A method of inspecting for overlay shift defects during semiconductor manufacturing is disclosed. The method can include the steps of providing a charged particle microscopic image of a sample, identifying an inspection pattern period in the charged particle microscopic image, averaging the charged particle microscopic image by using the inspection pattern period to form an averaged inspection pattern period, estimating an average width from the averaged inspection pattern period, and comparing the average width with a predefined threshold value to determine the presence of an overlay shift defect.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to a method of inspecting for overly shift defects during semiconductor manufacture and apparatus thereof, and more particularly, is related to a method of inspecting for overlay shift between contact/via plugs and metal lines in a semiconductor device using charged particle beam imaging.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Overlay shift is a common defect which occurs during the manufacture of semiconductor devices (such as integrated circuits). One of the major causes of the overlay shift defect stems from misalignment of photolithography masks, which are used for forming two successive layers within a semiconductor device. FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view showing an overlay shift defect in a semiconductor device. As shown in FIG. 1, overlay shift defects can happen in various layers of a semiconductor device, for example, at the location between a contact plug 104 and a first layer metal line 102, or the location between a via plug 108 and a second layer metal line 106. Because of overlay shifting, the formed metal lines can fail to be aligned with the underlying contact/via plugs after etching. This can result in a high contact resistance between the elements. Such resistance can cause malfunction of the entire device; for example, a disconnected source/drain contact plug with the corresponding bit line can obstruct the operation of a DRAM device.
Another issue brought about by this type of defect is the manufacturing cost. As a semiconductor device is generally fabricated in a layer-by-layer fashion with one layer on top of another, a defective plug-to-contact layer should be reported immediately to enable stoppage of the process so that further waste can be avoided.
Currently, the inspection for defects on a semiconductor sample is mostly carried out through charged particle beam imaging of the sample. FIG. 2 is a schematic illustration of a typical charged particle beam microscope system 200 according to the conventional art. A charged particle beam source 210 generates a charged particle beam, and then the charged particle beam is condensed and focused by a condenser lens module 220 and an objective lens module 230, respectively, to form a charged particle beam probe 240. The formed charged particle beam probe 240 then bombards the surface of a sample 295 secured on a stage 290. Charged particle beam probe 240 is controlled by a deflection module 250 to scan the surface of sample 295. After charged particle beam probe 240 bombards the surface of sample 295, secondary charged particles 260 are induced to emit from the sample surface along with other charged particles of beam probe 240 reflected by sample 295. These particles are then detected and collected by a detector module 270. Then, detector module 270 generates a detection signal 271 accordingly. An image forming module 280 coupled to detector module 270 then receives detection signal 271 and accordingly forms a charged particle microscopic image of sample 295. In one example, the charged particles are electrons.
The presence of an overlay shift defect, however, can be difficult to detect using existing charged particle beam inspection methods and tools. Currently, monitoring for this defect is typically implemented through human observation and interpretation of a top-down view charged particle microscopic image of the sample, with the result more or less arbitrary and the accuracy poor.
Therefore, it is desirable to have a method for reliably and timely (e.g., in-time) reporting the presence of overlay shift defects after formation of a metal line on top of a contact/via plug (typically by an etching process) in a semiconductor device for the purpose of manufacture process control.

Method for inspecting overlay shift defect during semiconductor manufacturing and apparatus thereof


Provided is an optical image transmitting system capable of producing signal light including plural image information and emitting the signal light, and in addition, receiving the signal light and selectively extracting target image information. An optical image transmitting system of the present invention includes an optical image transmitting apparatus (100) for producing plural optical image information beams (S1 to Sn) representing plural optical image information and including light beams of different frequencies, superimposing the plural optical image information beams (S1 to Sn) into signal light (S) and emitting the signal light (S) through free space or an optical waveguide such as an image fiber, and an optical image receiving apparatus (200) for receiving the emitted signal light (S) and selectively detecting the optical image information beams (S1 to Sn) based on the frequency difference.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical image transmitting system, an optical image transmitting apparatus, an optical image receiving apparatus, and an optical image transmitting method, which are used for transmitting/receiving an image (referred to as "optical image information") represented by spatial light intensity distribution. In particular, the invention relates to an optical image transmitting system, an optical image transmitting apparatus, an optical image receiving apparatus, and an optical image transmitting method, which are used for transmitting optical image information through free space or an optical waveguide like an image fiber.
2. Description of the Related Art
Nowadays, the Internet and other such information transmitting techniques are utilized everywhere in our daily life. Among those, an information transmitting technique employing an optical transmission medium such as an optical fiber or image fiber is expected to become further widespread because of its advantages such as a high transmission speed and a large transmission capacity. In particular, attentions are focused on future development of a transmission technique (also called "coherent optical transmission") based on light interference on account of its superiority in reception sensitivity etc.
The coherent optical transmission technique is based on the following optical heterodyne technique. First, signal light is emitted from the transmission side. The signal light is an optical signal including predetermined information, for example, image information. Meanwhile, reference light having a frequency (wavelength) slightly different from that of the signal light is produced on the reception side, and superimposed on the signal light by way of a beam splitter etc. to produce interference light. The interference light has a frequency corresponding to a frequency difference between the signal light and the reference light (called "beat frequency", for example). The interference light is detected by a photo detector like a photodiode, and analyzed to thereby derive the information in the signal light.
Provided that Ir and Is represent an intensity of the reference light and that of the signal light, respectively, and fif and Δθ represent frequency difference and phase difference between the reference light wave and the signal light wave, respectively, a heterodyne signal as expressed by the following expression is outputted from the photo detector (for example, see Yoshizawa and Seta "Optical Heterodyne Technology (revised edition)", New Technology Communications (2003), p. 2).
Expression (1)i(t)∝Ir+Is+2√{square root over (IrIs)} cos(2πfift+Δθ)  (1)
The third term of the right side of the expression (1) indicates an AC electrical signal and the frequency fif thereof is equivalent to the beat frequency caused from the interference between the reference light and the signal light. The frequency fif of an AC component of the heterodyne signal is the beat frequency. The first and second terms of the right side of the expression (1) indicate DC components of the heterodyne signal and correspond to a signal intensity of background light of interference light.
JP2002-009705 A (claims) discloses an example of conventional optical transmission techniques. The document discloses a high frequency signal transmission method including the steps of: combining an optical signal, a first local oscillation light, and a second local oscillation light having a frequency different from the first local oscillation light by a predetermined amount; selecting predetermined two of a plurality of frequency components obtained in the combining step; and combining the two selected frequency components, whereby a reception sensitivity to an optical signal is improved.
Considering the usability for a user, a transmitting system capable of transmitting information in a larger volume at a time will gain a large market share in the future. However, with such conventional optical transmission techniques, it is difficult to realize a transmitting system capable of transmitting an optical signal including plural types of information and, in addition, selectively extracting target information from the plural kinds of information on a reception side. In particular, a method of transmitting plural types of information as a single optical signal to extract and obtain target image information has been still out of the realm of possibility.

Optical image transmitting system, optical image transmitting apparatus, optical image receiving apparatus, and optical image transmitting method


An orthogonal gate extended drain MOSFET (EDMOS) structure provides a low gate-to-drain capacitance (CGD) and exhibits increased reliability. It has a gate electrode that is folded into the shallow trench isolation (STI) oxide region. Horizontal and vertical gate electrode segments provide gate control. It accommodates both high voltage devices and standard CMOS components on the same substrate. Reduced surface field (RESURF) technology is employed to optimize tradeoffs between high breakdown voltage and specific on-resistance. Device fabrication steps are compatible with standard CMOS flow and process modules can be added or removed from baseline CMOS technology.

Power metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs) are used in power electronic circuits as high frequency switches where they alternate between the on- and off-states. This enables the control of high load power with minimal dissipation in the device. While the power MOSFET is capable of switching at high speeds due to the absence of minority carrier transport, input capacitance limits its performance. In conventional LDMOS and EDMOS transistors, the input capacitance is relatively large due to the large gate area and the large overlap between gate and drain regions that serve as a field plate. Consequently, the upper cutoff frequency is usually limited by the charging and discharging of this input capacitance.
In addition to the gate-to-source capacitance (CGS), a significant gate-to-drain capacitance (CGD) must be included in the analysis due to the overlap of the gate electrode over the drift region.
The total input capacitance CISS is:CISS=CGS+CGD
If the input capacitance is relatively high, a relatively high gate current is needed to operate power MOSFETs. As a result, the gate switching loss will be significant, especially at switching frequencies beyond 1 MHz. This is not in reference to the gate circuit, it only considers the power loss within the device; a large CGD will result in a large switching loss. CGS is determined by the channel length, L and width, W required to achieve a certain on-resistance. It is optimized in embodiments of this application.
Furthermore, the frequency response limited by the RC charging time constant of the input gate circuit is given by:
      f    INPUT    =      1          2            π                                              C        ISS                          R        G
Devices with a small CGD will have low switching loss and high cut off frequency.
What is needed, therefore, is a device exhibiting a low CGD employing fabrication techniques compatible with standard CMOS processing.

