Mixed amino acid/mineral compounds can include at least two amino acids bound to a central mineral atom. The combination of amino acids can be tailored to provide improved solubility, absorption, and/or bioavailability of the mineral. Optionally, organic acids can be bound to the mineral or combined with the chelate in order to further improve solubility, absorption, and/or bioavailability. Compositions including one or more mixed amino acid/mineral compounds can be included in therapeutic regimens for indications in which the mineral may treat and/or prevent a condition or symptom.

I. The Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to compositions including minerals complexed by amino acids. More particularly, the present invention relates to compositions including amino acid/mineral compounds having increased solubility, absorption, and/or bioavailability.
II. The Related Technology
Chelated minerals have become well known for nutritional supplementation. A wide range of nutritionally-relevant minerals have been chelated by amino acids in order to improve the therapeutic potential of the mineral. In part, amino acids have been shown to increase solubility of the mineral in the digestive system, thereby increasing bioavailability of the mineral.
The structure, chemistry and bioavailability of amino acid chelates is well documented in the literature, such as in Ashmead et al., Chelated Mineral Nutrition, (1982), Chas. C. Thomas Publishers, Springfield, Ill.; Ashmead et al., Intestinal Absorption of Metal Ions, (1985), Chas. C. Thomas Publishers, Springfield, Ill.; Ashmead et al., Foliar Feeding of Plants with Amino Acid Chelates, (1986), Noyes Publications, Park Ridge, N.J.; and U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,020,158; 4,167,564; 4,216,143; 4,216,144; 4,599,152; 4,725,427; 4,774,089; 4,830,716; 4,863,898; 4,725,427; 5,292,538; 5,516,925; 5,596,016; 6,114,379; 6,166,071; 6,407,138; 6,426,424; 6,458,981; 6,518,240; 6,706,904; 6,710,079; and 6,716,814, which are all incorporated herein by reference.
Iron is an example of a nutritionally-relevant mineral that is utilized in a variety of biological processes. While iron may be present in many foods of an ordinary diet, it may not be adequately absorbed into the body. As a consequence, it is estimated that approximately 500 million people may have iron deficiency even though their food includes iron. Contrary to popular beliefs, iron deficiencies are not limited to developing countries, and are present in a significant portion of the developed world. In the United States, about 11% of women between 16 and 49 years of age and about 9% of children between 1 and 2 years of age have been classified as iron deficient. Iron deficiency, such as iron deficiency anemia, has been treated with oral iron supplementation in the form of iron chelates (e.g., FERROCHEL® from Albion Advanced Nutrition).
Dietary iron can be obtained either as heme iron from beef, lamb, pork, and poultry or as nonheme iron from vegetables, whole grains, fortified grain products, and supplements. Beef and chicken liver are the richest sources of iron. In general, red meats (e.g., beef, veal, lamb) are richer in iron than white meat (e.g., poultry and fish). Heme iron is more bioavailable than nonheme iron because it is a soluble complex absorbed intact by endocytosis. Nonheme iron may form insoluble complexes in the alkaline medium of the small intestines rendering it unavailable for mucosal uptake. Absorption of nonheme iron also depends on availability of an iron-binding mucosal transport protein (e.g., transferrin) to facilitate uptake from the intestines.
Of the two forms of nonheme iron in the diet, the reduced form (e.g., ferrous) is more bioavailable than the oxidized form (e.g., ferric). On average, 10% of dietary iron is available for mucosal uptake, but the efficiency of absorption can increase three-fold in times of need because of increased synthesis of mucosal iron-binding protein. In addition to increased demand, intestinal absorption of nonheme iron is enhanced in acidic pH and in the presence of free amino acids. Acidic foods, such as tomato sauce or orange juice, consumed with a nonheme iron food source, such as pasta or breakfast cereal, can significantly increase the amount of iron absorbed from the meal.
Nonheme iron absorption efficiency may be reduced by use of antacids or high dose calcium supplements. Phytates and oxalates may also decrease bioavailability of nonheme iron. High dose supplements of calcium, zinc, manganese, magnesium, and/or copper can reduce iron absorption through competition for mucosal uptake. Tannic acid in coffee and tea can also adversely affect iron absorption. Consumption of coffee or tea one hour before or after consumption of a nonheme iron dietary source can reduce absorption of this mineral by as much as 40%.
Iron deficiency anemia is the most common nutritional deficiency disease worldwide. Inadequate dietary intake and relatively inefficient absorption of iron from low cost sources contribute to poor iron status. Iron is distributed in small amounts in the food supply with an average of 10 mg provided in each 1000 kcal of food consumed. Groups most at risk of iron deficiency are children, pregnant and menstruating women, and repeat blood donors. Blood loss of significant amounts for any reason can also contribute to iron deficiency.
Impairment in energy metabolism and neurological function may occur with depletion of iron reserves even in the absence of hematologically detectable anemia. Uncorrected iron deficiency (>120 days) can progress to iron-deficiency anemia, which is characterized by low hemoglobin levels from lack of sufficient iron for synthesis, and by decreased mean corpuscular volume of red blood cells due to lack of sufficient iron to support growth. Microcytic hypochromic changes must be accompanied by low serum ferritin to confirm that the hematologic changes observed are specific to iron status and not related to either copper or vitamin B6 status.
Other symptoms of iron deficiency with or without clinically detectable anemia include short attention span, apathy, irritability, hypoactivity, and impaired cognitive development in children. In the adult population, iron deficiency contributes to poor immunocompetence, irregular heart beat, and fatigue. Paleness of oral mucosal tissue, concave pale nail beds, and behavioral changes can also signify the presence of iron deficiency.
Even though amino acid chelates have been found to be beneficial for improving the bioavailability of mineral supplements, additional improvements are continually being sought. In part, this is because the industry is responding to consumer demands for mineral supplements that are more effective, more efficient, and less costly. As a result, mineral supplements such as amino acid chelated minerals, are available in a wide variety of formulations and modalities of administration. However, it has been recognized that additional improvements in the preparation and/or formulation of amino acid chelates can further improve the therapeutic value of mineral supplements.
Therefore, it would be advantageous to have an amino acid and mineral-containing composition and method of preparation that can provide increased mineral solubility and/or bioavailability. Additionally, it would be beneficial to have an amino acid and mineral-containing composition that has been prepared to have increased solubility and/or increased absorption characteristics.

Mixed amino acid/mineral compounds having improved solubility


A wireless communication device includes a loop antenna that wirelessly communicates with a device of another party through an occurrence of an eddy current, a parallel inductor connected in parallel to the loop antenna, and a wireless IC element that is connected to the parallel inductor and that processes a transmission/reception signal. At least the parallel inductor and the wireless IC element provide a predetermined resonant frequency.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to wireless communication devices, such as a wireless communication device capable of communicating over a contactless communication system including a radio frequency identification (RFID) system, and relates to articles including such devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, an IC tag described in Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 2004-126750 is known as an IC tag used in a contactless communication system. In an IC tag of this type, an antenna and an IC module are connected directly, and thus the impedance of the antenna needs to be matched with the complex conjugate of the impedance of the IC module. Therefore, an antenna for a contactless IC tag needs to be designed for different ICs or for different antenna shapes, leading to a problem in that it is highly difficult to design an antenna for an evaluation in a measurement system configured typically at 50Ω.

Wireless communication device and article provided with communication device


A probe for determining a surface characteristic of an object includes a substrate, a plurality of cantilevers each having a distal end coupled to the substrate, and a plurality of probe tips each coupled to a proximal end of a respective one of the cantilevers for contacting a surface of the object. Such probes can be used to study properties of objects, such as layers of semiconductor devices. Electrical properties of the surface of the object, such as, for example, surface resistivity, can be determined using probes with conductive probe tips. Some probes include a substrate divided lengthwise into a first section and a second section with the first section being doped with an n-type material and the second section being doped with a p-type material. Other probes include conductive material disposed on the substrate and, optionally, on the cantilevers and/or probe tips to form individual conductive paths to the probe tips.

