The present invention provides novel 2,6-diisopropyl phenol2,6-diisopropyl phenol analogs and sterile, stable pharmaceutical compositions of 2,6-diisopropyl phenol 2,6-diisopropyl phenol and analogs thereof useful as an antioxidant in the treatment of ischemic injury including stroke and other cerebral injury. 2,6-diisopropyl phenol or its analogs are administered in a dosage effective to produce blood levels and brain levels of the drug that can prevent free radical damage associated with ischemic injury.

Stroke is a cardiovascular disease affecting the blood vessels supplying blood to the brain. There are four main types of stroke: two caused by blood clots or other particles, and two by hemorrhage. By far the most common causes for strokes are cerebral thrombosis and cerebral embolism, which are caused by clots or particles that plug an artery. The remaining two are cerebral and subarachnoid hemorrhages caused by ruptured blood vessels.
Stroke is the third leading cause of death in the United States. It kills more than 150,000 people annually and accounts for about one of every 15 U.S. deaths. Stroke is a major source of disability in the developed countries and regions. Typically, ischemic damage, i.e., a lack of oxygen, due to a disruption of the blood supply to a region in the brain is diagnosed as a stroke when accompanied by neurological or other symptoms. In an ischemic stroke, focal ischemia exhibiting a defined region of tissue damage is observed, which is often surrounded by a penumbral region that is susceptible to additional damage over time. When blood supply to the brain is reduced below a critical threshold, a cascade of biochemical events leads to irreversible damage to neurons and brain infarction. Research on treatment and prevention of ischemia is extensive but unfortunately it remains at a basic stage and no adequate therapies are yet in practice.
Stroke is defined as a sudden impairment of body functions caused by a disruption in, e.g., the supply of blood to the brain. For instance, a stroke occurs when a blood vessel bringing oxygen and nutrients to the brain is interrupted by any method including low blood pressure, clogging by atherosclerotic plaque, a blood clot, or some other particle, or when a blood vessel bursts. Because of the blockage or rupture, part of the brain fails to get the blood flow that it requires. Brain tissue that receives an inadequate supply of blood is said to be ischemic. Deprived of oxygen and nutrients, nerve cells and other cell types within the brain begin to fail, creating an infarct (an area of cell death, or necrosis). As nerve cells (neurons) fail and die, the part of the body controlled by those neurons cannot function either. The devastating effects of ischemia are often permanent because brain tissue has very limited repair capabilities and lost neurons are not usually replaced. The blood supply disruption resulting in a stroke may be due to, inter alia, presence of a blood clot, arteriosclerosis, artherosclerotic plaque (or its components), and the like. Thus, treatment for a stroke has to be, preferably, provided rapidly to avoid irreversible damage. The treatment also has to be in agreement with the underlying cause because, for instance, administering agents to inhibit blood coagulation in a stroke due to a hemorrhage risks increasing the damage by promoting hemorrhage. If the stroke is due to the presence or formation of a blood clot, then treatments are directed to dissolve or otherwise reduce the clots.
Cerebral ischemia may be incomplete (blood flow is reduced but not entirely cut off), complete (total loss of tissue perfusion), transient or permanent. If ischemia is incomplete and persists for no more than ten to fifteen minutes, neural death might not occur. More prolonged or complete ischemia results in infarction. Depending on the site and extent of the infarction, mild to severe neurological disability or death will follow. Thus, the chain of causality leading to neurological deficit in stroke has two principal components: loss of blood supply, and cell damage and death.
Thrombosis is the blockage of an artery by a large deposit that usually results from the combination of atherosclerosis and blood clotting. Thrombotic stroke (also called cerebral thrombosis) results when a deposit in a brain or neck artery reaches occlusive proportions. Most strokes are of this type.
Embolism is the blockage of an artery or vein by an embolus. Emboli are often small pieces of blood clot that break off from larger clots. Embolic stroke (also called cerebral embolism) occurs when an embolus is carried in the bloodstream to a brain or neck artery. If the embolus reaches an artery that is too small for it to pass through, it plugs the artery and cuts off the blood supply to downstream tissues. Embolic stroke is the clinical expression of this event.
Once deprived of blood, and, hence oxygen and glucose, brain tissue may undergo ischemic necrosis or infarction. The metabolic events thought to underlie such cell degeneration and death include: energy failure through ATP depletion; cellular acidosis; glutamate release; calcium ion influx; stimulation of membrane phospholipid degradation and subsequent free-fatty-acid accumulation; and free radical generation.
Knowledge of these underlying events has led investigators studying certain types of ischemic injury to utilize agents such as calcium channel blockers, glutamate and glycine antagonists, CDP-amines, free radical scavengers/antioxidants, perfluorocarbons and thrombolytic agents to improve cerebral blood flow and/or neurological outcome, all with mixed results. Certain calcium-channel blockers have been reported to produce inconsistent results and undesirable side effects, such as reduction in pulse or perfusion pressure. See, e.g., Kaste, M. et al. Stroke (1994) 25:1348-1353.
Glutamate antagonists have been observed to reduce infarct size under certain experimental conditions. See, e.g., Olney, J. W. et al. Science (1991) 254:1515-1518. However, most, if not all, of these compounds cause brain vacuolization and most produce phencyclidine-like subjective effects in animals and humans. Ingestion of phencyclidine has been associated with euphoria, anxiety, mood lability and prolonged psychosis.
Although perfluorocarbons have shown some benefit in the outcome from ischemic stroke, these compounds have an extremely long half-life and must be infused into the brain and spinal fluid. In addition, these compounds have been observed to cause gonadal hypertrophy. See, Bell, R. D. et al. Stroke (1991) 22:80-83.
Thrombolytic agents, such as t-PA (tissue plasminogen activator), streptokinase, and urokinase, have shown some promise in the treatment of ischemia. However, these agents have the propensity to increase intracranial bleeding, which, ultimately, can lead to increased mortality. See, e.g., del Zoppo, G. J. et al. Seminars in Neurology (1991) 11(4):368-384; The Ancrod Stroke Study Investigators, Stroke (1994) 25:1755-1759; Hacke, W. et al. Stroke (1995) 26:167. Moreover, the efficacy of these agents may be limited to treatment within the first three hours of stroke.
Free radical scavengers/antioxidants are a heterogenous group of compounds. In general, the effects of these compounds on infarct volume have been inconsistent. For example, superoxide dismutase inhibitors have been found to reduce infarct volume only when injected intracerebroventricularly. See, Kinouchi, H. et al. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA (1991) 88:11158-11162. Other compounds, such as lubeluzole, have been shown to have clinical benefit but with a very narrow margin of safety. See, Diener, H. C. et al. Stroke (1995) 26:30.
Free radicals, particularly free radicals derived from molecular oxygen, are believed to play a fundamental role in a wide variety of biological phenomena. In fact, it has been suggested that much of what is considered critical illness may involve oxygen radical ("oxyradical") pathophysiology (Zimmerman, J. J. (1991) Chest 00:1895). Oxyradical injury has been implicated in the pathogenesis of pulmonary oxygen toxicity, adult respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), bronchopulmonary dysplasia, sepsis syndrome, and a variety of ischemia-reperfusion syndromes, including myocardial infarction, stroke, cardiopulmonary bypass, organ transplantation, necrotizing enterocolitis, acute renal tubular necrosis, and other disease. Oxyradicals can react with proteins, nucleic acids, lipids, and other biological macromolecules producing damage to cells and tissues, particularly in the critically ill patient.
Many free radical reactions are highly damaging to cellular components, i.e., they crosslink proteins, mutagenize DNA, and peroxidize lipids. Once formed, free radicals can interact to produce other free radicals and non-radical oxidants such as singlet oxygen (1O2) and peroxides. Degradation of some of the products of free radical reactions can also generate potentially damaging chemical species. For example, malondialdehyde is a reaction product of peroxidized lipids that reacts with virtually any amine-containing molecule. Oxygen free radicals also cause oxidative modification of proteins (Stadtman, E. R. (1992) Science 257:1220).
In order to prevent the damaging effects of free radicals and free radical-associated diseases, great efforts have been made to develop new antioxidants that are efficient at removing dangerous oxyradicals, particularly superoxide and hydrogen peroxide, and that are inexpensive to manufacture, stable and possess advantageous pharmacokinetic properties, such as the ability to cross the blood-brain barrier and penetrate tissues. Although enhancement of the tolerance of cerebral tissue to ischemia/reperfusion injury has been a goal to complement or replace agents that restore or promote blood flow, clinical trials have so far failed to identify a safe and effective neuroprotectant. Promising neuroprotectant candidates that do not cause unacceptable adverse side effects are almost non-existent. At present, there is no neuroprotectant drug that may be administered by the patient (even with the assistance from relatives) prior to hospital arrival. The reasons include: requirement of intravenous loading dose, adverse effects, narrow therapeutic time window, and potentially serious side effects in patients without stroke or with hemorrhagic stroke. Thus, treating a hemorrhagic stroke with clot fighting agents is likely to seriously exacerbate the damage.
Thus, there is a need for versatile and effective new pharmaceutical compositions comprising antioxidants and free radical scavengers, that limit the extent or otherwise treat nerve cell death (degeneration) such as may occur with ischemic injury.
In addition, while many antioxidant and free radical scavenger compositions are known in the art, a significant limitation of the prior art compositions is their inability to effectively penetrate the blood brain barrier, thus limiting the effectiveness of the prior art compositions in treatment of cerebral ischemic injury.
2,6-diisopropyl phenol (2,6-diisopropylphenol, formula I), is a short-acting hypnotic agent, effective for induction and maintenance of anesthesia (see, e.g., Rees et al., Annu. Rep. Med. Chem., 31, 41-50 (1996), and Trapani et al., Curr. Med. Chem., 7, 249 (2000)). 2,6-diisopropyl phenol also is used for intravenous (IV) sedation by target-controlled infusions (see, e.g., Leitch, Br. Dent. J., 194, 443 (2003)). It is highly lipid-soluble and has a characteristic property that it can readily permeate biomembranes such as blood brain barrier (BBB).

