This invention uses mesoporous silica nanoparticles and other nanostructured materials to formulate polyacrylate-based bone cement for achieving an enhanced and controlled elution of active ingredients such as antibiotics. This invention overcomes the limitation of low antibiotic release from commercial polyacrylate-based bone cements using for example, PMMA. In certain aspects, the formulation enables a sustained release of antibiotics from the bone cement over a period of 80 days and achieves 70% of total drug release, whereas the commercial antibiotic bone cement (e.g., SmartSet GHV) only releases about 5% of the antibiotics on the first day and subsequently an almost negligible amount. In addition, the mechanical properties of our formulated bone cements are well retained. The inventive bone cement exhibits good antibacterial properties and has very low cytotoxicity to mouse fibroblast cells.

Currently total hip and knee joint replacements (arthroplasty) are the most common major orthopedic surgical procedures, with approximately 1 million performed world-wide annually. A major proportion of these prostheses are anchored to the contiguous cancellous bone in an acrylic based bone cement, which serves to immobilize the implant and distribute force from it to the adjoining bone. (see, Lewis, G., J. Biomed. Mater. Res. B. Appl. Biomater., 38:155-182 (1997); Lewis, G., J. Biomed. Mater. Res. B. Appl. Biomater., 84:301-319 (2007); Lewis, G., J. Biomed. Mater. Res. B. Appl. Biomater., 89:558-574 (2009)).
Despite strict antiseptic operative procedure deployed against infection, postoperative osteomyelitis remains a considerable problem in orthopedic surgery. The infection rates of joint replacement range from 1-3% after surgery operation. For infected cases, total removal of the implant is often necessary and usually leads to severe functional disability. Such infections are very costly in terms of quality of life and public health expenditure. In order to reduce the risk of post-operative infection, it is of great interest to release antibiotics at the implanted local site (see FIG. 1). The main goals of the drug releasing systems are to maintain drug levels at the desired therapeutic range with just a single dose and to localize delivery of the drug to a specific body compartment, thereby reducing the need for follow-up care and increasing patient comfort and/or compliance.
There are over 30 commercially available basic acrylic bone cements for use in cemented arthoplasties. Some of the most widely used brands are Simplex P (Styker Co.), Palacos R (Heraeus Kulzer), SmartSet HV (DePuy Co.) and Vertefix Radiopaque (Cook Medical). In general, all brands contain polymer powder and liquid monomer components that are mixed together to form a dough-like bone cement. The polymer powder consists of prepolymerized poly(methyl methacrylate) ("PMMA") beads or a PMMA-based polymer; benzoyl peroxide as the initiator of the polymerization reaction; and a radiopacifier of barium sulfate or zirconium dioxide. The liquid monomer comprises of methyl methacrylate monomer; N,N-dimethyl-p-toludine (DMPT) as the accelerator of the polymerization reaction; and hydroquinone as an inhibitor of that reaction.
To date, the commercially available antibiotic delivery systems (e.g., SmartSet GHV (DePuy Co.); Simplex P with Tobramycin (Stryker)) are based on antibiotic loaded poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) bone cement. The main problem of the current composite bone cements is their inability to maintain sustained drug release for several weeks at the site of implantation. These drug delivery systems are based on the method of loading the drug agents into the polymer and/or monomer components of the cement by mechanical mixing or by adsorption directly into the matrices of polymer (see Padilla et al. J. Controlled Release, 83:343-52 (2002); Anagnostakos, K. and Kelm J., J. Biomed. Mater. Res. B. Appl. Biomater., 90B:467-475-182 (2009)). However, such techniques do not achieve sustained drug release at the implanted site for more than a few days. At initial stages following surgery, the typical bone cements elute antibiotics located at the surface of the interface between the cement and the adjacent tissue or medium, and not the sub-layers of the bone cement. The diffusion of drug becomes more limited in the later stages. As more than 90% of the antibiotic may be retained within the PMMA matrix, the bone cement cannot function to protect the surrounding tissue from infection.
Recent advancements in the design and development of mesoporous nanomaterials have highlighted their potential for drug delivery. These nanomaterials are characterized by high relative surface areas, tunable pore volumes, controllable surface functionalities, and well-ordered pore structures. FIG. 2 depicts a microscopy image of the organized structure of mesoporous nanorods. Examples of mesoporous nanomaterials include mesoporous silica nanoparticles, alumina nanofibers, carbon nanotubes, titania nanotubes, hydroxyapatite nanorods, and hydroxyapatite nanoparticles. Mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSN) have large specific pore volumes (e.g., range from 0.6-1 cm3/g) and high surface areas (e.g., range of 700-1000 m2/g), making it possible to load the nanoparticles with drug and reach loading levels that exceed 30 wt % (see, Gao et al., J. Phys. Chem. B., 113:1796-804 (2009); Vellet-Regi et al., J. Intern Med., 267:22-43 (2009); Rosenholm et al., Nanoscale, 2:1870-83 (2010)).
In view of the foregoing developments, there is a need to develop bone cements with improved sustain release of antibiotics. The present invention satisfies this and other needs.

Nanostructured material formulated with bone cement for effective antibiotic delivery

AGENCY FOR SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND RESEARCH


A method for producing a β-nitrostyrene compound is provided in which a benzaldehyde derivative represented by the following formula (I):

The β-nitrostyrene compound represented by the following formula is a useful intermediate for producing a therapeutic drug for treating reflux esophagitis, an antispasmodic and the like, such as baclofen.
(in the above formula, n represents an integer of 0 to 3, and n Rs may be identical or different and each may represent a halogen atom, an alkyl group, a hydroxyl group, an alkoxy group, a haloalkyl group, or a cycloalkyloxy group, or when n represents 2 or 3, two Rs may together form an alkylenedioxy group.)
Some of the methods for synthesizing such a β-nitrostyrene compound are conventionally known. For example, Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 09-194457 (Patent Document 1), Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 11-71348 (Patent Document 2), Japanese Patent National Publication No. 2001-510827 (Patent Document 3), and the like disclose the method for synthesizing a β-nitrostyrene compound by the heating and refluxing process using ammonium acetate as a base. However, in the case where ammonium acetate is used in this way, the reaction temperature is required to be set at a temperature close to its boiling point.
Furthermore, for example, the method disclosed in each of Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2002-241364 (Patent Document 4) and J. Am. Chem. Soc. (2005, 127, 119-125) (Non-Patent Document 1) is also known as a method for synthesizing a β-nitrostyrene compound. For example, Patent Document 1 discloses that a β-nitrostyrene compound can be produced at a yield of 67% under reflux conditions by using nitroalkane as a solvent and benzylamine as a base. However, also in this method, a reaction occurs at the heating temperature close to its boiling point.
Since the β-nitrostyrene compound is produced by the reaction using a nitro compound, it is feared that the reaction may, for example, get out of control. Thus, the reaction occurring at the heating temperature close to the boiling point may cause a problem in practical implementation from an industrial point of view. For example, when the β-nitrostyrene compound is actually produced, the residence time of the reaction solution of nitromethane and benzaldehyde is about 12 hours. As for the reaction solution of nitromethane and benzaldehyde, when the operating temperature is at 95° C., the time taken for the velocity of the self reaction in the adiabatic system to reach its maximum value (excursion) is 7.9 hours according to the measurement by an accelerating rate calorimeter (ARC).
Consequently, there is a need to provide a method for producing a β-nitrostyrene compound at a high yield by the reaction of nitromethane and benzaldehyde in the temperature range which is regarded as safe from an industrial point of view.    Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 09-194457    Patent Document 2: Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 11-71348    Patent Document 3: Japanese Patent National Publication No. 2001-510827    Patent Document 4: Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2002-241364    Non-Patent Document 1: J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2005, 127, 119-125

Method for producing β-nitrostyrene compound

Abstract: and nitromethane are condensed in an acetic acid solvent in the presence of a primary amine. This method allows production of a β-nitrostyrene compound at a high yield in the industrially-safe reaction temperature range.


A signal routing apparatus is designed for setting a signal route among a plurality of components of a signal processing system by means of graphic user interface. In the signal processing apparatus, a display part displays a plurality of components each having at least one terminal for connection. An operator part is operated to select at least one terminal of one component on the display part and to input an instruction for connection. A detection part responds to the instruction for detecting at least one terminal of another component, which can be connectable to the selected terminal. A connection part automatically connects the selected terminal of one component and the detected terminal of another component with one another so that a line is drawn on the display part between the selected terminal and the detected terminal, thereby setting the signal route among the components in the form of lines drawn between the terminals of the components on the display part.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a signal routing apparatus and a signal routing program that are adapted to set signal routes among a plurality of displayed components by interconnecting the same.
2. Related Art
Software programs are known in which a plurality of functional circuits are displayed in blocks on display means and these blocks are interconnected with lines, thereby setting logical signal communications routes between the functional circuits. This software is executed on computer to provide a signal routing apparatus. In this signal routing apparatus, one block (namely, one functional circuit) displayed on display means has a plurality of input terminals and output terminals and, by use of a cursor as a pointer, an input terminal and an output terminal to be interconnected are selected one by one to interconnect the selected input terminal and output terminal, thereby providing logical signal routing.

