A new process is disclosed for the synthesis of fluconazole monohydrate and for crystal modifications of fluconazole which comprises the step of                hydrolyzing a silyl ether of the formula (II)

The British patent Number of 2 078 719 A describes very effective fungicide compounds, which have substantial plant growth regulating effect as well. The above compounds are illustrated by formula (A)
wherein the meaning of R is alkyl, cycloalkyl, aryl or aralkyl group, or the derivatives of these containing one or two halogen atoms or alkoxy, phenyl, phenoxy or trifluoromethyl substituted aryl and benzyl groups and Y1 and Y2 independently are —N═ or —CH═ group.
According to the British Patent Number of 2 099 818 A the compound 2-(2,4-difluorophenyl)-1,3-bis(1,2,4-triazole-1-yl)-propane-2-ol belonging to the above group (further on fluconazole) can be used as human fungicide too. Fluconazole is among others the active ingredient of Diflucan, which is a very effective human fungicide drug on the market.
According to the British Patent Number of 2 078 719 A propane-2-ol derivatives of formula (A) are synthesized by reacting a Grignard compound of formula R—Mg-Halogen—wherein the meaning of R is as defined above—with dichloroacetone. The so formed 1,3-dichloropropane-2-ol derivative of formula (VI)
is reacted with excess imidazole or triazole salt, for example sodium salt in protic or aprotic media (for example in dimethylformamide). The reaction can be carried out with epoxy derivatives as well, which are in situ formed from the dihalogen compound in the presence of a base by elimination of hydrogen chloride. The desired compounds can also be synthesized by reacting the appropriate 1,3-bisimidazolyl, or 1,3-bis(1,2,4-triazole-1-yl)-acetone with a Grignard compound of formula R—Mg-Halogen. According to an other synthetic pathway compounds of formula (VII)—wherein the meaning of R and Y1 is as defined above
are converted into compounds of formula (IV), containing an R substituent instead of R1, with dimethyl oxosulfonium methylide,
and these are reacted with imidazole or triazole sodium salt similarly to the above-mentioned process. The starting materials are prepared according to known procedures.
The process for the synthesis of the active substance of fluconazole described in the British Patent Number of 2 099 818 A uses the compounds of formula (VI) and (IV), which contain R substituent instead of R1, as starting materials, but a base and triazole are used as reagents instead of sodium triazolate.
The common feature of procedures of both patents is that the isolation of reaction products is carried out by extraction after dilution of the reaction mixture with water, followed by purification with column chromatography or vacuum distillation or other methods. The yield of the obtained product is 30–50%.
According to the Spanish Patent Number ES 549 020 A1 1 mole of 1,3-dichloroacetone is reacted with 2 mole of 1,2,4-triazole, then the 1,3-bis(1,2,4-triazole-1-yl)-propan-2-on obtained with low yield is reacted with 2,4-difluorophenylmagnesium bromide to give fluconazole. The yield is about 45% calculated on the Grignard reagent.
The common feature of the procedures described in the Spanish Patents Number of ES 549 021 A1, ES 549 022 A1 and ES 549 684 A1 is, that one or both triazolyl groups of fluconazole are introduced into the molecule with (1,2,4-triazole-1-yl)-methylmagnesium halogenide. According to the descriptions the yields are about 45–55%. The Grignard reagents containing triazolyl groups are known to be unstable, or sometimes inactive, therefor they react with low yield. During the reproduction of the procedures described in these patents the yield was always below 10%.
The Spanish Patent Number of ES 2 026 416 describes a better procedure, than the above mentioned ones. According to this 1-(1,2,4-triazole-1-yl)-2-(2,4-difluorophenyl)-3-halogen-propan-2-ol is reacted with 4-amino-1,2,4-triazole, and the obtained 1-(1,2,4-triazole-1-yl)-2-(2,4-difluorophenyl)-3-(4-amino-1,2,4-triazole-1-yl)-propan-2-ol is diazotized and the so formed diazonium salt is hydrolyzed to remove the amino group. The given yields are 78% for the first step and 85% for the second step. This process has several disadvantages from industrial point of view. The first one is, that the 3-halogen-propan-2-ol derivative used as starting material is synthesized from an epoxy derivative of formula (IV) by refluxing in a corrosive hydrogen halogenide medium. Further disadvantage is, that 4-amino-1,2,4-triazole used as reagent can only be bought as fine chemicals. The diazotation reaction and the hydrolysis of the diazonium salt on industrial scale are very dangerous procedures. Finally the combined yield of the multistep process is only 42–43%.
In the December issue of 1995 of the Journal of Ph. Sciences (Vol. 84, No. 12.) the crystal forms I and II of fluconazole, as well as the X-ray powder diffraction and Raman spectra of different crystal modifications are described without the process of their synthesis.
The Patent Number of GB 2270521 describes the synthesis of fluconazole monohydrate from anhydrous fluconazole. According to the X-ray powder diffraction data the anhydrous fluconazole, used as starting material, is identical with the crystal modification II. In this description the Patent Number of U.S. Pat. No. 4,404,219 is referred to for the synthesis of this crystal modification, but in that there is no reference for the crystal modification of the product.

Process for preparing monohydrate and crystal modifications of fluconazole

Abstract: wherein                    R2 is hydrogen, or a C1 to C10 alkyl or phenyl group, R3 and R4 independently of each other are a C1 to C10 alkyl or phenyl group in an aqueous solution, preferably at a pH below 3 or above 8.


A transmitting apparatus, a receiving apparatus and a method of controlling these apparatus are provided. The transmitting apparatus includes: a frame generator configured to generate a plurality of frames which include one or more kinds of data; a preamble symbol inserter configured to insert at least one preamble symbol in each of the plurality of frames, and insert, in a preamble symbol of a frame, location information about at least one frame, among the plurality of frames, which includes a same kind of data as a kind of data included in the frame; and a transmitter configured to transmit the plurality of frames in each of which the preamble symbol is inserted.

1. Field
Apparatuses and methods consistent with exemplary embodiments relate to a transmitting apparatus, receiving apparatus, and control methods thereof, and more particularly, a transmitting apparatus and a receiving apparatus which uses an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) method, and control methods thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, broadcasting communication service tends to be multifunctional and high quality, and use a broadband. With development of electronic technology, not only high-definition (HD) digital televisions (TVs) but also portable broadcasting apparatuses such as high-end smart phones have been increasingly spread, and thus, demands on various broadcasting receiving methods or supports for these services have grown.
As one example to meet the demands, broadcasting communication standards such as digital video broadcasting the second generation European terrestrial (DVB-T2) have been developed. DVB-T2 is the second generation terrestrial digital broadcasting standard which has been currently employed in 35 countries or more in the whole world including Europe. DVB-T2 realizes increase in transmission capacity and high bandwidth efficiency by applying the latest technology such as a low density parity check (LDPC) coding method, a 256 quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) method, and the like, and thus DVB-T2 may provide various services of high quality even in a fringe area where reception of broadcasting services are very limited.
For broadcasting, a stream including various kinds of data may be transmitted. For example, a transmitter may transmit a stream including data which supports a fixed terminal or data which supports a mobile terminal. Accordingly, a receiving apparatus is required to process only those data that can be processed and supported at the receiving apparatus. Also, the transmitter is required to include information regarding the data which the receiving apparatus is able to process and support in the stream and then, transmit the stream.

Transmitting apparatus, receiving apparatus and control methods thereof


A method of operating a message system can include maintaining a list of users of the message system and maintaining a connection list and a message stream for each user of the message system. After receiving a message from a first user of the message system, the received message can be published on the message stream of the first user and on the message streams of the users identified in the first user's connection list. If the received message is detected to be a reply to an earlier message from a second user, then the earlier message can be published on the message streams of the users identified in the first user's connection list, who are not in the second user's connection list.