2,6-diisopropyl phenol has been used in the treatment of pathologies relating to the presence of free oxygen radicals (see, e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,308,874 and 5,461,080). 2,6-diisopropyl phenol has been shown to repair neural damage caused by free oxygen radicals in vitro (see, e.g., Sagara et al., J. Neurochem., 73, 2524 (1999) and Jevtovic-Todorovic et al., Brain Res., 913, 185 (2001)) and has been used in vivo to treat head injury (see, e.g., Kelly et al., J. of Neurosurgery, 90, 1042 (1999)). Furthermore, 2,6-diisopropyl phenol is considered an alternative to barbiturates for the management of refactory status epolepticus (Rossetti, et al., 2004, Epilepsia, 45(7):757-763).
There is evidence suggesting that 2,6-diisopropyl phenol can protect endothelial cells against oxidative stress by inhibiting eNOS transcription and protein expression (see, e.g., Peng et al., Chin. Med. J. (Engl)., 116(5), 731-5 (2003)). Moreover, 2,6-diisopropyl phenol enhances ischemic tolerance of middle-aged hearts, primarily by inhibiting lipid peroxidation (see, e.g., Xia et al., Cardiovasc. Res., 59, 113 (2003)).
It has now been found that 2,6-diisopropyl phenol and its analogs act as antioxidants and free radical scavengers, and can effectively penetrate the blood brain barrier. 2,6-diisopropyl phenol and its analogs are thus useful for the treatment or prevention of cellular damage in various tissues from injuries associated with ischemia, and hence they are useful for the treatment or prevention of injuries of reperfusion in acute cerebral infarction due to abnormal generation of active oxygen species.
The invention provides novel 2,6 diisopropyl phenol compositions and analogs with antioxidant or neuroprotective activity effective for the treatment of ischemic injury. Also provided is a method for timely treatment of a sudden onset of at least one neurological deficit in a subject. These and other advantages of the invention, as well as additional inventive features, will be apparent from the description of the invention provided herein.

Compositions, methods of use and preparation of 2,6-diisopropyl phenol and analogs for ischemic injury


A garage screen is provided including a screen assembly having a cylinder rotatably coupled adjacent to a top edge of a sliding garage door with a spool mounted thereon. A rope is included having a first end connected to the spool and a second end for manually deploying the screen when desired.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to garage screens and more particularly pertains to a new garage screen for preventing insects and damaging ultraviolet rays from entering a garage while allowing air circulation with a screen when a garage door is opened.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The use of garage screens is known in the prior art. More specifically, garage screens heretofore devised and utilized are known to consist basically of familiar, expected and obvious structural configurations, notwithstanding the myriad of designs encompassed by the crowded prior art which have been developed for the fulfillment of countless objectives and requirements.
Known prior art garage screens include U.S. Pat. No. 4,673,019; U.S. Pat. No. 5,123,474; U.S. Pat. No. 4,846,241; U.S. Pat. Des. 338,966; U.S. Pat. No. 5,427,169; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,653,566.
In these respects, the garage screen according to the present invention substantially departs from the conventional concepts and designs of the prior art, and in so doing provides an apparatus primarily developed for the purpose of preventing insects and damaging ultraviolet rays from entering a garage while allowing air circulation with a screen when a garage door is opened.


One embodiment of the present invention includes: a modulated laser light source to transmit an interrogation light beam to a region including a substance for spectroscopic evaluation, a detector responsive to modulated light from the region to provide a corresponding modulated signal, and a signal processing subsystem responsive to the modulated signal to generate a spectroscopic absorption peak representation. This subsystem also estimates absorbance based on a derivative form of an absorption peak and a residual amplitude modulation level corresponding to the absorption peak.

The present application relates to laser-based spectroscopy, and more particularly, but not exclusively, relates to noise reduction and absorbance estimation for spectroscopy based on frequency modulation of a laser.
Various techniques for detecting extremely low concentrations of a substance of interest have been developed that involve Frequency Modulation (FM) of a laser beam. FM techniques include those described as Frequency Modulation Spectroscopy (FMS), wideband FM, Wavelength Modulation Spectroscopy (WMS), and the like; by Joel Silver in Frequency-Modulation Spectroscopy for Trace Species Detection: Theory and Comparison Among Experimental Methods, APPLIED OPTICS, vol. 31, No. 6, pp.707–717 (20 Feb. 1992), which is hereby incorporated by reference.
Regardless of the particular type, for these techniques the frequency-modulated laser beam is typically directed through an analyte that is characterized by spectral absorption and/or dispersion of the interrogating light. The returned light, an altered form of the interrogating light, is detected and evaluated to determine a certain spectroscopic characteristic of interest. Frequency modulation of laser light typically results in a coincidental amount of Amplitude Modulation (AM), so-called Residual Amplitude Modulation (RAM), due to nonideal behavior of the laser and/or other elements of the system. RAM is often regarded as undesirable because of limits it can impose on the sensitivity of FM techniques.
To enhance sensitivity of laser-based spectroscopic detection, a double beam approach has been implemented that uses a reference light beam to cancel noise present in the interrogating light beam. For this approach, carefully matched detectors and light beam paths are often needed, which can lead to considerable expense and complexity. Moreover, various remote sensing applications cannot practically incorporate multiple, long-range beams. In some remote sensing applications that may be particularly desired for homeland security, pollution control, and the like; a single beam system can suffer from noise induced by atmospheric turbulence, optical component vibration, and/or one or more other noise sources that likewise alter intensity of the laser beam. Such "intensity noise" can significantly effect sensitivity.
Accordingly, there is a need for further contributions in this area of technology.

Laser-based spectroscopic detection techniques


A system and method for reducing power consumption in an electronic device by controlling the transition of the electronic device from a sleep mode to a full power mode. The electronic device comprises a main processor a touch-sensitive overlay, and an overlay controller. A sequence of touch inputs on the touch-sensitive overlay are detected and captured using the overlay controller while the main processor is in the sleep mode. A subset of the sequence of touch inputs is processed using the overlay controller to determine that the sequence of touch inputs corresponds to a coarse model of a pre-determined wake-up gesture prior to transitioning the electronic device from the sleep mode to the full power mode.

Electronic devices, including portable electronic devices, have gained widespread use and may provide a variety of functions including, for example, telephonic, electronic messaging and other personal information manager PIM application functions. Portable electronic devices include, for example, several types of mobile stations such as simple cellular telephones, smart telephones, wireless personal digital assistants PDAs, and laptop computers with wireless 802.11 or Bluetooth capabilities.
Portable electronic devices such as PDAs or smart telephones are generally intended for handheld use and ease of portability. Smaller devices are generally desirable for portability. A touch-sensitive display, also known as a touch screen or touchscreen display, is particularly useful on handheld devices, which are small and have limited space for user input and output. The information displayed on the touch-sensitive displays may be modified depending on the functions and operations being performed. With continued demand for decreased size of portable electronic devices, touch-sensitive displays continue to decrease in size.
Portable electronic devices can typically individually control power supplied to different components of the device in order to save power and increase battery. For example, in a full power mode, the main components of the portable electronic device are supplied with power and are in an active state. In a sleep mode, one or more components of the portable electronic device are not supplied with power, or are supplied with reduced power, and are in an inactive state.
Portable electronic devices can be transitioned from full power mode to sleep mode, or from sleep mode to full power mode using a soft power control system. For example, when the portable electronic device is in full power mode, a signal from an input key or a system software time-out signal will transition the portable electronic device to sleep mode, or vice versa.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

System and method for transitioning an electronic device from a first power mode to a second power mode


The invention relates to complexes of eukaryotic Rad52 protein and nucleic acids, and methods of using the complexes.