Over the last few decades, the electronics industry has undergone a revolution by the use of semiconductor technology to fabricate small, highly integrated electronic devices. The most common semiconductor technology presently used is silicon-based. A large variety of semiconductor devices have been manufactured having various applications in numerous disciplines. Such silicon-based semiconductor devices often include metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) transistors, complimentary MOS (CMOS) transistors, bipolar transistors, bipolar CMOS (BiCMOS) transistors, etc.
Each of these semiconductor devices generally includes a semiconductor substrate on which a number of active devices are formed. The particular structure of a given active device can vary between device types. For example, in MOS transistors, an active device generally includes source and drain regions and a gate electrode which modulates current between the source and drain regions. In bipolar transistors, an active device generally includes a base, a collector, and an emitter.
Semiconductor devices, like the ones mentioned above, are used in large numbers to construct most modern electronic devices. As a larger number of such devices are integrated into a single silicon wafer, improved performance and capabilities of electronic devices can be achieved. In order to increase the number of semiconductor devices which may be formed on a given surface area of a substrate, the semiconductor devices must be scaled down (i.e., made smaller). This is accomplished by reducing the lateral and vertical dimensions of the device structure.
Often, it is desirable to study physical properties of the semiconductor device during or after construction of the device. One example is the surface structure of a layer of the semiconductor device. Surface features, deformities, and composition can be studied. Microscopy has been widely used to study surfaces. Optical microscopy has many uses in this regard, however, the resolution of optical microscopes is limited and, furthermore, differences in the device structure may not be readily apparent when viewed optically. Thus, other, more sensitive microscopy techniques, such as electron microscopy, scanning tunneling microscopy, and atomic force microscopy, are often used.
In addition to surface structures, other physical properties, including electrical properties, are also of interest. For example, the surface resistivity at points on a doped surface of a device may provide information about dopant type and concentration. A surface doping profile may be obtained by measuring the resistivity of the surface.
Typically, the surface resistivity is determined using spreading resistance measurements which are obtained by contacting the surface of the device with two contact leads and measuring the resistance to electrical current flowing through the semiconductor device between the two contact leads. Conventional devices used for measuring spreading resistance typically have contact leads with a diameter of 5 .mu.m or more. This limits the spatial precision and resolution of the surface resistivity measurements and, therefore, the precision of the doping profile.

Surface probe for determining physical properties of a semiconductor device


A light-weight miniature linear guide device provides: a guide rail including a first load ball rolling groove formed on an inner surface of the guide rail and extended longitudinally; a slider including a slider body adapted to be fitted in the guide rail, the slider body including a second load ball rolling groove formed on an outer surface of the slider body, and a circulator fitted in the slider body, the circulator having a non-load ball circulating path which is extended longitudinally; a plurality of balls fitted to roll in a space defined by the first and second load ball rolling grooves and the non-load ball circulating path of the circulator. Further, in the miniature linear guide device, the slider body includes a protrusion formed in a longitudinal end portion of the slider body, and a sealing member is secured to the protrusion to sealingly close a gap formed between the inner surface of the guide rail and the slider body. The miniature linear guide device can smoothly be operated even in a dusty atmosphere and prevented from scattering lubricant to lengthen the service life.

The present invention relates to a light-weight miniature liner guide device which is suitable for relatively small equipment such as equipment concerning computers, OA (office amenity) equipment and measuring equipment.
A conventional miniature linear guide device is for instance as shown in FIGS. 18 and 19. The linear guide device is made up of a guide rail 1 substantially U-shaped in section which is extended in a longitudinal direction (or axial direction) of the device, and a slider 2 slidably mounted on the guide rail 1. The slider 2 provides: a slider body 3 U-shaped inversely in section which is formed of a thin steel plate by pressing; a circulator 4 which is formed of plastic by molding and has ball circulating paths therein; and a cap 5 which is formed of plastic. The circulator 4 and the cap 5 are fitted in a concave portion of the slider body 3 in such a manner that the cap 5 is interposed between the slider body 3 and the circulator 4.
Load ball rolling grooves 1B and 3B are formed in the inner surfaces of both side walls of the guide rail 1 and in the outer surfaces of both side walls of the slider body 3, respectively, in such a manner that those grooves 1B and 3B are extended in an axial direction of the guide device and confronted with each other. A number of balls 6 are fitted in the load ball rolling grooves 1B and 3B and in the ball circulating paths in the circulator 4. The balls 6 are infinitely circulated while being rolled so that the slider 2 is linearly moved along the guide rail 1.
The above-described conventional linear guide device suffers from the following difficulties:
The linear guide device has been provided with the premise that it is used in a clean atmosphere, for instance in a clean room which is substantially free from dust; that is, it is not protected from dust. Hence, if it is used in an atmosphere other than a clean atmosphere, then dust enters the linear guide device, thus adversely affecting the operation of the linear guide device.
On the other hand, lubricant such as grease and lubricating oil are liable to scatter out through the gaps between the guide rail and the end faces of the slider engaged with the guide rail. This makes the linear guide device insufficient in lubrication, thus decreasing the service life of the linear guide device.

Light-weight miniature linear guide device


This document provides to methods and materials related to apoptosis. For example, methods and materials for modulating apoptosis are provided. In addition, methods and materials for treating a mammal having an apoptosis-associated condition are provided.

1. Technical Field
This document relates to methods and materials involved in apoptosis, apoptosis inhibitors, and to modulating the activity of TRAIL.
2. Background Information
Apoptosis is a normal physiologic process leading to cell death that can be induced by normal processes as well as several pathological conditions and injuries. Apoptosis can be involved in conditions including, but not limited to, cardiovascular disease, cancer, immunoregulation, viral diseases (e.g., HIV infection), anemia, neurological disorders, gastrointestinal disorders, diabetes, hair loss, rejection of organ transplants, prostate hypertrophy, obesity, ocular disorders, stress, and aging.
TNF related apoptosis inducing ligand (TRAIL) is a member of the tumor necrosis factor (TNF) superfamily of death-inducing ligands whose members include Fas ligand and TNF. Ligation of TRAIL to its cognate receptors can cause cell death by apoptosis or may cause NF-κB activation (Hu, et al., J. Biol. Chem., 274:30603-10 (1999)). There are three known TRAIL isoforms (TRAILα, TRAILβ, and TRAILγ). TRAIL has widespread expression on multiple cell lineages and has shown potent toxicity for many tumors and virally infected cells, while sparing most healthy cells (Held, et al., Drug Resist. Updat., 4:243-52 (2001); Baetu and Hiscott, Cytokine Growth Factor, 13:199-207 (2002)). TRAIL mediates cell death via binding of one of five TRAIL receptors (e.g., TRAIL-R1, -R2, -R3, -R4, and osteoprotegerin (OPG)). TRAIL-R1 and -R2 can cause an apoptotic signal, while TRAIL-R3 and -R4 lack intracellular regions that can propagate an apoptotic signal (Wang and El-Deiry, Oncogene, 22:8628-33 (2003)).
OPG, a soluble inhibitor of RANK ligand, also binds to TRAIL in humans, and can be a soluble decoy receptor for TRAIL (Emery, et al., J. Biol. Chem., 273:14363-7 (1998); Holen, et al., Cancer Res., 62:1619-23 (2002)). Expression of TRAIL-R1, TRAIL-R2, or TRAIL-R1 and TRAIL-R2 on a cell is required to induce TRAIL-mediated apoptosis of that cell. However, TRAIL-R1 and/or -R2 receptor expression alone is insufficient to render a cell susceptible to TRAIL-mediated cell death. TRAIL agonists are in pre-clinical development for used as therapy for human tumors because of their selective induction of cell death in transformed and virally infected cells.

Methods of reducing trail-induced apoptosis by trail isoforms

Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research


Embodiments of the invention relate to methods and systems for the detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Mycobacterium tuberculosis kills more than one million people each year. To better understand why M. tuberculosis is virulent and to discover chemical markers of this pathogen, we compared its lipid profile to that of the attenuated but related mycobacterium, Mycobacterium bovis Bacille Calmette Guerin (BCG). This strategy identified previously unknown compounds that are specific to M. tuberculosis, e.g. 1-tuberculosinyladenosine, N6-tuberculosinyladenosine, and various tuberculosinyladenosines having mycolic acids, produced by the Rv3378c enzyme.

Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tuberculosis) remains one of the world's most important pathogens, with a mortality rate exceeding 1.5 million deaths annually (Dye C, et al. (2013) Annu Rev Public Health. 34:271-286). Despite study of this pathogen for more than a century, the spectrum of natural lipids within M. tuberculosis membranes is not yet fully defined. For example, the products of many genes annotated as lipid synthases remain unknown (Camus J C, et al. (2002) Re-annotation of the genome sequence of Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Rv Microbiology 148:2967-2973), and mass spectrometry detects hundreds of ions that do not correspond to known lipids in the MycoMass database (Layre E, et al. (2011) A comparative lipidomics platform for chemotaxonomic analysis of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Chem Biol 18(12):1537-1549 provides a method to detect individual lipids that are present in infectious bacteria that cause tuberculosis disease (M. tuberculosis) versus attenuated bacteria that are used in vaccines such as BCG. In general, it is important to distinguish patients with tuberculosis from those vaccinated with BCG because the treatments are different and more than 1 billion people have been vaccinated with BCG.
Methods of detecting the presence or absence of the bacteria typically include culturing a sample suspected of having bacteria. However these tests may take over two weeks to complete depending on how long it takes to isolate and grow the bacteria. Accordingly, while such biochemical testing is relatively inexpensive, it is time consuming to grow and subculture bacteria in a sample to reach the minimal concentration of bacteria needed for testing. One standard for the diagnosis of active pulmonary tuberculosis is sputum smear microscopy for acid-fast bacilli. If a patient's sputum tests positive for M. tuberculosis they have active pulmonary tuberculosis, are considered highly infectious, and are placed on an exhaustive drug regimen for treatment. However, sputum smear microscopy has low sensitivity and it is estimated that sputum smear microscopy at best detects 25-60% of people with active pulmonary tuberculosis. The method also has relatively poor limits of detection as it requires the presence of at least 10,000 MTb bacilli/mL. An alternative to culture positivity is to detect bacterial DNA by PCR, but such methods are expensive and difficult to use in resource limited settings in which the tuberculosis epidemic is prevalent.
Serologic tests exist for M. tuberculosis diagnostics, but they continue to undergo development and tend to be more specific for exposure than active disease. Some commercialized tests use immunodominant antigens to detect immunoglobulin classes (like IgG) in an ELISA or dipstick format. Serological tests are estimated to detect one-third to three-quarters of sputum smear-positive cases of MTb. They detect a significantly smaller portion of smear-negative cases with HIV co-infection. In fact, for people infected with both HIV and MTb, serological tests detect less than one third of patients with the active form of the disease. Many molecular targets of current serological tests, such as mycolic acid and lipoarabinomannan, are produced by mycobacterial in the environment or vaccine strains. It is thought that vaccination or exposure to environmental mycobacteria causes false positive test results in patients with no M. tuberculosis infection. Identification of molecular targets that are expressed solely or mainly by M. tuberculosis and not other common mycobacteria is therefore expected to yield fewer false positive tests.
A widely used test to determine M. tuberculosis (TB) is the PPD (purified protein derivative) skin test. Patients are administered a small shot that contains PPD under the top layer of the skin. A bump or small welt will form, which usually goes away in a few hours. If the area of skin that received PPD is still reactive 48 to 72 hours after the injection, the test results are positive. People who received a BCG (bacille Calmette-Guerin) vaccine against tuberculosis give a false-positive reaction to the PPD test. Many foreign-born people have had the BCG vaccine, though it is not given in the U.S. due to its questionable effectiveness. Accordingly, even if one has been vaccinated, they could still carry the disease. The PPD test does not discriminate between BCG vaccines and patients with M. tuberculosis infection and tuberculosis disease. Thus, diagnosis of M. tuberculosis infection is complicated by the fact that approximately 1 billion people worldwide have been treated with live Mycobacterium bovis Bacille Calmette Guerin (BCG) bacteria as a vaccine, and those persons that have been treated with this vaccine will show a false positive reading in diagnostic tests. In addition, the PPD test also known to show a positive reaction when a subject is infected with non-tuberculosis mycobacteria.
Accordingly, more efficient methods and systems are needed to screen patients suspected of having M. tuberculosis. In particular, identification of molecules that are produced by M. tuberculosis but not BCG provides the opportunity to develop molecular targets that will not cause false positive serological tests or biochemical tests that directly detect the molecule of interest in ELISA or related methods.
Approximately 1.7 billion are infected with M. tuberculosis worldwide. A test that can distinguish people that have been treated with the common BCG vaccine, or that have non-tuberculous mycobacteria, from people that actually have the pathognenic M. tuberculosis is of great value.


A power controller for a class C radio frequency power amplifier that exhibits an output power threshold, including a detector circuit (299) that detects a output power level to provide a level signal when the radio frequency power amplifier has achieved the output power threshold, and a comparator apparatus (245) that combines a reference signal and the level signal to provide a control signal that is arranged to establish the output power level, and a generator function (247) that provides the comparator apparatus a substitute level signal until the amplifier has achieved the output power threshold.

Radio frequency (RF) power amplifiers are utilized to increase or amplify the radio frequency energy applied to a radio antenna for subsequent radiation. Because such amplifiers are relatively high power circuits, issues such as thermal efficiency and related matters must be carefully considered by practitioners. Some radio systems, such as those employing frequency or phase modulation wherein information is carried by modulating the frequency of a radio carrier rather than the amplitude, can advantageously use a radio frequency power amplifier operating in a class C (switched) mode.
Such a radio frequency power amplifier is typically more efficient than an amplifier operating in a class A mode (the amplifier is conducting a non zero bias current, or is direct current (DC) biased) and hence will consume less energy from, for example, a battery source. Theoretically a class C mode amplifier can be modeled as a switch that is toggled between an "on" and an "off" state at the radio signal's frequency. By selectively filtering the input and output wave forms to and from this switch the desired frequency signal may be obtained and the harmonics of the toggling frequency may be rejected. The duration of the "on" state will determine the output power from such an amplifier when other parameters are fixed. The advantage of the class C amplifier lies in the theoretical efficiency that may be obtained. Essentially when the switch is "off" no current flows and when the switch is "on" the potential across the switch is zero. Since power dissipated is the product of current times potential, the switch will theoretically dissipate zero power and the class C amplifier will be very efficient.
In practice the switch in a class C amplifier is a semiconductor transistor that has been configured as a power amplifier device. This switch unlike the model is not ideal. For example, the potential across the device will be nonzero because the transistor will have some forward resistance. Additionally, the transistor will have a current transfer characteristic that is often modeled as an exponential or other power law relationship between drive (base) current and load (collector) current at least during a nonzero switching time period. Furthermore most semiconductor devices exhibit a turn-on threshold that necessitates a minimum amount of bias or alternatively signal drive level before the device will provide any useful switching or amplification action. These issues among others, contribute to some problems for class C radio frequency power amplifiers, particularly during the period of time when a transmitter is being turned on.
During this time period when the amplifier is ramping up from zero output power to something approaching a final output power level the amplifier may generate spurious signals, such as harmonics or various combinations of harmonics of the drive signal frequency. These spurious signals may have energy components in spectral locations where other transmitters and receivers are authorized to operate. This spurious energy can cause radio interference that degrades the overall effectiveness of radio communications in these spectral locations and this may result in a violation of the regulations of various radio regulatory agencies, such as the Federal Communications Commission, and hence possible sanctions for the operator of the offending radio. Historically this has not been a major problem because the period of time when interference might exist was comparatively short relative to the total time the transmitter was turned on particularly given the relative infrequency of turning the transmitter on.
However, given the increased demands being placed on available spectrum, practitioners are proposing systems such as packet data systems and Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) systems where the transmitter is turned on for a short period of time relatively often. In addition the spectrum where the spurious energy may fall is more and more likely to be occupied and regulated. Practitioners have proposed various methods of providing some degree of control over the characteristics of the amplifier during its ramp up period.
One known approach includes a power output control loop that gradually increases the allowed power out during a short time period at initial turn on. This approach suffers from the threshold effect, noted above, of semiconductor devices operating in a switched mode. In essence the control loop can not serve its purpose until an output is available from the amplifier. Another approach attempts to bias the semiconductor device in a class A or quasi class A mode for a short period prior to and during a portion of the ramp up period thus avoiding the threshold effect and providing a degree of control over the ramp up process. This approach results in some unnecessary battery drain and further because of the architecture and thus characteristics of semiconductor devices optimized for a switching function may contribute to reliability problems with the device.
Clearly a need exists for a radio frequency power amplifier that minimizes the spurious energy emitted during the time period when the amplifier is ramping up.

Power control apparatus and method for a radio frequency amplifier


A solid-state imaging device has a substrate in which are formed a pixel array portion having a plurality of pixels, and a peripheral circuitry portion. The device is characterized in that a first multilevel metallization structure is formed over the peripheral circuitry portion, and a second multilevel metallization structure thinner than the first multilevel metallization structure is formed over the pixel array portion.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a solid-state imaging device, and more particularly to a solid-state imaging device based on CMOS technology.
2. Description of the Related Art
The CMOS-based solid-state imaging device, generally an active pixel sensor or a CMOS image sensor, has within each pixel of a pixel array a photoelectric convertor and transistors which reset and amplify the convertor, and has, in peripheral circuitry, drive circuits which drive the individual pixels and also output circuits and image processing circuits which amplify electrical signals output from the individual pixels and carry out image processing. It is anticipated that such CMOS image sensors will provide solid-state imaging devices that are less costly on account of the CMOS processes used in fabrication and that are capable of achieving a higher image quality due to improvements in pixel structure.
Because CMOS image sensors are used in camera modules installed on mobile devices such as cellular phones and information terminals, there is a strong desire in the industry for larger scale integration and a smaller chip size. In order to satisfy this aspect a multilevel metallization structure within the chip is required. However, the use of a multilevel metallization structure means the formation over the pixels of a multilevel metallization structure composed of multiple metallization levels and dielectric layers between the levels, making it difficult to efficiently guide incident light to the photoelectric convertors within the pixels. Decreased sensitivity and blurring arise as a consequence of the scattering of incident light by the multilevel metallization and attenuation of the incident light by the multiple layers of dielectric film.
FIG. 1 is a schematic cross-sectional diagram of a prior-art CMOS image sensor. A chip 1 consisting of a semiconductor substrate has at the center thereof a pixel array 10 composed of a plurality of pixels, and peripheral circuitry 12 is formed at the perimeter of the pixel array 10. Lower and upper layers of multilevel metallization 22 and 20 are formed on the substrate over both the pixel array 10 and the peripheral circuitry 12.
The CMOS image sensors currently in common use typically employ a multilevel metallization structure having, for example, three levels. In addition to the peripheral circuitry, this multilevel metallization is used also for the connection of transistors within the pixels. However, as noted above, because it is necessary to avoid scattering incident light, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2004-221527 and Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2003-249632 describe the use of a structure in which metallization is not formed over the photoelectric convertor within the pixels and which is able guide incident light to the convertor. According to this prior art, a trench-like hole is formed in the multilevel metallization structure over each pixel, and a dielectric material is buried in the hole to give a photoconductive structure.
In addition, the CMOS image sensor has over each pixel a microlens for collecting incident light and a color filter. Such a construction requires a complex fabrication process. As a solution to this problem, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2002-134726, for example, teaches a process in which part of the dielectric film over the pixel is removed to form a trench, and a color filter pattern having a convex shape is formed thereon to serve as both the microlens and the color filter.


