Referring more particularly to FIG. 4, the present invention red ices such shear loading on the bolts, by utilizing a wedge member or a tapered block 106, inserted and wedged into a space 108 between wedge surfaces 70 and 88, and having oppositely facing outer surfaces 110 and 112 thereby placed into abutment with those surfaces, respectively, so as to exert a fore and aft directed force against those surface, denoted by arrows C, effectively acting to push those surfaces apart and counteracting the shear loads B. Such forces will also act in opposition to and reduce tensile loads acting on bolts 100. Tapered block 106 has at least one passage 114 therethrough (FIG. 3) for the passage of bolts 104 therethrough, to allow insertion of those bolts into threaded holes 98 and tightening those bolts to exert compressive forces against tapered block 106, denoted by arrows D, for holding that block in position. This may also be sufficient to apply a tensile load bolts 100, which are preferably at least generally longitudinally aligned therewith as shown. As a result, a force equilibrium condition can be achieved, which can significantly and predictably reduce and control shear forces acting against the bolts or other connectors for connecting axle housing 74 to the side plates 24 of chassis 22.

Commonly, a heavy-duty vehicle, such as, but not limited to, a work machine such as a tractor, and more particularly, an all-wheel or all-track drive tractor for agriculture, earthmoving and other uses, has a chassis comprised of one or more weldments. Such weldments typically include a plurality of mounting or locating pads and/or plates nominally positioned for surface-to-surface abutting contact with mating mounting pads and/or surfaces on an axle, axle housing, or axle assembly, hereinafter referred to as an "axle". The axle may be of wrought metal, cast, and/or welded construction. Typically, the known mounting pads and/or plates are oriented horizontally and are connected together by connectors-such as bolts and nuts or other fasteners.
One problem that has been found to arise with the known chassis and axle arrangements is that the connectors are often subjected to substantial shear loads in addition to longitudinal loads, when the chassis and axle are aligned and "fit-up" or brought together for assembly, and subsequently during operation of the vehicle, as a result of tractive effort forces generated at the ground and track or wheel interface. The shear loads applied during fit-up have been found to be the result of several conditions which in particular can include normal manufacturing tolerance stack-ups, as well as deformation, warpage and/or distortion of the chassis weldment as a result of the heat generated by welding. Such conditions can result in the mounting pads and/or plates being mis-positioned and/or mis-aligned or skewed, relative to their nominal positions and orientations. Subsequently, during fit-up, substantial forces must be applied to bring the mating pads and/or plates together. If the pads and/or plates cannot be satisfactorily brought together, shims or spacers can be used therebetween. However, the amount and direction or manner of warpage or deformation may not be uniform between weldments or vehicles, such that the location, number of shims, and the fit-up will typically vary between vehicles, which can add complexity and increase assembly time. Additionally, while use of shims and spacers can reduce axial or longitudinal loading on connectors such as bolts, they will typically not be as effective for reducing shear forces acting transversely against the connectors.
Thus, what is sought is an apparatus and method for assembling a chassis weldment of a vehicle or work machine with an axle, which facilitates and improves fit-up, and allows reducing shear loads acting on connectors used for connecting the chassis and axle.

Apparatus and method for reducing shear loading on elements connecting an axle and a chassis of a vehicle


According to the present invention, in a method for subjecting a roughly ground chamfer portion of a semiconductor wafer to helical grinding by relatively inclining the wafer and a second grinding stone to perform precise grinding, an edge portion of a discoid truer is formed into a vertically asymmetrical groove shape of a first grinding stone by using the first grinding stone having a vertically asymmetrical groove formed on a periphery thereof to grind the edge portion of the truer by the groove of the first grinding stone without being relatively inclined, a groove is formed on a periphery of the second grinding stone by relatively inclining the truer and the second grinding stone to subject the second grinding stone to helical grinding, and the chamfer portion of the wafer is precisely ground based on helical grinding by relatively inclining the semiconductor wafer with respect to a direction of the groove formed on the periphery of the second grinding stone. As a result, there is provided the method for machining a chamfer portion of the semiconductor wafer, which can machine the chamfer portion of the wafer into a vertically symmetrical shape when subjecting the chamfer portion of the semiconductor wafer to helical grinding, e.g. a resin grinding stone and the like.

A semiconductor wafer, e.g., a silicon wafer, for use in fabrication of a semiconductor device and the like is chamfered by grinding an edge portion in order to avoid chipping due to handling, and also subjected to mirror edge polishing based on polishing as a particle generation countermeasure in a device process in recent years. However, when a mechanical damage in the chamfer portion is deep, a damage or a grinding striation remains even though mirror edge polishing is performed, which results in a factor of particle generation.
Thus, as a method for reducing a mechanical damage in the chamfer portion, there is a method for performing so-called helical grinding with respect to a chamfer portion of a wafer, for example, while inclining a resin bond grinding stone (a resin grinding stone) with respect to the wafer (see Japanese Patent Application publication No. H05-152259).
In regular grinding, a chamfer portion is ground in a state where a main surface of a wafer W becomes vertical to a rotating axis of a resin grinding stone 13 as shown in FIG. 3(A), but in this case, grinding striations 14 in a circumferential direction are apt to be generated in the chamfer portion as shown in FIG. 3(B).
On the other hand, when performing helical grinding, the chamfer portion of the wafer W is ground in a state where the rotating axis of the resin grinding stone 13 is inclined with respect to a rotating axis of the wafer W as shown in FIG. 4(A). When such helical grinding is performed, while weak grinding striations 15 are generated in an oblique direction in the chamfer portion of the wafer W as shown in FIG. 4(B), the chamfer portion of the wafer W contacts with the surface of the grinding stone 13, thus an effect of improving surface roughness of the chamfer portion as compared with regular grinding is obtained.
However, if the chamber portion of the wafer is subjected to helical grinding by using the resin grinding stone as explained above, a reduction in damages in the chamfer portion of the wafer and an increase in a grinding stone life can be achieved, whereas there is a problem that vertical symmetry of the chamfer portion of the wafer considerably collapses. When the chamfer portion is continuously machined in particular, upper and lower angles of a groove of the resin grinding stone gradually vary, and asymmetry of the chamfer portion of the wafer is thereby more increased.

Method for machining chamfer portion of semiconductor wafer and method for correcting groove shape of grinding stone


Disclosed are a system, method and computer-readable medium relating to managing resources within a compute environment having a group of nodes or computing devices. The method comprises, for each node in the compute environment: traversing a list jobs having a fixed time relationship, wherein for each job in the list, the following steps occur: obtaining a range list of available timeframes for each job, converting each availability timeframe to a start range, shifting the resulting start range in time by a job offset, for a first job, copying the resulting start range into a node range, and for all subsequent jobs, logically AND'ing the start range with the node range. Next, the method comprises logically OR'ing the node range with a global range, generating a list of acceptable resources on which to start and the timeframe at which to start and creating reservations according to the list of acceptable resources for the resources in the group of computing devices and associated job offsets.

1. Field
The present disclosure relates to a resource management system and more specifically to a system and method of providing a fixed time offset-based dedicated co-allocation of a common resource set in the context of managing resources within a compute environment such as a grid or a cluster.
2. Introduction
Managers of clusters desire maximum return on investment often meaning high system utilization and the ability to deliver various qualities of service to various users and groups. A cluster is typically defined as a parallel computer that is constructed of commodity components and runs as its system software commodity software. A cluster contains nodes each containing one or more processors, memory that is shared by all of the processors in the respective node and additional peripheral devices such as storage disks that are connected by a network that allows data to move between nodes. A cluster is one example of a compute environment. Other examples include a grid, which is loosely defined as a group of clusters, and a computer farm which is another organization of computer for processing.
General background information on clusters and grids can be found in several publications. See, e.g., Grid Resource Management, State of the Art and Future Trends, Jarek Nabrzyski, Jennifer M. Schopf, and Jan Weglarz, Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2004; and Beowulf Cluster Computing with Linux, edited by William Gropp, Ewing Lusk, and Thomas Sterling, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2003.
Often a job will include several requirements and can be dependent upon another job. An illustrative job can be that every night a television station needs to perform a weather study for its weather reports. The station can contract with an owner or operator of a cluster or a grid for computing time from 2:00 AM to 4:00 AM to utilize compute environment resources to run the analysis. The analysis can involve reserving the resources and include several jobs that require different kinds of resources within the compute environment. For example, a first job can require several hours of processing time, but also be dependent upon a second job to perform data staging or preparation of data prior to the beginning of the first job. Where these two jobs are inter-related and require the consumption of several different types of resources within a cluster or a grid, there is needed in the art for way to maximize the use of resources while being able to process jobs requiring disparate but interrelated resources.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

System and method of providing a fixed time offset based dedicated co-allocation of a common resource set


The present invention provides compositions that enhance or inhibit the interactions of galectin-8 and galectin-8-like proteins with other extracellular matrix proteins or cell surface receptors, and methods for the use thereof as physiological modulators of cell adhesion and in treatment of tumors, both in vivo or ex vivo. It further provides compositions and methods for modulating the expression of galectin-8, and galectin-8-like proteins, particularly to novel antisense oligonucleotides.

Extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins have an important function in providing structural integrity to tissues and in presenting proper environmental cues for cell adhesion, migration, growth, and differentiation. All of these aspects rely on the spatiotemporal expression of adhesive as well as anti-adhesive components in extracellular matrices and on the cell surface. These include "classical" ECM proteins like fibronectin and laminin that act as anti adhesive ligands under certain experimental conditions. Many proteins that inhibit cell adhesion were classified as matricellular proteins. This group embodies proteins such as thrombospondin, tenascin, and hevin that do not serve as integral components of matrix elements but rather function through binding to matrix proteins as well as to cell surface receptors. Cell-matrix interactions depend to a large extent upon the engagement of specific ECM proteins with cell surface integrins (Hynes R O 1999 Trends Cell Biol 9:M33-M37; Giancotti F G & Ruoslahti E 1999 Science 285:1028-1032). Cell adhesion also depends upon carbohydrate-protein interactions, mediated by mammalian lectins of different families (Sharon N & Lis H 1995 Essays Biochem 30:59-75).
Lectins are proteins that are defined by their ability to bind carbohydrates specifically and to agglutinate cells. Lectins have been shown to be involved in a wide variety of cellular functions including cell-cell and cell-matrix interactions. Lectins are widespread among plants, invertebrates and mammals.
Animal lectins have been grouped into four distinct families: C-type lectins, which include selecting; P-type lectins; galectins (formerly termed S-type lectins or S-Lac lectins); and pentraxins (Barondes S H et al. 1994 J Biol Chem 269:20807-20810).
Galectins require fulfillment of two criteria: affinity for β-galactosides and significant sequence similarity in the carbohydrate recognition domain (CRD) (Hirabayashi J & Kasai K 1991 J Biol Chem 266:23648-23653). Galectin-1 and -2 are homodimers with subunit molecular weight of ˜14 kDa, that are not subjected to post-translational modifications (Tracey B M et al. 1992 J Biol Chem 267:10342-10347). Galectin-1 and galectin-3 are the best characterized of the mammalian galectins. Galectin-1 is found in the extracellular matrix and has been shown to interact with laminin. It is known to both promote and inhibit cell adhesion. In skeletal muscle, galectin-1 inhibits cell matrix interaction and is thought to play a role in muscle development while in other cell types galectin-1 promotes cell-matrix adhesion. Galectin-1 has also been implicated in the regulation of cell proliferation and in some immune functions. Over-expression of galectin-1 has been also shown to correlate with tumor metastasis potential (Raz A et al 1986 Cancer Res 46:3667-3672).
Galectin-3 is a monomeric protein, composed of an N-terminal half made of tandem repeats characteristic of the collagen superfamily, and a C-terminal half homologous to galectin-1 and-2. Like galectin-1, galectin-3 binds to laminin. It is known to plays a role in inflammation by binding to both IgE and IgE receptor thereby causing activation of mast cells and basophils. Galectin-3 has been shown to concentrate in the nucleus of certain cell types during proliferation. Expression of galectin-3 is elevated in certain tumors, suggesting that galectin-3 plays a role in metastasis. Indeed overexpression of galectin-3 in a weakly metastatic cell line caused a significant increase in metastatic potential (Raz A et al 1990 Int J Cancer 46:871-877).
Galectin-4 was cloned from rat intestine, and a homologous protein was cloned from nematode. Galectin-4 is a monomer with molecular mass of 36 kDa. It contains tandem domains of ˜140 amino acid each, homologous to galectin-1 and -2, that are separated by a link region. The function of galectin-4 is presently unknown.
The expression of human galectin-7 appears to be limited to keratinocytes. Galectin-7 is though to play a role in cell-matrix and cell-cell interactions as galectin-7 is sharply downregulated in anchorage independent keratinocytes and is absent in malignant keratinocytes cell lines. Galectin-7 may be required for the maintenance of normal keratinocytes (Madsen P et al J Biol Chem 270:5823-5829).
One of the present inventors has previously disclosed (U.S. Pat. No. 5,908,761) rat galectin-8, which is a 34-kDa secreted protein expressed in a wide variety of tissues in adult rats including lung, liver, kidney, spleen and cardiac and skeletal muscles. This disclosure is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference. Galectin-8 is composed of two homologous (38% identity) carbohydrate recognition domains joint by a short (˜26 amino acids) linking peptide. The link region of rat galectin-8 is not similar to either the link region of galectin-4 or to the proline, glycine and tyrosine-rich repeat domain of galectin-3.
Galectin-8 is a secreted protein, although lacking a signal peptide. Trypsinization experiments have shown that a significant fraction of the secreted galectin-8 remains bound to the extracellular surface. Galectin-8 form tight complexes with a selective subset of integrins, and secreted, soluble galectin-8 was shown to specifically inhibit cell adhesion. Over-expression of galectin-8 in 1299 cells, a cell line derived from human non-small cell lung carcinoma, significantly promoted inhibition of cell adhesion. However, full-length antisense galectin-8 showed no effect on the adhesion of these cells (Hadari Y R et al 2000 J Cell Sci 113:2385-2397).
Human galectin-8 has also been cloned (U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,869,289; 6,281,333), and was shown to share features with rat galectin-8 as well as other mammalian galectins, which are involved in the regulation of cell growth and development, including metastatic potential. WO9/43857 discloses that prostate carcinoma tumor antigen-1 (PCT-1), the human isoform of galectin-8, is highly expressed in certain forms of prostate carcinomas (Su Z-Z et al 1996 Proc Natl Acad Sci U. S. A. 93:7252-7257). Galectin-8 is over-expressed in lung carcinomas and is also overexpressed in the invasive regions of xenografted glioblastomas (Camby I et al 2001 Brain Pathol 11:12-26). In contrast, galectin-8 expression decreased in colon cancer compared with normal human colon tissue (Nagy et al 2002 Gut 50:392-401.
The diagnostic utility of human galectin-8 was proposed (U.S. Pat. No. 6,281,333), and PCT antigen-1 (WO99/43857) has been disclosed as useful for the detection of metastatic cancer cells. However, WO99/43857 fails to teach the differences in galectin-8 expression in various tumor types, and thus provides no guidance for distinguishing malignant cancers from benign hyperproliferative disorders, thus rendering the claimed diagnostic method unreliable.
Preliminary in vitro results of the present inventors and coworkers (Levy Y et al 2001 J Biol Chem 276:31285-31295) have shown galectin-8 as aphysiological modulator of cell adhesion, capable of both promoting and inhibiting cell adhesion depending on its configuration.
Cell adhesion is critical to the development and survival of multicellular organisms. The process of cell adhesion is complex, requiring participation of extracellular proteins such as fibronectin, vitronectin, collagen, laminin and galectin and numerous families of cellular receptors such as the integrins and cellular adhesion molecules (CAMS). These molecules are involved in the adhesion of both normal and malignant cells, and therefore are crucial to neoplastic proliferation and metastasis.
In view of the accumulated information described above, ECM proteins and matricellular proteins such as galectins are assumed to play a role in modulating cell-matrix interactions in a variety of pathological processes, including tumor development. However, the therapeutic utility of galectins in general, and galectin-8 in particular, were never actually reduced to practice for treatment of cell-proliferative pathological disorders.
Thus, there is a recognized need for, and it would be highly advantageous to have methods of regulating expression or function of galectin-8 and galectin-8 like proteins and using same as a means for modulating cell interactions in vivo. More particularly, there is an unmet need for method of using these proteins as a means of inhibiting tumor cell growth.

Compositions and methods of using galectin-8 as an inhibitor of tumor cell growth


A power supply device includes a first switching element, a second switching element, a transformer having a primary coil, a low-pass filter including an input port connected to the secondary coil, an output terminal connected to an output port of the low-pass filter, a detector for outputting a voltage that follows a voltage at the output terminal, a reference signal generator for generating a reference voltage, a comparator unit for outputting a signal based on a result of comparison between the voltage supplied from the detector and the reference voltage, and an operation pause circuit controlling the first and second switching elements. The operation pause circuit is operable to drive the first and second switching elements according to the signal output from the comparator unit, and to cause the first and second switching elements not to conduct regardless of the signal output from the comparator unit.