High speed orthogonal gate EDMOS device and fabrication


A system includes an encoder configured to compress media objects using a compression loop that includes a residual decomposition component that decomposes a residual signal for a block of the media object being compressed into multiple sub-error signals. The encoder is further configured to enable different transformation and/or quantization processes to be specified to be applied to different ones of the sub-errors. A corresponding decoder is configured to apply inverse transformation/quantization processing to the sub-error signals, based on the transformation/quantization processes that were applied at the encoder. The decoder then re-creates a residual signal from the processed sub-error signals and uses the re-created residual signal to correct predicted values at the decoder.

Various devices, including but not limited to personal computer systems, desktop computer systems, laptop and notebook computers, tablet or pad devices, digital cameras, digital video recorders, and mobile phones or smart phones, may include software and/or hardware that implement a media processing method. For example, a device may include an apparatus (e.g., an integrated circuit (IC), such as a system-on-a-chip (SOC), or a subsystem of an IC), that may receive and process digital video input from one or more sources and output the processed video information, e.g. pictures/frames or regions of a picture/frame, according to one or more video processing methods. As another example, a software program may be implemented on a device that may receive and process digital video input from one or more sources and output processed video frames according to one or more video processing methods.
In some video processing methods, to perform the processing, each input video picture/frame is divided into rows and columns of blocks of pixels (e.g., 16×16 pixel blocks). Each block of an input video picture/frame may be processed separately, and when done the processed blocks are combined to form the output video frame. This may be referred to as a block processing method.
A block processing method may include multiple processing steps or operations that are applied sequentially to each block in a video picture/frame.

Media object compression/decompression with adaptive processing for block-level sub-errors and/or decomposed block-level sub-errors


A method of augmenting a ring including the steps of: receiving the ring having markings on the inner surface thereof, creating a setting having a size and position defined by at least one of the markings, and placing a gemstone in the setting. The locations of the markings are determined by considering various factors, including the inner shank circumference, the number of gemstone sizes, and the number of non-marking areas.

This invention relates to a ring with markings for identifying positions for setting gemstones in the future and to a method for marking the ring for the purpose of setting such gemstones in the marked positions.
Jewelers and jewelry vendors may benefit from repeated visits from customers. Those who purchase or wear jewelry, especially jewelry celebrating an event such as a wedding, may enjoy commemorating each anniversary of the event by adding a gemstone at the end of each year of marriage. Therefore, it may be desirable to provide a ring with markings identifying positions for setting such gemstones in the future so as the gemstones are set into the ring on each anniversary of the event, the gemstones will be properly sized and spaced. As time passes, the purchaser or wearer may return to the jeweler on the anniversary of such event to purchase and have a gemstone set in a predetermined and marked positions of the ring. Repeat visits to set such gemstones may also provide the jeweler with additional opportunities to sell other goods and services during such visits.
Adding gemstones to a ring without such markings would require the jeweler to identify a location for the new gemstone, then drill the ring to accommodate the new gemstone. The jeweler could misjudge, miscalculate or otherwise lack the precision necessary to ensure that the new gemstone(s) would be correctly sized and spaced to accommodate all the gemstones that may be desirably placed in the ring in the future. Further, because these tasks would need to be repeated each time a gemstone was added to a ring, possibly over the course of many years, there is an increased likelihood that mistakes in sizing or spacing of the gemstones would result in an unattractive ring or there will be insufficient space to include all desired gemstones. Further still, because new gemstones may be added by different jewelers, quality and aesthetic sensibilities may vary from one jeweler to the next, with each jeweler doing things differently from the last. This would risk asymmetry in size, spacing, and location of new gemstones that could negatively affect the beauty of the ring. Therefore, to ensure the gemstones are sized and placed properly, it may be desirable to create a pattern for the gemstones, then mark the ring accordingly. Markings could take into account milestones, such as the wedding itself, and five, ten, twenty-five, and fifty year anniversaries, and provide for different gemstones, for example, different types, colors, sizes, and varieties, for such milestones.
In a ring where gemstones are added over time, there may be marked positions that are not yet occupied by gemstones such that if the markings are on the outside of the shank, the ring may appear unfinished or incomplete. In light of this, or because the wearer may wish to maintain privacy, it may be desirable to place the markings and the gemstones on an inner surface of the shank of the ring that will not be visible to others when the ring is worn.
Placing markings on an inner surface of the ring may pose special challenges to a jeweler. For example, inner surface placement of a preferred number of gemstones may be affected by the size and number of the gemstones, by the width and size (inner circumference) of the ring, and by a stamping area where no gemstones are present. Conversely, outer surface placement of a preferred number of gemstones may be more easily accomplished at least because no stamping area is present on the outer surface and because ring size (inner circumference) may be reduced as a limiting factor because material may be added to the ring to increase ring height and outer circumference to provide more area to accommodate gemstones.
Given the above-described challenges, it is desirable to have a ring and method for marking a ring that provides a technique for making the desired marks on an inner surface of a ring in a reliable, repeatable manner and for automating the process for production purposes across various ring sizes and types.


A circuit transformation software module incorporating the teachings of the present invention is provided to an otherwise conventional emulation system. The circuit transformation software module takes a circuit design as input and transforms it into a "new" circuit design in accordance to a plurality of circuit primitive transformation rules of the present invention, which embodies a circuit state encoding scheme of the present invention. This "new" circuit design when "realized" on the otherwise conventional emulation system in a conventional manner, allows the original circuit design to be simulated on the emulation system, i.e., the response of the original circuit design under various unknown and uncertain conditions can be simulated. As a result, correctness of the original circuit design's responses under these conditions can be correctly ascertained. Additionally, reliability/accuracy of fault simulation results is improved. Furthermore, the present invention may be practiced in conjunction with physical and/or "emulating" emulation systems.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of circuit design, in particular, to the art of circuit simulation and to the art of circuit emulation.
2. Background Information
With advances in integrated circuit technology, various tools have been developed to aid the circuit designers in designing and debugging the modern highly complex integrated circuits. In particular, various circuit emulation systems comprising reconfigurable electronic elements are available for the circuit designers to quickly "realize" their designs and emulate operation of the circuits. Additionally, various simulation systems comprising sophisticated software are also available for the circuit designers to quickly model their designs and simulate operation of the circuits.
Between the two approaches (emulation verses simulation), emulation has the relative advantages of "realizing" the circuit and is fast in operation. However, emulation has at least one relative disadvantage in that the behavior of the circuit under various unknown or uncertain conditions cannot be studied. On the other hand, while simulation allows the behavior of the circuit under these unknown or uncertain conditions to be studied, simulation has at least one relative disadvantage in that the process is much slower and more time consuming.
Thus, it is desirable to have an improved approach that has the advantages of both the conventional emulation as well as the conventional simulation approaches, but without some of their respective disadvantages. As will be described in more detail below, the present invention provides for such an improved approach that achieves these and other desired results, which will be apparent to those skilled in the art from the description to follow.

