A device that combines a first image photographed with a first amount of exposure and a second image photographed with a second amount of exposure lower than the first amount of exposure, thereby generating a combined image having a wider dynamic range than a dynamic range for the amounts of exposure of the first and second images, the device includes a motion region extraction unit configured to extract at least one motion region in which an object moving between the first image and the second image is shown; a combining ratio determining unit configured to increase a combining ratio of the second image to the first image for a pixel in a background region outside of the at least one motion region such that the higher a luminance value of a pixel of the first image, the higher the combining ratio.

To date, an image sensor using a charge-coupled device has been widely utilized in photographic apparatuses, such as digital cameras. Some photographic subjects, however, have contrasts exceeding the dynamic range of the image sensor. For example, a photographic subject may include an object exposed to sunlight (hereinafter referred to as a "bright object" for the sake of convenience) and an object placed in the shade (hereinafter referred to as a "dark object" for the sake of convenience). In such a case, if the exposure amount of a photographic apparatus is adjusted so as to make a dark object visible in an image, the luminance of a bright object exceeds the upper limit of the dynamic range of the image sensor, and, as a result, the bright object is shown as a solid white object in the image. In contrast, if the exposure amount of the photographic apparatus is adjusted so as to make a bright object visible in an image, the luminance of a dark object is lower than the lower limit of the dynamic range of the image sensor, and, as a result, the dark object is shown as a solid black object in the image.
To address this, a technology that combines a plurality of images obtained by photographing a subject with different amounts of exposure to virtually extend the dynamic range of an image sensor has been proposed (see Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2004-254151, for example). Such a technology is referred to as high dynamic range (HDR) imaging.
For example, Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2004-254151 discloses an imaging device that combines a first image signal obtained by photographing with a large amount of exposure and a second image signal obtained by photographing with a small amount of exposure. The imaging device uses a second image signal for a region of a moving photographic subject and a saturation region of the first image signal, for example. Regarding other regions, the imaging device varies the proportions accounted for by the first image and the second image, for example, in such a manner that, with increasing proximity to the saturation level of the first image signal, the larger the proportion accounted for by the second image signal. Under such a condition, the imaging device performs image combining.

Device, method, and storage medium for high dynamic range imaging of a combined image having a moving object


A method for preparing a cellulose carbamate solution. Dissolving is performed in two steps, first by moistening cellulose carbamate pulp with a dilute alkaline solution and second by admixing a concentrated alkaline solution, as cold as possible, to the pulp under intensive stirring. The technique utilizes the low freezing point of the aqueous NaOH solution at the concentration of 18%, wherein the freezing point is below −20° C., and the intensive stirring function of the dissolve mixer device during the dosage. It is possible to prepare solutions of high quality and having high dry matter content in a mixing time of a few minutes only.

The manufacture of fibers and films from cellulose by the viscose process has been known for more than a hundred years. Even today, almost all cellulose-based fibers are manufactured by the viscose method. It is a known method, by which various properties of the final product are achieved by varying the material and process parameters. However, the viscose method involves significant drawbacks: the preparation of the spinning solution includes laborious work stages, the carbon disulphide used for the dissolution is toxic, inflammable and combustible, and it is difficult to recover. Furthermore, some of the carbon disulphide is decomposed to hydrogen sulphide, which is also toxic and explosive. In addition, the viscose solution is an unstable product which cannot be stored as an intermediate product, but all the steps of the manufacture must be taken without a delay from the beginning to the end, often keeping the pulp at a low temperature.
Several attempts are known to replace the viscose method with a more ecological method. The most promising one has been the conversion of cellulose to cellulose carbamate by means of urea (see, for example, D. Klemm et al., Comprehensive Cellulose Chemistry, Wile-VCH 1998). One of the first attempts to manufacture cellulose carbamate is presented in U.S. Pat. No. 2,134,825. Finnish patents FI 112795 and FI 112869, and the corresponding international patent application WO 03/064476, disclose a novel and effective method for preparing cellulose carbamate (abbreviated CCA). In this method, the chemicals are dosed in atomized form into ground cellulose in a fluidized bed type mixer, and the homogenization of the pulp and the penetration of the chemicals into the fibers are effected by a mechanical working device, such as a sieve plate press. The final reaction takes place in an oven or the like, in which the temperature is raised above the melting point of urea, 133° C.
Cellulose carbamate is alkali soluble at a substitution degree of 0.1 to 0.3. As early as in the above-mentioned old US patent, it has been disclosed that the dissolution is advantageously made at a reduced temperature. Typically, the dissolution temperature of −5° C. has been applied. The preparation of the solution has also been discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,590,095. It presents a two-step dissolving technique, in which the first step is taken by using an NaOH solution that is stronger than the final solution, and in the second step, the solution is diluted with water and/or an aqueous NaOH solution. The presented dissolving technique, as all known CCA dissolving techniques, is characterized by a long mixing time (>1 hour). Furthermore, according to the patent, the preparation of the solution is independent of the DP level (degree of polymerization) of the carbamate.

Method for preparing a cellulose carbamate solution


A medium voltage power converter is provided that has an input transformer adapted to connect to a multi-phase power source, multiple low voltage drives each coupled to a respective set of secondary windings of the input transformer and operatively configured to provide a corresponding set of three-phase power outputs, and an output transformer. The output transformer has multiple input primary winding circuits each operatively coupled to the three-phase power outputs of a respective one of the drives, a plurality of output secondary winding circuits each disposed in relation to a respective input primary winding circuit, and a secondary winding connection arrangement in which each output secondary winding circuit has three secondary windings each of which is connected in series or in parallel with each other secondary winding of each other output secondary winding circuit to form a respective one of three phase-shifted outputs of the secondary winding connection arrangement.

A conventional variable frequency medium voltage drive typically is employed to drive a medium voltage motor for the control of 5 MW to 75 MW loads or processes. The conventional medium voltage drive usually operates at medium voltages of 4.16 kV to 13.2 kV as operation at voltages substantially lower than 4.16 kV leads to excessive currents and power losses. While a conventional medium voltage drive can be manufactured using a standard high voltage power semiconductor, the selection and availability of standard high voltage power semiconductors are limited. In addition, conventional high voltage power semiconductors typically are severely lacking in switching speed, thus limiting the switching frequency. In addition, conventional medium voltage drives typically require specialized multi-level circuitry that tends to increase the dollar cost per kva of the drive.
Conventional low voltage drives of 400V-690V typically cost significantly less per kva than medium voltage drives due to higher production volume, technology maturity and market pressures. However, these conventional low voltage drives are not by themselves suited for controlling 5 MW to 75 MW loads or processes.
One conventional medium voltage inverter, described in E. Cengelci et al., A New Medium-Voltage PWM Inverter Topology for Adjustable-Speed Drives, Vol. 35 No. 3 IEEE Transactions On Industry Applications 628-637 (1999), uses three standard three-phase rectifier/inverter modules coupled between a three-phase input transformer and a three-phase output transformer to generate three-phase medium voltage outputs. However, the connections between the rectifier/inverter modules and the output transformer utilize H-bridge converters and single phase loading that require high voltage isolation and appropriate cooling methods.
Therefore, there is a need for a medium voltage drive or power converter that overcomes the problems noted above and others previously experienced for synthesizing medium voltage variable frequency drive outputs.

Medium voltage power converter formed using low voltage drives


The present solution is directed to systems and methods for synchronizing a random seed value among a plurality of multi-core nodes in a cluster of nodes for generating a cookie signature. The cookie signature may be used for protection from SYN flood attacks. A cluster of nodes comprises one master node and one or more other nodes. Each node comprises one master core and one or more other cores. A random number is generated at the master core of the master node. The random number is synchronized across every other core. The random number is used to generated a secret key value that is attached in the encoded initial sequence number of a SYN-ACK packet. If the responding ACK packet does not contain the secret key value, then the ACK packet is dropped.

A cluster of network devices may have each network device configured to establish transport layer connections with clients and servers. Each network device in the cluster may be a multi-core device with each configured to establish transport layer connections. A transport control protocol (TCP) connection may be established responsive to a handshake in which SYN and SYN ACK are exchanged between the end points. A device, such as multi-core device or a node in a cluster, may be subject to a SYN flood attack. A SYN flood is a form of denial-of-service attack in which an attacker sends a succession of SYN requests to a target device to try to consume enough server resources to make the device unresponsive to legitimate traffic.

Systems and methods for protecting cluster systems from TCP SYN attack


An indenoquinolone compounds of Formula (A) is disclosed, wherein the definition of each group is described in the description. These compounds may specifically inhibit topoisomerase I, and they have good activities against many kinds of human tumor cells, such as lung cancer, colon cancer, breast cancer, liver cancer and the like. They can be used in the manufacture of antitumor drugs. The method for preparing the compound of formula (A), and pharmaceutical compositions containing such compounds and the use in the manufacture of antitumor drugs are also disclosed.