Repair of DNA damage is critical for the maintenance of genome integrity and cell survival. Living organisms have developed different pathways of DNA repair to deal with various types of DNA damage. One of the pathways of repairing DNA damage is through homologous recombination. The RecA protein of E. coli has been shown to be important for homologous recombination, and a great deal is known about this process in E. coli.
Although eukaryotic cells have RecA homologue(s), the mechanism of homologous recombination in vivo are poorly understood in eukaryotes. There is no evidence yet that eukaryotic cells employ RecA-like recombination mechanisms in vivo.
In the yeast S. cerevisiae, three epistasis groups of DNA damage-repair genes have been identified (Friedberg, E. C., Siede, W. and Cooper, A. J. (1991) in The Molecular and Cellular Biology of the yeast Saccharomyces (Broach, J. R., Pringle, J. R., Jones, E. W., eds) pp 147-192, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory press, Plainview, N.Y.; Game, J. (1983) in Yeast Genetics: Fundamental and Applied Aspects (Spencer, J. F. T., Spencer, D., and Smith., A. R. W., eds) pp 105-137, Springer-verlag, New York.). The Rad52 epistasis group, which is mainly responsible for double-strand break (DSB) repair contains several genes: Rad50-Rad57, MRE11 and XRS2. Among these genes, mutations in Rad51, Rad52 and Rad54 cause the most severe and pleiotropic defects (Game, J. (1983) in Yeast Genetics: Fundamental and Applied Aspects (Spencer, J. F. T., Spencer, D., and Smith., A. R. W., eds) pp 105-137, Springer-verlag, New York.; Ajimura, M., Leem, S. H. and Ogawa, H. (1993) Genetics 133, 51-66; Ivanov, E. L., Korolev, V. G. and Fabre, F. (1992) Genetics 132, 651-664; Petes, T. D., Malone, R. E. and Symington, 1. S. (1991) 407-521.). Yeast strains lacking a functional Rad52 gene are extremely X-ray sensitive and deficient in mitotic and meiotic recombination (Resnick, M. A. (1969) Genetics 62, 519-531). It was reported recently that the overexpression of human Rad52 (HsRad52) conferred enhanced resistance to gamma rays and induced homologous intrachromosomal recombination in cultured monkey cells (Park, M. S. (1995) J. Biol. Chem. 270, 15467-15470). Mutations in different regions of Rad52 often result in different phenotypes (Boundy-Mills, K. and Livingston, D. M. (1993) Genetics 133, 39-49). It is proposed that the product of Rad52 gene is not required for the initiation of recombination, but is essential for an intermediate stage following the formation of DSBs but before the appearance of stable recombinants (Shinohara, A., Ogawa, H. and Ogawa, T. (1992) Cell 69, 457-470).
In the yeast S. cerevisiae, the major pathway of double-strand break repair is through gap repair, leading to gene conversion that may be associated with a crossover of flanking markers (Szostak, J. W., Orr-weaver, T. L., Rothstein, R. J. and Stahl, F. W. (1983) Cell 33, 25-35). Both Rad51 and Rad52 are important for the repair of breaks by this mechanism. However, gene conversion is only one of several homologous and non-homologous recombination pathways that are found in yeast and mammalian cells to repair chromosomal DSBs (Haber, J. E. (1995) BioEssays 17, 609-620). Based on transformation experiments in mammalian cells and in Xenopus oocytes, single-strand annealing, a non-conservative mechanism, has been proposed as an alternate pathway to repair double-strand breaks. (Fishman-Lobell, J., Rudin, N. and Haber, J. E. (1992) Mol. Cell Biol. 12, 1292-1303; Lin, F. -L. M., Sperle, K. and Sternberg, N. (1990) Mol. Cell. Biol. 10, 103-112; Maryon, E. and Carrol, D. (1991) Mol. Cell. Biol. 11, 3278-3287; Jeongyu, S. J. and Carrol, D. (1992) Mol. Cell. Biol. 12, 112-119.). Rad52 appears to be important for all homologous recombination events including gene conversion and single-strand annealing.
Despite the importance of Rad52 for homologous recombination the repair of chromosomal breaks, there is very little information available on the biochemistry of Rad52 protein. Homologs of Rad52 gene have been found in several eukaryotic organisms including yeast, mouse, chicken and human (see Park, J. Biol. Chem. 270:15467-15470 (1995); Muris et al., Mutation Res., DNA Repair 315:295-305 (1994); Bezzubova et al., Nucleic Acid Res. 21(25):5945-5949 (1993); Bendixen et al., Genomics 23:300-303 (1994); Shen et al., Genomics 25:199-206 (1995)).
Sequence analysis has revealed that N-terminal amino acid sequence of Rad52 protein is highly conserved while the C-terminal region is less conserved (Bezzubova, O., Schmidt, H., Ostermann, K., Heyer, W. D. and Buerstedde, J. -M. (1993) Nucleic Acids Res. 21, 5945-5949; Muris, D. F. R., Vreeken, K., Carr, A. M., Broughton, B. C., Lehman, A. R., Lohman, P. H. M. and Pastnik, A. (1993) Nucleic Acids Res. 21, 4586-4591; Bendixen, C., Sunjevaric, I., Bauchwitz, R. and Rothstein, R. (1994) Genomics 23, 300-303; Shen, Z., Denison, K., Lobb, R., Gatewood, J. M. and Chen, D. J. (1995) Genomics 25, 199-206).
It has been shown that Rad52 protein interacts through its C-terminal domain with the N-terminal domain of Rad51 protein in a species specific manner (Milne, G. T. and Weaver, D. T. (1993) Genes & Dev 7, 1755-176514; Donovan, J. W., T., M. G. and Weaver, D. T. (1994) Genes & Dev 8, 2552-2562; Shen, Z., Cloud, K. G., Chen, D. J. and Park, M. S. (1996) J. Biol. Chem. 271, 148-152). Similarly, a specific interaction with RPA has also been shown to be important for homologous recombination (see Park et al., J. Biol. Chem. 271(31):18996-19000 (1996)).
Yeast Rad52 protein has been reported to bind to both single and double-stranded DNA and carries out annealing of homologous single-stranded DNA. (Ogawa, T., Shinohara, A., Nabetani, A., Ikeya, T., Yu, X., Egelman, E. H. and Ogawa, H. (1993) Cold Spring Harbor Symp Quant. Biol. 58, 567-576.). Besides the report that human Rad52 protein interacts with human Rad51 protein and RPA, there are no other biochemical reports on the function of human Rad52 protein to date.

Compositions and methods using eukaryotic Rad52


A method and system is described which attempts to address the technical problems involved in analyzing images using advanced computer systems and making decisions about the future of a damaged automobile based on the images.

The background description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. The 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.
At a high level, insurance companies have customers that are the subject of vehicle damage. The insurance company has numerous decisions to make including whether to try to fix the vehicle (or boat or motorcycle or other mobile device) or declare the vehicle "totaled" or a total loss and sell the vehicle for parts, if possible. In the past, a representative of the insurance company would have to physically view the wrecked vehicle and make an estimate of the cost to fix the vehicle and compare it to the value of the vehicle if it was declared a total loss.
As mobile phones such as smart phones have become more common and the images provided by mobile phones are improved, some insurance companies have tried to make the repair or total decision based solely on images provided by the customers. However, the images are limited in their visual fidelity and the decision on whether to repair or total the vehicle can be challenging when the images miss key details or the details are blurry.


A mobile communication system comprises: a determination unit configured to determine as to layers of data to be transmitted by base stations to mobile stations for respective radio areas, based on area resource information concerning radio resources for the respective radio areas covered by the base stations; and a radio transmitter configured to transmit the data to the mobile stations according to a determination of the determination unit.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a mobile communication system, a radio network controller, a base station and a communication method.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, broadcast communication and multicast communication have been used. In broadcast communication, abase station simultaneously transmits, to an unspecified number of mobile stations located in a radio area covered by the base station, data common to the unspecified number of mobile stations. In multicast communication, a base station transmits, to mobile stations belonging to a specific group, data common only to the mobile stations belonging to the specific group (see, for example, 3rd Generation Partnership Project Technical Specification Group Terminals, "23.041 Technical realization of Cell Broadcast Service (CBS)", October 2000; and 3rd Generation Partnership Project Technical Specification Group Radio Access Network, "25.324 Broadcast/Multicast Control BMC", December 2000).
In one form of multicast communication, the data to be transmitted by multicast communication is layered, i.e., divided into plural layers, and then the layered data is transmitted (see, for example, Samsung, "MBMS-000033 Scalable MBMS (slides)", 3rd Generation Partnership Project MBMS Workshop, May 2002; and Lucent Technology, "3GPP TSG-RAN, R2-022110 MBMS power usage", August 2002).
In conventional multicast communication, however, the condition of radio resources for respective radio areas covered by base stations, which transmit data is not taken into consideration at all. As a result, when the condition of radio resources for respective radio areas is different, some of the base stations may run short of radio resources and fail to transmit data. On the other hand, some of the other base stations have surplus radio resources, which may be wasted. If there are few available radio resources, multicast communication may apply pressure on the traffic of data transmission other than the multicast communication.

