spindle in a spindle housing on a ring that is springably suspended, as well as axially displaceable and tiltable, relative to the spindle housing. This makes it possible to prevent the bearing of the work spindle from being overloaded in the axial and in the radial direction. However, spring elements can only develop a damping characteristic within a certain deflection range. This means that a severe collision can still occur when the work spindle is inadvertently displaced over greater distances.
A metrological approach is disclosed in DE the 103 51 347 A1. In this case, the tool clamping device of a work spindle is equipped with a pressure or force sensor that is primarily intended to measure the stress on the work spindle occurring during normal operation. An auxiliary function of such a sensor also makes it possible to detect an overload due to a collision with a work piece. In this case, the spindle motion can be stopped and inspection or repair measures can be initiated. However, it cannot be ensured that damages are reliably prevented due to the unavoidable latency in detecting the collision.
In order to prevent collisions of the type in question in the first place, it has also been proposed to carry out a computer-assistant comparison of the measured motion sequence of a work spindle with a previously stored model of the processing chamber. According to EP 0 104 409 A2, hazard zones are defined in the processing chamber, wherein the motion of the work spindle is stopped when these hazard zones are reached. However, computer-assisted monitoring devices have the disadvantage of requiring a high technical operating effort. 3D models from the construction need to be loaded into the machine control. Every motion of the machine simultaneously needs to be compared with this model. It is therefore only sensible to utilize such systems in more complex processing centers.
Another approach to preventing collisions is the optical monitoring of the processing chamber, e.g., as proposed in JP 2006-102923 A. In this case, the processing chamber is monitored with cameras, and the contours of objects present in the processing chamber are determined from the recorded images with pattern recognition algorithms. These contours are then compared with the intended motion path of the work spindle or a tool clamped therein in order to predict and prevent a possible collision by stopping the spindle motion in a timely fashion. Optical systems in combination with image analysis methods likewise require a high computational effort for carrying out the monitoring with real-time capability. Systems of this type quickly reach the limits of electronic processing capabilities during faster displacements. In addition, the image analysis is impaired by lubricant splashing and chips flying around the processing chamber.


A slide cover stabilization/synchronization mechanism includes a slide seat, a base seat and two elastic abutment assemblies. Two slide guide sections, which can be guide rails, are disposed on two lateral sides of the slide seat in parallel to each other. Two holding sections are disposed on two lateral sides of the base seat for fitting with the slide guide sections. The elastic abutment assemblies are respectively disposed on the each holding section. The elastic abutment assemblies respectively at least partially elastically abut against the slide guide sections directly or indirectly. Accordingly, the base seat can be stably and smoothly slid along the slide guide sections without deflection.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a slide cover stabilization/synchronization mechanism. By means of the slide cover stabilization/synchronization mechanism, a user can smoothly operate the slide cover without deflection thereof. Also, by means of the slide cover stabilization/synchronization mechanism, the gap between the slide seat and the base seat is minified to stabilize the operation and reduce wear of the components.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various slide cover structures have been developed and applied to electronic devices. For example, Taiwanese Patent Publication No. 1328088 discloses a typical slide module and a portable electronic device adopting the slide module. The slide module includes a fixed system and a movable system. A fixed frame is fixedly connected to the fixed system and a movable frame is fixedly connected to the movable system. Two reverse hook sections are disposed on two sides of the fixed frame. The two lateral edges of the movable frame are fitted and received in the reverse hook sections, whereby the movable system can be moved relative to the fixed system between a first position and a second position. In the above structure, the two lateral edges of the movable frame are in fact contact with the hook sections of the fixed frame. Therefore, in sliding movement, there is a greater friction between the movable frame and the fixed frame. In order to avoid affection of excessively great friction on the smoothness of the sliding movement, a certain gap is preserved between the hook sections of the fixed frame and the lateral edges of the movable frame so as to reduce the frictional resistance against the sliding movement. Such structure is practically applicable to small-size electronic products such as cellular phones, handheld game machines and personal digital assistants (PDA). However, such structure can be hardly applied to a large-size electronic product such as a laptop computer or a tablet computer. This is because the movable system will have a heavier weight and it is necessary to move the movable system through a longer distance. When applying a push force to one single side of the movable system, the movable system is very likely to be biased. This will affect the smoothness of the sliding movement of the movable system. In some more serious cases, the movable system may be stuck with no possibility of moving. As a result, the lifetime of the slide cover structure may be shortened and the ratio of defective products may increase.
It is therefore tried by the applicant to provide a slide cover structure (movable system), which can be more conveniently operated to overcome the shortcomings existing in the conventional slide cover structure.

Slide cover stabilization and synchronization mechanism


A system and method for performing firewall operations on an edge service gateway virtual machine that monitors traffic for a network. The method includes detecting, from a directory service executing on a computing device, a login event on the computing device, obtaining, from the detected login event, login event information comprising an identifier that identifies a user associated with the login event, storing the login event information as one or more context attributes in an attribute table, and applying a firewall rule to a data message that corresponds to the one or more context attributes.

