A static mixer head that provides not only distributive mixing, but also dispersive mixing. Distributive mixing is accomplished by providing a series of baffles along the length of the mixing tube, each baffle being angled relative to the previous baffle. Dispersive mixing is accomplished by utilizing baffles that define a converging pathway for the mixing materials. The converging pathway promotes elongation and corresponding dispersion of the mixing materials. In one embodiment, the baffles are teardrop-shaped, and are arranged so that multiple baffles are generally parallel and adjacent to one another. Preferably, the baffles are oriented such that the mixing materials flow from the small tail portion of the baffles toward the larger head portion of the baffles, thereby encountering a gradual compressive force and corresponding elongation.

When combining two dissimilar materials to form a new compound, it is important to adequately mix the two materials. In general, mixing can be defined as a process to reduce the non-uniformity of a composition. The basic mechanism involved is to induce physical motion to the ingredients. When performing mixing operations, two types of mixing are important: distributive mixing and dispersive mixing.
Distributive mixing refers to the increase in randomness of the spatial distribution of the particles, regardless of the size of these particles. An example of distributive mixing is the manufacture of polymer blends, where the viscosities of the components are reasonably close together.
Dispersive mixing refers to processes that reduce the size of particles. In dispersive mixing, solid components, such as agglomerates or high-viscosity droplets, are exposed to sufficiently high stresses to cause them to exceed their yield stress, and they are thus broken down into smaller particles. The size and shape of the agglomerates and the nature of the bonds holding the agglomerates together will determine the amount of stress required to break up the agglomerates. The applied stress can either be shear stress or elongational stress. In general, elongational stress is more efficient in achieving dispersion than is shear stress. An example of dispersive mixing is the manufacture of color concentrate where the breakdown of pigment agglomerates below a certain critical size is crucial.
One type of mixer is called a static mixer. Static mixers commonly include a series of deflecting baffles and/or barriers through which the mixing materials are forced. Static mixers are often used to divide and recombine the mixing materials to intermingle the materials and eliminate variations in temperature, composition and mixing history. Prior art static mixers do not provide regions of high stress, and thus are used for distributive mixing as opposed to dispersive mixing. In addition, many prior art static mixers include dead zones where material stagnation can occur, resulting in material degradation.

The Madison Group: Polymer Processing Research Corp.


A metal-insulator-metal (MIM) capacitor having a top electrode, a bottom electrode and a capacitor dielectric layer is provided. The top electrode is located over the bottom electrode and the capacitor dielectric layer is disposed between the top and the bottom electrode. The capacitor dielectric layer comprises several titanium oxide (TiO2) layers and at least one tetragonal structure material layer. The tetragonal structure material layer is disposed between two titanium oxide layers and each tetragonal structure material layer has the same or a different thickness. Leakage path can be cut off through the tetragonal material layer between the titanium oxide layers. In the meantime, the tetragonal structure material layer can induce the titanium oxide layers to transform into a high k rutile phase.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a metal-insulator-metal (MIM) capacitor. More particularly, the present invention relates to a MIM capacitor with high dielectric constant (k) capacitor dielectric layer and low leakage current.
2. Description of the Related Art
The major components of a semiconductor memory include transistors and capacitors. When the process of fabricating a semiconductor memory involves a high aspect ratio process, the space available for forming the capacitor inside the device will be substantially reduced. Due to the rapid increase in the memory space needed to operate computer software, the required capacitance of capacitors is also increased. Therefore, some modification to the conventional method of fabricating semiconductor device is required in order to meet this increased capacitance demand.
At present, one of the principle methods of increasing the capacitance without consuming space includes using a high dielectric constant (high k) material layer to serve as the insulating layer for producing a MIM capacitor so that sufficient capacitance is produced within the confines of a diminished capacitor area. Titanium oxide (TiO2) is one of the capacitor dielectric materials having a high dielectric constant commonly used in a MIM capacitor. Furthermore, it is found that the titanium oxide material has a dielectric constant k over and above 100 when it is composed of the rutile phase. However, to transform the titanium oxide layer in the anatase phase produced by the ordinary atomic layer deposition (ALD) method into the rutile phase, a high temperature baking (at a temperature more than 700° C.) process is required to activate the phase transition. Such a high processing temperature often induces some damage to the material layer. In addition, leakage current is a serious problem that needs to be solved due to the small band gap of titanium oxide material.

Industrail Technology Research Institute


A camera device includes a windshield information detection camera and a vehicle exterior information detection camera. The windshield information detection camera captures an image to obtain information about a surface of a windshield. The vehicle exterior information detection camera captures an image to obtain information about the vehicle exterior. The windshield information detection camera and the vehicle exterior information detection camera are fixed to a vehicle in a state in which they are also fixed to each other.

A known camera (windshield information detection camera) arranged inside a vehicle captures an image of a windshield (vehicle exterior) to obtain information about the surface of the windshield such as whether foreign objects including raindrops are present on the windshield from the image (for example, refer to Patent Document 1).
Further, in recent years, a camera (vehicle exterior information detection camera) arranged inside a vehicle captures an image of the vehicle exterior (front of vehicle) through the windshield to obtain information about the vehicle exterior such as whether a pedestrian or the like are present in front of the vehicle from the image (for example, refer to Patent Document 2).


Provided are a method and an apparatus for providing three-dimensional (3D) digital content by using a conventional system for providing two-dimensional (2D) digital content. The method includes generating an elementary stream (ES) regarding first data of 2D digital content, generating an ES regarding second data of 3D digital content, packetizing the ESs of the first data and the second data, and recording) the packetized second data and content information of the second data within header information of multiplexed stream of the packetized first data.

1. Field of the Invention
Methods and apparatuses consistent with the present invention relate to providing and receiving three-dimensional (3D) digital contents, and more particularly, to a method and apparatus for providing and receiving 3D digital contents by using a conventional system for providing two-dimensional (2D) digital contents
2. Description of the Related Art
As high-quality digital motion picture services have become more popular, an increasing interest in more realistic virtual reality services has led to research and development of encoding and decoding of 3D digital contents, such as 3D motion pictures, in three dimensions according to temporal and spatial characteristics.
Image coding methods in formats such as moving picture experts group (MPEG)-4 Part 2 and H.264 Advanced Video Coding (AVC) are for coding 2D images and are focused on improving coding efficiency. However, methods of coding and reconstructing images are required in fields such as realistic telecommunications or virtual reality.
Therefore, the MPEG working group, a standard organization regarding image encoding, is endeavoring to set a standard in relation to 3D audio/video (3D AV) encoding.
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a conventional method of providing 2D reference images and 3D additional information.
Referring to FIG. 1, a structure of a program map table (PMT) section of a transport stream (TS) packet is shown.
In related art, a program and a program element descriptor are added to the PMT and left/right image signals are separated into packetized elementary stream (PES) packets of each of the left/right image signals in order to insert 3D image information in the TS. In FIG. 1, a left image is referred as a reference image 110, and a right image is referred as 3D additional information 120.
The left/right image signals refer to image signals used in case where a stereoscopic format 3D image is generated by using a left-view image and a right-view image to encode a 3D image. In this case, the left-view image is set as base layer video, and the right-view image is set as enhancement layer video. The base layer video is an image which can be encoded into a 2D image by itself, whereas the enhancement layer video is an image additionally required for generating a 3D image by being added to the base layer video.
In this case, introducing a new system for broadcasting 3D digital contents imposes technological and financial burdens, and the new system's compatibility with conventional 2D digital broadcasting systems may also become an issue. Thus, a method for resolving the aforementioned problems is required.

Method and apparatus for providing and receiving three-dimensional digital contents


A water pressure system includes a pressure tank installed underground within the well casing of a well. The water pressure system includes a submersible pump connected to the inlet of the pressure tank by a drop pipe. The outlet of the pressure tank is connected to a second drop pipe and in turn to a discharge pipe for distribution of pressurized water to a house or other building. A pressure switch is connected to the pressure tank for controlling the submersible pump. The pressure tank includes an outer sidewall with an inlet end and an outlet end. A flexible diaphragm bladder located within the outer sidewall is connected between the inlet and outlet of the tank. In a first embodiment, a tube extends through the center of the bladder between an inlet opening and an outlet opening. The tube has a plurality of holes therein to allow water to flow into and out of the flexible bladder. Pressurized air fills the space between the bladder and the outer sidewall to pressurize the water in the bladder. The pressure tank may be used in combination with a flow control valve, a relief valve, a flow control valve incorporating a relief valve, a standard submersible pump, and/or a variable speed submersible pump to provide and maintain a constant flow of water at a constant pressure through the system.