Malignancy is one of the major diseases that seriously threaten the human life and the quality of life. In recent years, chemotherapy has made considerable progress, significantly prolonged the survival of cancer patients, and in particular, made significant breakthroughs in the treatment of leukemia, malignant lymphoma. However, satisfactory results in treating solid tumors (including lung cancer, liver cancer, bladder cancer, and colon cancer, etc.), which most seriously endanger human life and health, and account for more than 90% of the malignancies, have not been achieved.
With the rapid developments in the life sciences, tumor mechanism has been gradually clarified, new ideas have appeared successively, such as inhibiting tumor growth factor, intervening cancer signaling, inhibiting tumor angiogenesis, and inducing tumor cell apoptosis. However, since the pathogenesis of malignant tumors is very complex, clinical practice in recent years has shown that the better clinical efficacy can be achieved only by using them in the combination with cytotoxic medicaments. Therefore, it is of great significance to use key enzymes relevant to the proliferation and differentiation in the tumor cells as a drug target for developing novel medicaments which have high efficiencies, low toxicities as well as strong specificities, and can selectively act on specific target(s).
Topoisomerase I (Top1) has become one of the key target enzymes for designing novel anti-cancer medicaments. The enzyme is necessary for cell survival and involves in the whole procedure of DNA replication, transcription, recombination, and repair; and the Top1 content in a variety of tumor cells, especially lung cancer, stomach cancer, colon cancer, and ovarian cancer, etc., is significantly higher than that in normal cells. Therefore, Top1 inhibitors have not only high efficacies and broad anti-tumor spectra, but also good selectivities for tumor cells. The Top1 inhibitors have been classified as one of six categories of key anticancer medicaments by the U.S. National Cancer Institute.
In all kinds of Top1 inhibitors, camptothecin (CPT) compounds, the most classical Top1-specific inhibitor, have been studied most deeply and become one highlight of the anticancer medicaments research in recent years. In these compounds, Irinotecan (CPT-11) and Topotecan have been successfully marketed, used for the treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer and refractory ovarian cancer etc., and achieved good efficacies. Therefore, the camptothecin derivatives, paclitaxel and retinoic acid compounds have been praised as the three major findings of anti-cancer medicaments in the 1990s. However, such compounds also have prominent problems as follows: 1) the metabolically labile in vivo, that is, the E-ring lactone structure necessary for activity is hydrolyzed into a carboxylic acid salt form in the human body very quickly, and the form of carboxylic acid salt is not only ineffective to Top1, but also more likely to bind human serum albumin; 2) Top1 cleavable-complex (Top1cc) need to be maintained relatively long time to be converted into DNA damage. However, camptothecins tend to dissociate from Top1cc, therefore, the period for intravenous dripping must be prolonged when the camptothecin medicaments are used in clinic; 3) camptothecin possesses strong hydrophobicity due to the unique five-ring conjugated planar structure, resulting in poor water solubility; 4) camptothecins have certain toxic side effects, such as leukopenia, nausea, vomiting, etc., thus restricting the safe dose and in turn the efficacy; 5) resistance. At present, several camptothecin resistant Top1 mutants have been reported. The most frequent mutations, such as Asn722, Arg364, etc., can result in the resistance to camptothecin.
Recently, non-camptothecin Top1 inhibitors have become the hotspot in the research of anti-cancer medicaments. Indolocarbazole compounds are studied deeply at present, wherein, J-107088 (Edotecarin) has entered into the clinical study. However, studies have shown that these compounds are not specific Top1 inhibitors, and also have the inhibitory activity for protein kinase C or checkpoint kinase Chk-1. Luotonine A and Lamellarin D are also Top1 inhibitors isolated from nature in recent years, but they have defects, such as complex structures, poor specificities, and high toxicities. At present only camptothecin anti-tumor medicaments are used widely in clinical practice.
In non-camptothecin Top1 inhibitors, indenoisoquinoline compounds increasingly attracted people's attention. In these compounds, NSC 314622 was initially synthesized by Cushman group (Purdue University) in 1978 and was found to have strong anti-tumor activity. However, its mechanism of action remains unclear. Until 1998, Pommier et al of NCI found that Top1 is the target site of indenoisoquinoline antitumor compounds. This result promoted the in-depth study of such compounds. Cooperated with NCI, Cushman group synthesized four to five hundred indenoisoquinoline compounds, comprehensively studied these compounds for their Top1 inhibitory effect as well as the anti-tumor activities, elucidated the structure-activity relationship of these compounds and obtained the crystal structure of one such compound with Top1-DNA covalent complex. Among the indenoquinoline compounds, NSC 706744, NSC 725776 and NSC 724998 showed a prominent antitumor activities in vitro and in vivo, and Top1 inhibitory activities, of which the latter two have entered the NCI's clinical research.

Comparing with camptothecins, indenoisoquinolines have several unique advantages: 1) the chemical structures of such compounds are very stable, while camptothecin molecule contains hydroxy lactone ring which is readily hydrolyzed; 2) NSC 314622 can cause Top1 mediated DNA cleavage, but the resulted cleavage sites are different from CPT, which may contribute to target different action sites on the genome, therefore, it is likely to find effective anti-tumor medicaments having treatment spectra different from camptothecins; 3) a ternary complex formed from these compounds with the Top1-DNA complex is more stable. The cleavage complex formed from camptothecins is reversible, therefore it is necessary to takes a long time for intravenous dripping to better exert anti-tumor activity. The advantage of these compounds can overcome this problem; 4) these compounds help to overcome the shortcomings of camptothecins such as resistance, poor water-solubility, and so on.
The research experience of the topoisomerase II and tubulin inhibitors has showed that the anticancer drugs having same mechanism of action but different skeletons could have different anti-tumor spectra. Therefore, it is urgent to develop novel non-camptothecin Top1 inhibitors with new skeletons, high efficiencies and low toxicities.

Indenoquinolone compound, preparation method and use thereof


A method and system for automating customer slamming and cramming complaints includes an automated reporting system having one or more receiving devices and a complaint module. Customers who want to report a slam or cram access the automated reporting system and report the complaint without having to speak with a customer service representative. The complaint module obtains the customer telephone number and retrieves customer account information using the customer telephone number. Using the customer account information, the complaint module extrapolates a type of complaint for the customer complaint and prompts the customer for information regarding the customer complaint and the type of the complaint. The customer provides customer responses to the prompts and the complaint module provides an indication to the customer regarding each customer response. Once the customer complaint has been resolved, the complaint module stores information regarding the slam or cram for reporting requirements and tracking purposes.

One of the fastest growing customer complaints with respect to telephone services regards slamming and cramming. Slamming is the illegal practice of changing a customer's local or long distance telephone service provider without the permission of the customer. Cramming is the practice of placing unauthorized, misleading, or deceptive products, services, or charges on customers' telephone bills without customer permission. Under Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulations, telephone companies are required to track, record, and report customer complaints of alleged slamming and cramming.
When a customer suspects a slam or cram, the customer typically calls a customer service representative (CSR) for the customer's telephone company to report the incident and seek corrective measures. Typically, the CSR solicits pertinent information from the customer regarding the alleged slam or cram and enters information regarding the slam or cram into a database in order to track the slamming and cramming complaints and therefore remain in compliance with FCC regulations. Although this is not a difficult task, it is costly and time consuming for the telephone companies because tracking, recording, and reporting alleged slams and crams consumes CSR time that could be better utilized in revenue producing services or in customer satisfaction services.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

System and method for processing complaints


A digital offset inking system includes an ink chamber that contains ink, and deposits ink onto an inking member. The ink is transferred to an ink transfer member, which is then transferred to an image transfer member. An ink removal member removes leftover or excess ink from the ink removal member. A cleaning member cleans the ink removal member.

Inking systems are designed to transfer ink to offset plates. An inking system may be a keyed or key-less type. An inking system may be a regular offset-type printing system, or a digital offset plate printing system.
Related art inking systems can suffer from ghosting issues. In inking systems, transferred ink may be deposited in a layer. The layer may have areas of varying thickness. Ghosting can result from an ink layer being thinner in a particular area where an image has been previously transferred. Areas of thinner ink in ink layers typically cause corresponding lighter areas in image prints.
In related art systems, and particularly in, e.g., regular offset systems, ghosting issues may be addressed by using inker rolls that each have about the same diameter. Such an arrangement causes a repeating image to always be on the same location on the rolls, and circumvents the effects of ghosting.

Methods, apparatus, and systems for erasing ink history from ink transfer roll in digital offset systems


An insert member (42) having an identical permeability is fitted in the circular center hole(41a) of a magnetic ring (41) which is then fitted in the circular hollow section (43a) of a fitting-over member (43) having an identical permeability. Under that state, the magnetic ring (41) is placed in a parallel magnetic field. Lines of magnetic flux passing through the magnetic ring (41) held between the insert member (42) and the fitting-over member (43) become linear without substantially inclining against the parallel magnetic field. Under that state, harmonic noise causing a deterioration in detection precision will scarcely appear in the output of a magnetic sensor for detecting the rotating magnetic field of a ring magnet (40) obtained by performing two-pole magnetization on the magnetic ring (41). When the ring magnet (40) is employed, a deterioration in the detection precision of a magnetic encoder (1) due to the magnetization state of the ring magnet (40) can be avoided, and the deterioration in detection precision can be suppressed.