Signal routing apparatus and signal routing program


A method for creating rules for recognizing anomalies in a data stream of data packets. The method includes: providing a reference time signal having successive reference points in time; for at least two data portions from one or multiple data packets determined by a selected data packet type in a data stream section, ascertaining a time series of successive values of the relevant data portion, the values of the time series corresponding to the values of the relevant data portion or being a function of these values, the values of the relevant data portion each being assigned to a respective reference point in time of the respective reference points in time; carrying out a correlation method in order to ascertain, in each case, one correlation value for at least two different time series; creating a rule for the rule-based anomaly recognition method as a function of the ascertained correlation values.

In systems having multiple control units, data may be exchanged between the control units via a network such as, for example, a serial field bus. One example of such a field bus is the CAN bus (CAN: Controller Area Network). The CAN bus is used predominantly in motor vehicles and enables a per-packet data transmission from one control unit to one or multiple other connected control units.
During the transmission of data via the serial field bus, deviations from a normal behavior, referred to as anomaly, may occur during real operation. Causes for such deviations may be defective or failed subsystems or control units, which supply erroneous data or no data at all. Systems may also be manipulated by an external source, data packets transmitted via the field bus being manipulated or new data packets being introduced. In a properly operating system, data packets are transmitted error-free between control units that are connected to one another via the bus system, as a rule, the data packets in general being interdependent as a result of specific correlations, both stationary and well as chronological.
For the operational reliability of vehicle systems, it is essential to recognize anomalies early, in particular, anomalies that occur externally in connection with a manipulation of the vehicle system. For such purpose, the data communication is monitored using an anomaly recognition method.
Modern anomaly recognition methods are often rule-based. Rules correspond to definitions for events that may represent a potential anomalous behavior, and are made up of a list of queries, checks and inferences, on the basis of which data portions, data packets or groups of data packets of the data stream transmitted via the field bus are checked. In the process, these rules are manually derived from a communication matrix, so that the design of the rule system may not be generalized and must be constructed separately for each vehicle type. Rules based on the communication matrix are created as a rule corresponding to the matrix specification, i.e. based on the frequency with which the information is provided or based on the type of the transmitted information. In rules established in this way, physical connections between the transmitted pieces of information are not taken into account or are not detected.

Method for the automated creation of rules for a rule-based anomaly recognition in a data stream


A disc cartridge has an optical disc (13), first and second halves (15), (16) and a slide shutter (14), in which the slide shutter (14) is removably supported between the first and second halves (15) and (16), whereby it is possible to prevent erroneous opening and closing operations by making it difficult for a user""s hand to touch as well as to prevent a loss of an information record by such an arrangement which is difficult for minute trash and dust to intrude.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a disc cartridge which rotatably accommodates in a cartridge housing a disc shaped storage media such as an optical disc, a magnetic disc, a magneto-optical disc and the like capable of recording (writing) and/or reproducing (reading) an information signal such as audio information, video information or computer data information and the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, as a disc cartridge which rotatably accommodates in a disc cartridge housing a disc shaped storage medium such as a magneto-optical disc or the like, for example, what is shown in FIG. 16 has been generally known. A cartridge disc 1 is one so called an MD (mini-disc) with a disc shaped storage medium of 64 mm in diameter being built therein. Of the MD1, there are a reproduction only MD and a recording and/or reproducing MD. The recording and/or reproducing MD is comprised of a cartridge housing 2 and a magneto-optical disc 3 while the reproducing only MD is comprised of a cartridge housing and an optical disc.
FIG. 16 is a perspective view of the MD1 seen from a reverse side and the cartridge housing 2 thereof comprises upper and lower halves 2a and 2b which are superposed each other and the magneto-optical disc 3 is rotatably accommodated in a disk accommodation room which is formed in both the upper and lower halves 2a and 2b. The upper and lower halves 2a and 2b are made square shaped when seen from the front and nearly at the central portion of its one side are respectively provided opening windows 4 penetrating in an up to down direction. These opening windows 4 are extended to nearly a central portion of the cartridge housing 2 and are made capable of being opened and closed by a slide shutter 5.
The slide shutter 5 is U-shaped in cross-section comprising an upper shutter tab 5a for closing the opening window 4 provided in the upper half 2a, a lower shutter piece for closing the opening window provided in the lower half 2b and a side piece 5b for connecting both the shutter pieces. Then, the cartridge housing 2 is provided with a lock mechanism for locking the slide shutter 5 when the opening window 4 is in a state of being closed. Also, nearly at a central portion of the lower half 2b is provided a central hole 6 for exposing a hub plate 3a of the magneto-optical disk 3, with the central hole 6 being always opened.
The MD1 having such an arrangement is, with the lower half 2b in a state of facing downward, inserted into a cartridge inserting mouth of a disc recording and/or reproducing apparatus from an arrow mark direction X. Consequently, the locking by the rock mechanism is released by a manipulating pin provided in the disc recording and/or reproducing apparatus and the manipulating pin as it is, slides the slide shutter 5 in an opposite direction to the arrow mark direction X. As a result, the opening windows 4 are opened, thereby making it possible to insert an optical head of an optical pick-up device in the opening windows 4.
However, since the conventional disc cartridge has been constituted such that the cross-section U-letter shaped slide shutter 5 fits in the outside of the cartridge housing as well as the shutter piece 5a are respectively slid on the outsides of the upper and lower halves 2a and 2b to open and close the opening windows 4, clearances tend to be easily in place due to curling of the free end side of the shutter pieces 5a, thereby incurring a problem that minute trash and dust tend to easily enter into the cartridge housing 2 from the clearances. In this case, with an information storage medium with a large information capacity, the influence of the minute trash and the dust can not be negligible and when it is impossible to prevent the intrusion of the minute trash or the dust, there is a fear that the information storage surface of the disc shaped storage medium is damaged by the minute trash or the dust. When the information storage surface is damaged, it becomes impossible to read and write a normal information signal.
With the conventional disc cartridge, since the slide shutter 5 is in place which is easily touched by the hand of a user, there is a fear that the user accidentally opens the slide shutter 5. When the user accidentally opens the slide shutter 5 in this manner, the influence of the trash and dust becomes increasingly larger with the higher density of the information record and hence, there have been problems that a loss of and the damage to an information record are feared to occur by the existence of the trash and dust.
The present invention is implemented in view of such conventional problems and its object is to provide a disc cartridge which has such an arrangement to prevent erroneous opening and closing operations by making it difficult for the hand of a user to touch it as well as for the minute trash and dust to intrude thereinto, thereby making it possible to avoid the loss of the information record caused by the minute trash and dust.
According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a disc cartridge for accommodating a disc-shaped storage medium in which at least one of recording or reproducing of an information signal is carried out by a head unit of a pick-up device, which comprises a pair of halves superposed upon each other for forming a disc accommodation room for rotatably accommodating the disc-shaped storage medium, and a shutter member capable of opening and closing an opening window which is provided in at least one half out of a pair of the halves and into which a head unit can be inserted, wherein the shutter member is movably supported between the pair of the halves.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a disc cartridge, wherein a shutter supporting body for supporting a free end side of the shutter member is provided between the pair of halves.
According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a disc cartridge, wherein the shutter supporting body is an inner case which forms a disc accommodation room between the same and the half without the opening window, and the inner case is provided with an opening portion corresponding to the opening window of the half having the opening window.
According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a disc cartridge, wherein the shutter member is provided with an overlapping portion which is overlapped on a peripheral portion of at least one of the opening window or opening portion.
According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a disc cartridge, wherein the shutter member is provided with a convex portion which comes in contact with either one of the shutter supporting body or the half with the opening window as urges the shutter member against the other one of the shutter supporting body or the half with the opening portion by a reaction force from the contact portion.
According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a disc cartridge, wherein a lock mechanism for locking the shutter member at a position where the opening window is closed is provided.
In the disc cartridge of the first aspect arranged as mentioned above, since the shutter member is supported between the pair of the halves, the shutter member is made to have such an arrangement which makes it difficult for the hand of a user to touch the shutter member to prevent erroneous opening and closing operations as well as for minute trash and dust to intrude so that a loss of information records due to the minute trash and dust can be prevented.
In the disc cartridge of the second aspect, by supporting a free end side of the shutter member with the shutter supporting body provided in the half with no opening window, the free end side is prevented from flexing and the malfunction of the shutter member to come in touch with the disc-shaped storage medium can be avoided.
In the disc cartridge of the third aspect, the half with no opening window and the inner case form a sealed disc accommodation room to prevent the trash and dust from intruding and the head unit can be brought to nearly the disc-shaped storage medium by the opening portion of the inner case.
In the disc cartridge of the fourth aspect, by shielding a clearance along the whole periphery of the opening window with an overlapping portion of the shutter member, the trash and dust can be prevented from intruding into a cartridge housing as well as the disc-shaped storage medium can be prevented from being attached with the trash and the like as well as being damaged by the trash and the like.
In the disc cartridge of the fifth aspect, by pressing the shutter member with the convex portion provided in the shutter member against the opening window or the opening portion, the clearance into which the trash and dust intrude is made smaller, thereby making it possible to prevent the disc-shaped storage medium from being attached with the trash and the like as well as from being damaged by the trash and the like.
Also, in the disc cartridge of the sixth aspect, by locking the shutter member at a position where the opening window is closed, the shutter member can be prevented from being freely opened as well as from erroneous operations of opening and closing.