This invention relates to a message system, and to a method of operating a message system.
The publication of information by private individuals using the Internet is now increasingly common. One example of such a publication is known as a biog. A blog is a website, usually maintained by an individual, with regular entries of commentary and descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed reverse-chronological order. Many blogs provide commentary on a particular topic, while others function as personal online diaries. A typical blog may combine text, images, and links to other web pages. Micro-blogging is a type of blogging, which consists of Hogs with very short posts.
An example of such a micro-blogging service is Twitter http://twitter.com), which is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows its users to send and read other users' updates (otherwise known as tweets), which are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length. Updates are displayed on the user's profile page and delivered to other users who have signed up to receive them. Twitter and other similar variants allow users to build up a list of other users of whom they would like to keep track. Occasionally, one of a users connected "friends" may reply to another user who is not in the user's list of friends, thus leaving some conversations out of the reach of the user without further research.

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION


A monitoring device and a method for monitoring at least two resources at a node in a cluster system are provided. A priority is allocated to each of the at least two resources. In the monitoring device and in the method, one of the at least two resources to be monitored is selected on the basis of the associated priority, and a monitoring detector which is required for the monitoring is selected for the resource. Furthermore, the monitoring detector is run, and the monitoring of the resource is performed once by the monitoring detector. The result of the monitoring performed by the monitoring detector is signaled. Selection via the associated priority and the single monitoring save computation time at the node. The monitoring detector can be a dynamic library.

Cluster systems having a plurality of nodes within the cluster, which are formed from individual computers, are often used for software which is intended to have a high availability. For this purpose, the cluster system has monitoring and control software, which is also referred to as a reliant management service RMS, and which monitors high-availability software running on the cluster. The high-availability software itself runs at a node in a cluster or is distributed between different nodes. In general, the monitoring software RMS may also be distributed among different nodes, i.e., it may be decentralized.
If error-free running of the high-availability software or of a part of it is no longer ensured at one node in the cluster, then the monitoring software RMS ends the application or the appropriate part of it and restarts it at a different node. The monitoring of the high-availability application or of a part of the high-availability application is performed by so-called monitoring detectors controlled by the RMS. These detectors each monitor a specific part of the application, which is referred to as a resource, and signal (indicate) the status of the resource back to the monitoring software RMS.
One example of this can be seen in FIG. 6, which shows a node C, which is part of a cluster system. The node C contains the reliant management system RMS as monitoring software. Furthermore, the high-availability application APL is run at the node C, and itself interchanges data with a memory management system M1 via the link N1. The monitoring software RMS starts the individual monitoring detectors D1, D2 and D3 in order to monitor the application APL. Each of these detectors is specifically designed for monitoring one specific resource of the high-availability software APL. For example, the detector D3 monitors the communication link N1 between the application APL and the file management system M1. Another detector D2 checks the high-availability application APL on the basis of continuously checking whether it is still running, and sends back reports. The third detector D1 checks, for example, available temporary memory which is required for the high-availability application APL.
The monitor RMS uses the continuous status messages from the individual monitoring detectors to take suitable measures in the event of failure of individual resources that are being monitored by the monitoring detectors, or in the event of other problems occurring. For example, it can end the high-availability software, and can start again at a second node, which is not illustrated.
The individual monitoring detectors are started independently of one another by the monitoring software RMS. However, this leads to a high system load on the node, since the individual detectors consume memory space and computation capacity in a corresponding manner. In the worst case, a poor configuration or a very large number of monitored resources within one node can result in the monitoring detectors consuming the majority of the available computation capacity. Too little capacity is then available for the actual application. Furthermore, the monitoring software receives status messages from monitoring detectors whose actual running and monitoring of the resource are not required at the present time. Processing of all the status messages that are fed back likewise increases the computation time and unnecessarily loads the monitoring software.

Device and method for controlling and monitoring of monitoring detectors in a node in a cluster system


In a charge-pump booster circuit, the control clock is controlled on a small-step basis to thereby suppress the boost amplitude and the occurrence of various noises. Provided are a charge-pump booster circuit section for boosting an external power voltage in absolute value level, a boost-voltage feedback section for controlling the booster circuit section, and a clock buffer section. In the boost-voltage feedback section, an output level of the booster circuit section is detected by a voltage detecting section. This is compared with a reference level, and depending upon the comparison result, a count operation is made in an up/down counter section. Based on the count value, the control amount is shifted on a small-step basis from the D/A converter section, thereby controlling the power voltage of the clock buffer section 300 through the level shifter section.

1. Technical Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a voltage-change control circuit and electronic apparatus (e.g. camera) including such a voltage-change control circuit.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, there is known a charge-pump booster circuit used in generating a write/erase voltage to/from a flash memory, for example, or on a high-voltage generating circuit for a liquid-crystal display on a video camera, digital camera or the like.
The charge-pump booster circuit has a series connection of a plurality of stages of pumping packets, each configured by one capacitor and diode, to generate a voltage higher than, e.g., a power voltage VDD of an LSI chip by boosting the voltage in each pumping packet (note that boosting in this case means a boosting in absolute value level, i.e. positively boosting for a positive polarity of power voltage, and negatively boosting for a negative polarity of power voltage).
In addition, the charge-pump booster circuit encounters a noise problem (pumping noise) which occurs when driving a clock buffer for a pumping clock or a pumping capacitor during a pumping operation.
For this reason, the pumping noise of a booster circuit has an effect upon the analog signal of an imaging device, for example. Thus, there is a concern with respect to image noise appearing over an imaging screen or a variation in write distribution under the influence of pumping noise during writing a flash memory or the like.
FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing the general configuration example of a booster circuit. As shown in the figure, the booster circuit has a charge-pump booster circuit section 10 configured by capacitors C1–C4 and diodes D1–D5 and a clock buffer section 20 configured by a plurality of inverter-type buffer amplifiers I1–I5. Note that, in each inverter-type buffer amplifier I1–I5, VDD represents a power-sided voltage while VSS represents a ground-sided voltage.
In the booster circuit thus configured, when a clock signal is inputted, e.g. to the capacitor C1, the voltage at a node ND1 is boosted in an amount of voltage VDD (ideal value) by the capacitance coupling of the capacitor C1.
The voltage (V1) at ND1 at that time, if ideally considered, is:V1=VDD+αwhere α is the initial potential at the node ND1.
Herein, the initial potential a differs, between the nodes ND1–ND4, depending upon the threshold voltage change, the initial state or the like of the diodes D1–D4. However, the boost voltage is common to VDD.
The VDD provides a change amount of boost voltage, which varies at a step VDD before a desired boost voltage is reached.
Incidentally, in the foregoing explanation relates to boosting up the positive polarity of voltage. However, when boosting down a negative polarity of voltage in absolute value level, the voltage at each node ND1–ND4 is boosted down by a similar clock buffer.
In the conventional booster circuit, however, when boosting up or down for the capacitor of booster circuit by the use of a clock having a VDD voltage width, a potential change of VDD step (VDD−VSS) takes place even at a point close to the desired potential. Even if controlled by a regulator, the potential will vary based on the VDD step.
Meanwhile, driving the capacitor and clock buffer section on the VDD voltage causes useless power, having an effect as a great noise source.
Furthermore, boost voltage cannot be controlled without using a potential change of VDD width=VDD step.
Accordingly, it is desired to control voltage on a small step basis to thereby suppress boost-voltage variation, and further to reduce the noise upon boosting up or down for the capacitor as well as the noise due to the clock buffer.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a voltage-change control circuit and method capable of controlling, on a small-step basis, the control clock on the booster circuit, thereby suppressing the occurrence of various noises.

