An organic light-emitting display apparatus includes: a substrate including an emission region and a non-emission region and having a recess formed in at least a portion of the non-emission region; a black matrix disposed in the recess; a thin film transistor disposed on the non-emission region of the substrate and including an active layer, a gate electrode, and source and drain electrodes; a pixel electrode disposed on the emission region of the substrate and electrically connected to one of the source and drain electrodes; an organic emission layer disposed on the pixel electrode; and an opposite electrode disposed on the organic emission layer.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an organic light-emitting display apparatus and a method of manufacturing the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
Organic light-emitting display apparatuses have drawn attention as next generation display devices because the weight and thickness of the organic light emitting display apparatus can be reduced and the organic light emitting display apparatuses have superior characteristics such as wide viewing angles, excellent contrast, and short response times.
An organic light-emitting display apparatus includes a region with circuit components, such as a thin film transistor or a capacitor, for driving of the organic light-emitting display apparatus along with an emission region where light is emitted from an organic emission layer. However, visibility is reduced as incident light is reflected by metal materials of a gate electrode and source and drain electrodes of the thin film transistor or the like included in the capacitor.
Conventionally, an additional member such as a polarizing film is attached to a surface where light is emitted to prevent external light reflection. However, when a polarizing film is attached, light efficiency is decreased and manufacturing cost is increased due to the polarizing film.

Organic light-emitting display apparatus and method of manufacturing the same


A reversible auto document feeder having a document feeding mechanism for feeding a document to a document placing position of an image forming apparatus, reversing the document, feeding the reversed document to the document placing position again, and discharging the document is provided with change means for changing to another control mode of controlling the document feeding mechanism so as to feed a document to the document placing position, reversing the document after copying, feeding the reversed document to the document placing position again, and discharging the document after copying in accordance with an ADF signal from the image forming apparatus. Consequently, even if attached to image forming apparatus capable of sending only an ADF signal, RADF operation can be performed in accordance with the ADF signal.

This invention relates to a reversible auto document feeder for use in image forming apparatus, such as copying machines and facsimile terminals, which makes it possible to reverse a document.
Image forming apparatus carrying an auto document feeder have been widely used more and more. Recently there has also been provided a reversible auto document feeder which, in addition to the conventional function of feeding a document automatically, makes it possible to automatically reverse a document so as to copy images on its both sides by a simple operation.
The above-mentioned reversible auto document feeder is so designed that it operates in response to signals from a main body of an image forming apparatus. Specifically, when the reversible auto document feeder receives a signal for auto document feeding (referred to as ADF hereinafter) from the main body, it feeds a document to a document placing position and then discharges the document after copying. When the reversible auto document feeder receives a signal for reversible auto document feeding (referred to as RADF hereinafter) from the main body, it feeds a document to the document placing position, then reverses the document, feeding the document to the document placing position again, and finally discharging it. In this way, the operation of a conventional reversible auto document feeder is unilaterally determined by signals from a main body of an image forming apparatus. In other words, it is determined by signals from the main body which of ADF and RADF the feeder executes.
In image forming apparatus which are currently available, there is one having a function of forming images on both sides of copying paper (hereinafter referred to as a double-side machine) and another not having such a function (hereinafter referred to as a single-side machine). The double-side machine is constructed so as to send both ADF and RADF signals. Accordingly, the double-side machine which is equipped with a reversible auto document feeder can perform the following functions:
(1) Forming images of a double-sided document on both sides of copying paper PA0 (2) Forming images of a double-sided document on one side of copying paper PA0 (3) Forming an image of a single-sided document on both sides of copying paper PA0 (4) Forming an image of a single-sided document on one side of copying paper
Also, it will be theoretically seen that the single-side machine which is equipped with a reversible auto document feeder can perform (2) and (4) of the above-mentioned functions.
However, the single-side machine sends only an ADF signal. On the other hand, with a conventional reversible auto document feeder, its operation is determined by a signal from the main body of the image forming apparatus as described above. Consequently, even if such a conventional reversible auto document feeder is attached to the single-side machine, only function (4) can be performed. Thus, conventional reversible auto document feeders have not fully performed its function.
An auto document feeder capable of reversible auto document feeding is found in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 62-180829. It should be noted that a reversible auto document feeder of the above invention is applied only for image forming apparatus, whose main body sends a RADF signal.


Embodiments include transistor devices and a method of forming the transistor devices. A transistor device includes a first dielectric over a substrate, and vias on a first metal layer, where the first metal layer is on an etch stop layer that is on the first dielectric. The transistor device also includes a second dielectric over the first metal layer, vias, and etch stop layer, where the vias include sidewalls, top surfaces, and bottom surfaces, and stacked transistors on the second dielectric and the top surfaces of the vias, where the sidewalls and top surfaces of the vias are positioned within a footprint of the stacked transistors. The stacked transistors include gate electrodes and first and second transistor layers. The first metal layer includes conductive materials including tungsten or cobalt. The footprint may include a bottom surface of the first transistor layer and a bottom surface of the gate electrodes.

For the past several decades, the scaling of features in integrated circuits has been a driving force behind an ever-growing semiconductor industry. Scaling to smaller and smaller features enables increased densities of functional units on the limited real estate of semiconductor chips. For example, shrinking transistor size allows for the incorporation of an increased number of memory devices on a chip, lending to the fabrication of products with increased capacity. The drive for ever-more capacity, however, is not without issue. The necessity to optimize the performance of each device becomes increasingly significant.
The drive to scale integrated circuits, such as complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) devices, has been obtained through the use of vertically stacked CMOS transistors. The formation of such vertically stacked CMOS transistors typically require integrating metal layer interconnects from the backside of the CMOS transistors. That is, CMOS devices are generally fabricated by stacking one layer of transistors over another layer of transistors—and so on—to form vertically stacked CMOS transistors. The formation of such transistors thus requires materials with different etch selectivity which are not cost-efficient.
Furthermore, after the vertically stacked CMOS transistors are formed, the backside of the transistors are then integrated with interconnects using a substantially complex process. This process requires complex backside contact lithographic patterning, thereby considerably increasing lithographic patterning alignment issues. In particular, the process needs to implement wafer bonding, wafer flipping, multi-color patterning schemes, complex interconnect schemes, and very tight lithographic edge placement error (EPE) budgets.

Vertically stacked CMOS with upfront M0 interconnect


A method of forming a memory device includes preparing a substrate having predefined characteristics; forming a first layer set on the substrate, including: building a first forming layer, having first form segments, on the substrate; building placeholder sidewalls on the first form segments wherein the sidewalls have a thickness of between about one nm and 100 nm; building a second forming layer, having second form segments, on the substrate between the placeholder sidewalls; removing the placeholder sidewalls forming vacated areas; and building active devices in the vacated areas.

This invention relates to nonvolatile memory, and specifically to a method of manufacturing a nonvolatile memory device having a minimum feature size in the nano-meter range.
Conventional flash memory EEPROMS are made using conventional lithography and etching processes. The minimum feature size is limited by the resolution of the lithography portion of the fabrication process, which is approximately 0.1 xcexcm (10xe2x88x927 meters). E-beam lithography may able to define line width as narrow as 0.01 xcexcm (10xe2x88x928 meters), however, the through put is very slow. A manufacturing process having the reliability and throughput of conventional lithography and etching with nearly the resolution of E-beam lithography is therefore desirable.
A method of forming a memory device includes preparing a substrate having predefined characteristics; forming a first layer set on the substrate, including: building a first forming layer, having first form segments, on the substrate; building placeholder sidewalls on the first form segments wherein the sidewalls have a thickness of between about one nm and 100 nm; building a second forming layer, having second form segments, on the substrate between the placeholder sidewalls; removing the placeholder sidewalls forming vacated areas; and building active devices in the vacated areas.
It is an object of the invention to provide a method of fabricating a ultra high-density nonvolatile memory circuit.
Another object of the invention is to provide integrated circuit fabrication having a feature size in the nano-meter range.
A further object of the invention is to provide integrated circuit devices which have low power consumption.

Nano-meter memory device and method of making the same


The invention relates to a method of producing a food or beverage product, comprising the steps of: providing an ingredient composition comprising micellar caseins, whey protein and plant protein having a pH of 5.9-7.1, preferably 6.2-6.8, and having a concentration of 1 to 15 wt. % of total proteins, and wherein the composition has a micellar casein to whey protein ratio of, 90/10 to 60/40 and a micellar caseins and whey protein to plant protein ratio of 80/20 to 20/80, adding divalent cations to provide a concentration of 2.0-10 mM free divalent cations in the ingredient composition and subsequently heat treating the ingredient composition to form agglomerated proteins comprising micellar casein, whey protein and plant proteins, the agglomerates having a size of 5 to 50 microns as measured by D(4,3) mean diameter as measured by laser diffraction. The invention also relates to a product obtained by this method.