In a hybrid memory system that includes a host memory controller and a non-volatile memory DIMM, where the DIMM is coupled to the host memory controller by a memory bus, the DIMM includes non-volatile memory, a DIMM bus adapter, and a local memory controller, the local memory controller is configured to control memory accesses within the DIMM, the DIMM bus adapter is configured to adapt the local memory controller to the bus for memory communications with the host memory controller in accordance with a bus protocol, bus resiliency may be provided by: discovering, by the DIMM bus adapter, a memory error in the DIMM; providing, by the DIMM bus adapter to the host memory controller, an indication of an error by emulating a hardware error native to the bus protocol; and performing, by the host memory controller, one or more resiliency measures responsive to the indication of the error.

1. Field of the Invention
The field of the invention is data processing, or, more specifically, methods, apparatus, and products for providing bus resiliency in a hybrid memory system.
2. Description of Related Art
In computer systems today, main memory is an important component. Traditionally, volatile DRAM (Dynamic Random Access Memory) was utilized as main memory for computer systems. Today, non-volatile memory, such as Flash memory, is also being utilized in main memory. Rather than establishing a new bus protocol to handle the Flash memory, however, the Flash memory device is typically retrofit for installation in traditional DIMM (Dual Inline Memory Module) slots for communication over DDR (Double Data Rate) and PCIe (Peripheral Component Interconnect Express) busses. Such a bus, however, typically operates in a protocol not native to that of a memory controller on the Flash device. To retrofit the Flash device to operate on the non-native bus, the Flash device includes a bus adapter that effectively translates between the bus protocol and the format in which the Flash's memory control operates.
Bus resiliency features controlled by the hardware effecting the traditional bus protocols, however, are not utilized with the Flash memory because the Flash memory does not produce any errors native to the bus. Instead, in prior art systems, a software module administers the Flash memory, periodically determining whether errors exist in the Flash memory. In other embodiments, out-of-band hardware modules, such as SMBus (System Management Bus) modules, administer such error conditions. In either case, bus resiliency with respect to the Flash memory is inefficient.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Providing bus resiliency in a hybrid memory system

Lenovo Enterprise Solutions (Singapore) Pte. Ltd.


A regeneration control system for a vehicle comprises a regeneration control module and a disabling module. The regeneration control module selectively initiates a regeneration of a particulate matter filter of the vehicle. The disabling module selectively disables the regeneration control module based on a location of the vehicle provided by a global positioning system (GPS).

The background description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently named inventors, to the extent it is described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description that may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly nor impliedly admitted as prior art against the present disclosure.
Diesel engines typically produce torque more efficiently than gasoline engines. This increase in efficiency may be due to an increased compression ratio and/or the combustion of diesel fuel, which has a higher energy density than that of gasoline. The combustion of diesel fuel produces particulate. The particulate is filtered from exhaust by a diesel particulate filter (DPF). Other engine systems may also include a particulate matter (PM) filter. With time, the PM filter may fill with particulate and restrict the flow of the exhaust. The particulate is combusted through a process referred to as regeneration.
Regeneration may be accomplished via heat provided by, for example, combustion of the diesel fuel, a catalyst located upstream of the PM filter, and/or a heater that is associated with the PM filter. For example, fuel may be injected into the exhaust stream. One or more catalysts may be disposed in the exhaust stream and may combust the injected fuel. The combustion of the fuel by the catalysts generates heat, thereby increasing the temperature of the exhaust. The increased temperature of the exhaust combusts the particulate trapped in the PM filter.

Vehicle location based particulate matter filter regeneration


Collection of topology mapping linkage information between a Storage Area Network (“SAN”) and a transparent interconnecting transport network is at least partially automated. Physical topology information is gathered by detecting use of a physical path between a port of a first SAN device and a port of a second SAN device logically proximate to the transport network. This may be accomplished by discovering World Wide Names of end-points in a Fibre Channel SAN, and discovering Media Access Control addresses of end-points in an Ethernet SAN. The discovered physical topology information is then employed with known transport network logical topology information to determine which logical path or paths are associated with the physical path, i.e., to generate a mapping.

Improvements in network communications have enabled introduction of networked services and products that perform functions previously implemented on a relatively local basis. For example, Storage Area Networks ("SANs") provide a storage resource with similar performance to local storage such as Network Attached Storage ("NAS"). A SAN is a subnetwork of shared storage devices that may be employed relatively transparently by devices on a Local Area Network ("LAN") or Wide Area Network ("WAN"). In particular, a SAN architecture allows storage resources such as disk arrays to be shared among multiple network devices such as servers. The disk arrays may be connected to servers via switches with n:m connectivity between servers and disk arrays. One advantage of a SAN is that relatively less underutilized storage results due to an unshared architecture. Further, it is relatively easy to augment storage capacity. Further, fewer costly network servers may be required to support storage operations.
Because SANs are dependent upon the communications network in order to function properly it is desirable to consider network topology when designing, maintaining and troubleshooting a SAN in order to achieve a desired level of performance and reliability. Further, it is generally desirable to have information indicating the effect of particular potential network problems, such as fiber cuts, on SAN operation. Separate techniques for auto-discovery of SAN topology and network topology are known. However, there is no practical technique for auto-discovery of linkage between the SAN and network topologies. The linkage can be manually calculated, but manual processes are prone to human error and require recalculations following topology changes in order to maintain accurate modeling.

Automated network to SAN topology linkage


A fabrication process for a trench type power semiconductor device includes forming inside spacers over a semiconductor surface. Using the spacers as masks, trenches with gates are formed in the semiconductor body. After removing the spacers, source implants are formed in the semiconductor body along the trench edges and are then driven. Insulation caps are then formed over the trenches. Outside spacers are next formed along the sides of the caps. Using these spacers as masks, the semiconductor surface is etched and high conductivity contact regions formed. The outside spacers are then removed and source and drain contacts formed. Alternatively, the source implants are not driven. Rather, prior to outside spacer formation a second source implant is performed. The outside spacers are then formed, portions of the second source implant etched, any remaining source implant driven, and the contact regions formed. The gate electrodes are either recessed below or extend above the semiconductor surface.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to MOSFET fabrication, and more specifically, to MOSFET fabrication that uses spacers as masks.
2. Description of Related Art
Trench type power semiconductor devices such as power MOSFETs are well known. Referring to FIG. 1, a typical power MOSFET 10 includes a plurality of trenches 12 formed in semiconductor body 14. Semiconductor body 14 is usually a silicon die that includes an epitaxially grown silicon layer (epitaxial silicon layer) 16 of one conductivity (e.g. N-type) formed over a silicon substrate 18 of the same conductivity, but of higher concentration of impurities. A channel region 20 (sometimes referred to as body region) is formed in epitaxial silicon layer 16 and extends from the top surface of the semiconductor body to a first depth. Channel region 20 has a conductivity opposite to that of epitaxial layer 16 (e.g. P-type). Formed within channel region 20 are source regions 22, which have the same conductivity (e.g. N-type) as epitaxial silicon layer 16.
As is well known, trenches 12 extend to a depth below the depth of channel region 20 and include gate insulation 24, which may be formed with silicon dioxide, on at least the sidewalls of trenches 12. The bottom of each trench 12 is also insulated with silicon dioxide or the like and a gate electrode 26 is disposed within each trench 12. Gate electrodes 26 are typically composed of conductive polysilicon. As is illustrated in FIG. 1, gate electrodes 26 are recessed to a position below the top of the trenches and thereby below the top surface of the semiconductor body. However, gate electrodes 26 may also be "proud" electrodes, or in other words, extend out of trenches 12 and above the top surface of the semiconductor body.
A typical trench type power MOSFET further includes a source electrode 28, which is electrically connected to source regions 22, and a high conductivity contact region 30, which is also formed in channel region 20. High conductivity contact region 30 is highly doped with dopants of the same conductivity as channel region 20 (e.g. P-type) in order to reduce the contact resistance between source contact 28 and channel region 20. A typical trench type power MOSFET 10 further includes a drain electrode 32 in electrical contact with silicon substrate 18.
In operation, a voltage is applied to gate electrodes 26. When this voltage reaches a threshold value (VTH) a channel is formed adjacent each trench 12 in channel region 20, which formed channel has the same conductivity as that of source regions 22 and the region below channel 20 in epitaxial silicon layer 16. As a result, a current may flow between source electrode 28 and drain electrode 32 of the power MOSFET.
As is well known, the density of the current that a power MOSFET may accommodate is directly proportional to the number of formed channels per unit area. Thus, the greater the number of trenches per unit area the more current a device can handle. Because of this relationship, it is desirable to pack as many trenches as possible for a given die area. This can be accomplished by either reducing the distance between trenches and/or reducing the width of each trench. However, traditional fabrication processes can limit the amount of reduction in these dimensions. For example, traditional masking methods used during the fabrication of a power MOSFET make it difficult to reduce trench width. Similarly, traditional masking methods can lead to mask misalignments. To compensate for these potential misalignments, designers may increase the size of the various regions (e.g., the source regions and high conductivity contact regions) of the MOSFET. However, increased sizes lead to larger distances between trenches.

