A sulfur chemiluminescence detector 200 includes: a heating furnace including a gas passage having first and second supply ports, and a heater configured to heat the gas passage; an oxidation-reduction gas supply unit configured to supply, to the gas passage, an oxidizing-agent gas through the first supply port and a reducing-agent gas through the second supply port; a reaction cell configured to make a sample gas that has passed through the gas passage react with ozone; an ozone supply unit configured to supply the ozone into the reaction cell; a vacuum pump connected to the reaction cell; a photodetector configured to detect light generated inside the reaction cell; a signal receiving unit configured to receive a shutdown signal; and a shutdown functioning unit configured to control each unit to automatically stop supplying the reducing-agent gas and the oxidizing-agent gas by the oxidation-reduction gas supply unit, heating the gas passage by the heater, supplying the ozone by the ozone supply unit, and evacuating by the vacuum pump, upon the shutdown signal being received by the signal receiving unit.

The sulfur chemiluminescence detector (SCD) is capable of detecting a sulfur compound in a sample at high sensitivity by using chemiluminescence, and is usually used in combination with a gas chromatograph (GC) (see Patent Literature 1, for example).
Gas (sample gas) containing sample components separated in a column of the GC is introduced in a heating furnace provided in the SCD. The heating furnace includes a combustion tube and a heater for heating the combustion tube. To the combustion tube, an oxidizing agent and a reducing agent are supplied under the control of a flow controller. The sample gas is oxidized by the oxidizing agent while passing through the interior of the combustion tube, and sulfur dioxide (SO2) is generated from a sulfur compound in the sample gas. Then, the SO2 is reduced by the reducing agent while passing through the interior of the combustion tube, and sulfur monoxide (SO) is generated. The SO is introduced into a reaction cell provided downstream of the heating furnace. A vacuum pump is connected to the reaction cell. The vacuum pump is used to suck gas inside the reaction cell, and then ozone (O3) generated in an ozone generator is supplied to the reaction cell. Accordingly, the sulfur monoxide and the ozone react with each other to generate the excited species of sulfur dioxide (SO2*). When the SO2* turns back to the ground state through chemiluminescence, the emission intensity of the SO2* is detected by a photodetector, and thus the quantity of the sulfur compound contained in the sample gas is detected from the emission intensity.


The present invention has the advantage over the prior art that it provides a labeling method suitable for a complete medical report. In an aspect the present invention provides intuitive visual manual labeling, easy navigation based on anatomy, feedback to improve segmentation interactively, and automatic labeling based on anatomical textbook knowledge and already provided manual labels.

Labeling, i.e. matching anatomical textbook information to a segmented object, is crucial for a complete medical report but is often performed manually in an ad-hoc manner due to time constraints, or automatically, in which case labeling often fails when presented with non-standard anatomy or bad or uncommon scans.
Current image processing workstations and Picture Archiving and Communication Systems (PACS) offer all kinds of segmentation tools for tree-like structures, such as vessels. These segmentation tools utilize techniques such as region growers, include and exclude seed strategies, thresholds, and statistical or model-based learning. Besides the segmentation tools and methods, there have been some attempts towards automatic labeling based on anatomical reference models, such as atlases.
FIG. 1 illustrates an example of combined tree segmentation and an atlas of the bronchial tree. The left portion of FIG. 1 shows a segmentation of the bronchial tree. The right portion of FIG. 1 shows an atlas with the nomenclature of the bronchial airway tree.
Currently, even when the segmentation tool is working adequately, the labeling task will be difficult because the diversity in "normal anatomical" structures can be very large. In case of missing tree segments, which will be the case in the analysis of trees with obstructions, it is even harder to perform automatic labeling. Automatic labeling also requires that the segmented tree structure is presented in an "anatomical" way. Segmentation tools often provide small branches in a standard graph-like structure. Anatomically there will be a main branch and several sub branches that originate from that main branch. A label or anatomical name belongs to a main branch that may consist of several branching levels in the detected graph.
Current solutions are either ad-hoc or automatic. In ad hoc solutions, not all is labeled but only two or three places are labeled since labeling takes time, and the user often has limited time for these tasks. This means for example that the segmenting is performed only near a stenotic region instead of being applied to a whole vessel, after which manual labeling of the small region is performed.
In some current manual labeling techniques a path found by a segmentation tool may be selected and a name may be assigned from a list. Once selected, the name disappears from the list.
Automatic labeling will often fail in non-standard anatomy and/or bad or uncommon scans, in which case an easy correction is not offered.
Hence, an improved labeling method, apparatus, graphical user interface, computer-readable medium, and use would be advantageous, allowing for increased flexibility, and cost-effectiveness.


A feed-forward symbol synchronizer (200, FIG. 2) samples symbols transmitted within one or more packets that form a burst of radio frequency (RF) energy. The symbol samples (209) are delayed in a data delay buffer (214) while a phase estimate (212) is generated for each packet. A resampler (218) resamples the delayed symbol samples based on the phase estimate, resulting in resampled data (228) that includes one sample per symbol. The resampled data is clocked into a dual-port RAM (230) using a resampling clock that is also based on the phase estimate. The resampled data is then clocked out of the dual-port RAM and into a demodulator (238) using the receiver""s symbol clock (232). Also described are methods of operating the feed-forward symbol synchronizer.

The invention relates generally to digital demodulators and, more specifically, to digital demodulators that recover data conveyed in a stream of symbols within a received wireless signal.
In a wireless, digital communication system, a transmitter modulates a stream of data and transmits the modulated signal to a receiver. The transmitter modulates the data by converting it to symbols, where a symbol is a discrete interval of time within which the transmitted signal conveys a unit of data (i.e., one or more bits) in the form of a magnitude and a phase. The transmitter modulates the data based on a symbol clock, which is local to the transmitter, where the symbol clock rate is some fraction of the data rate.
Upon receipt, a receiver recovers the data by demodulating the received signal. Many of the receiver""s demodulation elements (e.g., the carrier loop, unique word detector, interleavers, data decision modules, and Viterbi decoders) are clocked using the receiver""s symbol clock. The receiver""s symbol clock and the transmitter""s symbol clock are separate. Therefore, the phases and the frequencies of the transmitted symbols and the received symbols usually are slightly different.
In addition, in some systems, the transmitted signals are prone to significant frequency offsets, such as offsets caused by Doppler shifts. For example, in a satellite communication system where the satellites move with respect to ground-based transmitters, Doppler shifts can substantially offset the frequency of signals transmitted by ground devices to the satellites, and vice versa.
Symbol synchronization involves compensating for frequency and phase offsets imposed upon the signals between the transmitter and the receiver. Some prior art systems address the frequency and phase offset problems using some type of phase locked loop (PLL) circuit. In these systems, a voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) is employed to modify the sampling rate of the received signal, where the sampling rate is controlled by a sampling clock at the receiver. In addition, the output of an interpolation filter, which is used to resample the incoming data, is controlled by a symbol clock that is phase locked to the received data stream.
In some cases, however, it may be undesirable to use a VCO in the synchronization loop. One reason is that a VCO generally produces harmonics, which may interfere with other system components. If a VCO is undesirable, the symbol clock may instead be derived directly from a sampling clock using a simple state machine. The resulting clock rate will have an average frequency equal to the symbol rate, but a non-uniform duty cycle. One drawback to this solution, however, is that both the sampling clock and the symbol clock are fixed in frequency and cannot be adjusted to track the frequency of an incoming Doppler shifted signal. This solution, therefore, is not adequate when received signals are susceptible to Doppler shifts.
What are needed are apparatus and methods that provide accurate symbol synchronization in the presence of significant frequency offsets. Particularly needed are apparatus and methods that enable a receiver, which receives Doppler shifted signals, to demodulate received symbols without the use of a VCO.

Feed-forward symbol synchronizer and methods of operation therefor


A rectangular luminaire includes a rectangular fixture defining at least one cavity having a plurality of light engines. A heat flange is disposed about a distal end region of the rectangular fixture and includes a hollow, generally pyramidal frustum shape with a generally rectangular cross-section. A distal-most end of the heat flange is configured to be disposed a distance D from a support surface when the rectangular fixture is received in a recess of the support surface, the distance D being greater than or equal to 0.4 times the fixture half-width W. Thermal energy is conductively transferred from the light engine, through the rectangular fixture, to the heat flange where the thermal energy is convectively transferred from the heat flange to surrounding air to create air currents flowing along the support surface thereby reducing the junction temperature.

Luminaires, such as down lights or the like, may include a can and a light engine disposed within a cavity defined by the can. The light engine includes a light source configured to generate light. One such type of light source includes light emitting diodes, LEDs. While LEDs may generate less thermal energy compared to traditional bulbs (e.g., incandescent light bulbs), LEDs nevertheless generate thermal energy which should be managed in order to control the junction temperature. A higher junction temperature generally correlates to lower light output, lower luminaire efficiency, and/or reduced life expectancy. Unfortunately, managing thermal energy is particularly challenging when designing ceiling fixtures because temperature gradients in a room send the hottest air closest to the ceiling. Moreover, thermal insulation installed in the ceiling, and particularly proximate to the ceiling fixture, may reduce and/or suppresses natural convection. For example, the thermal insulation may have a thermal conductivity of approximately 0.04 W/(m-K), and as a result, the thermal insulation may generally only permit the removal of thermal energy upward from the ceiling fixture by thermal conduction which occurs at a far slower rate than thermal convection above the ceiling.
Another challenge facing the design of ceiling fixtures involves a plurality of ceiling fixtures installed throughout a room. In particular, the ceiling fixtures which are surrounded by other ceiling fixtures (e.g., ceiling fixtures in the middle of the room) are most vulnerable to overheating as they are farthest from the walls (which may help to act as a heat sink). Moreover, nearby ceiling fixtures generate thermal energy which reduces and/or minimizes any lateral temperature gradient across the ceiling. As a result, thermal energy is generally limited to upward and downward. Because hot air rises, most of the thermal energy must travel through the insulated ceiling.