Simulating circuit design on a circuit emulation system


A case body containing instant photo films includes an exit slot for feeding out one instant photo film after another, and a claw path opening for allowing entry of a claw member ejecting the instant photo films. A pair of thrust preventing flaps is disposed inside the exit slot, for closing the lateral ends of the exit slot to prevent the instant photo film thrusting out. The claw path opening is closed by a light shielding plate and a light shielding skirt, which compose a light shielding member. The light shielding plate is moved to an open position by the claw member in the first advancing operation, and is moved to a full-open position in the second advancing operation.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an instant film pack. More particularly, the present invention relates to an instant film pack used in an optical printer for printing an image on an instant film unit ejected from a case.
2. Description Related to the Prior Art
Various types of instant film packs are commercially available, each of which has a case in a box shape for containing plural numbers of instant film units of mono-sheet type. The instant film units here are the one called a self-developing type instant film unit, in which contained developing solution is spread for developing an exposed image after a photosensitive layer being exposed, and then the image is created on the instant film unit. The instant film unit of this type is mainly used with an instant camera.
The instant film unit is constituted by a transparent cover sheet, a base sheet facing the rear side of the cover sheet, a developing pod for containing developing solution and a trap portion for absorbing an excess of the developing solution which are disposed on the base sheet. On the base sheet, a photosensitive layer, a reflective layer, and an image-receiving layer are formed. According to the way of creating a printed image, the instant film units are classified into a transmission type and a reflection type. In the instant film units of the transmission type, the exposure surface is disposed on a different side from the positive image observation surface, on which a positive image appears. On the other hand, in the instant film units of the reflection type, the exposure surface is disposed on the same side as the surface of observing a positive image.
The instant film unit is set into the instant camera, with being contained in a light-tight case. The case is provided with an exposure opening, an exit slot, and a claw path opening. The exposure opening serves to expose the instant film unit. The exit slot is formed in a slit shape for ejecting the instant film unit being exposed. The claw path opening allows entry of a well-known claw member for advancing the instant film unit in the case toward the exit slot. (For example, ref. U.S. Pat. No. 6,195,508 corresponding to JP-A 2000-089351.)
Every opening of the case is light-shielded by the following elements. As for the exit slot, a light shielding flap in a sheet shape having a light-blocking property and flexibility is attached to an outer side thereof to close the exit slot. As for the exposure opening, a light shielding cover is used, which is sandwiched between the exposure opening and an uppermost instant film unit. The claw path opening is closed by a light shielding sheet having a light-blocking property and flexibility. One end of the light shielding sheet is attached to the light shielding cover. After the instant film pack loaded into the instant camera, the light shielding cover is ejected by the claw member from the case. At this time, the light shielding flap is pushed to open the exit slot. And the light shielding cover is ejected from the case along with the light shielding sheet for the claw path opening.
Further, the conventional instant film pack has a problem in that the leader end of the light shielding cover can possibly push to open the light shielding flap and partially thrust out from the exit slot if the instant film pack is dropped or subjected to a shock. In order to prevent such a problem, a thrust preventing flap is provided inside the exit slot to close the exit slot partially. The thrust preventing flap is also attached to the light shielding cover, such that it will be ejected outside the case together with the light shielding cover.
Various types of optical printers are released to use the instant film unit as a recording media, utilizing the characteristics of the instant film unit, such as completing an exposure in a brief time, printing available in a brief time after the exposure, developing without the waste, developing available by a relatively simple mechanism, and the like. (For example, ref. JP-A 2001-356423 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,734,948 corresponding to JP-A 2002-221778.)
The optical printers according to JP-A 2001-356423 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,734,948 (corresponding to JP-A 2002-221778) are a line printing type which exposes an image line by line with a line-shaped exposure head while feeding the instant film unit. Therefore, the exposure opening of a large size for exposing the whole exposure side at a time is unnecessary for the case of the instant film pack used in these optical printers. In the instant film pack according to JP-A 2001-356423, a slot shaped exposure opening is formed in the case. Furthermore, U.S. Pat. No. 6,734,948 (corresponding to JP-A 2002-221778) discloses the optical printer which advances the instant film unit from the case before performing exposure.
If the instant film pack does not have the exposure opening of the size enough to show the whole exposure side, the light shielding cover becomes unnecessary. If no light shielding cover is used, the instant film unit can possibly protrude from the exit slot when the instant film pack is dropped or subjected to strong vibration. Furthermore, if no light shielding cover is used, it is necessary to attach the light shielding sheet and the thrust preventing flap both ordinarily attached to the light shielding cover to the case. The light shielding sheet and the thrust preventing flap according to the prior art are ejected together with the light shielding cover. However, the light shielding sheet and the thrust preventing flap, once attached to the case, will always stay inside the case. Therefore, it is likely that the operation of the claw member and the ejection of the instant film unit are influenced by the light shielding sheet and the thrust preventing flap.


A metric sifting, i.e., sorting or selection, method which can efficiently provide a sorted set of survivor metrics during breadth-first reduced-search decoding of convolutional codes. The preferred embodiment efficiently implements the M algorithm by providing a sorted set of M survivor metrics using a linear-time (O(M)) number of comparisons. To obtain this efficiency, the method employs partitioning of branch metrics into implicitly sorted subsets, and employs efficient merging of these subsets. Compared to the prior art, the number of comparisons for metric sifting during M algorithm decoding of typical rate 1/n binary convolutional codes is reduced by 30-40%; more specifically, the number of comparisons is reduced from (2n-1)M-(n-1) to n(M-1)+2.sup.n -1.

This invention relates generally to a reduction in the computational effort of decoding error control codes, and more particularly to an improved method of breadth-first decoding of convolutional codes.
In digital communication systems, it is commonplace to use error control codes to maintain reliable data reception. Error control coding adds redundancy to a sequence of symbols, and at the receiver this redundancy is used to correct errors in the noisy received sequences.
Error control codes have traditionally been divided into two categories, namely block codes and convolutional codes. In a block code, k information symbols are encoded into a larger block of n code symbols, to produce a rate k/n code. In a convolutional code, an ongoing stream of information symbols is continuously encoded, with a code rate of k/n being produced by repeatedly shifting k information symbols into a shift register, and for each set of k information symbols the encoder produces n code symbols based on the information symbols in the shift register and the encoder structure.
Regardless of whether the coding is block or convolutional, the vast majority of the computational effort occurs at the decoder, whose task is to estimate which coded symbol sequence best corresponds to the received noisy sequence of symbols. A well known decoder is the Viterbi algorithm (VA), which produces a maximum-likelihood sequence estimate and is thus optimal (in the sense of minimizing the probability of sequence error, given equally likely occurring information sequences). The VA was first used in the context of convolutional codes, then for intersymbol interference sequence estimation, and more recently in the context of decoding block codes. For background information on the VA and its applications the reader is referred to G. D. Forney Jr., "The Viterbi algorithm," Proc. IEEE, vol. 61, pp. 268-278, 1973., and J. K. Wolf, "Efficient maximum likelihood decoding of linear block codes using a trellis," IEEE Trans. Inform. Theory, vol. IT-24, pp. 76-80, January 1978. Use of the Viterbi Algorithm and its derivatives is not limited, however, to digital communications; it can be used in other probabilistic decision-making or pattern-matching processes, for example, speech or character recognition or decoding in computer peripheral storage devices.
Unfortunately, the computational complexity of the VA can be one of the most significant computational loads in a receiver. The VA's computational effort arises from the fact that it performs a search of all the paths through a potentially large trellis diagram. In this trellis, the branches represent the allowable sequences in the code, and the nodes represent the possible encoder states (e.g. shift register contents, in the case of a convolutional code). The width of the trellis (in terms of the number of possible encoder states) depends exponentially on the memory of the code (e.g. the shift-register length, in the case of a convolutional code). A large computational load is disadvantageous for many applications, such as digital cellular telephones which rely on battery power, and for applications that require very high speed decoding.
Consequently, efforts have been made towards obtaining improved trade-offs between coding performance and complexity. Some of these efforts have gone towards improving the efficiency of implementing maximum-likelihood decoders such as the VA, while other approaches use sub-optimal (non-maximum-likelihood) decoders to hopefully obtain greater reductions in complexity. Various sub-optimal decoding schemes are summarized in the literature; for example, see J. B. Anderson and S. Mohan, "Sequential decoding algorithms: A survey and cost analysis," IEEE Trans. Commun., vol. COM-32, pp. 169-176, February 1984. These approaches include the stack algorithm, the Fano algorithm (see R. M. Fano, "A heuristic discussion of probabilistic decoding," IEEE Trans. Inform. Theory, pp. 64-74, April 1963; and U.S. Pat. No. 3,457,562), and breadth-first decoding schemes such as the M-algorithm.
By breadth-first, we mean that the decoding search extends paths through a code tree (or trellis, which is a more compact representation of the code tree) where all of the paths in storage are of the same length. The VA is a breadth-first search, and it searches the entire trellis. The M algorithm is also a breadth-first search, but in the M algorithm only the best M paths are retained at each depth in the tree (or trellis). Breadth-first partial searches of a code tree have are particularly attractive in that they are inherently parallel, which facilitates implementation in parallel hardware. For more details on the M algorithm, the reader is referred to J. B. Anderson and S. Mohan, Coding: An Algorithmic Approach, Kluwer, 1990, and S. Mohan and A. K. Sood, "A multiprocessor architecture for the (M,L)-algorithm suitable for VLSI implementation," IEEE Trans. Commun., vol COM-34, pp. 1218-1224, December 1986.
The most significant computational bottleneck in M algorithm decoding of error control codes has been the task of finding the best M metrics at each depth in the tree (or trellis). We refer to this task as metric sifting. In A. D. Kot, "A linear-time method for contender sifting in breadth-first decoding of error control codes," 1993 Canadian Conference on Electrical and Computer Engineering, Vancouver Canada, September 1993, (Kot 93) a method is described that can provide a sorted set of metrics during M algorithm decoding of binary linear block codes using only M comparisons. This is a significant improvement over comparison-based sorting, which requires O(Mlog.sub.2 M) comparisons. This is also a significant improvement over Hadian and Sobel's comparison-based selection method (see D. E. Knuth, The Art of Computer Programming: Volume III, Sorting and Searching, Addison Wesley, 1973) where the best metrics are found without regard to order. An example of a non-comparison-based method is reported in S. J. Simmons, "A nonsorting VLSI structure for implementing the (M,L) algorithm," IEEE J. Selected Areas Commun., Vol. JSAC-6, pp. 538-546, April 1988., which cannot be directly and fairly compared since the types of operations are dissimilar.
The efficiency of the metric sifting method reported in Kot93 arises from exploiting an ordering that is inherent in the metrics. The method for binary linear block codes can be briefly summarized as follows. Imagine that there are M paths (survivors) in a code tree search whose metrics are extended to form 2M metrics. The task is to sift out the best M metrics from among these 2M metrics. Assume that the M metrics prior to extension were available in sorted order. The method proceeds by organizing the 2M extended metrics into two subsets, where one subset corresponds to extension by a 0 bit, and the other corresponds to extension by a 1 bit. It is shown in Kot93 (in particular, FIG. 3) that this organization preserves metric order within each subset. The already ordered subsets are then merged (which is much more efficient than sorting) to provide a sorted set of M survivor metrics.
The metric sifting method of Kot93 is also applicable to decoding convolutional codes. In the application of merge sifting to convolutional codes, the method described in Kot93 for merging two subsets and repeating for each of the n bits in a branch, will be referred to as Bit-by-Bit Merge Sifting. It is applicable to both binary block codes and convolutional codes but is about one-third as computationally efficient for rate 1/2 convolutional codes as for block codes.
Accordingly, a need remains to further improve the efficiency of breadth-first decoding of convolutional codes.