It is known to provide texture and mouthfeel to food and beverage product by protein aggregation and there continue to be a need for food and beverages products exhibiting nutritional balance of macronutrients while delivering great taste and texture.
CN104489097A describes a process to obtain a heat convection drying protectant preparations for lactic bacteria or probiotics. It consisting in heat treating at 60° C. a milk preparation enriched with calcium in order to induce protein aggregation and subsequently submitting the preparation to a mechanical homogenization treatment.
WO07040113A describes the production of an ingredient exhibiting high content in milk-derived complex lipids. It is obtained by precipitating the protein fractions of butter serum at pH 4.0 to 5.0 in presence of calcium and filtering the supernatant in order to concentrate the complex lipids.
WO 06065135 A2 disclosing the production of a free divalent cations-rich liquid food product in which 20% of the lysine residues carried out by the proteins have been glycosylated in order to increase their resistance to aggregation in presence of calcium. Therefore, WO 06065135 A2 is related to preventing protein aggregation in presence of divalent cations, calcium among others.
US20130011515 A1 is describing a process for the production of a milk protein concentrate which is enriched with whey proteins. Skimmed milk is heated in the pH range 6.5-7.0 in order to promote aggregation of whey proteins together with caseins. The heated product is subsequently submitted to filtration in order to concentrate protein aggregates and to remove lactose.
D. L. Van Hekken et al. [Rheology and Microstructure of Chemically Superphosphorylated Whole Casein, 1997, J. Dairy Sci. 80 2740-2750.] describe the effect of addition of free calcium on the viscosity of superphosphorylated caseins. It was shown that the viscosity of a 4 wt % superphosporylated caseins (190% phosphorylation) increased by addition of 30 mM calcium at pH 8.4. This study does not relate to mixes of plant and dairy proteins. Further, for mixes of plant and dairy proteins the superphosporylated caseins are not desirable as chemically modified and expensive ingredient.
C. Holt described in his paper [An equilibrium thermodynamic model of the sequestration of calcium phosphate by casein micelles and its application to the calculation of the partition of salts in milk, 2004, Eur. J. Phys., 33, 421-434] reported that the amount of free calcium ions in bovine milk at pH 6.70 was 10.2 mM and that this value decreased to 8 mM when milk pH decreased to 6.0. This paper is not concerned with plant proteins.
I. R. McKinnon et al. [Diffusing-wave spectroscopy investigation of heated reconstituted skim milks containing calcium chloride, 2009, Food Hydrocolloids, 1127-1133] investigated the effect of calcium chloride addition to skimmed milk reconstituted at 10 wt % in the pH range 6.0 to 7.2 and the subsequent effect on viscosity when the milks were heated for 10 minutes at 60, 75 and 90° C. They reported a critical instability pH of 5.9 for the milks upon heating at 90° C. for calcium chloride content up to 10 mM. This paper is not concerned with plant proteins.
L. Ramasubramanian et al. [The rheological properties of calcium-induced milk gels, 2014, J. Food Engineering, 45-51] determined the impact of calcium chloride addition into full fat milk (3.5% fat) upon heating at 70° C. It was reported that calcium chloride addition below 12.5 mM was leading to viscous dispersions while higher calcium chloride concentrations induced formation of stronger gels. Interestingly, pre-treatment of the milk at 90° C. for 10 minutes before calcium chloride addition and subsequent heating at 70° C. was leading to the strongest gels. Gel formation is not desirable in many semi-solid food and beverage products. This paper is not concerned with plant proteins.
T. Phan-Xuan et al. [Tuning the structure of protein particles and gels with calcium or sodium ions. 2013, Biomacromolecules, 14, 6, 1980-1989.] reported when treating 100% whey protein (□-lactoglobulin) with an addition of calcium chloride to □-lactoglobulin at pH 7.0 it was leading to microgels or gel formation upon heating at 68 or 85° C. when calcium content was 5-6 mM for a protein concentration of 4 wt %. Again gel formation is not desirable in many semi-solid food and beverage products.
N. Chen et al. [Thermal aggregation and gelation of soy globulin at neutral pH. 2016, Food Hydrocolloids, 61, 740-746] have reported that soy protein isolate was forming fractal aggregates upon heating at neutral pH at temperatures ranging between 50 and 90° C. for protein concentrations ranging between 5 and 9 wt %. No impact of calcium on protein aggregation is described.
J. M. Franco et al. [Influence of pH and protein thermal treatment on the rheology of pea protein-stabilized oil-in-water emulsions. 2000, JAOCS, 77, 9, 975-984] reported that a concentrated 65 wt % sunflower emulsion stabilized by 6 wt % pea protein was exhibiting a viscosity increase upon heating at temperature above 70° C. for up to 60 min and that the highest viscosity increase was obtained at pH around the isoelectrical point of the pea proteins, i.e. pH 5.3.
The interaction between micellar casein and pea proteins has been described by J.-L. Mession et al. [Interactions on casein micelle-pea system (part 1): heat-induced denaturation and aggregation. 2017, Food Hydrocolloids, 67, 229-242.] Upon heating dispersions of micellar caseins and pea protein isolate between 40 and 85° C. at pH 7.1 for a weight mixing ratio of 1:1 and a protein content of 1.8 wt %. It was concluded that caseins were not involved in pea protein aggregation while they were contributing to the dissociation of pea protein subunits. This document does not disclose the effect of free calcium.
C. M. Beliciu and C. I. Moraru [The effect of protein concentration and heat treatment temperature on micellar casein-soy protein mixtures. 2011, Food Hydrocolloids, 25, 1448-1460] studied the effect of heating 1:1 micellar caseins and soy protein isolate at temperatures ranging from 40 to 90° C. for 15 minutes at pH 7.0 for protein content ranging from 2 to 15 wt %. They found that the flow properties of the mixtures were lower than for the soy protein isolate at the same protein concentration. In addition, authors claimed that calcium was precipitating out of solution and did not contribute to the overall charge of the aggregates, nor to texture/viscosity.
The prior art teaching shows that although viscosity increase may be obtained with calcium addition in milk products, it is not disclosed that a viscosity increase of mixes of dairy/plant proteins may be obtained. It is also well known from the prior art that gelling effect may be undesirable in food production. Furthermore, the pH of the product may vary and influence process however may lead to instability of the product. The prior art does not show how to provide food and beverage products delivering desirable taste and texture.
Thus, there is a need for food and beverages products exhibiting nutritional balance of macronutrients while delivering great taste and texture.

Method of producing a food or beverage product with free divalent cations dairy and plant protein aggregation


Effects of Oxygen on grease or another organic paste product can be evaluated with a modified version of the ASTM D942 test methodology for oxidation stability of lubricating greases or other organic paste products by employment of an oxidation pressure vessel, in which at least one of (A) a very small sample of the grease or other organic paste product is deployed for testing within the oxidation pressure vessel such that the sample has an enhanced surface area to mass ratio, and (B) a temperature other than about 99° C. is employed during the testing. In general, the testing is carried out under oxidation pressure conditions. The sample may be evaluated with respect to Oxygen uptake. Additional technique(s) directed to oxidation and/or other properties of the sample may be carried out before to after any Oxygen uptake evaluation, for example, FTIR analysis and/or ATR-FTIR analysis.

Grease-like lubricants from animal fats and the alkaline components of fire-place ash are believed to be the earliest form of man's lubrication for his wooden wheel-and-shaft vehicles. First records noted use in Egypt of such materials blended with lime to lubricate chariots. After thousands of years, as the 19th century came to a close, fat- and vegetable-based greases were replaced with more easily manufactured and durable mineral oil based greases. Yet, bio-based greases derived from plant oil feedstock tend to have excellent tribological properties and generally have very high viscosities and flash points. They have some inherent disadvantages, however, such as sensitivity to hydrolysis and oxidation. See, Panchal, T., et al., "Bio-based Grease, a Value Added Product from Renewable Resources," Ind. Crops Prod., 2015, 63, 48-52.
Today's revival of bio-based greases is being driven by an increased global focus towards the use of ecologically-friendly, environmentally safe materials. It is estimated that some 50% of all lubricants worldwide end up in the environment because of total loss applications, volatility, spills or accidents. See, Schneider, M., "Plant-oil Based Lubricants and Hydraulic Fluids," J. Sci. Food Agric., 2006, 86: 1769-1780. The introduction of legislation and consumer-driven initiatives such as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Vessel General Permit, the European Union's Ecolabel scheme, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's BioPreferred program has increased renewable and bio-sourced grease use. Such recent trends have primarily focused the grease industry on price and performance as well as biodegradability and ecological toxicity. See, Kimura, H., et al., "Properties and Applications of Synthetic Greases," J. Synth. Lubr., 2003, 20, 241-255; Fish, G., "The Development of More Environmentally Considerate Greases," 82nd NLGI Annual Meeting, Coeur d′Alene, Idaho, U.S.A., Jun. 6, 2015; Kumar, A., et al., "Challenges in Manufacturing of Bio-Based Greases," NLGI Spokesman, 2014, 78(5), 24-35; and Wilkinson, M., et al., "Meeting the Challenges Posed by Environmentally Acceptable Lubricants," NLGI Spokesman, 2015, 79(2), 6-9.
Of course, properties of a grease that sustain lubricating performance under operational stress and temperature are critical to the capability of the grease to minimize friction, reduce wear, increase system efficiency, and extend operating life of the grease as a lubricant. In assessing such properties and capabilities, various test methods and associated test machines are known. See, the ASTM D942 Oxygen pressure vessel method for oxidation stability of lubricating greases. See also, the ASTM D2266 four-ball test method for wear preventive characteristics of lubricating grease; the ASTM D2509 timken method for measurement of the load-carrying capacity of lubricating grease; and the ASTM D2596 four-ball method for measurement of extreme pressure properties of lubricating grease.
Although such methods are valuable, they are not without their drawbacks and shortcomings. For example, the ASTM D942 method, although generally long-used, having been introduced in 1947, even in a later iteration, ASTM D942-15, "Oxidative Stability of Lubricating Greases by the Oxygen Pressure Vessel Method," requires a lengthy period of time to complete. For instance, it may take a hundred hours or hundreds of hours of test time, after a lengthy set up time. Also, the ASTM D942 method is technically cumbersome and inexact, and requires a relatively large, 20.0-g sample, distributed evenly among five sample dishes. As well, developed so as to maintain quality control of grease production in manufacturing, the ASTM D942 method is limited as a laboratory investigative test for the evaluation of oxidation. Thus, it is clearly stated in Section 4.1 of ASTM D942-15 that that method should not be applied to compare the oxidative stability of the tested grease to actual behavior in service.
In improvements in another field, i.e., that of testing oils, patents to Secrist et al., U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,678,328 B1 and 8,679,405 B1, disclose a rotatable bomb, and Selby et al., U.S. Pat. No. 8,975,083 B2, discloses oil-life measurement—the specifications of those patents, along with their domestic priority applications, U.S. provisional application Nos. 60/527,725 filed on Dec. 8, 2003 A.D. and U.S. 61 61/795,088 filed on Oct. 10, 2012 A.D., incorporated herein by reference in their entireties, to include drawings. That art improves ASTM D2272 and ASTM D4742 test methodology, notably with instrumentation disclosed therein and embodied commercially as the Quantum® instrument from Tannas Company, Midland, Mich., U.S.A.