Typical firewall systems are built to filter traffic based on Internet Protocol (IP) addresses, source and destination ports, and protocol types. In contrast, an identity-based firewall filters traffic and/or control access to a digital product or service based on an authenticated identity of an individual or system. This allows organizations to enable specific users or groups of users to access a variety of digital services or resources using similar credentials or different credentials, ensuring an accurate match between what users are entitled to access according to policy and what they are actually able to access, while also imposing constraints such as company, device, location and application type.
When a user logs into a desktop or virtual machine (VM), a directory service such as Active Directory or other LDAP (lightweight directory access protocol) system authenticates the user and can associate the IP address of the desktop with the user's authenticated identity. This association can then be used to enforce a firewall policy that is associated with the user by translating the user's identity in the policy with the network address (e.g., IP or MAC address) of the system that the user just logged into. Thereafter, any applicable access policies associated with that user may be applied to data messages associated with that network address using a firewall service. However, since conventional identity-based firewall systems utilize network address to identify a user and enforce user-based firewall policies, a problem arises when multiple users are logged into the same computing device, as the same network address is now associated with multiple users.
To overcome the problems described above of applying identity-based firewall polices when multiple users login through the same computing device, other systems have also captured a client's identification (ID) during log in and have applied the client ID that is captured at log in with an IP address to distinguish one user's data messages from another user logged into the same computing device. However, in order for these systems to capture a client's ID at log in and the client's ID for every network connection initiated at a computing device, a guest agent executing on the computing device is needed to provide, not only the indication that a user login has been executed, but also capture the user's ID when the user logs in or initiates the network connection.

Context based firewall service for agentless machines


A process for removing uranium/vanadium-based contaminants from groundwater using a primary in-ground treatment media and a pretreatment media that chemically adjusts the groundwater contaminant to provide for optimum treatment by the primary treatment media.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the removal of uranium-based contaminants from groundwater.
2. Description of Related Art
Groundwater in many localities has become contaminated by both natural and manmade impurities. Due to the considerable reliance on groundwater as a primary source of potable water, treatment of polluted groundwater to remove such contaminants has gained significant interest within the last decade. Many treatment systems for the removal of groundwater contaminants have been proposed, including pump-and-treat systems, well injection of treatment agents, and in-situ treatment. Due to the significant cost savings, in-situ treatment of groundwater has drawn considerable interest in recent years. In-situ treatment of groundwater is discussed in NEW APPROACH TO IN-SITU TREATMENT OF CONTAMINATED GROUNDWATER: McMurty et at., Environmental Progress 1985.
McMurty discusses the use of permeable barrier walls placed in trenches excavated into native aquifers to treat contaminated groundwater. The permeable barrier contains appropriate treatment media, such that the quality of the contaminated groundwater flowing through the media is significantly improved. McMurtry states that most in-situ groundwater treatments will be in isothermal, anaerobic, reducing environments. Many in-situ groundwater treatment systems take advantage of the naturally occurring condition, in conjunction with the selected treatment material to remove or transform the chemical contaminants in the groundwater into nonhazardous material. Typically treatment materials are limestone, activated carbon, active metals, or biological agents. Alternatively, a modified in-situ treatment system maybe used, wherein tanks or chambers, which are filled with a treatment media, are buried or partially buried in the ground. Groundwater is directed to the tank by piping. The modified in-situ system maybe preferred when the natural groundwater flow is complex and multidemensional. The modified in-situ provides ease of installation in these situations. Also, ex-situ or above ground treatment systems may be used in order to reduce installation costs.
These groundwater treatment systems rely on certain process condition,to achieve the removal or adsorption of the desired contaminant. For example, the removal efficiency of the treatment material may rely on the assumption that certain constituents are present in the groundwater for treatment system to work. Alternatively, the treatment media may work more efficiently in an acidic or basic environment. Therefore, it may be necessary to pretreat or precondition the groundwater to optimize the removal or neutralization capability of the treatment media.
An object of this invention is to provide a method to optimize the treatment efficiency of the media in an ex-situ groundwater treatment system.
This and other objectives of the invention, which will become apparent from the following description, have been achieved by a novel improvement to the in-situ groundwater treatment process for removing uranium-based contaminants from contaminated groundwater comprising: Ascertain the direction, volume, rate, and chemical composition of a zone of contaminants dissolved in the groundwater flowing through an aquifer. Then select an appropriate primary treatment media that will render the contaminated material inactive within the groundwater. Next, determine the preferred chemical composition of the groundwater for treatment by the primary treatment media. A pretreatment media is provided, such that the pretreatment media adjusts the chemical composition of the contaminated groundwater to the preferred chemical composition. A first repository is provided, and the pretreatment media is placed therein. The first repository is placed such that the flow of contaminated groundwater through the first repository enters the repository through the upstream side thereof. Further the placement is such that the flow of the contaminated groundwater in the aquifer is directed to pass through the pretreatment media and exit from the downstream side thereof. The permeability of the pretreatment media being such that the resistance to the passage of groundwater through the first repository is no greater that the resistance of the native aquifer to the passage of groundwater through the aquifer. The primary treatment media is provided and placed in a second repository. The second repository is such that the flow of contaminated groundwater from the first repository enters the second repository through the upstream side thereof. Further, the placement being such that the flow of the contaminated groundwater in the aquifer is directed to pass through the pretreatment media, and exit from the downstream side thereof. The permeability of the primary media being such that the resistance to the passage of groundwater through the first repository is no greater that the resistance of the native aquifer to the passage of groundwater through the aquifer. In order to provide improved treatment of the contaminated groundwater the groundwater exiting the first repository enters a settling pond where insoluble material is permitted to settle out of the groundwater in a settling pond or the like prior to the contaminated groundwater entering the secondary repository.
For treatment of uranium-based contaminants the primary treatment elemental iron. When the uranium-based contaminated groundwater is acidic, it is preferable to increase the pH of the groundwater with an alkaline material such as limestone. Preferably the limestone contains at least 90 weight percent calcium carbonate. The groundwater maybe maintained in its native anaerobic condition or allowed to react with oxygen in the air as required.