Trench power MOSFET fabrication using inside/outside spacers


A method of selectively treating interstitial tissue following microwave thermal therapy includes an intraurethral Foley-type catheter shaft. The catheter shaft contains a microwave antenna which is capable of generating a cylindrically symmetrical thermal pattern in tissue, within which temperatures are capable of exceeding 45.degree. C. The antenna is surrounded by means within the shaft for asymmetrically absorbing electromagnetic energy emitted by the antenna so as to concentrate thermal energy on a first side of the shaft. This asymmetrical absorption alters the thermal pattern generated by the microwave antenna, making it possible to focus microwave thermal therapy toward undesirous tissue and away from healthy tissue. The absorption means is also capable of absorbing heat from adjacent tissue by thermal conduction. Operation of the absorption means upon the conclusion of microwave thermal therapy aids in reducing edema of the treated tissues caused by the elevated temperatures of those tissues.

The present invention relates to the field of microwave thermal therapy of tissue. In particular, the present invention relates to a method of treating periurethral tissues affected by microwave thermal therapy of benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH).
The prostate gland is a complex, chestnut-shaped organ which encircles the urethra immediately below the bladder. Nearly one third of the prostate tissue anterior to the urethra consists of fibromuscular tissue that is anatomically and functionally related to the urethra and bladder. The remaining two thirds of the prostate is generally posterior to the urethra and is comprised of glandular tissue.
This relatively small organ, which is the most frequently diseased of all internal organs, is the site of a common affliction among older men: BPH (benign prostatic hyperplasia). BPH is a nonmalignant, bilateral nodular expansion of prostrate tissue in the transition zone, a periurethral region of the prostate between the fibromuscular tissue and the glandular tissue. The degree of nodular expansion within the transition zone tends to be greatest anterior and lateral to the urethra, relative to the posterior-most region of the urethra. Left untreated, BPH causes obstruction of the urethra which usually results in increased urinary frequency, urgency, incontinence, nocturia and slow or interrupted urinary stream. BPH may also result in more severe complications, such as urinary tract infection, acute urinary retention, hydronephrosis and uraemia.
Traditionally, the most frequent treatment for BPH has been surgery (transurethral resection). Surgery, however, is often not an available method of treatment for a variety of reasons. First, due to the advanced age of many patients with BPH, other health problems, such as cardiovascular disease, can warrant against surgical intervention. Second, potential complications associated with transurethral surgery, such as hemorrhage, anesthetic complications, urinary infection, dysuria, incontinence and retrograde ejaculation, can adversely affect a patient's willingness to undergo such a procedure.
A fairly recent alternative treatment method for BPH involves microwave thermal therapy, in which microwave energy is employed to elevate the temperature of tissue surrounding the prostatic urethra above about 45.degree. C., thereby thermally damaging the tumorous tissue. Delivery of microwave energy to tumorous prostatic tissue is generally accomplished by a microwave antenna-containing applicator, which is positioned within a body cavity adjacent the prostate gland. The microwave antenna, when energized, heats adjacent tissue due to molecular excitation and generates a cylindrically symmetrical radiation pattern which encompasses and necroses the tumorous prostatic tissue. The necrosed intraprostatic tissue is subsequently resorbed by the body, thereby relieving an individual from the symptoms of BPH.
One method of microwave thermal therapy described in the art includes intrarectal insertion of a microwave antenna-containing applicator. Heat generated by the antenna's electromagnetic field is monitored by a sensor which is positioned near the prostate gland by a urethral catheter. Owing to the distance between the rectum and the tumorous prostatic tissue of the transition zone, however, healthy intervening tissue within the cylindrically symmetrical radiation pattern is also damaged in the course of the intrarectal treatment. Intrarectal microwave thermal therapy applicators are described in the following references: Eshel et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,813,429; and, A. Yerushalmi et al., Localized Deep Microwave Hyperthermia in the Treatment of poor Operative Risk Patients with Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia, 133 JOURNAL OF UROLOGY 873 (1985).
A safer and more efficacious method of treating BPH is transurethral microwave thermal therapy. This method of treatment minimizes the distance between a microwave antenna-containing applicator and the transition zone of the prostate by positioning a Foley-type catheter-bearing applicator adjacent to the prostrate gland within the urethra. Due to the close proximity of the microwave antenna to the prostate, a lesser volume of tissue is exposed to the cylindrically symmetrical radiation pattern generated by the microwave antenna, and the amount of normal tissue necrosed is reduced. Intraurethral applicators of the type described can be found in Turner et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,967,765 and Hascoet et al. European Patent Application 89403199.6.
While the close proximity of a transurethral microwave thermal therapy applicator to prostatic tissue reduces the amount of damage to healthy tissue, controlling the volume of tissue to be affected by the microwave energy field continues to be problematic. For instance, microwave antennas known in the art have tended to produce electromagnetic fields which affect a volume of tissue, beyond the desired area of treatment, which necroses healthy, normal tissue. A device for correcting the aforementioned problems is described in our co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/847,718, entitled DEVICE FOR ASYMMETRICAL THERMAL THERAPY WITH HELICAL DIPOLE MICROWAVE ANTENNA.
An unavoidable by-product of microwave thermal therapy is edema of the periurethral intraprostatic tissues due to the intensity of heat delivered to those tissues. To ensure that a patient will be able to void following microwave thermal therapy, a drain catheter is usually inserted within the urethra and allowed to remain in place for a period of time sufficient to permit healing of the treated tissues. At the end of this healing period, the edema has dissipated and the drain catheter is removed.
For maximum comfort of the patient, it would be most desirable to avoid reintroduction of a second catheter within the urethra following microwave thermal therapy. The ability to control post-therapy edema of the periurethral intraprostatic tissues would eliminate the need for a drain catheter during recovery.

Method for treating interstitial tissue associated with microwave thermal therapy


Shown is a fence post system and a coupling used in such a system for coupling the fence rails and fence posts of metal tubular fences such as those used in horse and cattle ranching operations. A clamp ring is secured about the vertical tubular metal fence post. A pair of clamping body components fit about the horizontal fence rail and are secured by top and bottom tightening bosses and tightening elements. When tightened, the assembly nearly completely circumscribes the exterior surface of the fence rail, providing near 360 degree circumferential contact. The coupling can be articulated in various ways. It can be rotated about the fence post before tightening. It can also be pivoted in a vertical plane to adjust for changes in the elevation of the fence line.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a metal tubular fencing system and to a coupling used in such a system for coupling the fence rails and fence posts of metal tubular fences of the type used in horse and cattle ranching operations.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Modern livestock fences, particularly those used for horse and cattle operations, are often formed from horizontally extending, tubular metal (galvanized steel) rails mounted on vertical tubular posts anchored to the ground. The tubular steel components are typically corrosion protected, as by powder coating, or similar techniques. This type of "tubular steel fence" is widely considered to be superior to traditional split rail and other types of fences because it is rigid and extremely durable. However, in the past, the individual rail sections of the typical steel fence were required to be welded to the vertical fence posts. This welding requirement adds considerable time and labor to building the fence because a portable welder must be employed to weld the opposite ends of each and every rail to the posts on which it is supported. The welds must then be ground to a smooth finish and painted or coated with a protective coating. The welds are subject to rust and peeling, requiring periodic maintenance for the lifetime of the fence.
More recently, a non-welded connector for steel fences has been introduced. This connector, known as the "440 Fence™" connector, is manufactured by the 440 Fence Company of Aubrey, Tex. It is described in U.S. Patent Publication No. 2008/0042116, published Feb. 21, 2008. It is also the subject matter of U.S. Design Pat. No. 495,434. The 440 Fence utilizes two stacked connectors at each joint in the fence. Each connector has a vertical section for slipping over the fence post and a generally horizontal section that receives the end of a rail section. The horizontal section is hinged to the vertical section so as to permit limited pivoting of the horizontal section relative to the vertical section in order to accommodate inclines of the fence. With these connectors, a steel fence can be built without welding, which offers the advantage of significantly reducing labor when compared to traditional steel fence construction. Post-assembly maintenance is also reduced.
However, the 440 Fence™ connector and other connectors presently available in the marketplace still suffer from various drawbacks. For instance, the 440 Fence™ connector and other presently available designs do not utilize mating clamping body pieces to join the connector to the horizontal rail. Instead, the horizontal body piece is received in a one piece tubular body member which is then secured to the horizontal rail by one or more set screws.
The set screw method has several disadvantages. When tightening the set screw, it will tend to penetrate the powder coated paint which is typically used to coat the fence rails, as well as the zinc coating that is on the outside of the tubular pipe, before eventually digging into the bare metal pipe. This can result in exposing bare metal and allow corrosion to begin. If the set screw is severely over tightened, then this can result in deforming the pipe by actually denting the pipe. The set screw design also limits the amount of surface area contact that can be used to hold the pipe, since it is relying on the diameter of the set screw on one side and the contact of the inside and outside diameters of the pipe on the other. Some of these same negative features are present when using set screws on the vertical posts, as well.
A need has therefore arisen for a fence connector or coupling of the above type which uses "clamping" components, rather than set screws to secure the fence components in place.
The use of a two component clamping assembly would allow the fence to be assembled using two different methods because the components that are used to clamp on the horizontal rail are comprised of two pieces. This would allow the fence to be assembled either with both of these pieces being put together first and the pipe inserted later or the pipe can be inserted as these two pieces are being put together. Having this capability is more important if the fence needed to be repaired after the initial installation.
The use of clamping components, rather than the described set screw mounting method is also important because, if the rail is allowed to float as where there are changes in the soil, it can cause the vertical post to shift which can result in the post pulling away from the rail to the point where it comes loose. Also, if livestock contact the rails secured with the set screw method, there is more of a possibility that the rail can flex and the connector and rail can pull loose. Using clamping components on the rail helps prevent this from happening. The strongest fence coupling would feature a pair of mirror image clamping components which allow for near 360° of clamping on both the horizontal rail and the vertical post.