A variable rate coder/decoder system in which a quantizer, under control of a quantization controller, quantizes a signal obtained by subjecting discrete cosine transformation of a difference signal between an input signal and a signal from a frame memory storing therein a previous frame with a first quantization step width calculated based on a power value of the input signal calculated by a power calculator and a predetermined first signal-to-quantization noise ratio. In the system, further, a re-quantizer quantizes a difference signal between a signal being not quantized by the quantizer and a signal after the inverse quantization of an inverse quantizer with a second quantization step width calculated based on the power value controlled by a re-quantization controller and a predetermined second signal-to-quantization noise ratio. Variable length encoders subject the quantization output signals of the quantizer and re-quantizer to variable length encoding, decrease discard priority for the quantization output signal of the quantizer, increase discard priority for the quantization output signal of the re-quantizer, and then transmit them in the form of fixed-length cells or variable-length packets whereby, even when the amount of input data varies, its quality can be maintained constant and encoding and decoding can be realized with a high efficiency.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to variable rate coder/decoder systems which are used in a packet communication system, an ATM (Asynchronous Transmission Mode) communication system or the like system and more particularly, to a variable rate coder/decoder system which is designed, in particular, for encoding and decoding picture image signals.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, encoding with fixed rate in a picture image encoder has been standardized as H.261 in the Search Group (SGXV) of the Comite Consultatif International Telegraphique et Telephonique (CCITT).
The encoding with fixed rate, however, cannot be carried out in response to the change in the amount of data in an input signal.
As an example of the prior art fixed rate encoding, a fixed rate image encoding will be explained.
FIGS. 6(a) and 6(b) are representation of a time and spatial variation in a picture image. More specifically, FIG. 6(b) shows a video signal on a display screen divided into blocks as minimum units. One block is made up of vertical 8 picture elements (pixels) and horizontal 8 pixels. FIG. 6(a) is a diagram for explaining image movement compensation, in which case, the picture image (in the illustrated example, moving picture) varies with time and the movement data of the image can be expressed on a block basis. That is, image data has spatial data in a still screen with time stopped and has time data varying with time between screens or frames. By effectively utilizing the above data property, picture image encoding can be carried out.
FIG. 7 shows a block diagram of an arrangement of a prior art fixed-rate encoder system.
In operation of the prior art fixed-rate encoder system of FIG. 7, a video signal is input as an input signal on a block basis from an input terminal 700 to the encoder system. More specifically, a subtraction circuit 701 calculates a difference between the input signal received from the input terminal 700 and an output signal received from a loop filter 710 and applies the calculated difference to a discrete cosine transformer 703 for performing discrete cosine transformation. A difference signal corresponding to one block applied to the discrete cosine transformer 703 is subjected to a two-dimensional (8.times.8) discrete cosine transformation according to the following equation (1). ##EQU1## where, when u,v=0, c(u),c(v)=1/SQRT(2)
when u,v.noteq.0, c(u),c(v)=1 PA1 x,y,u,v=0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7 PA1 when u,v.noteq.0, c(u),c(v)>1 PA1 x,y,u,v=0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7
In the above, SQRT(A) denotes a square root of A.
Thereafter, in a quantizer 704, the elements of the difference signal transformed by the discrete cosine transformer 703 are subjected to a quantization to obtain quantization codes which in turn are sent to a multiplex coder 712. A quantization step width of the quantizer 704 is controlled by a coder controller 705 and linear quantization is carried out in the quantizer 704 with the quantization step width selected by the coder controller 705.
The coder controller 705, in order to realize transmission with fixed rate, changes some parameters, e.g., the quantization step width, block reference, decimation rate, etc. to controllably adjust the amount of data to be encoded. More specifically, the coder controller 705 monitors the state of a transmission buffer 713, and when the buffer almost overflows, increases the quantization step width to decrease the amount of data to be generated and thereby prevent the buffer overflowing. Further, when the quantization step width is increased but still the buffer is almost overflowing, the coder controller 705 perform decimation to prevent the buffer overflowing. Conversely, when the data of the buffer is becoming almost nothing, the coder controller 705 controllably reduces the step width to increase the amount of data to be encoded and maintain the fixed-rate transmission.
In order to generate a motion compensation interframe prediction compensation signal, a quantization signal quantized in the quantizer 704 is sent to an inverse quantizer 706 where the quantization signal is subjected to an inverse quantization, and further sent to an inverse discrete cosine transformer 707 where the quantization signal subjected to the inverse quantization is subjected to a two-dimensional (8.times.8) inverse discrete cosine transformation according to the following equation (2). ##EQU2## where, when u,v=0, c(u),c(v)=1/SQRT(2)
In the above, SQRT(A) denotes a square root of A.
Next, an adder 708 adds together the signal subjected to the inverse discrete cosine transformation received from the inverse discrete cosine transformer 707 and the output of the loop filter 710 for the previous frame received through a switch 711 and outputs its added result to a motion compensator 709.
The motion compensator 709 searches one of the past blocks highest in matching degree with the current block, finds a difference between the blocks and remove its correlation in the time direction.
The loop filter 710 is a two-dimensional prediction filter made up of one-directional filters for horizontal and vertical components. That is the loop filter 710 is a non-recursive filter having coefficients of 1/4, 1/2 and 1/4. However, the filter has coefficients of 0, 1 and 0 at its edges. This filter is also a low pass filter which can remove high-frequency noise and which output is the same as a reproduction signal obtained at a decoder side.
The operation from the inverse quantizer 706 to the loop filter 710, which corresponds to generation, in the encoder system side, of a reproduction signal to be obtained in the decoder system side, is designed so that, at the time of computing a difference from the previous frame, a decode signal to be reproduced at the decoder system side is reproduced in the encoder system side to find the difference, thus preventing asynchronous state between the decoder and encoder system sides.
A hybrid encoded signal subjected to the motion compensation for removal of redundancy in the time direction in the interframe prediction and also to the cosine transformation for removal of redundancy in the spatial direction is sent from the quantizer 704 to the multiplex coder 712. The multiplex coder 712 converts the received signal into a frame signal according to the format determined by H.261 of the SGXV of CCITT, and sends the frame signal to the transmission buffer 713. Further, the transmission buffer 713, prior to output of the frame data received from the multiplex coder onto the associated line, temporarily stores the frame data in a memory and informs the coder controller 705 of how much the data is accumulated in the buffer for fixed-rate transmission. Thereafter, a transmission coder 714 outputs the frame data onto the line.
Next, explanation will be made as to a prior art decoder system for decoding the fixed-rate encoded signal.
FIG. 8 is a block diagram of an arrangement of a prior art fixed-rate decoder system.
A transmission decoder 800 first receives frame data from a line and sends the data to a reception buffer 801. The reception buffer outputs data to a multiplex decoder 802, which in turn extracts encoded data from the frame data.
In an inverse quantizer 803, the quantized data received from the multiplex decoder 802 is inversely quantized and output to an inverse discrete cosine transformer 804. In the inverse discrete cosine transformer 804, the inversely-quantized data received is subjected to a two-dimensional (8.times.8) inverse discrete cosine transformation according to the above equation (2). Then, an adder 805 adds together an output signal received from the inverse discrete cosine transformer 804 and an output signal received from a loop filter 807 to generate a decoded signal. In this case, a motion compensator 806 extracts a motion vector from the frame signal and performs the same operation as the motion compensator 709 in the encoder system of FIG. 7. While, the loop filter 807 also performs the same operation as the loop filter 710 in the encoder system of FIG. 7.
In this manner, the prior art fixed-rate image encoding and decoding are carried out.
However, in the case where image encoding is carried out with fixed rate as mentioned above, when the motion of the image is rapid, the amount of data to be generated becomes much, and in order to suppress the amount of data, the coder controller 705 functions to lower the communication quality or performs its decimating operation. For this reason, the resultant image decoded and reproduced becomes deteriorated in quality.
Conversely, when the motion of an image is slow, the amount of data in the transmission buffer 713 becomes less, for which reason the coder controller 705 functions to raise the quality and increase the amount of data to be encoded.
Accordingly, the prior art fixed-rate encoder system has a problem that, since the amount of data to be encoded cannot be changed in response to a variation in an image, its encoding efficiency is not satisfactory.
The prior art encoder system also has another problem that, when missing of encoded data takes place during transmission of the encoded data, its communication quality is remarkably deteriorated, i.e., the system is easily affected by the data missing.
Further, the prior art fixed-rate encoder system has a problem that the system is designed to lower its quality and suppress generation of the amount of data to be output in response to an increase in the amount of input data generated from a rapid motion image, and the system is also designed to increase the quality and increase the amount of output data in response to a decrease in the amount of input data generated from a slow motion image, which results in that the increase of the amount of input data leads to deterioration of the quality while the decrease of the amount of input data leads to reduction of the encoding efficiency. The prior art system also has another problem that packet discard results in remarkable deterioration of the reproduced data quality.