The present invention relates to water pressure systems for water wells, and more particularly, to a pressure tank installed underground within the well casing of a well for storing water under pressure for distribution and use.
A typical water pressure system for residential use is established by first drilling a hole in the ground in search of water from a water bearing aquifer. Once water is reached by the drill, a well casing is inserted into the bore hole to preserve the sides of the well. A submersible pump is then inserted into the well below the water level to pump water from the aquifer. One end of a drop pipe is attached to the submersible pump to draw water out of the well. The other end of the drop pipe is attached to a pitless adapter, which is attached to a discharge pipe for carrying water to a pressure tank located outside above ground or inside a building.
The pressure tank holds a reserve supply of water under pressure within the tank. A pressure switch coupled to the tank is used to maintain water pressure in the tank between a minimum value and a maximum value. The water is stored in the tank under pressure until it is needed. As water is drawn from the tank, the pressure in the tank decreases. The pressure switch activates the submersible pump to pump water into the tank when the water pressure in the tank drops below the minimum value. As water is pumped back into the tank, pressure in the tank increases to the maximum value. When the pressure reaches the maximum value, the pressure switch stops the pump from pumping water into the tank.
Pressure tanks are normally of substantial size, and consequently are limited to above ground installations in most water pressure systems. Typically, pressure tanks are installed outside above ground, in the basement of a house or in a separate building to protect it from the elements. Adverse weather conditions can effect the reliability of a pressure tank in cold weather climates. During the winter months, the pressure tanks must be protected from the cold and snow. Therefore, the pressure tanks for use in cold weather climates are either installed in a basement or in an insulated building above ground.
However, there are problems associated with above ground installations of pressure tanks. The large pressure tanks are usually quite expensive, cumbersome and difficult to install. The installation of a pressure tank above ground in cold weather climates may lead to freezing problems that require the tank be wrapped in insulation and heat tape or require the tank be installed in the basement of a house or a separate insulated building. Installation of a pressure tank in the basement or other area of a house takes up valuable space in the home. Installation of a pressure tank in a separate insulated building would require construction of the building. Thus, the installation of a pressure tank is often quite difficult and time-consuming.
Water pressure tanks installed underground are known in the art. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,394,733 to Jacuzzi discloses an airless water pressure system utilizing an underground pressure tank. The pressure tank of this invention includes an expansible tube installed around a pipe having openings therein to transfer liquid from the pipe to the expansible tube. The tube is clamped at each end to allow the liquid under pressure to cause expansion of the tube. However, the clamped ends of the tube have been known to fail under pressure from the liquid. In another patent to Jacuzzi, U.S. Pat. No. 3,442,292 discloses a pressure tank installed underground in a well, having water flowing into the pressure tank around an air filled bladder. The problem with this patented invention is the pressure tank is positioned at the top of the well, which could cause freezing problems in cold climates.
Accordingly, there is a need for a water pressure system that allows for installation of a pressure tank underground in the well casing of a well that is less expensive, easier to install and maintain, and more reliable than prior art water pressure systems.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Water pressure system with pressure tank installed within well casing of well


An apparatus for separating cells from microcarriers comprises a chamber having a body and a base. The chamber is configured to receive a mixture comprising cells and microcarriers. The apparatus further comprises a filtration element disposed within the chamber and coupled to the body. The filtration element is configured to filter microcarriers from the mixture. The apparatus further comprises an adjustment mechanism coupled to the chamber. The adjustment mechanism is configured for selective extension and retraction of at least a portion of the body of the chamber to move the filtration element relative to the base of the chamber.

Microcarrier technology is employed to cultivate cells in bioreactors. In particular, microcarriers act as support matrices to allow anchorage dependent cells to grow in culture.
Conventional methods of separating cells from microcarriers may be costly and time consuming, involving allowing the cells and microcarriers suspended in medium to settle toward a base of the bioreactor, introducing an enzyme to the bioreactor, agitating the mixture to cause the cells to detach or release from the microcarriers and subsequently, passing the mixture through a filter to separate the cells from the microcarriers.
Accordingly, it is desired to address or ameliorate one or more shortcomings of such prior art methods or to at least provide a useful alternative thereto.
Any discussion of documents, acts, materials, devices, articles or the like which has been included in the present specification is not to be taken as an admission that any or all of these matters form part of the prior art base or were common general knowledge in the field relevant to the present disclosure as it existed before the priority date of each claim of this application.
Throughout this specification the word "comprise", or variations such as "comprises" or "comprising", will be understood to imply the inclusion of a stated element, integer or step, or group of elements, integers or steps, but not the exclusion of any other element, integer or step, or group of elements, integers or steps.

Methods and apparatus for separating cells from microcarriers


The present invention provides a crawler in which, due to alteration of a shape of rubber projections which mesh with a sprocket, even when earth, sand and the like has been deposited at an inner peripheral surface of the crawler, damage to the concerned rubber projections will not be incurred. It is a core-less crawler track at an inner peripheral surface of which rubber projections for driving are formed with a certain pitch. In side view, the rubber projections form a substantially triangular shape provided with a drive side inclination surface Pa and a brake side inclination surface Pb. The inclination surfaces of this rubber projection are divided into the drive side inclination surface Pa and the brake side inclination surface Pb. Steps D are formed at both the inclination surfaces. Base side (bottom step) inclination angles X are set with an inclination angle XB of a brake side inclination surface Pba larger than an inclination angle XA of a drive side inclination surface Paa, and top side (top step) inclination angles Y are set with an inclination angle YA of a drive side inclination surface Pab larger than an inclination angle YB of a brake side inclination surface Pbb.

A core-less crawler track is provided for comparatively high speed running. A driving system thereof is a structure in which rubber projections are formed from an inner peripheral surface of the crawler with a certain pitch, and a sprocket meshes therewith. The sprocket is generally formed with driving portions, which mesh with the aforementioned rubber projections, and rim portions to left and right of the driving portions, which touch against the inner peripheral surface of the crawler. The driving portions are, for example, a pin type, or a gear type is common. Herein, the present invention will be described with focus on a pin-type sprocket.
FIG. 1 is a sectional view of a sprocket portion of a conventional ordinary crawler-running apparatus, and FIG. 2 is a side view thereof. At a crawler 1, rubber projections 2 with a certain pitch are protrudingly formed at the middle of an inner peripheral surface, and lugs 3 are formed at an outer peripheral surface. Steel cords 4 are embedded, oriented in a length direction of the crawler 1. Further, 5 is a sprocket, at which pins 7 are provided standing at edges of a pair of discs 6, and the sprocket 5 includes rim portions 8 which touch against the inner peripheral surface of the crawler 1 at distal ends of the discs 6. The rubber projections 2 are commonly formed in a substantial isosceles triangle shape with left-right symmetry in side view, as shown in FIG. 3. An angle Z of a base portion of an inclination surface 9 which rises up from the crawler is about 54°.
At the running apparatus of the crawler structured with the crawler 1 and the sprocket 5, in a usual state as shown in the drawings, the rim portions 8 of the sprocket 5 touch against the inner peripheral surface of the crawler 1, and the pins 7 unforcedly mesh with and transmit driving force to a predetermined portion of the inclination surfaces 9 of the rubber projections 2.
However, in the crawler-running apparatus constituted with the structure described above, under high traction, the pins 7 of the sprocket 5 apply large force to the rubber projections 2. Consequently, the rubber projections 2 are greatly deformed, a phenomenon known as jumping (jumping) in which the pins 7 slip arises, and vibrations occur. If this is repeated, there may be a result that the rubber projections 2 are damaged.
Further, as shown in FIG. 4, depositions S of earth, sand and the like at the inner peripheral surface of the crawler 1 may be unavoidable and in such a state, as shown in FIG. 5, a relationship between the rubber projections 2 of the crawler 1 and the pins 7 of the sprocket 5 is shifted from predetermined positions, contacts are repeated, and the rubber projections 2 may be damaged. Ultimately, the aforementioned jumping between the pins 7 and the rubber projections 2 occurs and, further, there may be a result that the rubber projections 2 are damaged.

Core-less crawler track and rubber projections therefore


In various embodiments of the present invention, tunable resistors are introduced at the interconnect layer of integrated circuits in order to provide a for adjusting internal voltage and/or current levels within the integrated circuit to repair defective components or to configure the integrated circuit following manufacture. For example, when certain internal components, such as transistors, do not have specified electronic characteristics due to manufacturing defects, adjustment of the variable resistances of the tunable resistors included in the interconnect layer of integrated circuits according to embodiments of the present invention can be used to adjust internal voltage and/or levels in order to ameliorate the defective components. In other cases, the tunable resistors may be used as switches to configure integrated circuit components, including individual transistors and logic gates as well as larger, hierarchically structured functional modules and domains.

Integrated circuits are used in a wide variety of electronic devices and consumer products, from computers and computer peripherals to automobiles, electronic games, toys, machine tools, medical and scientific instruments, and other products and devices. Integrated circuits are essentially extremely complex and highly miniaturized electronic circuits. Modern integrated circuits routinely including millions of transistors that implement complex logic circuits to provide processor and memory devices with complex interfaces and functional behavior.
In general, integrated circuits are manufactured in high volumes by extremely expensive and technically demanding fabrication processes. In many ways, integrated circuits fabrication is one of the first, and by far most commercially successful, applications of nanotechnology. The smallest features of currently available integrated circuits have widths between 100 and 200 nanometers. Integrated circuits are commonly fabricated using photolithographic techniques that focus light through images of circuit patterns onto chemically prepared substrates in order to reduce the microscopic-scale images down to the submicroscopic patterns from which features of integrated circuits are constructed, layer by layer. Each step in the integrated circuit fabrication process involves careful deposition of metallic films, dopants, and photoresist, mechanical planarization, application of reactive etchants, rinsing with solvents, and other operations. Each photolithographic step requires careful alignment of a current photolithography mask with the features constructed in previous photolithography steps. Because of the complexity of the integrated circuit manufacturing process, and the small dimensions of integrated circuit features, extreme measures are taken to prevent contamination of nascent integrated circuits, and the fabrication environments in which they are manufactured, by dust, chemical contaminants, and other environmental interferences. However, despite these measures, and despite the high tolerances and extreme precision of integrated circuit manufacturing tools and procedures, a relatively large proportion of finished integrated circuits are subsequently found, during post-manufacturing testing, to be defective. As a result, relatively large proportions of the integrated circuits produced in an integrated circuit fabrication facility are unusable for their intended applications, and discarded. Each discarded, defective integrated circuit represents the loss of significant amounts of energy and highly purified chemical components, as well as the loss of significant amounts of time and, ultimately, money. For this reason, manufacturers of integrated circuits, as well as integrated circuit vendors and those who purchase and use products containing integrated circuits, have all recognized the need for decreasing the rate of defective integrated circuits, or, in other words, increasing the yield of functional integrated circuits, and, by doing so, decreasing the cost of integrated circuits.