A yaw-rate sensor is described as having a substrate which has a main plane of extension for detecting a yaw rate about a first axis extending parallel to the main plane of extension is provided, the yaw-rate sensor having a first rotation element and a second rotation element, the first rotation element being drivable about a first axis of rotation, the second rotation element being drivable about a second axis of rotation, the first axis of rotation being situated perpendicularly to the main plane of extension, the second axis of rotation being situated perpendicularly to the main plane of extension, the first rotation element and the second rotation element being drivable in opposite directions.

Such yaw-rate sensors and such methods for operating a yaw-rate sensor are generally known.
Yaw-rate sensors are discussed in the related art. For example, a yaw-rate sensor having two oscillating mass elements is discussed in publication WO 2003064975 A1. Micromechanical yaw-rate sensors for yaw rates about an axis which is parallel to the sensor plane (Z′ and yaw rate Qy) are normally designed as planarly oscillating masses or as masses performing rotational oscillations in the plane, which are subjected to a Coriolis force, which is perpendicular to the plane, when rotation occurs. This force is ascertained either via the electrostatic counterforce needed for position feedback regulation (closed-loop regulation) or measured via the change in capacitance due to the change in the distance to the substrate (open-loop operation). In addition to the target measured variable, the Coriolis force, there are other medial forces acting on the sensors that may induce a signal, such as, for example, linear accelerations and angular accelerations. The occurrence of these accelerations may result in error signals during operation. With the aid of the differential evaluation of the forces that act on two masses moving in opposite directions, a distinction may be made between the Coriolis force and the force due to linear acceleration (for example two masses oscillating toward each other or a mass performing rotational oscillations in the plane), for which the capacitance is evaluated in two oppositely situated positions.
These sensors are insensitive to the angular acceleration about the y axis and also to the angular acceleration about the z axis. Using conventional sensors, it is, however, disadvantageously impossible to differentiate between the Coriolis force and the force which arises due to the angular acceleration about the x axis. This is extremely problematic, since angular accelerations occur as interference variables.

Yaw-rate sensor and method for operating a yaw-rate sensor


The invention relates to a polypeptide comprising:                (a) a HC-domain or fragment thereof of the neurotoxic component of a clostridial toxin; and        (b) a first LC domain or fragment thereof of the neurotoxic component of a clostridial toxin; and        (c) at least one further LC domain or fragment thereof of the neurotoxic component of a clostridial toxin wherein the first and the at least one further LC domain may be the same or different from each other, and wherein each of said fragments of said first and of said at least one further LC domain still exhibits proteolytic activity.

Chemodenervation refers to the use of an agent to prevent a nerve from stimulating its target tissue, e.g. a muscle, a gland or another nerve. Chemodenervation is for example performed with phenol, ethyl alcohol, or botulinum toxin. Chemodenervation is for example appropriate in patients with localized spasticity in one or two large muscles or several small muscles. It may be used to alleviate symptoms such as muscle spasm and pain, and hyperreflexia.
Chemodenervating agents block neuromuscular transmission at the neuromuscular junction, causing paralysis or paresis of the affected skeletal muscles. The term "paresis" is defined hereinunder as a condition typified by partial loss of movement, or impaired movement. This is accomplished either by acting presynaptically via the inhibition of acetylcholine (ACh) synthesis or release, or by acting postsynaptically at the acetylcholine receptor. Example of drugs that act presynaptically are botulinum toxin, tetrodotoxin and tetanus toxin.
The term "chemodenervation" also encompasses all effects which directly or indirectly are induced by the chemodenervating agent, therefore also comprising upstream, downstream or long-term effects of said chemodenervating agent. Therefore, presynaptic effects are also encompassed as well as postsynaptic effects; tissue effects and/or indirect effects via spinal or afferent neurons.
One chemodenervating agent, botulinum toxin, although being one of the most toxic compounds known to date, has in the past been used for the treatment of a large number of conditions and disorders, some of which are described in e.g. PCT/EP 2007/005754. Furthermore, commercial forms of botulinum toxin type A based on the botulinum toxin A protein complex are available under the tradename BOTOX® (Clostridium botulinum toxin type A purified toxin complex, (900 kDa), Allergan Inc.) and under the tradename DYSPORT® (Clostridium botulinum type A toxin-haemagglutinin complex; lpsen Ltd.), respectively. A pharmaceutical composition based on a higher purified toxin preparation and comprising the neurotoxic component of botulinum toxin type A free of complexing proteins in isolated form is commercially available in Germany from Merz Pharmaceuticals GmbH under the tradename XEOMIN® (incobotulinumtoxinA; Clostridium botulinum type A neurotoxin (150 kDa), free of Complexing proteins).
The anaerobic, Gram-positive bacterium Clostridium botulinum produces a potent polypeptide neurotoxin, botulinum toxin, which causes a neuroparalytic illness in humans and animals referred to as botulism. The spores of Clostridium botulinum are found in soil and can grow in improperly sterilized and sealed food containers of home based canneries, which are the cause of many of the cases of botulism. Botulinum toxin A (BoNT/A) is the most lethal natural biological agent known to man. About 50 picograms of botulinum toxin (purified neurotoxin complex) serotype A is a LD50 in mice. However, despite its toxic effects, botulinum toxin complex as well as the pure neurotoxin have been used as a therapeutic agent in a large number of diseases.
Botulinum toxins are released from lysed Clostridium cultures generally in the form of a protein responsible for the toxic properties of the botulinum toxin (the neurotoxic component) in association with other bacterial proteins (the non-toxic "complexing proteins" or "clostridial proteins"), which together form a toxin complex also designated "botulinum toxin complex". The botulinum toxin complex is metastable in nature, since its stability appears to depend on various factors such as e.g. salt concentration and/or pH. The molecular weight of the complex may vary from about 300,000 to about 900,000 Da i.e. from 300 kDa to about 900 kDa. The complexing proteins are, for example, various hemagglutinins. The proteins of this toxin complex are not toxic themselves but are believed to provide stability to the neurotoxic component and are responsible for oral toxicity in Botulinum intoxications. There are seven antigenically distinct serotypes of botulinum toxin, namely botulinum toxin A, B, C1, D, E, F and G. Wherever the botulinum toxin sero-type A, B, C1, D, E, F or G are mentioned, also known variants of the sero-types are encompassed, like serotypes A1, A2, A3, A4 etc.
The component of clostridial toxins responsible for its high toxicity is the neurotoxic component or protein (Mw≈150 kD, exact molecular weight depending of the serotype). The several different serotypes differ in their amino acid sequence, but possess all a similar structure: a light chain (LC) of approximately 50 kDa and a heavy chain (HC) of approximately. 100 kDa, which may be linked by one or more disulfide bonds (for a review see e.g. Simpson L L, Ann Rev Pharmacol Toxicol. 2004; 44:167-93). The neurotoxic component of the botulinum toxin complex is initially formed as a single poly-peptide chain. In the case of serotype A, for example, proteolytic processing of the polypeptide results in an activated polypeptide in the form of a dichain polypeptide consisting of a heavy chain and a light chain, which are linked by a disulfide bond. In humans, the heavy chain mediates binding to pre-synaptic cholinergic nerve terminals and internalization of the toxin into the cell. The light chain is believed to be responsible for the toxic effects, acting as zinc-endopeptidase and cleaving specific proteins responsible for membrane fusion (SNARE complex) (see e.g. Montecucco C., Shiavo G., Rosetto O: The mechanism of action of tetanus and Botulinum neurotoxins. Arch Toxicol 1996; 18 (Suppl.): 342-354)).
The term "botulinum toxin" as used throughout the present application, refers to the neurotoxic component devoid of any other clostridial proteins, but also to the "botulinum toxin complex". The term "botulinum toxin" is used herein in cases when no discrimination between the toxin complex and the neurotoxic component is necessary or desired. "BoNT" or "NT" are common used abbreviations for botulinum neurotoxin or neurotoxin, respectively. The neurotoxic subunit of the botulinum toxin complex is referred in this document as the "neurotoxic component" or the"neurotoxic component free of complexing proteins". The production of the neurotoxic component of botulinum toxin type A and B are described, for example, in the international patent application WO 00/74703.
The several serotypes differ by their duration of therapeutic effect: The normal period of activity of botulinum toxin A drugs is, if injected intramuscular in humans, between 3 and 4 months. In single cases the period can even extend to more than 12 months. During the treatment of sweat glands, an activity of even 27 months has been reported (Bushara K., botulinum toxin and rhinorrhea, Otolaryngol. Head. Neck. Surg., 1996; 114(3):507 and The Laryngoscope 109: 1344 1346:1999). The period of activity for botulinum toxin type C1 is comparable with the period of activity of botulinum toxin A (Eleopra et al., 1997 & 2002). Surprisingly the period of action is much shorter in rodents (e.g. mice) as compared to humans: Approximately 1-2 months for botulinum toxin A, 21 days for botulinum toxin B and only 4 days for botulinum toxin E (DePaiva et al., 1999, Juradinski et al., 2001).
Foran et al. analyzed in 2003 the time period of action in vitro on cerebellum-neurons of rats and found half-times of the inhibition of glutamate exocytosis for botulinum toxin A of more than 31 days; for botulinum toxin type C1 of more than 25 days; for botulinum toxin type B of approximately 10 days; for botulinum toxin type F of approximately 2 days and for botulinum toxin type E of only 0.8 days.
The time period of activity of botulinum toxin type A during e.g. the treatment of dystonias (e.g. Torticollis, Blepharospasmus) in humans is between 3 to 4 months. After this period the patient has to receive another injection of a botulinum toxin-containing drug. It would be of great advantage for the patient to prolong the time period of action of the neurotoxin. In doing so, the number of necessary injections per year would be reduced as well as the overall amount of clostridial proteins. This again would reduce the risk of the production of antibodies against the foreign protein. Therefore, the provision of a botulinum toxin with prolonged persistency would be desirable.
However, not always long-term paralyzation is desired. For example in certain cosmetical treatments sometimes only temporal "fine-adjustments" are required. To achieve a reduction of persistency the physician was restricted by the prior art methods to either the reduction of volume or the switch of serotype. These techniques proved to result in unsatisfying results and required profound knowledge both of the activity kinetics as well as the antigenicity of the different neurotoxin serotypes. Therefore, the provision of a neurotoxin with a "built-in" adjustment of persistency would be a major improvement.
US 2003/0219462, EP1849801 and WO 02/08268. disclose modified Botulinum toxins with added leucine- or tyrosine-based motifs to the native neurotoxin.
The idea for these alterations is based on the observation that certain leucine- or tyrosine-based motifs enable the localization of the light chain of the neurotoxic component of certain subtypes to the inner membrane of the target cell. This mechanism was hypothesized to change the persistency of certain light chains. Until now, however, the authors failed to provide any evidence for such an effect and newer experiments suggest that the whole hypothesis is inaccurate.
Furthermore, even if in certain cases an addition of motifs would lead to a membrane localization, such an approach is not applicable to modifications of Botulinum toxin A. This is because the native light chain of Botulinum toxin type A is already localized to the inner cell-membrane, therefore an additional tethering to the membrane does not provide any additional benefit.
Therefore the present invention followed a different path. As it has been found as disclosed in this application, the addition of a second light chain to the neurotoxin, which still possesses its proteolytic activity, leads to an alteration of the time period of activity. Depending on the combination of serotypes used, the time-period can be prolonged, allowing for the production of custom-tailored neurotoxins. It is envisaged to provide the physician with a range of neurotoxins, whose serotype is independent of their persistency, allowing for a more standardized treatment.

