A text generating device includes an acquirer that acquires the utterance of the user relative to content provided in real time, a retriever that retrieves from a microblog server data relating to the content, a sentence generator that generates a sentence relating to the content and the acquired utterance of the user, based on the data retrieved by the retriever 140, and an voice outputter and/or a display for using the generated sentence to reply to the user.

Dialog systems are being developed for open-domain chatting without a specified task. In comparison to a conversation system oriented toward a specified task, the content of the utterances of the user vary quite broadly for the open-domain dialog system, and thus the task of creating beforehand a knowledge source required for generating a suitable reply sentence is quite difficult.
In order to handle this problem, technology is disclosed for generating an utterance sentence by use of microblogs such as Twitter (registered trademark) for which there exist a large number of sentences (Michimasa Inaba, Sayaka Kamizono, and Kenichi Takahashi, "Candidate Utterance Acquisition Method for Non-task-oriented Dialogue Systems from Twitter", Journal of Japanese Society for Artificial Intelligence, Vol. 29, No. 1, SP1-C, 2014). Further, Unexamined Japanese Patent Application Kokai Publication No. 2015-45833 discloses technology for generating an utterance sentence by extracting a term meaning a subject of utterance content from utterance content of a user and substituting the term into a template. Unexamined Japanese Patent Application Kokai Publication No. 2014-164582 discloses, in a system for dialog with a user by use of natural language, an utterance candidate generating device of a dialog system for generating an utterance candidate using a microblog.
Additionally, robots termed "personal assistants" or "dialog agents" are being developed that receive an utterance from a user and return a response to the user. A dialog agent is a robot that serves as a partner, located in the vicinity of the user, in a casual chat (for example, see Unexamined Japanese Patent Application Kokai Publication No. 2017-123187). Dialog agents also include applications fictitiously operating in the computer.

Dialog agent, reply sentence generation method, and non-transitory computer-readable recording medium


A method and device identify from plural sets of pixels of a digital image, a set of pixels whose values are to be used in image processing to determine a target-pixel value. The method and device: obtain a pixel set comprising solely the target pixel and first and second pixel subsets extending along only first and second directions, respectively, each pixel of the pixel set being contiguous with another pixel of the set; obtaining first and second measures being, respectively, measures of an angle difference between the first direction and the gradient of a pixel of the first subset, and of an angle difference between the second direction and the gradient of a pixel of the second subset; and determining whether the obtained set of pixels is the pixel set whose values determine the value of the target pixel, in accordance with the first and second measures.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and a device for identifying a set of pixels, the values of which are intended to be used to determine the value of a target pixel.
The present invention is, for example but not limitingly, applicable in processing systems for the purpose of eliminating the noise present in digital images or in processing systems for the purpose of enhancing the contours in digital images.
2. Description of Related Art Including Information Disclosed Under 37 CFR 1.97 and 1.98
Conventionally, in digital image processing, the values of the pixels of the digital images are determined according to the values of the pixels neighboring the processed pixel. These determinations are conventionally carried out using pixel convolution products. The purpose of these processing operations is to provide an image with less noise, while still preserving the other characteristics of the image.
In practice, noise reduction is generally accompanied by a partial reduction in the textures and/or by a substantial diffusing of the edges or contours and of the salient points within the digital image.
Certain processing methods use what are called "anisotropic" convolutions: a set of neighbouring pixels is determined for each pixel as a function of the values taken by the neighbouring pixels. Such approaches locally adapt the set of pixels used for determining the value of a pixel in order to take into account the characteristics of the processed image. These methods are expensive in terms of computing time and the processing time for small images is typically measured in seconds.
Although useful as regards quality of the image processing, these methods are not suitable for real-time processing of video sequences.

Method and a device for identifying a set of pixels, the values of which are intended to be used to determine the value of a target pixel


A method and apparatus for providing an alert on a portable communication device such as a user equipment (UE) entering an alerting area is provided. The UE runs a GPS engine continuously to estimate the location of the UE from the time the alert system is activated. The method and apparatus provide an alert system on a UE by calculating the distance between the UE and alerting area. Further, the method and apparatus enable using different positioning systems based on the distance of the UE from the alerting area, thereby reducing the power consumption of the UE battery.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to portable communication devices, and more particularly, to providing an alert on the portable communication device entering an alerting area.
2. Description of the Related Art
Cellular networks can be used to detect the geographic location of a device. The geographic location can be estimated by different modes such as a handset based mode, network based mode, hybrid positioning mode, etc.
Network based geographic positioning systems use cellular base stations to estimate the location of the device, whereas in network assisted systems, the device estimates the location coordinates with the help of incorporated software and/or hardware applications. Further, in hybrid positioning systems, the network and the handset work together to first measure and then calculate the device's position where the device measures the data needed for location calculation and then the network calculates the geographic location. Several communication devices offer geographical positioning functionality using Global Positioning System (GPS), Assisted Global Positioning System (AGPS), Time Difference Of Arrival (TDOA), or the like.
The most basic positioning technology available for cellular systems is called cell-ID (cell identification). The communication device is associated with an individual base transceiver in a cell where every cell has a unique ID. The base transceiver recognizes the cell identity and geographic location. Further, the cell identity is also known to the communicating device, which can obtain the cell's position from the network. The accuracy of cell-ID depends solely on the dimensions and density of the cell.
GPS consists of multiple satellites which send signals containing the time stamp of sending, the orbital information and the almanac (positions of all satellites). GPS provides location and time information to the communication device, where there is an unobstructed line of sight to four or more GPS satellites. The GPS service provided to the communication device is independent of the network provider(s). The signals transmitted by GPS satellites are received by a GPS receiver in the communication device which utilizes this information to determine exact location coordinates of the device or user. A disadvantage of GPS is that it is inefficient to determine indoor positioning and further, in urban areas, the Time To First Fix (TTFF) sometimes takes a very long time because buildings hinder GPS signals from being received.
Applications on the devices can be used to create alerts which are generated when the user approaches or reaches a specific point of interest. The user initiates geographic positioning functionality by setting predefined conditions and a radius bounding the target location for presenting information on the user's communication device when the user approaches the target location. Once activated, the system continuously monitors the current location of the user's communication device through GPS, AGPS, or the like. Further, when the user reaches the proximity of the alerting area, the user is alerted using a suitable means. The user can be alerted by any means such as message, alarm, vibration, or the like.
Present day systems perform a location check of the communication device at regular intervals when the communication device is moving. The positioning is conducted relatively often, usually multiple times a minute in order to get an accurate location. Typically, position of the communication device is determined by its location calculated by the signals transmitted by satellites of the positioning system such as GPS or the like. Further, some technologies conduct positioning by means of a base station of a mobile communication network or wireless local area network (WLAN). The mobile communication network performs the positioning of the communication device and transmits information thereon to the device.
Portable communication devices typically have a limited source of power. Continuous positioning computation consumes a huge amount of power and causes increased current drain from the device battery. Increase in the power consumption of the device can restrict operating time and availability of positioning of the device. Further, portable communication devices may not have access to all satellites that are available at the mobile device location because of blocking by surrounding structures, particularly in urban and indoor environments. Since the GPS function will not be operating all of the time in order to maintain handset battery charge time, time to first fix on actuating the location function can be inordinately long for many Location Based Services (LBS) applications.

Method and apparatus for providing an alert on a user equipment entering an alerting area


The present invention is directed to a system and method for adding data encryption services to a document processing device. Encryption enablement software, which includes two alternate encryption mechanisms, is received by an associated document processing device. The device then awaits an associated user's selection of an electronic document file to be encrypted and subsequently encrypts the file using one of the available encryption mechanisms. The electronic document file is divided into blocks having a preselected length. An encryption key block containing first and second key portions, is then generated. The electronic data file is then encrypted using the first encryption key portion to form first level encryption data. The first level encryption data is then decrypted using the second encryption key portion to form second level encryption data. The second level encryption data is then encrypted using the first key portion to form a final encrypted electronic document file.

This invention is directed to a method and system for adding data encryption services to a document processing device. More particularly, this invention is directed to a method and system for encrypting and decrypting image data using a software development kit equipped with an encryption/decryption algorithm employable by a plurality of different document processing devices.
In a conventional office setting, document processing devices, such as printers, copiers, facsimile machines and scanning devices typically include little to no inherent data security. For example, an individual with physical access to the device will generally have little difficulty in accessing the files being printed, faxed, or stored on the document processing devices. Attempts to alleviate such problems involve limiting access to the device through the use of a login and password for authorized users. However, login and password protection protect the document from access by unauthorized personnel, but do little to protect the document from access by an employee with rights to use the document processing device, but lacking the authorization to view certain documents. For example, certain Healthcare Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) documents require a higher level of restricted access than other documents found in a document processing device's memory.
The subject invention overcomes the aforementioned problems and provides a method and system for encrypting and decrypting image data by a document processing device.