Voltage-change control circuit and method


The present invention discloses an IDE control device suitable for any clock frequency specification. The circuit configuration of the device comprises: a phase-locked loop for receiving clock signals generated from a clock generator and thereby generating a plurality of requested clock signals; and an IDE controller, comprising: a selection module for selecting suitable clock signals and switching active hard discs, and an interface module for generating signals to be transmitted; wherein the selection module is connected to the phase-locked loop and selects clock signals suitable for various hard discs, and then the interface module generates corresponding signals to be transmitted through an IDE bus to access a corresponding hard disc.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to an integrated device electronics (IDE) control device and, more particularly, to an IDE control device suitable for any clock frequency specification, which is characterized in that an IDE controller comprises a phase-locked loop and a selection module so as to generate and select clock signals suitable for various hard discs such that the data transmission rate is enhanced.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In recent years, with the high development in information-related industries, people have increasing needs for a higher operation speed as well as a higher data transmission rate of information products. In view of this, the industries have made lots of efforts and continuously proposed various specifications for new products. For example, various specifications for hard discs such as ATA (advanced technology attachment), ATA33, ATA66, ATA100 and ATA133 have been disclosed. The data transmission rate of a hard disc increases whenever a new specification is proposed.
Even though most of the new specifications can be used for the old products, they may, however, adversely affect the performance. Please refer to FIG. 1, which is a block diagram of the conventional IDE control device. As shown in the figure, the main control chip 14 (for example, a south bridge chip) comprises an IDE controller 16 that is connected to and controls a first hard disc 18 and a second hard disc 19 through an IDE bus 17. Furthermore, a clock signal generator 12 is included to generate clock signals, by which the IDE controller 16 generates a transmission signal. The generated clock signals may vary in frequency according to various specifications for the motherboard, for example, 100 MHz for PC100 and 133 MHz for PC133. More particularly, for PC100, even though the frequency of the clock signal is 100 MHz, an ATA133 hard disc with higher data transmission rate cannot bring its performance into full play. On the contrary, a PC133 motherboard providing an external clock frequency of 133 MHz can perfectly match an ATA133 hard disc to achieve an enhanced data transmission rate. However, when a PC133 motherboard is used together with an ATA100 hard disc that transmits a word in 17 to 20 ns (equivalently, 2 clock cycles for PC100), it can only achieve the performance of a clock frequency of 89 MHz since it takes 3 clock cycles (where each clock cycle for PC133 is 7.5 ns) to transmit a word.
Therefore, there is need in providing an IDE control device suitable for any clock frequency specification in view of the above problems such that various products with different specifications can be compatible.

IDE control device suitable for supplying a plurality of requested clock signals to various hard discs


A time measurement device useful with laser range cameras and time-of-flight measuring methods includes a light transmitter responsive to start and stop signals for transmitting the light during a time interval to be measured, and a light receiver for receiving the light and for providing an output signal related to an exposure of the light during the time interval time between start and stop signals to the transmitter The output signal thus providing a measurement of the time between the start and the stop signals. The transmitter includes a light emitting diode to which an electrical current is provided for generating a constant output light source for the transmitter. The light receiver includes charged coupled devices (CCD) having a linear response to an amount of exposure to the light received from the light transmitter. As a result, the CCD provides the output signal in a linear relationship to the amount of exposure to the light, and thus a measurement of the time interval.