Active interconnects and control points in integrated circuits

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


The invention provides compositions and methods for specific binding to a region of the polymeric immunoglobulin receptor (pIgR) of a cell with the provisos that the ligand does not substantially bind to the most abundant form of the secretory component (SC) of pIgR present in an organ of interest of an animal of interest under physiological conditions, and does not bind to the pIgR stalk. In some embodiments, the ligand decreases cleavage of SC from the stalk by at least one-third. The ligands and methods of the invention can be used with both birds and mammals. In more preferred embodiments, the animal is a mammal. In the most preferred embodiment, the animal is a human. The ligand may be targeted into the cell or may undergo retrograde transcytosis and release at the basolateral side of the cell, and may comprise a biologically active composition.

One of the most challenging problems facing the pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical industries is delivering therapeutic agents past the various semi-permeable membranes within the body. Particularly in the case of macromolecules, the obstacle to cost effective or convenient treatment is often due to the lack of an adequate drug delivery system. In turn, this issue dictates whether production of a drug is economically feasible. Thus, the search for alternative delivery systems often rivals the search for new drugs themselves.
Gene transfer methods can be viewed as a paradigm of macromolecular drug delivery. These methods can be divided into three categories: physical (e.g., electroporation, direct gene transfer, and particle bombardment), chemical (e.g., proteinoids, microemulsions, and liposomes), and biological (e.g., virus-derived vectors, and receptor-mediated uptake). Among biological transfer methods, receptor-mediated uptake is a particularly promising approach. Targeting a ligand to an endocytosed receptor acts as a means to ferry that ligand into the cell. One drawback of receptor-mediated systems, however, has been their general reliance on intravenous administration, which severely limits their use.
Mucosal epithelial cells line a number of readily accessible tissues such as those found in the upper respiratory and gastrointestinal tracts. The accessibility of these cells make them an attractive target for drug delivery. See, e.g., Ferkol et al., J. Clin. Invest. 92:2394-2400 (1993); Ferkol et al., J. Clin. Invest. 95:493-502 (1995). Retrograde transport of an antibody from the lumenal to the basolateral surface of epithelial cells has been reported, albeit at very low levels. Breitfeld et al., J. Cell Biol. 109:475-486 (1989). In that study, movement across the cell was followed by binding an antibody to the secretory component of polymeric immunoglobulin receptor ("pIgR"). Relative to the level of basolateral to apical transport, Breitfeld et al. reported that less than 5% of the transport was retrograde in nature. The nominal level of counter-transport minimizes the utility of secretory component as a means to deliver biologically active compositions into cells. Moreover, due to the abundance of cleaved pIgR in the lumen, binding of ligand to cleaved pIgR, rather than the intact pIgR of the cell surface, would diminish the utility of pIgR counter-transport as a mechanism of drug delivery.
In commonly-assigned application Ser. No. 08/856,383, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,042,833, it was reported that a stalk remained on the surface of the cell following cleavage of the secretory component ("SC"). It was further found that ligands could be targeted to the stalk and thereafter undergo internalization and retrograde transport. As useful as this is, the stalk represents a limited target for ligands and it would be helpful to have additional targets for ligands which can be internalized and which are not diluted by binding in substantial amounts to cleaved pIgR.

Methods of targeting agents to cells expressing the polymeric immunoglobulin receptor

The Regents of the University of California


A system for accessing texture data in a graphics rendering system allows texture data to be stored in memories with high latency or in a compressed format. The system utilizes a texture cache to temporarily store blocks of texture data retrieved from an external memory during rendering operations. In one implementation, geometric primitives are stored in a queue long enough to absorb the latency of fetching and possibly decompressing a texture block. The geometric primitives are converted into texture block references, and these references are used to fetch texture blocks from memory. A rasterizer rasterizes each geometric primitives as the necessary texture data becomes available in the texture cache. In another implementation, geometric primitives are converted into pixels, including a pixel address, color data, and a texture request. These pixels are stored in a queue long enough to absorb the latency of a texture block fetch. The texture requests are read from the queue and used to fetch the appropriate texture blocks. As texture data becomes available in the texture cache, the texture data is sampled as necessary and combined with the pixel data read from the queue to compute output pixels.

Graphics rendering generally refers to the process of converting graphical models into a display image. The display image is typically comprised of an array of pixel data, sometimes referred to as a bitmap or pixmap. This array of pixel data maps to picture elements in the display screen of a display device. To display an image, a display controller transfers the pixel data to a display device, where it is used to illuminate the picture elements or "pixels" of a display screen. For example in color images, the pixel data can include red, green and blue color intensity values used to illuminate the pixels of color display screen.
Though there are a variety of display technologies, one of the most widely used is raster display technology. A raster display device includes an array of individual points or picture elements (i.e., pixels), arranged in rows and columns. In a CRT, these pixels correspond to a phosphor array provided on the glass faceplate of the CRT. The emission of light from each phosphor in the array is independently controlled by an electron beam that "scans" the array sequentially, one row at a time, in response to stored intensity values representative of each pixel in the image.
In 3D graphics applications, an object in a scene is represented by a 3D graphical model, which includes geometric data used to model the surface and position of the object, and visual attributes used to model the appearance of the object. There are a number of ways that a geometric model can represent a 3D object, including polygon meshes, parametric surfaces, or quadratic surfaces. Using a polygon mesh, for example, the surface of an object is modeled with several interconnected polygons. The surface elements, in this case polygons, are referred to as geometric primitives. Visual attributes such as red, green, and blue color data, and possibly other model data is stored at the vertices of the polygon.
In a process called scan converting or rasterizing, the geometric primitives forming the surface of the graphical model are converted into an array of discrete pixel data. In the context of 3D graphics, the visible surfaces of the objects in a scene are converted into an array of pixels. For surfaces represented with a mesh of polygons, for example, color intensity values stored at the vertices of each polygon are interpolated to compute intensity values at each of the discrete pixel elements covered by a polygon.
To create more realistic and detailed imagery, interpolated color values alone are not sufficient to create a realistic image. Often, additional image data stored separately from the model must be used to improve image quality. For example, image data referred to as a texture map is often used to represent intricate detail on the surface of a graphical model. In a process called texture mapping, a digital image called a texture map is mapped to the surface of a graphical model. In addition to texture maps, other image data external to the graphical model is sometimes used to compute pixel data. For example color and opacity data is sometimes used to perform lighting and shading operations. As another example, a shadow map is sometimes used to compute shadows cast by objects in a scene.
Texture mapping and other forms of rendering operations that require access to additional image data place tremendous demands on a graphics rendering system. In a typical texture mapping operation, the graphics rendering system has to retrieve at least one sample of texture data to compute each pixel. To generate high quality images without artifacts, the need to retrieve more samples of texture data increases because several texture samples are filtered or re-sampled to compute every pixel.
In real time systems, a new display image must be generated every fraction of a second. This rigorous timing requirement places severe constraints on texture mapping because there is limited time to retrieve texture data. The quality of the final image often suffers because sampling and/or filtering several texture cannot be performed due to the memory bandwidth limitations of the system. Support for high bandwidth access to texture data requires dedicated, fast and expensive memory systems.
A significant side effect of the memory bandwidth problem outlined above is that it makes it difficult, if not impossible, to store texture data in compressed form. Texture data is typically not stored in compressed form because there is not enough time to decompress texture data in a graphics rendering pipeline. As a result, memory requirements to store texture data can be substantial. The need for additional memory adds further to the expense of the system.

Method and system for accessing texture data in environments with high latency in a graphics rendering system


A memory card with multiple interface functions is provided. The memory card comprises a multiple interface controller, comprising at least a USB processor, MMC/HS MMC processor and SD processor, and each processor individually connected to a data r/w controller and a shared interface bus, the data r/w controller connected to at least a data-storage medium, and shared interface bus connected to a computer system or IA product. The function of a mode detector/switch is used for detecting the compatible transmitting mode of the connected computer system or IA products, and to switch shared interface bus to match USB processor, MMC/HS MMC processor or SD processor for application. Thus, selecting transmitting mode between data r/w controller and the computer system or IA products connected thereto, the present invention does not only economize on the usage of card reader but also could be applied to various transmitting interface devices and enhancing on its user-friendly performance.