System and method for enhanced data security in office machine environment


A composition for forming an underlayer film for lithography for imparting excellent optical characteristics and etching resistance to an underlayer film for lithography, an underlayer film being formed of the composition and having a high refractive index (n) and a low extinction coefficient (k), being transparent, having high etching resistance, containing a significantly small amount of a sublimable component, and a method for forming a pattern using the underlayer film are provided. The composition for forming an underlayer film contains a naphthalene formaldehyde polymer having a specific unit obtained by reacting naphthalene and/or alkylnaphthalene with formaldehyde, and an organic solvent.

In the production of a semiconductor device, microfabrication by lithography using a photoresist composition has been conventionally performed. According to the increase in integration degree and operation speed of an LSI in recent years, further microfabrication is demanded by the design rule of the pattern, and under the circumstances, the lithography technique associated with exposure to light, which is currently used as a general-purpose technique, is approaching the essential limit of resolution due to the wavelength of the light source. The light source for lithography used for forming a resist pattern is being decreased in wavelength from KrF excimer laser (248 nm) to ArF excimer laser (193 nm). However, various problems arise due to further microfabrication.
One of the major issues relates to the aspect ratio. An ArF resist is relatively low in etching resistance and thus is necessarily increased in aspect ratio, but it is difficult to increase the aspect ratio due to collapse of the resist pattern. As a method for forming a pattern with a high aspect ratio, a three-layer resist method or the like has been proposed. In the method, a material for forming a ground coat is coated on a substrate and formed into a film by heating to form an underlayer film, and an intermediate film containing an inorganic film, such as a silica film, is formed thereon. A photoresist film is then provided thereon, and a resist pattern is formed by an ordinary photolithography technique. The intermediate film is etched with the resist pattern as a mask to transfer the pattern thereto, and then the underlayer film is etched using oxygen plasma with the patterned intermediate film as a mask, thereby forming a pattern on the substrate.
A two-layer resist method has also been proposed, which is favorable owing to the less number of process steps as compared to the three-layer resist method. In the two-layer resist method, after forming an underlayer film in the same manner as in the three-layer resist method, a photoresist film containing a silicone-containing polymer is formed as an upper layer thereof, forming a resist pattern by an ordinary photolithography technique, and etching using oxygen plasma is performed with the resist pattern as a mask to transfer the resist pattern to the underlayer film. Thereafter, etching using a carbon fluoride series gas is performed with the resist pattern as a mask, thereby forming a pattern on the substrate (Non-patent Document 1).
As a material for forming the underlayer film for 193 nm, a copolymer of polyhydroxystyrene and an acrylate ester is being generally studied. Polyhydroxystyrene has significantly strong absorption at 193 nm and has solely a high value around 0.6 for the extinction coefficient (k). The k value can be controlled to around 0.25 by copolymerizing an acrylate ester, which has a k value of substantially 0.
However, the acrylate ester is low in etching resistance upon etching the substrate as compared to polyhydroxystyrene, and furthermore, it is necessary to copolymerize the acrylate ester at a high proportion for decreasing the k value, which brings about consequently decrease in resistance upon etching the substrate. The etching resistance influences not only the etching rate but also generation of surface roughness after etching, and thus increase of the surface roughness after etching faces severe problem by copolymerization of the acrylate ester.
A naphthalene ring is one of structures that have high transparency at 193 nm as compared to a benzene ring and high etching resistance, and an underlayer film having a naphthalene ring or an anthracene ring has been proposed (Patent Document 1). However, a naphthol-copolycondensed novolak resin and a polyvinylnaphthalene resin have a k value of from 0.3 to 0.4 and fail to achieve the target transparency of from 0.1 to 0.3, and thus the transparency thereof is necessarily further increased. An acenaphtylene polymer (Patent Documents 2 and 3) has a low refractive index (n) at a wavelength of 193 nm as compared to 248 nm and a high k value, both of which fail to achieve the target values. Furthermore, proposals have been made for an underlayer film obtained by adding an acrylic resin to a naphthol-copolycondensed novolak resin (Patent Document 4), an underlayer film containing a polymer compound obtained by copolymerizing indene and a compound having a hydroxyl group or an epoxy group and having a double bond (Patent Document 5), and an underlayer film containing a polymer compound obtained by copolymerizing a novolak resin with fluorenebisphenol (Patent Document 6), but the target value k of from 0.1 to 0.3 has not yet been achieved.
Furthermore, the material for an underlayer film also involves a problem with a sublimable component. There is such a severe problem that a sublimable component forms crystals on the surface of the upper plate upon baking, and the crystals drop onto the wafer to form defects. Due to the reason, a material that contains a less amount of a sublimable component is demanded. The conventional material uses a polymer, such as a novolak resin, owing to the demand of etching resistance, but contains a monomer and unreacted dimer and oligomer, which have sublimability, and therefore, an increased number of process steps are required for removing the sublimable component, which largely influences the production cost.
Accordingly, such a material for an underlayer film is demanded that has a high refractive index (n) and a low extinction coefficient (k), is transparent, has high etching resistance, and contains a considerably small amount of a sublimable component.    [Patent Document 1] JP-A-2002-14474    [Patent Document 2] JP-A-2001-40293    [Patent Document 3] JP-A-2002-214777    [Patent Document 4] JP-A-2005-156816    [Patent Document 5] JP-A-2006-53543    [Patent Document 6] JP-A-2007-17867    [Non-patent Document 1] PROCEEDINGS of SPIE, vol. 4345 (2001), 50

Composition for forming base film for lithography and method for forming multilayer resist pattern


A machine for confining cigarettes or packets of cigarettes in converted blanks of paper, cardboard or the like employs a paster serving to apply adhesive to selected portions of successive blanks of a series of moving blanks. In order to compensate for wear upon and/or for misalignment of the paster and/or a back support for the blanks during application of adhesive, the back support is adjustable relative to the paster and/or vice versa in several directions. Such adjustability ensures predictable application of adhesive, such as hot melt, to predetermined portions of the blanks. The back support and/or the paster is or can be biased to a predetermined position relative to the path for the moving blanks.