Laser radar (LADAR) is a rapidly evolving photonic technology with significance for both military and commercial users. Laser radar is still in its infancy with considerable R&D resources being directed at the technology. LADAR commands this interest due to the significant performance benefits it offers such as greater spatial and range resolution when compared to conventional radar and sonar. The extension of LADAR technology to provide imaging in addition to range information rather than an either/or situation has opened a host of new applications. Imaging laser radars have already found applications in both government defense and commercial business areas. There are several companies that offer commercial products that use range imaging for a variety of applications. These products will be briefly discussed since they demonstrate the usefulness of range imaging systems and simultaneously show the limitations of existing range imaging systems.
The first product to be discussed is LASAR from Perceptron Corp. in Farmington Hills, Mich. the LASAR camera dramatically expands the potential of machine vision by providing both a 3-D range image and the normal 2-D intensity image of surfaces, objects and scenes. An example of its capability is illustrated with reference to FIGS. 1a and 1b, which were taken from Perceptron's LASAR product brochure. The vase of flowers is barely discernible in the 2-D intensity image of FIG. 1a; but in the 3-D image of FIG. 1b, the vase of flowers is clearly visible. The 3-D information is displayed on 2-D displays by a variety of techniques. One technique is to display the range of each pixel as a color, and the result is called a "false color" image illustrated in FIG. 2. Another is to only display pixels that have range values between a minimum and maximum "gate" while all others are displayed black. This "range gate" method is used to produce the display shown in FIG. 3. The LASAR camera is a time-of-flight, CW (tone), amplitude modulated laser radar, which is sequentially raster-scanned over the scene within the camera's field-of-view (FOV), making a range measurement at each pixel location. The typical time to produce an image like the one shown in FIG. 1b is three to seven seconds. This product requires an accurate two-axis scanning (beam-steering) system. Since the LASAR is intended for robotic vision in factory automation applications that are typically short-ranged situations, the optical components are small, and two-axis scanning is much less of a problem as compared to long-range applications where larger optical components would be required;. The larger optical components would have greater inertia and force the two-axis scanning system to be larger and slower, making frame times even longer. The round trip time of the laser light, from the laser to the target and back to the receiver, is not a factor for the LASAR application; but in longer range applications, it could be the limiting factor in the frame rate.
The next range imaging product to be discussed is produced by Schwartz Electro-Optics, Inc. (SEO), and is called Treesense, and has been described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,275,423 to Wangler, et al. Treesense is a sensor used in the agricultural industry for controlling the spray pattern of large spray machines. The Treesense is a pulsed, time-of-flight range measuring system which has separate transmit and receive apertures that are continuously scanned in a vertical plane by a rotating mirror. This vertical scan plane is perpendicular to the axis of the forward motion of the spray vehicle. The position of the mirror, and correspondingly the laser beam, is determined by a shaft encoder attached to the motor driving the mirror. The sensor detects the presence and profiles of trees within a 90.degree. sector on each side of the spray vehicle. The presence or absence of foliage in the various angular zones is used to control the spray nozzles for each of the appropriate zones. This type of arrangement is identical to the military "push-broom" sensors. A "false color" image from the Treesense is shown in FIG. 2 (note that the axis in the direction of the tree row is obtained by a "distancetraveled" sensor mounted on a wheel of the spray vehicle). In the false color image, range is represented by the various colors. The laser in the Treesense is pulsed at 90 kHz when the mirror rotates at 40 rev/sec. Each revolution produces one scan on the left side of the spray vehicle and one scan on the right side. The Treesense is a special type of range camera that has only a one-axis scanner and uses the vehicle's forward motion to obtain the second axis of the frame.
The two Laser Radar Imaging systems cited above are special situations that, by their particular application, minimize many of the problems of more general laser radar imaging systems which will be described with reference to FIG. 3. The normal video (TV) system stares at the scene and receives all the energy backscattered from the scene that is in the receiver's FOV. The video system is fairly simple in that the receiver can be a small Charge Coupled Device (CCD) array and the system is passive. This means that the source of illumination is the solar background illumination, so there is no need for a laser transmitter. The CCD array comprises many photodiodes in a two-dimensional array that is located in the focal plane of the camera's lens, such that each of the elements in the array has a small FOV (beamlet), and the sum of all element FOVs makes up the overall camera FOV. The video system gives excellent x-axis and y-axis resolution, but there is no z-axis resolution since the CCD element integrates all the power coming from the scene that is contained within that element's beamlet. The power in the element FOV is integrated over a time which starts just after the element is read on one frame until the time it is read on the next frame. The major problems with normal TV systems are that they do not work in complete darkness and they have no resolution in the z-axis. Night-time operation requirements led to related technology areas, which are low light video (L.sup.2 V) or Image Intensified video (I.sup.2 V) and Forward Looking Infra Red (FLIR) systems. The I.sup.2 V systems are the night vision devices used by government facilities around the world. Night goggles and night vision sights are also used by civil law enforcement agencies of many countries. The use of FLIR systems is much more limited due to high cost and technical sophistication. The I.sup.2 V system is essentially a CCD camera with a photon amplifier situated in the focal plane of the camera's lens which maps the scene from the focal plane to the CCD. Night vision devices normally cannot work in daylight because the brighter scene illumination is many orders of magnitude greater than the illumination at night and this high input level causes damage to the image intensifier.
The FLIR system senses "black body" radiation coming from the scene. Every object at a temperature above 0.degree.K., or -273.degree. C., emits black body radiation. This black body radiation is electromagnetic radiation, the same as normal light, laser, radio or microwave radiation, and all are governed by the same physical laws. A difference between a normal video system and a FLIR system is the wavelength region at which its detector is sensitive. When considering spectral irradiance from an object at temperatures between 0.degree. C. and 100.degree. C., it is observed that the power at .lambda.=10 .mu.m is approximately three orders of magnitude greater than at .lambda.=2 .mu.m. This is a reason why most FLIR systems operate in the wavelength region around 10 .mu.m. This causes a major problem in the detector area since the energy of a photon at 10 .mu.m is only 0.124 a electron volts. The photo detectors used in the visual region of the spectrum are normally semiconductors. Silicon is used in the CCD devices. Silicon has an energy gap of 1.106 electron volts between the valence band electrons and the conduction band electrons in the material. A photon entering a silicon detector imparts its energy to an electron and causes the electron to move from the valence band to the conduction band. The energy of a photon is related to its wavelength by e.sub.p =1.24/.lambda.(.mu.) in electron volts. The exchange of energy between a valence band electron is an all-or-nothing exchange and is not cumulative. The energy gaps for germanium and silicon semiconductors are 0.67 and 1.106 electron volts respectively. Silicon photo detectors have a peak response at .lambda.=0.8 .mu.m, and at 1.04 .mu.m the quantum efficiency (ration of photons to electrons produced) is 1/3 that for .lambda.=0.8, even though the photon energy is greater than the energy gap. This means that a 10 .mu.m detector must have material with very low energy gaps between the valence and conduction bands. There are materials that meet this requirement, but the energy of thermally excited electrons also have this much energy. This means that 10 .mu.m detectors need to be cryogenically cooled. Due to many problems, initially there were no 2-D array detectors in FLIR systems. The FLIR systems either used a single element that was serially raster scanned over the entire FOV or linear arrays of detectors that were scanned in one axis. Many FLIR systems were generally made from common standardized modules. The common module receiver was a linear array of 120 elements in which each element had its own energy receiver. Therefore, a FLIR system that had 400 horizontal and 240 vertical pixels required two common FLIR receiver modules (120 pixels each) which were scanned horizontally thirty times a second in order to be compatible with normal TV monitors.
The common module FLIR system requires one axis of scanning, although there has been much effort to develop staring focal plan array FLIR systems. The advantages of the staring focal plane FLIR system are that no scanning would be required and the energy would be larger since the black body power radiated toward the FLIR could be integrated for the entire frame period rather than the frame period times. (n.sub.h).sup.-1, where n.sub.h is the number of pixels in a horizontal line.
There is a misconception that if one had an n.times.n photodetector that an n.times.n Laser Range Imaging system would be just a minor design problem. There are major differences between a passive 2-D imaging system and an active 3-D laser range imaging system. It is true that a 2-D focal plane detector is required, but such detectors have been available for some time. In fact, one such detector was featured on the cover of the March 1988 issue of Laser & Photronics Magazine by Gordon Publications, Inc., Dover, N.J. 07801-0952. This was a 464 element, silicon photodiode made by Centronics, Inc. There have been multi-element 1-D and 2-D APD arrays made by at least two vendors (Advanced Photonics, Inc. and EG&G). Advanced Photonics, Inc. (API) and SEO have worked closely on other programs, and API will produce a developmental APD array for this Project.
Again with reference to FIG. 3, if a CCD Camera was used in place of the Laser Radar, the number of pixels in X (azimuth) and Y (elevation) axis would typically be in the range of 200 to 500. The pixel element of CCD Array Camera would receive all optical energy scattered by an object which is anywhere within pixel FOV along X axis and Y axis, and at any range from zero to infinity. Thus, the CCD camera gives very good angular resolution but does not have any range or distance resolution. By using two CCD cameras with collinear optical axes and a known baseline separation, the range of an object can be determined from range and angle data as recorded by the two cameras. By doing this for all distinguishable features common to both camera's field-of-views (FOV) a 3-D image could be produced. This system has the advantage of being passive (no scene illumination is required) if the scene is visible to the human eye. However, if the scene was completely uniform there would be no contrast points to compute range from the angle change as viewed by the two cameras. An example of this would be rolling hills covered with a wheat crop. When there are plenty of contrast points, the process of determining surfaces are computationally intensive. Another disadvantage is that the system needs scene illumination. In daylight conditions this is not a problem, but if night operation is required this is a problem.
Active systems for measuring range have been in existence for many years. These range measuring devices utilize nearly all regions of the electromagnetic spectrum from low frequency radio waves to light wave lengths approaching x-rays. Range measuring systems have also used other technologies other than electro-magnetic devices (laser and microwaves), an example of this is the ultrasonic range measuring used in the medical field (sonograms).
The subject of the present invention is a range imaging system obtained by an active optical system. A scene will intersect the imaged/ranged space at various pixels contained in the total solid FOV of the range imaging system. The coordinates where the scene intersects the pixels is the measurement that the imaging radar must make. There are several different approaches currently used to produced a range imaging system, i.e., which satisfy requirements of measuring the X (azimuth), Y (elevation) and Z (range) of each pixel of scene intercept within the sensor FOV. One approach used is to sequentially raster scan a range finder whose transmit beam and receiver FOV are the same size as the desired pixel resolution. Such a system would require scanning the transmitter beam and receive FOV in two axes. Such a system would start in the upper left corner of the imaged/ranged space shown in FIG. 3. At this location the laser transmitter would transmit a signal toward the scene and the receiver would measure the range and intensity of the reflected return signal. After completing the measurements, the device is then pointed at the next pixel to the right and the measurement process is repeated, etc. After making measurements of all pixels in the top row of pixels, the steering mechanism then points the range finder to the first pixel in the second row and measurements are made for each pixel in that row. This process continues until the entire imaged/ranged space of FIG. 3 is covered. In order to have the range images do what is comparable to normal video camera images, the number of pixels must at least 128 X-pixels by 128 Y-pixels or a total of 128.sup.2 (16,384) pixels. This sequential raster scanning system requires a 2-axis scanning device which is required to point the laser range finder to 16,384 different positions for each frame. This type of range imaging is only suitable for short range systems, Long range systems require a large receive aperture in order to collect enough reflected signal to make the range measurement. Also, it is generally the practice to have the receiver FOV the same size as the laser beam in order to minimize the background noise. However this further complicates the scanning process. When scanning the point in the scene that the laser transmitter will illuminate is determined at time of transmission and the required direction lag of the receiver FOV to receive the reflected signal from this point is determined by the round trip light propagation time. In other words, if the transmit beam and the receive FOV were the same size, the scanning system would be have to be step raster scanned. Even ignoring, the scanning problem (assuming no time required to scan from one position to the next position), the number of frames per second is limited simply due to the round trip light propagation time. For example, a scene at 2 kilometers would have 13.3.times.10.sup.-6 round trip propagation time so that a 128 by 128 sequential scan system would take 16,384.times.13.3.times.10.sup.-6 or 0.22 sec to do a complete scan without allowing any time for making measurements. So it seems that even without time allotted for scanning, data measuring, or data processing time, a 2 km sequentially scanned system would be limited to 4.5 frames per second which is a factor of 10 less than a normal video system. The major disadvantage of a 2 km sequential raster scan is that 2-axis scanning is limited to low frame rate and requires step scanning of an enlarged receiver FOV.
Another type of active range imaging system has a laser transmitter and gated image intensifier CCD Array as a receiver. The receiver is a normal video camera with a photo multiplying micro-channel plate in front of the CCD array camera detector. Here the only signal of interest is the reflected laser energy. A narrow band width optical filter, whose band pass center wavelength is the wavelength of the laser, is placed in front of the receiver aperture or in an optical path between aperture and micro-channel plate photo multiplier. The purpose of the filter is to eliminate as much as possible all light coming from the scene except the reflected laser energy. Unfortunately, the solar energy has energy in the spectral region beginning in the UV and extending to wavelengths beyond the far infra red spectra region. This peak energy region is in the visual region (400 to 700 nm wavelengths). These physical laws and physical constraints establish how spectrally pure the laser can be and how narrow the optical bandpass filter can be in a practical system. Consider the restrictions a practical system might utilize with a 1 nm wide optical band pass filter when a solid state laser (such as Nd:YAG, Nd:YVO.sub.4 or Nd:YLF) is used as the laser transmitter. It is reasonable to use a 10 Angstrom or 0.1 nm bandpass filter. This type system uses a gated micro channel plate image intensifier for both the gain it provides for the small amount of energy passing through the narrow bandpass filter and also to shutter the receiver in order to determine range. The range determination operates by firing the laser and at a precise time later, opening the shutter (gate the micro channel plate (MCP) on). If the scene surface is within the FOV at range R=T.sub.1 C/2 (where T.sub.1 =time interval and C=speed of light) there will be reflected laser from those pixels. The MCP gating needs to be narrow in order to prevent pixels at greater range to be present also. The range resolution of the system is the time convolution of the gating and the laser pulse wave form. Referring back to FIG. 3, this system looks at all X and Y pixels at once but only one Z axis pixel. The gating or shuttering signal range gates laser reflected energy, but does not range gate background reflected energy i.e, it time gates or time limits the acceptance of the solar background reflected energy. A simple example will illustrate the importance of the statement. A small aircraft occupies one-half the cross section area (x,y) of one pixel at some range R/C and the rest of the FOV is filled with bright white cloud background. All the CCD pixels will have the same energy recorded for gating times except the pixel containing the aircraft. That pixel will have the same output for all Z gate times except the gate time corresponding to the range of the aircraft. The energy for this gate time is the sum of solar background reflected from the bright white cloud behind the aircraft (1/2) pixel during the gate time and aircraft reflected solar background plus the laser reflected energy from the aircraft. This example shows the gate time limits the solar background but does not limit receiving background from objects located at ranges corresponding to the gating time.
In the CCD camera the received laser energy during the range gate time must be greater than the received background energy in the adjacent pixels by a factor of 2 in order that the pixels with target can be distinguished from the pixels without target. In the range finder case, the instantaneous light intensity must be detected so that range can be measured. In order to detect the laser pulse, the reflected laser pulse must produce a signal that is at least four times greater than the root mean squared "shot" noise caused by the background solar light. Therefore, for a range finder silicon detector, the receive power must produce a signal current which is four times the rms noise current. When comparing the required power for the gated CCD and the range finder detector, the CCD minimum detectable power is 100,000 times greater than that of the range finder detector. This assumes that the dominate noise in both systems is the background which may not be the case. Typically, each system must be analyzed on an individual basis. Well-designed range finders have been made which have had minimum detectable signal in the 5 to 10 photons region which is significantly less than that required for a shuttered CCD system.
The sequentially range gated CCD receiver-laser flood light illuminated scene system has the advantage of no scanning required. However, it has the disadvantage of low sensitivity in high background, many range cells to search for the scene if short gate times are used for good range resolution, a very-high power laser is required since the laser energy is spread over the entire scene and finally poor efficiency of the laser power since the shutter only receives scene pixels which are at ranges which corresponds to the shutter time.