Along with universalizing of IA (Internet Appliance) products, comes the fast growing on new format of storage media. The Memory Card has became the main stream in the present market due to its advantages of compact volume, minor power consumption and large storage capability. The Memory Card is quite suitable to apply on various types of IA products or computer systems; such as digital cameras, digital video cameras, MP3 players, mobile phones, PDA and GPS.
Further, due to the difference on design purpose, specification draw up time, selection on materials and leading company, there are full of many kinds of memory cards with different specifications and transmission modes on the market that annoying customers/users with their problems on compatibility. The examples of such are: MMC card (Multimedia Card), HS MMC (High Speed Multimedia Card), SD Card (Secure Digital Card), SM Card (Smart Card), MS Card (memory Stick Card) and CF Card (Compact Flash Card).
Furthermore, the transmission modes; especially the ones in smaller-volume memory cards that is used on IA products, of these Memory Cards has a significantly lower transmitting speed and amount when it comes to comparing with the USB (Universal Serial Bus) used on general IA products. This has always been a difficulty that desired to get overcome in the industry.
For this reason, professions in this industry had developed a data transfer device, as shown in FIG. 1. The main implementation is to place a Card Reader (15) in between each memory card; such as MMC card (10), HS MMC card (102), SD card (103), and other memory card (104); and the computer system (17). Each memory card could individually select a transmitting bus; MMC transmitting bus (150), HS transmitting bus (152), SD transmitting bus (153), and other transmitting bus (154); which complies with its transmission mode protocol for data transmitting. The USB transmission line (157) is used on the connection between Card Reader (15) and computer system (17). Although the data transfer is preferred to get adapt to the faster USB transmitting mode, however the transmission between the memory card (10) and Card Reader (15) is done at the slower speed memory-card transmitting mode. Thus, the speed in the entire data transferring system is done in the memory-card transmitting mode.
Moreover, each memory card 10, 102, 103 and 104 comprises at least one data-storage medium (11), which is controlled by the commands from a data r/w (read/write) controller (13). And thus digital data storage is made possible. Each memory card 10, 102, 103 and 104 could connect to a compatible IA product via a transmitting bus of compatible transmitting mode. Such transmitting buses could be MMC transmitting bus (180), HS MMC transmitting bus (182), SD transmitting bus (183) and other transmitting bus (184). The memory cards support MMC IA products (19), HS MMC IA products (192), SD IA products (193), and IA products of other interface (194). Each and every memory card has an individual transmission protocol, therefore, although they might be compatible structurally but would not be able to communicate and archive with each other's data; the case of two-way compatibility is rarely seen. Thus, it is rather not a user-friendly system and it adds consumer's cost on purchasing memory cards.

Method for determining transmitting mode of a memory card with multiple interface functions


A method of manufacturing a microelectronics device including providing a substrate having an active layer, a dielectric layer and a structural layer, wherein the active layer is formed over the dielectric layer and the dielectric layer is formed over the structural layer. The method further includes forming an opening through the active layer thereby exposing a surface of the dielectric layer and defining active layer sidewalls. A spacer is formed covering a first portion of the exposed dielectric layer surface and substantially spanning one of the active layer sidewalls. At least a second portion of the exposed dielectric layer surface is then cleaned.

The present disclosure relates generally to methods of manufacturing semiconductor devices and, more specifically, to methods of manufacturing a semiconductor device having an active layer spacer.
Semiconductor device geometries continue to dramatically decrease in size since such devices were first introduced several decades ago. Today's fabrication plants are routinely producing devices having feature dimensions less than 90 nm. This reduction in size has helped to reduce manufacturing costs and provide greater electronic device speed and capabilities.
As device sizes shrink, the materials and processes used in fabrication must adapt to achieve more challenging specifications. One recent improvement is the adoption of silicon-on-insulator (SOI) substrates over the former industry standard of silicon substrates. SOI substrates can be generally formed by oxidizing an insulating layer formed over a handle or structural portion of a substrate. The oxidizing process may include rapid thermal processing (RTP), implantation of oxygen ions and/or other processes known to those skilled in the art. SOI substrates provide improved electrical isolation between individual devices of an integrated circuit, which allows for operation of these devices at higher cycling frequencies and faster device operating speeds. SOI substrates also provide a significant reduction in parasitic capacitance which can often lead to problems with device operation.
However, the adoption of SOI substrates has presented problems. In some applications, employing SOI substrates can lead to the contamination of device active areas. For example, wet etching processes typically employed to pattern blanket-deposited layers and to clean partially completed devices at intermediate stages of manufacture can over-etch the insulator layer of an SOI substrate, often causing undercut regions to form in the insulator layer under device gates, active regions and other patterned components. The undercut regions can accumulate residue during their formation and subsequent processing. The residue may comprise polymer resist, polysilicon, silicides, oxides and/or other processing materials. The trapped residue can contribute to transistor latch-up. The residue can also lead to pin holes and other defects in components formed over or around the undercut regions, possibly leading to excessive current leakage, threshold breakdown and/or device failure. The reliability of devices may also fall victim to these shortcomings. Moreover, such problems are exasperated as microelectronic devices experience continued scaling.
Accordingly, what is needed in the art is a microelectronics device and a method of manufacture thereof that addresses the above-discussed issues.

Process integration of SOI FETs with active layer spacer

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.


A connector capable of electrically connecting a printed circuit board to a flat cable without soldered connections. Each of a plurality of first connecting terminals provided at a first housing has a portion that sandwiches a predetermined conductor through an insulating coating of a flat cable and crimps the conductor. The first connecting terminals pass through holes provided in a cover. The first connecting terminals are brought into contact with conductive portions of a printed circuit board and electrically connected to the conductive portions. The printed circuit board has a wiring pattern one end of which is connected to a PCI card edge connector and the other end is connected to a through hole. Accordingly, the PCI card edge connector is electrically connected to the conductive portions of the flat cable through the first connecting terminals.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a connector and a printed circuit board connected to the connector. In particular, the invention relates to a connector for flat cable that is capable of connecting a flat cable to a printed circuit board without soldered connections, and a printed circuit board connected to the connector
2. Description of the Related Art
Most of the conventional connectors for flat cable are used as a male or female connector through a pitch conversion substrate by crimping a conductor of a flat cable to a plurality of terminals incorporated in a housing.
For example, there is a mode where a plurality of signal contacts and ground buses are arranged in parallel to each other in the longitudinal direction of a housing and each of the ground buses has a ground conductor crimping slot that is programmed in advance and a bypass slot (see Patent Document 1).
[Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. H10-335013
Patent Document 1 discloses a mode where a bypass slot accepts a signal conductor of a flat cable without crimping, and after the completion of crimping and termination, the signal conductor of a flat cable and a ground conductor are arranged on the same surface.
There is another mode where a plurality of holes are provided at one end of a housing, a hole communicated with the holes in common is provided at the other end, and terminals are inserted into these holes (see Patent Document 2).
[Patent Document 2] Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. H11-251007
Patent Document 2 discloses a mode where each terminal has a crimping slit part in a hole side and a male contact part to be brought into contact with a terminal of a counterpart connector, the center positions of the terminals are arranged so that the arrangement pitches of the crimping slit parts are different from the arrangement pitches of the contact parts, the crimping slit parts and the contact parts of the terminals are formed like flat plates, and the mutually connecting parts of the crimping slit parts and the contact parts are curved so as to be parallel to each other and overlap in steps.
Such a conventional connector for flat cable requires a receiving jig such as a socket at a circuit board side to be connected. As another mode, soldered connection is required to connect a connector pin to a circuit board to be connected. In the case of soldered connection, the use of a material containing a biologically and environmentally harmful substance tends to be restricted, and it is required to review components and usage of solder that is a mixture of tin and lead.
In addition, it is important to reduce the number of mounted components and mount operations of a connector in order to achieve shorter delivery times and cost savings in view of the mass production process.

Connector and printed circuit board connected to the same

Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.


A display apparatus and method are disclosed. The display apparatus according to the present disclosure includes a plurality of terminals, a display unit which displays a selection screen for selecting an external device to be connected to the display apparatus, and a control unit which controls the display unit to display a terminal image which shows a placement of the plurality of terminals and a guiding image for guiding to a terminal which corresponds corresponding to the selected external device from among the plurality of terminals when an external device is selected through the selection screen. Accordingly, a user may easily and quickly connect a connector of the external device to the terminal of the display apparatus. The display method includes displaying a connection setting menu for selecting an external device on a screen at a user's request; generating a guiding screen which includes a terminal image showing a placement state of the plurality of terminals and a guiding image for guiding to a terminal which corresponds to the external device from among the plurality of terminals, when the connection setting menu is selected; and displaying the guiding screen.

1. Field
Methods and apparatuses consistent with the exemplary embodiments relate to a display apparatus and method. More particularly, methods and apparatuses of the exemplary embodiments relate to a display apparatus which can display a connection state of an external device on a terminal of the display apparatus, and a method thereof.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Generally, on one side or rear side of a display apparatus such as a TV, there are terminals which are connected to connectors of external devices. On a display apparatus such as a smart TV, various terminals such as a LAN, USB, HDMI1, AViN, PC IN, and ANT are provided.
A display apparatus which has such various terminals is placed on one side of a wall in a wall-mountable or standing form. Since the display apparatus is placed on one side of the wall, a user is unable to easily see the direction in which the terminals provided in a direction of one side or rear side of the display apparatus are placed. Therefore, there is a problem that a user cannot easily connect a connector to a terminal which corresponds to the connector of an external device.
Moreover, in a conventional display apparatus, when a connector of an external device is connected to a terminal, information regarding whether or not the connector is properly connected to the terminal, is not provided. Therefore, a user can only know whether or not the external device is properly connected to the display apparatus based on whether or not data from the external device connected to the terminal of the display apparatus is executed through the display apparatus.
In the case of a conventional display apparatus, information regarding terminals connected to a plurality of connector terminals is not provided. Therefore, there is a problem that a user cannot readily determine to which terminal he/she should connect connectors of the plurality of external devices.