Well-known magnetic encoders for detecting the rotation angle and other quantities of a rotating body include devices provided with a bipolarly magnetized ring magnet, as shown in FIG. 6(a). In such a magnetic encoder 1, a bipolarly magnetized ring magnet 2 is attached so as to rotate integrally with the rotating body to be detected (not shown). Two magnetic sensors 3X, 3Y are positioned at a 90-degree angular spacing in the circumferential direction facing the outer circumferential surface 2a of the ring magnet 2 across a set gap.
When the ring magnet 2 rotates together with the rotating body, sinusoid detection signals that are shifted in phase by 90 degrees are output from the magnetic sensors 3X, 3Y. For example, the X-phase detection signal shown by the thick line in FIG. 6(b) is output from the magnetic sensor 3X, and the Y-phase detection signal shown by the thin line is output from the magnetic sensor 3Y.
These detection signals, which have phases shifted by 90 degrees, are fed to a computing part 4. The computing part 4 calculates the angle of rotation of the ring magnet 2 on the basis of the waveforms of the detection signals and generates encoder pulse signals that represent the angle of rotation, direction of rotation, and other properties. The encoder pulse signals are fed to a drive control circuit (not shown) or other component of the rotating body.
The ring magnet 2 of the bipolar magnetic encoder 1 constructed in this fashion is magnetized by placing a magnetic ring 12 within the parallel magnetic field shown by the arrow in FIG. 7(a). The magnetic permeability of the air is lower than the magnetic permeability of the magnetic ring 12. The magnetic permeability of the commonly used magnetic ring 12 is 1.1 to 1.3, whereas the magnetic permeability of air is 1.0. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 7(b), when the magnetic ring 12 is in a parallel magnetic field, the direction of the magnetic flux is bent at the inner circumferential surface A and the outer circumferential surface B of the magnetic ring 12, and the direction of the magnetic flux passing within the magnetic ring 12 is inclined relative to the parallel magnetic field.
When the rotating magnetic field of the bipolarly magnetized ring magnet 2 is detected by a magnetic sensor in this state, odd-order harmonic components are generated as noise in the detected waveforms as a result of the slight incline of the magnetic flux during magnetization. As a result, an adverse effect occurs in which the noise components have the effect of degrading the accuracy of detecting the angle of rotation when this ring magnet 2 is used in the fabrication of the magnetic encoder shown in FIG. 6(a).

Method for magnetizing ring magnet and magnetic encoder


A semiconductor device, which is capable of improving isolation property of an isolation structure using STI without increasing impurity concentrations of wells, includes a well isolation structure in form of a shallow trench formed on the boundary between first and second wells opposite in conductivity type and adjacent to each other. When a first device region formed in the first well and a second device region formed in the second well are opposed at opposite sides of the well isolation structure, they are disposed at a first width (well isolation distance) than the second width when they are not opposed to each other. One of the device regions may be a dummy region which does not function as a circuit. In this configuration, angle of STI side walls is steeper, and STI width can be made smaller.

This application is based upon and claims the benefit of priority from the prior Japanese Patent Application No. 2000-232115, filed on Jul. 31, 2000; the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
This invention relates to a semiconductor device and, more particularly, to shallow trench isolation (STI) that is a technique using a shallow trench for isolation of device regions.
Semiconductor devices are moving on toward miniaturization and high integration to meet the requirements of lower power consumption, higher function and higher performance. In accordance with such movements, miniaturization processes have been developed, and they are contributing to improvements of device performance and progresses of LSI toward higher function and higher performance by high integration. Among miniaturization techniques, those for shorter wavelengths of light in lithography and progress of very high resolution techniques such as phase shifting for compensating shorter wavelengths are especially remarkable.
In contrast, regarding device isolation structures, there was a change in applied process upon the 0.25 xcexcm process generation as a boundary. That is, although LOCOS employing selective oxidation process was conventionally used, device structure has been moved to STI (shallow trench isolation) intended for more miniaturization since the 0.25 xcexcm process generation. STI is a technique of obtaining a device isolation structure by first making a shallow trench at a surface part of a Si substrate through a micro process and then filling an insulating film therein.
FIGS. 9A and 9B show cross-sectional structures of typical STIs. These structures include an insulator 12 filled in a trench 11 formed along a surface part of a substrate 10, and a boundary between a p-well 13 and an n-well 14 is positioned immediately under STI.
In case of FIG. 9A, an n+diffusion layer 15, which is a device region, is formed on the surface part of the p-well 13, but no device region exists in the opposite position in the n-well side. This is called an open space.
In FIG. 9B, however, an n+diffusion layer 15 is formed as the device region on the surface part of the p-well 13, and a p+diffusion layer 16 is also formed as a device region on the surface part of the n-well 14 in the opposite position. This is called a narrow space.
In case of the narrow space, the tapered angle of the wide wall of the trench 11xe2x80x2 is steeper than that in case of the open space as shown in FIG. 9B. It is generally assumed that this is a result of a loading effect.
In the explanation below, distance between the trench end position and the boundary of the well is defined as the well boundary distance, and distance between isolated device regions is defined as the well isolation distance. The well isolation distance is equal to the width of STI.
FIG. 10 is a graph that shows relations between the width of STI and the tapered angle in a device where each device region is formed inside a well to be isolated. According to this graph, as the width of STI decreases, the tapered angle tends to become steeper. This is because etching products that will form the etching protective film adhere onto side walls of the region to be etched during RIE (reactive ion etching) for making the trench and the quantity of the etching products changes with the area of the region to be etched.
If the tapered angle of the trench wide wall becomes steeper, then the leak path extending from the device region 16 along the side surface 12a and the bottom surface 12b of the trench to the p-well 13 (creepage distance) becomes longer as shown in FIG. 11.
FIGS. 12A and 12B show results of an experiment in actual formation of devices. FIG. 1lA shows those of devices in which device regions are not opposed whereas FIG. 12B shows those of devices in which device regions are opposed. This result shows that, in devices where device regions are not opposed, the withstand voltage property decreases to an unusable level when the STI width reaches 0.2 xcexcm, but in devices where device regions are opposed, they maintains a sufficient withstand voltage even under 0.2 xcexcm.
Thus, in LSI having a STI structure, the tapered angle of the trench side wall is steeper in case of a narrow space as compared with the case of an open space.
On the other hand, well isolation property in LSI depends on how effectively isolated are devices on the STI side surface, bottom surface and Si surface. Therefore, in miniaturization of LSI, integrated circuits designed and disposed in various modes have to be designed on the basis of a result of the open space, and this is a serious disadvantage in terms of miniaturization.
To improve the well isolation property, it is impurity concentration of the well may be increased, in general. However, although the isolation property is certainly improved, there arises another problem that the junction capacitance increases and adversely affects from the viewpoint of high-speed operation.
A semiconductor device according to an embodiment of the present invention comprises:
first and second wells opposite in conductivity type and adjacent to each other;
a well isolation structure in form of a shallow trench formed on the boundary of said first and second wells, said well isolation structure having a first width and a second width larger than the first isolation width;
a first device region provided in said first well; and
a second device region provided in said second well, wherein said first and second device regions are provided so as to be opposed at said first width of said well isolation structure and wherein said first and second device regions do not meet facing at said second width of said well isolation structure.
A method of manufacturing semiconductor device comprises:
forming a first well of a first conductivity and a second well of a second conductivity which is opposite to the first conductivity in a manner they are disposed adjacent to each other;
forming a well isolation structure in a form of a shallow trench on the boundary of said first and second wells, said well isolation structure having a first width and a second width which is larger than the first width;
forming a first device region in said first well; and
forming a second device region provided in said second well, wherein said first and second device regions are provided so as to be opposed at said first width of the well isolation structure and wherein said first and second device regions do not meet facing at the second width of said well isolation structure.


A modified trimmed mean filtering method and apparatus for a misfire detection includes acquiring a time-continuous series of acceleration data samples (601) representative of acceleration behavior of a reciprocating engine. And, providing a filtered acceleration data sample (607) dependent on an average acceleration magnitude of a portion of the acceleration data samples bounded within a range of amplitudes and, preferably, a time-centered acceleration data sample (606) of the fixed length time-continuous series of acceleration data samples. A misfire condition can be indicated (409) dependent on a magnitude of the filtered acceleration data sample.