The present invention relates to improvements in apparatus for applying adhesive substances to blanks which are to be converted into packets, cartons or other types of receptacles, e.g., into packets which contain arrays of rod-shaped smokers"" products or into so-called cartons which contain arrays of cigarette packets or the like. The invention also relates to improvements in the configuration, mounting and utilization of certain component parts, such as back supports or others, of adhesive applying apparatus (often called pasters) which can be utilized in connection with the making of various types of receptacles for arrays or other groupings of discrete commodities.
It is customary to advance various types of discrete blanks and/or continuous or elongated sheets, strips or webs of wrapping material past one or more devices which are designed to apply a suitable adhesive paste to selected portions of such discrete or continuous blanks prior to causing the adhesive-coated portion or portions of a blank to adhere to different portion or portions of the same blank or to one or more different blanks. For example, the flaps and/or tucks at the sides and/or at the top or bottom ends of partially completed cigarette packets must be coated with adhesive and thereupon folded to abut against and to adhere to the adjacent walls, panels, flaps or other parts of the same blank(s) or to portions of different blanks.
A modern paster, e.g., an adhesive applicator which is utilized in a high-speed packing machine for arrays of cigarettes or in a cartoning machine for cigarette packs, normally employs one or more nozzles which discharge a hot melt, a cold melt or another suitable paste in the form of a film, a stream or a strip upon a continuous web or upon selected portions of successive blanks of a series of discrete blanks. The nozzles can be designed to come into actual contact with the running blank or blanks, or of the type which merely discharge adhesive but do not actually engage the running blank or blanks. A presently utilized nozzle (distributed by the German Firm VALCO) is fixedly mounted adjacent the path for the advancement of blanks, and a suitable conveyor system is employed to transport the blanks past the orifice or orifices of the fixed nozzle.
The quality, as well as the appearance (and hence the sales appeal) of a cigarette packet or another container for cigarettes or other smokers"" products, depend to a large extent upon the stability of such packs, and this also holds true for the quality and appearance of the aforementioned cartons which are often designed to contain arrays of ten packs, e.g., two superimposed layers each of which contains a row of five neighboring packs. Therefore, satisfactory application of requisite quantities of an acceptable adhesive is of great importance; moreover, the adhesive should be prevented from adhering to parts of a packing machine because any interruptions of operation of such machines, even for short or very short intervals of time (e.g., to clean the machine and to thus prevent patches of adhesive from attracting dust and/or blanks or fragments of wrapping material on their way toward, past and beyond the wrapping station) entail huge losses in output of a modern packing or cartoning machine. Such satisfactory application of adhesive can be ensured by setting up a packing machine in such a way that the area of contact between the orifice of the nozzle of an adhesive applicator and successive blanks is imparted an optimum shape, that the cross-sectional area(s) of the adhesive-discharging orifice(s) in the nozzle matches or match an optimum shape and/or that the blanks are compelled to advance along a predetermined path without any or with negligible stray movements.
It has been found that the establishment of optimum contact between the nozzle of an adhesive applicator and the selected portion or portions of each of a short or long series of successive (coherent or discrete) blanks of wrapping material is one of the critical prerequisites for the making of optically, mechanically and/or otherwise acceptable cigarette packs or other types of smokers"" products. The establishment of an optimum contact necessitates the placing of selected portions of each of a series of blanks into surface-to-surface contact with one or more predetermined portions of the surface of a paster.
Published German patent application Serial No. 1 511 044 discloses a paster which employs a metallic leaf spring serving to ensure the establishment of predictable contact between a continuous blank or successive blanks and the nozzle of the paster. The leaf spring is tiltable relative to the nozzle to thus urge the running blank or blanks against the nozzle. A drawback of such proposal is that the leaf spring or springs is or are apt to be moved out of requisite position(s), damaged or deformed during frequent cleaning, maintenance and/or alignment work. This often results in contamination of the external surfaces of the nozzles and/or of other parts of the paster with adhesive paste, in the application of adhesive to the external surfaces of the packs and/or cartons, as well as in the application of adhesive to the external surfaces of machine parts located downstream of the adhesive applicator(s). The misapplied adhesive is likely to be part of adhesive which was intended to be applied to packs, cartons and/or other receptacles the parts of which should be held together by adhesive, i.e., the misapplication of adhesive results or is likely to result in the making of weaker adhesive bonds or in the absence of adhesive bonds because the adhesive was misapplied during intended application to blanks and/or during subsequent processing.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,732,533 (granted Mar. 31, 1988 to Focke et al. for xe2x80x9cPROCESS AND APPARATUS FOR PRODUCING PACKS WITH AN OUTER WRAPPER CONSISTING OF PAPER OR THE LIKExe2x80x9d) discloses the application of glue patterns to blanks of wrapping material, subsequent deactivation of applied glue, and reactivation of deactivated glue upon completed conversion of blanks into containers for cigarettes and the like. A drawback of such proposal is that the patented machine takes up substantial amounts of space as well as that the additional equipment for the application of adhesive at a location remote from the actual wrapping station, for the setting of adhesive prior to transport of adhesive bearing blanks to the wrapping station, and for reactivation of adhesive at the wrapping station contributes significantly to the cost of the packing machine and to its proneness to malfunctioning. The patentees further propose to press the flaps, closure tabs and like parts of the blanks against each other during the last stage of the wrapping operation, i.e., at a location which is remote from the paster or pasters.
An object of the invention is to provide a novel and improved apparatus for the application of adhesive to a continuous blank or to a series of successive blanks in such a way that the shapes and/or the quantities of applied adhesive match or closely approximate the required or desired optimum shapes and/or quantities.
Another object of the present invention is to provide novel and improved parts or groups of parts for use in an apparatus of the above outlined character.
A further object of the instant invention is to provide the apparatus with novel and improved means for reducing the percentage of wasted adhesive in a machine for the making of packets, packs, cartons and/or other types of receptacles for smokers"" products.
An additional important object of this invention is to provide a novel and improved mounting for the nozzle or nozzles in an adhesive applicator of the above outlined character.
Still another object of the invention is to provide an apparatus which is constructed and assembled in such a way that it can automatically compensate for wear upon several of its parts and which can be put to use in existing cigarette packing, cartoning and/or other types of machines for confinement of smokers"" products.
A further object of the invention is to provide a novel and improved method of at least partially automatically compensating for wear upon various parts of adhesive applying devices, especially but not exclusively in devices which can be utilized for the application of adhesive to various parts of wrappers for smokers"" products.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a novel and improved method of enhancing the quality of packets, packs cartons and/or analogous containers wherein flaps, panels, walls, tucks and like parts are held together by an adhesive, to reduce the cost of making such containers, and to reduce the numbers of rejects in packing machines for cigarettes and the like.
One feature of the present invention resides in the provision of a device for urging an at least substantially sheet-like or panel-like advancing blank sideways against an adhesive dispensing implement, such as a paster of the type employed in a cigarette or carton packing machine. The improved device comprises a back support having a surface which is arranged to contact one side of an advancing blank while another side of the blank abuts the implement, and at least one bearing which mounts the back support with freedoms of movement in a plurality of directions relative to the implement.
It is often preferred and advisable to mount the back support with freedoms of movement in three different directions relative to the implement, e.g., in the directions of the three cartesian coordinates which are normal to each other.
The at least one bearing can define at least one pivot axis for the back support, and one of the freedoms then includes or can include pivotability of the back support about the at least one pivot axis. Another of these freedoms can include movability of the back support transversely of the aforementioned axis; such movements of the back support take place, or can take place, while the blank advances in a predetermined direction.
The improved device can further comprise means for yieldably biasing the back support to a predetermined position relative to the at least one bearing. Such biasing means can comprise at least one spring, e.g., at least one coil spring which reacts against the at least one bearing and bears upon the back support.
At least a portion of the aforementioned surface of the back support can have a concave shape or a convex shape.
It is also possible to employ a back support which resembles and acts as a cradle in that it is rockable relative to the at least one bearing.
Still further, it is possible to employ a spherical (universal) joint which acts between the back support and the at least one bearing.
Another feature of this invention resides in the provision of an apparatus which serves to apply an adhesive to substantially sheet- or panel-like blanks. The apparatus comprises means for advancing a series of successive blanks along a predetermined path, an adhesive applicator having a surface which contacts one side of each of the series of successive blanks in a predetermined portion of the path, a back support which contacts another side of each of the series of successive blanks in the predetermined portion of the path, and at least one bearing mounting the back support and/or the applicator with freedom of movement in at least one direction relative to the applicator and/or the back support.
The at least one bearing can include means for mounting at least a portion of the applicator with at least one freedom of movement relative to the other of the back support and the applicator. Such portion of the applicator has two or three freedoms of movement relative to the back support, and such apparatus can further comprise means for yieldably biasing the portion of the applicator to a predetermined position relative to the back support. At least one of the aforementioned two or three freedoms of movement can include the ability of the aforementioned portion of the applicator to pivot about a predetermined axis, and the advancing means of such apparatus can include means for moving successive blanks of the series in a predetermined direction; at least one of the two or three freedoms of movement can include linear movability of the aforementioned portion of the applicator at least substantially transversely of the predetermined direction. Another of these freedoms of movement can include the ability of the aforementioned portion of the applicator to pivot about a predetermined axis. Still further, such apparatus can comprise at least one resilient element which reacts against the at least one bearing and bears upon the aforementioned portion of the applicator to yieldably urge the applicator portion to a predetermined position relative to the back support.
The applicator of the improved apparatus can comprise at least one resilient component, and such applicator can form part of a wrapping machine for smokers"" products.
The novel features which are considered as characteristic of the invention are set forth in the appended claims. The improved apparatus itself, however, both as to its construction and the modes of assembling, installing and operating the same, together with numerous additional impartant and advantageous features and attributes thereof, will be best understood upon perusal of the following detailed description of certain presently preferred specific embodiments with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Apparatus for applying adhesive to blanks in packing machines for smokers"" products and the like