Method to remove uranium/vanadium contamination from groundwater

The United States of America as represented by the United States Department of Energy


A macro block address processor for a digital compressed video signal decoder, comprising input run/level memories for storing a zero run value and a level value for each macro block coefficient data from a decoding section, respectively, an absolute macro block address generator for converting relative macro block addresses inputted therein into absolute macro block addresses using a slice start code, an absolute macro block address memory for storing an output signal from the absolute macro block address generator, a macro block address counter for sequentially counting macro black addresses by one slice in response to a macro black clock, a comparator for comparing an output signal from the absolute macro block address memory with an output signal from the macro block address counter, a read control let for controlling a read operation of the absolute macro block address memory in response to an output signal from the comparator, and a multiplexer for selecting one of the zero run value from the run memory and a zero run value from one of the level value from said level memory means, or for selecting a zero run value from zero setting means and a level value from said zero setting means in response to the output signal from the comparator and outputting the selected values to a coefficient generator.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to the process of macro block addresses (MBAs) for expanding a compressed video signal as in a HDTV, and more particularly to a macro block address processor for a digital compressed video signal decoder which is capable of processing macro block addresses successively and stably.
2. Description of the Prior Art
FIG. 1A, FIG. 1B and FIG. 1C illustrate a general relationship among data blocks, macro blocks and slices in encoding/decoding a digital video signal. As shown in this drawing, the digital compressed or encoded video signal is partitioned into the data blocks.fwdarw.the macro blocks.fwdarw.the slices. Each macro block is composed of a fixed number of data blocks and is coded into coefficient data. A macro block address is sent to indicate a position of each macro block. The macro block addresses skip over the macro blocks to which no data is to be transmitted and are sent as relative position data to indicate the macro blocks to which data are to be transmitted practically, thereby to make the efficiency of the signal compression higher. In such a system that expands the digital compressed video signal to restore it to its original state, the process of all macro blocks is performed using the relative macro block addresses, as shown in FIG., 2.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a conventional macro block address processor for a digital compressed video signal decoder. As shown in this drawing, the conventional macro block address processor comprises a multiplexer 10 for selecting one of a zero run value for each macro block coefficient data and a zero run value from a zero setter 11 and one of a level value for each macro block coefficient data and a level value from the zero setter 11 in response to a select signal. A down-counter 14 is adapted to count relative macro block addresses and output the counted values as the select signals to the multiplexer 10. A first-in first-out (FIFO) RAM 12 is provided to sequentially store the run values selected by the multiplexer 10 and output them to a coefficient generator (not shown) in the stored order. A FIFO RAM 13 is provided to sequentially store the level values selected by the multiplexer 10 and output them to the coefficient generator in the stored order.
In operation, under the condition that the down-counter 14 counts the macro block addresses and outputs the counted values as the select signals to the multiplexer 10, the zero run value for each macro block coefficient data is selected by the multiplexer 10 and then stored in the FIFO RAM 12 and the level value for each macro block coefficient data is selected by the multiplexer 10 and then stored in the FIFO RAM 13. The FIFO RAMs 12 and 13 then output the stored values to the coefficient generator.
On the other hand, when the down-counter 14 counts the coefficient data for omitted macro blocks as a result of counting the relative macro block addresses, the zero run values from the zero setter 11 are selected by the multiplexer 10 and then stored in the FIFO RAM 12 and the level values from the zero setter 11 are selected by the multiplexer 10 and then stored in the FIFO RAM 13. The FIFO RAMs 12 and 13 then output the stored values to the coefficient generator. The output of the down-counter 14 is also applied as a hold signal to the preceding processing section. The hold signal from the down-counter 14 causes the preceding processing operation to be stopped. As the preceding processing operation is stopped, "O" is produced as the coefficient data for the omitted macro blocks. This means that only the required macro block data must be inputted successively in the signal compression, while all macro block data must be produced in the signal expansion.
However, the conventional macro block address processor has a disadvantage, in that it is not easy to control stopping the preceding processing operation while producing the data for the omitted macro blocks. Also, the control may result in an unstable operation of the macro block address processor.