Clostridial neurotoxins with altered persistency


The present invention is a mounting platform for placement of a first device on a first plane in close proximity to a second device on a second plane. In the preferred embodiment, the first device is a voltage regulator circuit, the second device is a microprocessor, the first plane is the surface of the platform printed circuit board (PCB), and the second plane is the surface of the base printed circuit board. Typically the microprocessor is electrically coupled to the base printed circuit board and the voltage regulator circuit is electrically coupled to the platform printed circuit board. The mounting platform is mounted as a mezzanine over the base printed circuit board on the platform printed circuit board. Mounting the voltage regulator in this way allows the voltage regulator output to be placed adjacent to the microprocessor chip while at the same time minimizing the amount of valuable board space that is used.

Modern microprocessors require the output of high current at relatively low voltage levels, typically in the range of zero to five volts. Further, although microprocessor requires high current, the current demands for requirements fluctuate widely. For example, in the sleep or idle mode a microprocessor might require currents in the range of 0.5 A to 5 A while a microprocessor in a faster computing mode might require currents in the range of 10 A to 100 A. However even though current requirements fluctuate widely, microprocessor specifications require that the voltage limits remain relatively stable, no matter what the operational mode of the microprocessor.
Requirements for tight voltage regulation in response to highly variable current demands mean that the main power supply output can no longer be fed directly to the microprocessor. Instead, a voltage regulator is used to deliver a tightly controlled voltage to the microprocessor. A local voltage regulator supplies a high level of DC current and minimizes the uncertainty in voltage drops between the main power supply and the microprocessor.
Although a voltage regulator circuit provides tight voltage regulation, it must be placed in close proximity to the microprocessor. If the voltage regulator is too far from the microprocessor, impedance between the voltage regulator and microprocessor increases, causing poor voltage regulation at the microprocessor. Further, an increase in impedance decreases speed and increases voltage drops. As the clock speed requirements for microprocessors increase, increases in impedance become less and less acceptable.
A problem with positioning the voltage regulator circuit in close proximity to the microprocessor is that other peripheral devices that work with the microprocessor may be displaced. For example, memory chips, etc. also need to be in close proximity to microprocessor. Thus, the voltage regulator circuit uses up a significant amount of board space which could otherwise be used effectively for the placement of cache memory or other integrated circuits peripheral to the microprocessor, which also need to be close to the microprocessor for reasons of signal integrity. Further, because space constraints are so tight, it is difficult to customize a board for the customer by adding different optional components since board space near the microprocessor is so limited.
A method and apparatus for locating a voltage regulator circuit close to microprocessor while minimizing the required board space and minimizing impedance is needed.

Space efficient local regulator for a microprocessor


The present application relates to a lighting field and discloses a lamp installed through screwing, and a lamp body. The lamp installed through screwing includes a lamp body and an installing bracket. The lamp body is provided with a first fastening part thereon. The installing bracket is provided with a second fastening part thereon. The first fastening part is configured to be inserted into the second fastening part, and the lamp body is screwed, and the first fastening part rotates to fixedly fit the second fastening part. The first fastening part fits the second fastening part through screwing, thereby achieving a quick installation and disassembly.

In daily life, the lamps are dispensable for people. In use of various lighting lamps, for example, in home use of the lamps, installation locations of the lamps are generally reserved and fixed, and all power lines are reserved at those locations. However, it is trouble to remove the lamp when it is damaged. For example, the lamp shade of the lamp should be removed and then the bolt should be screwed off, thus greatly increasing the complexity of the replacement of the lamp.

Lamp installed through screwing, and lamp body


A semiconductor device including buried bit lines formed of a metal silicide and silicidation preventing regions formed in a substrate under trenches that separate the buried bit lines.