FIG. 7 is a circuit diagram of conventional power supply device 5001. Transistors 3 and 4 are connected to direct-current (DC) power supply 2 connected to input terminal 1. A primary coil of transformer 5 is connected to a node at which transistors 3 and 4 are connected. A voltage supplied from a secondary coil of transformer 5 is supplied to low-pass filter 6. A voltage output from low-pass filter 6 is supplied to output terminal 7. Load 8, such as a roller of a printer, is connected to output terminal 7.
FIG. 8 shows voltages 801 through 804 in power supply device 5001. Voltage 802 is output from output terminal 7. Voltage 803 is a predetermined voltage to be output from output terminal 7. A voltage at output terminal 7 is detected by voltage detector 9 and supplied to a negative input port of comparator 10. Reference signal generator 11 that generates a predetermined alternating-current (AC) voltage is connected to a positive input port of comparator 10. Comparator 10 compares the voltage detected by voltage detector 9 with the voltage output from reference signal generator 11. In other words, when the voltage detected by voltage detector 9 is higher than the voltage output from reference signal generator 11, comparator 10 outputs a voltage at high level. When the voltage detected by voltage detector 9 is lower than the voltage output from reference signal generator 11, comparator 10 outputs a voltage at low level. Thus, comparator 10 output voltage 803. Voltage 803 is supplied to a base of each of transistors 3 and 4. Transistors 3 and 4 connect and disconnect a voltage output from DC power supply 2 to transformer according to voltage 803.
In conventional power supply device 5001, a ripple voltage from voltage detector 9 and reference signal generator 11 is added to voltage 803. Voltage 804 represents voltage 803 in period D. As shown in this figure, one pulse of voltage 803 actually includes a large number of pulses in period D. A voltage having such a large number of pulses is supplied to the bases of switching elements 3 and 4, and thereby, changes between conduction and nonconduction of switching elements 3 and 4 undesirably by times identical to the number of pulses. In other words, transistor 3 conducts by times identical to the number of high-level statuses of the pulses of voltage 803, and transistor 4 conducts by times identical to the number of low-level statuses of voltage 803, thereby increasing a switching loss in transistors 3 and 4.

Power supply with reduced switching losses by blocking a feedback comparator's control signal


After forming a hole in an insulating film, a first tungsten film is formed over the wall and bottom surfaces of the hole. Then, a second tungsten film is formed by using the first tungsten film as a seed layer to fill up the hole. When the first tungsten film is formed, the average value of the diameters of crystal grains of the portion of the first tungsten film which is formed on the bottom surface of the hole is suppressed to 30 nm or less.

The present invention relates to a semiconductor device and a method for fabricating the same and, more particularly, to a semiconductor device in which a tungsten plug is provided on a semiconductor element or a wire and a method for fabricating the same.
Conventionally, a tungsten plug provided to extend through an insulating film has been used as an electrode for supplying a current and a signal to a semiconductor element or a lower layer wire covered with the insulating film (see, e.g., Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2001-60564).
FIG. 9 shows a cross-sectional structure of a conventional semiconductor device having a tungsten plug. As shown in FIG. 9, an insulating film 102 made of a silicon oxide is formed on a semiconductor substrate 101 made of silicon and having an upper surface provided with a semiconductor integrated circuit (not shown) including a semiconductor element and the like. The insulating film 102 is formed with a contact hole 102a reaching the semiconductor element. A titanium film 103, a titanium nitride film 104, and a first tungsten film 105 are stacked successively in layers on a wall surface of the contact hole 102a. A second tungsten film 106 is provided on the first tungsten film 105 in such a manner as to fill up the inside of the contact hole 102a.
In the conventional semiconductor device, the first tungsten film 105 has the function as a seed layer for the crystal growth of the second tungsten film 106 serving as the main body portion of the plug in the contact hole 102a, while each of the titanium film 103 and the titanium nitride film 104 has the function as an adhesion layer for enhancing the adhesion between the first tungsten film 105 and the insulating film 102.
In a method for fabricating the conventional semiconductor device, the insulating film 102 is formed first on the semiconductor substrate 101 and then the contact hole 102a is formed in the insulating film 102. Then, the titanium film 103 and the titanium nitride film 104 are deposited successively over the entire surface of the insulating film 102 so that the wall surface and the bottom surface (i.e., the upper surface of the semiconductor substrate 101 exposed at the bottom of the contact hole 102a) of the contact hole 102a is covered with the titanium film 103 and the titanium nitride film 104.
Next, the first tungsten film 105 is formed on the titanium nitride film 104 by CVD (chemical vapor deposition) using the reduction of a tungsten fluoride by a silicon hydride such that the contact hole 102a is halfway filled therewith. Subsequently, the second tungsten film 106 is formed on the first tungsten film 105 by CVD using the reduction of a tungsten fluoride by hydrogen such that the contact hole 102a is filled up completely therewith.
Thereafter, the respective portions of the second tungsten film 106, the first tungsten film 105, the titanium nitride film 104, and the titanium film 103 located outside the contact hole 102a, i.e., the respective portions of the second tungsten film 106, the first tungsten film 105, the titanium nitride film 104, and the titanium film 103 deposited over the insulating film 102 are removed successively by CMP (chemical mechanical polishing), whereby a plug composed of the first tungsten film 105 and the second tungsten film 106 is formed in the contact hole 102a.
In accordance with the method for fabricating the conventional semiconductor device, however, a problem is encountered that a tungsten-film burying defect occurs to form a seam (void) 107 in the contact hole 102, as shown in FIG. 10, which leads to the degradation of the reliability of the semiconductor device resulting from the defect. The problem becomes more pronounced with the miniaturization of the contact hole or with the increase of the aspect ratio thereof.

Semiconductor device and method for fabricating the same

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


The disclosure discloses an application store system and a development method using the application store system. The application store includes a developer community function entity, an application network store function entity and a telecommunication capability resource function entity. The telecommunication capability resource function entity includes a service execution module, configured to call, through an interface, a telecommunication capability in an integrated service access gateway to execute a service with the telecommunication capability, wherein the service is configured to be embedded in an application; the service with the telecommunication capability executed by the service execution module of the telecommunication capability resource function entity is embedded in the application uploaded in the developer community function entity. With the disclosure, development of the application with the telecommunication capability is accomplished, thereby the profit of operator is guaranteed and the viability of operator in the future is enhanced.

With the development of the 3rd Generation (3G) mobile communication and the development of the smart phone, mobile internet is applied more and more widely. In such an environment, Apple started providing the iPhone application through an application providing system (called a mobile application store) in 2008 and gained nearly one billion downloads in a short period of time.
The using of the mobile application store makes a large number of independent developers of application. Operators, handset makers and Internet providers also try to develop their respective online application stores, or have already introduced their own online application stores.
In a common application store system, the main function entities are the application network store and the developer community. Of course, the two function entities can be integrated. As shown in FIG. 1, the common application store does not have a function of interfacing with telecommunication capability, so the application developed by developers cannot use telecommunication capability.
Main function modules of related application network store include a portal, an authentication module, an application distribution module, a supply & sales module, a service support module and an operation support module. The portal mainly provides access points of WEB portal, WAP portal, mobile client or PC client. Through the access points, mobile phone users can search for and download application conveniently. The authentication module provides the function of authentication of user and authentication of application. The application distribution module provides functions of various application distribution paths, such as, downloading to computer, WAP PUSH to mobile phone, sending address through short message or directly downloading and installing by client, and other functions related to application. The supply & sales module provides management of application selling in the application store, including the management of store and shelf, the management of online and offline of application and the management of recommendation ranking.
Main functions of related developer community include: application upload, application management function, forum function and developer wiki.
It can be seen that the current system only supports common application and cannot support execution of a service with telecommunication capability. Thus, the application executing the service also cannot realize access of telecommunication capability. This certainly will drop the status of the operator to 'channel', thereby severely impacting the interest of the operator and the viability of the operator in the future.

Application store system and development method using the application store system


After a field insulating film having an element opening is formed on the surface of a p-type well, a gate insulating film is formed on a semiconductor surface in the element opening. A gate electrode layer of polysilicon or the like is formed on the insulating film. By using as a mask a lamination of the electrode layer and gate insulating film and the field insulating film, an ion implantation process is executed to form n+-type source and drain regions. After the electrode layer is made narrow and thin by an isotropic etching process, n−-type source and drain regions are formed by an ion implantation process using as a mask the lamination of the electrode layer and gate insulating film and the field insulating film.

A) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a manufacture method for an insulated gate type field effect transistor having a lightly doped drain (LDD) structure.
B) Description of the Related Art
As a conventional manufacture method for an insulated gate type field effect transistor having an LDD structure, a method such as illustrated in FIG. 30 to 32 is known (for example, refer to JP-A-HEI-6-275635).
In a process shown in FIG. 30, after a field oxide film 2 having an element opening 2a is formed on one principal surface of a p-type semiconductor substrate 1, a gate insulating film 3 made of silicon oxide or the like is formed on the semiconductor surface exposed in the element opening 2a. After a polysilicon layer is deposited on the insulating film 3, the polysilicon layer is etched by using a resist layer 5 as a mask to leave a gate electrode layer 4 of polysilicon. In this case, the gate insulating film 3 just under the gate electrode layer 4 is left and the other gate insulating film is etched and removed.
Next, by using as a mask the resist layer 5, a lamination of the gate electrode layer 4 and gate insulating film 3 and the field insulating film, phosphorus ions are implanted into p-type substrate regions on both sides of the electrode layer 4 to form an n+-type source region 6 and an n+-type drain region 7.
In a process shown in FIG. 31, in the state that the gate electrode layer 4 is covered with the resist layer 5, the electrode layer 4 is isotropically etched to thin it through side etching. A width (gate width) of the electrode layer 4 is thinned, for example, to 0.8 μm to 0.5 μm.
In a process shown in FIG. 32, after the resist layer 5 is removed, by using as a mask a lamination of the gate electrode layer 4 and gate insulating film 3 and the field insulating film 2, phosphorus ions are implanted to form an n−-type source region 8 and an n−-type drain region 9 in the p-type substrate regions on both sides of the electrode layer 4. The drain region 9 is generally called an LDD region.