Macro block address processor for digital compressed video signal decoder


Systems and methods for unified calling are disclosed. According to one embodiment, the method may include (1) using a soft phone application executed by a computer processor, communicating, to a telephony server, an agent status indicating a readiness of the agent to manually make a telephone call; (2) receiving, on a computer terminal, an indication of a telephone number to call; and (3) manually dialing the telephone number using a telephone. The soft phone application emulates an analog connection with the telephony server.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to systems and methods for unified calling over communication channels.
2. Description of the Related Art
Companies, marketing services, debt collection agencies, etc. often employ the services of auto-dialers in order to market new products to current and potential customers. There are generally two modes of using auto-dialers: "predictive" mode and "preview" mode. In predictive mode, the dialer attempts to predict the probability a customer will answer the phone in order to maximize the number of outbound call attempts made in any given period. To do this, the dialer automatically calls several numbers in advance and transfers calls to agents only when a "live" person answers the call. This type of dialing eliminates busy signals, answering machines, etc. and minimizes agent downtime.
In preview mode, however, the dialer displays contact information to an agent before placing the call. The system may be given control, or may allow the agent to control when and if a call is placed to a recipient. If a person answers, the agent is linked to the customer immediately.


Various embodiments provide electrostatic discharge protection structures and methods for forming the same. An exemplary structure can include a semiconductor chip including a through hole. The structure can further include a through silicon via (TSV) structure disposed within the through hole and passing through the semiconductor chip. The TSV structure can have a first surface and a second surface. The structure can further include a tunneling dielectric layer disposed on the first surface of the TSV structure. The tunneling dielectric layer can have a surface area covering a top view surface area of the TSV structure and a surface portion of the semiconductor chip surrounding the TSV structure. Yet further, the structure can include a metal material discretely dispersed in the tunneling dielectric layer, a first electrode disposed on the tunneling dielectric layer, and a second electrode disposed on the second surface of the TSV structure.

With rapid development of semiconductor fabrication technology, in order to achieve faster computing speed, greater data storage capacity and more features, semiconductor chips are being developed toward a higher degree of integration. One of the developments is packaging using through silicon via (TSV) technology. That is, a TSV runs through an entire semiconductor substrate to form electrical conduction path between stacked chips, thus realizing electrical connections between different chips. In contrast with conventional wire bonding technology, packaging using the TSV technology can accomplish maximum density and minimum sizes for chips stacked in three-dimension directions, and can greatly improve chip speed and performance at low power consumption.
In existing technology, usually input/output (I/O) ports of an integrated circuit (IC) are electrically connected to electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection structures in order to protect the IC from being affected by electrostatic discharge. High voltages may be generated during an electrostatic discharge and may reach hundreds or even thousands of volts. In order to prevent the IC from being destroyed by burning, all of the ESD protection structures formed by existing technology take up a large chip area.
When using the wire bonding technology for packaging, an entire IC is located in an integral chip and only a limited number of I/O ports need to be electrically connected to the ESD protection structures. However, when using the TSV technology for packaging, an IC is divided and formed on different chips and the I/O ports of each stacked chip need to be electrically connected to the ESD protection structures. Thus, the chip area occupied by the ESD protection structures is multiplied.
At the same time, a material that fills the TSV is copper. When temperature changes, because copper and the semiconductor substrate have different coefficients of thermal expansion, the TSV tends to generate stress in the surrounding semiconductor substrate. As a result, electrical parameters of semiconductor devices formed around the TSV can change and be difficult to control. Therefore, isolation regions need to be formed around the TSV, and there should not be semiconductor devices formed in the isolation regions. Because the isolation regions can also take up a large portion of the chip area, overall area utilization of the chip is not satisfied.

Electrostatic discharge protection structure and method for forming the same

Semiconductor Manufacturing International (Shanghai) Corporation


A method and apparatus is disclosed herein for generating visualizations (e.g., icons) suitable for a specific display. In one embodiment, the method comprises selecting a group of document images having similar layout features suitable for visualization or a specific display from the plurality of document images based on layout analysis information corresponding to the plurality of document images, and creating a plurality of visualizations to visualize document layout information for a group of document images based on one or more display device characteristics and based on content of the group of documents.