1. Field
Exemplary embodiments of the present invention relate to a semiconductor device fabrication technology, and more particularly, to a semiconductor device having buried bit lines and a method for fabricating the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
Most semiconductor devices include transistors. For example, in a memory device, such as a DRAM, a memory cell includes a MOSFET. In general, since source/drain regions of a MOSFET are formed in a surface of a semiconductor substrate and a planar channel is formed between the source region and the drain region. Such a general MOSFET is referred to as a planar channel transistor.
As demands for improvements in the degree of integration and performance of a memory device increase, a technology for fabricating a MOSFET is faced with physical limitations. For example, as the size of a memory cell shrinks, the size of a MOSFET shrinks. As a result, the channel length of the MOSFET is shortened. When the channel length of a MOSFET is shortened, the properties of maintaining data are likely to deteriorate, and the characteristics of the memory device may be degraded.
In consideration of these problems, a vertical channel transistor (VCT) has been suggested in the art. In the vertical channel transistor, junction regions are formed at respective ends of a pillar, and any one junction region is connected with a bit line. The bit line is formed by being buried in a trench defined between pillars, and accordingly, is referred to as a buried bit line (BBL).
Two memory cells, each including a VCT and a BBL, are adjacent to one BBL. Therefore, the one BBL is formed in a space (trench) between memory cells, and an OSC (one-side-contact) process is performed to connect one memory cell with one BBL. The OSC process allows each BBL to be brought into contact with any one of two adjacent memory cells. Thus, the OSC process is also referred to as a single-side-contact (SSC) process. Generally, in a memory device that uses a planar channel transistor, in order to connect the planar channel transistor with a bit line, a contact plug process with a high aspect ratio is required. Conversely, in the case of using a vertical channel transistor and a buried bit line, since the vertical channel transistor and the buried bit line may be brought into direct contact with each other, a contact plug process is not required. Hence, the parasitic capacitance of the bit line may be reduced.
FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view illustrating buried bit lines according to the conventional art.
Referring to FIG. 1, a plurality of bodies 14, which are separated by trenches 13, are formed in a substrate 11. The bodies 14 are formed through an etching process for the substrate 11, using a hard mask layer 12. A protective layer 15 is formed on the side walls of the bodies 14 and on the surfaces of the substrate 11 that define trenches 13. Open parts 17 are defined in the protective layer 15 through an OSC process. Each open part 17 exposes a sidewall of each body 14. Buried bit lines 16 are formed in the trenches 13. The buried bit lines 16 are connected with the bodies 14 through the open parts 17. Each buried bit line 16 is connected with one of two adjacent bodies 14. While not shown in the drawing, the upper portion of each body 14 includes a pillar in which source/drain regions and a channel of a vertical channel transistor are formed.
As can be seen from FIG. 1, in order to connect each buried bit line 16 to the sidewall of one of the adjacent bodies 14, an OSC process is used. In order to implement the OSC process, various methods such as a liner layer and a tilt ion implantation process, an OSC mask process, and the like have been proposed.
However, these methods fail to form a uniform and reproducible OSC structure due to difficulties in processing. Also, as the level of integration increases, a problem occurs in that the distance between adjacent buried bit lines 16 becomes narrow and parasitic capacitance CB between adjacent buried bit lines 16 increases. Since the buried bit lines 16 are brought into contact with the bodies 14, the parasitic capacitance CB between buried bit lines 16 acts as a capacitance between the body 14 and the buried bit line 16. Accordingly, because the distance between adjacently buried bit lines 16 becomes narrow, the parasitic capacitance CB increases markedly.
If the parasitic capacitance CB between buried bit lines increases in this way, the operation of a device may become impossible.

Semiconductor device having buried bit lines and method for fabricating the same


The present invention relates to a method to measure the angle of incidence for radiation and a detector to carry out the method. The background for the invention is that in certain electromagnetic radiation, for example laser light of different wavelengths from UV to IR, there occurs an irregularity, speckledness, that is among other things caused by turbulence in the atmosphere. This phenomenon gives rise to problems during the registration of a single or a few short pulses of radiation. Difficulties to reliably determine the angle to the source of radiation with high resolution can arise. This problem is solved by the invention by mounting two detector elements (1,2) so close to each other that both detector elements receive essentially the same irradiance and in such a direction that the normals of respective detector element form a known angle (.beta.) with each other. One then calculates the angle of incidence (.alpha.) by means of the signals (S.sub.1,S.sub.2) from the detector elements (1,2), that depend on the shape of the sensitivity beams, and said angle (.beta.) between the detector elements.

The present invention relates to a method for measuring the angle of incidence for radiation and a detector for carrying out the method. The background for the invention is that in certain electromagnetic radiation, for example laser light of different wavelengths from UV to IR, there occurs an irregularity, speckledness, that is among other things caused by turbulence in the atmosphere. The speckledness varies with a frequency of up to 100 Hz. Experiments that have been carried out have shown that this phenomenon, that means a great variation in the irradiance of the radiation that falls onto a detector, gives rise to problems during the registration of a single or a few short pulses of radiation. On one hand the probability of detection can decrease considerably and on the other hand difficulties of reliably determining the angle to the source of radiation with high resolution can arise.

Method to measure the angle of incidence for radiation and a detector to carry out the method


The present disclosure is directed to a system and method for remotely managing enterprise resources. In some implementations, a method includes remotely receiving information associated with heterogeneous assets in an enterprise network. Transactions for remotely managing the heterogeneous assets are generated in response to at least the information. The management transactions are stored remote from the enterprise network until a request for the management transactions is received from the enterprise network. The management transactions are transmitted to the enterprise network using a single interface.

Managing assets in an enterprise network can be challenging and is generally fundamental to the overall success of the enterprise. The effect of errors in operation can vary depending on its severity and the nature of the error or the effected asset. Examples are loss from disruption of service, unauthorized use of resources, as well as others. Maintaining an effective system for mitigating errors in operations of an enterprise network, however, can be difficult due to a changing nature of security threats, shortages of information component (IT) resources, implementation difficulties, and other issues.


A search method and apparatus for a navigation system finds accessible points of interest (POI) along the route to the destination in a flexible manner. The navigation system changes its search range when the geographic condition warrants expansion of the search range. The search method is comprised of the steps of: searching POIs specified by a user along a route to a destination within a predetermined search range relative to the route, detecting POIs located within the predetermined search range, determining if a geographic condition on a specific area on the route exists that enables easy accessibility to POIs, expanding the search range if the geographic condition enabling the easy accessibility to POIs exists for the specific area, and detecting POIs located within the expanded search range.

A navigation system performs travel guidance for enabling a user to easily and quickly reach the selected destination. A typical example is a vehicle navigation system where a user drives a car by the guidance produced by navigation system. Such a navigation system detects the position of the user or user's vehicle, reads out map data pertaining to an area at the current vehicle position from a data storage medium. Alternatively, such map data can be provided to the user from a remote server through a communication network such as Internet and the like.
When a destination is set, the navigation system starts a route guidance function for guiding a user along a calculated guided route from the start point to the destination. During the route guidance, the navigation system reads the nodes data from the data storage medium such as DVD and successively stores the nodes data of road segments constituting the guided route in a memory. In the actual traveling, the node series stored in the memory is searched for a portion of the guided route to be displayed in a map display area of the monitor screen, and the portion of the guided route is highlighted so as to be clearly discernible from other routes. When the vehicle is within a predetermined distance from an intersection it is approaching, a highlighted intersection diagram with an arrow indicating the direction to turn at the intersection is displayed to inform the user of the appropriate road and direction at the intersection.
FIGS. 1A-1H show an example of overall procedure and screen display involved in the navigation system. FIG. 1A shows an example of locator map screen of the navigation system when the destination is not specified. Typically, the navigation system displays a street on which the vehicle (current vehicle position VP) is running on a map image and a name of the street. When selecting a "Destination" menu on a main menu screen (not shown), the navigation system displays an "Find Destination By" screen as shown in FIG. 1B for specifying an input method for selecting the destination.
The "Find Destination By" screen of FIG. 1B lists various methods for selecting the destination. The methods include "Address" for specifying the city and address of the destination, "Intersection" for specifying the names of two streets which intersect with one another, and "Point of Interest" (POI) for selecting the programmed destination based on the name, category or telephone number. Other methods in the "Find Destination By" screen include "Recent Route" for specifying the destination based on the recent history of destinations saved in the system, "Address Book" for selecting the address of the destination out of the prescribed address list stored in the system, and "Today's Plan" for selecting two or more destinations.
When selecting, for example, the "Point of Interest" method, the navigation system displays selection methods of point of interest (POI) either by "Place Name" or "Place Type" in FIG. 1C. The "Place Name" is to specify a name of POI, and the "Place Type" is to specify a category of POI. If the "Place Type" is selected, the navigation system shows an "Select Category" screen such as shown in FIG. 1D.
Suppose the user selects "Restaurant", the navigation system retrieves the POIs in the selected category, restaurant, in this case, as shown in FIG. 1E. Typically, names of POIs (restaurants) will be listed in the order of distance from the user (ex. current vehicle position). If the user selects a particular restaurant from the list, the navigation system displays a "Confirm Route" screen such as shown in FIG. 1F. In this example, the "Confirm Route" screen lists the name, address and phone number of the destination (POI specified by the user) . If this is the correct destination, the user enters an "Ok to Proceed" key to proceed to the next procedure.
In FIG. 1G, the navigation system calculates and determines a route to the destination, i.e., the selected POI. The navigation system determines a route to the destination based on, for example, the shortest way to reach the destination, the route using many free ways as possible or the route without using toll road, and the like. Then, the navigation system starts the route guidance as shown in FIG. 1H to guide the user along the calculated route to the destination. Typically, the navigation system shows the intersection which is highlighted to show the next turn and a direction of the turn. Such route guidance by the navigation system is also accompanied by voice instructions.
The foregoing is a typical example of using the "Point of Interest (POI)" input method of the navigation system. Because the recent storage medium provides a large volume of POI data, this input method can be used in various applications. For example, suppose a user is driving a car for a relatively long trip and the final destination is already specified, i.e., a calculated route to the destination is established. During the trip to the destination, the user wants to stop-by various places such as a gas station, restaurant, shopping mall, etc., along the calculated route. Alternatively, the user may simply want to enjoy seeing various places surrounding the calculated route to the destination by retrieving POIs along the route.
Such a situation is shown in FIG. 2A. As the vehicle indicated by VP moves to the destination ("Dest"), the user may want to stop by at a restaurant. Several restaurants exist along the guided route to the destination. Some restaurants are located close to the guided (calculated) route while others require a detour. Thus, it is helpful for the user if the navigation system provides information whether such POIs are easily accessible.
When searching POIs along the calculated route, the navigation system searches for POIs within a predetermined distance from the calculated route. FIG. 2B is a schematic diagram showing such a method of detecting POIs along the route to the destination. POIs 75a-75f of selected category are located along the route. A reference numeral 111 indicates the current position of the vehicle. A reference numeral 101 indicates the route to the destination calculated by the navigation system.
In this example, the navigation system creates a search range 113 which is formed, for example, by moving a search circle 135 on the calculated route 101. The navigation system will repeatedly check if POIs exist within the search range 113 by moving the search circle 135 on the calculated route and retrieves POIs within the search range 113. The outer edges of the search range 113 are denoted by lines 65a and 65b each of which has a distance Dt, for example, 0.3 miles, from the calculated route 101.
If POIs fall within the predetermined search range 113, the navigation system regards those POIs as accessible POIs and displays the information on the POIs. On the other hand, for POIs which do not fall within the predetermined range 113, the navigation system regards those POIs as non-accessible POIs and will not display the POIs. In this example, POIs 75a, 75c, 75e, and 75f are located within the search range 113, and thus retrieved by the navigation system. POIs 75b, 75d, 75g, and 75h are outside of the search range 113, and thus, not retrieved by the navigation system because they are not easily accessible.
FIG. 3 shows an example of method for searching POIs along the route as applied to an actual situation. The navigation system checks if the POIs exist within the search range 113 along the calculated route 101. As noted above, the search range 113 is created by incrementally shifting the search circle 135 on the calculated route 101. Among several POIs 123a-123e, the navigation system will retrieve only POI 123b as it falls within the search range 113.
When using the function of searching POIs along the route, the user is primarily interested in knowing about accessibility to the POIs, rather than mere distance from the calculated route. For example, there arises a case in which the geographical conditions allow the user to easily access a particular POI, even though its location is outside of the predetermined search range. Typically, when a POI is located on a street intersecting with the calculated route 101, the user can easily maneuver to the POI. In FIG. 3, the user can easily reach the POI 123a by making a left turn at a cross street 105a although the POI 123a is outside of the search range 113. Likewise, the user can easily access the POI 123d by making a right turn at the cross street 105b.
Thus, there is a need of a new function of a navigation system for searching POIs along the calculated route based on accessibility to the POIs.