Manufacture of insulated gate type field effect transistor


A constant multiplier compiler model allows a modified canonical signed two's complement constant multiplier circuit design to be generated from a user specification of the desired constant. A netlist of a modified canonical signed two's complement constant multiplier circuit for computing a product of a multi-bit multiplicand and a multi-bit constant is automatically generated by modifying a netlist of a precursor signed two's complement constant multiplier circuit for computing a product of the multi-bit multiplicand and a multi-bit constant that is all ones. The number of zeros in the multi-bit constant is first maximized by converting the constant to modified canonical form. Then, for each zero in the multi-bit constant, a corresponding logical column of full adders is deleted and each output signal of each adder so deleted is logically connected to a corresponding output signal in a preceding logical column of adders. Two exceptions to the foregoing rule occur. In the case of a first logical column of adders having no preceding logical column of adders, each output signal of each adder deleted is logically connected to a bit of the multi-bit multiplicand. In the case of a logical row of adders receiving a most significant bit of the multi-bit multiplicand, each output signal of each adder deleted is logically connected to one of the most significant bit of the multi-bit multiplicand and logic zero. The method produces a minimum layout, minimizing silicon cost, and produces a high performance design with critical paths optimized in terms of time delay.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to computer-aided integrated circuit design tools. In particular, the invention relates to circuits and methods for use in a data path compiler, an integrated circuit design tool that translates a functional description of datapath elements into a hardware realization.
2. State of the Art
Datapath compilers are known in the art. These computer-aided integrated circuit design tools accept a functional user specification of desired datapath elements and from that specification generate a hardware circuit layout that realizes the desired function. The desired function may be a simple counting function. Often, however, the function is arithmetic. For example, the user may specify that a data word be added together with a predefined constant. The datapath element that performs this function may be referred to as a constant adder. Similarly, the user may specify that a data word be multiplied by a predefined constant. The datapath element that performs this function may be referred to as a constant multiplier. As used herein, the term "constant multiplier" refers to a special-purpose multiplier that multiplies a data word by a fixed, signed or unsigned constant. To accommodate variable word length and arbitrary constants, constant multipliers have typically required detailed design by a design engineer. That is, constant multipliers have not been readily compilable.

Canonical signed two's complement constant multiplier compiler


A polygon connected autotransformer in conjunction with zero sequence blocking inductor(s) enables multipulse AC to DC converters to use lower kVA parts rating by using appropriate phase-shifted voltage sets in conjunction with inductors that extend the conduction period and reduce rms current. Also, lower harmonic voltages in the transformer facilitate use of lower performance magnetic steel. Designs for 12, 18, and 24-pulse use the same conceptual approach. Very efficient high power ratings are feasible. Means are given to limit the maximum no-load DC output voltage. A technique is disclosed that reduces the size of polygon transformers supplying loads with substantial third harmonic.

To meet industry needs for electrical power converters which convert AC to DC without injecting large amounts of harmonic currents into the power system, numerous transformer and converter topologies are available, some of which are described in the documents referenced above. All require installation of extra equipment and add to the total cost. Preferred methods are those which perform well in practical power systems which incorporate voltage unbalance and preexisting harmonic voltages. Methods whereby three-phase power is converted to nine-phase power before processing, have been described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,124,904, 5,619,407, 6,191,968, and 6,335,872. Continual improvements are sought to reduce cost, particularly in systems with lower output current. The invention described here provides for a lower cost, smaller size design.
This invention describes an improvement to an approach first described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,876,634. In this patent, m sets of three-phase AC voltage each displaced by an angle of nominally 60°/m are applied to m three-phase bridge converters that are paralleled to feed a DC load. In this patent, unwanted circulating currents are minimized by interphase transformers incorporated in the DC circuits of the paralleled converters. Interphase transformers designed with appropriate zero sequence impedance can prevent circulating currents, but they are relatively bulky. It is desirable to eliminate them. This is possible using the methods taught in the U.S. Pat. No. 5,124,904 patent.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,335,872 uses the means described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,124,904 to eliminate the interphase transformer by using a nine-phase configuration. Also, it draws on the polygon transformer described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,876,634 as a means to generate a nine-phase AC supply. Unfortunately, the full potential of this arrangement is not obtained when the polygon transformer is used to feed loads that draw significant third harmonic current, as in an 18-pulse converter fed with a nine-phase supply. The polygon transformer rating is greatly increased because of third harmonic current that circulates in the transformer coils. The invention herein eliminates that problem and results in a significantly smaller transformer.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,101,113 describes means to retain the desirable 60°/m phase shifting features without using interphase transformers. In this patent, unwanted circulating currents are limited by means of zero sequence blocking transformers included in at least m−1 of the m AC voltage sets.
The invention described here combines zero sequence blocking transformers with the polygon transformer described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,876,634. It results in multipulse converter circuits with substantially increased efficiency, reduced size, and lower cost than previously disclosed methods. Circulating harmonic currents are avoided and transformer size is greatly reduced.
In a practical 18-pulse design, the kVA of the polygon autotransformer is about 17% of the DC load kW. In a 24-pulse configuration the transformer rating is less than 11%.
The invention can also be applied with double-wound transformer configurations, as taught in the U.S. Pat. No. 4,255,784 patent. An additional coil or coils on each phase allow any voltage transformer ratio to be achieved. In this case the transformer rating is comparable to the load.
As noted previously, other auto-wound and double-wound transformer methods are available that can dispense with the interphase transformers or ZSBTs by illustratively using a nominal 120°/m phase shift as taught in U.S. Pat. No. 5,124,904. However, these circuits result in shorter current conduction angles, which increase the rms current in conductors and semiconductors. Further, because AC line reactance is invariably included before the transformer, high frequency harmonic voltages are developed across the transformers. Thus, high performance magnetic steel is often used.
The transformer used in the invention described here is operated with AC line reactors in the output leads. This feature not only increases current conduction, which reduces rms current, but also reduces harmonic voltages appearing across the transformer. Thus, the transformer is better able to use lower quality magnetic material. The net result is a much smaller transformer. For example, in an 18-pulse method the transformer of the invention has only about 40% of the rating of typical 18-pulse converters presently in use.
Because of voltage vector differences, the inherent open circuit DC output voltage of the invention is somewhat higher than that of multipulse systems in which the AC voltage sets are displaced by an angle of 120°/m. However, careful selection of the magnetizing inductance of the zero sequence blocking transformer, in conjunction with a minimum load or other means described in the invention, obviates this problem. To highlight the importance of the zero sequence magnetizing impedance the device in this invention is henceforth called ZSBI (zero sequence blocking inductor)

Low kVA/kW transformers for AC to DC multipulse converters


An air bearing assembly transports loads across a smooth and flat surface when pressurized with air. The air bearing assembly includes a frame and an air bearing. The frame has a flat side for supporting a load and has an inner ring extending from its other side. The air bearing includes a backing plate and a flexible diaphragm that forms an enclosed footprint on the surface when pressurized. The footprint of the diaphragm uniformly overlap the ring of the frame. A damping chamber is formed by the inner ring of the frame and by the backing plate. The damping chamber is sealed when the diaphragm is pressurized by the upward force exerted by the diaphragm upon the backing plate against the inner ring.