With ever increasing amounts of digital documents the challenges for retrieval algorithms become bigger and effective solutions more and more important. The field of document retrieval is widely researched with a main focus on extracting and evaluating text in documents.
Document retrieval techniques can be categorized as text-based and image-based retrieval techniques. Depending on which technique is used, the results are presented to the user using text and images, accordingly. For example, in content-based image retrieval (CBIR) application search results may be displayed as images since no text information is available. On the other hand, often document retrieval results are given in text form only, since text analysis (e.g., OCR) was the only analysis performed on the document image.
Thumbnails have been used in addition to text for representing retrieval results. The search algorithms used for retrieval are based on text features only, whereas the thumbnail images are just displayed as "some additional information" without any direct linkage to the text results, with the exception that they represent the same document.
Xerox' enhanced thumbnails are created pasting keywords found in HTML pages into the corresponding locations in the thumbnails.
Besides displaying a list of retrieved text results, text-based retrieval techniques may also display the structure of all or part of the underlying feature space derived from the document data base. The resulting images are visualizations of high-dimensional data, i.e. points in the feature space. Several methods exist to transform high-dimensional data into low-dimensional (2-dim.) data plots that can be displayed as an image. Example methods are dendrograms or multidimensional scaling techniques. Visualizations of document clusters using dendrograms are known in the art. For example, see van Liere, R., de Leeuw, W., Waas, F., "Interactive Visualization of Multidimensional Feature Spaces," in Proc. of Workshop on New Paradigms for Information Visualization, Washington D.C., November 2000. Multidimensional scaling (MDS) has been used in the prior art as well. For example, see Leouski, A., Allan, J., "Visual Interactions with a Multidimensional Ranked List," Proc. of the 21st Annual International ACM SIGIR Conference on Research and Development in Information Retrieval, pp. 353-354, 1998. An approach referred to as the Data Mountain approach allows the user to define his own spatial arrangement of thumbnails in a simulated 3-D environment. For more information, see Robertson, G., Czerwinski, M., Larson, K., Robbins, D., Thiel, D. & van Dantzich, M., "Data Mountain: Using spatial memory for document management," In Proceedings of UIST '98, 11th Annual Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology, pp. 153-162, 1998.
Text-only visualization of text-based retrieval results is performed by the software RetrievalWare from the company Convera, http://www.convera.com/Products/rw_categorization.asp. Given a list of text-based retrieval results, Convera provides the user with an automatic categorization of the retrieval results displayed in form of a limited number of folders with labels containing a characteristic word or phrase of a category. Convera calls the algorithmic technique dynamic classification. Results of the classification are visualized as folder images with attached text labels.
Use of text features in document retrieval, searching and browsing, is widely employed, whereas visual features are not commonly used. Besides simple listings of text results, visualizations of retrieval results published in the prior art consist either of traditional document thumbnails or of visualizations of the high-dimensional feature space, applying, e.g., dendrograms or multidimensional scaling techniques (see van Liere, R., de Leeuw, W., Waas, F., "Interactive Visualization of Multidimensional Feature Spaces," in Proc. of Workshop on New Paradigms for Information Visualization, Washington D.C., November 2000).
In the case of thumbnail visualizations, the algorithms used for thumbnail creation typically just downsample individual images. There is no explicit control over what features the user will recognize in the individual thumbnails, what information is lost, or what information is conveyed through a collection of thumbnails. An exception is the SmartNail technology that creates thumbnail-like images with focus on showing readable text and recognizable image portions. With the SmartNail technology, the thumbnail visualization is derived from information of a single image only and is not linked to any specific query-driven retrieval results. However, the current SmartNail technology computes image representations for individual images, not for document collections, with no knowledge on query information. For more information on SmartNails, see U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/435,300, entitled "Resolution Sensitive Layout of Document Regions," filed May 9, 2003, published Jul. 29, 2004 (Publication No. 20040145593).
In the case of high-dimensional data visualization, the user is confronted with an abstract representation of potential features without any association to the document image. MDS and dendrogram visualizations do not convey information on the document image, only arrangements of extracted features. The Data Mountain approach uses conventional thumbnails arranged by the user following personal preferences. For a different user, the structure is not meaningful.
Since screen area is often very limited, it is not possible to show visualizations for each individual document on the screen. Therefore, it is natural to group documents that have similar features and associate each group with a label. This grouping, or clustering, is a common technique in retrieval applications. Clustering of retrieval results, in contrast to clustering the entire data set without having a query, is referred to herein as post-retrieval clustering. See, Park, G., Baek, Y., Lee, H.-K., "Re-ranking algorithm using post-retrieval clustering for content-based image retrieval," Information Processing and Management, vol. 41, no. 2, pp. 177-194, 2005 Clusters are typically created with respect to text features. Cluster labels are typically text descriptions of the common cluster content.
Clustering may be performed in other ways. In one exemplary document system textures are used to categorize and cluster documents in order to support query-by-example. Textures, describing document layout, are query inputs by the user. In one embodiment, the system uses a clustering algorithm to respond with returning documents matching the user-described document layout. Clustering algorithms (e.g., K-means or Sum-of-Square-Errors) may be employed to group documents with respect to traditional document features. These algorithms may return a set of cluster prototypes, visualized as icons, one of which can be used to perform a further query. For more information, see U.S. Pat. No. 5,933,823, entitled "Image Database Browsing and Query Using Texture Analysis," issued Aug. 3, 1999.
In general, clustering techniques can be split into bottom-up and top-down techniques. The bottom-up, or agglomerative, techniques begin by treating each data point as its own cluster and then performing the merger of clusters on the way up to the top. The top-down, or divisive, techniques begin with all data being one cluster and then gradually breaking this cluster down into smaller and smaller clusters. For more information on devisive techniques, see, Duda, R. O., Hart, P. E., "Pattern Classification and Scene Analysis," Wiley, N.Y., 1973.
Another characterization of clustering techniques is monothetic vs. polythetic. In a monothetic approach, cluster membership is based on the presence or absence of a single feature. Polythetic approaches use more than one feature. See, Kummamuru, K., et al., "A Hierarchical Monlothetic Document Clustering Algorithm for Summarization and Browsing Search Results," Proceedings of the 13th international conference on World Wide Web, New York, N.Y., USA, pp. 658-665 p, 2004.