A touch panel having a panel body formed by transparent upper and lower electrodes spaced a predetermined distance. The touch panel is mounted on a front surface of a display device to detect a coordinate at a depressed position on the upper electrode. The improvement comprises a transparent insulating liquid material filled between the upper and lower electrodes and a coloring agent containing pigment or dyestuff dispersed in the liquid material. In another aspect, the improvement comprises a transparent insulating liquid material filled between the upper and lower electrodes and an insulating fine powder dispersed in the liquid material.

The present invention relates to a touch panel adapted to be mounted on a display device such as CRT and detect a coordinate at a position of depression by a finger, a pen, etc.
Generally, the touch panel is formed by laminating transparent upper and lower electrodes with a spacer such as a dot spacer interposed therebetween, and supporting the lower electrode to a transparent support plate. The touch panel thus formed is mounted on a display surface of a display device such as CRT or LCD (liquid crystal display), and is depressed at a predetermined position by means of a pen, a finger, etc. as viewed by an operator to detect a coordinate at such a depressed position, thus providing a coordinate input device.
In such a touch panel as mentioned above, it is known that a filter permitting transmitting of a certain part of spectrum from the display device as a light source and absorbing the other part is provided so as to improve a contrast at a display portion of the display device and adjust a color tone.
Such a conventional filter is formed by uniformly dispersing pigment or dyestuff made of organic or inorganic materisls in a transparent acrylic resin, and the filter is coated on a single surface or both surfaces of the upper electrode and the lower electrode. Alternatively, in the case that the transparent support plate is formed of a transparent synthetic resin such as acrylic resin, pigment or dyestuff as mentioned above is kneaded in the transparent support plate to integrally form the filter with the support plate. As a result, the steps of manufacturing the touch panel with such a filter as mentioned above are complicated to cause an increase in cost.
Further, in the prior art touch panel as mentioned above, an air gap is defined by the dot spacer between the upper electrode and the lower electrode. Accordingly, there occurs reflection or refraction of light at an air layer formed by the air gap, causing a reduction in transmission rate of the touch panel as a whole. Additionally, the outline of the dot spacer is readily visualized to generate a problem in visibility.
Furthermore, as the dot spacer is fixed on either of the electrodes, there exists a non-contact area of both the electrodes, that is, a dead zone of the input device, causing incapability of minute coordinate detection. Particularly in the case of forming the dot spacer by a general printing technique, a diameter of the spacer tends to be greater at a bottom surface than a height thereof in relation to the viscosity of the spacer. Therefore, the existence of the dead zone as mentioned above cannot be ignored.
Other documents disclosing a touch panel and a membrane switch are co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. Nos. 07/187,263, filed Apr. 28, 1988, entitled "Membrane Switch" and 07/180,294, filed Apr. 12, 1988, entitled "Touch Panel".
In another conventional touch panel as disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open Publication No. 60-112844, a transparent insulating liquid acting as a spacer is enclosed between the upper electrode and the lower electrode. When the touch panel is depressed from the upper electrode side, the insulating liquid at a depressed portion is moved aside to allow the contact between both the electrodes, while when the depression force is removed, both the electrodes are maintained separate from each other owing to the fluidity of the insulating liquid. Thus, as there are absent the air layer and the dot spacer as mentioned previously between both the electrodes, the visibility may be improved, and the resolution may be also improved because of no dead zone.
Although such a touch panel utilizing the insulating fluid as a spacer exhibits a good function regarding the prevention of reduction in visibility and the improvement in resolution, there still remains a problem. That is, the insulating liquid has a good fluidity in response to a depression force, but it is inferior in restorability when removing the depression force. Accordingly, there is a possibility of both the electrodes erroneously contacting with each other during a long service life. Further, as a long restoring time is needed, operation feeling is rendered unsatisfactory.


The present invention relates to a thin film transistor and a method of manufacturing the same. More particularly, the present invention relates to a thin film transistor that includes a zinc oxide material including Si as a channel material of a semiconductor layer, and a method of manufacturing the same.

In general, a thin film transistor includes a source electrode, a drain electrode, a gate electrode, a semiconductor layer, an insulating layer, and a substrate.
In general, ZnO is used as a channel material of the semiconductor layer, and specifically, Group 1 alkali (Li, Na) or Group 5 (N, P, As) is doped in ZnO to be used as a p-type channel material.
However, since ZnO may easily act as a hole killer that is spontaneously generated because a formation enthalpy of an oxygen vacancy, a Zn interstitial and the like capable of being acted as an n-type dopant is very low, it is difficult to perform the p-type doping as the semiconductor layer.
In addition, because an intrinsic characteristic of ZnO in which a formation enthalpy of an oxygen vacancy, a Zn interstitial and the like is low, in the case of when the ZnO thin film transistor is manufactured, there is an unstable state in that a strong n-type channel is formed and a threshold voltage and mobility of the channel are changed according to time.
Meanwhile, Korean Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2004-79516 discloses a method of forming a zinc oxide thin film in which a Group 5 element is added as a dopant on a substrate by using a zinc oxide compound including a Group 5 (N, P, As, Sb, Bi) element or oxides of a Group 5 element and activating the dopant. However, the method is disadvantageous in that the activation cannot be easily performed.
Therefore, in the case of when the ZnO thin film transistor is manufactured, since it is difficult to perform the p-type doping by using only the ZnO material, there is a need to develop a material that is capable of being used to perform the p-type doping by using Group 1 alkali (Li, Na and the like) or Group 5 (N, P, As and the like).

Thin film transistor and method for preparing the same


An apparatus and method for measuring the concentrations of oil, water and/or hydrates in a multiphase production fluid flow comprises measuring the complex permitivities, both real and imaginary parts, of the flow at at least two frequencies. One dispersive and one non-dispersive frequency are used. In one embodiment at least three frequencies may be selected, one of which is below about 1 MHz while the other two are within the dispersive and non-dispersive ranges for water. In this embodiment water may be distinguished from hydrates and both measured simultaneously.

1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to the field of methods of measuring water and hydrates content in production fluids. More particularly, it relates to methods and apparatuses for measuring water in multiphase production fluid flows.
2. Background Art
Many fluids, such as hydrocarbon production fluids, contain a certain proportion of water. Generally this water is in one of two forms, either as liquid water, or hydrocarbons hydrates. These hydrates are ice-like minerals that form at moderately low temperatures and high pressures of the deep sea and some land applications. They contain a molecule of hydrocarbons to which 4 or more molecule of water bond themselves in a symmetrical cages to form hydrate crystals. Regardless of form, however, the presence of water along with the more desired components of the production fluid, such as oil, is often problematic. If in liquid form, the water must eventually be removed in order to enable refining. If in hydrate form, the water plays a part in plugging pipelines and presenting transportation and storage difficulties.
Because of the significance of the presence of water in either form, it is frequently desirable to be able to first accurately measure it and detect in which state it is, liquid with or without hydrates solid particles. Such measurement is crucial to a number of subsequent decisions and operations adjustments, which may be of a financial, allocation, control or safety type. However, many of today's methods of determining the proportion of the so-called "water cut", i.e., the proportion of the production fluid which is water in either liquid or hydrate form, are inaccurate as each hydrocarbon has different permittivity and or density. So unless individual calibration is performed, large error levels may result that can be as high as 5 percent. Current water cut meters are particularly susceptible to this high error level. This inaccuracy is often unacceptable.
For example, one known method is to measure the water cut by measuring the permittivity properties of the mixture. Permittivity is a physical quantity that describes how an electric field affects, and is affected by, a medium, according to the ability of that medium to polarize in response to the field. This method, unfortunately, is subject to systematic error. This systematic error results from the differences in the complex permittivity of different crude oils. These crude oils may be of highly complex composition and may include, for example, aliphatic and aromatic hydrocarbons of varying polarities, and various isomers thereof; molecules containing heteroatoms such as nitrogen, oxygen, sulphur or metals; resins and asphaltenes containing a wide variety of chemical groups such as naphthalenic acids, carboxylic acids, phenols, pyridines, thiophenols, benzothiophenes, alkylphenols, thiophenes, and other compounds whose substituents contribute to a relatively high level of polarity; salts; and, of course, water. Prior art methods have, however, failed to fully acknowledge this complexity of composition by using only overall density in its determination of complex permittivity. This density is converted to a dry crude oil dielectric constant (also known as the real part of complex permittivity) based upon an API gravity chart for zero shift compensation. However, because it is possible for two different dry crude oils, of different compositions, to have the same density but different dielectric constants, the dielectric constant is likely to be incorrect for the composition as a whole. Thus, even extremely accurate measurements of crude oil density may result in a crude oil dielectric constant with an error equivalent to 0.7 to 1.0 percent of water cut value. This degree of error is considered to be very high in many applications. Importantly, this method is also generally unsuited to in-line use in multiphase flows of production fluid.
Another method, geared particularly toward use where hydrates are being formed, involves simply detecting water in conjunction with measuring fluid pressure and temperature, and then performing an appropriate thermodynamics calculation therefrom. The drawback to this indirect method is that chemically active additives, such as methanol, salt, glycol and some other substances, substantially affect these calculations. Other indirect methods include those that look at either the effects produced by the hydrates, or the properties and structure of the hydrates, from which quantification is calculated rather than actually measured. These methods include both laboratory scale and industrial scale methods, including those based upon an array of instrumentation such as nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, and mass spectroscopy, sonic attenuation and propagation, fiber optic technology, volume-pressure-time relations, volume resistivity, and the like. Use of calculations rather than actual measurement, however, again leaves significant room for error.
As should be evident from the volume of references identified hereto, the detection of water in whatever form in a fluid media has received significant attention by many researchers. Generally speaking, the focus of attention of such research centered on the properties of hydrates rather than devising practical instruments for detecting the formation of hydrates and measuring their concentration, without prior knowledge of the properties of the hydrocarbons and salinity of the water in the conduit.
Thus, what is needed in the art is a method and apparatus for directly measuring the amount of water, in either liquid or hydrate form, in a multiphase production fluid flow, which reduces the error that frequently results from previously known methods and/or apparatuses. What is also needed in the art is a method and apparatus than can provide accurate measurements of water cut in crude oil without advance knowledge of properties of a particular dry crude oil.