Display apparatus for displaying a connection state of an external device and control method


An integrated circuit (IC) design is accessed from a database in memory. The IC design comprises a route connecting a source to a sink. A set of buffering candidates for buffering are generated for the net. A timing improvement associated with a buffering candidate in the set of buffering candidates is determined using a first timing model. The buffering candidate is pruned from the set of buffering candidates based on the timing improvement and a cost associated with the buffering candidate. The pruned set of buffering candidates is evaluated using a second timing model, and a buffering solution for the net is selected from the pruned set of buffering candidates based on a result of the evaluating. The IC design is updated to include the buffering solution selected for the net.

An IC comprises cells of similar and/or various sizes and connections between or among the cells. A cell comprises one or more circuit elements such as transistors, resistors, capacitors, inductors, and other basic circuit elements grouped together to perform a logic function. Each cell includes several pins interconnected by wires to pins of one or more other cells. A net includes a set of pins connected by wires in order to form connections between or among the pins. An IC design may include multiple nets. A design netlist specifies the connections between the pins.
Design engineers design ICs by transforming circuit descriptions of the ICs into geometric descriptions, called layouts. To create layouts, design engineers typically use electronic design automation (EDA) applications. These applications provide sets of computer-based tools for creating, editing, and analyzing IC design layouts.

Pruning of buffering candidates for improved efficiency of evaluation


The invention relates to a screw connection (1) in ha headlight of a motor vehicle, which has a threaded element (10) with a screw shaft (11) that is screwed into a screw-in opening (12) of a headlight component (13). According to the invention, a protective sleeve (14) has been provided and mounted on at least a portion of the screw shaft (11) in such a way that the protective sleeve (14) covers the screw-in opening (12).

DE 38 41 632 C2 discloses a screw connection in a headlight of a motor vehicle, showing a threaded element with a screw shaft that is screwed into a screw-in opening. The headlight component is formed by a frame mounted on the motor vehicle. During the process of screwing the screw shaft into the screw-in opening, it is possible that screw shavings are generated from the material of the headlight component, especially when the threaded element has a self-tapping screw thread. The screw shavings thus generated can enter the headlight and interfere with the function of the headlight or after the headlight has been installed the screw shavings can be visible from outside of the headlight.
DE 10 2007 028 988 A1 discloses a further headlight with a screw connection, and the threaded element has a head, which forms a ball-shaped head for a flexible connection of a light module. When the threaded element is screwed into the frame, which forms the headlight component with the screw-in opening, and the screw thread of the screw shaft is designed as a self-tapping screw thread, it is disadvantageously possible that screw shavings can enter the headlight.


A suture clamping system, including a plurality of elements positioned together in a row, wherein at least one of the elements is flexible, the plurality of elements each being dimensioned such that an opening slot is formed through the row of elements when the at least one flexible element is biased into a first position, and wherein a tortuous path is formed through the row of elements when the elements are not biased. A method of clamping a suture pair, including biasing a row of adjacent flexible elements to a first position in which an opening slot is formed therealong; receiving the suture pair into the opening slot; and removing the biasing such that the adjacent flexible elements move to positions which hold the suture pair in a tortuous path.

Sutures are used to sew tissue together, and thereby close tissue openings, cuts or incisions during or after any of a very wide variety of medical procedures. Typically, the surgeon manually ties together a suture pair to close the opening, however, automatic suture tying systems have also been developed.
There are a number of disadvantages of knotting sutures together to secure tissues to one another. For example, manual knot tying requires considerable dexterity. Also, manual knot tying can take considerable time. Knot tying is further complicated by the fact that surgical sutures have low friction surfaces. Therefore, it is typically necessary for a surgeon to include many "throws" when tying the knot. This multiple-throw problem occurs even if an automatic knot tying device is used. Unfortunately, as the number of loops or "throws" incorporated into the knot increase, the knot becomes increasingly large and bulky. Moreover, the surgeon typically needs to handle strands of adequate suture length prior to commencing manual knot tying. Thus, manual knot tying requires considerable space both in which to view, and to perform, the actual suture knot tying. Therefore, knot tying is particularly difficult in areas of limited available space or access, such as, for example, at the back of the patient's heart during a coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) operation, or at the artery in the tissue tract after a femoral artery catheterization procedure. Manually tied knots often lock prior to reaching the intended amount of tension to be applied to the tissue. Furthermore, tissues are typically secured together by a pair of sutures wherein each of the sutures in the pair pass through both of the tissues which are then secured together by tying off the suture pair. It would instead be advantageous to provide a system which is adapted to secure tissue with suture, but without necessarily tying a knot.


A hybrid vehicle controller operates to use GPS navigation information to determine how much energy should be delivered from or sent to, the battery. The battery charge can be better managed by using knowledge of the future path of the vehicle.

A hybrid vehicle may operate using both hydrocarbon fuel and electric power. A conventional engine may be fueled by the hydrocarbon fuel. An electric motor is powered by a battery, and can create or supplement the engine's power. There are several levels of hybrid vehicles available or in design. Some definitions:
Basic hybrids will be used to refer to the current generation of hybrid vehicles in which the amount of energy stored as liquid fuel is much greater than the energy capacity of the battery so the vehicle is being propelled by the engine most of the time. The vehicle uses the combined power of both the engine and the motor to achieve acceptable performance in acceleration or hill climbing. Performance may suffer if the battery is completely drained.
A basic hybrid may use the engine to operate a generator which charges the battery at times when the full power of the engine is not needed to propel the vehicle. During braking the electric motor can also act as a generator and recover kinetic energy to replenish the battery.
Pure hybrids or serial hybrids refer to more extreme hybrid vehicles that are being designed. In these "pure" or all-electric-drive hybrids, one or more electric motors are the only source of power to the wheels. The only function of the engine is to run a generator to charge the battery. In this type of vehicle it is even more important that there always be charge in the battery since the vehicle cannot move at all without it.
In a pure hybrid the battery pack is typically much larger than in a basic hybrid. This design also has the advantage that the engine and generator can run while the vehicle is parked or stopped. Because most vehicles spend more time parked than moving in this kind of hybrid the engine can be much smaller than the engine in a conventional vehicle of the same weight.
Plug-in hybrid means one in which the driver has the option of plugging the vehicle into an exterior electric power when it is parked so that the battery does not have to be charged by the engine. Typically they have larger batteries than a basic hybrid. Of course if the battery is low and the vehicle is not plugged in the engine will power a generator to charge the battery as in a basic hybrid. Since electricity purchased from a utility is much cheaper than hydrocarbon fuels in terms of cost per unit of energy, it is advantageous to the user to charge from the grid as often as possible and minimize times the engine is charging the battery.
A plug-in hybrid often has a larger battery, so that on local trips the vehicle may be able to run on battery power except when maximal power is needed and thus achieve a higher effective miles per gallon of hydrocarbon fuel. The capacity to plug in is a feature that can be added to the other types mentioned above so a plug-in hybrid will also be either a basic or pure hybrid.
Solar hybrid will be used to refer to newly proposed hybrid vehicles which have solar panels on the body to provide part of the electricity for the electric motor. It is well known that the area available on the top of a typical car is insufficient to provide enough electricity to power the car. In fact, typically the ratio is ⅛ to 1/10 of the area that would be needed to power such a vehicle. On the other hand, a typical car belonging to an individual is parked 90% of the time. Therefore, if the battery is large enough, solar charging could provide a significant portion of the energy used. The currently proposed solar hybrids may also be plug-in hybrids, so if sunlight is unavailable for any reason (weather, parked underground etc.) the battery can be charged from grid power. In addition since it is a hybrid, the battery can always be charged by the engine.
A controller may be formed by one or more processors associated with the vehicle. The controller runs an optimized control algorithm that determines on a moment-to-moment basis when to use either the engine, the motor or both; in what ratio, and also when to charge the battery from the engine. In pure, plug-in and solar hybrids, the controller also makes decisions about how and when to recharge the battery when the vehicle is stopped or parked. The controller may also adjust the transmission and brakes as necessary to maintain optimal efficiency.