Metric sifting in breadth-first decoding of convolutional coded data


A filter element 28 for a gravity-flow water filter. An inlet screen 44 divides a cylinder 48 into two functionally distinct portions, an overflow chamber 24, and a filter body 26 which contains a filter medium 54. A wire half-loop 16 suspends overflow chamber 24 from an adjustable water source and positions overflow chamber 24 to catch the water outflow from the source. Wire half-loop 16 also positions overflow chamber 24 at a distance from the source so that there is a gap 22 between overflow chamber 24 and the source. The potential for water rising and spilling from overflow chamber 24 induces a user to adjust the source flow to less than a characteristic rate. When the flow is adjusted so that water level in overflow chamber 24 is not rising, the water level continues dropping until the flow of water from the source continuously enters the screened entrance of filter body 26 with no appreciable pressure head. Thus water moves more slowly through filter body 26 and filter medium 54 than if there were an appreciable pressure head at the entrance to filter body 26. With slower water motion, there is longer water-to-filter-medium contact, giving superior filtering effectiveness. Filtered water from filter element 28 is captured and accumulated in a receiver container 40 for later use.

1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to home treatment of water and specifically relates to an improved filter element for a gravity-flow water filter.
2. Filter Types and Terms
Pressurized water filters are connected to pressurized water lines. Gravity-flow filters have gravity acting locally as the motive force causing water through flow.
Gravity-flow filters, also called "pour through filters", may generally be described as having a reservoir above a filter body containing a filter medium. Water enters the reservoir, flows downward and then flows through an inlet into the filter body. Water passes through the filter medium and falls into a receiver below the filter body.
Gravity-flow filters usually have lower water pressure at the inlet, lower pressure drop across the filter body, lower flow rates, lesser strength requirements because of low internal pressures, and different physical support than have pressurized filters.
3. A Stability Constraint On Filter Body Height
A gravity-flow filter system may stack reservoir atop filter body atop receiver, with the weight of all resting on the base of the receiver. The taller the filter body, the longer is the water path through the medium and the greater the filtering effectiveness. However, the taller the filter body, the more liable is the stack to tipping and falling. Thus stability considerations place a constraint on the height of the filter body.
3. Description of Prior Art
The filters of U.S. Pat. No. 2,167,225 to Van Eweyk (1939), U.S. Pat. No. 2,224,577 to Shively (1940), U.S. Pat. No. 4,419,235 to Sway (1983), U.S. Pat. No. 3,747,767 to Hankammer (1973), U.S. Pat. No. 4,306,971 to Hankammer (1981), the BRITA.TM. filter (trademark of Brita, Inc., Palisades Park, N.J.), the FILBROOK.TM. filter (trademark of P. B. Enterprises, Woodstock, Vt.) and the Innova.TM. filter (trademark of Innova Pure Water, Inc., Clearwater, Fla.) all use the stack with reservoir atop filter body atop receiver, the weight of all resting on the receiver. Consequently, all these have a serious limitation on filter body height due to the stability constraint.
The filters of U.S. Pat. No. 3,536,197 to S. L. Ward (1970), U.S. Pat. No. 2,033,533 to G. Moore (1936) and U.S. Pat. No. 4,094,779 to Behrman (1978) each utilize a dedicated stand to support various filter parts.
The filters of U.S. Pat. No. 738,486 to Rogers (1903), U.S. Pat. No. 1,774,004 to Haslett (1930) and U.S. Pat. No. 3,529,726 to Keenan (1970) all show watertight connections to a pressurized water source and hence have no gap between source and filter body. Rogers and Haslett show chains which aid in securing the watertight connection.
The devices of U.S. Pat. No. 153,406 to Vaders (1874), U.S. Pat. No. 643,181 to Woodworth (1900) and U.S. Pat. No. 1,028,054 to M. A. Moore (1912) all show mesh screens held in the outflow stream of a water source, but none uses a filter medium. These devices are related to the modern aerator found on the end of most new kitchen and bathroom faucets, which aerator also holds a mesh screen in an outflow.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,385,446 to F. E. Ward et al. (1968) shows a filter device stably supported by being hand held. If more than a quart or so is to be filtered, and if the liquid is to flow through slowly for efficient filtration, then surely holding by hand would be tedious and inconvenient.
The filter of U.S. Pat. No. 3,462,361 to Greenwalt et al. (1969) uses a stopper at the filter body's inlet. No support means is shown for this filter element.
The Innova.TM. filter has a reservoir, filter body and receiver combined in a single unit which is placed under a kitchen faucet for the filtering operation. The device shows no structure to suspend from and position itself under the faucet.
The filter of U.S. Pat. No. 3,715,035 to Teeple et al. (1973) shows a flexible bag reservoir that slumps below the inlet to a filter element. The bag is to be filled with water, and after sediment settles, Teeple provides a structure to elevate part of the bag above the inlet so that water enters the inlet. A receiver bag is attached to the filter body.

Filter element for a gravity-flow water filter


A jacket main body is formed of a first aluminum alloy. A seal body is formed of a second aluminum alloy. The first aluminum alloy is higher in hardness than the second aluminum alloy in material type. A method includes: a preparing step of forming on an peripheral wall part a step part having a step bottom surface and a step side surface obliquely rising; a mounting step of mounting the seal body on the jacket main body to form a first butt portion and putting the step bottom surface and a back surface of the seal body on each other to form a second butt portion; a main joining step of performing friction stir welding while only the stirring pin of the rotary tool rotating contacts with only the seal body.

For example, Patent Literature 1 discloses a method for manufacturing a liquid-cooled jacket. FIG. 24 is a sectional view showing a conventional method for manufacturing a liquid-cooled jacket. In the conventional method for manufacturing a liquid-cooled jacket, friction stir welding is performed on a butt portion J10 formed by butting a step side surface 101c provided in a step part of a jacket main body 101 made of an aluminum alloy and a side surface 102c of a seal body 102 made of an aluminum alloy. In the conventional method for manufacturing a liquid-cooled jacket, only a stirring pin F2 of a rotary tool F is inserted into the butt portion J10 to perform the friction stir welding. In the conventional method for manufacturing a liquid-cooled jacket, a rotation center axis C of the rotary tool F is made to coincide with the butt portion J10 and relatively moved.

Method for manufacturing liquid-cooled jacket


A method and apparatus employs a weighted order stored in a weight table for automatically discriminating optical symbols which may be encoded in any one of at least two symbologies. The weighted order may be dynamically updated to reflect the distribution of symbologies as the symbols are acquired and decoded.