Fencing system with coupler clamp assembly


The present invention relates to a suspension device for suspending objects such as a hammock, tarpaulin or any object requiring slip-free suspension from one or more load bearing members. The invention consists of a gripping belt of determinate length to fit around the load bearing member, having a buckle on the line for releasably cinching the belt around the member, a spanning belt having a closure device for selectively spanning the distance between the member and the article, a pair of belt loops or other couplers for releasably coupling the spanning belt to the gripping belt around the member at least at one tension point, and a securing device to secure the spanning belt to the article to be suspended.

There are many situations in one's backyard, while camping, or on a farm where it is desirable or necessary to suspend something above the ground. In the backyard it would be convenient to be able to set up a hammock to relax in that does not require damaging the supporting members or making complicated knots. While camping, canopies are needed over cooking areas and temporary clotheslines may be necessary to hang wet clothes. On a farm one often needs to rig up tarpauline covers for tractors or other machinery. A common difficulty in all of these scenarios is the desire or the need to suspend something above the ground. In the past, to suspend a hammock or a canopy above the ground one has had to resort to ropes and a crude knowledge of knots. This has often met with much frustration. It is time consuming to set up such temporary structures, the knots are either too loose and give way under strain, or they are too tight and can never be undone. Such wastes of time and aggravation are now a thing of the past with the suspension device of the subject invention.
This invention relates to a suspension device which can be used to suspend an object such as a hammock or the like. Hammocks are typically suspended by chains or ropes from hooks anchored in trees or posts or other such load bearing members; this creates several problems. First, if the trees, posts or boughs to which the hammock is fastened to are further apart than the length of the hammock, then chains or ropes must be used and to bring such equipment along for temporary hammock setups is cumbersome and heavy. Second, the hooks used to suspend the hammock must be securely anchored, and this often entails nailing, screwing or some other such fastening which cannot be easily or quickly removed without special tools. The use of such hooks damages the trees or posts, is time consuming to install and take down. Further it is of a semi-permanent nature and as a practice does not lend itself well to setting up hammocks during camping trips, an afternoon in the park and so on.
Some attempts have been made in the past to introduce a better hammock suspension device. U.S. Pat. No. 399,928, dated Mar. 19, 1898, granted to Pritchard for a "Hammock-Suspension Device," discloses a metal device that is cinched or bolted to the tree or post, wherein the hammock is attached to the front hook. This system has three disadvantages. First, the location that the hammock can be placed in is still limited by the length of the hammock and the space between the members that will support its suspension. Second, due to the metal construction of the "hammock-hook," the bracket that rests against the tree or post is not malleable and hence unable to accommodate very large or very small trees or posts. Third, the design of the device transfers the load in the hammock to bear directly on the hook, thus creating a significant weak point.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,030,160, dated Apr. 17, 1962, granted to Tandy for a "Hanging Table," discloses a suspension device used to suspend a table. It consists of a belt and buckle and two support arms that can hook onto the belt. If the suspension system was used to suspend hammocks it would have three disadvantages. First, the support arms would be heavy and cumbersome to carry about. Second, the set-up location of the hammock would still be limited greatly by the length of the hammock. Third, this device also transfers the load to bear directly on the hooks, thus creating a significant weak point and stressing the belt.
It is desirable to have a portable hammock suspension system that is able to support a hammock between one or more members over a wide range without the use of chains, is quick to set up, light weight and secures the hammock to the objects with little slippage, does not damage the load bearing members and is secure. The present invention relates to a hammock suspension system that meets these needs.

Suspension device for hammocks and other objects


A system and method for providing statistics gathering within a packet network is disclosed. The system comprises a network processor, a traffic manager, a host processor, and a field programmable gate array. The network processor adds a header to received multimedia packets and the traffic manager measures and enforces multimedia flow rates. The host processor performs multimedia flow quality measurement services on a per flow basis, wherein the multimedia flow quality measurement services comprise maintaining current statistics for multimedia flows within the network processor including aggregate and minimum/maximum statistics for the multimedia flow. The field programmable gate array (FPGA) copies a received multimedia packet or a portion of the received multimedia packet, wherein the copy is utilized by the FPGA to perform statistics gathering via use of a latency engine, a lost packet calculation engine, a real-time transport control protocol packet jitter engine and a real-time transport protocol packet jitter engine.

The public switched telephone network (PSTN) has evolved into an efficient real-time, multimedia communication session tool, wherein users can pick up any one of nearly one billion telephones and dial any one of nearly one billion endpoints. Several developments have enabled this automated network, such as numbering plans, distributed electronic switching and routing, and networked signaling systems.
Similar to the manner in which the PSTN is based on a hierarchy, the Internet is based on an Internet protocol (IP). IP messages, or multimedia packets, are routed or forwarded from one link to the next (i.e., from a source of a data flow to a destination of the data flow). Each multimedia packet comprises an IP address, which, in Internet protocol version 4 (IPv4), for example, has 32 bits. Each IP address also has a certain number of bits dedicated to a network portion, and a certain number of bits dedicated to a host portion. It should be noted that multimedia comprises at least, text, graphics, video, animation, voice, data, and/or discrete media.
More specifically, multimedia packets comprise a header portion and an IP packet data portion. The header portion of the multimedia packet, at a minimum, comprises at least a source portion and a destination portion, wherein the source portion identifies a source address from which the packet arrived, and the destination portion identifies a destination address to which the packet is addressed. The IP packet data portion of the multimedia packet entails the remaining portion of the multimedia packet, which comprises data that is being transmitted to a destination device located at the destination address.
As multimedia packets are transmitted, it is desirable to determine a best route to a destination device. It is also desirable to determine the best route to the destination device prior to transmission of the multimedia packets. Factors that may assist in determining a best route to a destination device include, among others, jitter, latency and/or a number of lost packets associated with devices located within a route to the destination address. If jitter, latency and/or lost packets, among other elements, are known for devices within different available routes to the destination device, a route having favorable jitter, latency and/or lost packet measurements may be selected. Therefore, the gathering these and other multimedia transmission statistics is beneficial.

System and method for providing statistics gathering within a packet network


A propeller is made up of a propelling unit having a plurality of blades, a driving unit for driving the propelling unit, and a plurality of deformable transmission units located between the propelling unit and the driving unit such that the transmission units are retained in the retaining slots of the propelling unit and the driving unit. The transmission units are tubular in shape and capable of deforming to absorb an impact force exerting on the transmission units in a direction perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the transmission units, so as to safeguard the structural integrity of the propeller at such time when the propeller in motion is impacted on by a foreign object.

The U.S. Pat. No. 4,566,855 discloses a propeller consisting of a propelling unit having a plurality of helical blades serving to propel the craft by the backward thrust of water, a driving unit driven by the engine, and a rubber sleeve located between the driving unit and the propelling unit. The connecting portions of the propelling unit, the sleeve, and the driving unit are provided respectively with a plurality of elongate projections or retaining slots enabling the output torsion of the engine to cause the propelling unit to rotate via the driving unit and the sleeve, so as to generate the backward thrust of water to propel the boat.
The elastic sleeve is capable of absorbing partially the impact force generated instantly by the helical blades upon being impacted on by a foreign object present in water, thereby mitigating the destructive effect of the impact force on the blades and the engine drive shaft.
Such a prior art propeller as described above is defective in design in that the elastic sleeve is rather expensive, and that the elastic sleeve of a high quality is hard to come by, and further that the shock-absorbing effectiveness of the elastic sleeve depends greatly on the rigidity of the sleeve. For example, if the sleeve is insufficiently rigid, the propelling unit can not be effectively actuated to rotate. On the contrary, if the sleeve is excessively rigid, the shock-absorbing capability of the sleeve is greatly undermined.
Another U.S. Pat. No. 4,826,404 discloses a propeller consisting of a propelling unit and the driving unit, which are provided respectively with a plurality of rod-shaped elastic members capable of mitigating an impact force exerting on the blades and capable of being destroyed to cause the propelling unit and the driving unit to idle, so as to protect the propeller blades and the engine driving the propeller blades. However, the destruction of the elastic members can result in the incapacitating of the boat. Moreover, the job of replacing the destroyed elastic member can not be done by an amateur without a professional assistance.

Marine propeller with tube shape shock absorbing means


A source/drain region of a transistor or amplifier is formed in a substrate layer and is connected to a voltage source. A glow blocking structure is formed at least partially around the source/drain region and is disposed between the source/drain region and an imaging array of an image sensor. A trench is formed in the substrate layer adjacent to and at least partially around the source/drain region. The glow blocking structure includes an opaque material formed in the trench and one or more layers of light absorbing material overlying the source/drain region and the opaque material.