Many contemporary engine controls have integral misfire detection systems. With ever-increasingly more stringent legislated emissions standards, the assurance of accurate and complete misfire detection under all engine and vehicular operating conditions is becoming mandatory.
Commonly, system designers rely on measurement of engine acceleration, dependent largely on engine torque produced (or not produced) during a combustion process to determine misfiring of a particular engine cylinder. Given the acceleration information, misfires are predicted by various signature analysis, and/or spectral analysis, methods.
As a practical matter, an engine's acceleration behavior is also affected by powertrain related behaviors other than firing torque. These other behaviors can significantly reduce fidelity or signal-noise ratio of the primarily firing torque related acceleration signal under analysis. Furthermore, under some engine operating conditions, the noise exceeds the primarily engine torque related acceleration signal under analysis. Moreover, the noise related behavior is not limited to engine operation only causes, but include behaviors related to the complete driveline. Some noise related behaviors that are detrimental include relatively low frequency, or firing rate, driveline resonance effects, or vibrations, excited at least partially by cylinder misfiring, torque converter lockup, low speed lugging behavior characteristic of a manual transmission, a change in transmission gears and rough road conditions. Each of these, and other sources of stimulus, excite the driveline to perturbate, or transiently oscillate, at its resonant frequency.
When the above-mentioned driveline behaviors manifest themselves, and the driveline oscillates, a significant measure of what amounts to noise, relative to the misfire induced behavior, is introduced into the acceleration measurement. This noise can largely swamp out any signatory behavior of a misfire event--particularly with a non-compliant mechanical coupling between the engine and its transmission.
FIG. 1 shows a first portion 101 of a noise-free waveform indicative of an acceleration signal derived from an engine's crankshaft due to a properly firing cylinder, firing in a sequence of several cylinders, and a second portion 103 of the waveform indicative of acceleration of an engine's crankshaft due to a misfiring cylinder later in the sequence of firing cylinders. At reference number 103 the engine's crankshaft grossly decels because proper firing did not occur. Given this observation of acceleration behavior, a magnitude comparison process can monitor the engine's acceleration behavior at a predetermined threshold 105 and indicate a misfiring condition if the acceleration signal transitions below the threshold 105.
FIG. 2 illustrates a behavior of an actual acceleration signal 201 derived from a running engine over about 150 cylinder combustion cycles. This acceleration signal 201 includes a repetitively induced misfire by periodically removing a spark signal from one cylinder. From FIG. 2 it can be seen that in a real-world application, the signal derived from a running engine is effected by causes other than combustion related torque as asserted earlier. For reference purposes, the reference markers associated with the horizontal axis 203 demarcate the repetitively induced occurrences of misfire. The waveform 201 is derived using an acceleration sensing device coupled to the engine's crankshaft. Because of crankshaft torsional vibrations, inertial torque due to reciprocating masses, driveline resonance effects, and other mechanically induced vibrations on the engine's crankshaft, the waveform shown in FIG. 2 has relatively poor fidelity. This makes detection of misfire by a simple threshold detection scheme substantially hopeless.
To address the driveline ringing effects some misfire determination schemes use running average filters and/or median filters to eliminate low frequency behavior--such as driveline vibration behavior in an acceleration signal. Median filter based schemes suffer from a fixed signal-noise ratio and separation factor for any given window size. The signal-noise ratio is defined as a ratio of the peak amplitude of the signal to the peak amplitude of the noise. The separation factor can be expressed as the ratio of the difference of mean normal and misfiring acceleration with respect to the sum of the standard deviations of normal firing and misfiring acceleration. Running average filters are somewhat adequate for smoothing random nonimpulsive perturbations in the incoming signal but tend to smear sharp monotonic edge transitions that occur due to driveline inputs, whereas median filters tend to preserve the sharp driveline edge transitions while rejecting impulsive inputs (e.g., misfire acceleration behavior) but are more influenced by nonimpulsive variations.
What is needed is an improved approach for misfire detection particularly one that is insensitive to adverse powertrain operating effects. In particular, an improved system needs to account for mechanically induced vibrations on the engine's crankshaft, and driveline perturbations over a wide range of engine operating conditions. The improved technique ideally would reject both impulsive and nonimpulsive acceleration behavior to allow the underlying driveline vibration signal to be extracted from the incoming acceleration signal with high fidelity. This improved technique also needs to improve acceleration signal fidelity by improving the acceleration signal's signal-noise ratio and separation factor in order to accurately detect misfire.

Modified trimmed mean filtering for misfire detection


Provided is a nonaqueous electrolyte secondary battery which, even in the case of using a low-viscosity solvent having a narrow potential window, can increase the electrochemical stability of the nonaqueous electrolyte solution and suppress side reactions of the nonaqueous electrolyte solution during charge and discharge to reduce the degradation of the battery characteristics and has an excellent storage characteristic in high-temperature environments and a nonaqueous electrolyte solution for the nonaqueous electrolyte secondary battery. The nonaqueous electrolyte secondary battery includes: a positive electrode containing a positive-electrode active material; a negative electrode containing a negative-electrode active material; and a nonaqueous electrolyte solution containing a solute dissolved in a nonaqueous solvent, wherein the nonaqueous electrolyte solution further contains benzotrifluoride and a diisocyanate compound and the content of benzotrifluoride is 5% by volume or more in the nonaqueous electrolyte solution except the solute.

Nonaqueous electrolyte secondary batteries for performing charge and discharge by using a nonaqueous electrolyte solution to transfer lithium ions between positive and negative electrodes are used as power sources for portable electronic devices, electric power storage, and others. In these nonaqueous electrolyte secondary batteries, graphite materials are widely used as the negative-electrode active material in the negative electrode.
Meanwhile, in recent years, size and weight reduction of mobile devices including cellular phones, notebook computers, and PDAs has rapidly progressed and the power consumption thereof has increased with increasing range of functions. Also for nonaqueous electrolyte secondary batteries used as power sources for the above mobile devices, there has been an increasing demand to reduce the weight and increase the capacity.
In order to increase the capacity of a nonaqueous electrolyte secondary battery, a technique is used in which a large amount of active material is packed into the battery to increase the packing density. In this case, however, the increase in packing density of the active material makes the electrolyte solution difficult to infiltrate into the entire region of the inside of the battery. Thus, the charge/discharge reaction will be nonuniform, which will easily cause local deterioration in the inside of the battery. Therefore, there is a need for an active material having a higher capacity than conventional materials. For the negative-electrode active material, a material having a higher capacity than graphite is being required.
For the above reason, studies have recently been conducted on the use of a material capable of alloying with lithium, such as silicon, germanium or tin, as the negative-electrode active material having a high capacity. With the use of such a material capable of alloying with lithium, the battery capacity can be increased but during alloying with lithium the volume of the negative-electrode active material is significantly increased by a charge reaction as compared with graphite materials and the like. At this time, the negative-electrode active material presses against the adjoining separator and positive-electrode active material layer, so that the electrolyte solution infiltrated in the inside of the electrode is squeezed out of the electrode assembly, resulting in decrease in the amount of electrolyte solution around the electrode. Thus, the charge/discharge reaction will be nonuniform, which will easily cause local deterioration in the inside of the battery.
In order to stabilize the battery characteristics, it is important to retain a state in which the electrolyte solution uniformly diffuses in the inside of the battery. Therefore, the electrolyte solution squeezed out of the electrode assembly needs to be infiltrated into the inside of the electrode assembly again. To this end, it is effective to reduce the viscosity of the electrolyte solution.
Generally, an electrolyte solution is composed of a solute and a solvent for dissolving the solute. Chain carbonates are used as common solvents and the content of chain carbonate in the electrolyte solution is relatively high. Therefore, if the viscosity of the chain carbonate is reduced, the viscosity of the electrolyte solution can also be reduced. For example, if diethyl carbonate commonly used is replaced with a chain carbonate having a small carbon number in the side chain, such as methyl ethyl carbonate or dimethyl carbonate, the viscosity can be reduced.
Alternatively, the use of a carboxylic acid ester or a ketone exhibiting a lower viscosity than chain carbonates can further reduce the viscosity of the electrolyte solution.
However, low-viscosity chain carbonates, carboxylic acid esters, and ketone shave relatively narrow potential windows owing to their small molecular weights and high reactivity. Thus, the nonaqueous electrolyte solution will be electrochemically unstable, will easily cause side reactions with the active material, and tends to degrade the battery characteristics. With the use of materials capable of alloying with lithium, such as silicon, as the negative-electrode active material, these materials easily react particularly with the electrolyte solution, which presents a problem in that the battery characteristics will be more significantly degraded.
In addition, when the battery is stored in a charged state in a high-temperature environment, the reaction of the above material with the electrolyte solution will be particularly significant and the attendant gassing and like present some problems, such as increase in thickness of the electrode.
Patent Literature 1 discloses that the addition of a small amount of fluorobenzene, cyclohexylbenzene or cyclohexylfluorobenzene to the electrolyte solution enables suppression of the reaction of the negative-electrode active material, such as silicon, with the nonaqueous electrolyte solution. However, there is a demand to further suppress the reaction with the electrolyte solution and further enhance the charge-discharge cycle characteristic.
The present invention employs a nonaqueous electrolyte solution containing benzotrifluoride and a diisocyanate compound as will be described later.
Patent Literature 2 discloses a nonaqueous electrolyte secondary battery in which an electrolyte solution containing a diisocyanate compound is used. However, the literature does not disclose any effect that would be caused if the diisocyanate compound were used together with benzotrifluoride.