Method and apparatus for detecting water in a fluid media


A charged particle beam focusing apparatus includes a charged particle beam generator configured to project simultaneously at least one non-astigmatic charged particle beam and at least one astigmatic charged particle beam onto locations on a surface of a specimen, thereby causing released electrons to be emitted from the locations. The apparatus also includes an imaging detector configured to receive the released electrons from the locations and to form images of the locations from the released electrons. A processor analyzes the image produced by the at least one non-astigmatic charged particle beam and in response thereto adjusts a focus of the at least one non-astigmatic charged particle beam.

Charged particle beams, such as those that are used in focused ion beam or scanning electron microscopes, are typically focused by scanning the beam over a sample with sharp edges. The incident charged beam generates a scanned image of the sample, and the beam is focused by maximizing the contrast of the scanned image. However, this focusing system requires a patterned sample with sharp features.
The same method of scanning and maximizing contrast in the scanned image may also be used in wide area particle beam systems used for electron beam inspection and lithography. In these systems, in addition to the requirement for the patterned sample, this focusing method interrupts the normal wide area operation, and the scanning of the beam over the sample may introduce charging artifacts.
Other methods for focusing electron beams are known in the art. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,483,036, to Giedt, et al., whose disclosure is incorporated herein by reference, describes a method for automatically focusing an electron beam by determining the beam size. The beam is swept over a number of narrow slits, and the current profiles generated as the beam sweeps are used to find the beam size, and to focus the beam to an optimal position.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,726,919, to Azad, et al., whose disclosure is incorporated herein by reference, describes a system for measuring the effective focus of an electron beam. The electron beam generates a temperature profile of an irradiated target, and the temperature profile is measured optically. Beam focus operating parameters are varied until an error between the measured temperature profile and a predicted profile for an effective focus are less than a predetermined value.
In charged particle systems, astigmatism is considered a problem, and much effort has been expended to reduce the problem. For example, U.S. Patent Application 2003/0201393, to Tsuneta et al., whose disclosure is incorporated herein by reference, is directed to improving performance of an electron microscope. The disclosure describes a stigmator that is used as a compensator for astigmatic aberration, currents through the stigmator being adjusted to reduce the astigmatism of the electron microscope to zero.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,559,456, to Muraki, whose disclosure is incorporated herein by reference, describes an electron beam system. The system uses a dynamic stigmatic coil in the incoming beam path to set the astigmatism of the irradiating electron beam to be substantially equal to zero, by adjusting the blur of the focused beam to be equal in two orthogonal directions.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,025,600, to Archie et al., whose disclosure is incorporated herein by reference, and PCT application WO 03/041109, to Almogy et al., whose disclosure is incorporated herein by reference, describe charged particle beam systems.

Focusing a charged particle imaging system


A system and method for converting an analog signal to a digital signal is provided including a first circuit (22) having a signal range and an input for receiving a first signal, and a second circuit (24) having an input receiving the analog signal and a first output coupled to the input of the first circuit. The first circuit (22) includes an amplifier (28). The first circuit (22) samples the first signal and produces the digital signal from the first signal using the amplifier. A second output of the second circuit (24) is coupled to the amplifier (28). The second circuit (24) samples and scales the analog signal via the amplifier (28) to produce the first signal within the signal range and cancels an offset of the first signal. The system and method reduce power consumption and save device area.

When processing information in electronic devices, the information may originate in some analog form (e.g., as an analog signal), and analog-to-digital converter (ADC) systems are typically used to transform the analog signal into a digital signal for further processing. A conventional ADC system usually includes a core circuit that performs the analog-to-digital conversion and additional support circuitry coupled to the core circuit. Examples of the additional support circuitry include, but are not necessarily limited to, a reference circuit that sets the full-scale range of the core circuit and a scaling circuit that scales the analog input signals to fit into the full-scale operating range of the core circuit.
Most conventional ADC systems, such as one based on a redundant signed digit (RSD) cyclic system and the like, have separate circuit blocks for each of these functions (e.g., scaling and setting the full-scale range). In general, each of these circuit blocks includes an operational amplifier (OPAMP) in the respective circuit. When using an OPAMP, an offset error may be associated with the differential inputs of the OPAMP. The impact of this offset error is increased in conventional ADC systems using multiple OPAMPs to accomplish the analog-to-digital conversion. For example, the offset error associated with the OPAMP for the reference circuit, the offset error associated with the OPAMP for the scaling circuit, and the offset error associated with the OPAMP for the core converter circuit together contribute to the overall error of the ADC system. In some instances, the circuit blocks may be designed to minimize the offset error attributed to the OPAMPs but at the cost of increasing the complexity of the circuit block.
In addition to contributing offset error to the ADC system, the OPAMPs consume power during normal operation of the ADC system and occupy space. In portable devices, such as cellular phones, personal digital assistants, and the like, minimizing power consumption and device size are valuable design considerations. For example, mobile communication products place a premium on maximizing battery life.
Accordingly, a system for converting an analog signal to a digital signal having reduced power consumption and component size is desired. In addition, a system for converting an analog signal to a digital signal having reduced offset errors is desired. In addition, a method for converting an analog signal to a digital signal having reduced power consumption and component size is desired. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics of the present invention will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description of the invention and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and this background of the invention.

System and method for analog-to-digital conversion


The present invention relates to variant antibodies and methods of generating said antibodies with a reduced level of binding to process impurities. In particular, the invention describes variant IgG4 antibodies which have been modified in the heavy chain constant region at any one or a combination of amino acids in the region between Kabat residues 203 and 256, wherein the variant IgG4 antibody has a reduced level of binding to host cell protein (HCP), compared to an unmodified IgG4 antibody. The invention also relates to compositions comprising said variant IgG4 antibodies.

Monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) are biopharmaceuticals which are used for the therapeutic treatment of a wide range of diseases. The manufacture of these complex recombinant proteins typically requires the use of a biological host system, which through genetic engineering, is capable of expressing the product in a suitably active form. In this regard mammalian cell lines, such as Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO) cells, are ubiquitous in their use as hosts for the industrial production of numerous mAb products, since they are capable of folding, assembling and applying appropriate post-translational modifications to these proteins, ensuring their compatibility with human systems.
A consequence, and thereby a key challenge in the use of cell based systems for the production of mAbs, is the need to isolate the product protein from a range of other complex impurities. These are termed process-related impurities and include a diverse range of proteins which are endogenous to the host organism or associated with such cells (such as virus-like-proteins). These so called host cell proteins (HCPs) represent a broad class of molecules, which have the potential to negatively affect both the stability and safety of the biopharmaceutical drug. Some HCPs may possess proteolytic activity which can adversely affect the stability of the product protein. Other HCPs have the potential to cause an immunogenic response in patients if present in the final drug product. For these reasons the clearance of HCPs represents a major challenge for the manufacture of all biopharmaceutical products.
Clearance of host cell proteins is typically achieved through the use of multiple chromatographic purification techniques, utilising orthogonal separation chemistries. Whilst such an approach is typically effective, challenges arise when the product mAb displays some interaction or affinity to one or more of the proteins comprising the HCP population, resulting in co-purification of these HCPs with the product. In such cases a standard approach is to develop suitable chromatography column wash strategies, designed from a physicochemical perspective, to disrupt these interactions. As the propensity for HCP interaction varies between mAb molecules it is generally held that the hypervariable complementarity determining regions (CDRs) of the antibody are primarily responsible for these interactions. However, the precise sequence and structural motifs within these regions which lead to increased interactions has not been elucidated.
Of the five classes of immunoglobulins (Igs), denoted G, A, M, D and E, the majority of mAb biopharmaceuticals fall within the Immunoglobulin G (IgG) class, of which there are four subclasses numbered 1 through 4.
Recently, HCPs such as putative phospholipase B-Like 2 (PLBL2), also known as phospholipase B domain containing protein 2 (PLBD2), have been shown to have an increased propensity to co-purify with certain immunoglobulin variants. The precise reason for this difference in propensity to co-purify with some IgG isotypes but not others is unknown, however previous studies have posited that the interaction between IgGs and PLBL2 is primarily driven by the CDRs, but are facilitated by the features of the IgG4 constant region which differentiate it from the IgG1 subclass (Tran et al. (2016) J. Chromatogr. 1438:31-38). However the exact nature of these differences remains unknown. Process impurities such as PLBL2 have the potential to illicit an immune response in patients. Furthermore, lipases such as PLBL2 have been identified as a potential causative agent for the degradation of formulation excipients (Dixit et al., (2016) J. Pharm. Sci., 105(5):1657-66 and US2016/0101181). These excipients are necessary for the stabilisation of the product protein in the final formulation, and their breakdown would compromise the shelf-life and therefore potential safety of the drug. For these reasons, the presence of process impurities and HCPs such as PLBL2 in the final drug product is highly undesirable.
The increased propensity for certain immunoglobulins to interact with HCPs such as PLBL2 has necessitated the development of specialised purification schemes in order to ensure a sufficiently safe final drug product. Such an approach whilst effective, is however not ideal as not only does it increase the associated cost of manufacturing, but also places an increased burden on process validation, and the need to show that the purification process can robustly clear process impurities to acceptable levels. This then also has implications in terms of increased analytical requirements, since PLBL2 has been shown to be difficult to detect through conventional techniques, often requiring the use of bespoke immunoassays (WO2015/038884).
There therefore remains a need for more effectively and cost efficiently reducing the level of HCPs in the final drug product of therapeutic immunoglobulins.