A solenoid control system for a vehicle comprises a primary controller, a failover controller, and a failover control module. The primary controller generates a first solenoid drive signal based upon a control signal. The failover controller selectively generates a second solenoid drive signal based upon the control signal. The failover control module receives an operating signal that indicates whether the primary controller is functioning properly and selects the second drive signal to drive a solenoid when the operating signal indicates that the primary controller is not functioning properly.

The background description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently named inventors, to the extent it is described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description that may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly nor impliedly admitted as prior art against the present disclosure.
Referring now to FIG. 1, a functional block diagram of a solenoid control system according to the prior art is presented. A solenoid controller 102 receives a control signal from a control device 104. For example, the control device 104 may include a gear shifter 106, an engine control module, a transmission control module, or a braking module. The solenoid controller 102 generates a drive signal based upon the control signal. The drive signal actuates a solenoid 120. In various implementations, the solenoid 120 may move between two or more positions.
The solenoid 120 may be included in a transmission 122, an emissions system, an air management system, or any other vehicle system that may be controlled by the solenoid 120. For example, the solenoid 120 may be included in the transmission 122 to engage or disengage a gear. In various implementations, the solenoid 120 may be included in the emissions system to regulate exhaust gas entering an intake manifold. The solenoid 120 may also be included in the air management system to divert airflow and/or vacuum.


Heat spreader lids and package assemblies including a heat spreader lid. The heat spreader lid has a central region configured to be coupled with an electronic component, a peripheral region configured to be coupled with a substrate, and a connecting region arranged between the central region and the peripheral region. The connecting region is configured to impart stress relief to the central region.

The present invention generally relates to semiconductor manufacturing and, more particularly, relates to heat spreader lids and package assemblies including a heat spreader lid.
Industry practice in the field of semiconductor packaging is to mount a semiconductor chip or chip stack to a package substrate composed of a laminate or organic material, such as an epoxy resin. The chip or chip stack generates heat when powered in operation. Thermal management of the package may require some type of thermal management mechanism mounted to the chip or chip stack to extract and dissipate the generated heat. Absent effective heat dissipation, the generated heat can reduce chip performance, decrease reliability, and reduce the useful lifetime of the chip.
One type of thermal management solution is a heat spreader lid disposed in thermal contact with an exterior surface of the semiconductor chip or chip stack. Conventional heat spreader lids have a solid, continuous surface with uniform thickness. This surface of the heat spreader lid may be adhered to the chip with a thermally conductive layer of material. The heat spreader lid may also include a flange that is adhered to the substrate with an adhesive, which may be electrically conductive.
As the size of the semiconductor chip and the substrate increase such that the package size increases, the package may become increasingly prone to warpage, cracking and delamination due to thermal and mechanical stress at the chip-to-package interface. In particular, cracking may be observed at and near the corners of the packaged chip.
Improved heat spreader lids and package assemblies including a heat spreader lid are needed.


An assembly includes a flexible fixation member, a suture, and a delivery device. The flexible fixation member includes a body with two terminal ends. A suture passes through the flexible fixation member at various points along a length of the body such that portions of the fixation member are slidable relative to the suture and configurable to form a cluster within a surgical site. The delivery device includes a tubular member, an elongated inserter, and a trigger. The elongated inserter is slidably disposed within the tubular member. The inserter has a forked distal end configured to receive a portion of the flexible fixation member and the suture. The trigger is finger-engagable and fixedly coupled to the proximal end of the inserter. It is configured to advance and retract the inserter relative to the tubular member. The trigger includes a retention member for retaining a proximal end portion of the suture.

Arthroscopic procedures using sutures and suture anchors have been used in tissue repair to, for example, secure soft tissue to bone. These anchors may not fully deploy below the cortical layer. An anchor that is not fully deployed at the time of installation does not provide maximum fixation and could migrate later causing the repair suture to loosen, sacrificing the integrity of the repair. An anchor not providing its maximum fixation may result in pull out during or after the repair procedure. Anchors may also be damaged during insertion. Fraying of the anchor and repair sutures, or other damage, may result in a number of problems including compromised anchor construct, anchor severing, repair suture severing, the repair suture pulling through the anchor, etc.


A pants type disposable diaper having elastic ribbons around a waist-portion and a pair of leg-portions of said diaper, respectively, is provided on a transversely central zone of a crotch section on a front or rear side of said diaper, respectively, with a vertically extending fastening tape having an adhesive section provisionally bonded to the outer surface of a backsheet of said diaper and an upper end or a lower end permanently bonded to the outer surface of said backsheet.

The present invention relates to a pants type disposable diaper and, more particularly to, a pants type disposable diaper with fastening tape for the purpose of the used diaper in rolled state.
Before disposal of a disposable diaper smeared with excretions, the diaper is often rolled up and fastened in this state utilizing an adhesive tape or a rubber band. If the diaper is of open type provided on its transversely opposite sides with adhesive tape fasteners, these fasteners can be used also as a fastening means in the place of the adhesive tape or the rubber band. For the diaper of pants type usually having none of these adhesive tape fasteners, it is well known, for example, from Japanese Laid-Open Utility Model Application Nos. 1993-21935 and 1993-39531, to previously provide the diaper with a fastening tape for the purpose of keeping the used diaper in rolled up state.
Both of the above-cited applications disclose the technique according to which the fastening tape is peelably bonded to the top- or backsheet adjacent a waist-opening or leg-openings of the diaper. However, these openings are usually provided along their peripheral edges with elastic members bonded thereto with an appropriate tension to form the gathers which may cause the fastening tape to be finely undulated. Consequently, the fastening tape may be unintentionally peeled off from the top- or backsheet, resulting in that its adhesive surface thus exposed may be contaminated and become ineffective prior to its actual use. In addition, the tip end of the fastening tape to be held between the fingers to peel off the peelably bonded tape from the top- or backsheet may be buried in the gathers and the user's time may be wastefully taken to find the tip of the tape. Furthermore, the rigidity of the tape being higher than both the rigidity of the topsheet and the rigidity of the backsheet makes no formation of gathers on the locations underlying the tape and adjacent therearound. As a result, these locations having no gathers are pronounced and makes appearance of the diaper unattractive. Even if the gathers are formed at such locations, a sharp peripheral edge of the tape may stimulate the user's skin.
Accordingly, it is a principal object of the invention to solve the various problems of the foresaid well known techniques by providing a diaper at a transversely central zone of a crotch section free from the formation of gathers due to the presence of a liquid-absorbent core having a relatively high rigidity on front or rear side of the diaper with a fastening tape adapted to be peeled off from the diaper upwardly or downwardly.


This invention relates to a water-absorbent resin of a new, novel type obtained from polymerization of water-soluble ethylenically unsaturated monomer and a process for producing this resin.. The water-absorbent resin in this invention has average particle diameter in a specially defined range and a narrow range of particle distribution, being superior in water-absorption capacity, and also, being superior in handling properties in a point of that, when being mixed with liquid, formation of a fish-eye is absent. The water-absorbent resin shows an angle-lacking, non-sphere shape and, in a case of shape like this, is superior in handling properties in a point that being hard in falling off from an basis material.. Although the production process is performed to get a water-absorbent resin by carrying out polymerization in a reverse-phase suspension polymerization method, since the aqueous monomer solution is chosen from a specially defined viscosity range and dispersed and suspended by using a specially defined dispersing agent, a water-absorbent resin is easily obtainable wherein, not only the average particle diameter is controlled by adjusting the viscosity of an aqueous monomer solution, but also the particle diameter distribution is narrow. The water-absorbent resin obtained shows that a water-soluble component is small, so that it is very good for sanitary reasons. In this method, it is possible to vary the particle shape by changing up and down the viscosity of an aqueous monomer solution in an above-described specially defined range.. The water-absorbent resin in this invention, because of having the above-described properties, is preferably used for sanitary materials and the like.