Method and apparatus for navigation system for searching easily accessible POI along route


This invention includes a spacer for a rechargeable battery pack. The spacer is hermaphroditic in that it may be rotated by 180 degrees and attached to itself. The spacer sits between two rechargeable battery cells and includes means for accommodating a circuit board. The spacer facilitates connections between the cells and circuit board by way of welding flexible metal tabs. The spacer allows assembly of a battery pack without the need for hand soldering.

1. Technical Field
This invention relates generally to rechargeable battery packs, and more specifically to spacer devices for mounting circuit boards and cells within a rechargeable battery pack.
2. Background Art
Portable devices rely upon rechargeable batteries for their portability. The batteries used in these devices are more than merely rechargeable cells. Most battery packs are packaged devices with plastic housings that include many different components. They often include circuit boards with charging circuitry and protection circuitry, and sometimes fuel gauging circuitry. Further, they generally include electrical conduit to make connections from the cell and circuitry to the external terminals on the outer housing.
The conventional way to connect all of these interior components was with a hand-soldered wire. Wire is soldered from the can of the rechargeable cell to the circuitry, then to the external terminals. The problem with this method is quality. For example, cold solder joints, prevalent in any hand-soldering operation, can cause the electrical connections inside the battery pack to open. Cold solder joints thus render the battery pack useless. Additionally, solder balls can cause shorts within the battery pack, again compromising reliability.
Another method of xe2x80x9chooking upxe2x80x9d all the internal components of a battery pack is with a flexible circuit. Such a solution employs Kapton(copyright) encapsulated metal with circuit components coupled thereto. Such a solution is taught in U.S. Pat. No. 6,153,834, entitled xe2x80x9cFlexible circuit with tabs for connection to battery cellsxe2x80x9d, issued Nov. 28, 2000, assigned to Motorola, Inc.
While this solution is effective, Kapton(copyright) is quite expensive. With the cost of many electronic devices, like cellular phones, falling well below $100, manufacturers have less money to devote to the battery pack. There is thus a need for an improved, low cost, connection means for rechargeable battery packs.

Battery spacer and circuit board mounting apparatus


A data backup method includes querying a first block of a first blockchain for unused transaction output information based on a first condition being met, the first block including each block of all blocks included in the first blockchain; generating transaction information according to the unused transaction output information obtained based on the querying, the transaction information indicating a transaction operation based on an account address to which the unused transaction output information belongs; recording the transaction information in a second block and releasing the second block, and recording the second block on which a consensus is reached on a second blockchain; and backing up the first blockchain into a storage system, and deleting the first blockchain. Counterpart apparatus, terminal, server, and/or non-transitory computer-readable medium are also contemplated.

The blockchain technology (BT), also referred to as a distributed ledger technology, is an Internet database technology characterized by decentralization, openness, and transparency, to allow for every user's participation in database recording. The blockchain technology is originally a basic technology for implementing bitcoin transactions, and has been applied to various fields such as finance. Because each node device in a blockchain stores all data on the entire blockchain, a large amount of storage space is occupied and performance of a blockchain system is affected.

Data backup method, storage medium, and computing device

TENCENT TECHNOLOGY (SHENZHEN) COMPANY LTD


The present disclosure relates to delaying content from being sent when it is determined to be inappropriate. Inappropriate content may be determined by keywords within the content, speed at which the content is entered in, facial expression of a sender who is entering in the content or the like. A sent message confirming that the content has been delivered to a receiver device may be provided to a sender device when the content has been held. This may provide a cool down period for the sender. After a period of time, the content may be provided back to the sender indicating that the content has not been sent. If approved or revised, the content may be sent to the receiver device. Otherwise, sending the content may be cancelled.

Text messages, or other type of content, may be a brief, electronic message sent between two or more computing devices. These messages may include alphabetic and numeric characters, between two or more users of mobile phones, tablets, desktops/laptops or other devices. Short message service (SMS) and multimedia messaging service (MMS) may be used to provide the text messages from the computing devices over a cellular network or an Internet connection. Advantageously, the text messages may allow discrete phone conversations by removing the "voice" component. Text messages may also be less time consuming to generate such that conversations flow like a typical call. Store-and-forward services may be used such that a receiver of the messages does not have to be connected to the cellular network or the Internet connection.
However, many users may find that the advantages of the text messages may also be disadvantages. For example, the text messages may be sent in a heated conversation. These users may often regret the moment that the text messages are sent. Derogatory names, or emotionally charged words, may be sent by text messages leading to lost or broken friendships and other relationships. In the past, and to lessen these messages, the user may have sent a quick apologetic message and hope that the receiver may forget it. These may be oftentimes ineffective.
Turning to FIG. 1, a schematic diagram of a prior art scenario 100 where content 102 is provided from a sender 104 to a receiver 106 without a content post delay system in accordance with one aspect of the present disclosure is shown. The content 102 may include but is not limited to email, text messages, or the like. Other types of content 102 may be exchanged and is not limited to that shown.
While a single sender device 106 is shown as providing content 102 to a single receiver device 110, this scenario 100, as well as other scenarios presented herein, may be modified to include additional components, and is not necessarily limited to that shown. For example, the sender device 106 may provide content 102 to multiple receiver devices 110. Receiver devices 110 may also become sender devices 106. In addition, group conversations may occur between multiple sender devices 106 and receiver devices 110.
Without the content post delay system as provided in the prior art scenario 100, however, the content 102 exchanged between the senders 104 and receivers 108 may result in sending straight-forward content 102. For example, the sender 104, through their sender device 106, may provide content 102 when they are angry. The content 102 may thus be immediately received by the receiver 108 causing a shock. Unfortunately, this may lead to hurt feelings or damaged relationships based on the content 102 that was sent by the sender 104 and received by the receiver 108.
After the content 102 has been sent, the sender 104 may have regrets as shown in the scenario 100. Unfortunately, and without the content post delay system, which will be described below, the receiver's feelings may have been hurt. Friendships or relationships may have been damaged and may in some instances be irreparable.
The present disclosure provides for a content post delay system and method thereof that addresses the above identified concerns. Other benefits and advantages will become clear from the disclosure provided herein and those advantages provided are for illustration. The statements in this section merely provide the background related to the present disclosure and does not constitute prior art.

Content post delay system and method thereof


A mobile device including a location module configured to determine a location of the mobile device, and a caller identification (ID) and/or caller ID blocking module configured to provide caller ID and/or caller ID blocking features by sending and/or receiving a signal with caller ID and/or caller ID blocking information. The caller identification and/or caller ID blocking module is configured to enable and disable the caller ID and/or caller ID blocking features based upon the location of the mobile device determined by the location module.