Inputs for optimizing performance in hybrid vehicles


A rotor device capable of forcing heat dissipation includes a hub and an inner casing. The hub provides a closed end with at least a through hole radially disposed thereon and a projection extending therefrom along the circumference of the through hole. The inner casing is disposed in the hub. Fluid is forced by the projection to move outward or inward via the through hole so that temperature of the fluid in the hub and the inner casing can be lowered down.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to a rotor device capable of forcing heat dissipation and particularly to a device to force heat generated during the rotor rotating.
2. Brief Description of the Related Art
Referring to FIG. 1, a conventional rotor assembly of a fan motor includes a fan frame 11 and a hub 12. The fan frame 11 provides a support base 111 with a collar bush 112. A bearing 113 is received in the collar bush 112 and a stator 13 is disposed to surround and fit with the collar bush 112 such that the stator 13 can be attached to the support base 111. The hub 12 has main wall and a circumferential wall such that a space can be defined to receive a shield member 14. The shield member 14 also has a main wall and a circumferential wall to define a space for receive a rotor 15. A plurality of fan blades 121 are radially disposed outside the hub 12 and a spindle 16 is joined to the hub 12 and the shield member 14 at an end thereof and passes through the bearing 113 to allow the hub 12 and the shield member 14 being movably attached to the support base 111.
When the stator 13 and the rotor 15 of the fan motor are magnetized to drive the hub 12 and the shield member 14 rotating due to change of phase, the fan blades thus rotates to move fluid and performs heat dissipation to the hot objects. However, the problem of conventional rotor assembly resides in that heat can be generated from running of the stator 13 and the rotor 15 and most of the heat stays in the hub without removing because of the shield member being enclosed in the hub with poor heat transfer. In this way, a great deal of heat stays in the hub to lead shortened life span of the motor and to increase heat in the system.
Further, US Publication No. 2004/0075356 entitled FAN ROTOR includes a tubular hub having a closed-end wall and an inner wall, with a metal ring receiving in the tubular hub in engagement with the inner wall. The metal ring has a magnet ring embedded therein. Furthermore, the tubular hub is provided with a plurality of retainers for releasably holding the metal ring in the tubular hub.
The problem of the preceding prior art is in that fluid in the hub flows in a swirl way during the hub rotating and the flowing path of the fluid is inconsistent with orientations of the through holes such that fluid inside the hub is not easy to flow outward via the through holes and low convection efficiency is obtained with ineffective heat dissipation.

Rotor device capable of forcing heat dissipation


The object of the present invention is to provide a microorganism capable of maintaining its xylose fermentation ability over a long period of time. The present invention also provides a microorganism deficient in the function of expressing NAD kinase gene and/or FPS1 gene, a method for preparing the above microorganism and a method for producing ethanol using the above microorganism.

In recent years, in terms of fossil fuel depletion and/or the necessity of CO2 gas reduction, studies have been pursued to produce ethanol as a fuel from biomass such as corncob, rice straw, switchgrass, Erianthus, scrap wood and so on, which have been wasted. Since many thousands of years ago, humans have already had techniques to convert starch into ethanol through fermentation by the action of yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Starch is a polysaccharide composed of glucoses linked via α-1,4 linkages and can be easily degraded by the action of hydrolases present in various organisms. Glucose is the most preferred carbon source for yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and two molecules of ethanol are produced through fermentation from one molecule of glucose. In contrast, biomass contains cellulose or hemicellulose as a polysaccharide.
Among them, cellulose is a polysaccharide composed of glucoses linked via β-1,4 linkages and is in a crystalline structure. Cellulose has some problems, e.g., in that pretreatment is required to disrupt its crystalline structure and in that enzymes required for its degradation, such as cellobiohydrolase I, cellobiohydrolase II and endoglucanase, do not have sufficient activity. However, there is no problem in fermenting cellulose by the action of yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, because the sugar produced after degradation is glucose.
In contrast, hemicellulose comprises not only glucose, but also pentoses such as xylose and arabinose. However, yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae is conventionally unable to ferment these pentoses. For this reason, techniques to allow genes for xylose reductase and xylitol dehydrogenase from xylose-fermentable yeast Pichia stipitis to be highly expressed in yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae have often been used for xylose fermentation (FIG. 1). Xylose reductase in Pichia stipitis is an enzyme that uses NADPH as a major coenzyme, and one molecule of NADP is generated after reaction. On the other hand, xylitol dehydrogenase is an enzyme that uses NAD as a major coenzyme, and one molecule of NADH is generated after reaction. Thus, as shown in FIG. 1, the balance of NADP/NADPH or NAD/NADH remains unchanged during glucose fermentation, whereas this balance is shifted to increase NADP or NADH during xylose fermentation. This would be responsible for the low yield in ethanol fermentation from xylose.
Many attempts have been made to prepare a mutated xylose reductase whose coenzyme specificity is altered to NADH (Non-patent Document 1), to prepare a mutated xylitol dehydrogenase whose coenzyme specificity is altered to NADPH (Non-patent Document 2), to design an experiment where a gene for the glycolytic enzyme glyceraldehyde triphosphate dehydrogenase with coenzyme specificity for NADPH is introduced from another organism species (Non-patent Document 3), and to express transhydrogenases (which transfer hydrogen between NADPH and NAD or between NADP and NADH) derived from bacteria such as E. coli (Non-patent Document 4), but these attempts have not succeeded in providing sufficient effects.


Borylated Amino Acid (“BAA”) compositions and methods of making BAAs are disclosed herein. Consequently, the BAAs can be administered to patients as a Neutron Capture Agent and provide a method of treating cancer, immunological disorders and other disease by utilizing a Neutron Capture Therapy modality.

Cancer is the second leading cause of death next to coronary disease worldwide. Millions of people die from cancer every year and in the United States alone cancer kills well over a half-million people annually, with 1,688,780 new cancer cases diagnosed in 2017 (American Cancer Society). While deaths from heart disease have been declining significantly, those resulting from cancer generally are on the rise. In the early part of the next century, cancer is predicted to become the leading cause of death unless medical developments change the current trend.
Several cancers stand out as having high rates of mortality. In particular, carcinomas of the lung (18.4% of all cancer deaths), breast (6.6% of all cancer deaths), colorectal (9.2% of all cancer deaths), liver (8.2% of all cancer deaths), and stomach (8.2% of all cancer deaths) represent major causes of cancer death for both sexes in all ages worldwide (GLOBOCAN 2018). These and virtually all other carcinomas share a common lethal feature in that they metastasise to sites distant from the primary tumor and with very few exceptions, metastatic disease fatal. Moreover, even for those cancer patients who initially survive their primary cancers, common experience has shown that their lives are dramatically altered. Many cancer patients experience strong anxieties driven by the awareness of the potential for recurrence or treatment failure. Many cancer patients also experience physical debilitations following treatment. Furthermore, many cancer patients experience a recurrence of their disease.
Although cancer therapy has improved over the past decades and survival rates have increased, the heterogeneity of cancer still demands new therapeutic strategies utilizing a pluriality of treatment modalities. This is especially true in treating solid tumors at anatomical crucial sites (e.g., glioblastoma, squamous carcinoma of the head and neckand lung adenocarcinoma) which are sometimes limited to standard radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy. Nonetheless, detrimental effects of these therapies are chemo- and radioresistance, which promote loco-regional recurrences, distant metastases and second primary tumors, in addition to severe side-effects that reduce the patients' quality of life.
Neutron Capture Therapy (NCT) is a promising form of radiation therapy. It is a technique that selectively kills tumor cells using boron compound while sparing the normal cells. BNCT relies on the propensity of non-radioactive 10B isotope to absorb epithermal neutrons that fall into the low energy range of 0.5 keV<En<30 keV. Following neutron capture, boron atom undergoes a nuclear fission reaction giving rise to an alpha-particle and a recoiled lithium nucleus (7Li) as follows:10B+n→7Li+4He
The alpha particle deposits high energy i.e. 150 keV/μm along their short path essentially restricted to a single cell diameter that results in a double strand DNA breaks followed by cancer cell death by apoptosis. Thus BNCT integrates a concept of both chemotherapy, targeted therapy and the gross anatomical localization of traditional radiotherapy.
Even though the conceptual techniques of NCT and specifically Boron Neutron Capture Thereapy (BNCT) are well known, the technological limitations associated with this type of treatment have slowed progress. During the early investigations using the research reactors of MIT in 1960's, several dosens of patients were treated using disodium decahydrodecaborate, which was considered less toxic than simple boron compounds used previously yet capable of delivering more boron to the cell. Unfortunately, BNCT studies were halted in the USA due to the severe brain necrosis in the patients undergoing BNCT and the potential harm of using nuclear reactors.
Hiroshi Hatanaka in 1968 re-investigated clinical application of BNCT in Japan using sodium borocaptate (BSH) by directing the beam to surgically exposed intracranial tumor and reported of achieving 58% of 5-year survival rate. In 1987 clinicians in Japan applied BNCT for the treatment of malignant melanoma using boronophenylalanine (BPA) as boron compound. Thus, slow resurgence of BNCT took place albeit limited to the countries with an access to research reactor facilities capable of delivering epithermal neutron beam. Currently, given the technological improvements in both (i) the infusion and delivery of a capture compound, which preferably concentrates in the tumor, and (ii) more abundant and easier access to neutron beam using cyclotrons, there has been a resurgence in NCT treatment methods.
The proton boron fusion reaction relies on the naturally abundant 11B isotope rather than 10B required for BNCT. Unlike BNCT, three alpha particles are emitted after the fusion reaction between a proton (1H) and a boron (11B) nucleus: p+11B→3α. The proton beam has the advantage of a Bragg-peak characteristic reducing the normal tissue damage and when combined with proton capture, may improve the efficacy of the proton therapy alone.
Carriers of boron have evolved since 1950s and are reviewed in NEDUNCHEZHIAN, et. al., J. Clin. Diag. Res., vol. 10(12) (December 2016). Briefly, the 1st generations of boron compounds represented by boric acid and its derivatives were either toxic or suffered from low tumor accumulation/retention. BPA and BSH are both considered the 2nd generation compounds that emerged in 1960s. These had significantly lower toxicity and better PK and biodistribution. BPA-fructose complex is considered the 3rd generation compound that is used to treat patients with H&N, glioblastoma and melanoma using BNCT since 1994. BPA-fructose and BSH are the only compounds that are being used in clinic as boron carriers to date although both low and high molecular weight biomolecules such as nucleosides, porphyrins, liposomes, nanoparticles and mAbs have been evaluated for the tumor targeting in preclinical models. The main deficiency of BPA-fructose is relatively low solubility combined with its rapid clearance that prevents achieving high Cmax in blood, one of the drivers influencing the tumor uptake.
From the aforementioned, it will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art that a new treatment paradigm is needed in the treatment of cancers and immunological diseases. By using modern chemical synthesis and modifying natural amino acids with boron, a new disease treatment can be achieved with the overall goal of more effective treatment, reduced side effects, and lower production costs.
Given the current deficiencies associated with NCT, it is an object of the present invention to provide new and improved methods of treating cancer(s), immunological disorders, and other diseases utilizing borylated amino acids and NCT.