Time measurement device and method useful in a laser range camera


Embodiments of the present invention provide a method of forming gate stacks for field-effect-transistors. The method includes forming a metal-containing layer directly on a first titanium-nitride (TiN) layer, the first TiN layer covering areas of a semiconductor substrate designated for first and second types of field-effect-transistors; forming a capping layer of a second TiN layer on top of the metal-containing layer; patterning the second TiN layer and the metal-containing layer to cover only a first portion of the first TiN layer, the first portion of the first TiN layer covering an area designated for the first type of field-effect-transistors; etching away a second portion of the first TiN layer exposed by the patterning while protecting the first portion of the first TiN layer, from the etching, through covering with at least a portion of thickness of the patterned metal-containing layer; and forming a third TiN layer covering an areas of the semiconductor substrate designated for the second type of field-effect-transistors.

In the field of semiconductor device manufacturing, active semiconductor devices are generally manufactured by front end of the line (FEOL) technologies. Such active semiconductor devices may include, e.g., transistors like field-effect-transistors (FET) and particularly complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect-transistors (CMOS-FET). Among different types of CMOS-FETs there may be a p-type doped CMOS-FET (PFET) and an n-type doped CMOS-FET (NFET). Different types of CMOS-FETs may be formed or manufactured on a common substrate or structure, of a semiconductor chip or wafer.
In pursuing further performance improvement of CMOS-FET transistors and devices thereof, dielectric materials of high dielectric constant, commonly known as k value of the dielectric material, have recently been used in forming part of the gate stack of CMOS-FET transistors. Additionally, other technologies for performance improvement may include using metal gate material instead of traditional gate material such as, for example, poly-silicon for better tailoring of threshold voltage and channel mobility. More specifically, with the application of metal gate on high k dielectric gate material, better screening of phonon scattering may be achieved in the dielectric which, as a result of lower defectives of metal comparing with traditional poly-silicon/high k dielectric interface, creates improved mobility of electrons and reduced Fermi level pinning, all of which contribute toward achieving desired threshold voltages of the CMOS-FET transistors and devices made from the transistors.
During a regular process of forming gate stacks, hard-masks are usually used to protect gate stack materials, which have been formed on a substrate, in areas where gate stacks are planned or designed to be formed eventually. Hard-masks are used in such a way that gate stack materials in areas, other than areas forming gate stacks, may be removed or etched away through a patterning process such as a wet-etching process. One of the most commonly used hard-masks, for example, is a combination of amorphous silicon with silicon dioxide (SiO2) thereupon.
As is commonly known in the art, ammonia solutions have been generally used in wet-etching processes to etch silicon. However, regular ammonia solutions are typically selective to silicon oxide, which means that regular ammonia solutions will not etch, or at least not be able to provide effective etching of silicon oxide or silicon dioxide. Therefore, in order to be able to use a hard-mask made of amorphous silicon with silicon-dioxide covering the top thereof in the process, there may exist a need to use ammonia solutions of high concentration in order to break through the screen silicon oxide on top of the amorphous silicon before the underneath amorphous silicon may get etched and so patterned. Nevertheless, while ammonia solutions of high concentration may be able to break through the screen silicon oxide for the purpose of patterning underneath amorphous silicon, they have been known as a source of causing defectives in the silicon, such as causing impurity being etched out of silicon, resulting in deteriorations of devices made from the process. Therefore, there exists in the art a need for better and/or alternative processes and/or method of forming gate stack in making high-k metal gate (HK-MG) transistors.

Method of forming gate stack and structure thereof

International Business Machines Corporation


Processes for reducing fraudulent credit transactions, including financial (e.g., credit, charge, debit, etc.) card transactions, are introduced, in which merchants receive multi-digit authorization codes from a credit provider (e.g., a customer transaction account card user) with all approved transactions. To guarantee payment, all merchants are required to later resubmit the multi-digit authorization code with every record of charge, regardless of dollar amount, as verification that an authorization was obtained. Merchants that fail to provide any authorization code, or an incorrect authorization code, will be subject to a chargeback for non-compliance.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to data processing for business practices, and in particular it relates to financial transaction processing.
2. Background Art
Submission of fraudulent records of charge (ROCs) account for a significant proportion of the incidence of credit card transaction fraud. In order to combat this, credit providers (such as credit card issuers) have been seeking to implement processes by which false submissions of ROCs are reduced, without unduly impacting the time it takes to authorize a legitimate credit transaction.
One known solution, implemented by certain credit providers such as American Express Co. of New York, N.Y., involves generating a two-digit authorization code for each credit transaction, that can be transmitted with a credit approval. The authorization code could then be stored by the credit provider and referenced in the case of a charge dispute or the like. However, there are various limitations to the protection afforded by such a method.
First, the two-digit codes in such systems only include a limited range of possible character strings. In the context of the hundreds of millions of credit transactions that are conducted annually, these limited number of codes will be repeated often, making it easier to fake or forge a two-digit approval in connection with fraudulent ROCs.
Second, the determination of fraudulent charge submissions is limited and credit dispute resolution is continuously delayed by the time it takes for a credit provider to retrieve authorization code information from its records and determine a transaction's authenticity.
Finally, not all merchants in today's transaction networks are equipped to receive and resubmit authorization codes. In early 2003, over 11% of U.S. credit transactions were submitted for payment without a valid authorization code. This gap leaves credit providers open to further fraudulent charge submissions.
It would be possible for a credit provider to simply reject any merchant request for payment up front when it is submitted without the authorization code. However, a significant proportion of charge volume could needlessly be lost since the majority of such submissions are legitimate. This, in turn, could negatively impact a credit provider's revenues. Accordingly, there is a need for a method and apparatus for reducing fraudulent credit transactions that addresses the above-described problems and short-comings in existing methodologies.