Lifestyles have become increasingly reliant on mobile communications. Wireless communication devices, such as cellular phones, laptop computers, pagers, personal communication systems (PCS), personal digital assistants (PDA), and the like, provide advantages of ubiquitous communication without geographic or time constraints. Such mobile devices are equipped with various components that allow a user to make a receive voice and/or video communications using a variety of different means of communication protocols, such as cellular telephone communication, voice over internet protocol (VoIP) communication, etc. Such communication protocols may also allow a call-receiving party to determine certain information about a call-initiating party (e.g., the telephone number, name, etc.) prior to answering of the call, so that the call-receiving party can determine whether or not to answer the call. Such features are typically referred to as caller ID features. In certain instances, it may be desirable to disable or block such caller ID features from allowing a call-receiving party to view such information even if the call-receiving party has caller ID, which is typically referred to as caller ID blocking. However, presently the options associated with the use and configuration of such features is very limited.
Accordingly, a need exists for new ways of using and configuring such caller ID and caller ID blocking features.

Location-based enabling/disabling of caller id/caller id blocking features for mobile device


A vertical semiconductor device having a plurality of vertical active regions and a method for manufacturing such a vertical semiconductor device. In the preferred embodiment, a vertical multicollector pnp transistor is formed by disposing a plurality of n type epitaxial layers over a bottom p type substrate. Each epitaxial layer has a plurality of collector regions formed therein. The collector regions are connected using a single diffusion step to form vertical collectors for the pnp transistor. The base is formed from the epitaxial layers and the emitter is formed using a separate implant or diffusion step. Vertical isolation regions are formed contemporaneously with the vertical collectors. The resulting pnp transistor has vertical collectors and isolation regions formed with less silicon, fewer diffusion steps, and more precise and reduced dimensions.

This invention relates to semiconductor devices. In particular, the invention relates to a multicollector vertical pnp transistor and to a method for fabricating a vertical semiconductor device using a minimum amount of material and diffusion steps.
The need for vertical pnp transistors having electrical performance similar to that of vertical npn transistors at high frequencies and medium voltages in analog applications has been known to circuit designers for several years. Unfortunately, attempts to fabricate vertical pnp transistors have not proven totally satisfactory.
For example, the lateral pnp transistor is known to have low current capabilities, poor response at high frequencies, and large dimensions.
It has also been found possible to construct a substrate pnp transistor as shown in FIG. 1A. Although this transistor has good current and frequency characteristics, the substrate actually grounds the pnp collector. As a consequence, the substrate pnp transistor encounters limited application. In addition, substrate type pnp transistors use a low concentration material for the substrate-collector, resulting in low gain for the device.
Previously fabricated vertical collector pnp transistors also suffer from several drawbacks. One example of a vertical collector pnp transistor is shown in FIG. 1B. As shown in that example vertical collector pnp transistors have been characterized by large dimensions resulting in inefficient use of silicon. As a result, high frequency response characteristics for this device have been less than desirable. In addition deep diffusion of an n well below the p collector is required to isolate the p collector from the p substrate. Moreover, fabrication of the vertical collector pnp transistor requires at least three diffusion steps. Which are costly and time-consuming processes.
A paper by Davis and Moyer, Bell Labs, Int. Electron Devices Mtg, Washington D.C., Dec. 4-6, 1972 teaches a process for making a vertical collector pnp transistor involVing the use of two epitaxial layers. FIG. 1C illustrates this device. A single vertical collector is formed in two epitaxial layers and is isolated from the p substrate by a diffused buried region. However, the technique taught by Davis and Moyer requires a minimum of four diffusion steps to form a one collector device and was not adapted for forming multicollector devices or vertical devices having a plurality of vertical conductive regions. Moreover, because the device uses a highly doped n+ base formed in a high concentration p+ collector, the transistor has a low collector to base breakdown voltage.
The only other uses of multiple epitaxial layers in connection with transistor devices known to applicant have been limited to forming isolation regions for multidevice systems.
Thus, what is needed is a vertical pnp structure and a method for fabricating a vertical pnp structure that will meet the heretofore unmet needs of the prior art. In particular, what is needed is a method of fabrication that results in a multicollector vertical pnp transistor that exhibits good gain at high current levels, has a good high frequency response and has a smaller size relative to prior art devices. A high breakdown voltage is also a desirable objective. Fabrication steps for such a device should reduce wasted materials and require a minimum number of diffusion steps.

Method of making a multicollector vertical pnp transistor


Examples disclosed herein provide a computing device. One example computing device includes a base member, a support member rotatably connected to the base member at a first end of the support member, and a display member rotatably connected at a second end of the support member opposite the first end of the support member. The computing device includes a kickstand rotatably connected to a back surface of the display member at a first end of the kickstand, and magnetic members to magnetically couple the support member with a second end of the kickstand opposite the first end of the kickstand. When the device is to change from a first operation mode to a second operation mode, the kickstand is to move along the support member via the magnetic coupling.

The emergence and popularity of mobile computing has made portable computing devices, due to their compact design and light weight, a staple in today's marketplace. Within the mobile computing realm, notebook computers, or laptops, are one of the most widely used devices and generally employ a clamshell-type design consisting of two members connected together at a common end via one or more hinges, for example. In most cases, a first or display member is utilized to provide a viewable display to a user while a second or base member includes an area for user input (e.g., touchpad and keyboard). In addition, the viewable display may be a touchscreen (e.g., touchscreen laptop), allowing the user to interact directly with what is displayed by touching the screen with simple or multi-touch gestures.

Computing device with a rotatable display member

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


A laminated base material includes a lamination and integration of prepreg base materials each of which includes many reinforcing fibers arranged substantially in one direction and a matrix resin adhered to the reinforcing fibers, wherein at least one of the laminated prepreg base materials is formed with a prepreg base material having, throughout its whole surface, many incisions each extending in a direction crossing the reinforcing fibers, substantially all of the reinforcing fibers divided by incisions, and wherein a length L of each of reinforcing fiber segments formed by the incisions is 10 to 100 mm, a thickness H of the prepreg base material is 30 to 300 μm, and a fiber volume content Vf of the reinforcing fibers is 45 to 65% and arranging directions of the reinforcing fibers between one and another laminated prepreg base materials have at least two directions different each other.

A fiber reinforced plastic comprising reinforcing fibers and a matrix resin generally have a high specific strength, high specific modulus and good mechanical characteristics, as well as good functional characteristics such as high weather resistance and chemical resistance. Therefore increasing attention has been focused on them in various industrial fields and demands for them are mounting in recent years.
As a molding method for a fiber reinforced plastic having good functional characteristics, there is an autoclave molding method in which prepregs, i.e., semicured basic elements (prepreg sheets) comprising continuous reinforcing fibers impregnated with a matrix resin, are laminated, followed by heating and pressing in a high-temperature, high-pressure vessel for curing of the matrix resin to provide a molded fiber reinforced plastic. The autoclave molding method is used commonly.
As another molding method for a fiber reinforced plastic, there is an RTM (resin transfer molding) method in which, to improve the production efficiency, a basic element (preform) comprising continuous reinforcing fibers and having a form shaped to a form of a member being produced is impregnated with a matrix resin and then cured.
Fiber reinforced plastics produced by these molding methods have good mechanical properties because the reinforcing fibers are in a continuous form. In addition, because the continuous fibers are arranged regularly, the fiber-reinforced plastics can be designed to have required mechanical properties by laminating base materials in proper arrangements. Moreover, the resulting fiber reinforced plastics have small variation in mechanical properties. On the other hand, the use of continuous fibers makes it difficult to produce a product in a complicated shape such as three-dimensional ones, and therefore, these molding methods have been used almost exclusively for producing products in a nearly planar shape.
A molding method called an SMC (sheet molding compound) molding method is useful to produce moldings in a three-dimensional or other complicated shape. In the SMC molding method, chopped strands of reinforcing fibers, commonly having a length of about 25 mm, are impregnated with a thermosetting matrix resin to provide SMC sheets in a semicured state, which will be molded by heating and pressing in a heating-pressing machine. In many cases, SMC sheets are cut before pressing to a size smaller than a form of a molding and put on a mold, and the cut SMC sheets having the small sizes are extended (i.e., made to flow) in the molding method. Thus, the flow of the matrix resin and many cut reinforcing fibers serves to achieve the ability of flexible shaping into a three-dimensional or other shape.
However, the SMC molding method inevitably gives rise to irregular distribution and irregular orientation of chopped strands during the SMC sheet production step, leading to moldings having poor mechanical properties or a large variation in them. Furthermore, such irregular distribution and irregular orientation of chopped strands tends to result in warp, surface sinks, etc., in thin moldings in particular. Such moldings will not serve effectively for some structural uses.
To eliminate such defects in the aforementioned materials, JP 63-247012 A and JP 09-254227 A have disclosed prepreg base materials in a form of a prepreg sheet comprising continuous fibers and a thermoplastic resin in which incisions are made to sever the continuous fibers to allow the fibers to flow and to provide molding having a decreased variation in mechanical properties.
However, although moldings produced from the prepreg base materials having the incisions have largely improved mechanical characteristics with a decreased variation as compared with those produced by the SMC molding method, they cannot be said to have a sufficient strength to serve as structural members. As compared with prepreg base materials comprising continuous fibers, the incisions contained in the prepreg base materials act as defects where stress concentrates to cause destruction in the resulting moldings, causing, in particular, problems such as a decrease in tensile strength and tension fatigue strength of the moldings.
It could therefore be helpful to provide a prepreg base material that comprises reinforcing fibers maintaining a high flowability during a molding process and has a flexible shaping ability to form a molding in a complicated shape. It could also be helpful to provide a laminated base material comprising reinforcing fiber sheets at least some of which are the prepreg base material and a fiber-reinforced plastic that are produced by molding a laminated base material. It could still further be helpful to provide a process to produce the prepreg base material and a process to produce a fiber reinforced plastic from the prepreg base material.