Antibodies with reduced binding to process impurities


The present invention relates to an apparatus for injecting molten plastic material. The apparatus includes a novel bushing arrangement have a threaded portion which forms part of a mechanical connection between the bushing and an air piston housing so as to reduce the possibility of plastic material leaking between the bushing and the air piston housing. The bushing has a melt channel for mating with a melt channel in a manifold in which the bushing is housed and with an axial channel in a nozzle body. The bushing is sized to fit within a bore in the manifold so as to reduce the possibility of leakage between the bushing and the manifold. The bushing also serves to close off or plug holes or channels drilled into the manifold. In one embodiment of the present invention, the bushing has a passageway through which a valve stem for closing off a gate in the nozzle body passes.

The present invention relates to an apparatus for injecting molten plastic material into a molding machine and in particular, to an improved bushing arrangement to be incorporated into the injection apparatus.
FIG. 1 illustrates a manifold bushing construction 30 for an injection molding apparatus having a conventional thermal expansion sealing nozzle 32. This type of injection molding apparatus and manifold bushing construction is illustrated in detail in U.S. Pat. No. 4,173,448 to Rees et al.
Subsequent to the development of the thermal expansion sealing nozzle, the spring sealing nozzle was developed. FIG. 2 illustrates a molding system with such a spring sealing nozzle. The substitution of the spring sealing nozzle for the thermal expansion sealing nozzle brought one major problem along with it--namely, a leakage problem. The cause of this problem can be traced to the fact that it is very difficult to manufacture manifold bushing spigots with a length that exactly matches the depth of the corresponding recess in the manifold. Consequently a very small gap may exist at the interfaces 10 and 12. Furthermore, the diameter of the spigot 14 has to be slightly smaller than the bore in between the interfaces 10 and 12. When this happens, the plastic, which is subjected to injection pressure, exerts a large separating force at the interfaces 10 and 12 by virtue of the comparatively large projected areas on which it can act. This separating force can overcome the spring force trying to maintain the seal at the interface and leakage can occur.
Other prior art arrangements of manifold bushing and nozzle assemblies face still other problems. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,022,846 to Schmidt shows a nozzle and a manifold bushing screwed together through the manifold with bolts. This construction means that when the manifold thermally expands laterally, the nozzle must travel laterally as well or deflect, thereby causing premature wear and the possibility of leakage.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,043,726 to Tsunemoto shows a construction having a spring loaded nozzle assembly with an adjustable set screw. The valve stem and the valve action are within the nozzle body. Injection pressure opens the valve and spring pressure closes it. Lateral thermal expansion takes place along the connecting pipe as it slides inside the nozzle body. The disadvantage of this method is that a double acting air operated valve stem is difficult to incorporate in this design. The publication "The Heat-Lock distribution system" by Nil Helldin AB of Sweden illustrates a similar system.
Finally, it is known in the art that it is often necessary to block hot runner channels in a manifold. This is because the manifold 20 has several drilled channels, the ends of which have to be plugged in order to obtain a desired flow path. FIG. 3 illustrates a plugging system used in connection with one such manifold to ensure a safe, leak free manifold. In this system, the end of a hole 22 in the manifold is tapered and threaded. Then a tapered plug 24 is fitted and inserted and held in place with a threaded set screw 26. The inside of the plug 24 is machined in place to match the contour of the channel. On a multicavity manifold, this procedure is both time consuming and expensive. In order to clean out the channels, each plug has to be removed and new ones installed and machined in place.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,849,048 to Bielfeldt shows a hydraulically actuated piston housing that takes up the cold clearance to prevent leakage. This piston acts like a spring. Inside the housing is a second hydraulic piston which drives the valve stem. The nozzle body is threaded into the manifold insert and therefore thermally expands laterally when the manifold expands. The close proximity of flammable hydraulic oil to the heated manifold means that there is a great risk of fire with this design after the seals have worn.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,716,318 to Erik shows a combined nozzle/manifold bushing piece which is inserted through the manifold from the underside and is retained by a threaded piston housing. This construction is also disadvantageous in that the nozzle assembly must travel laterally with the manifold as it thermally expands.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,252,184 to Ninneman shows a manifold bushing piece inserted through the manifold and butted against the spigotted end of the nozzle body. Because the nozzle body is spigotted to the manifold, it must travel laterally when the manifold thermally expands.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,023,458 to Seymour illustrates a one piece manifold bushing and nozzle body inserted through the manifold. The valve stem is closed with a spring and opened via injection pressure. The nozzle end of the bushing appears to be located in a recess in the mold cavity plate and clearly cannot accommodate lateral thermal expansion of the manifold plate with respect to the cavity plate. In effect, bending occurs which would tend to cause the valve stem to bind.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved apparatus for injecting plastic material wherein the possibility of having leakages of the plastic material is significantly reduced.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an apparatus as above wherein lateral expansion of a manifold is not transmitted to a nozzle assembly through which said plastic material flows.
It is still a further object of the present invention to provide an apparatus as above wherein the need to plug holes in a manifold is performed in a simpler and less expensive fashion.
It is yet a further object of the present invention to provide an improved bushing arrangement which has utility in valve gated applications and in non-valve gated applications.
Still other objects and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following description and drawings in which like reference numerals depict like elements.


This invention discloses an arrangement allowing connection of various kinds of image displays to one supply source in an image display control system having a supply source for transmitting a signal including at least a video signal, and an image display for receiving the signal and displaying a corresponding image. The supply source acquires characteristic data of the image display when it is powered on, determines a signal communication specification with the image display based on the acquired characteristic data, and communicates a signal including the video signal with the determined communication specification. The image display transmits characteristic data for specifying the characteristics of the image display to the supply source, and communicates the signal including the video signal in accordance with the determined communication specification. This invention also discloses an arrangement permitting changing the specifications and version of the control program of the image display.

FIG. 49 shows an arrangement used to display various images on a television receiver for receiving and displaying a conventional television program. As shown in FIG. 49, the television receiver is conventionally connected to a terrestrial television broadcasting (VHS/UHF) antenna line and satellite broadcasting (BS) antenna line as antenna lines. As cables extending from other display information supply sources, the television receiver is connected to signal cables such as a video signal line and acoustic signal line from a video cassette recorder, a video signal line and acoustic signal line from an LD/DVD playback apparatus, and a signal line from a digital broadcasting receiver (STB).
In this manner, the conventional television receiver is integrally constituted by a display, input signal selector such as a tuner, and the like. This inevitably makes the main body large in depth, resulting in a bulky housing.
The trend in recent years has been to reduce the depth of televisions, and flat type televisions have become available. This flat type television must be made as thin as possible, and must be light in weight. In a television of this type, therefore, an image display and a terminal for supplying display information to the image display have separate housings.
In the conventional flat type television of this type and the like, an image display and a terminal form one television receiver. For example, one terminal can be connected to only one kind of image display.
Inconveniently, the television quality or the like can only be adjusted from either the terminal or image display.
The image display and terminal, paired to form one television receiver, basically operate independently. As a matter of course, the image display and terminal may be manufactured at different times, or only one of them may be exchanged.
The image display and terminal may be manufactured with a large time difference or undergo minor changes. In this case, the image display and terminal may have different operating specifications. The image display and terminal used in this situation cannot take full advantage of the advantages or improvements in each piece of equipment.
Most of image displays and terminals of this type operate under the control of microcomputers, and their versions can be made to coincide with each other by changing some programs. Conventionally, however, upgrading requires a special operation by a specialist.
This problem also arises when the image display is to be exchanged with one from a different manufacturer, or of a different size, or having a different display method.