Mobile communication system, radio network controller, base station and communication method


An organic dye type optical recording medium capable of recording or reading information by a blue laser having a shorter wavelength, is provided.

At present, various optical recording media such as CD-R/RW, DVD±R/RW and MO, are widely accepted and used as external storage devices for information processing systems such as computers, since they can store information of a large capacity and whereby random access is easy. Among them, an organic dye type optical recording medium represented by CD-R or DVD-R is considered to have superiority in that it is less costly and easy to produce.
Further, as the volume of information to be processed has increased, it is desired to increase the recording density of a medium. In recent years, an optical recording medium capable of high density recording and reading has been recommended which employs a laser having a short oscillation wavelength (so-called short wavelength laser) such as a blue laser, which has been actively developed (e.g. JP-A-2000-043423).
Usually, in the case of an optical recording medium commercially available as CD-R or DVD-R, for example, CD-R is designed to be suitable for recording or reading by a laser beam having a wavelength of about 780 nm, and DVD-R is designed to be suitable for recording or reading by a laser beam having a wavelength of from about 600 to 700 nm. Such a recording medium which is suitable for optical recording or reading by means of a laser beam having a relatively long wavelength, has a problem that if recording or reading is carried out by means of a laser of a shorter wavelength, the reflectance is so low that it is impossible to carry out recording or reading. Here, the blue laser is usually meant for a laser having a wavelength of from about 350 nm to 530 nm.

Optical recording medium and optical recording method

Abstract: An optical recording medium comprising a substrate and a recording layer capable of recording or reading information by a laser, formed on the substrate, characterized in that the recording layer contains a compound represented by the following formula (1):

Abstract: wherein each of R1 to R6 which are independent of one another, is a hydrogen atom or a linear or branched alkyl group which may be substituted, each of k and n which are independent of each other, is an integer of from 0 to 2, provided 0≦k+n≦4, each of l and m which are independent of each other, is 0 or 1, provided 1≦l+m≦2, each of rings A and B which are independent of each other, is an aromatic ring which may have optional substituents, provided that such optional substituents may be bonded to each other to form a ring.


A rotor of an embedded magnet type motor has a plurality of magnets forming magnetic poles, the number of which is represented by P. A rotor core includes first accommodation holes, the number of which is represented by P/2, extending in a radial direction, and V-shaped accommodation holes, the number of which is represented by P/2, having a V shape protruding outward in a radial direction. The first accommodation holes and the V-shaped accommodation holes are alternately arranged in a circumferential direction. The V-shaped accommodation holes include a second accommodation hole and a third accommodation hole corresponding to two straight lines forming the V shape. The first accommodation hole is adjacent to the second accommodation hole at one side in the circumferential direction, and is adjacent to the third accommodation hole at the other side. A plurality of magnets include a first magnet arranged in the first accommodation hole, a second magnet arranged in the second accommodation hole, and a third magnet arranged in the third accommodation hole. The first magnet and the second magnet form one magnetic pole. The first magnet and the third magnet form another magnet pole. Accordingly, it is possible to achieve a high torque while suppressing an increase of the number of parts of the embedded magnet type motor.

The present invention relates to an embedded magnet type motor.
Conventionally, a rotor core of an embedded magnet type motor has a plurality of accommodation holes accommodating a plurality of magnets. A plurality of magnets are distributed in a circumferential direction of the rotor core. Each of the accommodation holes passes through the rotor core in an axial direction.
An embedded magnet type motor disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2005-51982 has plural pairs of magnets arranged so as to form a V shape. The V shape projects inward in a radial direction. Each pair of the magnets form one magnetic pole. In other words, in the case that the number of the magnetic poles of the embedded magnet type motor is represented by P, the number of magnets required in the whole of the motor is represented by 2P. In this case, for example, in comparison with a motor in which curved or linear magnets are arranged simply along a circumferential direction, a greater number of magnets can be used, and it is possible to achieve a high torque.
However, in the embedded magnet type motor having magnets, the number of which is represented by 2P, the number of parts is increased, and a parts management cost and an assembling cost may be increased.
The embedded magnet type motor in the publication mentioned above has a plurality of outer bridges defined between an outer end in a radial direction of each of the accommodation holes for accommodating the magnet, and an outer circumferential surface of the rotor core. Two outer bridges are provided in one magnetic pole. Accordingly, a leakage flux passing through the outer bridge is too much for the entire motor. As a result, an effective magnetic flux of the embedded magnet type motor is reduced, and a high torque cannot be obtained.


Provided is a permanent magnet motor that realizes reduction of both cogging torque and torque ripple, and also downsizing and weight reduction together with torque ripple reduction. When two sets of three-phase armature windings are defined such that a first armature winding 30-1 corresponds to U1 phase, V1 phase, and W1 phase and a second armature winding 30-2 corresponds to U2 phase, V2 phase, and W2 phase, U1 phase is provided in both of any adjacent slots of a plurality of slots 27, or at least one of U1 phase and U2 phase is provided in one of any adjacent slots 27, U1 phase, V1 phase, and W1 phase are shifted by an electric angle of 20° to 40° from U2 phase, V2 phase, and W2 phase upon driving, and a slot opening width Ws of a stator iron core 22 is set to satisfy Ws/(2πRs/Ns)≦0.15, where Rs is an inner radius of the stator iron core and Ns is a slot number of the stator iron core.

Conventionally, for example, as shown in Patent Document 1, a structure of a permanent magnet motor has been devised in which a first three-phase stator winding and a second three-phase stator winding are provided.
In addition, Patent Document 2 discloses a rotary electric machine having a first three-phase winding and a second three-phase winding, in which the first three-phase winding and the second three-phase winding have a phase difference from each other by π/6.


The present invention provides a system and method for actively manipulating fluid flow over a surface using synthetic pulsators. Synthetic pulsators produce pulsed jet operable to manipulate the primary fluid flow proximate to the synthetic pulsator. The synthetic pulsator includes a synthetic jet actuator(s) operable to produce an oscillatory flow, and fluidic jet(s) operable to provide a continuous fluid flow. The oscillatory flow of the synthetic jet(s) and the continuous fluid flow of the fluidic jet(s) combine or mix to produce the pulsed jet operable to manipulate the primary fluid flow. These synthetic pulsators may then be actively manipulated to control the flow behavior of the ducted fluid flow, influence the inception point and trajectory of flow field vortices within the fluid flow, and reduce flow separation within the primary fluid flow.

Adverse (pressure gradient) fluid flows generated over aerodynamic surfaces can buffet and fatigue any downstream structures so exposed. Additionally, such flows can affect efficiency by increasing drag or resistance over the surface. Such adverse fluid flows can be generated at the fore body of an aircraft or other upstream structure, and damage control surfaces, engines, after body/empennage, nacelles, turrets, or other structures integrated into the airframe. Additionally, these adverse fluid flows can be ingested within engine air intakes or other like air inlets leading to poor performance and/or stalling of the aircraft engines. Stalling the aircraft engine creates a potentially hazardous condition.
Next generation aircraft, such as blended wing body, compound this problem by incorporating gas turbine inlets with serpentine spines within the air frame. Additionally, exotic aperture shapes for the inlet and outlet may cause excessive propulsion performance losses. These losses emanate from strong secondary flow gradients in the near wall boundary of the airflow, which produce coherent large-scale adverse fluid flows.
In the past, adverse flow fields were avoided by redesigning the aircraft or aerodynamic surfaces in order to remove components from the path of adverse fluid flows. Alternatively, the components in the path of the adverse fluid flows were structurally hardened or replaced more frequently to avoid failures resulting from these stresses. Placing components, such as engines or control surfaces, in non-optimal positions in order to reduce these stresses often results in reduced vehicle performance. Similarly, adding structural weight to support increased stress loads caused by the flow field vortices also results in reduced vehicle performance.
Another solution employs active or passive control flows to mitigate the effects of the adverse flow fields. However, these control flows create a need for compressed air and piping to bring the control jets to regions requiring flow-control authority. These control jets then manipulate the boundary layer with induced mixing between the primary fluid flow and the secondary fluid flow. This solution also adds structural weight to supply and support the control jets that result in reduced vehicle performance.
In either of the above described solutions, mixing is promoted by vortices trailing longitudinally near the edge of the boundary layer. Fluid particles with high momentum in the stream direction are swept along helical paths toward the duct surface to mix with and, to some extent replace low momentum boundary layer flow. This is a continuous process that provides a source to counter the natural growth of the boundary layer creating adverse pressure gradients and low energy secondary flow accumulation.
To avoid the increased weight of the supply system for control jets, synthetic jets may be employed. These synthetic jets may be those described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,722,581 entitled "SYNTHETIC JET ACTUATORS," which is hereby incorporated by reference. Synthetic jets, which may be large scale devices or small scale Micro-fabricated Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) devices, are known to influence the flow over a surface, for example to control flow separation on an airfoil. A typical synthetic jet actuator comprises a housing defining an internal chamber. An orifice is present in a wall of the housing. The actuator further includes a mechanism in or about the housing for periodically changing the volume within the internal chamber so that a series of fluid vortices are generated and projected into an external environment beyond the orifice of the housing. Various volume changing mechanisms are known, for example a piston positioned in the jet housing to move so that fluid is moved in and out of the orifice during reciprocation of the piston, or a flexible diaphragm as a wall of the housing. The flexible diaphragm is typically actuated by a piezoelectric actuator or other appropriate means.
Typically, a control system is utilized to create time-harmonic motion of the diaphragm. As the diaphragm moves into the chamber, decreasing the chamber volume, fluid is ejected from the chamber through the orifice. As the fluid passes through the orifice, the flow separates at the sharp edges of the orifice and creates vortex sheets which roll up into vortices. These vortices move away from the edges of the orifice under their own self-induced velocity. As the diaphragm moves outward with respect to the chamber, increasing the chamber volume, ambient fluid is drawn from large distances from the orifice into the chamber. Since the vortices are already removed from the edges of the orifice, they are not affected by the ambient fluid being entrained into the chamber. As the vortices travel away from the orifice, they synthesize a jet of fluid, a "synthetic jet," through entrainment of the ambient fluid.
However, these devices have relatively limited capacity, in that they use only a single moving element or a moving element of limited deflection. Although high-amplitude high-frequency jets may be created synthetically, application of these devices has been restricted due to the inability to create supersonic jets and also operate in hot-gas environments (>500-deg F.). Therefore, it would be desirable to obtain increased performance of synthetic jet actuators in such environments. Accordingly, there is a need for a synthetic jet actuator having greater capacity than previous devices.