A traditional camera system includes a camera body, lens, electronics to control the functionality of the camera, and the image-capturing media, film. In contrast, instead of using film, a digital camera usually employs an image sensor made on semiconductor substrate. Typically the image sensor is either a Charge Coupled Device (CCD) or a Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) image sensor. For illustrative purposes only, the image sensor discussed herein is an area CCD image sensor.
An area CCD image sensor consists of a number of photosensitive elements called pixels that are arranged in rows and columns to form a two-dimensional imaging array. The pixels capture light from a scene of interest and convert the incident light into charge carriers. The charge carriers are then transferred out of the imaging array using vertical CCD shift registers and one or more horizontal CCD shift registers. Each CCD shift register has at least one output structure which consists of one or more transistors, namely amplifiers, to convert the charge carriers from the pixels to voltage signals. The voltage signals are then converted to digital signals and the digital signals processed to render a digital image.
An amplifier typically consists of one or more transistors, each of which has a drain, a source and a gate. Referring to FIG. 1, there is shown a cross-section of a transistor 100 built on a semiconductor layer 102. It is noted that other types of transistors are applicable to the present invention, in which case the doping will vary according, as those skilled in the art will readily recognize. Source/drain regions 104, 106 of transistor 100 consist of n-type doping regions that are connected to contacts 108, 110.
Source/drain 106 is usually connected to a high voltage source (VS) through contact 110. The voltage applied to source/drain 106 can create a strong electric field between gate 112 and source/drain 106 that generates a near-infra-read (NIR) light. The NIR light is mainly generated along the gate-source/drain side 114 of transistor 100 and propagates in every direction as indicated by the arrows. There are two light propagation paths that can potentially impact the imaging array.
One light propagation path 116 is the path through which light passes out of transistor 100 and then bounces back into a pixel within the imaging array. Another path 120 has the light passing through and underneath surface 118 and within the semiconductor layer 102, where it propagates into the imaging array. Path 120 has another potential impact. The charge carriers 122, such as electrons (e) or holes (p) that are generated by the light as it propagates along path 120, can diffuse into the imaging array.
When the light propagating along paths 116 and 120 enters the imaging array of the image sensor, it causes the affected pixels to generate additional charge carriers. These additional charges will be superimposed on the existing charge carriers related to the captured image, thereby creating a glowing phenomenon or artifact in the captured image. The glowing artifact is usually seen in one of the corners of the imaging area that is near the location of the amplifier.
FIG. 2 is a simplified diagram of a CCD image sensor that has an amplifier at the lower-right corner in an embodiment in accordance with the prior art. When a captured image is read out of imaging array 200, charge carriers are simultaneously transferred through each vertical CCD shift register 202 on a row-by-row basis to horizontal shift register 204. The vertical transfer direction is indicated by arrow 206.
After each row is transferred to horizontal shift register 204, the charge carriers are serially transferred through horizontal shift register 204 to output amplifier 208. The horizontal transfer direction is indicated by arrow 210. The light emitting from amplifier 208 enters the pixels positioned at the lower-right corner of imaging array 200 to create an amplifier glow artifact in region 212 of imaging array 200.
Since amplifier 208 only glows when the voltage is applied to its source/drain region (e.g., region 106 in FIG. 1), one prior art solution to reduce amplifier glow is to minimize the amount of time output amplifier 208 is operational. Thus, during the image exposure period for imaging array 200, the voltage source is set to zero in order to turn off amplifier 208. This method removes the glow during the image exposure period, but amplifier 208 must be turned on during image readout. And during image readout, amplifier glow occurs and affects the images captured by image sensor 214. Therefore, the impact from amplifier glow cannot be completely removed by this prior art method.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,402,882 discloses another technique for reducing amplifier glow. Multiple opaque layers are disposed around an amplifier to form an encapsulation for the amplifier. The encapsulation prevents the NIR light, and the charges generated by the NIR light, from affecting adjacent pixels. One possible limitation to this technique is the number of opaque layers used to form the encapsulation. The multiple layers, and in particular the layer disposed over the amplifier, adds complexity to the fabrication process for the image sensor. The additional complexity increases the cost of fabricating an image sensor.

Elimination of glowing artifact in digital images captured by an image sensor


Provided is a soft magnetic powder that can produce a dust core having excellent magnetic properties. The soft magnetic powder has a chemical composition, excluding inevitable impurities, represented by a composition formula of FeaSibBcPdCueMf, where the M is at least one element selected from the group consisting of Nb, Mo, Zr, Ta, W, Hf, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, C, Al, S, O, and N, 79 at %≤a≤84.5 at %, 0 at %≤b<6 at %, 0 at %<c≤10 at %, 4 at %<d≤11 at %, 0.2 at %≤e≤0.53 at %, 0 at %≤f≤4 at %, a+b+c+d+e+f=100 at %, a particle size is 1 mm or less, and a median of circularity of particles constituting the soft magnetic powder is 0.4 or more and 1.0 or less.

A dust core produced by subjecting an insulating-coated soft magnetic powder to pressing has many advantages such as a flexible shape and excellent magnetic properties in high-frequency ranges as compared with a core material produced by laminating electrical steel sheets. Therefore, the dust core is used in various applications such as transformers, inductors, and motor cores.
To improve the performance of the dust core, it is required to further improve the magnetic properties of magnetic powders used for producing the dust core.
For example, in the technical field of electric vehicles, dust cores having better magnetic properties (low core loss and high saturation magnetic flux density) are required to improve the cruising distance per charge.
To meet such requirements, various techniques of soft magnetic powders used for producing dust cores have been proposed.
For example, JP 2010-070852 A (PTL 1) proposes an alloy composition represented by a composition formula of FeaBbSicPxCyCuz. The alloy composition has a continuous strip shape or a powder shape, and the alloy composition having a powder shape (soft magnetic powder) can be produced with, for example, an atomizing method, and has an amorphous phase as the main phase. By subjecting the soft magnetic powder to heat treatment under predetermined conditions, nanocrystals of Fe having a body centered cubic structure (bcc Fe) are precipitated, and as a result, an Fe-based nanocrystalline alloy powder is obtained.
In addition, JP 2014-138134 A (PTL 2) proposes producing a dust core using a composite magnetic powder containing a first soft magnetic powder having a rounded end surface and a second soft magnetic powder having an average particle size smaller than that of the first soft magnetic powder. Further, PTL 2 proposes controlling the average particle size and the circularity of the first soft magnetic powder and the second soft magnetic powder within specific ranges. By using a powder having a rounded shape, it is possible to prevent particle edges from breaking the coating of insulating resins and prevent the insulating performance from deteriorating. In addition, since the end portions have a rounded shape, the voids between the particles are widened, and particles having a small particle size can enter the voids to increase the density of the dust core.

Soft magnetic powder, Fe-based nanocrystalline alloy powder, magnetic component, and dust core


A collection device with double outputs and a method of using the same are provided. The collection device comprises an accommodating chamber comprising an upper chamber opening, a lower chamber opening and a chamber body therebetween; an inlet member comprising an upper inlet opening, a lower inlet opening and an inlet passage therebetween, said lower inlet opening being connected and communicated with said upper chamber opening; an outlet member comprising an outlet body, a protrusion depending from a lower surface of said outlet body, a first output positioned at a lower end of said protrusion and a second output provided at said lower surface of said outlet body, said lower chamber opening of said accommodating chamber being connected and communicated with said outlet member; a collecting section comprising a handle detachably engageable with said inlet member and a collecting stick attached to the handle, a lower portion of said collecting stick entering into said accommodating chamber through said inlet passage upon engagement of said handle with said inlet member, and a sealing assembly for sealing said first output and said second output.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is generally directed to a medical device, particularly to a collection device for fecal specimen.
2. Related Art
The analysis of feces has become a necessary item for diagnosing diseases adopted by the medical units. Except for routine examination, some other necessary chemical tests, for example fecal occult blood ("FOB") will be proceeded according to the patients' condition.
Fecal occult blood is a phenomenon which indicates gastrointestinal hemorrhage. Since a symptom of FOB usually happens when the patients suffers from peptic ulcer and colon polyp which probably transforms into gastrointestinal cancer, the detection of FOB as a physical examination has become accepted by more and more people.
The US pending patent US2009/0005705 published on Jan. 1, 2009 discloses a fecal specimen collector which consists of a top cover, a bottle body, a specimen output and a bottom cover. However, the fecal specimen is detected via only one output of the fecal specimen collector, thus, the conventional collector is generally just applicable with an operator instead of an automatic detection machine to read the detection result.

Collection device with double outputs and method of using the same


Process for the chemical treatment of lignocellulose materials, in particular of at least one piece of wood, characterized in that said materials are subjected to impregnation by a chemical agent comprising hydrocarbonaceous chains, this agent being chosen from mixed anhydrides, except for the mixed anhydride of acetic/benzoic acid, said agent being suitable for providing covalent grafting of a plurality of hydrocarbonaceous chains to said materials.