Method and apparatus for reducing fraudulent credit transactions by requiring merchant return of multi-digit authorization codes

American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc.


A single plate system color solid-state image pick-up device of a microlens loading type, the device comprising: a semiconductor substrate; a plurality of light receiving portions formed in a two-dimensional array in a surface portion of the semiconductor substrate; color filters each of which is for any of red, green and blue colors; and microlenses, wherein each of the color filters and each of the microlenses are laminated above on each of the light receiving portions, wherein first ones of the microlenses, corresponding to ones of the light receiving portions on which ones for the red color of the color filters are laminated, have smaller light receiving areas than those of second ones of the microlenses, corresponding to ones of the light receiving portions on which ones for the green color of the color filters are laminated.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a single plate system color solid-state image pick-up device of a microlens loading type which is provided in an image input device such as a digital camera and more particularly to a single plate system color solid-state image pick-up device of a microlens loading type in which color shading is caused with difficulty and an image input device comprising the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
A single plate system solid-state image pick-up device of a CCD type or a CMOS type is loaded onto an image input device such as a digital camera. In the single plate system solid-state image pick-up device, a large number of pixels are arranged like a tetragonal lattice or a honeycomb, and a color filter for transmitting one of red (R), green (G) and blue (B) colors is laminated on each of the pixels. A microlens is loaded every pixel in such a manner that a light is efficiently incident on an opening of each pixel.
For example, in a solid-state image pick-up device described in JP-A-5-75085, a microlens is loaded every pixel, and furthermore, a shape of a corresponding microlens is changed for each color of a color filter depending on an angle of incidence from a lens optical system for collecting a light onto a tip surface of the solid-state image pick-up device onto each pixel, thereby compensating for a variation in a sensitivity unevenness generated by shading of the lens and changing a curvature of the microlens for each color of the color filter to compensate for a variation in the sensitivity unevenness.
In a recent solid-state image pick-up device, an increase in pixels has been developed and a dimension of one pixel has been reduced very greatly. For this reason, the influence of the shading of an incident light through an opening of a light receiving surface in a terminal portion of an incident optical path of each pixel (an opening of a shielding film) is greater than that of shading caused by the microlens provided on the entry of the incident optical path of each pixel. Consequently, there is a problem in that color shading is generated.

Single plate system color solid-state image pick-up device has microlenses in red pixels set to be smaller than microlenses in green pixel


Dental devices in the form of a temporary implant for securing a rubber dam clamp, and a nerve locator for aiding a dental surgeon during oral surgery on a patient.

Operating on dental patients presents numerous problems and issues for both the patient and professional provider, such as a dentist, dental surgeon, or oral surgeon. Thus, there remains a strong need for dental devices that aid the professional provider in performing oral surgery.
The Applicant is unaware of inventions or patents, taken either singly or in combination, which are seen to describe the instant invention as claimed.


Provided is a transmitting apparatus including an image obtaining unit configured to obtain image data having pixel information including color information and having a first resolution, an image conversion unit configured to delete the color information of at least a portion of pixels of the obtained image data, to rearrange the pixel information of a plurality of pixels, and to convert the image data having the first resolution into image data having a second resolution lower than the first resolution, and an output unit configured to output, to a transmitter, the image data whose resolution has been converted from the first resolution into the second resolution by the image conversion unit, the transmitter having a maximum resolution of image data which the transmitter is allowed to wirelessly transmit to a receiving apparatus, the maximum resolution being the second resolution.

Video data (image data) captured by an image capture apparatus or the like is exchanged between a plurality of wireless apparatuses. A transmitter's apparatus encodes and transmits video data to a receiver's apparatus. The receiver's apparatus decodes the received video data, and displays the video data on, for example, a display apparatus or the like.
Incidentally, video data transmitted contains luminance information (Y component) and color difference information (U and V components). A technique of reducing the color difference information has been proposed in order to allow for transmission and reception of video data even if, for example, the transmission band of a network is reduced (see Patent Literatures 1 and 2 below).

Transmitting apparatus, receiving apparatus, transmitting method, receiving method, and transmitting and receiving system


The described embodiments relate generally to magnetic fasteners. In particular a fastening apparatus for engaging and disengaging a fastener disposed within a device housing is described. By designing a fastener with a magnetically coded head that fastener can be both engaged and disengaged to a fastener attachment point within a device housing by a magnetic driver having a magnetically coded driving feature that corresponds to the magnetically coded fastener head. In this way a fastener can be attached at various orientations within a device housing after the device housing has been closed.

1. Technical Field
The described embodiments relate generally to magnetic fasteners. In particular a fastening apparatus for engaging and disengaging a fastener disposed within a device housing is described.
2. Related Art
Fasteners are used to join various components in a large variety of applications. Unfortunately, using fasteners to secure a part having an exterior, cosmetic surface generally results in a visible opening or at least a fastener head being visible after the product is fully assembled. Furthermore, in certain cases the visibility of an external fastener may also allow a user to more easily access components disposed within a device housing. In devices where tamper resistance is important, a readily visible fastener can be even more undesirable.
Therefore, what is desired is a reliable way to fasten components together in a way such that the fasteners are not readily visible to a user of the components.


Disclosed is system comprising data processing arrangement including processors configured to receive sentences from unlabeled training data set; tokenize, using tokenizer module, sentences to obtain tokens; generate character level features for character of tokens of sentences; generate token level feature for each token of the sentences, wherein token level feature of token in sentence is identified using token coordinates of token and token coordinates of tokens neighboring token in sentence; train artificial neural network adapted to identify entities in sentences to determine first trend set, wherein training is based on received sentences, character level features for each character of tokens of sentences and token level feature for tokens of sentences; train the artificial neural network on set of labelled data to determine second trend set; identify, using identifier module, entity in text content, wherein identifier module uses first trend set and second trend set determined by artificial neural network.

Nowadays, natural language processing techniques have been used to understand and interpret information stored in documents. However, natural language processing techniques have several limitations associated with identifying entity of the information. The natural language processing techniques incorrectly classify the information. In an example, information relating to cartographer's map, mean average precision, and mean arterial pressure may all be classified as information about maps by the natural language processing technique.
The natural language processing techniques are trained on labelled data set to identify the entity of the information. However, the natural language processing techniques require a large amount of labelled data set for training. Moreover, the labelled data set is required to be prepared by trained professionals such as domain experts which increases a cost associated with identification of entity. Furthermore, preparing of the labelled data set is a time-consuming process. Moreover, natural language processing techniques trained on labelled data set require afresh training on occurrence of new type of entity of the information.
As a result of the limitations associated with natural language processing techniques, a process involved in identifying entity of the information by natural language processing techniques is resource intensive. A processor used for processing the information runs on high computational load which reduces performance of the processor. Moreover, training on large amount of labelled data set makes the process, memory intensive. Moreover, large amount of labelled data set occupies unnecessarily high amount of space in a RAM (Random Access Memory) of the processor resulting in unavailability of RAM for performing other tasks of the processor and further reduces computational speed of the processor.
Therefore, in the light of foregoing discussion, there exists a need to overcome the aforementioned drawbacks associated with identifying entity of the information.