A lithium ion secondary battery including a plurality of electrode laminates, each electrode laminate including a positive electrode, a separator, and a negative electrode being alternatively laminated, each positive electrode and negative electrode having respective positive and negative electrode tabs protruding from a respective line segment, the positive electrode tabs of adjacent electrode laminates face each other and are connected to each other to provide a positive electrode tab bundle and the negative electrode tabs of the adjacent electrode laminates face each other and are connected to each other to provide a negative electrode tab bundle.

Secondary batteries capable of being repeatedly chargeable and dischargeable may be classified into a NaS secondary batteries, redox flow batteries, lithium ion secondary batteries, and the like according to types of materials involved in chemical reaction occurring in the charging and discharging. Particularly, such a lithium ion secondary battery is widely used among secondary batteries because the lithium ion secondary battery has high energy density and a few degree of self discharge.
In recent years, various fields requiring secondary batteries have been diversified, and demands for secondary batteries are also increasing. Particularly, demands for lithium ion secondary batteries are increasing in the fields of mobile, automotive and energy storage systems.
Secondary batteries may be classified into circular type secondary batteries, prismatic type secondary batteries, and pouch type secondary batteries according to a manufacturing method or structure. However, in the case of such a secondary battery according to the related art, when manufacture of cells constituting the secondary battery is completed, there is a problem that it is difficult to change a capacity, a voltage, and the like according to the demands of the consumer using the secondary battery.
Also, in the case of the secondary battery according to the related art, the secondary battery and the cells constituting the secondary battery are manufactured in only a regular shape such as a cylindrical shape, a rectangular plate shape, and the like to generate a so-called dead space which does not contribute to generation of an output, resulting in a problem that utilization of a space is deteriorated.


This disclosure relates to dry powder inhalers and drug products and, more particularly to polyflux colliders useful for de-agglomerating dry powder in dry powder dispensers. Various embodiments provide drug products, dry powder inhalers and polyflux collider arrangement. With various embodiments of the present invention, a polyflux collider is provided which utilizes colliding streams of dry powder to provide desirable de-agglomerating capability for dry powder dispensers.

Various devices have been used in order to dispense an inhaled metered dose of active pharmaceutical agents such as, including pressurized aerosol devices, nebulizers, pump inhalators and the like. There is growing demand for powder dispensing devices which can dispense metered doses of powdered medicament. With such devices, the powder is withdrawn by inhalation so there is less need to be concerned with synchronizing release of medication with the exact start of inspiration to insure quality of the product delivery. Additionally, dry powders may be more stable than the liquid compositions that may be found in other inhaler device forms.
The particles containing the APA that leave the DPI are desirably within a particular size range that target a specific area of the lung. If the particles containing the APA are too large, they may not enter the respiratory tract, but instead, will be deposited in the mouth or pharynx and possibly enter the digestive tract. Desirably, the DPI will deliver a consistent fine particle dose (FPD) to the targeted area of the lung.
Current dispensers may have a reservoir that holds the powder in the form of agglomerates that contain an active pharmaceutical agent. As the device is actuated, the reservoir will release a dose of agglomerates that contains the appropriate dose of the APA. After the device is actuated, the consumer inhales to force the agglomerates to be carried through inhaler flow channels and break up into a micronized powder. This micronized powder will desirably deliver a consistent dose of the APA to the targeted lung area of the consumer.
Current designs for dry powder inhalers and deagglomeration techniques are described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,240,918, U.S. Pat. No. 5,829,434, U.S. Pat. No. 5,394,868, U.S. Pat. No. 5,687,710. Swirl nozzles have been used to deagglomerate the dry powder. De-agglomeration can be achieved by introducing changes in direction in flow in a channel such that the powder is forced to strike against various channel wall sections due to the changes in direction.
Current reservoir based dry powder inhalers may not efficiently deliver a dose because the DPI may only be capable of delivering a low fine particle fraction and a low fine particle dose. If the fine particle fraction of the dose is low, then the rest of the dose may undesirably be swallowed and absorbed through the digestive tract. Additionally, the total delivered dose of APA may be limited due to the fact that only a certain total amount of powder may be dispensed from the current DPIs. Thus, it would be desirable to increase the efficiency of current DPI's to deliver a higher fine particle fraction and fine particle dose.

Drug products, dry powder inhalers and polyflux collider arrangements


An endotracheal tube holder providing enhanced patient comfort and easy and secure attachment of various sized tubes. The holder includes a multi-component plastic clamping device having an inner bite block and straps for maintaining the device in position. The device further includes a support member with a barrel, and a cylinder movable within the barrel, and complimentary bores through the barrel and cylinder which release the tube when the bores are aligned and clamp down on the tube when the bores are in various unaligned positions.

Endotracheal (ET) tubes are used to ventilate patients for resuscitation, anesthesia and other critical care procedures. Stabilizing and securing the endotracheal tube is of vital importance. Traditionally, ET tubes have been secured by placing adhesive tape on the tube and affixing it to the face. Because the tape must be removed frequently for suctioning and possible repositioning, considerable skin breakdown can occur. This often leads to infection.
Ensuring tube security is the primary role of the ET tube holder. Tube stabilization is vital to prevent accidental or self extubation and to prevent tube movement which may cause airway trauma.
The endotracheal tube holder of this invention is intended to address and solve the above problems, and others, by: stabilizing the tube securely and easily without skin irritation and breakdown; discouraging self or accidental extubation; providing easy access to the oral cavity for oral hygiene and suctioning; preventing tube occlusion by the patient; and providing patient comfort.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an endotracheal tube holder having the following features and benefits:
Effectively secures ET tube both at the tube and to the head PA1 Eliminates skin breakdown of face and neck PA1 Allows for easy access to oral cavity for suctioning and oral care PA1 Prevents tube occlusion by patient PA1 Unaffected by secretions PA1 Easily applied PA1 Easily adjusted PA1 Easily repositioned on tube PA1 Reduced incidence of tube displacement and accidental extubation PA1 Prevents airway trauma caused by external tube movement PA1 Provides convenient way to manage inflating tube PA1 Provides patient comfort PA1 Saves nursing time PA1 Fits a range of tube sizes (e.g., adult tube sizes 6 mm-9 mm OD, or children's tube sizes 4 mm-6 mm OD).


A high-frequency transformer. The transformer comprises a high-voltage winding. A first bus bar is positioned proximate the high voltage winding and extends to a first portion of a plurality of power switching devices. The first bus bar is electrically coupled to the first portion of the power switching devices. A second bus bar is positioned proximate the high voltage winding and extends to a second portion of the power switching devices. The second bus bar is electrically coupled to both the high voltage winding and the second portion of the power switching devices. A third bus bar extends between the first and second bus bars and is electrically coupled to the first bus bar, second bus bar, and the high voltage winding. The second and third bus bars form a low voltage winding that electrically cooperates with the high voltage winding to form the high-frequency transformer.