The present invention relates to a process for the treatment of lignocellulose materials, in particular wood, and to a material obtained by this process.
It is targeted more particularly at a process for protecting wood which makes it possible to confer a hydrophobic nature on it, in order to enhance its durability and its dimensional stability.
It is known that, in the natural state, wood or more specifically food fibers which are in contact with a wet atmosphere have a tendency to soak up water. This absorption of water is accompanied by swelling.
Drying can be carried out to remove this water. However, although the drying stage makes it possible to remove the water from the wood, it does not in any way modify its natural hydrophilic nature, with the result that the piece of wood is again capable of reabsorbing the water removed during the drying when this piece is again in a wet environment.
In order to reduce, indeed even eliminate, the hydrophilic nature of the wood and thus to confer on it long-term (conventionally about ten years) dimensional stability, treatment techniques have been sought.
Among these, two main families may be noted, which families are differentiated into physical processes of heat treatment (generally at temperatures of greater than 150° C.) and physicochemical treatment processes, generally at temperatures of less than 120° C.
The present invention is concerned with physicochemical treatment processes.
These physicochemical treatments include processes, known in particular from several publications, Arni et al., (Arni, 1961) ; Matsuzaki et al., which make it possible to synthesize mixed esters from a trifluoroacetic medium. These processes are not viable industrially because of the use of toxic solvent and toxic catalyst.
Additional studies carried out on wood sawdust have demonstrated that the esterification in the presence of a strong acid catalyst (adding more to the intrinsic acidity of the medium) makes it possible to confer a hydrophobic nature on this sawdust. These studies formed the subject of the following publication: Vaca-Garcia C. and Borredon M. E., 1999, Solvent-free fatty acylation of cellulose and lignocellulosic wastes. Part 2: reactions with fatty acids, Bioresource Technology, 70, 135-142.
The major disadvantages [lacuna] this process in the presence of an acid catalyst are the loss in mass of the wood sawdust, this loss in mass resulting from decomposition of the biopolymers constituting the sawdust. A change in color of the sawdust after treatment may also be observed.
A technique similar to the above cannot be applied to a piece of wood. This is because it has been found that hemicellulose molecules and cellulose are partially hydrolyzed, which results in a decrease in the molecular weight through the formation of oligomers and in a decline in the mechanical properties, and also in a deterioration in the appearance of the treated piece of wood.

Wood treated by impregnation with mixed anhydrides


With a multi-layer printed circuit bare board has 2n circuit layers, where n is a natural number exceeding a unity, electrical connections are established between the (2ixe2x88x921)-th layer and the 2i-th layer, where i=1, 2 . . . , n, by holes which are created through insulation material layers in between and filled with copper plating. Electrical connections are also accomplished between the 4i-th layer and the (4ixe2x88x923)-th layer by holes created through insulation material layers in between and filled with copper plating. Higher dimensional accuracy and fewer process steps are achieved.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a multi-layer printed circuit bare board, and more particularly to such a board which enables higher density wiring, and also a method of manufacturing the same.
2. Description of the Background Art
A further quest for higher wiring density is requested in printed circuit bare boards along with the trend of higher function and higher density interconnection of electronic equipment. Multi-layer printed circuit bare boards have been put to use in order to meet the request. Multi-layer printed circuit bare boards consist of insulating layers and conductive layers accumulated with one on the other with the terminals of electronic parts mounted on the surface of the substrate, such as the solder bumps of BGAs (ball grid arrays), connected to an intended layer through the conductive holes, or via holes, which penetrate between the layers. In order to make the wiring density higher with the multi-layer printed circuit bare boards, reducing the width of conductive wiring patterns, reducing the spacing between conductive wiring patterns, reducing the diameters of lands and via holes, and eliminating via holes, for example, would be effective.
However, with conventional multi-layer printed circuit bare boards, it is getting difficult to draw out signal lines from BGA terminals using via holes, because via holes leave less space for wiring. In order to overcome the problem, a built-up structure of multi-layer printed boards may be used which can have smaller via holes and fewer through holes than conventional multi-layer boards. Built-up multi-layer printed circuit bare boards are manufactured in a xe2x80x9cbuild-upxe2x80x9d method, with which a conductive layer is formed over another conductive layer subsequently, so that the more layers require the more process steps. For example, at least the following process steps would be needed to make built-up boards; 1) a surface treatment process to increase adhesion between resin and conductive material, 2) applying insulation material (resin) over a conductive layer, 3) cure of the resin, 4) lasering (hole-making), 5) removing resin smear, 6) electroless copper deposition, 7) electrical copper plating, 8) photo-imaging and copper-etching, and 9) cure of the resin.
Built-up multi-layer printed circuit bare boards confronted some difficulty with BGA packaging when a via hole is wanted under a solder bump foot since the via hole is not filled sufficiently so that some amount of solder is taken in the via hole leaving insufficient amount of solder for joint. This problem forced putting connection lands between the solder bump lands, which placed a limitation to higher wiring density of the printed bare boards.
Moreover, with the conventional multi-layer built-up printed circuit boards, when the surface, or first, layer is required to be connected to the fourth layer from the surface, the process includes 27 process steps, which are three times as many as the above-mentioned process steps 1)-9), which has increased the manufacturing cost of built-up multi-layer boards.
In addition, with the manufacturing process of a conventional built-up structure of multi-layer printed circuit bare boards as described above, The interconnection between the first and fourth layers requires the boards to be subject to a resin cure process up-to three times, which may generate excessive heat to cause warp in the resin, resulting in a dimensional inaccuracy.
It is an object of the present invention to give a solution to these problems, more specifically to provide a multi-layer printed circuit bare board, and a method of manufacturing the same, in which a connection is established between conductive layers with another conductive layer intervening in between with better dimensional accuracy and fewer process steps than those of conventional built-up multi-layer printed circuit bare boards.
In accordance with the present invention, a multi-layer printed circuit bare board, which has 2n circuit layers, where n is a natural number exceeding a unity, includes electrical connections established between the (2ixe2x88x921)-th layer and the 2i-th layer, where i=1, 2 . . . , n, by holes which are created through insulation material layers in between and filled with copper plating. Electrical connections are also accomplished between the 4i-th layer and the (4ixe2x88x923)-th layer by holes created through insulation material layers in between and filled with copper plating.
In accordance with the present invention, a muli-layer printed circuit bare board comprises: at least two insulative layers each having two generally flat, primary surfaces; circuit layers including electrically conductive material forming electric circuitry and carried on at least one of the primary surfaces of said insulative layers; and bonding layers of insulative material intervening between adjacent ones of said insulative layers and bonding said adjacent insulative layers with each other to accumulate said circuit layers with one above the other; at least one of said insulative layers having a first through hole open to the primary surfaces thereof and filled with electrically conductive material interconnecting the circuit layers carried thereon with each other.
In an aspect of the invention, said electrically conductive material may advantageously be of copper plating.
Further in an aspect of the invention, said first through hole may preferably have a diameter of 40 micro-meter or less.
Advantageously in accordance with the present invention, one of said insulative layers and one of said bonding layers which is bonded to said first insulative layer have a second through hole cut therethrough to extend to the primary surface of second one of said insulative layers which is bonded to said one bonding layer, said second through hole being filled with electrically conductive material interconnecting the circuit layers carried on said first and second insulative layers with each other.
In accordance with the present invention, a multi-layer printed circuit bare board comprises: 2n circuit layers having electrically conductive material forming electric circuitry, where n is a natural number exceeding a unity; n insulative layers having two primary surfaces on which (2ixe2x88x921)-th and 2i-th ones of said circuit layers are carried, where i is a natural number not exceeding n; and nxe2x88x921 bonding layers of insulative material intervening between adjacent ones of said n insulative layers and bonding said adjacent insulative layers with each other to accumulate said circuit layers with one above the other; the insulative layers between the (2ixe2x88x921)-th and 2i-th circuit layers having a first through hole open to the primary surfaces thereof and filled with electrically conductive material interconnecting the (2ixe2x88x921)-th and 2i-th circuit layers with each other.
Further in accordance with the present invention, a method of manufacturing a multi-layer printed circuit bare board comprises the steps of: preparing n sheets of insulatlve material, where n is a natural number exceeding a unity; making first holes through the sheets of insulative material for interconnecting (2ixe2x88x921)-th and 2i-th circuit layers to be respectively carried on two primary surfaces of the sheets of insulative material, where i is a natural number not exceeding n; depositing electrically conductive material inside the first holes using an electrical plating process until the holes are filled with the conductive material; forming an electrically conductive pattern of the (2ixe2x88x921)-th and 2i-th circuits on the sheet of insulative material; stacking the sheets of insulative material having the electrically conductive pattern formed one above the other and adhering adjacent ones of the sheets with each other by using bonding material; making second holes through (2ixe2x88x921)-th and (2i+1)-th circuit layers; and depositing electrically conductive material inside the second holes using an electrical plating process.

Multi-layer printed circuit bare board enabling higher density wiring and a method of manufacturing the same


Provided is a path index lookup method, i.e., an extended markup language (XML) indexing method by which a relational database can stably process a query regardless of how a user defines the query. In the path index lookup method, a regular path expression with a certain length can be processed through a single joining operation using a PathLookup table and an ExtendedEdge table. Thus, a regular path expression query, which is a core type of XML user query, can be stably and quickly processed regardless of how a user describes the query.