Non-aqueous electrolyte secondary battery, and non-aqueous electrolyte solution for non-aqueous electrolyte secondary battery


The present invention relates to nucleotide sequences of Actinomycetales, in particular of mycobacteria, to oligonucleotides contained within said nucleotide sequences, to their uses as primers for the synthesis of Actinomycetales DNA and as probes for the detection of DNA and/or the transcription products of Actinomycetales, in particular of mycobacteria, to the products of expression of said sequences, to their uses and to antibodies directed towards the said products, to a method for detecting and identifying Actinomycetales and its uses, as well as to immunogenic compositions comprising the said expression products.

Tuberculosis and leprosy are known to be major public health problems. They are currently approximately 60.times.10.sup.6 individuals suffering from tuberculosis in the world (with an annual mortality of 3.times.10.sup.6), and approximately 15.times.10.sup.6 individuals suffering from leprosy. In France, approximately 10.sup.4 new cases of tuberculosis appear every year. Vaccination with BCG (Bacillus Calmette-Guerin, an attenuated strain of M. bovis) is far from effective in all populations. This efficacy varies approximately from 80% in Western countries such as England to 0% in India (results of the latest vaccination trial in Chingleput). The appearance of strains of M. tuberculosis resistant to the usual antituberculosis agents and the existence of mycobacterioses due to other, increasingly common mycobacteria such as M. avium, especially in patients with immunosuppression (AIDS in the largest number of cases), add to the urgency of developing a rapid method of detecting and identifying mycobacteria.
The diagnosis of tuberculosis and other related mycobacterioses is difficult to carry out; in effect the microorganisms responsible for these diseases are often present in small amounts, and when the amount of them is detectable by the methods conventionally used, the disease is already progressing and the patients are contagious to those around them. As a result of the very long generation time of these bacteria (24 h for M. tuberculosis compared with 20 min for E. coli) , culturing these organisms is difficult. Thus, it requires 6 to 8 weeks to identify the microorganisms, and longer to obtain an antibiogram usable for appropriate treatment of the patients. The need for a detection test not requiring culturing of the microorganisms, and directly usable with the pathological samples even when the microorganisms are present therein at low concentrations, is hence essential.
Several techniques are currently used in clinical practice for identifying a mycobacterial infection.
In the first place, direct detection of the microorganisms in the microscope should be mentioned; this technique is rapid, but does not permit identification of the mycobacterial species observed, and lacks sensitivity in as much as a large number of microorganisms have to be present in the sample (>10.sup.4 /ml) in order to permit reliable detection (BATES J., CHEST, 1979, 76, (suppl.), 757-763).
Cultures, when positive, have a specificity approaching 100%, and permit identification of the mycobacterial species isolated; nevertheless, as specified above, growth of mycobacteria in vitro can be achieved only in the space of 3 to 6 weeks, and when few mycobacteria are present at the site of infection, repeated culturing is necessary in order to ensure a positive result (BATES J., 1979 and BATES J. et al., Am. Rev. Respir. Dis., 1986, 134, 415-417).
Serological techniques can prove useful under some conditions, but their use is limited by their low sensitivity and/or their low specificity (DANIEL T. M. et al., Am. Rev. Respir. Dis., 1987, 135, 1137-1151).
The presence or absence of mycobacteria may also be determined by hybridisation with DNA or RNA using probes specific for DNA sequences (KIEHN T. E. et al., J. Clin. Microbiol., 1987, 25, 1551-1552; ROBERTS M. C. et al., J. Clin. Microbiol., 1987, 25, 1239-1243; DRAKE T. A. et al., J. Clin. Microbiol., 1987, 25, 1442-1445). However, these methods also require culturing of the microorganisms.
Some DNA sequences of various mycobacteria, and in particular some genes coding for mycobacterial antigens have been described. There may be mentioned, in particular, PCT International Application WO 88/00,974, whose inventor is YOUNG R. and the content of which is recapitulated in a paper published in Nature, 1985, 316, 450; these publications describe the genes coding for five immunodominant antigens of M. leprae and, in particular, the gene coding for the 65-kD antigen has been sequenced. There may also be mentioned PCT International Application WO 88/05,823, whose co-inventors are HUSSON R., YOUNG R. and SHINNICK T. and the content of which is recapitulated in the paper published in J. Bact., 1987, 169, 1080-1088 and which describes the genes of M. tuberculosis coding for protein antigens, and in particular for the 65-kD antigen. This International Application specifies, in particular, that the genes of M. tuberculosis coding for five immunologically active proteins were isolated by systematic screening of a recombinant DNA library expressed in a bacteriophage lambda gt11, with a collection of monoclonal antibodies directed towards the protein antigens of this bacterium. One of the antigens of M. tuberculosis, a 65-kD protein possesses determinants commonn to M. tuberculosis and M. leprae.
PCT International Application WO 88/06,591, a co-inventor of which is, in particular, T. SHINNICK, describes a recombinant protein of 540 amino acids (65-kD protein) and also the DNA sequence and the vectors for the expression of the said protein, as well as the uses of the said recombinant protein. This Application also describes peptides corresponding to sequences of this protein and their uses.
Genes coding for proteins of other mycobacteria (M. africanum, M. smegmatis, M. bovis BCG and M. avium) have also been isolated. There may be mentioned, in particular, THOLE et al. (Infect. Immunol., 1987, 55, 1466-1475), who have described a 64-kD protein of M. bovis BCG expressed in E. coli.
However, the amounts of mycobacterial DNA present in most biological samples are insufficient to give a positive signal; this technique has hence proved unsuitable for the identification of mycobacterial DNA extracted directly from biological samples.
A number of studies have also shown some degree of structural homology between the different mycobacteria. However, differences in the DNA sequence of M. tuberculosis and M. bovis have been described in the 3' region of the open reading frame of the 65-kD antigen (SHINNICK et al., 1987, THOLE et al., 1987), but a homologous region has not been observed in the DNA of M. leprae (MEHRA et al., Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. U.S.A., 1986, 83, 7013-7017, also PCT 88/000,974).
There are also publications which describe vaccines against mycobacteria, produced by genetic engineering; there may be mentioned, in particular, PCT International Application WO 88/02,027, which describes recombinant poxviruses capable of expressing mycobacterial antigens and which enable a protective immunological response to mycobacteria to be obtained.
The various detection methods of the prior art do not permit, on the one hand the detection and rapid identification of an Actinomycetales infection directly from a biological sample, and on the other hand the specific identification of groups, species or strains, which may even be present in small amounts.
The additional references which follow also constitute the state of the art prior to the present invention.
BAESS I., Acta Path. Microbiol. Scand., 1979, 87, 221-226; BEAUCAGE S. L. et al., Tetrahedron Lett., 1981, 22, 1859-1862; EISENACH K. D. et al., Am. Rev. Respir. Dis., 1986, 133, 1065-1068; GHEORGHIU M. et al., J. Biol. Standardization, 1988, 16, 15-26; GLASSROTH J. et al., N. Engl. J. Med., 1980, 302, 1441-1450; HAWKINS C. C. et al., Ann. Intern. Med., 1985, 105, 184-188; IMAEDA T., Int. J. Systematic Bacteriol., 1985, 35, 147-150; IMAEDA T. et al., Int. J. Systematic Bacteriol., 1988, 38, 151-156; KOGAN S. C. et al., N. Engl. J. Med., 1987, 317, 985-990; LI H. et al., Nature (Lond.), 1988, 335, 414-417; LU M. C. et al., Infect. Immun., 1987, 55, 2378-2382; MANIATIS T. et al., 1982, Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y.; McFADDEN J. J. et al., Mol. Microbiol., 1987, 1, 283-291; PAO C. C. et al., Tubercle, 1988, 69, 27-36; PATEL R., J. Gen. Microbiol., 1986, 132, 541-551; SAIKI R. K. et al., Science, 1988, 239, 487-491; SANGER F. et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A., 1977, 74, 5463-5467; SMIDA J. et al., Int. J. Leprosy, 1988, 56, 449-454; THEIN S. L. et al., in Human Genetic Diseases, 1986, IRL Press, 33-50; THOLE J. E. R. et al., Infect. Immun., 1985, 50, 800-806; WATSON E. A., Canad. J. Pub. Health, 1935, 26, 268-275; WOLINSKY E., Am. Rev. Respir. Dis, 1979, 119, 107-159.

Peptides encoded by nuclease sequences of actinomycetales and application as immunogenic compositions

Institut National de la Sante et de la Recherche Mediale-Inserm & Institute Pasteur


An information handling system may include at least one processor, a memory, and an embedded controller (EC). The information handling system may be configured to, prior to initialization of an operating system of the information handling system: execute memory reference code configured to test selected regions of the memory; transmit results of the memory reference code to the EC; store, at the EC, information indicative of respective likelihoods that particular regions of the memory are bad; and upon a subsequent boot, select a region of the memory having a low likelihood of being bad for loading a Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) of the information handling system.