A power stage of a voltage step-up switch mode power supply ("SMPS") drives the primary (low voltage) winding of a transformer with a high frequency alternating voltage, creating an alternating magnetic field around the primary winding and through a core of the transformer. One or more secondary (high voltage) windings are also wrapped around the core and are located in close proximity to the primary winding. The alternating magnetic field around the primary winding induces an AC voltage in the secondary winding. In most SMPS, the AC output of the transformer's secondary winding is rectified to provide a DC voltage at the output of the power supply. Compared with a low-frequency power supply, a high-frequency SMPS has a number of advantages, the most significant of which are suitability for low-cost manufacturing, and reduced size and weight. Consequently, SMPSs are considered to be more economical than low-frequency power supplies. With a voltage step-down SMPS the process occurs in reverse, with the primary winding being the high voltage winding and the secondary winding being the low voltage winding.
Surface mounted active and passive electronic components, commonly called surface mounted devices ("SMDs"), are typically employed in SMPS applications to further reduce the size and weight of the power supply. SMDs are also well-suited for automated and high-volume production, making them more cost-effective than non-surface mounted designs. In order to reduce the size of SMDs and thus further reduce the size and weight of the SMPS, it is necessary to increase the commutation frequency of the power devices in the power stage of the SMPS. When the commutation frequency is increased, the length of connecting wires conducting high frequency current between the power stage and the transformer are preferably minimized in order to eliminate parasitic impedances, which can reduce the efficiency of SMPS and generate electromagnetic interference ("EMI"). Parasitic impedances can be a significant issue with high-frequency SMPS where the high-frequency currents, e.g., typically in the range of about 100–200 kHz, often reach around 300 to 400 amperes in low-voltage circuits, e.g., in the range of about 10–60 volts RMS, of the SMPS. Losses and impedances in the connecting wires can be significant enough that it becomes unacceptably inefficient or impractical to use a high commutation frequency, thereby forcing SMPS designers to resort to lower frequencies, e.g., around 50 kHz, with the corresponding size and weight disadvantages.
There is a need for a cost-effective way to reduce parasitic impedances associated with connecting wires in high-frequency, high-current switch mode power supplies, this parameter being critical to good performance.


A capacitive fingerprint sensor comprises a first transistor, a second transistor, a fingerprint capacitor and a third transistor. The fingerprint capacitor has a capacitance that is either a valley capacitance CFV or a ridge capacitance CFR, wherein CFV is smaller than CFR. The first transistor is configured to precharge the fingerprint capacitor. The second transistor is configured to discharge the fingerprint capacitor toward a bias voltage VB. The third transistor is configured to output the voltage of the fingerprint capacitor after discharge.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a capacitive fingerprint sensor and the panel thereof, and more particularly to a capacitive fingerprint sensor using a plurality of transistors and the panel thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
A fingerprint sensor is a sensor for recognizing a pattern of a human fingerprint and providing reliable personal identification. The fingerprint sensor is also widely used in portable products such as mobile phones or notebooks in order to achieve security of personal confidential information.
FIGS. 1A and 1B show a hint diagram about the relationship between the human finger and a substrate panel and the corresponding equivalent diagram. Generally, the fingerprint sensor could be implemented in a chip or embedded in an image panel. If the fingerprint sensor is implemented in a chip, the number 13 in FIG. 1A represents a passivation layer, which acts as the dielectric layer of the capacitor Cd. If the fingerprint sensor is embedded in an image panel, the number 11 in FIG. 1A represents ITO layer, and number 13 represents glass and thin films, such as color filter, polarizer and etc. The following description takes the fingerprint sensor embedded in the image panel as an example. In FIG. 1A, a glass 13, a top metal plate 11 and a substrate 12 are combined in series, and the glass 13 is the place where the human finger will touch. Normally, a capacitor Cd exists in the glass 13, and a capacitor Cp exists between the top metal plate 11 and the substrate 12. In FIG. 1B, the surface of the human finger has ridges and valleys, such as the ridge 14 and the valley 15. The valley 15 has a distance d2 away from the glass 13 with a thickness d1. Based on the structure, an additional capacitor C2 exists between the valley of the human finger and the surface of the glass 13. The equivalent capacitance of the ridge capacitor CFR is related to C1, and the equivalence capacitance of the valley capacitors CFV is related to C1//C2. The capacitances of C1 and C1//C2 are listed as follows:
            C      1        =                            ɛ          1                        A                    d        1              ,                    and                                                            C          1                    //              C        2              =          1                                    d            1                                              ɛ              1                                    A                          +                              d            2                                              ɛ              2                                    A
Normally, the ridge capacitor CFR is far greater than the valley capacitors CFV.
For sensing the human fingerprint, a readout circuit should be able to discern the difference between the ridge capacitor and the valley capacitor. However, it is not easy to achieve the required accuracy in difference. Some environmental conditions such as noise and cross talk will deteriorate the result.

Capacitive fingerprint sensor and the panel thereof


Handling device of the present invention includes spaced-out transverse bars connected through their ends to endless lateral drive chains made of links. The chains include a series of flexible links connected through bars.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention concerns a handling device with flexible link chains and bars, intended among other things, for the conveying of crops. More specifically, but not limited thereto, this handling device can be advantageously used on grape harvesting machines, on potato or carrot picking machines for the conveying of the crop. However, other agricultural or industrial applications are possible.
2. Description of Related Art Including Information Disclosed Under 37 CFR 1.97 and 37 CFR 1.98
Harvesting machines (such as French Patent document FR-2.795.599) are well-known. The machines use a harvest conveyor comprising spaced-out bars connected through their ends to lateral endless drive chains made of metallic links connected to one another through a hinge pin. The disadvantages of this type of conveyor are the following:                not to be removable so that is it is not easy to replace damaged links or bars;        rather noisy operation;        frequent lubrication required; and        being rather complex and therefore costly to assemble.
Handling chains are also well-known in which the ends of the spaced-out transverse bars are attached through riveting or vulcanization onto two flexible and notched lateral conveyor belts.
Those handling systems have several major disadvantages, including:                large winding diameter;        high cost; and        not being removable.

Handling device with flexible link chains and bars


A multi-level semiconductor device wiring interconnect structure and method of forming the same to improve electrical properties and reliability of wiring interconnects including an electromigration resistance and electrical resistance, the method including forming a dielectric insulating layer over a conductive portion; forming a via opening in closed communication with the conductive portion; forming a first barrier layer to line the via opening; forming a layer of AlCu according to a sputtering process to fill the via opening to form an AlCu via including a portion overlying the first dielectric insulating layer; and, photolithographically patterning and dry etching the portion to form an AlCu interconnect line over the AlCu via.

Metallization interconnects are critical to the proper electronic function of semiconductor devices. Several advances in integrated circuit manufacturing processing have been aimed at improving signal transport speed by reducing metal interconnect resistivities and improving resistance to electromigration effects. Copper has increasingly become a metal of choice in, for example, upper levels of metallization in a multi-level semiconductor device due to its low resistivity. Tungsten (W), however, has been used in the lower metallization layers, for example the PMD layer to form plugs or vias to contact underlying conductive areas including CMOS source and drain regions since it provides an effective diffusion barrier to metal diffusion from overlying copper metallization layers. Tungsten further has had acceptable resistance to electromigration in characteristic device dimensions of greater than about 0.25 microns and can effectively fill high aspect ratio vias by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) processes.
As device characteristic dimensions shrink, however, the prior art practice of forming tungsten plugs in lower metallization layers creates several problems. For example, the cost and complexity of processing increases, requiring increasingly complex processing including tungsten deposition, tungsten dry etchback, and/or CMP planarization processes to avoid respectively, for example, voids in tungsten plugs, tungsten particle contamination, and the formation of tungsten metal stringers. In addition, the electrical performance properties of tungsten, including electrical resistance are less than adequate for characteristic device dimensions less than about 0.25 microns. Moreover, the high temperature deposition processes currently required for tungsten as well as overlying conventional copper metallization leads to undesirable defects in previously deposited metallization layers.
Therefore, there is a need in the semiconductor processing art to develop an improved integrated circuit wiring structure and method for forming the same to achieve improved electrical performance as well as decreased processing complexity.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide an improved integrated circuit wiring structure and method for forming the same to achieve improved electrical performance as well as decreased processing complexity, while overcoming other shortcomings of the prior art.

Back end IC wiring with improved electro-migration resistance

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd.


A thin film transistor is formed by depositing amorphous silicon and forming a gate structure and then using a high-pressure oxidation to form a high-quality gate oxide that has a layered structure.