This application claims the priority of Korean Patent Application No. 2002-25398, filed on May 8, 2002, in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a path index lookup method, which is an extended markup language (XML) indexing method by which a relational database can stably process a query regardless of how a user expresses the query, and more particularly, to a method for processing a regular path expression with a certain length using a PathLookup table and an ExtendedEdge table using a single joining operation.
2. Description of the Related Art
The extended markup language (XML), which has been proposed as a standard language for information exchange on the Internet, is being widely used in computers and network systems (SyncML, UpnP) and also in many other industrial fields, such as, biological information (BSML, BioML), electronic commerce (ebXML, ECML), electronic data interchange (XML-EDI), geographic information and global positioning systems (GPS) (GML, NVML), multimedia (MPEG-7, IML), entertainment (MusicXML, GML), education (LMML, TML), medical care (CTDM, TDL), publication (BiblioML, DocBook), and TV broadcasting (TV-Anytime), etc.
Data written in XML is different from typical data in an existing database like a relational database or an object-oriented database in many ways; for example, XML is semi-structured. In other words, XML provides a document type definition (DTD) adequate for an application field, but has a semi-structured characteristic in that XML does not have to strictly follow the DTD.
Due to the semi-structured characteristic of XML, data expression and interchange between different data sources are flexible. XML is used as a standard language in many application fields because of the semi-structured characteristic as well as because it involves easy data expression.
Because of the semi-structured characteristic of XML, a programmer of an XML document is allowed to transform XML data deviating from a DTD in order to produce an XML document. Also, a user of the XML document can search for data without exactly knowing the structure of XML data.
A data search based on the semi-structured characteristic of an XML can be effectively used when a user does not exactly know the structure of an XML document including data to be searched. If a user searches the web for an XML document in a particular field, the user can even obtain the results of a query about the found XML documents based on partial knowledge that does not exactly reflect the schema of the particular field.
A retrieval expression, of a user, based on the semi-structured characteristic of XML data can be expressed in a regular path expression query, for example, in an XML query, XQuery. Since the XML regular path expression query does not exactly describe the structure of data corresponding to the conditions of the query in contrast with a database query based on a typical schema, a query processing system may interpret and execute queries representing the same condition differently, according to a method in which a user defines a query. Therefore, a method in which the query processing system interprets and optimizes an XML regular path expression query may greatly affect the performance of query processing.
Examples of a method of storing an XML document in a relational database include an edge method and an attribute method. The edge method has a merit in that an XML document can be stored and processed even if there is no schema data regarding the XML document. However, the edge method may cause a degradation in performance due to a self-joining operation duplicated as much as the length of a path expression for a relatively large edge table. A joining operation denotes an operation to calculate a relationship between the elements of a table and those of another table. A self-joining operation denotes an operation to calculate a relation between the elements existing within a table.
In the attribute method, entity-unit tables are produced and processed when schema data of an XML document has already been known. Thus, data can be divided and stored in many tables, providing higher performance than the edge method. However, in the attribute method, the number of tables may excessively increase depending on an XML schema, or data may be unnecessarily fragmented.
In order to overcome these problems, research on a method of determining the type and number of tables that can be divided by using a data mining method for storing an XML document with no schema, has been conducted. Since both the edge method and the attribute method are basically provided to process a path expression, the two methods require as many table-joining operations as the length of the path expression. Also, the two methods are not suitable to process a regular path expression.
The edge method includes a method of processing a regular path expression using information of the beginning and end offsets of a tag. The edge method for processing a regular path expression is ineffective if the edge method is applied to a long path expression. The query processing performance of the edge method for processing a regular path expression depends on a method in which a user defines a query.
An example of a method of indexing a path expression of XML data is an index fabric method, in which indices for various paths existing in an XML document are managed in a signal indexing structure. The indexing structure is a structure extended to support a relational database. In the index fabric method, to process a regular path expression of a particular path, the particular path must be additionally specified as a refined path in the indexing structure.
There has been proposed a table structure that serves as an index. However, when the index fabric method is adopted to index an XML path expression, the number of index tables increases, or an index table may be fragmentated. An XML data path expression processing is similar to a path expression processing performed in an object-oriented database in that the XML data path expression processing is performed in such a way to travel around a tree.

Extended markup language (XML) indexing method for processing regular path expression queries in a relational database and a data structure thereof


A mounting system for a headrest comprising at least one shaft, the system comprising a housing adapted to enclose the shaft with a radial clearance, a moving carriage capable of being moved between a blocking position and an unblocking position, and a jaw movable between an immobilization position and a release position. The jaw is adapted to apply, when it is in the immobilization position, a clamping force to the shaft in a clamping direction perpendicular to the vertical direction, so that the shaft is supported on the housing. The moving carriage comprises at least one drive slot in which a slug from the jaw is able to move.

More specifically, the invention relates to a mounting system for at least one shaft, the shaft extending in a vertical direction, the mounting system comprising                a housing adapted to enclose the shaft with a radial clearance and        a moving carriage that can be moved between a blocking position and an unblocking position,        at least a jaw movable between an immobilization position and a release position,
the jaw being driven by the moving carriage to be in the immobilization position when the moving carriage is in the unblocking position and in the release position when the moving carriage is in the blocking position, the jaw being adapted to apply, when it is in the immobilization position, a clamping force to the shaft in a clamping direction perpendicular to the vertical direction, so that the shaft is supported on the housing.
Document EP 1 602 527 describes an example of a mounting system for a headrest on a seat that includes the features mentioned above and allows the retraction of the headrest simply under gravity. In order to allow the descent of the headrest under gravity, it is necessary for the shafts to be free in their move and for the housing to thus enclose them with a radial clearance. This radial clearance lets the shafts free to vibrate inside the housing, which causes rattle and vibration sounds unpleasant to the user when the motor vehicle is moving. In order to limit these disadvantages, the mounting system detailed in document EP1 602 527 presents a clamping device for the shafts adapted to exert a force that places them in support against the housing walls.
In order to allow the user to easily adjust the height of the headrest, the force exerted by the clamping device on the shafts is limited so as to allow the shafts to slide in the vertical direction when the user exerts a force on the headrest.

Mounting system for a headrest retractable by gravity, assembly comprising such a mounting system and vehicle seat comprising such an assembly


A digital camera module includes a lens assembly, a magnetic field generator, a shell and radially magnetized magnets. The magnetic field generator has a moving direction and surrounds the lens assembly. The shell covers the lens assembly. The radially magnetized magnets are disposed separately in the moving direction and at two sides of the magnetic field generator.

The portable electronic device integrated with a digital camera is very popular at present, e.g. the cellphone with a photographing function. The portable electronic device features a small size, so it is important to manufacture the digital camera with a smaller size to be integrated with the portable electronic device. Besides, since most portable electronic devices are powered by batteries, whether the digital cameras integrated therewith are power-saving is also important.
For the digital camera, since the lens position thereof needs to be adjusted to obtain a proper focus, usually a focus adjusting module is equipped therewith. In the prior art, a DC or stepping motor is used with a transmission mechanism to adjust the position of the lens or photoactive element for focusing. However, the transmission mechanism complicates the assembly of the digital camera. Moreover, the mechanical noise will be generated since the transmission mechanism is driven by the motor.
For overcoming the above drawbacks, the magnetic force is currently used for focusing. A digital camera focusing mechanism is disclosed in Taiwan Patent No. 551,765, which changes the position of the photoactive element by the magnetic element, coil and elastic element for focusing. A current is provided in the coil to generate a magnetic field repelling the magnetic element, so that the photoactive element connected with the magnetic element moves due to the magnetic force. The elastic element enables the photoactive element to move continuously for achieving the continuous focusing. The displacement of the photoactive element is controlled by controlling the current provided in the coil.
A digital camera adjusting structure is disclosed in Japan Patent No. 2005-128405. A cylindrical structure is used to cover the lens module, and a yoke, magnet and coil are disposed on the cylindrical structure to surround the lens module. The lens module moves by means of the magnetic force generated by the magnet and coil for focusing.
Please refer to FIG. 1, which is an exploded view of the digital camera module in the prior art. A coil 111 is wrapped around a lens module 222. The coil 111 and the lens module 222 are placed in a holder 333, and a plurality of magnets 4 are disposed around the holder 333. The lens module 222 moves by means of the interaction between the magnetic force generated by the magnets 4 and that generated by the coil 111 after being electrified, thereby changing the position of the lens module 222 and thus the distance between the lens module 222 and the photoactive element for focusing.
Currently, the magnet or magnetic element must be disposed outside of the lens, which will increase the volume of the digital camera. Furthermore, since the current magnet or magnetic element is disposed around the coil, the direction of the magnetic line generated by the magnet or magnetic element is not perpendicular to that generated by the coil. Therefore, a larger current is required for the coil to generate a larger magnetic field for moving the lens or photoactive element. This will consume more electric power, which is unfavorable for the portable electronic device.
In order to overcome the drawbacks in the prior art, an improved digital camera module is provided. The particular design in the present invention not only solves the problems described above, but also is easy to be implemented. Thus, the present invention has the utility for the industry.

Digital camera module with lens moveable via radially magnetized magnets