System and method to identify entity of data


A lift truck includes an upright assembly having first, second and third telescoping mast sections. Each mast section is formed from pairs of laterally spaced and interconnected I-beam rails. A carriage assembly is mounted for movement along a path on the third mast section. Rollers are provided for mounting the mast sections and carriage assembly together for relative movement. A drive assembly connected to the upright assembly and carriage assembly serves to move the carriage assembly at a first, relatively slow speed over a first portion of the movement path and at a second relatively fast speed over a second portion of the movement path. More particularly, the drive assembly includes twinned actuating cylinders for operatively connecting the first and second mast sections. A first dead chain operatively connects the first and third mast sections. A second dead chain operatively connects the second mast section and the carriage assembly. A guide rod is connected to one end of the second dead chain and a guide sleeve is mounted to the second mast section. The guide rod is received in free sliding engagement in the guide sleeve so as to prevent relative movement between the carriage assembly and the third mast section at all times when the carriage assembly is in a negative lift configuration, that is, below ground level. A stop is mounted to the distal end of the guide rod. When the carriage assembly is in a positive lift configuration, that is, above ground level, the stop abuts against and engages the guide sleeve. This engagement causes relative movement of the carriage assembly along the third mast section when in any positive lift configuration.

Certain applications of lift trucks require an upright construction that is capable of providing both positive and negative lift from a ground or support level position. For example, such a lift truck is particularly useful for handling boats in and around marinas. The market for such a lift truck has significantly increased in recent years with ever more and more people owning and operating pleasure boats.
In the marina setting, lift trucks may be utilized to both lower boats into and raise boat out of the water from an elevated dock or the like. Similarly, such lift trucks may be utilized to raise boats for positioning well above the ground in an overhead storage rack.
Heretofore, lift truck designs have been developed for this purpose. One such representative design is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,841,442 to Erickson et al assigned to the Assignee of the present invention. The lift truck disclosed in the Erickson et al patent includes outer, intermediate and inner, telescoping mast sections with a load carriage elevatable on the inner mast section. The lift truck also includes a pair of actuator cylinders and cooperating chains. These cylinders and chains are connected to the mast sections so that one cylinder and chain set is adapted to elevate the load carriage and the inner mast section above ground level. The other cylinder and chain set is adapted to lower below ground level the load carriage and inner and intermediate mast sections together as a unit in the outer mast section.
While the lift truck disclosed in the Erickson et al patent allows positive and negative lift capabilities for effective utilization in a marina setting, it suffers from a number of distinct shortcomings shared with other state of the art lift truck designs. More specifically, the tandem lift cylinder and chain sets required for positive and negative lift are mounted between the uprights of the masts significantly limiting and in many cases substantially blocking forward visibility. In effect, the reduced forward visibility substantially limits the ability of the lift truck operator to properly orient the forks when picking a boat up or placing a boat in a storage rack berth. Accordingly, a significant potential exists that a boat may be damaged while being picked-up, carried and/or placed with the lift truck.
Other shortcomings of state of the art lift trucks include a relatively limited lifting capacity. This directly results from (1) the provision of separate actuator cylinder and chain sets for achieving positive and negative lift configurations; (2) the utilization of heavy gauge steel rails necessary to increase rigidity and (3) the forward location of the mast sections relative to the center axis of the lift truck. The weight of the cylinders and heavy gauge rails as accentuated by the forward placement requires the provision of a heavier, bulkier counterweight. The truck must also be made longer overall to provide a greater moment arm for the counterweight to be effective. Further a more powerful operating engine is also required to obtain the desired performance. Each of these requirements add substantially to the cost of lift trucks.
Additionally, state-of-the-art marina lift trucks commonly utilize complicated fork structures and controls. Unfortunately, the fork structures typically require maintenance at relatively short intervals to insure reliable operation. Such maintenance is particularly required at ocean marinas due to the corrosive properties of saltwater environments. Additionally, the complicated controls require the individual to receive extensive training before the lift truck can be effectively operated. Even when fully familiar with the operation of the controls, the manipulation of multiple levers as now required on state of the art lift trucks requires additional time thereby reducing the productivity of even a skillful operator.
Another problem typical of prior art lift truck designs relates to the need for an improved fork. Forks presently in use are typically constructed of steel for strength and include a protective cover on the upper surface to cushion and protect a boat hull from direct contact with the steel fork. It has been found, however, that such covers when pinched between the boat hull and the steel fork wear quickly and must be replaced after only a relatively short service life. Additionally, as the covers become worn they have a tendency to retain more and more water when manipulated to lift a boat from the water. Subsequently, when the boat is then positioned in an upper berth of a rack, the water retained in the covers drips down onto underlying boats. This water often includes contaminants such as rust from the forks and grease or oil from the dock side water. These contaminants may stain the finish and/or furnishings of underlying boats to the dissatisfaction of the boat owners. As a result, customer relations of the marina operator may be adversely affected.
From reviewing the above it is clear that a need exists for an improved lift truck providing positive and negative lift capabilities that is particularly adapted for operation in both coastal and inland marinas.


An intralinked polyamidoamine which is nonthermosetting and endcapped. This intralinked polyamidoamine is the reaction product of a dicarboxylic acid or dicarboxylic acid derivative, a polyamine, an endcapping agent, and an intralinker.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to highly branched polyamidoamines, and to the preparation of highly branched polyamidoamines.
2. Description of Background and Other Information
Polyamidoamine-epichlorohydrin resins have been used extensively as wet strength agents for paper, and for other applications. These resins are typically prepared in a two step process.
In the first step, a polyamidoamine prepolymer is prepared from a diacid (e.g. adipic acid) and a polyamine (e.g., diethylenetriamine). Then in the second step, the prepolymer is reacted with epichlorohydrin in an amount equal to or greater than the amount of secondary amine groups in the prepolymer.
In the latter step, a small amount of the epichlorohydrin reacts to effect branching of the polymer, accompanied by an increase in molecular weight. However, the majority of the epichlorohydrin reacts with the prepolymer to give reactive functional groups--specifically, either aminochlorohydrin or azetidinium.
These wet strength resins can also be used as creping adhesives. Creping adhesives can also be prepared using lower levels of epichlorohydrin, resulting in lower levels of reactive functionality.

Highly branched polyamidoamines and their preparation


The present invention relates to methods, systems and software for optimising the separation of a sample of biomolecules eluted from a chromatography column in which the concentration of a second component added to an elution buffer is varied in order to form an elution buffer solution of varying second component concentration. The concentration of the elution buffer solution is held at a current value when a hold gradient event occurs and the the varying of the concentration of the elution buffer solution is restarted when a restart gradient event occurs. A hold gradient event occurs when a detector signal relating to the amount of biomolecules in the elution buffer solution rises past a first threshold and a restart gradient event occurs when the signal falls past a second threshold.