A symbol reader is a device used to extract information optically encoded in a machine-readable symbol and convert it into computer-compatible digital data. Typical machine-readable symbols include bar code symbols having varying width dark bars and light spaces. The decoded data can be transmitted directly to an attached computer, stored locally for later dumping, or used locally with an application program resident in the symbol reader. The symbol reader can be considered as two separate elements: the input device, and the decoder. These two elements can reside in separate physical packages connected by a cable or other communications link, or they can be combined in a single unit.
The input device is a unit that employs electro-optical techniques to scan the symbol. The actual scanning motion may be provided by the operator's hand motion, by an internal scanning system, or by movement of the symbol past the input device. The input device produces an instantaneous electrical output that is representative of the localized reflectivity of the symbol at the point that is being scanned. The input device is usually an active system, wherein it illuminates the symbol with light energy, then examines the amount of light reflected by a localized area of the symbol. The symbol light areas will reflect more light than the dark areas. The light reflected from the symbol is directed to an optical receiver such as a photodiode detector or charge-coupled detector (CCD), which generates a small current proportional to the amount of light returned. An amplifier in the input device increases the signal from the optical receiver to a useable level. In order to differentiate between the light and dark areas, the analog voltage is often converted into a digital wave form by a circuit known as the wave shaper. The output voltage of an input device can be either analog or digital. If the output is analog, the wave shaper function may be incorporated in the input device or in the decoder unit.
The decoder part of the symbol reader analyzes the signal produced by the input device and deciphers the information encoded in the symbol. The resulting data is either transmitted to an attached computer, stored locally for later transfer, or forwarded to an application program resident in the decoder itself In the typical symbol reader, this function is usually implemented in software running on a microprocessor, but it might also be realized by traditional hardwired logic. Whichever implementation is used, the following steps are included: (1) Determine whether the input device's optical beam is currently on a dark area or light area of a symbol; (2) Measure the width of each bar and space element as the input device's optical beam is scanned through the symbol; (3) Identify the symbol's element widths; (4) Decode the symbol's encoded data characters by comparing the identified element widths to a table of valid values for each character in the character set; (5) If necessary, reverse the order of the decoded data characters to accommodate symbols that have been scanned right to left; and (6) Perform additional checks to confirm the validity of the scan.
There are currently a large variety of symbologies in use, including bar code symbologies. Bar code symbologies fall into two general categories: discrete and continuous. In a discrete code, each character can stand alone and be decoded independently from the adjacent characters. Each character is separated from its neighbor by loosely toleranced intercharacter gaps, which contain no information. Every character has a bar on each end. A continuous code symbology has no intercharacter gaps. Every character begins with a bar and ends with a space. The end of one character is indicated by the start of the next character. Examples of bar code symbols include the universal product code (UPC), European Article Numbering System (EAN), interleaved two of five, Codabar, Code 39, Code 128, Code 93, Code 49, and Code 16k. A variety of two-dimensional codes or area codes also exist. Popular area codes include: CodeOne, DataMatrix, Codablock, USD-5, Vericode, Datacode, UPScode, and PDF417.
Most reading equipment includes the capability to decode several different symbologies. The user configures their reader to the desired choice by setting switches, scanning control labels, or receiving commands from the host computer. Readers are also available that can automatically recognize which symbology has been scanned, then use the appropriate decoding algorithm. The data is decoded independently of the symbology used. Called autodiscrimination, this feature is extremely useful when several different symbologies are encountered in a given application. The operator configures the reader with a list of symbologies that will be allowed by setting switches or scanning control labels. For each symbol scanned, the symbol reader must search through a large number of tables corresponding to each of the allowed symbologies in an attempt to find a match. In an effort to speed up the search, many symbol readers attempt to decode using the table for the most recently decoded symbology first.
Limiting the list of symbologies is advisable for a couple of reasons. It minimizes the probability that an inadvertent scan of a random symbol will result in incorrect data being gathered. This, in turn, affects data security. Although the theoretical probability of a symbology recognition error is very low, there is a finite probability of a partial scan of one symbology's being recognized as a valid scan in another symbology. For many symbology combinations, this appears to be a small problem, but localized printing errors or extraneous markings on the substrate can combine with partial scans to create an operational concern. Limiting the list will also speed up the decoding process in most readers.

Method and apparatus of autodiscriminating in symbol reader employing prioritized and updated table of symbologies


A display device with fewer terminals. The display device includes a timing signal generating circuit which outputs an output signal based on a clock signal, in which one signal line serves as both a signal line to which a start pulse signal that drives the timing signal generating circuit is input and a signal line to which an image signal is input. Further, a blocking circuit which outputs a start pulse to the timing signal generating circuit but does not output the image signal is provided between the signal line and the timing signal generating circuit.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a display device.
2. Description of the Related Art
To drive a display device, power supply, a clock signal, and various synchronizing signals for synchronizing operations of driver circuits in the display device are necessary in addition to many image signals.
For example, Patent Document 1 discloses a liquid crystal display device having a timing generator, to which synchronizing signals, i.e., a master clock, a horizontal synchronizing signal, and a vertical synchronizing signal, are input and which supplies a signal to an LCD driver circuit on the basis of the synchronizing signals.

Display device having blocking circuit for extracting start pulse from signal

Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.


An automatic drawing-in machine separates warp yarn ends from one another and presents a separated end portion to a pick-up location in alignment with harness components such as a heald and/or a drop wire and/or a reed gap which have themselves been brought to their intended drawing-in positions by different, separately operated systems. Then a drawing-in member engages the yarn end and pulls it through the designed harness component(s). The drawing-in machine (SE) contains a drawing-in member, an arrangement for manipulating the individual harness elements, and a control stage (SM) for controlling the various functions of the drawing-in machine. The latter is composed of modules (PM, SM, XM, AM) for the various functions. The individual modules forming functional, independent units and being connected to one another via interfaces. The modules are controlled by a higher-level computer of the control stage (SM), via which the cross connections between the individual modules also run. The module autonomy enables increased redundancy of individual functions and enables them to be activated individually. In effect, the individual functions depend on one another only to a very small degree and faults are simple to localize.

In a warp-thread drawing-in machine disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,681,825 and GB-A-1,290,385, the individual functions are controlled and therefore positively interlinked via mechanical members such as lifters, plate cams and the like. Individual functional steps cannot be performed autonomously and independently of the other functional steps. Instead, a cycle comprising all functions always occurs. The result of this is that faulty operations of individual functional stages cannot be repeated and thus automatically corrected. Such faulty operations either have to be tolerated or repairs must be made manually during a machine stoppage.
If, for example, an individual heald is not correctly separated from a supply stack of healds, the separating operation cannot be repeated two or three times, since during this process the drawing-in member would of course perform a corresponding number of drawing-in operations and the reed would be transported further by a corresponding number of teeth. But separating faults of this type repeatedly occur in practice and thus lead to a reduction in productivity.

Machine for the automatic drawing-in of warp threads


At the time of manual adjustment, a motor driving signal corresponding to a user's key operation is fed to a focusing motor from a microcomputer through a switch. At the time of automatic adjustment, the switch selects a motor driving signal from a sensor and feeds the selected motor driving signal to the focusing motor. The sensor contains a dedicated microcomputer. The dedicated microcomputer samples an image pick-up signal of a CCD line sensor in the sensor to generate contrast data, and automatically drives the focusing motor, to automatically make focusing adjustment.

Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a projection type video display such as a liquid crystal projector.
Examples of the contents of adjustment of setting at the time of projection of a projection type video display include focusing adjustment and trapezoidal distortion correction of a projection video (see JP-A-2003-78842).


The present invention relates to a method for analyzing a decoded digital signal stream. The method comprises decoding an encoded digital signal stream to obtain a decoded digital stream and terminating the decoding operation in an N dimension, wherein N is an integer greater than one. The method further comprises calculating one or more syndromes in a dimension not comprising the N dimension of the decoded digital signal stream. At least one invalid syndrome is then detected from the one or more calculated syndromes. In one embodiment, an error is reported in the decoded digital stream based upon detecting at least one invalid syndrome.

In order to improve bandwidth usage, it is necessary to minimize the amount of bits allotted for system usage. For instance, the existing public safety systems require improved bandwidth usage. This can be done by migrating the current 25 kHz systems and the 12.5 kHz systems to 6.25 kHz systems with equivalent bandwidths. It is therefore extremely desirable to make as efficient use of possible existing codes and parity checks for improving system performance. Some of the existing codes and parity checks are Simple Parity Check (SPC), hamming code, extended hamming code, a Bose-Chaudhari-Hocquenghem (BCH) code and or an extended BCH code.
Moreover, various Block Product Codes (BPC) are used to provide forward error correction for various Layer 2 signaling fields. However, the BPC is used only to correct errors. No attempts are made to detect any errors from the turbo decoding, other than any checksum or Cyclic redundancy Check (CRC) parity included with the information bits.
Therefore, there is a need for a method for increasing an accuracy of error detection while incurring no additional overheads in terms of additional bit usage.

Method for error detection in a decoded digital signal stream


A self-unloading container apparatus comprises a container mounted on a vehicle. An upright auger tube has its bottom end in the container and top end outside the container. An intermediate auger tube is pivotally attached at one end to the upright auger tube so as to pivot about a pivot axis on a pivot plane and at the other end to a lateral auger tube at a fixed oblique angle. A universal joint connects the intermediate flighting shaft to the upright flighting shaft with the center of the joint on the pivot plane and axis. A constant velocity universal joint connects the intermediate flighting shaft to the lateral flighting shaft with a center thereof located at the intersection of axes of the intermediate and lateral auger tubes. The lateral auger tube pivots from a transport position aligned with the travel direction, to an operating position transverse to the travel direction.