A rotor aircraft has a tilting hub for cyclic control operated by either a tilting spindle or swash plate mounted to the upper end of the drive shaft. A spinner housing with two separate half portions encloses the hub. The blades of the rotor have root portions that are integrally joined to the separate half portions. During a collective pitch change, the half portions rotate relative to each other, but at advance ratios greater than about 0.7, when the collective can be held constant, the spinner half portions can be in perfect alignment. Concentric control sleeves surround the drive shaft for changing collective pitch as well as cyclic pitch.

One type of rotor aircraft has a rotor, at least one propeller, and wings. The rotor provides most of the lift during short or vertical takeoffs, slow speed flight, and landings, the wings provide most of the lift during cruise conditions. During cruise conditions, the rotor preferably free-wheels at a relatively slow speed. The rotor may be completely undriven in flight, or it may be driven for hovering. For take-offs with the undriven type, the pilot spins the rotor to a high speed while still on the ground. At liftoff, the rotor disengages from the engine, and the inertia of the rotor provides lift for a take-off. The propeller propels the aircraft forward to increase lift provided by the wings.
In the aircraft of the type described as well as the helicopters in general, both the cyclic pitch and the collective pitch are controlled. For collective pitch, with a two-bladed rotor, each blade twists about its feathering axis in opposite directions. Cyclic pitch refers to tilting of the plane of rotation in fore and aft directions as well as from one lateral side to the other. Various control mechanisms are employed to provide the cyclic and collective pitch adjustments. The control mechanisms extend alongside the mast, creating a fairly large mast and masthead assembly, which create drag during high speed flight.
Typically, helicopters do not utilize fairings around the mast or the masthead to reduce drag. The gyroplane described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,853,145 discloses a spinner fairing that fits around the masthead. The blades have cuffs that will twist relative to the spinner fairing to change the collective pitch. That patent also discloses a fairing around the mast.

Rotor aircraft tilting hub with reduced drag rotor head and mast


A suspension substrate according to the present invention includes an insulating layer, a metallic support layer provided on one face of the insulating layer, a wiring layer provided on the other face of the insulating layer, the wiring layer including a plurality of wirings and an alignment section located in a substrate main body region and isolated from each wiring. Further, in the substrate main body region, an alignment through hole is provided to extend through the metallic support layer, insulating layer and alignment section of the wiring layer. This alignment through hole is used for alignment for the actuator elements.

Generally, the hard disk drive (HDD) includes the suspension substrate on which a magnetic head slider mounted. In this case, the magnetic head slider is provided for writing and reading data relative to a disk adapted for storing therein the data. The suspension substrate includes a metallic support layer and a wiring layer layered on the metallic support layer, via an insulating layer. The wiring layer has a plurality of (e.g., four to six) wirings. With this configuration, by flowing or sending an electric signal through each wiring, the writing and reading of the data relative to the disk can be performed.
In the hard disk drive of this type, an actuator arm for supporting the magnetic head slider and a VCM actuator (e.g., a voice coil motor) are provided respectively. In this case, in order to move the magnetic head slider to a desired data track on the disk, the actuator arm is pivoted by the VCM actuator, under control of a servo-control system.
In recent years, for an attempt to provide a more high-density disk, the width of each data track has been narrowed. However, in some cases, such an attempt makes it rather difficult to accurately align the magnetic head slider with the desired track, by using the VCM actuator.
To address this problem, the suspension of the so-called dual actuator type has been reported. In this case, the VCM actuator is cooperated with a PZT micro-actuator (or DSA (Dual Stage Actuator)), in order to accurately move the magnetic head slider to the desired track (e.g., see JP2009-295195A or JP2010-79944). Specifically, the PZT micro-actuator is composed of a piezoelectric element composed of a lead titanate zirconate (PZT) and configured to be expanded and contracted with application of a voltage, thus enabling the magnetic head slider to be finely moved. Namely, in the suspension of this dual actuator type, the VCM actuator serves to roughly control the position of the magnetic head slider, while the PZT micro-actuator serves to finely control the position of the magnetic head slider. In this way, the magnetic head slider can be aligned, rapidly and accurately, with the desired track.

Suspension substrate, suspension, head suspension, hard disk drive, and method for manufacturing the suspension


In one aspect, an operational amplifier is configured to form a quiescent current that is a ratio of a current of a current source of the operational amplifier and to provide a load current to a load that is not ratioed to the current of the current source.