Field effect transistors are ubiquitous in modern electronics technology. This type of transistor has been primarily fabricated in single crystal silicon, i.e., in a single crystal wafer or in an epitaxial layer grown on a single crystal wafer. The high quality single crystal silicon has good properties for transistors in terms of, e.g., carrier transport and interface characteristics.
There are, however, applications where use of single crystal silicon is difficult or impossible. For example, field effect transistors are used in making active matrix liquid crystal displays. These transistors are fabricated on glass substrates. Additionally, static random access memories (SRAMs) can be fabricated in cells which have six transistors. Two transistors function as electrical loads and the cell size is reduced when the load transistors are fabricated above the other four transistors rather than in the same plane. In this case, the load transistors are fabricated in a material formed on a dielectric layer which separates the load transistors from the other four transistors. For use in these, as well as other, applications, thin film transistors (TFTs) have been developed. Such transistors are frequently fabricated using polysilicon, rather than single crystal silicon, as the channel material, i.e., the material in which the current flows.
TFTs for active loads in SRAM cells should satisfy several criteria, and the nature of the polysilicon determines how easily these criteria can be satisfied. One criterion of great interest is the ratio of the ON state current to the OFF state current. This ratio should be as large as is possible. The lower OFF state current indicates lower standby current, and the higher ON state current improves both performance and cell stability. Two primary factors influencing this ratio are the grain size of the silicon in the channel and the oxide/polysilicon interface, i.e., the interface between the oxide of the gate structure and the polysilicon of the channel. Larger grain size increases the carrier mobility as compared to smaller grain size and also increases the ON state current. Larger grains also result in less dopant diffusion from the source/drain regions into the channel. Such diffusion would result in a shorter effective channel and a greater OFF state current than would the longer channel. The larger grains also reduce the back channel leakage current and thereby reduce the OFF state current. The oxide/polysilicon interface is important because a poor quality interface may have many dangling bonds which result in charge trapping. More importantly, a poor interface enhances the surface scattering of carriers and thus decreases the effective carrier mobility. Similar considerations are applicable to the TFTs used for display purposes.
The quality of the polysilicon is thus important for device purposes and much attention has been directed toward forming polysilicon with the desired characteristics. For example, Mimura, IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices, 36, February 1989, pp. 351-359, describes the deposition of silicon by low-pressure chemical vapor deposition at temperatures between 500.degree. C. and 550.degree. C. followed by a 600.degree. C. anneal for 24 hours in nitrogen to recrystallize the silicon. The transition temperature between amorphous and poly structure is around 545.degree. C. To ensure a real amorphous structure, one has to deposit the Si at a temperature well below the transition temperature. To get the large grain polysilicon, one has to regrow the amorphous Si at a low regrowth rate, which means slightly higher than the transition temperature for a longer time to avoid secondary recrystallization. In the Japanese Journal of Applied Physics, 30, January 1991, pp. 184-187, Aoyama describes a two-step annealing process which reduces the leakage current. Amorphous silicon was deposited at 550.degree. C. and annealed for ten hours in a nitrogen atmosphere at 600.degree. C. to recrystallize the silicon. See also, IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices, ED-33, April 1986, pp. 477-481 for a discussion of thin film transistors.
Not only is the oxide/polysilicon interface important, the quality of the oxide is also important. Deposited oxides typically have poor dielectric quality and are sensitive to both the polysilicon structure and dopant concentration. Grown oxides are difficult to fabricate because of the limited thermal budget after the transistors' source-drain formation. Additionally, the surface morphology of the polysilicon, together with the limited thermal budget, makes conventional oxidation impractical.

Method of making thin film transistors including recrystallization and high pressure oxidation


A control assembly for a nuclear reactor includes a first reactivity control assembly having a first neutron modifying material, a second reactivity control assembly having a second neutron modifying material, and at least one drive mechanism coupled to the first neutron modifying material and the second neutron modifying material. The first neutron modifying material and the second neutron modifying material are selectively repositionable relative to a fuel region of the nuclear reactor. The at least one drive mechanism is configured to provide the first neutron modifying material and the second neutron modifying material in different directions through the fuel region thereby shifting a flux distribution within the fuel region away from the second neutron modifying material.

Light water nuclear fission reactors may employ flux shaping, which focuses on the production of poisons to control reactivity. By way of example, a short and long rod approach may be employed to axially shape flux to damp out Xenon oscillations within the core. By way of another example, shaping rods have been used to control power distributions, but such systems are not focused on breeding distributions.


Managing free space in a relational database. A data statistics history for the relational database is received, including a distribution of index key columns for a clustering index. Based on the data statistics history, increasing index key columns are identified. A rate of increase of the increasing index key columns is measured. Based on the measured rate of increase and on an estimate of database reorganization frequency, free space for the increasing index key columns is reserved.

The present invention relates generally to the field of computerized data processing, and more particularly to optimizing data organization of tables and indexes in databases, based on data distribution and growth rate of index keys.
A relational database is a digital database whose organization is based on the relational model of data. This model organizes data into one or more tables, or relations, of rows and columns, with a unique key for each row. Generally, each entity type described in a database has its own table, the rows representing instances of that type of entity and the columns representing values attributed to that instance. Because each row in a table has its own unique key, rows in a table can be linked to rows in other tables by storing the unique key of the row to which it should be linked. Data relationships of arbitrary complexity can be represented using this set of concepts. The various software systems used to maintain relational databases are known as Relational Database Management Systems (RDBMS). Virtually all relational database systems use SQL (Structured Query Language) as the language for querying and maintaining the database.
A table in a relational database may have zero or more indexes. An index is a data structure (most commonly a B-tree) that exists physically on disk. It generally contains one or more ordered columns of the table and logical pointers to data rows in the table. An index is organized in a way that enables direct and fast access to the data in the table. An index key is the set of columns identified in the description of the index. In the absence of an appropriate index, a query may incur a costly full table scan.
In a typical SQL database, the fundamental unit of data storage is the page, or block. The disk space allocated to a data file in a database is logically divided into pages numbered consecutively. Disk I/O operations are performed at the page level. That is, the database server reads or writes whole pages. Data pages include data rows of a table, typically put on the page serially, starting immediately after a header with control information. Index pages include index entries.
If an index is defined for a key with column values that are not continuously increasing (i.e., if key column values for rows newly inserted into the associated table are likely to be less than the key's current maximum column value), then throughput for high-volume insert operations may be constrained by index page split activity. Unlike rows in a table, entries in an index are physically ordered by key column value, which leads to index page splits when new values are inserted into the middle of an index, as will be the case, for example, for an index defined on a non-continuously increasing key column. If the page into which a new index entry must go is full, the page will be split, and a portion of the page's entries will be moved to a previously empty page in the index. Such index splits are generally considered a costly process.
A table space is a storage location where the actual data underlying database objects can be kept. It provides a layer of abstraction between physical and logical data, and serves to allocate storage for database objects, such as tables and indexes, that occupy physical space.
A clustering index (sometimes called a clustered index or index-organized table) determines how rows are physically ordered, or clustered, in a table space. That is, for a table with a clustering index, the order of the rows in the data pages corresponds to the order of the rows in the index. Clustering indexes may provide significant performance advantages for some database operations, particularly those that involve a range of rows. When a table has a clustering index, an insert statement typically causes rows to be inserted as nearly as possible in the order of their index values. As a result, rows in a column are likely to be close together, such that the database server can generally access all the rows in a single read. However, using a clustering index does not guarantee that all rows for a given column value are stored on the same page. The actual storage of rows depends on the size of the rows, the number of rows, and the amount of available free space. Moreover, some pages may contain rows for more than one column value. In what follows, the term index will generally refer to a clustering index.
Reserving free space in table spaces may enable data to remain clustered longer between reorganizations and can reduce the number of overflow rows and indirect references, which can harm performance. Unlike index pages, table space pages are not split. Free space is needed for inserts in clustering order and updates where the size of the row has increased and there is not enough room on the page. For inserts, the row will go to another page. For updates, the row is moved to another page, but the indexes still point to the original page, which in turn points to the new location. This is called an indirect reference.
Reorganizing tables and indexes restores physical continuity of table data and rebuilds indexes into unfragmented, physically contiguous pages. However, reorganizations are time consuming and a database table may be unavailable during reorganization. As a result, the frequency of table/index reorganization may only be, for example, weekly or monthly.
When insufficient free space is available for insert or update operations, new rows may be appended at the end of a table, out of clustering sequence. When updates to existing rows cause them to no longer fit on the original page, indirect references to one or more overflow rows on different data pages may be created. When many of these rows are physically located out of sequence, performance suffers. On the other hand, specifying too much free space may also have disadvantages, including using more disk space for the same amount of data, transferring less data in a single I/O operation, and the data occupying more pages that must be scanned.

International Business Machines Corporation


An image forming apparatus includes a medium transporting mechanism. A first transporting section transports a recording medium on which an image is formed. A second transporting section receives the recording medium from the first transporting section and then further transports the recording medium. The second transporting section has a smaller transporting force than the first transporting section. A controller controls the second transporting section in such a way that the second transporting section transports the recording medium at a higher speed than the first transporting section.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus, and more particularly to an image forming apparatus in which printing is performed while also transporting a recording medium;
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional image forming apparatus that employs LEDs or laser includes a paper feeding section that feeds pages of paper, image forming sections that form visible images on the pages of paper, a fixing unit that fixes the images to the paper, and a discharging unit that discharges printed paper after fixing. The respective image forming sections operates to advance the page of recording paper at slightly different speeds from one another, thereby ensuring stable print quality.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-179282 discloses one such image forming apparatus. The paper is advanced at increasing lower speed as the paper advances from upstream to downstream, thereby preventing the paper from being pulled excessively taut between adjacent image forming sections.
This image forming apparatus suffers from the following problems. When duplex printing is performed, the paper is not taut enough from when the fixing operation has completed until the paper reaches inversion rollers. Thus, the paper becomes skewed with respect to a transport path when paper is transported in the transport path. The paper is pulled in between the inversion rollers while remaining skewed. The skewed paper is then flipped over and transported further. This causes poor print quality of an image on the back surface of the paper.