Wheels and casters are commonly used to reduce friction as heavy loads are transported on a frame or platform across a surface. When a source of pressurized air is available and the surface is relatively smooth and flat, air bearings can be used in place of wheels and casters. An air bearing is a flexible diaphragm with one or more small air exit holes that is sealed around its periphery and attached at its center to a lightweight backing plate. Pressurized air flows into the interior of the air bearing and inflates it. The air leaving the diaphragm through the exit holes first enters a plenum space under the diaphragm and then flows to the atmosphere. The continuously flowing film of air between the diaphragm and the surface allows friction to be virtually eliminated during transport.
Air bearings are made in many different sizes and shapes, including circular, square, and "racetrack." Air bearings are used with a supporting frame or platform. The combination of an air bearing and a frame is commonly known as an air bearing assembly. The frame typically contains two parallel plates separated by a small distance. The load rests on the upper plate while the lightweight backing plate of the air bearing is supported by the lower plate. Air bearings are used in a variety of air bearing assembly configurations. For example, air bearings are individually mounted to frames and used singly or, more commonly, in sets of three or more under heavy equipment. Air bearings are also used under moving platforms and rotating turntables. Air bearings can carry tremendous loads, for example, a round air bearing having a diameter of about 4 ft (1.2 m) can carry a load of about 40,000 lbs (18,200 kg). The air pressure in the diaphragm is a function of the load carried and does not depend on the inlet air pressure. The diaphragm will overinflate and may burst if the load capacity is exceeded.
A variety of operating conditions can cause pressure fluctuations to occur in the diaphragm of an air bearing. Rapid pressure fluctuations, in turn, can cause individual air bearings to bounce or "hop" and can cause a load resting on a set of air bearings to rock or sway. Common operating conditions that are believed to cause hopping and rocking include, but are not limited to, fluctuations in the pressurized air source itself, shifting of the load on the air bearing, and passing of the air bearing(s) over non-uniform surfaces. More particularly, if the surface over which the air bearing moves is not perfectly smooth, some of the exit holes may be temporarily blocked which, in turn, causes a non-uniform flow of air from the exit holes of the diaphragm. To eliminate or reduce hopping and rocking, most air bearings are used in conjunction with a damping chamber. A damping chamber is a sealed chamber with an orifice between it and the interior of the air bearing. The two-way air flow between the diaphragm and the damping chamber, together with the inherent compressibility of air, greatly reduces pressure fluctuations in the diaphragm.
Unfortunately, damping chambers add to the cost, weight, and manufacturing complexity of frames for air bearing assemblies. Damping chambers are sealed pressure vessels that are strong enough to withstand the pressure differential between the operating pressure of the air bearing and atmospheric pressure. Damping chambers are either purchased or fabricated by welding or other time-consuming and expensive process. They are often mounted on the frame of an air bearing assembly between the upper and lower plates. When added to the frame in this manner, the damping chamber makes little or no contribution to the frame's structural strength.
An air bearing assembly is disclosed in Burdick, U.S. Pat. No. 3,756,342, issued Sep. 4, 1973, which is incorporated by reference. The Burdick air bearing assembly contains a flexible diaphragm and a backing plate. The air bearing slides in and out from under a load carrying platform. The load carrying platform contains a sealed damping chamber which is presumably formed by welding. The damping chamber also contains a small orifice that communicates through a corresponding hole in the backing plate with the interior of the diaphragm. A gasket is placed between the orifice and the backing plate. The gasket is sealed by the deformation of the backing plate and, when the air bearing is pressurized, by the load.
It would be a major improvement if an air bearing assembly were provided that has an integral damping chamber that is easily and simply manufactured and whose seal is created by the pressurization of the air bearing.


A method for determining the appearance of an object to be replicated and an apparatus therefor are described herein. The method consists in providing a controlled illumination to illuminate a surface of the object, measuring the object with a CCD camera to collect an image map of a plurality of points on the surface and processing that information to produce an appearance mapping of the object. Calibration of the apparatus is done by measuring calibration patches illuminated with the same illumination. When the apparatus is made in view of replicating the appearance of an object, a comparison can be done by similarly producing an appearance mapping of the replicate and by comparing it to the appearance mapping of the object.

The task of replacing a tooth is conventionally made of two separate steps. The first step is to measure the shape and color shade of a tooth to be replaced and the second step is to make a duplicate of that tooth according to the measurements taken in the first step.
In the first step, while the shape information can be acquired with molding technique, the measurement of the color shade and translucency of the tooth proves to be more challenging.
The quality of the dental prosthesis cannot be better than the data that serves to model the tooth. The precision of that model depends on several factors, like the quality of the illumination, the data acquisition by measuring and the processing of those data.
The oldest and simplest way of determining the color shade of an object like a tooth is to compare visually the object with a chart of color shades. The results obtained with that method are however not very good because of the subjectivity of the human eye. Furthermore, the illumination of the tooth and of the chart may cause inappropriate color shade choices.
A quantitative method can be used to obtain a minimum of precision and of reproductability in the measurement of the color shade of an object. Such quantitative methods can be classified by the type of illumination used, the measurement technique, the data processing and the comparison between the finished product and the original object.
The illumination is usually done by using fiber optics or a fiber optic bundle to illuminate the surface of the object to be measured. It is advantageous to control the illumination of the object since the characteristics of the illumination method may be taken into account during the data processing. Diffuse light provides a simple means to control illumination. An example can be found in the U.S. Pat. No. 5,383,020 issued in Jan. 17, 1995 and naming Vieillefosse as the inventor.
Integrating spheres are a known technique to achieve a uniform diffuse light source. Such a technique of illuminating a tooth is described by O'Brien in the U.S. Pat. No. 5,759,030, issued on Nov. 21, 1989. This type of illumination is useful for measurement of matte surfaces. A drawback of that technique, or of any other technique that produces diffuse light, is apparent when it is used to illuminate glossy material. The desired signal is then confounded with a specular reflection component. The classification of tooth shades requires that the illumination be known with a precision of at least one percent everywhere on the tooth surface.
Different measurement techniques are presently used to quantize the reflected light coming from an illuminated object. These techniques usually consist in a spectral decomposition of the reflected light from a selected area of the object surface.
Vieillefosse et al. describe, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,428,450, issued on Jun. 27, 1995, a method for determining the color of an object by decomposing the light with an optical system consisting of achromatic doublets and by analysing the light by means of interference filters and photo detectors. In the above mentioned O'Brien's patent, there is described a device for decomposing the light, comprising a spectrophotometer.
A drawback of both Vieillefosse et al. and O'Brien's methods is that the selected area of the object surface is seen as if it was uniform or a point. The spatial differences are not detected by these methods and thus can not be reproduced in the duplicated teeth. Another drawback of Viellefosse's method is that the wavelength spectrum is limited to only five wavelengths.
Another measurement technique is taught by Murljacic in his U.S. Pat. No. 5,766,006, issued on Jun. 16, 1998. In this document, Murljacic describes a tooth shade analyser system using a camera to capture a digital color image of a tooth. The tooth image includes an RGB chromaticity representation that is scanned and compared pixel by pixel with several tooth shades stored in a memory of the system.
A drawback of Murljacic's system is that the scanning is performed without controlling the illumination therefore decreasing the reproductability of the color comparison.
Several methods are known and used to convert the spectral decomposition or the data collected from a selected area into a single measurement that corresponds to the color perception of the human eye. The objective is to quantize the data and also to correct them as to be able to recreate the proper colors of the original model as the human eye perceives them. It is also important to be able to quantize the translucency of the materials.
A method of processing data is described by O'Brien. It consists in converting the measurements to tristimulus values, after calibration on a chip, and comparing to known tabulated values. The tristimulus value conversions are performed under a given illumination, represented by tabulated values determined to represent most appropriately power frequency distribution of an incandescent lamp. A problem of that method is that it does not process images obtained by a properly color-calibrated measurement device.
A general drawback of the prior art lies in that the notion of comparison between the measured tooth and a duplicate is limited to a single point to point comparison. Thus, area defects cannot be detected where no measurement has been taken.

Method and apparatus for determining the appearance of an object


A process for the preparation of carvone comprises hydrogenating carvoxime in the presence of a selecively poisoned catalyst. Preferred catalysts include noble metals supported on inorganic materials poisoned with a catalyst modifier. In a preferred embodiment of the process defined herein, the crude carvone reaction product produced in accordance with the process of the invention, is purified by treating the crude carvone product with an organometallic compound M(X)n wherein M is a polyvalent metal, n is the valence of M and X denotes an inorganic or organic atom or group.