The present invention relates, in general, to electronics, and more particularly, to methods of forming semiconductor devices and structure.
In the past, the semiconductor industry utilized various methods and structures to form operational amplifiers. One design of previous operational amplifiers generally provided an operational amplifier with a voltage swing on the output that went substantially from one power supply rail to the other. Additionally, the output desirably supplied a relatively large current to load the connected to the output of the operational amplifier. However, under no load conditions such operational amplifiers generally had a large quiescent current. Some of these previous operational amplifiers also required complex circuitry and often included several sets of differential pair connected transistors in order to implement the operational amplifier.
Accordingly, it is desirable to have an operational amplifier that has a large output voltage swing, that can supply large currents to a load, and that has a small quiescent current under no load conditions.
For simplicity and clarity of the illustration, elements in the figures are not necessarily to scale, and the same reference numbers in different figures denote the same elements. Additionally, descriptions and details of well-known steps and elements are omitted for simplicity of the description. As used herein current carrying electrode means an element of a device that carries current through the device such as a source or a drain of an MOS transistor or an emitter or a collector of a bipolar transistor or a cathode or anode of a diode, and a control electrode means an element of the device that controls current through the device such as a gate of an MOS transistor or a base of a bipolar transistor. Although the devices are explained herein as certain N-channel or P-Channel devices, a person of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that complementary devices are also possible in accordance with the present invention. It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the words during, while, and when as used herein are not exact terms that mean an action takes place instantly upon an initiating action but that there may be some small but reasonable delay, such as a propagation delay, between the reaction that is initiated by the initial action.

Method of forming an operational amplifier and structure therefor

Semiconductor Components Industries, L.L.C.


The present subject matter provides a vertical axis washing machine appliance with features for applying steam to articles disposed therein. The washing machine appliance can be configured for filling a sump of the appliance with fluid and activating a pump in order to drain the sump of fluid. After the pump is activated, the washing machine appliance can be configured for submerging a heater in the appliance's sump with fluid and also starting the heater in order to heat the fluid in the sump and generate steam. Related methods are also provided.

Washing machine appliances can clean articles disposed therein using steam. Steam can increase certain wash cycles' efficiency and effectiveness. For example, steam can decrease the amount of time and/or water needed to clean articles. Also, steam can assist in reducing wrinkles or odors in articles cleaned by such washing machine appliances.
To generate steam, certain washing machines appliances include a steam generator in which steam is generated and subsequently piped to a wash chamber of the appliance. Alternatively certain horizontal axis washing machine appliances generate steam within the appliance's wash chamber. However, currently, certain challenges exist to the use of steam in vertical axis washing machine appliances.
In vertical axis washing machines, the appliance's wash basket rotates about a vertical axis. Because of the wash basket's vertical orientation, fluid within the basket can settle in the basket's sump that is positioned adjacent to a bottom of the basket. Fluid in the appliance's sump can be removed from the sump (e.g., via a pump) at the end of any particular cycle. For example, at the end of the appliance's final rinse cycle, wash fluid in the appliance's sump can be pumped out with a drain pump. However, when the drain pump shuts off, wash fluid can backflow into the sump. For example, wash fluid within the appliance's drain pipe can backflow into the sump due to gravity. The amount of wash fluid that backflows into the sump can be related to a drain pipe's height and/or orientation. However, due to such backflow, wash fluid in the sump during subsequent cycles (e.g., a steam cycle) can have an unknown composition. Such backflow can also affect the amount of wash fluid in the sump during subsequent cycles of the appliance.
Accordingly, a washing machine appliance with features for generating steam within the appliance's wash chamber would be useful. Also, a vertical axis washing machine appliance with features for generating steam within the appliance's wash chamber would be useful. In particular, a vertical axis washing machine appliance with features for controlling the composition and/or amount of fluid converted into steam within the appliance's wash chamber would also be useful.

Vertical axis washing machine appliance with features for applying steam to articles and related methods


One embodiment of the present invention provides a system that automatically processes manufacturing hotspot information. During operation, the system receives a pattern clip associated with a manufacturing hotspot in a layout, wherein the pattern clip comprises a set of polygons in proximity to the manufacturing hotspot's location. Next, the system determines if the pattern clip matches a known manufacturing hotspot configuration. If the pattern clip does not match a known manufacturing hotspot configuration, the system then performs a perturbation process on the pattern clip to determine a set of correction recommendations to eliminate the manufacturing hotspot. By performing the perturbation process, the system additionally determines ranges of perturbation to the set of polygons wherein the perturbed pattern clip does not eliminate the manufacturing hotspot. Subsequently, the system stores the set of correction recommendations and the ranges of perturbation into a manufacturing hotspot database.