This invention is in the field of auger conveyors and in particular such auger conveyors wherein one portion of the conveyor pivots with respect to another portion.
There are common applications where an auger conveyor comprises two sections oriented at an angle to each other, and where the flighting shafts of the sections are connected to each other such that they turn together. It may be further required that the first and second sections pivot with respect to each other while the augers rotate. Such applications include combine grain tank filling augers as illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 6,248,015 B1 to Rayfield et al., and grain cart unloading augers as illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 6,042,326 to Thomas et al. The application is also typical in combine unloading augers, as illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 3,664,525 to Herbstofer, U.S. Pat. No. 6,247,886 B1 to Signer et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,662,812 to Busboom et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 4,093,087 to DeCoene.
The angle between the two auger sections in the device of Rayfield et al. is shallow enough to allow the connection between the flighting shafts of the two sections to be made with a universal joint, however with the sharper angles of Signer et al. and Thomas et al., a gearbox is required. The addition of a gearbox in the middle of the flow of granular material retards the flow of material and reduces the capacity of the auger conveyor. Where a gearbox is used, the angle between the two auger conveyor sections is fixed, thereby limiting the flexibility of the apparatus.
In the apparatuses of Busboom et al. and DeCoene, an intermediate section of auger conveyor is used such that the required angle between the first and second sections is provided by a smaller angle between the first section and the intermediate section, and again between the intermediate section and the second section. A universal joint at each end joins the auger flighting shafts together. Where a single universal joint would not provide satisfactory service when operated at the angle between the first and second sections, that angle can be reduced by half when splitting it between two universal joints.
In the auger apparatus of Busboom et al. a bottom cross auger and the intermediate section are fixed in position, while the straight unloading auger section pivots about an oblique axis so that the auger can move from a transport position up and forward to an operating range of positions. The discharge end of the unloading auger moves quite sharply up and down as it moves forward and rearward.
In the apparatus of DeCoene a bottom cross auger is fixed and the intermediate auger and unloading auger pivot about an axial plane that is in the middle of the intermediate auger. With this pivot plane location, the intermediate auger moves up and down and fore and aft when the unloading auger pivots. The tube on the intermediate section must be much larger than the auger flighting to accommodate this movement, reducing efficiency of the auger. Much grain is wastefully moved sideways as it is not confined by a close tubing wall. As in the apparatus of Busboom et al. the discharge end of the unloading auger moves quite sharply up and down as it moves forward and rearward.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,409,344 to Tharaldson and U.S. Pat. No. 5,980,189 to Rubner disclose self-unloading hoppered grain carts similar to Thomas, but unlike Thomas the cart container is hoppered to a central sump such that a cross-auger at the bottom is not required. Both comprise a first upright conveyor section to carry grain upwards and outwards from the sump to an upper location outside the container where same falls into a second lateral conveyor section that pivots with respect to the cart. Each section is a separate conveyor requiring separate drives, mounts, and the like.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved self-unloading container apparatus mounted on a vehicle and having an auger conveyor with a discharge end that can be pivoted from a transport position to operating positions extending put to one side of the vehicle so as to discharge the contents of the container into a transport vehicle.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide such an apparatus wherein the discharge maintains a more consistent vertical position while moving forward and backward in the operating range. It is a further object of the present invention to provide such an apparatus wherein obstruction of the auger tube is reduced, and capacity is thereby increased.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide such an apparatus wherein the container includes a floor sloped down to a sump located in a central portion of the container, and comprising an integrated auger apparatus to carry material from the sump to a discharge that can be moved to a range of operating positions extending laterally from the container.
The present invention provides, in one aspect, a self-unloading container apparatus mounted on a vehicle for travel in an operating travel direction. The apparatus comprises a container mounted on the vehicle and a fixed upright auger tube mounted in the container and oriented such that a lower intake end thereof is located in the bottom of the container. The upright auger tube slopes upward and outward, transverse to the operating travel direction, to an upper output end thereof located outside the container adjacent to an upper side wall of the container, and an upright flighting shaft is positioned inside the upright auger tube. An intermediate auger tube is pivotally attached at an input end thereof to a top output end of the upright auger tube so as to pivot about a pivot axis on a pivot plane, and an intermediate flighting shaft is positioned inside the intermediate auger tube. A lateral auger tube is attached at an input end thereof to an output end of the intermediate auger tube at a fixed oblique angle, and a lateral flighting shaft is positioned inside the lateral auger tube. A universal joint connects an input end of the intermediate flighting shaft to the upright flighting shaft such that a center of the universal joint is located substantially on the pivot plane and pivot axis, and a constant velocity universal joint connects an output end of the intermediate flighting shaft to the lateral flighting shaft such that a center of the constant velocity universal joint is located substantially at the intersection of axes of the intermediate and lateral auger tubes. A control is operative to pivot the intermediate auger tube with respect to the upright auger tube from a transport position, wherein the lateral auger tube is substantially aligned with the operating travel direction, to an operating position, wherein the lateral auger tube extends outward from the container transverse to the operating travel direction. A drive is operative to rotate the flighting shafts.
The apparatus of the invention is particularly suited to a hopper bottom grain cart. The intake end is located in a central sump and an upright section slopes outward to a position outside the container, as is generally required in these hoppered containers, and the slope also reduces the angle required between the upright and lateral sections to bring the lateral section to a shallow angle with respect to the horizontal.
In a second aspect the invention provides a self-unloading hopper bottom grain cart comprising a container having a hopper floor sloping down to a centrally located sump. A fixed upright auger tube is mounted such that a lower intake end thereof is substantially in the sump and the upright auger tube slopes upward and outward, transverse to the operating travel direction, to an upper output end thereof located outside the container adjacent to an upper side wall of the container, and an upright flighting shaft is inside the upright auger tube. An intermediate auger tube is pivotally attached at an input end thereof to a top output end of the upright auger tube so as to pivot about a pivot axis on a pivot plane, and an intermediate flighting shaft is inside the intermediate auger tube. A lateral auger tube is attached at an input end thereof to an output end of the intermediate auger tube at a fixed oblique angle, and a lateral flighting shaft is inside the lateral auger tube. A universal joint connects an input end of the intermediate flighting shaft to the upright flighting shaft such that a center of the universal joint is located substantially on the pivot plane and pivot axis. A constant velocity universal joint connects an output end of the intermediate flighting shaft to the lateral flighting shaft such that a center of the constant velocity universal joint is located substantially at the intersection of axes of the intermediate and lateral auger tubes. A control is operative to pivot the intermediate auger tube with respect to the upright auger tube from a transport position, wherein the lateral auger tube is substantially aligned with an operating travel direction, to an operating position, wherein the lateral auger tube extends outward from the container transverse to the operating travel direction. A drive train is adapted for connection to a towing vehicle and is operative to rotate the flighting shafts.
The pivot axis can be oriented such that the first and intermediate flighting shafts are aligned, reducing stress on the universal joint connecting the two. The constant velocity universal joint allows a sharper angle between the intermediate and lateral tubes such that the lateral tube can be oriented near the horizontal for maximum reach. Where desired, the pivot axis can also be oriented such that the discharge end of the auger conveyor moves up and down as well as laterally with respect to the intake end of the conveyor. By re-orienting the pivot axis, a wide range of movement can be achieved at the discharge end of the lateral tube.
The constant velocity universal joint, combined with the small operating angles that are achieved on the standard universal joint, provide a very smooth operating auger conveyor throughout a significant operating range of movement of the discharge end of the lateral tube. A wider operating range and steeper angles between the upright and lateral tube can be achieved by using a constant velocity universal joint at each end of the intermediate flighting shaft. The apparatus is simple and economical to manufacture and maintain.


Disclosed is a method for producing a glass substrate, which involves a first polishing step and a second polishing step both for polishing the surface of the glass substrate with a polishing solution containing a polishing agent. The method is characterized by additionally involving a heating step for heating the glass substrate, wherein the heating step is carried out after the first polishing step and before the second polishing step.

Conventionally, as information recording media used for computers, magnetic disks are available. As magnetic disk substrates, aluminum substrates have been commonly used. However, over recent years, with the demand for reduction of magnetic head floating amount for enhancing recording density, glass substrates are used at an increasing percentage, with which glass substrate the magnetic floating amount is reduced because glass substrates exhibit superior surface flatness and have fewer surface defects than aluminum substrates.
These glass substrates of magnetic disks are produced by polishing glass substrates referred to as blank materials. It is known that such glass substrates (blank materials) are produced by a production method employing press molding and a production method in which plate glass produced by a float method is cut. Glass substrates cut out in a certain shape have large surface non-uniformity as such. Therefore, the surface needs to be polished. Further, to meet the demand for higher density, the technology of high precision polishing is required.
As well known conventionally, the process of surface finishing of glass roughly contains the following steps: a first lapping step; a second lapping step; a first polishing step; and a second polishing step (for example, refer to Patent Document 1 and Patent Document 2).
The first lapping step is a step in which both surfaces of a glass substrate is polished to preliminarily adjust the parallelism, the flatness, and the thickness of the glass substrate. The second lapping step is a step to fine-tune the parallelism, the flatness, and the thickness of a glass substrate.
The first polishing step and the second polishing step are so-called polishing steps. In the first polishing step, scratches and defects are eliminated and the surface of a glass substrate is allowed to have predetermined surface roughness. Thereafter, in the second polishing step, the surface of the glass substrate is polished further precisely. Recently, since a glass substrate is required to have high-level flatness, in both the first polishing step and the second polishing step, a polishing method employing a polishing liquid containing polishing agent is used.