This application is the National Phase of International Application PCT/GB00/01173 filed Mar. 27, 2000 which designated the U.S. and that International Application was published under PCT Article 21(2) in English.
This invention relates to the preparation of carvone (5-isopropenyl-2-methyl-2-cyclohexen-1-one) and in particular to the conversion of carvoxime (5-isopropenyl-2-methyl-2-cyclohexen-l-one oxime) to carvone.
L-Carvone (5(R)-isopropenyl-2-methyl-2-cyclohexen-1-one) is widely used as an odorant or flavouring component for tooth paste or powder, chewing gum, mouthwashes etc. In these dental applications, it is important the carvone has a high purity and, in particular, it is important that hydroxy compounds, such as xcex1-terpineol, a common by-product of carvone synthesis, are present at a low level. These materials often cannot be separated from carvone by distillation and a laborious, costly and effluent-intensive bisulphite extraction and wash is generally needed to remove the contaminants. An alternative method which is suitable for separating by-products such as xcex1-terpineol is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,302,759. The process described in this patent utilises the reaction between an organometallic compound and an alcohol to bring about a separation of an alcohol from a ketone. Unfortunately, this purification process is not economical when the amount of hydroxy compounds present in the carvone is relatively high.
In one process for preparing carvone, carvoxime is hydrolysed by transoximation under acidic conditions with sulphuric acid and acetone. While the hydrolysis affords reasonable yields of carvone, substantial amounts of xcex1-terpineol, formed from limonene, and hydroxycarvone are formed. Moreover, stoichiometric amounts of acetoxime, a suspected carcinogen, are formed as side products and a large amount of sulphate effluent is produced. Hence, the process, although practical, carries a substantial environmental burden. Furthermore, the amount of xcex1-terpineol and hydroxycarvone generated from the process means that the purification method disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,302,759 cannot be applied economically and hence a bisulphite treatment is needed to purify the resulting carvone in order to produce dental quality product. This results in a further environmental burden.
In the search for an environmentally friendly carvone production process, one of the important objectives is elimination of the formation of the toxic acetoxime which is produced in the above-mentioned process, as shown in the following scheme:
One solution is a reductive deoximation of carvoxime which is described in Japanese Patent Application JP 50 071 648 in which metallic iron in aqueous carboxylic acid is used for the reduction. An ammonium salt is the side product of this process, and the production of acetoxirne is therefore eliminated. However, a stoichiometric amount of iron is used and stoichiometric amount of iron salt/iron oxide is formed as a side product.
Catalytic hydrogenation is a well-known and useful industrial technique that can be applied on a manufacturing scale and which uses a cheap reducing agent, namely hydrogen. The problem with using hydrogenation in the reductive deoximation of carvoxime is that the reagent may not be selective. Thus, the two olefin functional groups can be saturated readily to produce dihydrocarvones and/or tetrahydrocarvones.
Hydrogenation has been used to synthesise olefins from alkynes, the hydrogenation being better known as Lindlar""s hydrogenation (Lindlar, H.; Dubuis, R. Organic Synthesis Coll. Vol. V, 1973, p.880). Lindlar""s hydrogenation normally uses a palladium on calcium carbonate or palladium on barium sulphate catalyst that is selectively poisoned by, for example, a lead salt or quinoline.
It has now been found that the formation of hydroxy compounds such as a-terpineol during the synthesis of carvone can be minimised by using a hydrogenation process to convert carvoxime to carvone. Surprisingly, hydrogenation catalysts, such as Lindlar""s catalyst, have been found to efficiently convert carvoxime to carvone.
According to the invention, there is provided a process for the preparation of carvone comprising hydrogenating carvoxime in the presence of a selectively poisoned catalyst.
The process is illustrates by the following reaction scheme.
The reaction product, carvone, can exist as optical isomers. The more useful and preferred, isomer is L-carvone although the process is equally suitable for producing D-carvone.
The carvone produced using this process contains a relatively small amount of hydroxy compounds, particularly a-terpineol, and therefore the process of U.S. Pat. No. 5,302,759 can be economically employed to purify the product. Therefore, in a preferred embodiment, the process of the invention further comprises a purification of the reaction product carvone by treating the crude carvone product with an organometallic compound M(X)n wherein M is a polyvalent metal, n is the valence of M and X denotes an inorganic or organic atom or group.
The starting material, carvoxime, in the process of the invention, can be prepared by any suitable method. Typically, limonene (d-) is reacted with nitrosyl chloride to give a chloronitrosylated product which, on dehydrochlorination and tautomerisation, yields carvoxime.
This crude carvoxime product is then converted to carvone using the process of the invention. Alternatively, the crude carvoxime may be purified before use. Carvoxirne is hydrogenated by heating the carvoxime in the presence of a hydrogen source and a selectively poisoned catalyst.
The preferred reaction temperature is in the range 80xc2x0 C. to 180xc2x0 C. and, more preferably in the range 120xc2x0 C. to 155xc2x0 C.
A suitable, and preferred, hydrogen source for use herein is hydrogen gas. In this case, the reaction is preferably carried out at a pressure above atmospheric pressure, typically at a pressure in the range 1.0 to 10.0 MPa, and, more preferably, in the range 4.0 to 6.0 MPa.
Alternatively, the hydrogen source can be any compound which is a hydrogen donor. Suitable examples include formic acid; formate salts such as sodium formate; secondary alcohols such as isopropanol; cyclohexene; cyclohexadienes; tetralin; teipinolenes; limonene; or other unsaturated cycloalkanes. Preferably, the hydrogen donor is formic acid which is buffered by a salt. Suitable salts for use herein include, but are not limited to sodium acetate, bicarbonates, carboxylates, hydrogen phosphate, dihydrogen phosphate or ammonium salts. Preferably, the salt is sodium acetate.
When the hydrogen source is a hydrogen donor, the reaction can be carried out at atmospheric pressure, and so may be performed using ordinary apparatus.
In accordance with the invention, the reaction is carried out in the presence of a poisoned catalyst. By xe2x80x9cpoisoned catalystxe2x80x9d is meant a catalyst which is active in promoting conversion of the oxime group to a ketone group but does not hydrogenate the carbon-carbon double bonds in the carvoxirne molecule significantly. Typically the catalyst is a supported metal catalyst, especially a noble metal catalyst and effective catalysts include, but are not limited to, metals, such as palladium, supported on a material, such as barium sulphate or alumina, which have been poisoned by mixing with a catalyst modifier such as a lead compound or quinoline. A particularly preferred catalyst is palladium on barium sulphate poisoned by red lead oxide (Pb3O4).
Generally, the catalyst will be present in an amount in the range 0. 1% to 10.0% by weight of carvoxime and preferably in an amount in the range 3.0% to 6.0% by weight of carvoxime.
The hydrogenation of carvoxirne produces ammonia as a by product and it is preferable to add an acid to the reaction mixture to neutralise the ammonia produced. Many acids can be used, including organic and inorganic acids but preferred acids include carboxylic acids such as acetic acid or formic acid.
The hydrogenation of carvoxime using the process in accordance with the invention has been found to introduce very little, if any, hydroxy compounds into the carvone, although the earlier stages of the usual synthesis from limonene do produce some hydroxy compounds.
In a preferred embodiment of the process defined herein, carvone, prepared according to the process of the present invention is purified according to the process described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,302,759, the teachings of which are hereby incorporated by reference, wherein the crude carvone is treated with an organometallic compound of formula M(X)n, as hereinbefore defined. M is a polyvalent metal atom, preferably selected from titanium, aluminium or boron. n is the valence of the metal, i.e. l equals 4 for titanium and 3 for aluminium or boron. X is an alkoxy group, typically having 1 to 10 carbon atoms and preferably 1 to 4 carbon atoms. Particularly preferred alkoxy groups for use herein are methoxy, ethoxy, propoxy or butoxy.
Preferably, when the organometallic compound added is an alkoxide, there will be a by-product alcohol (e.g. isopropanol from tetraisopropoxytitanium) which is sufficiently volatile to be removed from the carvone before the carvone is distilled.
The amount of organometallic compound used will depend principally upon the amount of hydroxy compound present in the crude carvone product. Usually, the amount of M(X)n added to the crude carvone is sufficient to produce a molar ratio of M(X)n to hydroxy compound in the range 0.5:1 to 1.5:1 and preferably in the range 0.75:1 to 1:1.
The carvone produced according to the preferred process of the invention is particularly useful for dental flavourings and generally contains low levels of undesirable impurities.


Provided is an image processing apparatus that can efficiently utilize the storage capacity in image processing. A dividing unit divides inputted image data into a plurality of partial data. An analysis unit analyzes whether or not each of the plurality of partial data divided by the division unit is suitable for compression at any of a plurality of stages of image processing in which feature of image changes. A compression unit compresses the partial data at the stage when the analysis unit analyzes that it is suitable for compression. A decompressing unit decompresses the partial data compressed by the compression unit at the stage when it is compressed. A processing execution unit executes processing at the stage of image processing on the partial data decompressed by the decompressing unit.

The present disclosure relates specifically to an image processing apparatus, an image forming apparatus, and an image forming method that perform compression in image processing.
There is an image forming apparatus such as a multifunctional peripheral (MFP) that can print documents and images.
The image forming apparatus handles a large amount of image data on a page-by-page basis when performing image processing to form an image on recording paper. Therefore, the storage area of a recording medium such as RAM, HDD, or the like, is required to be used, efficiently.
There is a typical technology that image data is compressed by lossy compression in units of m*n divided images (cells). This technology can provide a visual lossless compression technology specialized for image forming apparatus.

Image processing apparatus, image forming apparatus, and image forming method that perform compression suitable for the stage of image processing


Provided are a method and device for controlling information flow display panel, a terminal apparatus and a storage medium. The method includes: determining, in response to detecting a sliding gesture on the information flow display panel and in a case where the sliding gesture is determined as a set sliding gesture, a sliding starting point of the sliding gesture according to a region where the sliding gesture is located; determining, in response to detecting a release operation of the sliding gesture, a sliding distance of the sliding gesture; and closing the information flow display panel based on a determination that the sliding distance is greater than or equal to a set threshold.