1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to semiconductor manufacturing. More specifically, embodiments of the present invention relate to a method and a system that automatically processes a pattern-clip-based manufacturing hotspot to determine both correction guidance descriptions for correcting the manufacturing hotspot and qualified ranges for the pattern clip to remain a manufacturing hotspot.
2. Related Art
Advances in IC manufacturing technology have enabled minimum feature sizes on IC chips to continuously decrease. In fact, the current minimum feature size is smaller than the wavelengths of light used in conventional optical imaging systems. Accordingly, it is becoming increasingly difficult to achieve reasonable fidelity, which is often expressed in resolution and depth of focus, between a designed layout and the shapes of actual fabricated circuit elements. Existing reticle enhancement technologies (RETs), such as optical proximity correction (OPC), phase-shifting masks (PSMs), and sub-resolution assist features (SRAFs), are becoming inadequate to solve fabrication issues on the nanometer scale.
Manufacturability-aware physical design, which takes into account both yield and reliability during the physical-design process, is becoming increasingly important in bridging the gap between design and manufacturing for nanometer-scale fabrication processes. Many yield and reliability issues can be attributed to certain layout configurations, referred to as "manufacturing hotspots" (also referred to as "process hotspot" or simply "hotspots"), which are susceptible to manufacturing process issues, such as stress and lithographic process fluctuations. For example, an increasing number of lithography-related manufacturing hotspots caused by increasing design complexity have become one of the main yield limiters of sub-65 nm IC designs. It is therefore desirable to identify and remove these process-related yield limiters from IC designs before design tapeout and replace them with more yield-friendly layout configurations.
Unfortunately, automatic techniques for modifying a layout to resolve the identified manufacturing hotspots are typically not available to the designers. Note that while manufacturers can routinely publish new "pattern clips" (clips of the layout which are associated with manufacturing hotspots) to make them available to designers, a pattern clip itself is not sufficient for designers to make correction decisions for the associated hotspot. This is because each hotspot is caused by the proximity effect associated with the entire pattern clip, and the hotspot configuration does not indicate which of the constituent geometries need to be altered to remove or reduce the severity of the hotspot.
Furthermore, note that often similar pattern clips provided by manufacturers constitute a hotspot range, within which a particular type of hotspot is considered "valid." However, automatic techniques for determining a valid hotspot range (or ranges) based on a given pattern clip are also not available to the designers. Without such automatic techniques, processing a large number of manufacturer-provided pattern clips becomes extremely time consuming and redundant.
Hence, what is needed is a method and a system that can automatically process pattern-clip-based manufacturing hotspots without the above-described problems.

Dual-purpose perturbation engine for automatically processing pattern-clip-based manufacturing hotspots


According to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, a system for removing matter from a filtering device of a work machine includes a gas pressurization assembly. An element of the gas pressurization assembly is removably attachable to a first orifice of the filtering device without removing the filtering device from a work machine to which the filtering device is connected. The system also includes a heat source fluidly connected to the gas pressurization assembly.

Engines, including diesel engines, gasoline engines, natural gas engines, and other engines known in the art, may exhaust a complex mixture of pollutants. The pollutants may be composed of gaseous and solid material, including particulate matter, nitrogen oxides ("NOx"), and sulfur compounds.
Due to heightened environmental concerns, engine exhaust emission standards have become increasingly stringent over the years. The amount of pollutants emitted from an engine may be regulated depending on the type, size, and/or class of engine. One method that has been implemented by engine manufacturers to comply with the regulation of particulate matter, NOx, and sulfur compounds exhausted to the environment has been to remove these pollutants from the exhaust flow of an engine with filters. However, extended use and repeated regeneration of such filters may cause the pollutants to build up in the components of the filters, thereby causing filter functionality and engine performance to decrease. Moreover, regenerating filters through conventional methods may take up to eight hours or longer, depending on, for example, the size of the filter, the configuration and material composition of the filter media, and the type of heat source used. Such a long regeneration period may be undesirable in some work machine environments. In addition, the temperatures required for regeneration may be in excess of 500 degrees Celsius (932 degrees Fahrenheit). At such temperatures, soot contained within the filter may spontaneously combust, resulting in damage to the filter and/or its components.
One method of removing built-up pollutants from a filter may be to remove the clogged filter from the work machine to which it is connected and direct a flow of gas through the filter in a direction that is opposite the direction of normal flow. The filter may be large, heavy, and difficult to disconnect, however, making it cumbersome, time consuming, and dangerous to remove the filter from the engine of the work machine for servicing.
Another method of removing matter from a filter may be to divert an exhaust flow from the clogged filter to a separate filter, without disconnecting either filter from the engine. While the exhaust flow is diverted, air may be directed through the clogged filter in a direction opposite the normal flow. Since such matter removal systems include a second filter, however, they may be larger and more costly than single filter systems. In addition, since these systems are not disconnected or removed from the engine during cleaning, the user may not be able to manipulate the reverse flow of air within the housing of the clogged filter. Thus, matter that is located out of the direct path of the reverse flow may be difficult to remove from such systems. Furthermore, such systems may not be capable of applying a negative pressure or vibration to the clogged filter to assist in removing the matter. Finally, such systems may not be capable of quickly drying matter captured by the filter instead of undergoing a lengthy regeneration process at high temperatures.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,566,545 ("the '545 patent") teaches a system for removing particulate matter from an engine filter. In particular, the '545 patent discloses a filter connected to an engine exhaust line, a valve structure within the exhaust line, and an air feeder. When air is supplied to the filter in a reverse flow direction, the air may remove captured particulates from the filter.
Although the '545 patent may teach the removal of matter from a filter using a reversed flow, the system described therein requires the use of a second filter during the reverse flow condition, thereby increasing the overall cost and size of the system. In addition, the system does not allow for the manipulation of the reverse flow of air within the filter during matter removal. Moreover, the system is not capable of supplying a negative pressure or vibration to the filter to assist in the filter cleaning process. Finally, the system of the '545 patent is not capable of reduced cleaning times, nor does the system avoid the risk of potential damage to the filter caused by high temperature regeneration.
The present disclosure is directed to overcoming one or more of the problems set forth above.