Method for producing glass substrate and method for producing magnetic recording medium


An active or passive vaccine utilizing purified non-toxic mutant TcdB toxins from Clostridium difficile for humans and animals against infections caused by C. difficile and/or C. sordellii. Persons most potentially affected by C. difficile infections include hospitalized patients, infants, and elderly persons. The TcdB toxin mutant of the vaccine preferably lacks the toxicity of a native C. difficile TcdB toxin. A serum comprising antibodies raised to the TcdB toxin mutant is also available for treating humans or animals against C. difficile infections. The serum may be used in a method for conferring passive immunity against C. difficile. Antibodies to the TcdB toxin mutant may be used in diagnostic tests or in treatments to clear TcdB toxin from bodily fluids. The mutant TcdB toxin may be produced by recombinant methods using cDNA encoding the toxin, the cDNA contained for example in a plasmid or host cell.

Intracellular bacterial toxins enter cells, modify targets, and in many cases ultimately destroy the targeted cells thereby contributing to the disease process. Currently, there are no techniques for blocking intracellular virulence factors once they have entered the cytosol of cells. Further, no techniques exist which utilize inactive mutants derived from a toxin in order to inhibit the wild-type toxin at the intracellular cite.
Clostridium difficile is the leading cause of hospital acquired diarrhea and pseudomembranous colitis, a multifactorial disease involving steps in colonization, adherence, inflammation and cellular intoxication. TcdA and TcdB are two large clostridial toxins (LCTs) produced by C. difficile and are involved in development of pseudomembranous colitis. TcdB, (SEQ ID NO: 1), the focus of this study, glucosylates isoforms of small GTPases Rho, Rac and Cdc42 within the effector binding region at residues Threonine-37 (Rho) or Threonine-35 (Rac and Cdc42). The physiological impact of TcdB's activity includes disruption of tight junctions, increased epithelial permeability, as well as actin condensation and cell death.
TcdB can be divided into enzymatic, translocation and receptor binding domains, although detailed analysis of these regions has not been carried out to date. The first 546 amino acids of TcdB contain the enzymatic region, which is followed by a putative translocation and receptor-binding domain. Enzymatic activity appears to require the amino-terminal 546 residues since amino or carboxy terminal deletions of this fragment decrease activity. Within the enzymatic region, tryptophan 102 has been shown to be essential for UDP-glucose binding. A conserved DXD motif within LCTs is essential for LCT glucosyltransferase activity. Other studies, involving analysis of chimeras of the TcdB and TcsL enzymatic domain suggest residues 364 to 516 confer substrate specificity.
Steps in cell entry by TcdB have been broadly defined, yet events subsequent to entry are not well understood. For example, while we have a profile of the time-course for TcdB cell entry, very little is known about post-entry events that lead to glucosylation. Steps between membrane translocation and substrate interaction are not understood in TcdB intoxication. In fact almost no information exists in this regard for any intracellular toxin. In the cytosol, TcdB is capable of glucosylating multiple substrates, but whether inactivation of Rho, Rac and Cdc42 in combination is necessary for complete intoxication, or if other substrates are targeted, is not known. It has been found that overexpression of Rho isoforms protects cells from TcdB, suggesting inactivation of all substrates may not be necessary for cellular intoxication. Interestingly, Rho has also been shown to regulate the suppression of apoptosis, so it is not entirely clear whether overexpression of Rho is protective at the substrate inactivation level or prevents events downstream of glucosylation. Additionally, while some TcdB-intoxicating events, such as depolymerization of actin, can be attributed to inactivation of Rho, other processes like apoptosis may be linked to activities other than substrate inactivation. Given TcdB's large size (˜270 kD), and broad impact on cell physiology, it is possible the toxin may possess yet undefined activities in addition to glucosylation.
It would be desirable to have a vaccine or therapeutic composition for inhibiting or preventing action of the C. difficile TcdB toxin.

The Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma


The present invention is a clamping base, including a body capable of engaging with and holding a camera, and a second wall portion capable of being detached from and engaged with the body. The clamping base further includes a moving portion. The moving portion includes a sliding rod and a first wall portion set at one end of the sliding rod. The sliding rod can perform a push-pull movement on the body and the other end of the sliding rod is set inside the body.

The base for holding the conventional web cams to an electronic device, such as a notebook, an LCD, and so on, is as follows: One means is to adapt the clamping force of a damper so as to clamp the web cam on the electronic device. Although the damper can be adjusted according to the thickness of the various electronic devices, large clamping force can easily cause the electronic device to break. Furthermore, the main drawback of the damper is that for those electronic devices with a greater thickness, the length of the two clamping arms of the damper must be increased. Another means is to adapt a base in a slight n-shape so as to utilize the fixed size of the opening of the base; the two opposite sidewalls of the opening press against the two sides of the electronic device respectively. The main drawback of the n-shape base is that because the size of the opening of the n-shape base is fixed, it is only useful for the electronic device having the same thickness as the size of the opening.
Due to the two conventional means being limited to the thickness of the electronic device, the inventor of the present invention provides an improved easily adjustable clamping base so that the web cam can be more easily installed on the base in accordance with the thickness of a variety of electronic devices.


The in vivo circulating life and/or absorption of cationic therapeutic proteins, including but not limited to basic proteins such as NT-3 and BDNF, can be increased by generating analogs that have a lower isoelectric point and, preferably, also a lower protein charge relative to the protein of native sequence.

This invention relates generally to polypeptide analogs of therapeutically active cationic proteins, including but not limited to analogs of the neurotrophic factors known as neurotrophin-3 (NT-3) and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). More specifically, the invention relates to positively charged polypeptides in which modifications have been made in the native sequence, such that the analogs possess lower isoelectric points and, concomitantly, longer circulation times and/or improved absorption in vivo following parenteral administration. The invention also relates to materials and methods for the recombinant production of such polypeptide analogs, to antibodies thereof, and to pharmaceutical compositions containing the analogs which can be used for the treatment of various diseases and disorders.
Following the administration of a therapeutic protein by parenteral means, such as by subcutaneous, intravenous or intramuscular injection, the pharmacokinetic properties such as bioavailability, circulation time and clearance rate can vary widely from protein to protein. Even though there are active efforts in many laboratories to develop alternative routes of administration for protein products, little is known about the factors that govern the pharmacokinetic behavior of protein therapeutics following such parenteral administration. It has been shown that an increase in the molecular weight of a protein can result in a preferential uptake by the lymphatic system rather than the blood capillaries; Supersaxo et al., Pharmaceutical Res., Volume 7, page 167 et seq. (1990). The molecular size of the therapeutic protein also plays a key role in insulin uptake, where dissociation of a zinc-induced hexamer to monomeric form has been shown to be the rate-limiting step in insulin absorbance; Kang et al., Diabetes Care, Volume 14, pages 942-948 (1991). The clinical testing in diabetic patients of monomeric insulin analogs, in which the hexamer association site has been eliminated, has demonstrated a more rapid uptake, leading to significant improvements in glucose control in diabetic patients; see Brange et al., Nature, Volume 333, page 679 et seq. (1988).
To assess the impact of the isoelectric point (pI) on the pharmacokinetic behavior of proteins, certain analogs of NT-3 and BDNF, in particular, have been produced which have a relatively lower pI, yet retain the structure and biological activity of the protein in its xe2x80x9cnativexe2x80x9d state (i.e., the protein of naturally occurring amino acid sequence, as well as the metxe2x88x921 version thereof, both of which are referred to herein as xe2x80x9cwild typexe2x80x9d). From these studies, it has now been discovered that protein analogs engineered to possess a lower pI and/or lower charge under physiological conditions than the wild type molecule, can also display longer in vivo circulation times (i.e., xe2x80x9chalf lifexe2x80x9d) and improved absorption following administration by injection. Although the invention is illustrated in this description with particular reference to human NT-3 and BDNF, it has broader applicability to any cationic proteins, and particularly basic proteins which in their native sequence have a pI greater than about 7.0.
It should be noted that the terms xe2x80x9cproteinxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cpolypeptidexe2x80x9d are used interchangeably throughout this description to mean one and the same thing.
Briefly stated, the present invention is concerned with substitution, insertion and deletion analogs of cationic therapeutic proteins, and/or chemically modified versions of such therapeutic proteins, that are characterized by a lower pI while also exhibiting longer circulation times and/or higher absorption relative to the unmodified proteins (i.e., of native sequence). The analog proteins of this invention are typically human therapeutic proteins which are usually, but not necessarily, basic proteins. Preferably, these proteins also have a lower charge under physiological conditions compared to the unmodified basic protein.
The present invention also concerns materials and methods for the recombinant production of such analogs (as a preferred practical method), as well as to antibodies raised against the protein analogs, and to pharmaceutical compositions containing the analogs as biologically active agents for use in the treatment of diseases and physical disorders.

Antibodies against analogs of brain-derived neurotrophic factor


The present invention provides for a method of decreasing the metals content of metal containing petroleum streams by forming a mixture of the petroleum fraction containing those metals and an aqueous electrolysis medium containing electron transfer agent, and passing an electric current through the mixture or through the pretreated aqueous electrolysis medium at a voltage, sufficient to remove the metals such as Ni, V and Fe from the stream (i.e. to produce a petroleum fraction having decreased content of the metals). The cathodic voltage is from 0 V to -3.0 V vs. SCE. The invention provides a method for enhancing the value of petroleum feeds that traditionally have limited use in refineries due to their metals, e.g., Ni and V content.