As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
Typically, a pre-boot environment of an information handling system may load its code into a memory region at a predefined, fixed memory address. Further, the pre-boot environment typically always allocates stack and/or heap memory regions at the same memory locations. Any memory failures in any of these RAM regions will typically result in no-POST boot failures.
For purposes of this disclosure, the term "pre-boot environment" may refer generally to platforms such as a Basic Input/Output System (BIOS), a Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI), etc.
The memory initialization that takes place upon boot is dependent on the memory reference code (MRC) of the pre-boot environment. MRC refers generally to code that executes in the pre-boot environment to initialize the system RAM, adjust memory timings, etc.
Currently, the MRC itself may fail if there is a bad memory module (e.g., DIMM), resulting in a no-POST system hang (e.g., with a blinking error light indicating that a memory issue was detected). Because of severe constraints in the early pre-boot code running out of the processor's "cache as RAM" model, it is currently hard to make any optimizations to the MRC to avoid training on a bad memory region, or to avoid training on bad memory modules altogether.
When dealing with very early MRC code and the BIOS loading (shadowing) into its memory regions (e.g., after MRC has completed), there is a need for enhanced processing to improve memory error handling.
It should be noted that the discussion of a technique in the Background section of this disclosure does not constitute an admission of prior-art status. No such admissions are made herein, unless clearly and unambiguously identified as such.

Linking embedded controller with memory reference code and system bios shadowing


A refrigerator may include an air duct cover plate, a closed air cavity, an evaporator, and an air guiding rib. The air duct cover plate and a liner of the refrigerator enclose the closed air cavity. The evaporator is disposed on an outer surface of the liner. The air guiding rib is disposed in the closed air cavity. The air guiding rib divides the closed air cavity into an air intake region, a first supply region, and a second supply region that are sequentially in fluid communication. The first supply region is located above the air intake region and includes an upper air outlet. The second supply region is located below the first supply region and is separated from the air intake region by the air guiding rib. A lower air outlet is disposed in the second supply region.

At present, with a widespread application of air-cooled refrigerators, the air-cooled refrigerators are increasingly favored by consumers. A refrigeration principle of the air-cooled refrigerators is to use circulating air to perform refrigeration. When air with a high temperature flows through a built-in evaporator, the air directly exchanges heat with the evaporator, and the temperature of the air is lowered. Cold air formed after the heat exchange is blown into the air-cooled refrigerator, thereby a temperature of the air-cooled refrigerator is reduced. How to improve a refrigeration effect of the air-cooled refrigerators has become a focus of research and development of the air-cooled refrigerators.

Hisense Ronshen (Guangdong) Refrigerator Co., Ltd.


In at least one embodiment of the wavelength-tunable light source, it comprises an output source, which is capable in operation of generating electromagnetic radiation. Furthermore, the light source has a wavelength-selective first filter element, which is situated downstream from the output source. Moreover, the light source contains a first amplifier medium, which is situated downstream from the first filter element and is capable of at least partial amplification of the radiation emitted by the output source. The light source further comprises at least one wavelength-selective second filter element, which is situated downstream from the first amplifier medium, the second filter element having an optical spacing to the first filter element. The first filter element and the at least one second filter element are tunable via a control unit, which the light source has.

Spectrally narrowband, wavelength-tunable light sources are used, for example, in medicine, in particular in optical coherence tomography. Two-dimensional or three-dimensional images, for example, of human tissue, may be generated via optical coherence tomography. An important aspect of such images is the achievable resolution, i.e., inter alia, the number of pixels which result in an image. The quality of an image and its diagnostic usability are decisively influenced in this way, for example. In addition to a high detail reproduction, the period of time which is required for the generation of an image is also significant. In order to reduce the strain on a patient, for example, the period of time required for generating an image is to be reduced as much as possible. The combined requirements of high resolution and low duration mean that a high data rate is to be made possible. This places high requirements in particular on a light source usable for a tomographic method.
One possibility for implementing a narrowband, tunable light source comprises subsequently filtering a spectrally broadband radiation which is emitted by an incandescent lamp or arc lamp, for example. However, high radiation power is not achievable after the passage through the filter through this method. If the light source has a bandwidth of 100 nm and the filter has a bandwidth of 0.1 nm, for example, the loss due to the filter is approximately 99.9%, corresponding to an attenuation by a factor of 1000.
A tunable laser forms a further possibility for implementing a tunable light source. The laser has a laser medium, a resonator, and a tunable optical filter for this purpose. The laser medium can perform broadband spectral amplification. The tunable filter is situated in the resonator. Thus, only light which passes the optical filter and reaches the amplifier medium is amplified by the amplifier medium. Because a laser is based on amplification of the spontaneous emission, the radiation emitted by the amplifier medium is fed back in respect to the radiation reaching the amplifier medium. The tuning speed of the filter is a function, in addition to other factors, of the length of the resonator in particular. The greater the length of the resonator, the lower the achievable tuning speed. A reduction of the resonator length can cause increased intensity noise of the laser, however, and result in a greater frequency spacing of the modes of the laser. The maximum measuring range can be limited in applications of optical coherence tomography, abbreviated as OCT, in this way.
Another possibility for implementing a tunable light source comprises a Fourier domain mode-locked laser, abbreviated as FDML laser. Such a laser has an amplifier medium and at least one tunable filter in a resonator having a great length. The tuning speed of the filter is adapted to the length of the resonator for this purpose. In other words, the filter is transmitting again at a specific wavelength after a time which the light of this wavelength requires to pass through the resonator once. Because of this functional principle and the high speed of light, typical FDML lasers have resonator lengths in the range of multiple hundreds of meters up to several kilometers. Limitations of such an FDML laser in regard to compactness and accessible wavelength range result therefrom.
A method and an apparatus for optical coherence tomography using swept-frequency light sources are disclosed in the publication US 2008/0165366 A1.


A blood purification apparatus in which the pressure in a circuit is measured by directly measuring the strain of an air trap by a strain sensor without providing a pressure measuring section in the circuit.

In the related art, in blood purification therapy, measurement of the arterial pressure (also referred to as the filter inlet pressure) and the venous pressure during extracorporeal circulation is carried out with a pressure monitor line provided on an air trap chamber in an extracorporeal circuit connected to respective pressure sensors. In this method, the pressure is measured via air, and hence adjustment of a liquid level in the chamber is required when priming is completed or during the treatment in order to provide an air space. The adjustment of the liquid level is carried out by pushing and pulling a syringe, which is connected to a distal end of a liquid level adjustment line provided separately in the air trap chamber. However, this procedure requires a certain level of skill, and if the procedure is conducted improperly, blood may jet out and come into contact with a human body or a pressure sensor protecting filter, whereby a high risk of infection results.
Therefore, various blood pressure measurement devices including a pipe and at least one section for measuring the pressure of blood flowing in the pipe are proposed. These devices include a substantially hard wall and a hole sealed by a closing member which can be resiliently deformed or displaced, and the inner surface of the pipe comes into contact with blood and the outer surface thereof comes into contact with the outside air so that a force exerted on the closing member can be measured by a load sensor. For example, such blood pressure measurement devices include (1) a device in which an air compartment is provided between a thin film (or diaphragm) and a load sensor so as to measure directly the internal pressure in the air compartment which varies with displacement of the thin film, (2) a device in which a force exerted on the inner surface of a flexible thin film, which is provided for sealing a hole provided on a wall of the compartment, is transmitted to a load sensor via a load transmitter, to be measured, (3) the device in (2), in which a metallic disk is mounted to the outer surface of the flexible thin film, and a magnet is attached to the end of the shaft of a load transmitter, so that the flexible thin film is fixed to the load transmitter, and (4) a device in which a closing member is formed in a single member which includes a hard wall of a blood pressure measurement section. See JP-A-2002-233570 (FIG. 1, FIG. 2, FIG. 3, and FIG. 6).
However, the device in (1) described above has a drawback such that the seal of the air compartment may be broken during use, and when the seal is broken, the pressure transmitting function may be lost. The devices in (2) to (3) described above have a drawback in that the hole on the wall must be sealed completely with the thin film, and hence mounting of the thin film onto the wall of the compartment is relatively complicated, whereby manufacture and assembly of the devices are difficult. The device shown in (4) also has a drawback in that the section which can be resiliently deformed is formed to have a waveform outer shape, whereby manufacture and assembly of the device are also difficult. All of the devices (1) to (4) described above include an inner wall of a pressure measuring section, which is larger than the inner wall of a liquid circulation circuit, and whose shape is square in cross-section. Therefore, when it is applied to a blood circulation circuit, eddy flow occurs in blood flowing into the pressure measuring section, and hence there is a risk that plaque formation may result.