Image display control system and image display system control method with determination of whether or not download of program can be executed


A method teaches how to fill trench structures formed in a semiconductor substrate. The trench structures are coated in a first deposition process with a first primary filling layer with a high conformity and minimal roughness. A V etching reaching down to a predetermined depth of the trench structure is subsequently performed in order to produce a V-profile.

The continual scaling of semiconductor components is generally also accompanied by an increase in the aspect ratio (depth/width) of the trench and relief structures therein, which are formed on substrates. At a structural level of ≦100 nm, aperture angles of around 0.1° are achieved in some instances. The small aperture angles make it increasingly difficult to fill these extremely steep profiles. Although highly conformal deposition methods (almost 100%) have been specially developed for a wide variety of conducting or insulating filling layers, extremely small production dictated profile fluctuations result in the occurrence of non ideally closed closing joints (voids) along the centre axis of such field trench and relief structures.
The particular disadvantages of such voids are to be seen in the fact that they reduce the geometrical cross section of conductive fillings in an uncontrolled manner and thereby increase the electrical resistance thereof or adversely affect other parameters. Thus, storage capacitors for DRAM cells are fabricated for example by deep trench etching, dielectric coating of the trench walls and subsequent filling of the trench with a conductive material. Voids in this conductive filling increase the resistance thereof in an uncontrolled manner.
For the frequently occurring case in which fillings of trenches or reliefs have to be superficially planarized or (partially) etched back (recess etching) for functional reasons, voids in the filling lead, depending on their size, to local fluctuations in the planarization or recess etching rate. That leads to uncontrollable fluctuations for the depth position and the profile of the planarized or recess areas. Generally, the void region is significantly enlarged in terms of width and depth. Under certain circumstances, that affects the further processing and the parameters of these arrangements by a non-reproducible (v shaped) relief of the planarization or recess surface of the primary filling being reproduced in a subsequent layer deposition. If the subsequent layer is then to be removed again by means of anisotropic RIE etching (reactive ion etching) on the recess surface, that is not completely successful. The cause of this is that the layer material of the subsequent layer has been deposited deep into the void region. That then leads to electrical short circuits (given insulated filling layer and conductive subsequent layer) or to interruptions in the current path (given conductive filling layer and insulating subsequent layer) and may additionally act as a particle and contamination source during the further processing.
The production of these voids has been avoided hitherto by means of a sufficiently v-shaped profile of the trench or relief structures. During a highly conformal deposition of the filling layer, the latter thereby accretes from bottom to top in void free fashion at its seam location. The further scaling of the structures means that it is no longer possible to furnish the area requirement for the wall inclination of the trench or relief structures. The reproducible setting of very steep sidewalls of the trench or relief structures is extremely problematic, which is why this method is increasingly failing to work.
Another practically proven possibility for subsequently closing the void independently of the profile of the trench or relief structures consists in the use of an additional thin conformal deposition (divot fill) comprising the same material type (conductive or insulating) as the primary filling layer and subsequent (wet chemical) removal of the divot fill layer deposited on the substrate surface and on the sidewalls of the relief structure.
In this case, it is disadvantageous that the recess etchings effected before the divot fill are not improved. Primarily, however, the process window for the recess etching of the divot fill is very small. Either residues subsequently remain on the substrate surface and the walls of the trench or relief structures, or the void is completely or at least partially opened again.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,359,300 discloses a deep trench capacitor in a wafer with void free filling. The trench capacitor comprises a substrate, a trench formed in the substrate and a conductive filling material which completely fills the trench and comprises doped germanium or a silicon germanium alloy.
In order to achieve a void free filling, the conductive doped germanium or the silicon germanium alloy is deposited in the trench and a filling layer is produced on the substrate. Afterwards, the wafer is heated until the filling layer melts and flows completely into the trench.
Such a method is not practicable for polysilicon, SiO2 or metal filling layers owing to the high temperatures required.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,666,737 describes the metallization of deep vias in an insulating layer. In a first deposition process, the trench and relief structures are coated with a first primary conformal layer of tungsten. Then, a plasma-chemical v-etching reaching down to a predetermined depth of the trench structure is performed in order to produce a v-profile. A second primary conformal filling layer of aluminum is then deposited until the trench and relief structure is completely continuous. However, this method is not suitable for filling particularly deep trench and relief structures.
A similar but more complex method is disclosed by PATENT ABSTRACTS OF JAPAN vol. 1995, No. 09, 31 Oct. 1995 (1995-10-31) and Japanese publication 07-161703 A.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,451,809 has disclosed a method for producing trench capacitors in which the trench is filled with a conductive silicon by multiple coating alternating with etching-back.

Method for filling trench and relief geometries in semiconductor structures


A manipulative toy is provided comprising a body and a plurality of interchangeable appendages, such as arms, legs, heads, tails and wings, removably attachable to the body at certain predefined coupling points using complementary magnetic elements disposed within both the appendages and the body. The appendages are retained in place by the interaction between two sets of complementary ribbed elements disposed on both the body and the appendages about the magnetic elements, which complementary ribbed elements are formed in a beveled configuration. The configuration of these ribbed elements, in combination with attractive force of the complementary magnetic elements and the frictional engagement of the complementary ribs, limits the appendages from moving rotationally about the point of attachment, and limits the movement of the appendage in the plane of the point of attachment, thereby allowing the manipulative toy to be posed by a user and retain its position.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a manipulative toy having interchangeable appendages, and, more particularly, to such a manipulative toy that includes a body and a plurality of interchangeable appendages, such as arms, legs and heads, said appendages being removably attachable to the body by means of magnetic elements in both said appendages and said body. Said appendages are retained in place by means of the interaction between two sets of complementary ribbed elements disposed on both the body and the appendage, which interaction prevents the appendages from moving or rotating, thereby allowing the manipulative toy to be posed by a user and retain its position.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The prior art fails to specifically address either the problem or the solution arrived upon by applicant. Manipulative toys have long been known in the toy industry, and the use of magnets as an attaching means has been used for a wide variety of products, including toys. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,746,638, which issued to Shiraishi on May 5, 1998 for a "Magnetic toy blocks" discloses a block toy composed of a plurality of blocks magnetically connectable to each other, with at least one of the blocks comprising a block main body having plural flat surface portions, magnet holding portions formed on inner sides of the respective flat surface portions, and permanent magnets accommodated within the respective magnet holding portions for rotation about imaginary axes extending at right angles relative to the flat surface portions corresponding to the magnet holding portions.
Furthermore, it has long been known to use magnetic attaching means in manipulative dolls. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,038,775, which issued to Sato on Aug. 2, 1977 for a "Doll body with magnet and pole pieces and detachable appendages" discloses a doll having a plurality of segments having joint or articulation means which are magnetically and removably coupled to each other. Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 4,118,888, which issued to Ogawa on Oct. 10, 1978 for an "Articulated magnetic doll" discloses an articulated magnetic toy having removable appendages, including body shells encapsulating a magnet and pair of armature plates, wherein the appendages resemble humanoid arms and legs.
Such manipulative toys need not be limited to dolls, however. Among the myriad of possibilities of shapes and configureations for these toys are animals and other creatures. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,186,515, which issued to Ogawa on Feb. 5, 1980 for a "Toy horse vehicle," discloses a toy assembly capable of being configured into a simulated horse comprising a body member containing a pivotal connection attached to a joint assembly configured and positioned on the body member to represent respectively the withers and breast of the horse, with magnetically attachable appendage members of various configurations, including a horse's head and the upper torso of a humanoid robot, as well as various removable accessory parts.
Another example of a manipulative toy having an animal configuration is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,980,260, which issued to Caputi on Nov. 9, 1999 for a "Inter order/family prehistoric lizard display model," which teaches toy replicas of prehistoric lizards which consist of a replica core body part with interchangeably attachable head, neck, limb, or body armor parts which combine to depict different species within a given biological order or family, said parts being attached by means of ¾″ circular magnets.
Yet another example of an animal-themed manipulative toy using magnetic means to attach the appendages is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,295,889, which issued to Ejima on Mar. 22, 1994 for a "Magnetically jointed toy for emitting stimuli." The toy comprises a body constituted by a trunk, and attachments including a head, arms and legs detachably combined with the trunk, which attachments are made by means of a plurality of magnets. A sound producing unit and a light emitting unit are provided in the toy so as to be actuated when the attachments each are combined with the toy body.
Similar devices are also disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,883,984, 3,375,604, 2,465,971, and 2,457,249.
As will be appreciated, none of these prior patents even address the problem faced by applicant let alone offer the solution proposed herein.

Manipulative toy having interchangeable appendages


Systems and methods can suggest applications for use by a user of a computing device. The suggestions can be provided on a user interface for the user to select. A suggestion engine can use historical user interactions and contextual data to derive features for a machine learning mode. The machine learning model can determine which application to suggest according to the current context. Multiple models, such as a pattern model and a heuristics model, may be user to generate features for the machine learning model based in user interactions.