A method of extracting metalloid and metal species from a solid or liquid material by exposing the material to a supercritical fluid solvent containing a chelating agent. The chelating agent forms chelates that are soluble in the supercritical fluid to allow removal of the species from the material. In preferred embodiments, the extraction solvent is supercritical carbon dioxide and the chelating agent is a fluorinated or lipophilic crown ether or fluorinated dithiocarbamate. The method provides an environmentally benign process for removing contaminants from industrial waste without using acids or biologically harmful solvents. The chelate and supercritical fluid can be regenerated, and the contaminant species recovered, to provide an economic, efficient process.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention concerns extraction of metalloids and metals from solids and liquids, and is more particularly directed to a waste treatment process in which metals such as lanthanides and actinides are efficiently extracted from waste material.
2. General Discussion of the Background
Waste treatment and disposal is an important social and economic issue. Industries throughout the world spend large sums of money to reduce the biological hazards of environmental exposure to toxic substances. One particular environmental problem is the removal of toxic metals and radioisotopes from solid or liquid industrial wastes. Such contaminants can be removed from soils, for example, by treating the soil with an acid that dissolves the metals. Acid dissolution is followed by selective precipitation, electrowinning, or solvent extraction. Acid dissolution is unfortunately very nonspecific, and often produces many by-products that can create serious environmental problems in their own right.
An alternative detoxification process is to encapsulate contaminants in a container or insoluble matrix that prevents their entry into the environment. This approach still requires storage of the bulky matrix, and does not allow regeneration or reuse of the contaminants. Hence there is a need for a biologically compatible waste treatment process that efficiently and effectively separates metals from contaminated materials. There is also a need for such a process that is biologically compatible and permits selective regeneration and reuse of the contaminants.
One of the present inventors has previously disclosed that enhanced extraction of metals can be achieved with ionizable crown ethers, such as crown ether carboxylic acids. The inventors have found that these macrocyclic ethers have cavities that can selectively extract lanthanides and actinides by attracting these species with an ionized side chain. The metal ion is then inserted into the cavity of the macrocycle to form a chelate. Analyst, 114:451-453 (1989) and Anal. Chem 58:3233-3235 (1986). This mechanism of attracting the ion and inserting it in the ring has earned these compounds the name of "lariat crown ethers." In these reports, a crown ether carboxylic acid (sym-dibenzo-16-crown-5-oxyacetic acid) was used to extract lanthanides from aqueous solutions into an organic phase with high efficiency and selectivity. U.S. Pat. No. 4,908,135 similarly discloses separation of secondary and tertiary amines using a different crown ether, while U.S. Pat. No. 4,942,149 shows separation of racemic compounds with yet other crown ethers.
An unrelated solvent extraction method is supercritical fluid extraction. A supercritical fluid is typically one that is gaseous at ambient conditions, but which is maintained at a temperature and pressure above its critical temperature and pressure. Under those conditions it forms a solvent that can be used to extract organic materials such as caffeine from coffee beans. U.S. Pat. No. 4,911,941 provides an example of supercritical carbon dioxide extraction of caffeine in which green coffee beans are moved periodically through an extraction vessel and contacted with continuously flowing supercritical carbon dioxide. U.S. Pat. No. 4,898,673 shows a similar system in which soluble materials are continuously extracted from solids using supercritical carbon dioxide. The soluble solids are circulated in a closed loop pipeline with the supercritical fluid.
Supercritical extraction of environmental wastes has not previously been suggested. This may be due to the relatively low solubility of metals and other non-organic materials in supercritical fluids. Direct extraction of metal ions by supercritical carbon dioxide, for example, is inefficient because of the weak van der Waals interaction between metal ions and carbon dioxide. This weak interaction has apparently discouraged efforts to perform supercritical fluid extraction of metals from environmental wastes.
It is accordingly an object of this invention to provide an improved method for extracting metals from liquids or solids, including complex matrices.
It is another object of the invention to provide such an improved method that allows efficient and biologically compatible extraction of metals from the environment.
Yet another object is to provide such an improved method that allows selectivity as to the type of metal extracted by the system.
Even yet another object is to provide such an improved method that can selectively extract lanthanides and actinides.
Finally, it is an object of this invention to provide such an improved method that is efficient and economical compared to many other extraction processes.
These and other objects of the invention will be understood more clearly by reference to the following drawings and detailed description.


Antibodies and antigen-binding fragments of antibodies that bind OV064 are disclosed. The antibodies bind an extracellular domain of OV064. Some of the antibodies and antigen-binding fragments bind an epitope on OV064 sufficient to induce internalization. In some embodiments, the antibodies are humanized, chimeric or human. Nucleic acids and vectors encoding the antibodies or portions thereof, recombinant cells that contain the nucleic acids, and compositions comprising the antibodies or antigen-binding fragments are also disclosed. The invention also provides therapeutic and diagnostic methods utilizing the antibodies and antigen-binding fragments provided herein.

Despite advances in the field of cancer therapy, tumor cell resistance to chemotherapeutic agents remains a significant problem in clinical oncology, as one of the main reasons many prevalent forms of human cancer resist effective chemotherapeutic intervention. Cell surface proteins expressed on cancer cells are presently being utilized for targeting specific cancer therapy in several tumor types. For example, Panorex® (edrocolomab), a monoclonal antibody which targets metastatic colon cancer, was the first monoclonal antibody approved for cancer treatment. Additional monoclonal antibody therapies have been approved in other cancers, for example, Herceptin® (trastuzumab), which is an antibody against the Her2/neu antigen, is currently being used to treat breast cancer (Finn and Slamon, Cancer Chemother Biol Response Modif. 21: 223-233 (2003)). RituxanMabThera® (rituximab), which binds to the CD20 antigen, is being used to treat B-cell lymphomas (Multani and White, Cancer Chemother Biol Response Modif. 21: 235-258 (2003)). Furthermore, several monoclonal antibody candidates presently undergoing clinical trials are showing great promise in colon and prostate cancers (Galsky et al., Phase I trial of MLN2704 in patients with castrate-metastatic prostate cancer (CMPC). ASCO Annual Meeting (2004); Hoff et al., Oncology (Huntingt) 18: 736-741; discussion 742, 745-736 (2004); Milowsky et al., J Clin Oncol 22: 2522-2531 (2004)). Many antibodies that are currently in development for cancer indications are unconjugated human or humanized IgG molecules that illicit the desired effect by inhibiting growth factor mediated proliferation or induce antibody dependent cell mediated cytotoxicity (ADCC) on cells expressing the targeted antigen. Any individual target of interest may not be appropriate for use in antibody targeted therapeutics or applicable for effective therapies in all cancers, however.
Additional approaches to antibody targeted therapeutics include utilization of tumor specific expression of a cell surface antigen to target toxins to the tumor site using monoclonal antibody-drug immunoconjugates (Payne, Cancer Cell 3: 207-212 (2003)). However, in common with chemotherapeutic approaches, immunotoxin therapy also suffers from significant drawbacks when applied to solid tumors. For example, antigen-negative or antigen-deficient cells can survive and repopulate the tumor or lead to further metastases. An additional reason for solid tumor resistance to antibody-based therapies is that the tumor mass is generally impermeable to macromolecular agents such as antibodies and immunotoxins (Burrows et al., Cancer Res. 52: 5954-62 (1992); Dvorak et al., Cancer Cells. 3: 77-85 (1991); Baxter and Jain, Microvasc Res. 41: 5-23 (1991)). Both the physical diffusion distances and the interstitial pressure within the tumor are significant limitations to this type of therapy. Therefore, solid tumors, which make up over 90% of all human cancers, have so far proven resistant to immunotoxin and antibody treatment. Further development and efficacy in clinical trials with useful antigens will be valuable advancements in identifying additional effective cancer therapies. Particularly useful are target antigens that have the ability to internalize and release the toxin inside the tumor cell and induce cell killing (Payne, Cancer Cell 3: 207-212 (2003)). Additionally, particularly useful targets would be primarily expressed in tumors, while lacking non-specific tissue expression. This approach has been shown to work very well in preclinical models and in vitro on cells expressing the antigen. To date, a couple of antibodies are in clinical development that are conjugated with the microtubule inhibitor maytansinoid, or DM1 (Tassone et al., Cancer Res 64: 4629-4636 (2004); Tolcher et al., J Clin Oncol 21: 211-222 (2003).
In view of the shortcoming of existing cancer therapies, there exists a need for identification of additional and improved modalities for ameliorating and treating cancers. The identification of additional effective targets is thus useful in conjunction with development of antibody targeted therapeutics and is certain to aid in the identification and generation of novel therapeutic regimens for cancer treatment.

Antibodies that bind OV064 and methods of use therefor


Embodiments of this application provide an uplink control channel transmission method and apparatus. At least one first-format uplink control channel and at least one second-format uplink control channel are generated, and the at least one first-format uplink control channel and the at least one second-format uplink control channel are transmitted in the first timeslot or subframe. In the process, there are only two formats of uplink control channels, so that uplink scheduling complexity is reduced.

In a Long Term Evolution (Long Term Evolution, LTE) communications system, a terminal sends uplink control information to a network side device by using an uplink control channel. The uplink control information is used to feed back an acknowledgement of downlink data, a channel status, or the like to the network side device. The uplink control channel occupies 14 symbols (symbol) of a subframe (also referred to as a timeslot) in time domain, and occupies physical resource blocks (Physical Resource Block, PRB) at two ends of system bandwidth in frequency domain. A combination manner of a time-frequency resource occupied by the uplink control channel is referred to as a format of the uplink control channel. It can be learned from the foregoing that in LTE, the format of the uplink control channel is fixed, and the network side device does not need to send signaling to the terminal to indicate the format of the uplink control channel.
In future 5th Generation Mobile Communication (the 5th Generation Mobile Communication, 5G), an uplink control channel includes two types: a short duration uplink control (short duration UL control) channel and a long duration uplink control (long duration UL control) channel. The short duration UL control channel needs to occupy one or two symbols. In addition, in 5G there are various types of timeslots or subframes used to carry an uplink control channel, such as a downlink domain (DL domain) timeslot or subframe, an uplink domain (UL domain) timeslot or subframe, and an uplink only (UL only) timeslot or subframe. Last one or two symbols of the DL domain timeslot or subframe is/are an uplink transmission resource, and is/are mainly used to transmit a short duration UL control channel. First two or three symbols of the UL domain timeslot or subframe are a downlink transmission resource and a gap (Gap), and remaining symbols are an uplink transmission resource. All symbols of the UL only timeslot or subframe are an uplink transmission resource. When uplink control channels are carried by using the UL domain timeslot or subframe or the UL only timeslot or subframe, formats of the uplink control channels are different, because the short duration UL control channel may occupy one or two symbols, the long duration UL control channel may occupy three to 14 symbols, and quantities of occupied symbols are different. In addition, subframes of a same type include different quantities of symbols. For example, a UL domain timeslot or subframe type includes a UL domain timeslot or subframe occupying seven symbols and a UL domain timeslot or subframe including 14 symbols. Therefore, when uplink control channels are carried by using different types of subframes, there are a plurality of formats of uplink control channels. This increases complexity of scheduling an uplink control channel.