A signal transmission apparatus comprises a base and a shell, wherein a top portion of the base has a signal transmission device. The shell is covered above the base. A cavity is formed inside the shell. The cavity is in communication with an opening of a bottom portion of the shell. And the shell comprises a ceramic shell body and an inner covering layer. The inner covering layer is fully attached to an inner surface of the ceramic shell body. Therefore, the signals of the signal transmission device can pass through the shell so that the signal transmission device can receive or transmit signals. And through the strong adhesion of the inner covering layer, the ceramic shell body can be kept intact without being broken into a lot of debris when the ceramic shell body is impacted by external force or suddenly dropped.

Currently a shell of the signal transmission apparatus common in the market, such as a transceiver, is mostly one-piece manufactured with plastic or metal materials for being sleeved on an outer surface of a signal transmission device to achieve the protection function. For signal transmission apparatus, such as a speaker, its box is made of the materials such as plastic, metal, wood, or ceramic, and then the speaker is embedded in the box to use the resonance effect of the box. However, a box made of ceramic for the speaker is rare. The main reason is that the ceramic manufacturing processes are complicated. The ceramic will be in a semi-melted state during the firing process under the temperature higher than 1000 degrees. During the shaping process, it is easy to cause the box to have unstable tolerances and cause extremely high scrap rate due to uncontrollable variables such as deformation, unstable shrinkage, and uneven surface.

Shell and signal transmission apparatus using the shell


A frequency-modulated converter with a series-parallel resonance, particularly for driving any ohmic or inductive load, including gas discharge tubes, wherein a commutating voltage switch in the form of a transistor is provided and is connected in series between a negative electrode of a direct current voltage source and a first terminal of an inductor, and a pulse generator circuit is provided between the voltage source and the transistor""s control electrode and the inductor""s second terminal is connected to the primary winding of a transformer.

The invention concerns a frequency modulated converter with a series-parallel resonance, particularly for driving any ohmic or inductive load, including gas discharge tubes, wherein a commutating voltage switch in the form of a transistor is provided in is connected in series between the negative electrode of a direct current voltage source and a first terminal of an inductor, wherein a pulse generator circuit is provided between the voltage source and a control electrode of the transistor and wherein a second terminal of the inductor is connected to the primary winding of a transformer.
The invention further comprises a first capacitor and a rectifier diode provided in a first and second parallel branch respectively between the charge emitting and the charge receiving electrode of the transistor, and a second capacitor is provided across the electrodes of the voltage source and additionally provides a smoothing capacitance for the voltage source, the second capacitor being connected in series with the inductor via the diode.
The later years have seen a dramatic reduction in the physical dimensions of power converters, something which has been achieved by increasing the operating frequencies. Common quasi-square pulse converters now approach an operating range whose upper limit lies about 0.5 MHz. This allows a significant reduction in the size of the most important passive power components such as the magnetic components and the capacitors, compared to for instance with switches for 20 kHz. However, these converters, being for the greater part pulse width modulated converters, have high switching losses in the power semiconductors, something which leads to reduced efficency and hence a need for more cooling, which decreases the possibilities of a reduction in the physical dimensions of the converters.
In order to increase the capability of power converters to handle overloads or large load varations, for instance when used as power supplies for gas discharge tubes, there has been proposed to monitor or avoid saturation of the switching transistors by special circuit arrangements, as will be evident from for instance PCT application NO No. WO 90/01248 and GB-PS-No. 1 378 465.
A more effective way of converting power at increasingly higher frequencies is based on the so-called xe2x80x9czero current switchingxe2x80x9d wherein a sinusoidal voltage which may be generated by a LC-resonant tank connected either in parallel or series, is used. Such converters are called xe2x80x9cresonant convertersxe2x80x9d. The advantage of using a sine voltage is that losses in the power semiconductors are dramatically reduced, as the switching generally takes place at the zero crossing. The disadvantage of resonant converters is that at a given power level the peak current is many times greater than that of a pulse width modulated converter. By using semiconductors with lower resistance in conduction it is however possible to increase the operating frequencies to above 1 MHz. Thus power densities well beyond 1 W/cm3 may be attained.
For use in such converters there is now known a frequency modulated control in the form of an integrated circuit which may be used in the range beyond 1 MHz, with the designation LD 405, obtainable from Gennum Corporation, Burlington, Ontario, Canada. The use of this control circuit in a frequency modulated converter is described in a LD 405 application note from Gennum Corporation with the title xe2x80x9cUsing LD 405 in a 125 W resonant mode power supplyxe2x80x9d. To this end the same corporation has introduced a resonant circuit of which the embodiment in principle is shown in the appended FIG. 1. The circuit comprises an inductance L, a capacitance C, a resistance R and a load RL. Before the inductance L a commutating switch S, for instance in the form of a transistor, has been provided its purpose is to supply direct current from a source V to a series resonant tank LC. The resistance of the load RL drains current from the tank. As soon as the resonant process has been terminated, the switch S opens and the power conversion from the source S to the load RL is interrupted. After a given period of Lime time the switch S again closes and the process is repeated. The commutation frequency may be changed such that the average power dissipated in the load RL is changed.
In a practical embodiment a resonant converter of this type works with two commutating switches each of which handles a respective half-cycle of the resonant period. The switches are based on MOS field effect transistors which themselves are driven by a respective MOSFET stage. The output stage of the shown embodiment is based on Schottky rectifier diodes.
However, with this prior art embodiment of the resonant converter it is difficult wholly to avoid harmonics in the resonant voltage and it is also difficult to symmetrisize the half-cycles such that they get the same energy content. Finally there will still be substantial losses in the power switches and the Schottky output diodes. Beyond this RC networks have been provided across the power switches in order to dampen voltage transients and these damping circuits lead to additional losses. Hence the efficiency is reduced by at least 25% and even if an output stage without rectifying diodes is used, the loss will be around 16%.
Generally it can be said of converters as discussed above and prior art devices of the same type that the capacitor is connected in direct parallel with the inductor and the switch in series with the voltage supply. In addition the load will steal energy from the resonant circuit which also may be made as a transformer. These prior art devices are generally difficult to compute and realize due to the limitation in the energy content of the resonance. If too much energy is drained from the LC circuit, the frequency changes and it is necessary with complicated electronic control means in order to control the switching of the commutating switches such that the resonant state of the circuit is maintained. If overload arises in such circuits, the switching current of the transistor increases uncontrollably and if the transistors are disconnected, this may lead to transients which incur irrepearable irreparable damage to the converter. The problem is that the control means which is to protect the transistor, does not work in real time and hence the transistor, i.e. the switch, is exposed to non-normal loads. As already mentioned the substantial losses are still present, such that the efficiency of the converter does not attain more than about 84% without the use of a rectified output.
Finally U.S. Pat. No. 4,613,769 discloses a transistor oscillator circuit wherein a capacitor is connected in parallel over the terminals of a secondary winding in a transformer, the latter operating in parallel sine wave resonance with the capacitor as a first wave-shaping means at a given frequency. A second wave-shaping means consists of another capacitor connected in parallel over the collector and emitter electrodes of the transistor oscillator and operates in series resonance with an inductor, at twice the given frequency.
The object of the present invention is to provide a resonant circuit without the above-mentioned and other disadvantages. This is achieved according to the invention in that the first capacitor and the inductor together form a series resonance circuit, the relationship between the inductor voltage UL and the capacitance of the first capacitor determining the series resonance frequency of a first half-cycle, that the second capacitor and the diode together form a parallel resonance circuit, the inductor voltage UL and the capacitance of a second capacitor determining the parallel resonance frequency of a second half-cycle, that the transistor is in a high ohmic state during both the series and parallel resonance mode, that the diode acting as an impedance selector between the capacitors to maintain the correct current flow in the transformer and the load is conducting in the parallel resonance mode, charging the capacitor above the voltage source level, before the transistor is switched into a low ohmic state and completes that parallel resonance mode and then initiates another series-parallel resonance when switched into the high ohmic state, each half-cycle of the resonant period being kept in time of the switching of the transistor into the high ohmic state, the transformer, the inductor and the capacitors thus constituting an RCL resonator operating in series-parallel to the transistor, the quality factor of the resonant being determined by the relationship between the inductor voltage UL and the capacitor impedances ZC1 and ZC2 respectively and the supply voltage UL, and that the load is connected between the terminals of a first secondary winding in the transformer, such that the load is connected in series with the inductor consuming energy in each half cycle of the resonance period from both the inductor and the direct voltage source, the transistor thus operating as a commutating voltage switch in series with the voltage source in the first half-cycle and in parallel with the voltage source in the second half-cycle, all the time carrying a fraction of the total energy consumed by the load.
To these ends, the present invention also consists of a frequency-modulated converter with series-parallel resonance, particularly for driving any ohmic or inductive load (RG), including gas discharge tubes, wherein a commutating voltage switch (Q) in the form of a transistor is connected in series between the negative electrode of a direct voltage source and a first terminal of an inductor (L,P), wherein a pulse generator circuit is provided between the voltage source and a control electrode of the transistor (Q) with a transformer (T), and further comprises: a first capacitor (C1) and a rectifier diode (D2) provided in a first and second parallel branch respectively between the charge emitting and the charge receiving electrode of the transistor (Q); a second capacitor (C3) provided across the electrodes of the voltage source, the second capacitor (C3) being connected in series with the inductor (L) via the diode (D2); the first capacitor (C1) and the inductor (L) together forming a series resonance circuit, the relationship between the inductor voltage UL and the capacitance of the first capacitor (C3) determining the series resonance frequency of a first half-cycle; the second capacitor (C3) and the inductor L together forming a parallel resonance circuit, the relationship between inductor voltage UL and the capacitance of the second capacitor (C3) determining the parallel resonance frequency of a second half-cycle, the capacitor (C3) having a capacitance which is several times greater than that of the capacitor (C1), that the transistor (Q) is in a high ohmic state during both the series and parallel resonance mode; the diode (D2) acting as an impedance selector between the capacitors (C1, C3) to maintain the correct current flow in the transformer (T) and the load (RG) is conducting in the parallel resonance mode, charging the capacitor (C3) above the voltage source level, before the transistor (Q)is switched into a low ohmic state and completes the parallel resonance mode and then initiates another series-parallel resonance when switched into the high ohmic state, each half-cycle of the resonant period being kept in time by the switching of the transistor (Q) into the high ohmic state, the transformer (T), the inductor (L), and the capacitors (C1, C3) thus constituting an RCL resonator operating in series-parallel to the transistor (Q) voltage source, the quality factor of the resonator being determined by the relationship between the inductor voltage UL and the capacitor impedances ZC1 and ZC3 respectively and the supply voltage U, and the load (RG) being connected between the terminals of a first secondary winding (S1) in the transformer (T), such that the load (RG) is connected in series with the inductor (L,P) consuming energy in each half-cycle of the resonance period from both the conductor and the direct voltage source, the transistor (Q) thus operating as a commutating voltage switch in series with the voltage source in the first half-cycle and in parallel with the voltage source in the second half-cycle, all the time carrying a fraction of the total energy consumed by the load (RG). Further features and advantages are evident from the appended dependent claims.
The invention shall now be discussed in greater detail below with reference to the appended drawing.