Along with the continuous development of the Internet and information technology, more and more Internet applications are provided on a terminal. The Internet applications on the terminal can display the information flow obtained through interaction with a server on an information flow display panel.
In the related art, in a case where a user has viewed the information flow on the information flow display panel, and wants to close the information flow display panel, the user should find a close button (such as a return button) and then click the button to close the display panel, therefore, the operation is complicated. Moreover, since a position of the close button is fixed, it is more inconvenient for the user to operate with one hand as a screen gets larger and larger.

Method and device for controlling information flow display panel, terminal apparatus, and storage medium

Beijing Microlive Vision Technology Co., Ltd.


A method provides operating information for a network having a set of computing entities (CPE) for performing functions on data; a set of connecting entities (CNE) for connecting users and performing functions on data; and a set of forwarding entities (SFE) for forwarding data between the CPE and CNE. CNE are assigned to the CPE. At least part of the functions performed by the CNE are split and offloaded to the assigned CPE for performing the part of functions. The method includes: determining: a) network information, including network topology information and network capability information of the network, b) entity location information, including network locations of the entities, and c) function splitting information, including possible configurable functions which can be split; and, based on the determined information of a)-c), jointly optimizing: routing between the network entities, assignments of the CNE to the CPE, and function splits.

Although applicable in general to any kind of access network the present invention will be described with regard to radio access networks (RAN).
The increasing demand for mobile data and valued-added services, e.g. mobile broadband service, has caused exponential growth of data traffic in mobile networks. The mobile network operators are facing the challenge to greatly increase the capacity and coverage of their networks to meet the exponential traffic growth. To support this challenge and to achieve the required 5G data rates, extensive support for novel air interface technologies such as Cooperative Multipoint (CoMP), Carrier Aggregation (CA), and massive MIMO will be needed. One of the major challenges of deploying such technologies is the need for centralization, i.e. joint processing of traffic from multiple base stations at a common centralized entity and tight coordination among different radio sites. To address this problem, the architecture of Cloud Radio Access Network or Centralized-RAN, 'C-RAN', has been introduced some years ago as a key enabler of such novel technologies. An additional advantage of centralizing BS functionality is the reduced operational costs in comparison to traditional BS architectures, e.g. simpler maintenance, more efficient energy utilization, etc.
Unlike conventional RAN where the elements processing the base band signal called Base Band Units, BBU, and the radio elements, called Remote Radio Head, RRH, are situated together at the base station, in C-RAN the BBUs are centralized in a single location or even virtualized into a cloud-computing platform allowing for centralized operation of BBUs as disclosed in the non-patent literature of M. Peng, C. Wang, V. Lau, and H. Poor, "Fronthaul-constrained cloud radio access networks: insights and challenges," Wireless Communications, IEEE, vol. 22, no. 2, pp. 152-160, April 2015. The BBUs are connected to the core network through the conventional packet-based switching network, namely the backhaul, 'BH'. The challenge of C-RAN deployment is that the separation of BBU and RRH requires these two elements to be connected through a high-speed, low-latency and accurately synchronized network, the so-called fronthaul, 'FH', to transport the digitized radio signals. Two conventional protocols for the transport of fronthaul traffic are e.g. CPRI (Common Public Radio Interface) or OBSAI (Open Base Station Architecture Initiative), which have most stringent bandwidth, delay, jitter, and synchronization requirements. Such critical requirements can currently only be supported by costly fibre optical networks, i.e. with point-to-point optical links.
The conventional fronthaul interface relying on fiber optics has the following limitations as shown in the non-patent literature of C.-L. I, Y. Yuan, J. Huang, S. Ma, C. Cui, and R. Duan, "Rethink fronthaul for soft RAN," Communications Magazine, IEEE, vol. 53, no. 9, pp. 82-88, September 2015 or "White Paper of Next Generation Fronthaul Interface," White paper, China Mobile Research Institute, Alcatel-Lucent, Nokia Networks, ZTE Corporation, Broadcom Corporation, Intel China Research Center, June 2015:                The bandwidth usage is constant and independent of user traffic, which is highly inefficient;        Only point-to-point connections are allowed, which results in low path diversity;        The split of base station function between RRH and BBU is fixed and static;        Fronthaul is a separate network segment, completely incompatible to the backhaul in terms of physical interfaces, data, control, and management plane.
Further the fronthaul segment may be transformed into a low-cost packet-based network. This will enable a more flexible statistical multiplexing of the networking resources, and higher path diversity between RRHs and BBUs that increases flexibility and reliability. In summary, the so-called 5G transport segment between radio sites and mobile core will become a packet-based network with no clear distinction between fronthaul and backhaul, finally converging into an integrated BH/FH transport network which is called crosshaul (XH) in the following.
As described above, conventional C-RAN offloads most of the functionality of conventional base stations to a centralized computing platform which has a very high demand of networking resources. A way to alleviate the costs of conventional FH without sacrificing much of the benefits that centralization brings is to provide a finer control on the amount of Base Station (BS) functionality that is offloaded (and thus on the traffic demands): Flexible functional splits can be used where the BS functionality is modularized into different functions that can be flexibly centralized or distributed depending on the crosshaul resources as disclosed in the non-patent literature of D. Wubben, P. Rost, J. Bartell, M. Lalam, V. Savin, M. Gorgoglione, A. Dekorsy, and G. Fettweis, "Benefits and impact of cloud computing on 5G signal processing: Flexible centralization through cloud-RAN," Signal Processing Magazine, IEEE, vol. 31, no. 6, pp. 35-44, November 2014 and P. Rost et al., "Cloud technologies for flexible 5G radio access networks," in IEEE Communications Magazine, vol. 52, no. 5, pp. 68-76, May 2014. Offloading BS functionality into a centralized location (Centralized Computing Pool, CCP, hereafter) may have lower operational costs (e.g. common refrigeration, single-point maintenance, etc.) and capacity gains to users (joint signal processing, coordinated resource allocation, etc.). However, the delay and throughput requirements for the transport network are more stringent the larger the number of functions which are offloaded shown in Table 1 below:
TABLE 1BaseFunctionsBandwidthMax.Splitin RRHFunctions in CCP(per cell)latencyARFPHY, MAC, RRM,2.5Gbps5μsAdm./Cong. Control,Network mgmt.BRF, PHYMAC, RRM, Adm./470Mbps~1msCong. Control,Network mgmt.CRF, PHY,RRM, Adm./Cong.100Mbps~3msMACControl, Networkmgmt.DRF, PHY,Adm./Cong. Control,70Mbps~3msMAC, RRMNetwork mgmt.ERF, PHY,Network mgmt.70Mbps~100msMAC, RRM,Adm./Cong.Control
Despite the decomposition of the BS functionality into functions that can be flexibly distributed across an integrated BH/FH packet-based network (i.e. XH), an optimized management of the transport resources is inherently challenging.
Conventional methods to route flows in a backhaul network are e.g. described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/358,131 and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/766,370. Moreover, routing in the fronthaul and backhaul segments is handled separately, in a different process, in conventional systems. These routing methods are not able to efficiently handle the optimization of the RAN functional placement (i.e. optimizing the degree of centralization).
In ICT iJOIN FP7 Project, "Final definition and evaluation of network-layer algorithms and network operation and management", Deliverable 4.3 (Ch. 4.3, 4.4 and 6.3) and Suryaprakash, Vinay, Peter Rost, and Gerhard Fettweis. "Are Heterogeneous Cloud-Based Radio Access Networks Cost Effective?" Selected Areas in Communications, IEEE Journal on 33.10 (2015): 2239-2251, the focus is set to optimizing the location of the data centers or computing pools (CCPs) given a certain functional split option.
In the non patent literature of P. Rost et al., "Cloud technologies for flexible 5G radio access networks," in IEEE Communications Magazine, vol. 52, no. 5, pp. 68-76, May 2014 it is shown that flexible centralization as implementing through functional splits implies a need for transport routing schemes capable of deliver data towards computing pools independently of the degree of centralization.

Method for providing operating information for a network


A power amplifier circuit comprises an amplifying transistor and a dc bias circuit, which comprises an enhanced Wilson current mirror as a self-bias boosting circuit for biasing the amplifying transistor through a bias resistor. The current source and the bias resistor are configured to make the charging rate faster than the discharging rate. Furthermore, the current source of the enhanced Wilson current mirror dictates the quiescent current of the amplifying transistor. Preferably, the quiescent current may be set as in direct proportion to the current source by scaling the emitter area ratios between transistor pairs.