Borylated amino acid compositions for use in boron neutron capture therapy and methods thereof


A method of active queue management, for handling prioritized traffic in a packet transmission system, the method including: providing differentiation between traffic originating from rate adaptive applications that respond to packet loss, wherein traffic is assigned to one of at least two drop precedent levels in-profile and out-profile; preventing starvation of low prioritized traffic; preserving a strict hierarchy among precedence levels; providing absolute differentiation of traffic; and reclassifying a packet of the traffic of the packet transmission system, tagged as in-profile, as out-profile, when a drop probability assigned to the packet is greater than a drop probability calculated from an average queue length for in-profile packets.

(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to methods of active queue management in packet transmission systems, especially internet systems, telecommunications systems employing such methods and routers employing such methods.
(2) Description of the Related Art
The current Internet architecture offers one service only, namely, best-effort. The Internet community has recognized the importance of simplicity in the forwarding mechanisms, but has also recognized that this single service may not be enough to support the wide range of applications on the Internet. The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) is, therefore, designing architectural extensions to enable service differentiation on the Internet. The Differentiated Services (DiffServ) architecture, see:                Black D. et. al. (1998), An Architecture for Differentiated Services, IETF RFC 2475, December 1998;        Bernet Y. et. al. (1998), A Framework for Differentiated Services, IETF DRAFT, October 1998; and        Nichols K. et. al. (1998), Definition of the Differentiated Services Field (DS Field) in the IPv4 and 1Fv6 Headers, IETF RFC 2474, December 1998;includes mechanisms for differentiated forwarding.
One proposed mechanism for DiffServ is to assign levels of drop precedence to IP packets. This mechanism is included in the Assured Forwarding (AF) per-hop behavior (PHB) group, see:                Hainanen J. et. al. (1998), Assured Forwarding PHB Group, IETF DRAFT, November 1998.
AF can be used to offer differentiation among rate adaptive applications that respond to packet loss, e.g., applications using TCP. The traffic of each user is tagged as being in, or out of, their service profiles. Packets tagged as in profile are assigned a lower drop precedence than those tagged as out of profile. In addition, a packet within a users profile can be tagged with one, out of several levels, of drop precedence. For now, there are three levels of drop precedence for the AF PHB group.
Multiple levels of drop precedence can be created with an active queue management (AQM) mechanism applied to a FIFO queue. An advantageous property of FIFO queues is that packets are forwarded in the same order as they arrive. Thus, packet reordering, which can reduce the performance of a TCP connection, is avoided. Moreover, FIFO queues are suitable for high-speed links since they can be implemented efficiently.
Two known AQM mechanisms are RIO, see:
                Clark D. and Fang W. (1997), Explicit Allocation of Best Effort Delivery Service, 1997 URL http://www.diffserv.lcs.mit.edu/Papers/exp-alloc-ddc-wf.pdf,and WRED, see:        Technical Specification from Cisco (1998), Distributed Weighted Random Early Detection, 1998, URL: http://www.cisco.comlunivercd/cc/td/doc/productl/oftware/ios/111/cc111/wred.pdf;
Normally, prioritized traffic entering a network is controlled to avoid overload. When such traffic is properly controlled, RIO and WRED are found to offer an absolute quantifiable differentiation. However, these mechanisms can cause starvation of less prioritized traffic if this control fails. That is, traffic tagged with anything but the highest prioritized level of drop precedence may suffer from starvation.
Failures in traffic control will occur due to inaccuracies in admission control and topology changes. For example, measurement based admission control may accidentally accept traffic causing a temporary overload until this condition is detected. Moreover, the control system, or the signalling protocol, may fail in adapting fast enough to changes in network routing topology. Traffic conditioners may, therefore, not be reconfigured before overload occurs. Thus, it is preferable if the AQM mechanism used can prevent starvation at any load.
RIO can be configured to prevent starvation, but a strict hierarchy among precedence levels cannot be guaranteed under periods of overload. That is, traffic tagged with the highest prioritized level of drop precedence may experience a larger drop rate than traffic tagged with a lesser prioritized level. Such a configuration of RIO is, therefore, not advisable. A queuing mechanism should not only prevent starvation, it should also preserve a strict hierarchy among precedence levels at any load.
A queuing mechanism creating multiple levels of drop precedence can be considered to be load-tolerant if it can meet the following two requirements at any load:                prevent starvation of low prioritized traffic—that is, low prioritized traffic must always get a useful share of the bandwidth available; and        preserve a strict hierarchy among precedence levels—that is, traffic using a certain precedence level must always experience less probability of loss than traffic using a less prioritized level of drop precedence.
WRED can meet these requirements for load-tolerance when configured to offer a relative differentiation. A relative differentiation means, for example, that a TCP flow is given twice the throughput of another, less prioritized, TCP flow with the same RTT. That is, guarantees are made to one flow, only, relatively to another. An absolute differentiation, on the other hand, offers quantifiable bounds on throughput, loss and/or delay jitter. This kind of differentiation can give a TCP flow an absolute quantified throughput independent of the throughput other TCP flows will experience.
It can be assumed that absolute differentiable services are more desireable for many users than relative services, since they are more predictable. With an absolute service, the quality of a certain communication session is known in advance. This pre-knowledge is, for example, valuable when choosing the optimal level of redundancy coding. With a relative service, the level of coding has to be chosen based on heuristics, or real-time measurements.
Neither RIO, nor WRED, can meet the requirements for load-tolerance, stated above, while providing an absolute differentiation. The present invention, however, provides a new queuing mechanism, WRED with Thresholds (WRT). The benefit of the present invention, i.e. WRT, is that, without reconfiguration, it provides an absolute differentiation, if prioritized traffic is properly controlled, and a relative differentiation in other cases. Thus, WRT can be considered load-tolerant according to the definition stated above.
The load-tolerance of WRT can be examined by means of simulations. The simulations are focused on the qualitative behavior of WRT under different grades of overload, rather than its quantitative behavior at a specific load. Simulations comparing WRT with RIO and WRED show that WRT offers equal differentiation to these mechanisms. Thus, other simulation studies of RIO and WRED, providing quantitative results, are likely to be applicable to WRT.
For constructing end-to-end services, load-tolerance is advantageous for several reasons. First, traffic control does not need to be so accurate and/or a larger portion of prioritized traffic can be allowed in a network. Moreover, failure in controlling this prioritized traffic cannot cause any starvation.

Method, system and router providing active queue management in packet transmission systems


The invention aims at providing a process of subjecting a polyether polymer containing a double metal cyanide complex and/or residue compounds thereof as the metallic impurities to extraction with water to thereby remove the metallic impurities, which enables simpler and complete removal of the impurities; and polyether polymers obtained by the process. This aim is attained by a process for the purification of polyethers characterized by blending (A) a polyether containing a double metal cyanide complex and/or residue compounds thereof with ascorbic acid or a derivative thereof and water and then removing the aqueous phase from the resulting mixture to thereby remove the double metal cyanide and/or the residue compounds.