This invention relates to a water-absorbent resin of a new, novel type obtained from polymerization of water-soluble ethylenically unsaturated monomer and a process for producing this resin. In detail, it relates to a water-absorbent resin having average particle diameter in a specially defined range and a narrow range of particle distribution, being superior in water absorption capacity, water absorption rate, and suction force, showing that an amount of elution of water-soluble resin (hereinafter referred to as, water-soluble component) is only small, and being very suitable as sanitary materials, and a water-absorbent resin wherein the shape is not sphere angle-absent and also, being superior in handling and treating, and besides, a process for producing the water-absorbent resins by reverse-phase suspension polymerization under specified conditions.
Hitherto, an attempt has been carried out to use a water-absorbent resin as an absorbent sanitary material for absorbing body fluids such as a sanitary cotton, a disposable diaper, and the like. There have been known, as water-absorbent resins for this purpose, a hydrolyzed starch-acrylonitrile graft polymer (Japanese Official Patent Gazette, shouwa 49-43395), a neutralized starch-acrylic acid graft polymer (Japanese Official Patent Provisional Publication, shouwa 51-125468), a saponified vinyl acetate-acrylic acid ester copolymer (Japanese Official Patent Provisional Publication, shouwa 52-14689), a hydrolyzed acrylonitrile or acrylamide copolymer (Japanese Official Patent Gazette, Shouwa 53-15959), and crosslinked products of these polymers, a crosslinked product of a partially neutralized polyacrylic acid (Japanese Official Patent Provisional Publication, Shouwa 55-84304) and others.
As methods to produce a water-absorbent resin from a water-soluble ethylenically unsaturated monomer, although aqueous solution polymerization etc. are hitherto known in addition to the reverse-phase suspension polymerization wherein a monomer or its aqueous solution is suspended and polymerized, properties such as shape of resins obtained from these polymerization methods is almost settled depending on the respective process, some serious problems have been found in points of shape, handling properties, and safety etc. for water-absorbent resins obtained from previous polymerization methods. For instance, in a case of that a water-absorbent resin is produced by aqueous solution polymerization, since a powdering process is usually required after polymerization, the resin obtained is irregular, cracked particles having sharp angles and its particle distribution generally broad, so that a countermeasure for dust is necessary. Further, when reverse-phase suspension polymerization is performed, a resin obtained is of sphere or granular-type resulting from condensation of the round shape resin.
In this reverse-phase suspension polymerization process, a monomer or its aqueous solution is dispersed in a stable form in a hydrophobic organic solvent and polymerized, usually requiring a dispersing agent, so that this agent has a great influence on the decision of particle diameter and handling properties of water-absorbent resins obtained. As a dispersing agent being hitherto used in reverse-phase suspension polymerization, there have been known, for examples, nonionic surface active agents such as sorbitan fatty acid esters (Japanese Official Patent Gazette, shouwa 54-30710), glycerol or polyglycerol fatty acid esters (Japanese Official Patent Provisional Publication, shouwa 62-172006), sucrose fatty acid esters (Japanese Official Patent Provisional Publication, shouwa 57-167302) etc., cellulose derivatives such as cellulose ethers and cellulose esters (Japanese Official Patent Provisional Publication, shouwa 58-32607), and oleophilic polymers having carboxyl groups (Japanese Official Patent Provisional Publication, shouwa 57-21405). Among these, when the nonionic surface active agents are used, a polymer obtained has such a small mean particle diameter as below 100 .mu.m and the particle distribution becomes very broad, so that it is not enough in water absorption capacity and requires a countermeasure for dust when it handles in a powder condition, and accompanies formation of a large amount of an extraneous matter on the side wall of reaction vessels during polymerization. Also, a water-absorbent resin obtained has a small diameter and broad range of particle distribution, therfore, if a treatment solution is mixed to that with an improvement purpose, the mixing becomes ununiform and often, the improvement can not be performed uniformly. When the mixing becomes ununiform, a polymer powder makes in part a lump, which is hereinafter referred to as a fish-eye. When cellulose derivatives such as cellulose ethers and cellulose esters are used, the average particle diameter becomes large as about 100 .about.200 .mu.m, but there exists such weak points that these dispersing agents show in general low solubility for hydrophobic organic solvents, easily crystalize out at room temperature, are mixed in the finished product as a block form, and those once mixed in the finished product are again melted during drying and fuse together with the finished product. Further, when a oleophilic polymer having carboxy groups is used, there remains the dispersing agent on the surface of forming water-absorbent resin, so that the product is not safe enough in a case being employed as sanitary materials.
Besides, to obtain an improved water-absorbent resin being superior in electrolyte absorption capacity, having large particle diameter, and taking a rustling particle shape, there has been reported a method wherein to an aqueous solution of unsaturated monomer is added hydroxyethylcellulose and, by using a sorbitan fatty acid ester as a dispersing agent, reverse-phase suspension polymerization is performed (Japanese Official Patent Provisional Publication, shouwa 56-76419).
Thus, water-absorbent resins hitherto obtained from either aqueous solution polymerization or reverse-phase suspension polymerization all have had problems in points of shape, handling properties, and safety, as described above.
Also resin shape of this kind much affects the employing manner of resin. In general, a water-absorbent resin is frequently used in combination with other materials having absorption properties. For instance, in a case of that a water-absorbent resin is used as a water-absorbent agent in an absorbent body of sanitary materials such as a paper diaper or a sanitary cotton etc., there has been adapted a method wherein the water-absorbent resin being laminated among absorbent papers, being dispersed in a sandwich style among cotton-like pulps, or being blended with cotton-like pulps. If, in these cases is employed a water-absorbent resin of irregular and cracked shape, obtained by the above-described aqueous solution polymerization, having sharp angles and broad distribution of particles, there occurs a problem that an angle of resin having a large particle diameter tears a paper and therefrom, particles fall off or the resin is pressed out during swelling, for instance, in a case of that the resin is laminated among water absorption papers. Also, since a water-absorbent resin obtained from reverse-phase suspension polymerization is generally small in average particle diameter and of round shape, there occurs a problem in dispersion etc. when being laminated among the absorption papers, being dispersed in a sandwich style among cotton-like papers, or being blended with cotton-like pulps and, after distribution, there occurs also a problem that the resin very easily moves and drops out just before and after use of an absorbing body.
As described above, the resins being widely used at the present age are not enough suitable in size, particle distribution, and shape and, therfore, not sufficiently satisfactory in all of such points as water-absorbent capacity, handling and treating, properties for use and others.

Production process for water-absorbent resin


A dispensing system adapted for dispensing a dose of a liquid dishwasher chemical agent inside a dishwasher when the dispensing system is mounted inside a dishwasher includes:. i) a detergent dispensing system mounted inside the dishwasher; PA1 ii) a container for a dishwasher detergent liquid; PA1 iii) a dispensing device for dispensing from the container a dose of a dishwasher liquid to inside a dishwasher; and PA1 iv) the container being removable from the dispensing device to permit replacement of the container as required.