This invention relates to transistor amplifier circuits, and more particularly, to a power amplifier circuit having a self-bias boosting circuit for achieving higher output power and linearity as input power increases.
A linear RF power amplifier is commonly biased in class AB operation so as to achieve higher power-added efficiency. Such an amplifier is commonly used in the output stage of high-frequency power amplifiers. However, in a conventionally biased class AB amplifier, the average bias supply current increases as RF input power increases. This increased average current results in an increased voltage drop in the resistive part of the bias circuit. This in turn reduces the average voltage drop across the forward-biased PN junction of the power amplifying transistor, pushing the amplifier into class B and even class C operations. Therefore, the output power will be saturated as the input power further increases.
To overcome this problem, a boosting circuitry is usually used to increase the bias of the power transistor, such as a bias boosting circuitry, a self-bias boost scheme or an adjustable self-bias boost scheme.
In addition to the boosting of the voltage drop across the base-emitter junction of the amplifying transistor, linearity shall also be considered for the power amplifier. Linearity and power-added efficiency are two contradictory requirements in a power amplifier. A tradeoff between the linearity and power-added efficiency is needed for given specifications for the power amplifier. It is usually done by achieving the highest power-added efficiency for a given linearity requirement. This requires a good control of the quiescent current of the power amplifier. To do so, an impedance-controllable biasing scheme is suggested to be used to provide independent control of quiescent current of the power amplifier. Therefore, it could achieve high power-added efficiency while maintaining its linearity by properly controlling the quiescent current. However, such a scheme is not simple and compact enough.
Therefore, the object of the present invention is to provide a power amplifier circuit with a novel biasing scheme which is simple but capable of providing both self-bias boosting capacity and good controlling of quiescent current of the power transistor.
To achieve the above object, the power amplifier circuit of the present invention comprises an amplifying transistor and a dc bias circuit comprising a novel self-bias boosting circuit. The self-bias boosting circuit comprises a charging circuit for charging the amplifying transistor at a charging rate and a discharging circuit for discharging the amplifying transistor at a discharging rate. The self-bias boosting circuit is configured such that the charging rate is faster than the discharging rate, thus the voltage drop across the PN junction of the amplifying transistor is boosted as the input power increases.
In particular, the self-bias boosting circuit is an enhanced Wilson current mirror with a current source and an output terminal coupled to a control terminal of the amplifying transistor, preferably through a bias resistor. The current source and the bias resistor are controllable to make the charging rate faster than the discharging rate. Furthermore, the current source of the enhanced Wilson current mirror dictates the quiescent current of the amplifying transistor. Preferably, the quiescent current may be set as in direct proportion to the current source by scaling the emitter area ratios between transistor pairs.

Amplifier with self-bias boosting using an enhanced wilson current mirror biasing scheme


A spill-proof cap or lid for a standard beverage container, such as a soft drink, water and other liquid bottle, includes a housing which is configured to fit over the container opening. The housing includes top and bottom, each of which includes a recess. A spout is mounted in the top recess and is pivotable between open and closed positions. A flow control section extends generally vertically in the bottom recess for receiving a flow control member. The flow control member is removably positioned in the flow control section and includes a flow control valve and an air intake valve. The spout includes at least one passageway which is in fluid communication with the bottom recess through a passageway extending between the top and bottom of the housing. In use, the cap is substituted for the conventional cap or lid that the typical soft drink, water or other liquid bottle is equipped with. When the spout is flipped upwardly in the open position, and a suction pressure is applied, the liquid from inside the bottle flows out through the spout passageway. When the suction pressure on the spout is released, the flow of liquid stops. Upon flipping the spout to the horizontal closed position, any risk of spilling or dripping is avoided.

The present invention is directed to a cap or lid for beverage containers, and more particularly to a spill-proof cap which would easily fit a standard beverage container, such as a screw-top soft drink or water bottle commonly available in the market place.
At the present time, soft drink, water, and other liquid containing bottles are sold with tops or lids which must be removed to gain access to the liquid contained therein. Generally speaking, these types of bottles or containers are made for adults who either pour the contents of the container into another cup or drink directly therefrom. Although adults often drink directly out of these types of bottles, spilling is generally not a concern. This is different, however, for babies, toddlers, and particularly small children who like drinking out of the container to emulate adult behavior. It is not uncommon that small children, in attempting to drink directly out of a container, spill the liquid due to unforeseen events, such as an accident or careless handling of the container. Presently, supervising adults pour the contents from the container into another cup that is generally fitted with lids or caps which may prevent dripping or spilling of the liquid. Various examples of these types of cups are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,840,153; 5,065,909; 5,242,079; 5,079,013; 5,337,918; 5,540,341 and 5,542,670. Examples of beverage container caps are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,782,577 and 5,509,551. The Playtex Products, Inc., also markets a Spill-Proof.TM. cup covered by U.S. Pat. No. 5,079,013.
The conventional caps or lids either cannot be used to fit a standard soft drink or water bottle, or do not effectively prevent spilling or dripping of the liquid when used by small children. There is, therefore, a need in the industry for a spill-proof cap for standard soft drink, water, or other liquid containing bottles currently available on the market, which can be easily used by small children to drink the liquid directly out of the bottle without spilling or dripping.


A method supporting content creation includes providing a content creation software product with a tone tool, receiving, by the tone tool, an expected tone range for a parameter of tone, receiving content, evaluating, by the tone tool, each of a plurality of portions of the content to determine a tone of the respective portions of the content, comparing the tone of each of the plurality of portions of the content to the expected tone range for the parameter, and providing, by the tone tool, at least one proposed modification of the content affecting a change in the tone of at least one of the portions of the content.

The present disclosure relates generally to content management, and more particularly to management of content for control of tone.
There are multiple channels for developing and publishing content. These include websites, mobile sites, mail campaigns, social media posts, brochures, catalogs, apps, etc. Developing and maintaining content across such diverse modes of publishing is a challenging task. For example, one important goal of many marketing campaigns is ensuring the right marketing messages reach the right set of customers at the right time. While it is important to focus on what is being communicated, an important part of any marketing message is tone. In many cases it is important to control the tone of the marketing message across all channels.

Transforming content management in product marketing

International Business Machines Corporation


A method of cleaning a filter element includes directing a jet of pressurized gas from a nozzle onto a filter element, with the jet having a non-round cross-sectional shape that is a same general cross-sectional shape as the opening in a tube sheet holding the filter element. The nozzle has a channel for the pressurized gas that is obstruction-free.

Dust collector devices sometimes use exhaust gas from a valve and pressure tank (reservoir) to back flush filters. Examples of such air filter assemblies are disclosed in, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,090,173; 4,218,227; 4,395,269; and patent application publication U.S. 2006/0112667 A1, each of these patent documents being incorporated by reference herein.
Proper and effective cleaning of these filters requires that the exhaust jet fill the opening of the filter to be cleaned. In many implementations, the opening of the filter corresponds to the opening in the tubesheet, in which the filter is mounted. This exhaust jet is naturally round and will effectively fill a round opening. The problem of filling a filter opening (or tubesheet opening, in which the filter is mounted) that has any shape other than round has been addressed in the past by placing a device in the direct path of the jet. Placing a jet in this location consumes a portion of the energy of the jet, causes turbulence, increases noise level, and only changes the shape of the jet for a small fraction of the pulse duration. These factors all contribute to poor cleaning effectiveness. Improvements are desirable.

Nozzle arrangements and method for cleaning filter elements


An information processing apparatus capable updating firmware thereof, while reducing power consumption. In a case where an image forming apparatus as an information processing apparatus is in a power switch off mode in which a power switch operable by a user is kept turned off and where a setting to permit execution of firmware update has been set by the user, the image forming apparatus stops power supply for execution of processing other than processing performed by a network I/F. When a firmware update request is received by the network I/F, the image forming apparatus restores power supply for execution of firmware update.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus capable of updating firmware thereof and relates to a control method and a storage medium therefor.
2. Description of the Related Art
An information processing apparatus such as an image forming apparatus is required to update firmware thereof for example when the version of the firmware is upgraded or when a failure occurs in the apparatus. Conventionally, the firmware is updated manually by a serviceman visiting a customer, and this increases costs for firmware update.
Thus, there has been developed a technique for updating firmware by storing firmware transmitted via the Internet into a rewritable storage device such as a flash memory.
More specifically, a system has been developed in which firmware update is reserved by a monitoring system that remotely monitors the operation state of an image forming apparatus, or in which a server is periodically accessed by an image forming apparatus to check whether or not the latest version of firmware is available. For example, Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2007-11944 discloses a technique in which an image forming apparatus per se communicates via the Internet with a server that holds firmware, and downloads a firmware program from the server. With this technique, it is possible to distribute firmware during night time zone where the image forming apparatus is not in use by a user.
However, power supply to the image forming apparatus is generally turned off during the time zone where the image forming apparatus is not in use, and hence the image forming apparatus cannot communicate with the server and cannot download firmware therefrom. On the other hand, if power supply to the image forming apparatus is kept on during the time zone where the apparatus is not in use, the resultant power consumption becomes large.
In a case where the administrator wishes to prohibit the image forming apparatus to perform network printing and FAX reception during the night time zone, power supply to the apparatus is generally disconnected. To enable the image forming apparatus to download the firmware during the night time zone, power supply to the apparatus cannot be disconnected, which poses a problem.

Information processing apparatus capable of updating firmware thereof and control method and storage medium therefor