Use of a room-temperature hardening composition containing a polyether polymer containing hydrolyzable silicon groups and a silanol condensation catalyst, for example as sealant or adhesive, is well known and useful industrially. An example of the method of producing such a hydrolyzable silicon group-containing polyether polymer is to produce a polyether polymer having terminal OH groups, convert the terminal OH groups to olefins, and hydrosilylate the olefin with a hydrolyzable silicon group-containing hydrosilane compound.
However, if an oxidative impurity is present in the unsaturated group-containing polyether prepared by conversion of the terminal OH groups, the impurity inhibits the following hydrosilylation reaction in the method. For prevention of such a reaction inhibition known is a method of advancing the hydrosilylation reaction without problem by decomposing the oxidative impurity present in the unsaturated group-containing polyether with ascorbic acid (see Patent Document 1).
On the other hand, a method of polymerizing an alkyleneoxide by using an alkali metal catalyst such as KOH, a double metal cyanide complex catalyst as a catalyst or the like has been known as a method of producing polyether polymers having terminal OH groups. In such a polymerization method, the catalyst used in polymerization and the residue thereof are removed from the system by a method suitable for the system.
For example, a method of using a double metal cyanide complex gives a polymer having a number-average molecular weight of 8,000 or more and a narrow molecular weight distribution. A curable resin composition containing the hydrolyzable silicon group-containing polyether polymer prepared by such a method is useful, for making the hardened product more flexible, reducing the viscosity of the composition, and making the composition more processable.
The double metal cyanide complexes are removed, for example, by water extraction (see for example Patent Document 2). However, vigorous agitation of the polyether polymer and water for sufficient contact results in emulsification of the system containing the polymer substance, demanding an extended period for separation of the polyether polymer from water after agitation and also a larger facility. Alternatively, gentle agitation for prevention of emulsification also caused a problem of insufficient extraction of metal impurities.
Alternatively, methods of adding a chelating agent such as ethylenediamine tetraacetic acid (EDTA) were also proposed (see for example Patent Document 3). These methods resulted in residual of a chelating agent such as EDTA in the polymer, which functions as a hydrosilylation reaction inhibitor, and thus had a disadvantage of demanding complete removal of EDTA before hydrosilylation.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 10-212349
Patent Document 2: Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2003-105079
Patent Document 3: Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 06-200013

Process for production of polyethers and polymers


A developer for electrophotography which is excellent in the retention of the charge quantity of the toner and the controllability of the charge quantity, scarcely causes adhesion of the carrier to image areas and can provide stable image quality is disclosed, the developer comprising a toner containing a quaternary ammonium salt type charge control agent dispersed in a binder resin and a carrier coated with a resin comprising, as essential components, a vinylidene fluoride monomer unit-containing resin and a methylphenylsilicone resin.

Recording systems for visualizing image information through an electrostatic latent image such as electrophotography are now widespread in various fields. In electrophotography, an electrophotographic photoreceptor is charged and then exposed to light to form an electrostatic latent image, the latent image is developed with a developer containing a toner, and the toner image is transferred and fixed to visualize the image. The developer used herein includes a two-component developer comprising a toner and a carrier, and a one-component developer comprising a toner, e.g., a magnetic toner alone. In the two-component developer, since a carrier bears such functions as agitation, delivery and charging of the developer, the two-component developer is characterized by satisfactory controllability and largely employed for the present time. In particular, developers using a resin-coated carrier are excellent in charge controllability and are relatively easy to improve environmental dependence and stability with time.
Development was formerly carried out by cascade development, but nowadays magnetic brush development using a magnetic roll as a developer carrier is dominant.
Magnetic brush development using a two-component developer has such disadvantages as reduction of image density and considerable background stain both due to reduction in charging properties of the developer, reduced image quality and consumption loss of the carrier both due to adhesion of the carrier onto the image, and occurrence of unevenness of image density. It is considered that the mechanism of adhesion of the carrier onto the image is such that with a reduction in resistance of the carrier, the induced charges are injected into the image areas, resulting in adhesion of the carrier to the image areas; or it is considered that charge quantity of the carrier after development becomes excessive on account of insufficient control of the upper limit of charge quantity of the carrier, resulting in adhesion of the carrier to the edges of the image areas.
In recent years, negatively chargeable organic photoreceptors have been spread, and reversal development in which an electrostatic latent image is formed by using laser, etc. has been frequently applied to inorganic photoreceptors. Accordingly, there has been increasing demands for high quality developers using a positively chargeable toner. Accordingly, it has been examined that various charge control agents are added to toners to stabilize the charge quantities of the toners at a proper value of positive charge, and further it has been extensively examined that the charging of the toners is controlled by choosing a resin with which the carrier is coated.
Quaternary ammonium salts are known as colorless high-safety charge control agents [see, JP-A-49-51951 (the term "JP-A" as used herein means an "unexamined published Japanese patent application")]. However, when the quaternary ammonium salt is used in the two-component developer using a positively chargeable toner, charge quantity is insufficient merely by adding a quaternary ammonium salt type charge control agent to a toner, and hence it is necessary to coat a carrier with a negatively chargeable resin.
In particular, fluorine-containing resins have been extensively studied as negatively chargeable resins for use in coating the carrier in recent years. However, there are problems that the fluorine-containing resins have poor adhesion to core particles and the coated layer thereof has poor abrasion resistance.
In order to improve adhesion of the fluorine containing resins to core particles, it has been proposed to coat the core particles with a mixture of a fluorine-containing resin and the second resin well compatible with the fluorine-containing resin, such as a methyl methacrylate copolymer as disclosed in JP-A-54-110839 and JP-A-56-113146. However, such a mixture system adversely affects such excellent properties as solid lubricating properties and low tackiness inherent in the fluorine-containing resins, resulting in interference with an improvement of the surface stain resistance of the carrier.
Further, a developer comprising a toner containing a quaternary ammonium salt type charge control agent and a carrier having a vinylidene fluoride copolymer-coated layer has been proposed as disclosed in JP-A-1-204073. However, the above-mentioned problems can not be solved, and it is difficult to freely control the charge quantity of the toner.

Developer composition for electrophotography


A rotatable engine holding assembly for permitting rotation of an engine while the engine is being held above a support surface. The rotatable engine holding assembly includes a support frame having an attachment assembly couplable to an engine block to hold the engine. The assembly includes a rotatable axle coupling the attachment assembly to the support frame to permit rotation of the engine while the engine is being held.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to engine stands and more particularly pertains to a new rotatable engine holding assembly for permitting rotation of an engine while the engine is being held above a support surface.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The use of engine stands is known in the prior art. U.S. Pat. No. 4,239,196 describes an engine stand having a tilt mechanism and a crank handle driven rotatable face plate. Another type of engine stand is U.S. Pat. No. 3,675,914 having a weighted wheel and spoke arrangement to permit rotation of an engine. U.S. Pat. No. 3,381,953 discloses a non-rotatable portable engine stand. U.S. Pat. No. 3,765,667 shows another engine stand that provides tilting and rotation of the engine. U.S. Pat. No. 4,533,127 shows a wheel arrangement for an engine stand. U.S. Pat. No. Des. 324,599 discloses an ornamental appearance for an engine stand.
While these devices fulfill their respective, particular objectives and requirements, the need remains for an engine stand that includes a ratcheting mechanism typically utilized in slack adjusters for rotating an engine in a more precise and easier manner.
The present invention meets the needs presented above by utilizing a slack adjuster ratchet mechanism coupled to an S-cam shaft fixed to an engine mount plate.
Still yet another object of the present invention is to provide a new rotatable engine holding assembly that permits wheeling of an engine on a support surface.
Even still another object of the present invention is to provide a new rotatable engine holding assembly that precise rotation of an engine to a desired position.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide an engine stand that is capable of attachment to a variety of engine types by utilizing an adjustable mounting plate assembly.
To this end, the present invention generally comprises a support frame having an attachment assembly couplable to an engine block to hold the engine. The assembly includes a rotatable axle coupling the attachment assembly to the support frame to permit rotation of the eninge while the engine is being held.
There has thus been outlined, rather broadly, the more important features of the invention in order that the detailed description thereof that follows may be better understood, and in order that the present contribution to the art may be better appreciated. There are additional features of the invention that will be described hereinafter and which will form the subject matter of the claims appended hereto.
The objects of the invention, along with the various features of novelty which characterize the invention, are pointed out with particularity in the claims annexed to and forming a part of this disclosure.


A fully automated method of providing network services on demand is disclosed. The method includes receiving a request for download traffic from a user and beginning transmission of the download traffic to the user. The user is provided with the option of requesting better service level if required for an extra cost. If the user experiences poor service quality, the user then submits a service request by simply clicking a button. The NHCC then automatically identifies the customer traffic, determines the service parameters for the download traffic. With a global view of the existing network topology and conditions, the NHCC determines if the incoming service level request can be accommodated. If the network can be provisioned to accommodate the request, the NHCC sends traffic provisioning requests to Smart Nodes. The download traffic quality then improves thereby providing the customer with better quality of service. Thus, customers can request for better service levels on-demand with minimal knowledge of the existing network infrastructure.

As networks grow in complexity and size, network service providers are faced with the challenging task of guaranteeing the desired Quality of Service to its customers. Service Level Agreements (SLAs) negotiated between customers and the network service providers provide a way for the customers to specify the type of performance guarantees that are required for their traffic. These SLAs are generally negotiated well in advance before the customer actually uses the service. This implies that the customer should be aware well in advance if he would need preferential service, which in turn implies that the customer might have to pay up-front for better service, which he may not even use. Most customers are not technically qualified enough to specify their requirements in such a way that would result in an SLA that provides the level of service they need for the best price.
In addition, aspects of the network may make provisioning the traffic according to an SLA more difficult. An SLA also specifies the technical details such as performance requirements such as jitter, latency, and throughput in addition to identification of the traffic flow itself. The traffic flow is generally specified by source and destination address information. Some networks may include network address translators, which allow networks that do not have globally unique addresses to connect to larger networks. The network address translator translates the local, non-unique addresses into globally unique addresses, which in turn may make determination of the source and destination of the traffic flow difficult.
It would be highly desirable to have a mechanism wherein customers can request the desired service levels on a need-to basis. Also, a mechanism that will free the customer of technical details involved in specifying the exact service level requirements would be helpful.