Modern mobile devices (e.g., smartphones) may contain many applications. Certain applications may be designed to enable a user to interact with or communicate with other users. For instance, in addition to providing the capabilities of placing phone calls and sending SMS text messages, modern mobile devices may contain communication applications for composing email messages, instant messages, and for initiating video calls and video conferences. As modern mobile devices become more integrated with modern day life, the number of communication applications and contacts stored on the mobile devices increases. It is not uncommon for modern mobile phones to have multiple applications that can be used to interact with other users. Having numerous applications for interacting with people may allow the mobile device to be particularly useful to the user; however, it may be difficult and time consuming for the user to find and select a desired recipient amongst all of available contacts that the user wishes to interact or communicate with.

Feature determination for machine learning to suggest applications/recipients


The present invention relates to providing vector terms for use in formulating search requests in response to a user query. The method according to one embodiment comprises receiving a search query from a client and identifying links to one or more content items corresponding to the search query. One or more term vectors are then generated corresponding to the content items and one or more vector terms are selected from the term vectors. The links to the one or more content items and selected vector terms are combined to form a final result page.

Current search technologies allow a user to enter a search query and are operative to return a plurality of search result matches to a user. The existing structure of a search result page usually consists of a listing of the search results corresponding to the search query, which a search engine may present in conjunction with extraneous elements such as advertising links, links to other services of the search engine, etc.
The current state of search engines provide a stepping stone or conduit to a subsequent webpage, that is, there is nothing to distinguish search engines among one another, and thus nothing exists to entice a user to remain with a specific search engine. Additionally, most search engines lack an interactive element, allowing the users to visually mold there search queries. The user's only option is to enter a search term and select a search result that looks like a good match given the query the he or she provides.
Thus there exists a need in the art for a more interactive search engine solution and experience that allows users to actively update their search strategy and to simultaneously generate repeat visits to a particular search engine. Embodiments of the present invention provide solutions wherein vector terms related to a users search result set allow a user to narrow or change their search query in response to the currently retrieved result set for a given query. Embodiments further allow a user to remain at a given search engine while modifying his or her query. Embodiments also allow a user to manually update his or her search to generate a result set containing the most relevant results for his or her search needs.

System and method for providing vector terms related to a search query


A case body in which a wiring board and a drive unit are held is provided with vent holes and an exhaust hole near which a fan is provided. An air current setting element is made of an air current setting plate added to a fan holder and a transformer mounted on the wiring board. The air current setting plate is provided at the back of the drive unit, and the transformer is positioned between the air current setting plate and drive unit.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an optical disk apparatus, and more particularly to an optical disk apparatus provided with a fan adapted to generate a cooling air current to occur in the interior of a case body.
2. Description of the Related Art
The techniques for making it difficult to exert the influence of the heat generated by electronic parts upon an optical disk by employing a structure in which the interior of a case housing therein the optical disk and an electronic part-mounted wiring board is divided by an intermediate case member into a first spatial region in which the optical disk is housed and a second spatial region in which the electronic parts are housed, and the techniques for utilizing for the cooling purpose an air current occurring owing to the rotation of the optical disk in the interior of the case have heretofore been known (refer to, for example, JP-A-2003-249067). In addition, the techniques for preventing the overheating of circuit elements mounted on a substrate board, and the techniques for increasing the cooling efficiency in an information processing apparatus have been proposed (refer to, for example, JP-A-2000-3586 or JP-A-10-172277).
Among these techniques, the disk apparatus disclosed in JP-A-2000-3586 is schematically shown in FIG. 6, and the cooling fan-carrying CD-ROM drive, which is disclosed in JP-A-10-172277, in section in FIG. 7. In the disk apparatus disclosed in JP-A-2000-3586, and as shown in FIG. 6, the air enters a vent hole 2 in a front panel 1, passes through an opening provided in a substrate board 3, passes through a space between the substrate board 3 and a unit mechanism 5 thereabove, and is guided to the outside of the disk apparatus as shown by an arrow by a fan 7 provided on an outer surface of a main frame 6. It is said that, according to this disk apparatus, a temperature rise due to the heat generated by the circuit elements provided above the substrate board 3 decreases. In the disk apparatus disclosed in JP-A-10-172277, and as shown in FIG. 7, an air current setting fan frame 10 surrounding a cooling fan 9, which is mounted on one end of a spindle 8 for rotating a CD-ROM disk D, is provided for the same cooling fan 9, the fan frame 10 being provided vertically on an outer surface of a bottom frame 11. It is said that this structure attains an increase in the cooling efficiency in the interior of the information processing apparatus.
However, in the disk apparatus disclosed in JP-A-2003-249067, a natural flow of the air occurring in the interior of the case or an air current occurring due to the rotation of the optical disk is merely utilized for cooling the optical disk. In such a cooling system, the heat generated in the drive unit and the like for the optical disk cannot be held down satisfactorily in some cases.
On the other hand, the optical disk apparatuses disclosed in JP-A-2000-3586 and JP-A-10-172277 are optical disk apparatuses adapted to generate an air current forcibly by rotating a fan. Therefore, it is considered that the quantity of the air used for cooling these optical disk apparatuses becomes large to cause a cooling effect to be heightened as compared with that of the air used for cooling the optical disk apparatus disclosed in JP-A-2003-249067.
However, in the techniques disclosed in JP-A-2000-3586, only the effect of discharging the air inside the main frame 6, which corresponds to the case body, to the outside by the fan fixed to the main frame is displayed. In the techniques disclosed in JP-A-10-172277, only the effect of discharging the air inside the bottom frame 11 to the outside by the cooling fan 9 is displayed owing to the air current setting fan frame 10 provided on the bottom frame 11 corresponding to the case body.
In view of the above, the techniques disclosed in JP-A-2000-3586 and JP-A-10-172277 do not enable the controlling on the inner side of the case body of the path of a flow of the air current occurring in the interior of the case body to be done. Therefore, in a case where a drive unit which generates heat is provided in a predetermined position in the interior of, for example, a case body of an optical disk apparatus with comparatively wide spaces formed on one side or both sides of the drive unit, the following problems arise. In such a case, an air current occurring in the interior of the case body due to the rotation of a fan passes in large quantities through the spaces in which a flow resistance is low on the left and right sides of the drive unit even when the techniques disclosed in the Patent Publication 2 and Patent Publication 3 are applied to this case. Therefore, the air current is not efficiently used for holding down the generation of heat of the drive unit.
Providing as a single part a partition member like an air current setting plate in a predetermined position has heretofore been generally carried out as a means for passing a large quantity of air current through the interior of a drive unit while controlling the air current in the interior thereof. However, when this means is employed, it becomes certainly necessary to secure an extra space for installing the current setting plate, so that the number of parts besides the air current setting plate which are needed to install the air current plate, such as fasteners increases.


A gas turbo pump assembly for connection to a port of a vacuum chamber and having high throughput with low vibration. The assembly comprises a turbo pump and a vibration damper. The pump has a pump body with an external surface and a center axis defining a first axial end and a second axial end of the pump. The pump also has a pump inlet port, the inlet port being coupled to the vacuum chamber port disposed at the first axial end of the pump, and an exit port disposed proximate the second axial end of the pump. The assembly vibration damper is structured to enclose a substantial portion of the pump in a nested arrangement.