An apparatus and packaging system for filling single-serve pods is described. The apparatus includes a base for supporting a rotatable platform comprising multiple pod holders, a filler mounted on the base and adjacent to the rotatable platform comprising a container filled with food product and multiple augers capable of filling the pods with food product, a sealer mounted on the base comprising a film winder, and a controller directing rotation of the rotatable platform, filling of the food product from the filler, and sealing and trimming of the sealed film tops of the single-serve pods.

Single serve brewing devices and methods have become popular recently, as consumers desire a hot beverage on demand without any effort.
Many factors contribute to an optimum quality of a hot beverage, for example a brewed beverage. Brewed coffee may be influenced by the bean, roast, water, grind, ratio of coffee to water, brew time, and temperature of the water. The relationship between grind and the amount of coffee is important. A finer grind extracts more flavors from the coffee, but can easily become bitter. In contrast, a coarser grind produces a smoother flavor, but requires more coffee to achieve the same flavor. Unfortunately, single serve coffee pods do not allow the user to increase the amount of coffee contained in the pods. There is evidence among specialty coffee roasters that the subtle flavors associated with quality coffee rapidly degrade with time, perhaps hours after roasting. To capture those flavors requires on-site packaging.

Packaging apparatus and system to fill single-serve pods


A rotary file cabinet defined by a base member on which is mounted two oppositely disposed side walls and two oppositely disposed access openings, wherein each access opening is defined by a pair of post members and a canopy mounted to the post members, wherein a rotor file assembly is rotatably mounted on a vertical rotor support member defined by a fixed central axis positioned between the canopy and the base member of the cabinet housing, and wherein the rotor file assembly is formed having a coaxial support housing, a support frame mounted to the coaxial support housing, and a pair of oppositely disposed closure doors mounted to the support frame, defining a pair of storage bay sections disposed therebetween so as to provide access through the access openings of the cabinet housing when the file frame assembly is rotated from a closed position to an open position.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a rotary file cabinet, and more particularly to a rotary file and/or storage cabinet having a rotor file assembly that includes a rotatable support apparatus that is readily rotatable about a vertical axis which provides a well balanced configuration so as to carry various shelf structures or other related storage structures in two oppositely positioned storage bay sections during the rotation of the rotor file assembly from one position to another.
2. Description of the Prior Art
As is well known in the art, various problems and difficulties are encountered in providing suitable means for operating and supporting various rotatable file structures that are employed in rotary file cabinets.
Many types of rotary file cabinets have been tried, suggested and several are in use at this time. However, these known rotary file cabinets have various limitations that restrict their use and are unsuitable for extended use due to the inadequate designs of their respective rotary support systems or assemblies. Such known systems are commonly employed as a means of supporting and rotating a particular file support structure. Many rotatable support systems are not adequately designed to carry the heavy loads that are supported within their structures, and this is particularly true when a load is unequally distributed on the shelves within the file bays of the cabinet. Moreover, many of the known commercial rotary file cabinets are complicated, not only in their construction but also in their operation, and thus are often expensive to maintain. As examples of some of the known rotary file cabinets one may refer to any of the following United States Patents.
There is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,868,157 to Gerard A. Robinson a rotary file cabinet which comprises a cabinet having a top cover and a base member which itself forms part of a rotatable bearing unit. The particular arrangement of the rotatable bearing unit is often referred to as a lazy-susan and includes an upper bearing plate and a lower bearing plate which is part of the top wall of the base member. Both bearing plates are formed having matching circular ring-shaped depressions which together define a ball race for balls as is well known in the art for this type of bearing structure. Thus, the Robinson's bearing device is the principle supporting means for the rotatable shelf structure as the bearing device is interposed between the base member and the rotary shelf structure which is completely supported by the bearing device. The rotatable shelf structure is held in a vertical alignment by a trunion member defined by an axle pin mounted in the upper cover which is received in an aligned small bushing and a pivot bolt that is centrally mounted in the bottom of the rotatable shelf structure and affixed to the base member.
Other types of rotary file cabinets having similar flat rotary support bearing units are also disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,229,060, U.S. Pat. No. 4,239,311, U.S. Pat. No. 4,258,966 and U.S. Pat. 4,300,809 to Sherwood S. Brownlee, and in U.S. Pat. No. 4,241,964 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,258,966 to Frederick H. Grubb, Jr.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,928,549 to Frank Potter, there is disclosed a cabinet having a rotary file unit supported by an inner post having an outer hexagon rotatable post on which are mounted a plurality of radial shelves.


Micro-fluid jetting devices and methods for ejecting fluid mixtures on a substrate are disclosed. Embodiments of the invention show fluid-flow architecture whereby fluid channels direct a plurality of fluids from their respective reservoirs to be ejected through the nozzles of a nozzle plate.

Micro-fluid jetting devices are suitable for a wide variety of applications including, but not limited to, hand-held ink jet printers, ink jet highlighters, and ink jet air brushes. One of the challenges to providing such micro-fluid jetting devices on a large scale is to provide a manufacturing process that enables high yields of high quality jetting devices. Another challenge is to provide fluid jetting devices, such as handheld painting and printing devices that are capable of precisely reproducing any color at any time without color anomalies, which may include color halos.
The use of handheld ink jet jetting devices for applying single colors to an object such as paper is a relatively simple operation. However, providing a mixture of color inks to an object using a micro-fluid jetting device presents significantly more challenges. For example, conventional handheld ink jet printing devices for printing multiple colors have a substantially linear nozzle arrangement as shown in FIG. 1. Nozzle holes 2 for cyan, 3 for magenta and 4 for yellow are illustrated. When the printhead having the foregoing substantially linear nozzle arrangement is used to produce a single solid color that is a mixture of two or more ink colors, unwanted color areas (hereafter referred to as "halos") are deposited on the substrate as the printing device is moved. For example, when a conventional handheld ink jet printing device is moved in a perfectly linear direction, indicated by arrow 5, across a substrate to provide a composite black bar 6, unwanted cyan 7 and purple 8 halos appear on one side of the black bar 6 and unwanted orange 9 and yellow 11 halos appear on an opposite side of the black bar 6 along the linear direction the ink jet printing device is being moved, if the speed of movement is not perfectly linked to the timing of ink ejection. Additional halos may be formed if the printhead does not move in a perfectly linear direction. In order to produce the black bar 6, the printhead must be moved substantially in the direction indicated by arrow 5. If the printhead is moved perpendicular to the direction indicated by arrow 5, composite colors cannot be printed because nozzle holes 2 for cyan, 3 for magenta, and 4 for yellow do not pass over the same point on the media. Accordingly, there is a need for improved handheld micro-fluid jetting devices that provide more uniform jetting of fluids when moved in a linear direction across a media.
With regard to the foregoing and other objects and advantages exemplary embodiments of the disclosure provide a micro-fluid jetting device and a method of ejecting fluid mixtures onto a substrate. The micro-fluid jetting device includes a housing containing a logic circuit and fluid reservoirs for at least two different fluids. A micro-fluid ejection head is attached to a first end of the housing. The ejection head is in electrical communication with the logic circuit and the fluid reservoirs. At least two channel members are provided for directing fluid from the reservoirs to a plurality of fluid ejection nozzles in a nozzle plate member. The ejection nozzles for each of the at least two different fluids are arranged in the nozzle plate member so that adjacent ejection nozzles are in flow communication with different fluids. A power source in electrical connection with the micro-fluid ejection head is provided in the housing for activating the micro-fluid ejection head for jetting the fluids therefrom.
In another embodiment, the disclosure provides a method for jetting different fluids to provide a mixture of different fluids deposited onto a substrate. The method includes providing a housing containing a logic circuit, fluid reservoirs for at least two different fluids, and a micro-fluid ejection head attached to a first end of the housing. The ejection head is in electrical communication with the logic circuit and the fluid reservoirs. At least two channel members are provided in the ejection head for directing fluid from the reservoirs to a plurality of fluid ejection nozzles in a nozzle plate member. The ejection nozzles for each of the at least two different fluids are arranged in the nozzle plate member so that adjacent ejection nozzles are in flow communication with different fluids. A power source in electrical connection with the micro-fluid ejection head is provided in the housing for activating the micro-fluid ejection head for jetting the fluids therefrom. Upon activation of the micro-fluid ejection head a mixture of fluids is ejected onto the substrate.
An advantage of the exemplary embodiments described herein is that an essentially uniform mixture of fluids may be ejected onto a substrate regardless of the direction the printhead is being moved without causing the halo effect provided by conventional handheld fluid ejection devices.