Configuration method and apparatus for uplink control channel transmission


Both wavelength dispersion and a dispersion slope of a line fiber are simultaneously compensated for by combining two types of dispersion compensators having different characteristics.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a dispersion compensation apparatus and method for compensating for the wavelength dispersion of an optical fiber in a wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) optical transmission system.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a conventional WDM optical transmission system, a fiber-type dispersion compensator referred to as a dispersion compensation fiber (DCF) is well known as a technology of compensating for the wavelength dispersion of a line fiber forming an optical transmission line. A DCF indicates dispersion having a sign inverse to that of the line fiber, and can thereby compensate for the dispersion of the line fiber. Since the amount of compensation provided by a DCF is proportional to the fiber length of the DCF, it is necessary to adjust the fiber length of the DCF depending on the dispersion of a target line fiber.
DCFs are produced by manufacturers at intervals of a fixed, specific amount of dispersion (for example, 100 ps/nm). Unfortunately, the actual amount of dispersion of a line fiber is typically not an even multiple of these intervals, thereby causing a setting error of the amount of compensation. As a result, it is very difficult to completely compensate for the wavelength dispersion of a line fiber using DCFs currently available on the market.
Furthermore, wavelength dispersion of a line fiber is wavelength-dependent, and is known to have a characteristic referred to as a dispersion slope. The dispersion slope corresponds to the inclination of the dispersion-to-wavelength graph linear-approximated in a wavelength area used for a signal light.
A DCF has a dispersion slope having a sign inverse to that of a line fiber. Based on this, the dispersion slope of the line fiber can be partially compensated for. However, since the dispersion slope of the DCF is proportional to the fiber length, both wavelength dispersion and dispersion slope of the line fiber cannot be compensated for using a DCF of a fixed length.
Accordingly, it is an object of various embodiments of the present invention to provide a dispersion compensation apparatus and method for compensating for wavelength dispersion and dispersion slope, and for reducing the setting error of the amount of the compensation of wavelength dispersion in a WDM optical transmission system.
Objects of the present invention are achieved by providing an apparatus including (a) a first compensation device compensating for a wavelength dispersion characteristic dependent on wavelength; and (b) a second compensation device compensating for wavelength dispersion, the second compensation device having a constant wavelength dispersion characteristic over a plurality of wavelengths.
Objects of the present invention are also achieved by providing an apparatus including (a) a first compensation device compensating for a wavelength dispersion characteristic dependent on wavelength; and (b)a second compensation device compensating for wavelength dispersion, the second compensation device having a variable wavelength dispersion characteristic.
In addition, objects of the present invention are achieved by providing an apparatus including (a) a fiber type compensation device compensating for wavelength dispersion and dispersion slope of an optical transmission line; and (b) a virtually imaged phased array (VIPA) type compensation device compensating for a sum of the wavelength dispersion of the optical transmission line and the wavelength dispersion compensation of the fiber type compensation device.
Moreover, objects of the present invention are achieved by providing an optical transmission system including (a) an optical transmission line, light traveling through the optical transmission line; (b) a first compensation device compensating for dispersion slope of the optical transmission line, the first compensation device having a wavelength dispersion characteristic dependent on wavelength; and (c) a second compensation device compensating for wavelength dispersion of the optical transmission line, the second compensation device having a constant wavelength dispersion characteristic over a plurality of wavelengths.
Further, objects of the present invention are achieved by providing an optical transmission system including (a) an optical transmission line, light traveling through the optical transmission line; (b) a first compensation device compensating for dispersion slope of the optical transmission line, the first compensation device having a wavelength dispersion characteristic dependent on wavelength; and (c) a second compensation device compensating for wavelength dispersion of the optical transmission line, the second compensation device having a variable wavelength dispersion characteristic.
Objects of the present invention are also achieved by providing a method including (a) transmitting a light through an optical transmission line; (b) compensating for dispersion slope of a wavelength dispersion characteristic dependent on wavelength; and (c) compensating for wavelength dispersion of a constant wavelength dispersion characteristic over a plurality of wavelengths.
Objects of the present invention are further achieved by providing a method including (a) transmitting a light through an optical transmission line; (b) compensating for dispersion slope of a wavelength dispersion characteristic dependent on wavelength; and (c) compensating for wavelength dispersion of a variable wavelength dispersion characteristic.

Apparatus and method of compensating for wavelength dispersion of optical transmission line


In a method and a device for detecting the drowsiness of a driver in a motor vehicle, a drowsiness model is provided to determine a value characterizing the drowsiness of the driver as a function of at least one output quantity of a driver-activity sensor array. Moreover, the device for detecting drowsiness includes a brightness sensor as well as a correction model for correcting the value characterizing the drowsiness of the driver as a function of at least one output quantity of the brightness sensor.

German Published Patent Application No. 10 2009 004 487 describes a method for detecting the drowsiness of a driver, in which a measure for the severity of the inattentiveness and/or drowsiness of the driver is calculated from sensory data, the measure for the severity of the inattentiveness and/or drowsiness being ascertained based on data from a steering wheel angle sensor as a function of a steering rest phase and a subsequent steering action, a steering error being determined, and each steering error being linked to an assigned weighting factor.
German Published Patent Application No. 10 2005 057 267 and U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2010/0039249, each of which is expressly incorporated herein in its entirety by reference thereto, describe a method for detecting the state of a driver, a signal signaling the state of the driver being generated as a function of the steering angle, the time characteristic of the steering angle being determined, and a signal representing the driver state as inattentive being generated at least in response to the presence of a typical time characteristic of the steering angle.
PCT International Published Patent Application No. WO 2008/052827 describes a method and a device for detecting the state of a driver, in which a signal characterizing the driver state is derived from the rate of occurrence of the minima in the time characteristic of a quantity which represents the lane-keeping behavior of the driver, in particular, the time which is necessary until the crossing of the lane marking.
German Published Patent Application No. 10 2005 031 311 describes a drowsiness warning system for drivers, having a detection device for the instantaneous detection of the driver drowsiness, having an evaluator, connected to the detection device, for determining an instantaneous drowsiness value, and having a warning device for warning the driver in the event the drowsiness value exceeds a threshold value determined in the evaluator, a device being provided for adapting the threshold in consideration of a drowsiness model of the driver, and the drowsiness model taking sleep information about the driver into account.

Method and device for detecting drowsiness


This invention relates to an improvement in a process for producing an alkylamine from olefin and amine by hydrohalogenating the olefin to form haloalkane then reacting the haloalkane with amine to form an alkylamine. The improvement comprises heat-treating the alkylamine thus formed with an aqueous alkaline or alkaline earth metal hydroxide at a temperature and for a period of time sufficient to minimize the formation of flocculent precipitate during the formation and/or storage of the alkylamine.

This invention relates to an improved process for the preparation of alkylamine from olefin by first hydrohalogenating the olefin to form haloalkane then reacting the haloalkane with amine to form alkylamine. The alkylamine, thus formed, is then heat-treated with an aqueous alkaline or alkaline earth metal hydroxide at a temperature and for a period of time sufficient to minimize the formation of flocculent precipitate during product storage.
As a class, many alkylamines and products derived therefrom, especially linear tertiary amines, are useful as surface active agents, e.g., surfactants, soaps, cleansing agents, and other personal care products. Processes for the formation of alkylamines are known. U.S. Pat. No. 4,024,189 discloses one such process and is incorporated herein by reference as if fully set forth, wherein alkylamines, most notably alkyldimethylamines, are produced starting with a mixed olefin feed, which may contain vinyl olefins and internal olefins, or vinyl olefins and vinylidene olefins, or a mixture of vinyl olefins, internal olefins and vinylidene olefins.
Initially, where vinylidene olefins are present in appreciable amounts, the olefin feed can be selectively isomerized to convert the vinylidene olefins to branched chain internal olefins. The mixture of vinyl olefins and internal olefins is then hydrohalogenated in the presence of a free radical catalyst to produce haloalkanes. The haloalkanes are then selectively dehydrohalogenated whereby 1-haloalkanes are substantially unaffected while secondary haloalkanes are converted to olefins and separated from the 1-haloalkanes. Amination of the 1-haloalkanes is conducted with an amine having at least one replaceable hydrogen atom, thus converting the 1-haloalkanes to amine hydrohalides. Following this operation, the amine hydrohalides in the intermediate product are converted into amines, preferably by a neutralization reaction with a suitable base thus forming a halide salt of the base used in neutralization. The amines thus produced are recovered from the halide salt.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,982,024 discloses a process for the selective dehydrohalogenation of a feed comprised of a mixture of primary, secondary and tertiary alkylbromides; conversion of the secondary and tertiary alkylbromides to olefins, with minimal conversion, if any, of the primary alkylbromides; and simultaneous separation of primary alkylbromides from the reaction mixture. This process allows for the use of more mixed olefin feeds rather than the high purity alpha olefin feeds required for use in the process disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,024,189.
In both of the aforementioned processes, a considerable amount of flocculent precipitate (hereinafter referred to as "floc") tends to form during long term storage of the alkylamine (ADMA) product. Floc occurs in ADMA samples in either of two main descriptive forms. The first form is a "blue haze" which appears in product column feed and or distillate samples. The second form of floc appears as a solid precipitate in the bottom of samples bottles, which may occur in the samples after a few days of storage. The floc has been identified as a quaternary ammonium salt, which is believed to be n-alkyltrimethylammonium halide and/or dialkyldimethylammonium halide or mixtures thereof which is relatively insoluble in the alkylamine products. It is theorized, although the process of this invention is not bound by such theory, that much of the floc is formed by the reaction of the alkylamine product with an alkyl bromide that inadvertently co-distills with the alkylamine product. The formation of quaternary ammonium salts, commonly proceeds by the Menschutkin reaction, as exemplified in Equation I for quaternary ammonium bromides. EQU R.sub.3 N+RBr<.dbd.>R.sub.4 N+Br.sup.- (I)
During long term storage and/or overseas transportation of the alkylamine product, the product may react with the alkyl bromide to form the insoluble quaternary ammonium salts. Precipitation of the salts thus formed tends to give the product a cloudy appearance. Therefore, there exists a clear and present need for processes which reduce the amount of floc which forms during the storage of alkylamines.
It is, accordingly, a primary objective of this invention to fulfill this need, and others. In particular, it is an objective to provide for an improvement to well known prior art methods for producing alkylamines so as to substantially reduce the tendency to form floc when the product is transported or stored.