It is generally recognized that superior cleaning of tableware which includes dishes, flatware, glasses, cups, mugs and the like are more reliably or consistently cleaned and sanitized by dishwasher machines than can be accomplished by hand. The principle reasons for this advantage that dishwasher machines have over hand washing is in the use of stronger detergents and considerably higher wash water temperatures at least during the wash and rinse cycles. In the industrial environment, the significant labor cost in any establishment requiring the cleaning of tableware places increased demand on the use of dishwasher machines. There is also considerable use of such machines in most households in view of the better cleaning performance of dishwasher and also because less time is spent in cleaning the tableware.
Institutional dishwashing machines are operated under very demanding conditions. The machines normally operate with a one to two minute cycle during which the dishes are washed and rinsed and ready for reuse. Highly caustic dishwasher detergents are used to obtain meaningful cleaning within that time. In addition, it is also necessary to use various rinse aids during the rinse cycle in order to reduce spotting on the glassware. In the larger institutional dishwashers, electronically controlled pumps may be used for dispensing, from outside the dishwasher through conduits to inside the dishwasher, the necessary quantities of dishwasher detergent and rinse aids. Such electronically controlled dispenser systems are fairly expensive and can only be used in an economical manner on larger institutional dishwasher equipment. Although they work very well in this environment they do require periodic service and attention to ensure that the correct amount of dishwasher detergent, whether it be in liquid or slurried form, and rinse aid are properly dispensed within the dishwasher. By virtue of the dispenser being outside the machine, the dishwasher has to be provided with conduits which extends through the dishwasher tub to permit dispensing of the desired chemicals to within the machine. As a result in accordance with some regulatory laws, various types of fittings are required in the line to prevent mixing of wash liquids with fresh chemicals, solutions, detergents and rinse aids to be introduced to the machine. All of this adds to the complexity, cost and periodic servicing required. However, in view of the large volume of tableware handled by institutional machines, these costs are relatively negligible compared to the overall effectiveness in washing large volumes of tableware.
In other types of commercial establishments which have less demand for tableware washing, a variety of under the counter or above the counter dishwashers are used. Normally these dishwashers have a single rack of dishes which is inserted into the machine, washed for one or two minute cycles and withdrawn for re-use. With such low volume or low end industrial dishwashers, the use of electronically controlled detergent and rinse aid dispensing machines is not cost effective. In the past, for such low end dishwasher machines powdered detergents with or without rinse aids have been used. However, due to the highly caustic nature of the powders, operators of the machines often receive caustic burns and secondly do not always pay the necessary attention to ensure that the correct amount of detergent powder is included in the machine for each cycle. A further difficulty with the use of powders is the slow dissolution rate during the relatively short cleaning cycle. Furthermore, powders do not lend themselves to automatic dispensing within the dishwasher.
Powdered dishwasher detergents also present a problem from the standpoint of incorporation of rinse aids. The major problem in incorporating rinse aids in highly caustic industrial type dishwasher detergents, is that the rinse aid is not stable in the caustic composition, so that the effectiveness of the rinse aid is lost during storage and before use. Hence in most situations a separate rinse aid is used in conjunction with powdered dishwasher detergents.
Liquid dishwasher detergents are best suited for use particularly for industrial type dishwashers because of their ready dispersability in the dishwasher water and their relative ease of dispensing. Liquid dishwashing detergents are therefore commonly used in the larger capacity dishwasher machines because they may be readily pumped to within the dishwasher. As already mentioned however, the electronically controlled pumping systems for dishwasher detergent liquids are not cost effective with low end type dishwashing machines. Furthermore, to retrofit any type of external dispensing device requires drilling the cabinet and dishwasher tub to provide for installation of dispenser conduits to within the dishwasher.
A further difficulty with the use of liquid dishwasher detergents is that bulk supply of the liquid can present problems in filling reservoirs either positioned within the machine or on the exterior thereof. Spillage of the very caustic materials presents a considerable hazard to the operator as well as to surrounding equipment.
Although there are various types of dispensers available for dispensing powder into dishwasher machines, in view of the presence of moisture and heat in the dishwasher, the powder dispenser has to be of a design which avoids caking of the powders and subsequent malfunctioning of the equipment. For example, the powder dispensing device of U.S. Pat. No. 2,500,059 could not operate in the hot moist environment within a dishwashing machine. Similarly, the more complex electronic system of U.S. Pat. No. 4,875,607, although it would function adequately outside of a washing machine, could not function within the dishwashing machine because of the moist, hot environment. As to the dispensing of liquids to within the machine as already explained, there are the complex electronically controlled pump systems. However, there does not appear to be available in the marketplace any type of liquid dispensing device which operates consistently and may be positioned within the dishwasher.


There are provided a porous pad for the impregnation of a liquid cosmetic composition and a liquid-cosmetic-composition impregnating method using such a porous pad. The porous pad includes a first porous pad layer and a second porous pad layer. An injection hole is formed in the first porous pad layer for the injection of the liquid cosmetic composition. The second porous pad layer is disposed under the first porous pad layer, and has a dispersion hole for the dispersion of the liquid cosmetic composition that is injected through the injection hole, and one or more main storage holes that are radially arranged around the periphery of the dispersion hole.

Recently, in a cosmetic field, a liquid cosmetic composition containing moisture and oil therein is being developed. Various methods of containing the liquid cosmetic composition have been developed. By way of example, as shown in FIG. 1, currently, a preferential method involves the impregnation of a porous pad 10, made of various materials including sponge or urethane foam as a carrier. Further, as shown in the photograph of FIG. 2, the porous pad impregnated with the liquid cosmetic composition is usually accommodated in a refill case 20 which is mounted to a compact type cosmetic container 30 for the refilling purpose.
The conventional porous pad impregnated with the liquid cosmetic composition is contained in the refill case as shown in the photograph of FIG. 2 rather than in the cosmetic container, so that its size is restricted. That is, the size of the porous pad may vary slightly according to the refill-case manufacturing company. Further, given that the refill case is usually mounted to the existing compact type cosmetic container, it is impossible to indefinitely increase its size as desired. Thus, the refill case should be inevitably designed to be held in the conventional compact type cosmetic container. Thereby, the porous pad should be likewise manufactured within a range that is suitable to be accommodated in the refill case. In view of this, the porous pad is designed such that its diameter ranges from about 40 to 50 mm and its thickness ranges from about 10 to 20 mm.
Therefore, since the porous pad having the above size should be impregnated with the liquid cosmetic composition, a method of very rapidly and effectively impregnating the porous pad with the liquid cosmetic composition is required. There are proposed the following conventional methods: a method of filling the porous pad with the liquid cosmetic composition using a separate filling installation and then receiving the porous pad in the refill case, and a method of directly putting the single porous pad into the refill case and then pouring the liquid cosmetic composition little by little to fill the porous pad with it.
However, the former method is problematic in that the separate filling installation is required, so that it is uneconomical, and in that the pad should be received in the refill case again, thus causing inconvenience in transport and operation. Further, the latter method is problematic in that, as the porous pad is impregnated with the liquid cosmetic composition with it being received in a receiving portion of the refill case, the filling operation should be slowly performed according to the degree to which the porous pad is impregnated with the liquid cosmetic composition, so that an operation speed at which the liquid cosmetic composition is filled is unavoidably reduced, thus considerably deteriorating the productivity of a product. Such deterioration in productivity results in rising manufacturing cost. Further, the former and latter methods of filling the porous pad with the liquid cosmetic composition are problematic in that the porous pad is simply impregnated using a net structure, so that it is difficult to obtain a sufficient filling amount of liquid cosmetic composition and thereby the service life of a product is shortened, with the result that consumers should frequently re-purchase the product. Consequently, the methods lead to a high degree of complexity and inconvenience.

Porous pad for impregnation of liquid cosmetic composition and liquid-cosmetic-composition impregnating method using the same


Appearance data including at least color information and gloss information of an object to be reproduced is inputted. Color mapping is performed to map the color information into a color reproducible range of an appearance reproduction apparatus, based on information indicating an appearance reproducible range of the appearance reproduction apparatus. A gloss reproducible range, in which the appearance reproduction apparatus can reproduce gloss while keeping the color information after the color mapping, is obtained based on the information indicating the appearance reproducible range. Gloss mapping is performed to map the gloss information into the gloss reproducible range. An output signal to be outputted to the appearance reproduction apparatus is generated based on mapped appearance data including the color information after the color mapping and the gloss information after the gloss mapping.

There is a demand for a printer for reproducing a material appearance by controlling gloss and the like in addition to a color. Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-047732 (literature 1) discloses a technique of reproducing gloss by melting heat-fusible particles contained in a recording medium. In addition, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2010-246049 (literature 2) discloses a technique of quantizing gloss data to satisfactorily reproduce an appearance.
The techniques disclosed in literatures 1 and 2, however, do not consider solving a mismatch between the range of the appearance of a material (to be referred to as an "object" hereinafter) to be reproduced and the range (to be referred to as an "appearance reproducible range" hereinafter) of an appearance reproducible by an appearance reproduction apparatus such as a printer. Consequently, if the range of the appearance of the object and the appearance reproducible range of the appearance reproduction apparatus do not match, it is impossible to appropriately reproduce the appearance of the object.

Image processing apparatus, image processing method, and appearance reproduction apparatus


A stress reducing orthopedic pillow having a low density polyurethane foam outer region, a high density polyurethane foam middle region that are provided in both a unitary embodiment and in an embodiment that includes removably attachable layers, so that the size of the device may be adjusted to accommodate different sizes and preferences of individual users. The pillow advantageously includes leg clasps for securely engaging the inner thighs of an individual in a side lying position, the clasps including a stem and a pair of crescent shaped buttresses. The buttresses resist rotation to the prone and supine lying positions. The foam within the stem separates the knees to reduce spinal stress. Advantageously, a supine sleeping position is accommodated by positioning said pillow under the legs to flatten out the spine while supporting the legs at the thigh and calf regions.

A. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to orthopedic support devices for minimizing spinal stress while an individual is in the lying position. More particularly the present invention relates to an orthopedic support device that bolsters, i.e., supports the back of the legs of an individual lying on his/her back and additionally maintains spinal support for an individual when lying on his/her side; and to adjustable orthopedic support pillows which can be varied and customized to support the individual's needs.
B. Discussion of the Prior Art
Spinal related complaints are very common. In fact, back pain is the second most common complaint (behind the common cold) for visits to the family doctor. Proper spinal support (whether related to the lower back, upper back or neck) has been a concern for decades. This has resulted in a significant variety of products designed to provide greater comfort and support.
The majority of these products were designed for 95 percentile of the population. As all individuals vary anatomically, and when combining this factor with individual and personal preference, the varying possibilities would render customization to all individuals to be not practical. Methods of customization for both the cervical and lumbar spine have been attempted, as discussed below. However, these vary from intricate systems of support that are either adjustable through an inflatable means, fluid filled or even a combination of self attachment through the use of hook and loop fastening devices, zippers and strapping. All of these methods although effective, would be extremely costly from a manufacturing standpoint. None of these products, whether designed to support the cervical or lumbar spine, ever considered the specific needs of the individual user. For all of the above reasons, a need exists for an orthopedic support pillow that is capable of being customized to the individuals needs as opposed to the individual conforming to the product.
The present invention overcomes many of the problems of the prior art in that it provides a capability for customization of an orthopedic support pillow to fit the individuals needs, without the use of accessory application devices such as hook and loop, elastic bands, zippers and/or straps.
It is generally known that maintaining proper posture of the spine helps to prevent the occurrence of spinal injury and back pain. The preferred proper spinal posture in all daily sitting and upright activities includes a slight lordotic curve in the lumbar region of the spine, or what is known as the "neutral spine" position in lay terms. That is the spinal position where all stress on the spine is minimized to allow the spine to rest in its naturally curved position. For example, it is commonly known that when lifting heavy objects, an individual should use their knees to lift such objects and that the back should be maintained in the neutral spine position to alleviate any potential stress to the spine which can lead to back pain.
With the recent, increasing interest in ergonomics and in prevention of repetitive trauma injuries in the work place, sleep ergonomics has been for the most part neglected. On the average of 1/3 of most individuals' lives is spent partaking in this form of activity. One must appreciate the necessity that merely lying down is not sufficient for spinal stress reduction and thus proper sleep postural maintenance is paramount for complete and comfortable rest.
For years it has been recommended that proper sleep posture would entail avoiding the prone position, simply due to the aggravated stress on the lumbar spine (from accentuation of the lordotic curve) and as well the rotational positioning of the cervical spine could lead to neck pathomechanics over time. The supine position was promoted, however, without the appropriate flexion at the knee the lumbar lordotic curve was as well accentuated. In other words, when lying on the backside, it is natural for the legs to lie flat on the sleeping surface. In this manner the legs cooperate with the buttocks to act as a lever raising the lumbar region of the spine thereby causing an unnatural accentuation of the lordotic curve that may result in stress on the spine as well. In order to alleviate this stress caused by the legs, it is preferred that an individual sleep with the knees bent. This sleeping position reduces the stress on the lumbar region of the spine and allows the spine to rest flatly against the mattress or other sleeping surface. However, without some type of leg support, the natural tendency of the knees is to flatten out.
Lying on one's side is another preferred sleep position. However, without the appropriate support, the lumbar spine has a tendency to be affected by rotational stresses due to torquing factors between the upper and lower body. In the side lying position, the legs of the individual are generally maintained in an overlying relationship with each other. Positioning the legs in this manner at the mattress along one side of the body causes the body to compensate for this position which may result in stress on the spine. In order to minimize these stresses one must be knowledgeable of both human anatomy as well as physical forces acting on the spine. Simply relieving gravitational stress from the spine is insufficient to reduce spinal stress and strain to the point of eliminating it.
Several devices have been proposed to alleviate stress on the spine of an individual while sleeping. Such devices include large pillows or other supporting devices placed between the upper thighs of an individual to maintain a side lying position. These pillows extend out and away from the front and back sides of the individual to block, or prevent the individual from rolling over. Such devices are well known in the art and a variety of such pillows are available. One problem associated with these devices arises from the natural tendency of people to roll or shift positions while sleeping. Such movement can cause these pillows to shift or move from the preferred position in-between the individuals legs thereby defeating the purpose of the pillow or causing the sleeper to awaken and re-adjust the pillow. Some side lying devices have over come this problem by adding straps to secure the pillow to the thighs. However, it is not desirable to secure the pillow in this manner especially if a fire or other emergency occurred. Thus the need exists for an orthopedic support pillow that maintains support between the legs for a sleeper lying in a side lying position, but which can easily be removed.
In addition, it is desirable to have an orthopedic device as described above that could also support the back sides of the legs to maintain a bend in the knees of an individual while lying in the supine position. Such a dual capability would allow an individual to select a comfortable sleeping position while helping to alleviate stress on the spine. Thus the need exists for an orthopedic device that relieves spinal stress and strain either when an individual is lying on his/her side or back, and provides for a selection of individual sleep positions.


The present invention discloses a status displaying device and method thereof for a Solid-State Drive (SSD). The status displaying device may include a non-volatile memory, an emitting unit, a firmware, and a first control unit. A first instruction is generated and transmitted by the firmware. The first instruction is received by the first control unit. The first control unit performs a first operation on the non-volatile memory and controls the emitting unit to have a first emitting behavior according to the first instruction.

1. Field of the Invention
The instant disclosure relates to a status displaying device; in particular, to a status displaying device displaying status of the Solid-State Drive (SSD) via the emitting unit and a displaying method thereof.
2. Description of Related Art
Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology (S. M. A. R. T.) is an internal monitoring function of the hard disk and the solid state drive, which helps the user to monitor the condition of an SSD, such as the accessing life-time, the reading/writing error rate, the temperature, the erase error or the like. The S.M.A.R.T. information can be read via the application chosen by each manufacturer and then be displayed on screen. Based on the displayed S.M.A.R.T. information, the user can easily learn the current status of the SSD.
However, in the above method, there are three disadvantages.
1. As the computer host connected to the SSD does not comprise a screen, the S.M.A.R.T. information of the SSD cannot be learned by the user.
2. If the above application is not installed by the user, the S.M.A.R.T. information of the SSD cannot be read.
3. S.M.A.R.T. information of the SSD needs to be read by the computer host comprising a screen and installed with the corresponding application. In addition, usually, the S.M.A.R.T. information of the SSD would be read only when the user notices there may be a problem of the SSD. In other words, the current SSD cannot actively inform the user of the monitored S.M.A.R.T. information of the SSD.
Thus, the instant disclosure provides a status displaying device and method for an SSD to solve the above problems.

Status displaying device and method thereof for solid-state drive


A portable carrier for a data storage medium is disclosed. An accessor which includes an electromagnet and a fixturing assembly is disclosed. A data storage and retrieval system which includes at least one of Applicants' carriers and at least one of Applicants' accessors is disclosed. A method to releaseably attach Applicants' carrier to Applicants' accessor is disclosed. A method to retrieve, transport, and place Applicants' carrier within a data storage and retrieval system is disclosed.

Automated media storage libraries are known for providing cost effective access to large quantities of stored information. Generally, media storage libraries include a large number of storage slots on which are stored portable data storage media. One (or more) accessors retrieve one or more designated data storage media from the storage slots and deliver the accessed media to one or more appropriate data storage devices for reading and/or writing information on the accessed media. Suitable electronics operate the accessor(s) and operate the data storage device(s) to provide information to, and/or to receive information from, one or more attached host computers.
In certain embodiments, the storage slots are arranged in a planar orthogonal arrangement forming a "wall" of storage slots for holding data storage media. The plane may be a flat plane, or may be a cylindrical plane. In certain embodiments, two "walls" of storage slots may be provided on either side of the one or more accessors.
A number of different companies manufacture automated media storage libraries today, each model displaying various different features. One example is the IBM 3584 Media Storage Library. Some of the automated media storage libraries have dual or multiple accessors to provide a level of redundancy and to enhance performance.

Apparatus and method to transport a data storage medium disposed in a portable carrier

International Business Machines Corporation


A coated confectionery having a crispy starch based center with a thin continuous rigid outer, coating is disclosed. The integrity of the thin continuous rigid outer coating is maintained even after prolonged storage. Also disclosed is a method for preparing such coated confectionery.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention is related to a coated confectionery having a crispy starch based center with a thin rigid outer coating which is preferably a sugar shell coating. The coated confectionery of this invention is highly shelf-stable, particularly since the thin rigid outer shell maintains its integrity even after lengthy storage. The invention further relates to a conditioned crispy starch based center. The starch based center of this invention may be comprised of flour, kernels, grain or starch from any starch source. The invention also relates to the method of preparing the coated confectionery of this invention and the conditioned crispy starch based center.
2. Related Background Art
Coated confectionery, and particularly sugar shelled confectionery, have long been known. For example, the extremely well known M&M.RTM. chocolate candies are chocolate centers having sugar shell coatings. Other examples include Nestle's Smarties.RTM., Hershey's Reeses Pieces.RTM. and the like.
The preparation of coated confectioneries having a crispy starch based center with a thin rigid outer sugar shell presents several technical hurdles that must be overcome to ensure a product having excellent quality. First, the center cannot be soggy. In addition, cracking of the outer shell must be avoided to prevent premature staling of the product. Confectioneries having crispy starch based centers and thin sugar shell coatings are known, but have not avoided these problems.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,342,787 describes a dessert preparation including a chocolate coated crisp puffed rice cereal combined with a dessert based powder. It is said that the chocolate coating protects the rice cereal from becoming soggy after the dessert preparation is mixed with water or milk. There is no disclosure or suggestion of conditioning the rice cereal or of coating the rice cereal with a rigid sugar shell coating.
A coated confectionery having a crispy starch based center with a thin rigid outer coating which does not crack even after prolonged periods of storage would be highly desirous.

Coated confectionery having a crispy starch based center and method of preparation