Prepreg base material, layered base material, fiber-reinforced plastic, process for producing prepreg base material, and process for producing fiber-reinforced plastic


A touch sensor includes a sensor electrode layer having a plurality of sensor electrodes, a front surface protective layer disposed on an operation surface side, and a back surface protective layer disposed on an opposite side of the operation surface, the front surface protective layer and the back surface protective layer being stacked together. In the touch sensor, the back surface protective layer includes a suppressing member configured to prevent easy detection of a change in capacitance from the opposite side of the operation surface.

In recent years, sophisticated devices that are used while being worn on a body have been developed. Examples of the sophisticated devices include lifelogging devices for recording the amount of daily exercise, and smart devices which are spectacle-type or wristwatch-type information devices. For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2013-146557 (PTL 1) describes a wristwatch-type wearable device. Such a sophisticated device uses an input button and a touch sensor formed by metal members.


Provided is a manicure composition of a French nail type which has less disturbance of the lines brought about by a base color and a topcoat and is quickly dried, which does not cause dew condensation on the coating film under a moist environment for coating and has less leveling and less irregular color and which is excellent in a drying property, an adhesive property, flexibility, a masking property, a finished property, a discharge performance and a restirring property. The above manicure composition comprises at least ethanol and propylene glycol monomethyl ether as a solvent, titanium oxide A having an average primary particle diameter of 200 to 400 nm, titanium oxide B having an average primary particle diameter of 10 to 80 nm, an acrylic resin, polyether-modified polydimethylsiloxane and a plasticizer.

In general, a manicure composition of a so-called French nail type in which a nude color (translucent nail) is coated on a whole part of a nail and in which a white manicure is then coated on an edge part of a nail is a white liquid prepared by mixing acetate esters as a solvent and nitrocelluloses as a resin to prepare a nail enamel liquid and mixing titanium oxide with the nail enamel liquid, and it is applied by a brush as is the case with conventional nail enamels.
Known as conventional manicure compositions of a French nail type and the like and applicators therefor are, for example,
1) manicure cosmetics for a nail art comprising at least one of nitrocellulose and alkid-1 as a film-forming agent, at least one of acetyl tributyl citrate, dibutyl phthalate and sucrose benzoate as a plasticizer and at least one of acetone, butyl acetate, methyl ethyl ketone, isopropanol, butanol, ethoxyethyl acetate and ethyl acetate as a solvent, wherein a main component of the solvent is the same as those of conventional nail enamel compositions, and the boundary line is shaded off by adding acetone and methyl ethyl ketone (refer to, for example, patent document 1),2) manicures characterized by containing a specific alkylene oxide derivative and a film-forming agent in order to provide a manicure which is excellent in all of a health-maintaining function of a nail, a use feeling and a makeup retention, wherein aqueous nail enamels having a composition comprising water, an acryl base emulsion, an alcohol base solvent, titanium oxide and a defoamer are disclosed as the above manicures in Example 3-5 and Example 3-6 (refer to, for example, patent document 2),3) aqueous compositions for cosmetic useful for nail enamels or hair-setting products, which contain an emulsion polymer having a minimum film-forming temperature MFT measured under the absence of a film-forming auxiliary agent and at least one glass transition temperature Tg of the dried film (provided that 35° C.≦Tg≦80° C. and Tg−MFT≦8° C.), wherein an aqueous nail enamel having a composition comprising water, an acryl base emulsion, an alcohol base solvent and a silicone base solvent is disclosed as the above aqueous composition for cosmetic in Example 15 (refer to, for example, patent document 3),4) applicators for a nail art characterized by that it is constituted from a rod-like main coating member which can occlude a liquid, a nail guide part for guiding an edge part of a nail onto the above main coating member and a nail enamel coating part which is connected with the nail guide part described above and in which a surface is formed in a planar form or a curved form are provided as applicators by which in enjoying drawing pictures on nails, lines having a fixed width can be drawn precisely and readily, as is the case with an occasion of particularly a French nail, on the nails regardless of a dominant hand (refer to, for example, patent document 4) and5) adhesive seals for a French nail characterized by that they are prepared by a material provided with an adhesive property and an elasticity and formed in a thin and flat form and that they comprise a curved part formed thereon which corresponds to a smile line of a French nail and are stuck detachably on an edge part of a nail are known as an adhesive seal for a French nail which fits to the forms of nails of individuals and does not look unnatural as is the case with an artificial nail and which can finish readily a French nail in a short time (refer to, for example, patent document 5).
However, white compositions of conventional nail enamels including those shown in patent documents 1 to 3 described above have a high viscosity and are coated by a narrow brush, and therefore the existing situation is that a boundary line of two colors is not clearly recognized and that employed is a manner in which a French nail is coated after a nude color coated in an initial stage is completely dried and in which a topcoat is coated after the French nail is dried in order to improve a retention of the French nail.
In the above case, involved therein are the problems that when a base color and a topcoat are provided, the lines are blurred if they are not sufficiently dried since they have the same composition and that since the composition is coated by a narrow brush, the defect that the lines are not drawn well is brought about.
Further, the applicators for a nail art and the adhesive seals for a French nail which are described in the foregoing patent documents 4 and 5 are different in a technical idea from the present invention.
Patent document 1: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 231554/2004 (claims, examples and others)
Patent document 2: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 154403/2005 (claims, examples and others)
Patent document 3: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (through PCT) No. 507399/2003 (claims, examples and others)
Patent document 4: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 204332/2006 (claims, examples and others)
Patent document 5: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 296620/2006 (claims, examples and others)


According to an embodiment, a management device includes a counter storage unit, a first management information storage unit, and an update unit. The first management information storage unit stores a first management table capable of storing first management information about each of a predetermined number of first areas. The first management information indicates whether each second area included in a corresponding first area has data written therein. In response to writing of first data into the nonvolatile memory, when a state of a target second area indicated in the first management information about a target first area is an unwritten state, the update unit changes the state of the target second area to a written state; while when the state of the target second area indicated in the first management information is the written state, the update unit updates the counter value for the target first area.

A nonvolatile memory such as a NAND flash has a reduced number of rewrites. For that reason, an information processing device managing the nonvolatile memory performs wear leveling control. Specifically, the information processing device counts the number of rewrites of the nonvolatile memory and stores it in a table. Then, with reference to a value stored in the table, the information processing device controls a writing position so that data are written on average to the whole storage area of the nonvolatile memory. Owing to performance of such wear leveling control, the information processing device can extend the life of the nonvolatile memory.
In recent years, high-speed nonvolatile memories, also called as storage class memories, have been developed. In the storage class memories, data is written in units of byte or in units of cache line. Therefore, in order to accurately perform wear leveling control, the information processing device needs to manage the number of rewrites in units of byte or in units of a cache memory. However, when the number of rewrites is managed in this way, the size of the table considerably increased, and the information processing device needs to include a very large memory.
While, for example, it is also considered to count the number of rewrites only in units of page, and not count the number of rewrites in units of byte or in units of a cache memory. However, when the number of rewrites is managed in such a way, the information processing device cannot distinguish between writing data into a different byte or into a different cache line within a page and writing data into the same byte or into the same cache line, and the wear leveling control cannot be achieved with high accuracy.

Management device, information processing device, and management method


The packaged compressor includes inside a package: a compressor main body compressing air; a cooling fan; a fan cover attached to the cooling fan and opened to a suction side and to an upward direction being a delivery side of the cooling fan; an exhaust duct provided above a delivery side opening of the fan cover and extending in a vertical direction; and an air-cooled heat exchanger arranged to be inclined with respect to a vertical direction inside the exhaust duct and configured to exchange heat between air compressed by the compressor main body and air delivered by the cooling fan.

Packaged compressors are known in which components such as a compressor main body, a cooling fan, and a heat exchanger are housed in one package, so that the degree of freedom and convenience of installation are improved (for example, see JP 2010-127234 A). Inside the packaged compressor, for example, noise caused by the fan is generated. The package is also effective for preventing such internal noise from leaking outside, and a low-noise packaged compressor is desired.


A circuit for a small electric appliance is disclosed. The circuit includes a battery (B); a control circuit (uC) for measuring the charging current of the battery (B); a DC-DC converter (DC/DC) which supplies the control circuit (uC) from the battery; and a current sensing resistor (R1), whose one end lies at a reference potential and whose other end is connected to the battery (B). The control circuit (uC) has a terminal which is at reference potential, and a measurement input which is related to the reference potential.

Battery-powered electric appliances with a control circuit will need a DC-DC converter to supply the control circuit when the battery voltage is not sufficiently high to supply the control circuit, for example, because the accumulator has only one cell. If the control circuit is used for measuring the charging current of the accumulator, the measured value for the charging current is distorted by the current consumption of the DC-DC converter and any other loads.
There however exists a need for a method for measuring a charging current and a simple circuit for a battery-operated small electric appliance which enables a sufficiently accurate measurement of the charging current of the accumulator.

Circuit for a small electric appliance with an accumulator and method for measuring a charging current