A method for forming a metal/metal nitride layer. A dielectric layer is formed on a substrate comprising a conductive region. The dielectric layer comprises an opening exposing a portion of the conductive region. A conformal metal layer is formed on the dielectric layer by physical vapor deposition using a collimator to cover the exposed conductive region. A metal nitride layer is formed on the metal layer. A part of the metal layer may be exposed due to poor step coverage. An implanting process is performed on the metal nitride layer and on the exposed metal layer using a nitric gas.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates in general to the fabrication of semiconductor integrated circuits (ICs), and more particularly to a method for forming a metal/metal nitride layer.
2. Description of the Related Art
As the integration of integrated circuits increases, the surface area of a wafer becomes insufficient for fabrication of required interconnections. In order to meet the surface requirement of the interconnections, multi-layered interconnections have become widely used in highly integrated devices. Typically, a dielectric layer is formed between metallic layers to isolate the metallic layers from each other. A metallic plug is formed to connect the metallic layers to each other. However, in order to improve the adhesion between the metallic plug and other materials as well as to avoid a spike effect between the metallic plug and silicon material, it is necessary to form a barrier layer before the metallic plug.
Titanium nitride (TixNy) is a barrier layer material or a glue layer material frequently used in Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI). In order to improve the ohmic contact between the metallic plug and the silicon material, titanium nitride is usually used with titanium. For example, titanium/titanium nitride (Ti/TiN) are used together as a barrier layer in order to reduce the work function at a junction as well as to prevent the occurrence of the spike effect and electrical migration.
Among all metal materials, tungsten has an advantageous high melting point, heat expansion ratio, and correspondence to silicon. In addition, tungsten deposited by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) does not have a high internal stress, and has a better step coverage. Thus, the manufacture of the metal plug with tungsten deposited by CVD has been widely used in the secondary micrometer process.
FIGS. 1A to 1C are schematic, cross-sectional views showing a conventional method of forming a titanium/titanium nitride layer. In FIG. 1A, a metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) transistor 102 is formed on a substrate 100. A patterned dielectric layer 104 is formed on the substrate 100 to cover the MOS transistor 102. The patterned dielectric layer 104 comprises a contact opening 106 therein. The contact opening 106 exposes a portion of a source/drain region 108 in the substrate 100.
In FIG. 1B, a titanium layer 110 is sputter-deposited on the dielectric layer 104 to cover the exposed source/drain region 108. The titanium layer 110 is conformal to the contact opening 106. In order to increase the deposition ability of the titanium layer 110, a collimator (not shown) is placed between the substrate 100 and a metallic target (not shown) while forming the titanium layer 110.
In FIG. 1C, a titanium nitride layer 112 is formed on the titanium layer 110 by physical vapor deposition (PVD). The titanium nitride layer 112 is conformal to the contact opening 106. The titanium layer 110 and the titanium nitride layer 112 together form a barrier layer. However, the barrier layer formed by physical vapor deposition on a contact or a via, having a high aspect ratio does not have a sufficient step coverage ability. The titanium layer 110 positioned on the comers of the bottom of the contact opening 106 is exposed, as indicated by reference number 114 shown in FIG. 1C, while depositing the titanium nitride layer 112.
When tungsten metal is deposited in the contact opening 106 as a plug, WF.sub.6 serves as the gas source for CVD. Once the titanium layer 110 is exposed due to the poor step coverage of the titanium nitride layer 12 or any defect in the titanium nitride layer 112, F atoms released by WF.sub.6 can pass through the titanium nitride layer 112 and react with titanium located below to form TiF.sub.4. As TiF.sub.4 is a volatile gas, a phenomenon similar to an explosion will occur when tungsten is deposited on the contact opening 106. This is known as a volcano effect. The occurrence of such an effect results in removal or bending of the titanium nitride layer 112, allowing tungsten to be deposited on both sides of the titanium nitride 112 layer that are removed. If this occurs on the top end comer of the contact opening or the interlayer opening, there will be a projection of the surface of the tungsten layer. When the projection is too severe, the projection is difficult to remove using a normal reactive etching process. As a result, this leads to the problems of a blind window, a short circuit, wafer pollution, and low production.

Method for forming metal/metal nitride layer


An artificial neural network device that utilizes analog neuromorphic memory that comprises one or more non-volatile memory arrays. The embodiments comprise improved mechanisms and algorithms for tuning the non-volatile memory arrays such that the floating gates of the memory cells can be quickly and accurately injected with the desired amount of charge to signify an analog value utilized as a weight by the artificial neural network.

Artificial neural networks mimic biological neural networks (the central nervous systems of animals, in particular the brain) which are used to estimate or approximate functions that can depend on a large number of inputs and are generally unknown. Artificial neural networks generally include layers of interconnected "neurons" which exchange messages between each other. FIG. 1 illustrates an artificial neural network, where the circles represent the inputs or layers of neurons. The connections (called synapses) are represented by arrows, and have numeric weights that can be tuned based on experience. This makes neural networks adaptive to inputs and capable of learning. Typically, neural networks include a layer of multiple inputs. There are typically one or more intermediate layers of neurons, and an output layer of neurons that provide the output of the neural network. The neurons at each level individually or collectively make a decision based on the received data from the synapses.
One of major challenges in the development of artificial neural networks for high-performance information processing is a lack of adequate hardware technology. Indeed, practical neural networks rely on a very large number of synapses, enabling high connectivity between neurons, i.e. a very high computational parallelism. In principle, such complexity can be achieved with digital supercomputers or specialized graphics processing unit clusters. However, in addition to high cost, these approaches also suffer from mediocre energy efficiency as compared to biological networks, which consume much less energy primarily because they perform low-precision analog computation. CMOS analog circuits have been used for artificial neural networks, but most CMOS-implemented synapses have been too bulky given the high number of neurons and synapses.
Applicant previously disclosed an artificial (analog) neural network that utilizes one or more non-volatile memory arrays as the synapses in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/594,439, which is incorporated by reference. The non-volatile memory arrays operate as analog neuromorphic memory. The neural network device includes a first plurality of synapses configured to receive a first plurality of inputs and to generate therefrom a first plurality of outputs, and a first plurality of neurons configured to receive the first plurality of outputs. The first plurality of synapses includes a plurality of memory cells, wherein each of the memory cells includes spaced apart source and drain regions formed in a semiconductor substrate with a channel region extending there between, a floating gate disposed over and insulated from a first portion of the channel region and a non-floating gate disposed over and insulated from a second portion of the channel region. Each of the plurality of memory cells is configured to store a weight value corresponding to a number of electrons on the floating gate. The plurality of memory cells are configured to multiply the first plurality of inputs by the stored weight values to generate the first plurality of outputs.
Each non-volatile memory cells used in the analog neuromorphic must be erased and programmed to hold a very specific and precise amount of charge in the floating gate. For example, each floating gate must hold one of N different values, where N is the number of different weights that can be indicated by each cell. Examples of N include 16, 32, and 64. The prior art lacks a fast and accurate mechanism for tuning each cell to ensure that the cell contains the desired amount of charge.
What is needed are improved mechanisms and algorithms for tuning an analog neuromorphic memory used in artificial neural networks.