The present invention concerns vacuum pumps and, in particular, turbo molecular pumps that are used in semiconductor manufacturing processes requiring a vacuum environment with a pressure lower than atmospheric pressure. More specifically, the present invention concerns the use of vibration dampers between the vacuum pump and a vacuum environment, such as a vacuum chamber, in order to isolate the vacuum environment from any vibration generated by the pump.
In semiconductor manufacturing processes, a variety of steps, from layer or film deposition to inspection, are performed in a vacuum environment. However, because the vacuum pump is constructed with extremely tight tolerances extending down to the millimeter range, which enables operation with free molecular flow, the pump can be the source of a significant problem with vibration. This problem is particularly acute with turbo molecular pumps, having a floated rotor and stator construction, where rotational speeds are attained in the range of 50,000 rpm or greater.
The achievement of proper vibration isolation between the pump and the vacuum chamber is particularly important where the semiconductor structure is in the submicron range. The unwanted effects of vibration include errors in line deposition and film formation, and even errors in the inspection and quality assurance process, where extremely high accuracy in comparing patterns on a manufactured substrate against a reference pattern is required, and vibration anomalies may lead to erroneous decisions on product quality.
Such problems arise in inspection systems using scanning electron microscopes (SEM) or comparably sensitive devices, having less than one micron field of view, where inspection of a specimen (typically a wafer) is performed with the generation of an electron beam applied in a specimen chamber that must be maintained in a low pressure and contamination-free environment.
An example of a conventional turbo-molecular pump of the type manufactured by Varian Corp. or Pfiffer Edwards is illustrated in FIG. 1, where the pump 100 has a cylindrical outer body 101. As illustrated in the figure, the pump has a central axis C-C and an inlet port 103 defined by a rim 102 that is adapted to attach directly, or be coupled via a conduit or manifold, to a vacuum chamber (not shown). At an opposite axial end of the cylinder body 101 is an exhaust port 104 to which the contents of the vacuum chamber are exhausted. The pump exhaust port is radially disposed with regard to the central axis C-C and is located on one side of the pump body 101. Preferably, a conduit 105 for electrical, hydraulic, gas purge and cooling hose connections (collectively 130) is also radially disposed. At the same axial end, the bottom of the pump body has a sealing plate 106 that is removable but also serves as a support. The interior of the body 101 defines a chamber containing a rotor 107 that is disposed for rotation along the axis C-C and is supported by magnetic bearings 108 and mechanical bearings 109. The rotor 107 drives rotating blades 110, which are disposed radially with respect to the central axis C-C. Stator blades 111, also disposed radially and interposed between the rotator blades 110, are affixed to a support adjacent to the inner surface of the body 101, in a manner well known in the art. The rotor 107 is supported by a frame 112, and is mounted to the body 101 by vibration damping connectors 113 via arms 114 on the rotor body 112. A motor 115 is operative to drive the rotor 107 at high speed, in the range of approximately 50,000 rpm or higher.
A coupling of the molecular-turbo pump 100 to a vacuum chamber is conventionally implemented with the use of a vibration damper 150, as illustrated in FIG. 2. Elements in FIG. 2 having a reference numeral identical to those in FIG. 1 refer to the same structure and are not further described. The vibration damping mechanism 150 is coupled at one end to the rim 102 of the pump 100 at input 103 via a lower clamp 160 and is coupled at the other end to the inlet port 180 via an upper clamp 170. The clamp 160 fits around the rim 102 and a lower distal end 151A of the vibration damping structure 150 and is secured by a plurality of bolts (unnumbered). At the opposite distal end 151B of the vibration damping structure, clamp 170 serves to couple the vibration damper 150 to the structure of the vacuum chamber inlet port 180 and is similarly secured by a plurality of bolts (unnumbered). The coupling of the turbo molecular vacuum pump 100 to the inlet port 180 via the vibration damper 150 defines a "serial-coupled" damper and vacuum pump arrangement. One or more centering rings 162 (which are conventional and available off the shelf, for example, at www.duniway.com) may be secured by the clamps 160, 170 and sealed by an O-ring 161, as is known in the art.
The vacuum damper 150 comprises a rubberized support 152 that extends between the connector portions 151A and 151B at the opposite distal ends of the damper. The structure is made of a hardened rubber and has coupled to its interior surface a plurality of baffles 153. The vacuum damper 150 is a conventional design that is available off-the-shelf from several vendors.
Although the serial type arrangement illustrated in FIG. 2 eliminates some of the vibration that originates in the pump 100, there continues to remain a problem with residual vibration. As illustrated by U.S. patent Pub. 2001/0012488 to Ohtachi et al, entitled VACUUM PUMP, particularly in FIG. 4 of the Otachi et al publication, a series type connection may be used in which a damper is interposed between an input port of an external container and an outer cylindrical portion of a vacuum pump in order to prevent pump-origin vibration from being propagated to the external container. The damper uses a thin SUS-made cylindrical member bent into a bellow shape, which is coated with a silicon rubber or the like. The damper has a natural frequency of 20 Hz or less. However, the damper requires extra space in the axial direction of about 10 cm, thereby increasing the size, complexity of the structure, and cost of construction, assembly and maintenance. In order to resolve this problem, the Ohtachi et al patent depresses the propagation of vibrations to an external container without the use of a damper, by applying a vibration-absorbing member between a stator portion and a base. Nonetheless, as illustrated in FIG. 5 of the Otachi et al publication, a bellows and extended flange continues to be required. The disadvantage of such a system is that vacuum power is significantly decreased. The additional distance between the pump input port and the input port of the vacuum chamber, as well as the bellows structure itself, reduces the effective speed of the pump. Thus, for a given pumping requirement, a much larger and more expensive pump is required.
The present invention is intended to solve this problem by allowing a direct connection between the pump and a vacuum chamber inlet port, thereby increasing conductance with accompanying reduction in resistance, while providing vibration damping with a damper assembled in a nested fashion about the pump. The nested arrangement may be considered a parallel, rather than serial connection of the damper structure.

Vibration damper with nested turbo molecular pump


A liquid ejection head including a substrate having an ejection-energy-generating element for generating energy for ejecting a liquid; an orifice plate including at least an ejection-orifice-forming wall that constitutes an ejection orifice for ejecting the liquid and an upper wall of a liquid chamber communicating with the ejection orifice, and a liquid chamber side wall that constitutes a side wall of the liquid chamber. The orifice plate is formed of an inorganic material. The liquid ejection head includes a plurality of liquid chambers; and an elastic member filled into a depressed portion formed between the liquid chamber side wall of one liquid chamber of the liquid chambers adjacent to each other and the liquid chamber side wall of the other liquid chamber. The upper end of the elastic member is arranged in a position higher than an upper face of the ejection-orifice-forming wall.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a liquid ejection head which ejects a liquid, and a method for producing the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
U.S. Pat. No. 7,600,856 discloses a liquid ejection head which has an orifice plate formed of an inorganic material. In U.S. Pat. No. 7,600,856, firstly, a mold material is formed in a portion in which a liquid chamber is formed. Subsequently, an orifice plate is formed on the mold material with a chemical vapor deposition method (CVD: Chemical Vapor Deposition).

Liquid ejection head and method for producing the same


Substrate processing with return processing is carried out efficiently by a substrate processing apparatus that continuously processes a plurality of substrates. The apparatus is equipped with a conveyor chamber constituting a substrate convey space, a plurality of process chambers in which substrate processing is carried out, a substrate conveying device provided in the conveyor chamber having a function of conveying substrates, and a substrate convey control device that controls the process of substrate conveyance by the substrate conveying device so that in a case in which after a substrate is continuously processed by two or more process chambers, the substrate is re-conveyed from the last process chamber to any of the two or more process chambers other than the last and return processing is implemented. In the re-conveyance, the substrate is conveyed to any of the process chambers after being temporarily retracted to a place other than a process chamber.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a substrate processing apparatus and the like; it particularly relates to a substrate processing apparatus and the like that when continuously processing a plurality of substrates, efficiently carries out substrate processing with return processing.
2. Description of Related Art
Substrate processing apparatuses such as for example semiconductor manufacturing apparatuses that perform prescribed processing of semiconductor substrates (wafers) and LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) manufacturing apparatuses that perform prescribed processing of glass substrates for LCDs, are provided with a plurality of process chambers, in each of the process chambers a substrate process such as film formation is carried out. Also, transfer machines are used to convey substrates between process chambers.
Also, for example, in a plurality of process chambers capable of different processes, while it is standard procedure to form laminated films in a first process pass of each, there is also a desire for a process for forming laminated films that amount to, or more than, the number of process chambers, using two or more process chambers (return processing). Specifically, with return processing, a substrate that has passed through another process chamber is conveyed to a process chamber in which processing of the substrate has been completed, and is again subjected to the same processing or to processing under different conditions.
The following documents disclose related apparatuses:
Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. Hei 11-102953; and
Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. Hei 10-199960.


An IC card includes an IC module and a card base. The IC module is constituted by a circuit board having contact patterns formed thereon and an IC chip mounted on the circuit board. The card base houses the IC module so as to expose the contact patterns. The circuit board of the IC module is constituted by a pattern portion on which the contact patterns are formed and bent portions formed by bending the pattern portion. The card base includes an opening for exposing the contact patterns of the IC module, and clamping portions, formed on peripheral portions of the opening, for fixing the bent portions. The bent portions of the IC module are fixedly clamped by the clamping portions such that the contact patterns are arranged on substantially the same plane as a surface of the card base.

1. FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an IC card and, more particularly, to a structure of an IC card for housing an IC module in a card base.
2. DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART
A rapid improvement has recently been made in development of an IC card incorporating an IC chip including a CPU and memories. Since this IC card has a larger storage capacity than a conventional IC card, its use in place of a bankbook or a credit card is taken into consideration.
A conventional IC card and an IC module housed in the IC card will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.
FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an outer appearance of a conventional IC card. FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken along a line A - A in FIG. 1. FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing an outer appearance of a card base constituting the IC card. FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing an outer appearance of an IC module. FIG. 5 is a sectional view showing a main part of another conventional IC card.
Referring to FIG. 1, a plurality of contact patterns 32c of an IC module 32 (to be described later) are formed on a surface of an IC card 30 so as to be exposed. In addition, various print patterns 30a are formed on the same surface. An overall card shape is defined by a plastic card base 31 shown in FIG. 3. A board recess 31a and a sealing recess 31b for housing the IC module 32 are formed in the card base 31. The card base 31 is made of, e.g., ABS resin by injection molding. As shown in FIG. 4, the IC module 32 is designed such that an IC chip 33 is bonded to a circuit board 32a made of a glass epoxy resin, and a seal portion 32b is formed on the IC chip 33 by using a sealing resin, while the contact patterns shown in FIG. 1 are formed on the lower surface of the circuit board 32a.
As shown in FIG. 2, the seal portion 32b of the IC module 32 is housed in the sealing recess 31b of the card base 31, and the circuit board 32a is housed in the board recess 31a while the outer periphery of the board 32a is restricted by the recess 31a. In this case, the IC module 32 is housed such that the surface of the contact patterns 32c is located on the same plane as that of the card base 31. An adhesive (not shown) is coated between the circuit board 32a, the sealing portion 32b, the board recess 31a, and the sealing recess 31b, and is heated and hardened, thus fixing the IC module 32 to the card base 31.
Generally, the IC card 30 has a thickness of about 0.8 mm, and must have elasticity enough to allow bending to a certain extent so as not to be destroyed by an external force generated when a user carries or uses it. Therefore, it is required that the card base 31 has elasticity while the seal portion 32b of the IC module 32 has rigidity, and that the IC module 32 is firmly fixed to the card base 31.
Since the material of the circuit board 32a and the seal portion 32b constituting the IC module 32 is different from that of the card base 31, it is difficult to obtain an adhesive capable of reliably bonding them to each other. In addition, since a bonding force greatly varies, in the case of the above-described IC card 30, when the card base 31 is flexed, peeling occurs at a bonding portion between the card base 31 and the IC module 32. As a result, the IC module 32 is removed from the base 31.
When an adhesive is heated to be hardened, the adhesive leaks from a gap between the IC module 32 and the circuit board 32a depending on an amount of the adhesive and a bonding position. As a result, the surface of card base 31 on which the print patterns 30a are formed may be contaminated.
In addition, the card base 31 tends to be deformed because of heat generated when an adhesive is heated and hardened.
Moreover, an adhesive has poor handling properties and workability. Therefore, a demand has arisen for an IC card structure allowing an IC module to be housed in a card base without using an adhesive. For this purpose, Japanese Patent Laid-Open (Kokai) No. 61-204788 discloses an IC card structure for fixing an IC module to a card base without using an adhesive.
This IC card structure will be described in detail below with reference to FIG. 5. A through hole 40a is formed in a card base 40 constituting an IC card. An IC module 41 is housed in the through hole 40a through a ring-like coupling member 44. In addition, reinforcing members 42 and 43 are arranged on the upper and lower surfaces of the IC module 41 and are fixed to the card base 40. Note that a hole 42a is formed in the reinforcing member 42 on the side of contact patterns 41a so as to expose the contact patterns 41a.
According to the above-described IC card structure, if the reinforcing members 42 and 43 and the coupling member 44 are made of a metal material, they can be firmly coupled to each other by soldering or high-frequency welding. Therefore, unlike the conventional IC card, the card base and the IC module need not be integrally bonded to each other through an adhesive.
In the above-described IC card, however, the following problems are posed.
In the conventional IC card, in order to reliably connect contact patterns to an R/W (read/writer) unit for reading/writing data, the contact patterns are formed such that their surfaces are located on the same plane as the surface of the card base. In the IC card described above, however, since the reinforcing member 42 is thicker than each contact pattern 41a, the contact pattern 41a is placed at a position lower than the surface of the card base 40. For this reason, connection between the contact patterns 41a and the R/W unit becomes unstable.
In addition, even if the outer size of the IC module 41, the inner and outer diameters of the coupling member 44, and the inner diameter of the through hole 40a are slightly deviated in size, fixing of the IC module becomes unstable. This may cause a positional error of the contact patterns 41a. Moreover, in this IC card structure, only the reinforcing members 42 and 43 and the coupling member 44 are bonded to each other, and hence the card base 40 and the IC module 41 are not firmly fixed to each other. Therefore, while a user carries the IC card, the positions of the base 40 and the module 41 may be offset. This may cause a positional error of the contact patterns 41a. Therefore, in order to solve this problem, an adhesive must be locally applied to the IC module 41 and the card base 40 in the same manner as in the IC card shown in FIG. 2.


Emulsion-based thermal inkjet inks include a high boiling point carrier fluid; a colorant; and vesicles comprising a low boiling point expellant fluid, and an ionic surfactant comprising molecules, each having a head with affinity to expellant fluid material and a tail with affinity to carrier fluid, the vesicles having a core defined by the heads of the surfactant molecules, the expellant fluid contained in the core, with the vesicles dispersed in the carrier fluid. A method for preparing the thermal inkjet inks is also disclosed.

Thermal inkjet technology is a significant technology that finds wide use. However, it is limited to using carrier liquids such as water that boil effectively at temperatures reached in the printhead, resulting from the selective application of a current to resistors that cause bubbles in the ink to form, thereby expelling, or jetting, droplets of ink through nozzles.
There are, however, applications which require jetting fluids that do not boil, either because their boiling temperatures are high or they do not have a clearly-defined phase transition which leads to a smoothed out transition to gas. In these cases, printheads based on piezoelectric technology are used. That is, a piezoelectric element is caused to vibrate, thereby jetting droplets of ink through nozzles. These piezoelectric printheads are much more difficult to make and are more expensive. Extension of thermal jetting technology to inks currently requiring piezoelectric printheads may have a significant impact on the thermal inkjet printer market. Such an extension may potentially enable low cost, high quality commercial graphics printing currently under development that assume the use of piezoelectric printheads.

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


A tightening mechanism for a hinge assembly includes a first housing having a pair of outwardly extending spaced apart ears having aligned first bores extending through them. A second housing has a length which allows it to fit between the ears and has a pair of abutting second bores which are tapered inwardly toward one another. Tapered cylindrical bushings are configured to fit within the second bores. The tapered bushings have aligned third bores which are co-axial with one another and with the second bores. A coupling mechanism extends through the third bores and holds the second housing rotatably in the first housing. A clamping mechanism urges the bushings toward one another and inwardly into the second bores against the pin.

This invention relates to a trailer drawbar hinge, and in particular to a tightening mechanism for setting resistance against rotation of the hinge.
When vehicles include multiple trailers the following trailer sometimes is attached to the preceding trailer through a drawbar having a pair of hinge assemblies which allows the drawbar to be lifted on to and off of the pintle of the trailer coupling mounted at the back of the preceding trailer. These hinge assemblies contain a tightening mechanism which allows applying a desired level of resistance against the rotation of the hinge assembly. Examples of these prior art hinges are the Premier Equipment models 320, 440 and 455 hinges. The 450 and 455 hinges provide the resistance by squeezing a pair of bushings radially against a pin which extends through a hole in the bushings. The 320 hinge provides the resistance by pushing a tapered pin into a tapered bore in the bushing. With the former, it is difficult to accurately exert the desired pressure on the pin by the squeezed bushing and with the latter the bushings do not remain centered in the hinge as the amount of resistance is increased.

Tightening mechanism for trailer drawbar hinge assembly and method of using same


The invention relates to feeding a gas terminal with energy from a ship transporting liquefied gas while said liquefied gas is being transferred between a tank of the ship and a tank of the gas terminal, wherein a portion of the energy produced by the propulsion system of the ship is delivered to the gas terminal.

It is known that natural gas can be transferred in the form of vapor or liquid via specific interfaces between a ship and a gas terminal.
FIG. 7 is a simplified diagram of a prior art gas unloading circuit.
Liquefied gas 101 transported in a tank 102 of a ship 100 is discharged to a tank 104 of a gas terminal 106 by a pump 108 immersed in the tank 102 of the ship 100. The liquefied gas is delivered into the tank 104 of the gas terminal via a circuit 110 including a loading arm 112 to allow for a certain amount of freedom of movement between the ship 100 and the gas terminal 106.
Depending on the feed requirement of a gas pipeline 114 fed with gas at high pressure, the liquefied gas 101 contained in the tank 104 of the gas terminal 106 is transferred by a pump 116 immersed in the tank 104 to a condenser 118. Thereafter, a high pressure pump 120 delivers the liquefied gas 101 to a heat exchanger 122 so as to cause it to be re-gasified prior to being delivered at substantially ambient temperature to the pipeline 114.
In addition, the gas ceiling 124 inside the tank 102 and the gas ceiling 126 inside the tank 104 are interconnected by a low pressure natural gas vapor circuit 128 via an arm 130. This enables the pressure in the two gas ceilings 124 and 126 to be controlled.
Heat entering into the tanks 102 and 104 causes the liquefied gas to evaporate, leading to excess natural gas vapor. A portion of the excess vapor can be taken from the circuit 128 by a low pressure compressor 132 which delivers it via a circuit 133 to the condenser 118 where it is reliquefied.
Furthermore, in order to ensure that the liquefied natural gas is re-gasified in the heat exchanger 122, sea water 123 is taken by a pump 134 via a circuit 135, and possibly heated using immersed burners 136 fed with natural gas vapor by a circuit 138, prior to being returned to the sea 123.
However, that transfer architecture consumes a large amount of gas in pure loss, leading to ecological harm as well as to a loss of revenue.
To solve that kind of problem, there exist gas terminals including installations for co-generation of energy, but they are very expensive.
Finally, while unloading its cargo, the ship 100 takes in sea water 123 via a circuit 140 to fill its ballast tanks 142 so as to ensure that the draft and the trim of the ship 100 are appropriate.
FIG. 8 shows a simplified diagram of a prior art liquefied gas loading circuit. In this example, the liquefied gas produced by a liquefaction plant (not shown) is conveyed via a circuit 144 into a storage tank 104 of a gas terminal 106 from which it is taken by an immersed pump 146 for sending via a circuit 110 to a tank 102 on board a ship 100.
Similarly, a compressor 132 extracts, from a circuit 128, excess natural gas vapor generated by ingress of heat, and delivers it to the liquefaction plant.
Finally, while loading its cargo, the ship 100 empties out the sea water that it initially contained in its ballast tank 142 via a circuit 140 so as to ensure that the draft and the trim of the ship 100 are appropriate.
The sea water used in the ballast tanks of the ship or in the heat exchangers used for re-gasifying liquid natural gas in the gas terminal leads to corrosion in the ballast tanks and in the heat exchangers.
In addition, sea water causes sediment to be deposited in the ballast tanks 142 which leads subsequently to large expense for its removal.

Feeding energy to a gas terminal from a ship for transporting liquefied gas