Petroleum streams that contain metals are typically problematic in refineries as streams because the metallic components contained therein have a negative impact on certain refinery operations. Thus, demetallation has been referred to as critical to help conversion of crude fractions (see e.g., Branthaver, Western Research Institute in Ch. 12, "Influence of Metal Complexes in Fossil Fuels on Industrial Operations", Am. Chem. Soc. (1987)). Such metals, for example, act as poisons for hydroprocessing and fluid catalytic cracking catalysts, thereby, shortening the run length of such processes, increasing waste gas make and decreasing the value of coke product from coker operations.
The presence of such metals prevents more advantageous use of the petroleum stream by rendering especially the heaviest oil fractions (in which these metal containing structures most typically occur) less profitable to upgrade, and when these resources are used they make catalyst replacement/disposal expensive. Current refinery technologies typically address the problem by using metal containing feedstreams as a less preferred option, and by tolerating catalyst deactivation when there are not other feedstream alternatives available.
Electrochemical processes have been used for removal of halogenated organic compounds, e.g., polychlorinated biphenyls in one phase organic systems see e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 5,102,510 and for removal of water soluble metals from aqueous streams, see e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 3,457,152. Petroleum streams are typically not halogen containing. Removal of metals from complex petroleum streams is more difficult because the metals are associated with hydrocarbon species, and are not readily water soluble. U.S. Pat. No. 5,529,684 discloses a process for electrochemically demetallating petroleum streams, but there is a continuing need for an effective method for removal of these metals particularly ones in which enhanced rates of demetallation, at higher current efficiencies and/or lower electrolyte concentrations are possible. Applicants' invention addresses this need.

Method for demetallating petroleum streams


An apparatus described herein includes a request receiver component that receives a request for application data over a network from a client computing device. The apparatus also includes an instrumentation component that causes instrumentation logic to be transmitted to the client computing device responsive to receipt of the request for the application data. The instrumentation logic is configured to cause the client computing device to analyze a cookie to determine whether to capture instrumentation data pertaining to the client and, if it is determined that instrumentation data is desirably captured. The instrumentation logic is also configured to cause the client computing device to capture quantitative instrumentation data pertaining to the requested application data and cause the client computing device to transmit the quantitative instrumentation data over the network to a data repository.

Advances in computing and network technologies as well as reduction in costs corresponding thereto has allowed billions of users to have access to content made available on the World Wide Web. Such content may include news sites, web logs, sites where applications can be downloaded, gaming sites, etc. Additionally, users can access web services made available by web service providers. For instance, billions of individuals have e-mail accounts, wherein a user, located almost anywhere in the world, can send and receive e-mails nearly instantaneously with other individuals that are in various geographic locations.
Receivers of content available on the World Wide Web and/or users of web services may review content or use such services in various different manners. For example, with respect to e-mail, a first user may log in and log out of their e-mail account several times over the course of a day. A second user may log in to her e-mail account and leave such account open for the entirety of the day. It is important for content providers and web service providers to retain current reviewers/users as well as attract new reviewers/users to their content/services. Specifically, revenue generated by content providers or web service providers often is related to an amount of advertising that is shown with respect to content or services. Accordingly, an advertiser is willing to pay more to cause advertisements to be shown with respect to a particular web site/web page if such web site or web page has a high number of reviewers/users.
Therefore, web service providers typically attempt to continuously to improve their service to attract additional users. Currently, however, there is no suitable mechanism for obtaining quantitative data from a client computing device with respect to a service provided to such client. For instance, the web service provider has no way of knowing, for a particular browser, how long it takes to load a web page requested by a user of the client computing device.


A fast equalization technique is disclosed for systems using high-order constellations where symbols have been corrupted by data correlated noise (ISI). The technique permits ISI estimation to begin immediately upon receipt of captured samples. Training symbols are not required for the operation of the equalization technique. ISI estimation is weighted in accordance to a reliability factor of each captured sample.

The present invention relates to an equalization technique useful for transmitting symbols of high-order constellations that are subject to corruption by inter-symbol interference and other data correlated noise (collectively, "ISI"). ISI refers to a variety of phenomena in data processing systems in which a data signal interferes with itself at a destination. The present invention also relates to the use of reliable symbols to determine values of source symbols that are corrupted by ISI. The present invention finds particular application in systems where source symbols are members of high-order constellations. Previously, such systems have required the use of training symbols for operation in the presence of real-world ISI phenomenon.
FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary data processing system 100 in which ISI may occur. A source 110 may generate a data signal D (herein, a "source data signal"). When delivered to a destination 120 as a received signal X, the source data signal D may be corrupted by ISI sources within a channel 130. For example, multiple copies of a single data signal D may be captured at the destination 120, each copy being received with an unknown time shift and gain with respect to the other copies. Further, the time shifts and gains may vary over time.
ISI phenomena may be modeled mathematically. In the case where the data signal D is populated by a number of data symbols dn, captured signals xn at the destination 120 may be represented as:xn=a0·dn+f(dn−K2, . . . ,dn−1,dn+1, . . . ,dn+K1)+ωn  (1)where a0 represents a gain factor associated with the channel 130, f(dn−K2, . . . dn+K1) is a functional representation that relates the ISI to the symbols, dn−K2, . . . dn+K1, causing ISI corruption and ωn represents corruption from other sources. In linear systems, Equation 1 may reduce to:
                                          x            n                    =                                    d              n                        +                                          ∑                                                      i                    =                                          -                                              K                        1                                                                                i                    ≠                    0                                                                    K                  2                                                                                a                  i                                ·                                  d                                      n                    -                    i                                                                        +                          ω              n                                      ,                            (        2        )            where a−k1, . . . ak2 represent impulse response of the channel. In accordance to common practice, the values ai have been normalized by the value of a0 in Equation 2.
ISI is seen as a serious impediment to the use of high-order constellations for data processing systems. A "constellation" is a set of unique values (constellation points) that may represent data symbols. Higher order constellations define a greater number of constellation points than lower order constellations. For example, symbols from a binary constellation, one having only two constellation points, can represent only a single digital bit per symbol. By contrast, symbols from an eight-point constellation, a sixteen-point constellation or a 256-point constellation can represent three, four or eight digital bits per symbol. At a common symbol rate, these higher order constellations can yield higher data throughput than lower order constellations.
Unfortunately, blind equalization (equalization without either an initial training sequence, or 'refresher' training sequences) is very hard to achieve with higher order constellations. The detrimental effects of ISI increase with increasing constellation order due to a greater contribution from the
      ∑                  i        =                  -                      K            1                                                                      i        ≠        0                    K      2                              a      i        ·          d              n        -        i            term of Equation 2.
The inventors' co-pending patent application entitled, "Reliable Symbols as a Means of Improving the Performance of Information Transmission Systems," filed Apr. 18, 2001 having Ser. No. 09/836,281, discloses several techniques for blind estimation of ISI in transmission systems using high-order constellations. The invention described herein and the work presented in the inventors' co-pending foreign applications are believed to be the first practical blind equalization techniques suitable for high-order constellation data systems. The inventors believe that the disclosures herein and the methods described in the co-pending patent applications enable an increased number of reliable symbols to be obtained from captured samples and that this increases the rate and effectiveness of equalization.

Fast, blind equalization techniques using reliable symbols


An automatic channel matching system for viewing a video signal produced by a VCR at any channel at which a TV is tuned without changing the TV channel when in a VCR mode. A coarse tuning operation is first performed when receiving a VCR mode control signal by the system, which includes an RF channel frequency altering unit for variably generating a carrier wave frequency while shifting from a low channel frequency to a high channel frequency by a predetermined frequency bandwidth, generating a fixed current carrier wave frequency when the level of a detected synchronizing signal is higher than the level of noise in the signal output from a synchronizing signal detector, and generating a fixed carrier wave frequency tuned to match the channel frequency according to the output of a noise signal level converting unit.

The present invention relates to an automatic channel matching system and method thereof for enabling the user to view an audio/video signal from a video cassette recorder (VCR) on any channel of a television (TV) without altering or preselecting the TV's channel during a VCR mode, and more particularly, to such a system and method thereof in which, by varying the output frequency band of a VCR, the frequency band of a currently audio-visual TV is accorded therewith, so as to be automatically matched with the TV channel.
Generally in conventional VCRS, since the frequency of an RF channel is fixed to the frequency of one of two TV channels (e.g., 3 or 4), a user must set the TV channel to 3 or 4 in order to view the audio/video signal output from the VCR via the TV. Therefore, when viewing a TV channel besides 3 or 4, a user must separately alter the TV channel in order to view the audio/video signal from the VCR.

Automatic channel matching system and method thereof