High precision and highly efficient tuning mechanisms and algorithms for analog neuromorphic memory in artificial neural networks


Some implementations provide a virtual keyboard having a plurality of keys grouped into a plurality of blocks of multiple keys. For instance, a first type of keyboard control input may navigate a focus of the keyboard from a first block of keys to a second block of keys as a shortcut for quickly traversing a number of keys. A second type of keyboard control input may navigate the focus from a first key to an adjacent key. Navigation of the focus to a target block may result in the focus being centrally located within the target block so that the keys in the target block can be accessed with a minimal number of additional control inputs. Further, in some implementations, one or more suggested words maybe displayed based, at least in part, the keys contained within a block in which the focus is currently located.

People commonly use electronic devices for consuming digital media content, executing applications and performing various other functions. Examples of such electronic devices may include eBook reader devices, cellular telephones and smart phones, tablet computers, portable media players, netbooks, personal digital assistants, and the like. User interface controls for these devices often include physical keyboards. However, in many devices the physical keyboard is not used frequently enough to justify the additional size and weight that the physical keyboard would add to the device. Accordingly, to reduce the size and weight of a device, rather than having a physical keyboard, the device may present a virtual keyboard on a display screen. For example, the virtual keyboard may be displayed only when needed for entering characters in the user interface of the device, and otherwise may be hidden when not in use. Typically, a user may use navigation controls or buttons to navigate through the keys of the virtual keyboard one-at-a-time to select characters to enter into the user interface.

Block-based navigation of a virtual keyboard


In order to be able to arrange a series of files, which are in a reference relationship, on an arbitrary path, depending on the structure of the file system, a path specifying a particular file, which is in the reference relationship, is specified by a position relative to an object program file in a file system including a program, which is in course of execution, depending on the program, which is in course of execution.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a file management system and a management method therefor, and more particularly to a method for specifying a file of a file system which stores files constituted in a tree structure. The file management system and management method of the present invention are suitable for the case where a plurality of work stations share object programs or the case where an object program in a certain work station is distributed to other work stations.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A file system management method for managing files in a tree structure is discussed e.g. in Communications of ACM, Vol. 17, No. 7 (July 1974), pp 365-375.
FIGS. 5A and 5B indicate the conception of an example of the prior art tree structure file system management method. In FIG. 5A a file system 1 has a tree structure, in which "/" represents the root of the tree; obj, lib and src are branches of the tree; and comp, asm, link, trans, f1 and f2 are leaves of the tree. "/", obj, lib and src, which are not leaves, are called directories, and the absolute path from "1", which is the root of the tree, to one of the files, which are the leaves of the tree, is defined unequivocally by specifying successively a directory for every rank. For example the file comp within the file system 1 can be represented by /obj/comp, "/" being the symbol indicating a delimiter between two adjacent ranks.
Consider now a case where the file f1 is compiled, the file comp being the compiler. The user executes an object program, which is the content of the file comp, and starts the compiler, using the file f1 as an argument. The file comp executes the file trans and translates the source to the assembly language, transfers the result thus obtained to the files asm and link, and effects the assembly and the link. In this case the object program stored in the file comp uses an absolute path name on the tree structure such as execute ("/lib/trans"), execute ("/obj/asm"), execute ("/obj/link"), etc., as indicated by 2a in FIG. 5B, in order to specify the files "trans", "asm" and "link" in the file system 1. Consequently, in the case where data in a certain file is referred to or a program is started from a program in another file, they should be specified by using an absolute path name from the root in the tree structure, in which there exists the file, which is to be referred to or started however, this gives rise to a problem that the specified file should be located on a fixed path within the file system, i.e. under a specified directory.

File system management method and file management system


A refrigeration system for a vehicle is provided and includes inside and outside condenser circuits. The inside condenser circuit includes a first valve receiving a first portion of refrigerant out of a compressor, and a cabin condenser receiving and condensing the first portion from the first valve while heating an interior of a cabin. The outside condenser circuit includes: a second valve receiving a second portion of the refrigerant out of the compressor; an outside condenser receiving and compressing the second portion from the second valve; a reservoir downstream from the cabin condenser and the outside condenser receiving the first and second portions; a heat exchanger downstream from the reservoir; and a bypass valve connected in parallel with the heat exchanger. The heat exchanger and the bypass valve receive portions of the refrigerant from the reservoir. A control module controls positions of the first, second and bypass valves.

The background description provided here is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently named inventors, to the extent it is described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description that may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly nor impliedly admitted as prior art against the present disclosure.
For electric vehicles, refrigeration systems (especially heat pump systems) need to provide cabin climate control and powertrain cooling (e.g., cooling of a battery pack, power electronics and/or other electronic components). In the winter (or during cold temperature conditions), a cabin condenser can be required to condense refrigerant at least at 40° C. in order to supply warm enough air for cabin heating. If refrigerant is at a temperature less than 40° C., then the cabin condenser may not output enough heat to satisfy cabin heating requests. If, while the cabin condenser is being used to supply warm air, there is a need to use an outside condenser for powertrain cooling purposes, almost all heating capacity of the refrigeration system is provided at the outside condenser. This is because the outside condenser is much bigger than the cabin condenser. Also, rate of air flow through the outside condenser is much higher than a rate of air flow through the cabin condenser. As a result, the refrigeration system is unable to provide cabin comfort (i.e., adjust an air temperature in the cabin to a set temperature while providing power train cooling.

Vehicle refrigeration system including cabin and outdoor condenser circuits with a holding reservoir and a bypass controlled outside subcool heat exchanger for heating output control of condensers


Some embodiments are directed to a generating device, including a pulse laser source providing primary photons having at least one wavelength, shaping device(s) acting on the primary photons to provide an input beam, a nonlinear crystal, and controller(s) generating, in the nonlinear crystal, at least one electric field that is synchronous with the input beam and suitable for inducing a phase mismatching in the nonlinear crystal through an electro-optical effect, in order to convert the primary photons of the input beam into secondary photons having wavelengths belonging to a supercontinuum.

Some embodiments relate to devices for generating a polychromatic beam of photons, and to analyzing systems that use such devices.
As those of ordinary skill in the art know, in certain fields, such as for example that of the analysis of samples (possibly medical samples), spatially coherent polychromatic laser sources are required. Such sources are frequently called continua because they deliver a beam of photons having wavelengths that are substantially continuously distributed over a large spectral width, typically a few tens of nanometers to a few hundred nanometers.
These sources are produced on the basis of a light-matter interaction employing non-linear effects. They generally include at least one continuous-wave or pulsed laser source (see [R1]) that delivers "primary" photons having a "primary" wavelength, and a microstructured optical fiber or non-linear crystal that is arranged to produce, from the primary photons, an output beam including secondary photons having a plurality of "secondary" wavelengths.
Sources employing a micro-structured optical fiber allow stable emissions with a spectral width extending from the near ultraviolet (or UV) (about 350 nm) to the mid infrared (typically 5 μm) to be obtained. Micro-structured optical fibers made of silica are for example limited in the infrared to 2.4 μm, and have the particularity of confining the luminous power, thereby increasing the light-matter interaction and improving the conversion of the primary wavelength to a large number of secondary wavelengths. However, non-linear micro-structured optical fibers have a small core diameter and therefore, in the presence of a high confinement of energy, the threshold for damage of their material is very quickly reached. Thus, these sources employing a micro-structured optical fiber do not allow high output energies to be obtained. In addition, they do not allow wavelengths belonging to the entire UV domain (shorter than 340 nm) and the entire infrared domain to be obtained simultaneously. Lastly, they do not allow the group velocities of secondary photons of different wavelengths to be equalized, this inducing a desynchronization of secondary photons of different wavelengths over time. As a result, it is impossible to use these sources in certain applications, such as for example multiplex coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS), which is in particular used in the field of imaging to identify and locate specific chemical species within a sample.

Device for generating a polychromatic and spatially self-adapted beam of photons

CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE


Provided is a connection unit including an electromagnetic relay and a bus bar connected to the electromagnetic relay. In such a connection unit, a first bus bar connected to a first fixed contact terminal is disposed facing one surface of a movable touch piece located on an opposite side of the movable touch piece from the other surface of the movable touch piece in a contact-making and breaking direction, with a gap provided between the first bus bar and the movable touch piece in the contact-making and breaking direction, the first bus bar extends in a direction that intersects the contact-making and breaking direction and in which a first movable contact and a second movable contact of the movable touch piece are arranged, and at least part of the first bus bar lies over the movable touch piece in plan view in the contact-making and breaking direction.