Frequency-modulated converter with a series-parallel resonance

Abstract: A first capacitor and rectifier diode are also provided in a first and second parallel branch respectively between the transistor""s charge receiving and charge emitting electrodes, and a second capacitor is provided across the voltage source""s electrodes, and a smoothing capacitance is provided for the voltage source, the second capacitor being connected in series with the inductor via the diode.


Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a method, a RAN node, and UE for selecting a service network, and a management device. The method includes: determining a service requirement list of the UE, where the service requirement list includes at least one service required by the UE; determining a service capability list set including a service capability list of at least one service network, where the service capability list includes an identifier of a service network corresponding to the service capability list and includes at least one service supported by the service network; and determining, according to the service requirement list and the service capability list set, a first identifier of a first service network that provides a service for the UE, where a service capability list of the first service network includes all or part of the at least one service in the service requirement list present disclosure.

Currently, in an evolved packet core (EPC), when a dedicated core (DÉCOR) network dynamically changes, for example, when a DÉCOR is out of service, user equipment (UE) corresponding to the DÉCOR needs to be migrated to another DÉCOR, that is, a corresponding DÉCOR is reselected for the UE.
In an existing DÉCOR network selection technology, a corresponding DÉCOR is mainly selected for the UE based on a relocation idea. Specific steps of the network selection technology are as follows.
(1). When the DÉCOR dynamically changes, for example, a network generates a new DÉCOR, or a DÉCOR is out of service, a home subscriber server (HSS) initiates a subscription data procedure, to update UE subscription data that is stored on a mobility management entity (MME), and the MME sends an acknowledgement message to the HSS.
(2). If the UE is in an idle state, the MME needs to initiate a paging procedure, and restore a channel between the MME and the UE.
(3). If the UE is in a connected state, the MME initiates a globally unique temporary UE identity (GUTI) relocation procedure and releases a radio resource, so that the UE initiates a tracking area update (TAU) request procedure.
(4). When the UE initiates the TAU request procedure to access an original DÉCOR, because the UE subscription data has been updated, it is determined that the original DÉCOR is unsuitable for continuing to provide a service for the UE, the original DÉCOR finds, according to the updated subscription data, a new DÉCOR that is suitable for the UE, and then the original DÉCOR initiates a re-guidance procedure, to instruct the RAN node to resend a request of the UE to the new DÉCOR.
(5). The new DÉCOR accepts an access request of the UE, and provides a service for the UE, so that a migration process of the UE is implemented.
The service network selection technology has the following problems: When UE that needs to be migrated performs a TAU redirection procedure and a re-guidance procedure to migrate the UE that is registered on the original DÉCOR to the new DÉCOR, a signaling storm is easily caused; in addition, to migrate the UE to another DÉCOR, the HSS needs to initiate a subscription data update procedure, to update subscription data of all UEs that are currently registered on the DÉCOR. For the HSS, signaling load is excessively heavy.

Method and network device for selecting service network, and management device


An electrophoretic particle includes a particle and a coating layer, in which the coating layer includes at least one of dispersibility and chargeability, and includes a polymer that connects to the particle, where the polymer includes a first functional group and is connected to the particle via a connected body, the connected body has a molecular weight of 500 or less and includes a second functional group and a third functional group, and the particle, the connected body and the polymer are connected via the chemical bond formed by reacting the first and second functional groups and the chemical bond formed by reacting the hydroxyl group and the third functional group.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an electrophoretic particle, a method of manufacturing an electrophoretic particle, an electrophoresis dispersion liquid, an electrophoresis sheet, an electrophoresis device, and an electronic apparatus.
2. Related Art
Generally, it is known that when a dispersion system in which fine particles are dispersed in a liquid is acted on by an electrical field, the fine particles are moved (migrate) in the liquid due to Coulomb force. This phenomenon is known as electrophoresis, and in recent years, electrophoresis display devices in which desired information (images) is displayed using electrophoresis have garnered attention as new display devices.
The electrophoresis display device has display memory properties in a state in which application of a voltage is stopped and wide viewing angle properties, and is capable of high contrast display with low power consumption.
Since electrophoresis display devices are non-light emitting display devices, electrophoresis display devices are better for the eyes compared to a light-emitting display device such as a cathode ray tube.
Such an electrophoresis display device provided with a dispersion in which the electrophoretic particles are dispersed in a solvent as an electrophoresis dispersion liquid arranged between a pair of substrates having electrodes is known (for example, refer to JP-T-2003-526817).
In the electrophoresis dispersion liquid of this configuration, electrophoretic particles including particles with positive chargeability and particles with negative chargeability are used, and, in so doing, it is possible for desired information (image) to be displayed by applying a voltage between the pair of substrates (electrodes).
Here, particles provided with a coating layer in which a polymer is connected to a base material particle are used as the electrophoretic particles, and the electrophoretic particles can be dispersed and charged in the electrophoresis dispersion liquid by configuring the electrophoretic particles to be provided with such a coating layer (polymer).
The electrophoretic particles with such a configuration use a base material particle having a hydroxyl group and a polymer silane coupling agent, and are structured as follows.
That is, 1. first, the base material particles and the polymer silane coupling agent are prepared, 2. then, by the mixing the base material particles and the polymer silane coupling agent in a solvent and heating the mixed resultant, the polymer silane coupling agent is connected to the base material particles, through dehydration condensation of the hydroxyl group included in the base material particles and the alkoxysilyl group included in the polymer silane coupling agent, thereby manufacturing the electrophoretic particles.
In this case, the polymer silane coupling agent is connected to the base material particles by the dehydration condensation reaction between the hydroxyl group included in the base material particles and the alkoxysilyl group included in the polymer silane coupling agent being initiated due to the hydroxyl group and the alkoxysilyl group coming in contact, and the chemical bond being formed therebetween.
However, the polymer silane coupling agent is a polymer, therefore, the molecular chain is long, and it may be difficult for the hydroxyl group and the alkoxysilyl group to be brought into contact caused by the steric hindrance thereof, and as a result, a problem where the addition amount of the polymer silane coupling agent to the base material particles is not sufficiently reliable. Therefore, a problem arises where the dispersibility of the particles in the particle dispersion liquid after silane coupling may not be reliable, and aggregation occurs between the particles.
In the coating layer that includes the polymer silane coupling agent, because the polymer silane coupling agent is included due to entanglement of the polymer silane coupling agent to each other without forming a chemical bond between the base material particle and the polymer silane coupling agent, the polymer silane coupling agent for which a chemical bond in not formed comes off from the surface of the base material particles in heat resistance tests. Thus, since the polymer silane coupling agent comes off from the base material particles, in a state where it is difficult to ensure the addition amount of the polymeric silane coupling agent to the base material particles is sufficient, a problem arises of aggregation between the particles more significantly.

Electrophoretic particle, method of manufacturing electrophoretic particle, electrophoresis dispersion liquid, electrophoresis sheet, electrophoresis device, and electronic apparatus