Conventionally, an electromagnetic relay that opens and closes a current path is connected to a power supply source and other electronic components through a bus bar. Examples of such electromagnetic relays include an electromagnetic relay disclosed in Patent Document 1. A description will be given of the electromagnetic relay disclosed in Patent Document 1 with reference to FIG. 18. FIG. 18 is an explanatory diagram showing a current flow in a state where the electromagnetic relay disclosed in Patent Document 1 is closed.
According to Patent Document 1, bringing a pair of contact portions 130a of a movable contact 130 into contact with respective fixed contacts 118a of fixed contacts 111 and 112 causes a current Ip to flow. Further, in the fixed contacts 111 and 112, contact conductors 115 each including the fixed contact 118a have a C shape and an inverted C shape, thereby generating a section where directions in which the current Ip flows through each of the contact conductors 115 and the movable contact 130 are opposite to each other. In the section, an electromagnetic repulsive force generated by the Lorentz force caused by the current Ip flowing through each of the contact conductors 115 and the movable contact 130, the electromagnetic repulsive force causing each of the contact conductors 115 and the movable contact 130 to repel each other, increases contact pressure between the pair of contact portions 130a of the movable contact 130 and the fixed contacts 118a.


A liquid crystal display (LCD) cell comprising a highly twisted nematic liquid crystal disposed between two electrode plates and polarizers and having a positive dielectric anisotropy. The optical path difference .DELTA.n.d is 0.2 to 0.7 .mu.m and the ratio d/p of thickness to pitch is 0.2 to 0.6. The absolute value of the twist angle .phi. can be between 120.degree. and 260.degree. for a right-hand twist or left-hand twist, the angle .psi. between the polarizers can be between 0.degree. and 180.degree. and the angle .beta. between the surface orientation direction and the polarization direction on the screen on the light incidence side can be between 0.degree. and 360.degree..

The LCD cell according to the invention is of very similar construction to known cells, such as twisted nematic LCD's. Schadt and Helfrich, Appl. Phys, Lett. 18, 127 (1971).
It has been known for some time that LCD cells having highly twisted nematic liquid crystals, despite their intensive interference colours in the off state, have advantages over similar cells having a 90.degree. twist. The term "highly twisted nematic structures" is to be understood as denoting structures having a twist of more than 90.degree.. Doping with chiral additives is usually necessary to produce such a twist as is known in the art.
The main advantages of liquid crystal cells having highly twisted nematic structures are a very steep electro-oPtical characteristic and a wide viewing angle range. The steep electro-optical characteristic results in high multiPlex ratios which are necessary to provide displays of high information density.
Apart from earlier ProPosals for high-twist liquid crystal cells based on the guest-host effect, one of the first high-twist nematic liquid crystal cells without any colouring additive was the one disclosed in European Patent Application No. 131 216 of Amstutz. H. et al. The liquid crystal of this cell has a twist of from 180.degree. to 360.degree..
The polarizers are offset at angles of from 20.degree. to 70.degree. relative to the orientation directions on the screens. The ratio d/p between the layer thickness (d) and pitch (P) of the liquid crystal is between 0.5 and 0.95. The cell requires a sPecial wall orientation on the electrode surfaces, leading to high tilt angles of the nematic director. Wall orientations of this kind are complex to produce and therefore expensive.
Subsequently, increasing work was done in various places on the develoPment of liquid crystal cells having high-twist nematic structures, because LCDs are being increasingly used in large-area high-density-information applications and high multiplexibility is essential for this Particular use. Thus, many angle ranges between 90.degree. and 360.degree. for the twist and for the arrangement of the polarizers relative to the surface orientations and to one another and for the proportions of the optical anisotropy .DELTA.n, the electrode distance or thickness d and the natural pitch p of the chirally doped nematic liquid crystal relative to one another have been suggested. Various advantages have been alleged for each of the disclosed high-twist structures, with the emphasis on improved multiplexibility and improved range of viewing angles. A disadvantage was found to be the intensive interference colours of such display cells which, if colour variations are to be avoided, call for very accurate plate spacing and, therefore, exPensive and highly precise production processes. Also, the strong inherent colouring of such disPlays is an obstacle to their use as neutral-colour electro-oPtical switches such as are required inter alia for colour TV or for coloured display screens.
The Problem which it is the object of the invention to solve arises from the Present need for even better LCD cells with more particularly less inherent colouring, the possibility of producing grey tones, simple production. short switching times together with high optical contrast, reduced dePendence uPon viewing angle, good multiplexibility and a display Picture which is relatively unaffected by variations in the plate sPacing of the cell.


This chip-to-test (1) has a passivation layer and an overlayer at test points (4). The system comprises a vacuum chamber (8), means (2) for mounting and connecting the chip-to-test (1), a pulsed light source means (9) operable to scan the chip-to-test (1) for inducing photoelectron (15) emission therefrom, means (14) for exercising the circuits of the chip-to-test (1), means (18) for detecting the photoelectrons (15), having a detection threshold and delivering a sequence of signals representative of voltages at the currently scanned test point (4') or points as a function of the scanned point or scanning time, means (23) for flooding the chip-to-test (1) with electrons of energy lower than the detection threshold, means (21) for analyzing said sequence of signlas and means (22) for deriving therefrom a capacitive voltage contrast. The material of the overlayer has a work function lower than the photon energy and can be BeO, MgO, CaO, TiO2, more preferably SrO, Cs2O, BaO or a mixture thereof. This system facilitates testing of a chip-to-test whose passivation layer has a work function above the photon energy, and prevents charging-up of the passivation layer.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to contactless testing of electronic activity in an integrated circuit chip-to-test after passivation thereof, and more particularly relates to a static or dynamic testing procedure by which instantaneous operational voltage at one or more test points of the integrated circuit is interrogated by a pulsed light source means so as to induce photoemission for result interpretation by means of capacitive voltage contrast.
2. Description of the Prior Art
To analyze manufacturing failure, when faults have been detected in the final functional tests performed on integrated circuit chips having a passivation layer thereon, the usual procedure is to single out complete chips with a view to locating the source of the malfunction. The chips of interest here always have a passivation layer thereon, since passivation is performed prior to the final functional tests. Tests performed on internal nodes of these chips should then be conducted without removing the passivation layer, for the removal of the passivation layer may also remove or alter the malfunction of the chip or it may even introduce new errors which prohibit the detection of genuine errors. Since the voltage at the tested internal nodes must be probed at the surface of the passivation layer, result interpretation by means of capacitive voltage contrast is mandatory for this purpose.
In the present state of the art, photon induced photoemission is not appropriate for testing passivated chips so as to obtain results by means of capacitive voltage contrast, due to the lack of pulsed light sources, e.g., pulsed laser systems, both having photon energies which exceed the work function of the passivation layer and having repetition rates in the MHz range. Passivation layers usually are made of polyimide, which has a work function of about 7 eV, or of aluminum oxide, which has a work function of about 8 eV. Existing pulsed light source means with such high photon energies are pulsed lasers having low repetition rates of a few kHz which do not allow to perform dynamic testing of electronic activity in the integrated circuit because it is extremely difficult to synchronize such low repetition rates with chip signals related to clock rates in the MHz range. To enable such testing with currently available picosecond lasers having pulse repetition rates of up to 1 GHz, the work function of the passivation layer should not exceed about 2 eV. However, no material suitable for making a passivation layer is known to have such a low work function.
Electron beam testing of passivated chips delivers results by means of an analysis of capacitive voltage contrast and the detection of voltage changes by this method is well established, but the probing of static voltages is hindered by charging of the passivation layer. Also, this technique is unsuitable for integrated circuits of small dimensions operated in the MHz range (Simon C. J. Garth, "Electron beam testing of ultra large scale integrated circuits", Microelectronic Engineering 4 (1986) 121-138, cf. in particular pp. 131-132).
The following publications are representative of the prior art and scientific background:
U.S. Pat. No. 4,644,264 discloses a method for contactless testing of electronic activity in an integrated circuit chip-to-test after passivation thereof. The chip-to-test has a number of circuits and input/output connections and a plurality of test points connected to the circuits. It is passivated by means of a passivation layer which is covered by an overlayer. It is placed and supported in mounting means provided with electrical connections complementary to the input/output connections of the chip-to-test. The test points of the chip-to-test can be accessed by laser photons from a pulsed laser means. When the circuits on the chip-to-test are exercised to cause electronic activity therein, this provides at the test points, a voltage related to the circuit exercise. However, in this technique, the overlayer is used to collect photoelectrons tunneling through the passivation layer. Thus, the overlayer has to be conductive and a special control of the thickness of the passivation layer is required to ensure tunneling. This precludes currently manufactured normally passivated chips from being tested by this technique.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,703,260 discloses a method derived from that disclosed by U.S. Pat. No. 4,644,264 in that it is performed in vacuum and there are provided electron detector means for detecting electrons which pass through the passivation layer and the metallic overlayer and are emitted into the vacuum. However, this method is not capable of capacitive voltage contrast analysis because the conductive nature of the overlayer results in a smearing out of the spatial voltage contrast.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,706,018 discloses the principle of capacitive voltage contrast analysis performed in vacuum by means of laser photon induced photoemission on an integrated circuit chip-to-test devoid of passivation layer. The method so disclosed is not applicable to passivated chip-to-test for reasons already stated above, i.e., currently there is known no laser system delivering both sufficient photon energies and sufficient repetition rates.

Method and system for contactless testing of electronic activity in an integrated circuit chip-to-test after passivation thereof

International Business Machines Corporation