Retentive chromatographic separations are chromatographic methods where biomolecules in a sample are retained on a chromatography resin and are subsequently eluted. Retentive separations can use either batch adsorption techniques, i.e., where the absorption takes place in a slurry with the chromatography resin, or by column absorption techniques, i.e., where the adsorption takes place by running a solution containing the biomolecules through a column. In either case of retentive chromatographic separation, the biomolecules can be bound to the column resin, e.g., by an ionic, hydrophobic, or affinity interaction.
Following binding of the biomolecules to the chromatography resin, the biomolecules are eluted from the column. Certain methods of elution allow the skilled artisan to specifically control the point in the elution that the biomolecules of interest are released from the resin. These methods include, but are not limited to, use of a salt gradient, gradually mixing an aqueous buffer with an organic solvent, or the gradual addition of detergents. Based on the conditions used, a biomolecule may elute from a column very sharply, i.e., in a small number of fractions, or it may elute more broadly, i.e., in a larger number of fractions. It is often possible for the skilled artisan to adjust the elution conditions to optimise the separation of biomolecules of interest from unwanted material during elution, and to sharpen the peak at which a biomolecule elutes. This is referred to as improving the resolution of the chromatography process.
The standard method of assessing the resolution of a chromatographic separation is for a skilled operator to monitor the elution profile with a UV detector for absorbance at 280 mm, which provides a rough measurement of total protein eluting in a given fraction. In the case that an operator is eluting a column by means of, for example, a buffer solution of gradually changing salt gradient, if the UV detector shows an increase in the amount of protein in the eluate discharged from the column then the operator could arrange for this fraction of the eluate to start to be collected in a reservoir in a fraction collector.
The collection of the fraction would continue until the amount of protein detected in the eluate dropped below a threshold value at which point the eluate discharged from the column could be collected in a different reservoir in the fraction collector or discharged to waste. As it is very wasteful to have a trained operator continuously monitoring a chromatography run then it is usual to perform the analysis of a sample in two (or more) runs.
In the first run the sample is separated in a column while using a user chosen gradient which it is hoped will produce a satisfactory separation. The resulting chromatogram is then analysed be the operator who then defines a new, optimised gradient which is expected to give a better separation. The optimised gradient may have a different starting point and/or end point and/or slope and/or number of steps. The purpose of the optimisation is to modify the separation of the sample so that the peak(s) containing the biomolecule(s) of interest is(are) far away from the peaks containing contaminants. The sample is then separated in a second, optimised run using the newly defined gradient. If the separation is still not satisfactory then the user may redefine the optimised gradient and perform a further run or runs.
An automated system for performing a separation using a gradient is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,112,949. A problem with such manual and automated systems with gradually changing gradients is that if the gradient is made shallow then it takes a lot of time to perform the elution and if the gradient is made steep then instead of each biomolecule of interest being eluted in turn the elution of the biomolecules overlap. This leads to several species of biomolecules being collected in each fraction instead of each specie of biomolecule being collected in its own, separate fraction.

Chromatography system, method and software for the separation of biomolecules


Disclosed is an EMI shielding method of semiconductor packages, including a tape attaching step of attaching an edge of a tape to a lower side of a frame to dispose the tape inside an inner circumferential side of the frame, a tape cutting step of forming holes through the tape at regular intervals, a semiconductor package fastening step of disposing edges of lower sides of the semiconductor packages on an upper side of the tape so that bumps, formed on the lower sides of the semiconductor packages, are inserted into the holes in the tape to thus fasten the semiconductor packages at regular intervals to the upper side of the tape, and a coating step of performing a coating operation over the tape to form a coat on the semiconductor packages and the upper side of the tape.

Generally, highly integrated semiconductor chips capable of rapidly processing large amounts of information have been required in accordance with the reduction in the size and thickness and multi-functionalization of recent electronic equipment, and BGA semiconductor packages currently appear to meet the requirement.
The BGA semiconductor package has been developed so as to have merits in that the function and the quality are improved so as to cope with the limitation of the fine pitch surface mounting technique and high integration, damage to leads in the related art is prevented, volumes and sizes are minimized, electric functional and thermal properties are excellent, package and board assembly yields are favorable, multi-chip modules are expanded, and the cycle ranging from rapid design to production is minimized.
Further, the highly integrated BGA semiconductor package exhibits improved consistency of quality, making it easy to apply to various electronic peripherals used in various fields requiring significant reductions in size, and also has a highly competitive price, thereby providing high value.
The BGA semiconductor package has a basic constitution in which a chip-mounting unit includes circuit patterns and semiconductor chips attached to a circuit board so as to secure a large number of highly integrated circuits, the circuits of the semiconductor chips and the circuit patterns of the circuit board are bonded through wires, a package made of a compound material is formed in a package-forming unit in a region including a portion of the semiconductor chips, the wires, and the circuit patterns, and balls are fused to the metal layer of the circuit board to thus be connected to the circuits of the semiconductor chips.
Additionally, the circuit board is formed of a thin film having a small thickness, including a plane layer provided on the inside, an epoxy layer outside the plane layer, a signal layer outside the epoxy layer, and a solder mask layer outside the signal layer.
Meanwhile, EMI (electromagnetic interference) shielding of semiconductor electronic devices has recently been recommended or made compulsory by countries in order to protect users from electromagnetic waves generated from electronics in use, and the shielding constitution of electromagnetic waves using EMI shielding can be confirmed in "semiconductor package" of Korean Patent Registered No. 10-0258351.


A nutritional supplement is described comprising approximately from about 10 to about 75 grams carbohydrate; approximately from about 5 to about 50 grams protein; approximately from about 3 to about 30 grams fat; and therapeutic amount of antioxidant, for use in weight maintenance in individuals who will undergo major surgery to prevent or reduce postoperative complications.

Postoperative complications, including infections at a surgical site and other distant nosocomial infections in high risk patients, are estimated to be between 25% and 30%. Patients particularly prone to postoperative infections are those who are malnourished prior to surgery, the elderly, and those about to undergo major gastrointestinal and non-cardiac thoracic procedures.
As early as 1987, perioperative use of parenteral nutrition was recommended by the Health and Public Policy Committee of the American College of Physicians for severely malnourished patients having major surgery, such as intra-abdominal or non-cardiac intrathoracic surgery (Health and Public Policy Committee, American College of Physicians, "perioperative parenteral Nutrition", Ann. Int. Med., 107:252-253 (1987)). Unselected use of total parenteral nutrition (TPN) is not justified, especially in mild or moderately malnourished patients because its use has been shown to be associated with an increased rate of infections and non-infectious complications (Detsky et al., "Perioperative Parenteral Nutrition: A Meta-Analysis", Ann. Int. Med., 187;107:195-203) . Around the same time, Klein and others (Klein et al., "Total Parenteral Nutrition and Cancer Clinical Trials", Cancer, 58:1378-1386 (1986).) reviewed the existing literature on cancer patients and found that the TPN is not useful if used routinely in all patients with cancer. However, they found that its preoperative use in cancer patients with gastrointestinal disease may help reduce major surgical complications and improve survival, treatment toxicity, and tumor response in patients receiving chemotherapy or radiation therapy.
Recently, thirty-three, high quality, randomized, prospective studies were reviewed on the subject of pre- and post-operative feeding, including 2,500 patients (Klein et al., "Nutritional Support in Clinical Practice: Review of Published data and recommendations for Future Research Directions", J. Parent. Ent. Nutr., 21: 133-156 (1997)). There were 13 studies including 1,250 patients who received preoperative TPN for 7 to 10 days. Most of the studies (9/13) found that patients, who received TPN and were moderately malnourished based on weight loss or depressed serum protein concentrations, had fewer postoperative complications. Those receiving preoperative TPN had 10% fewer complications and no change in mortality rates compared to those who were not preoperatively fed. There were two studies where enteral nutrition was used preoperatively for 10 days in cancer patients and postoperative complications were reduced (12%).

Nutritional supplement for preoperative feeding


A selectively releasing runner and substrate assembly 10 comprises a plurality of conductive runners 16 adhered to a substrate 12, a portion 18 of at least some of the conductive runners 16 have a lower adhesion to the substrate for selectively releasing the conductive runner from the substrate when subjected to a predetermined stress.

Direct die attachment to a substrate such as a molded printed wiring board, a printed wiring board, or a flexible circuit board is known in the art, but is rarely used because of the poor reliability associated with the Thermal Coefficient of Expansion (TCE) mismatch between the die and substrate. The TCE mismatch causes the solder interconnect to eventually crack or otherwise remove the integral connections between the die and the substrate. For example, a silicon die has a TCE of 4.6 while a glass filled printed wiring board has a TCE that ranges from 8 to 45. Temperature fluctuations will cause the die to expand and contract at a different rate than the printed wiring board, thereby causing catastrophic stresses in the die interconnect metallizations. Therefore, a need exists for a method of directly attaching a die to a substrate that overcomes the problems resulting from different coefficients of expansion for the substrate and die.

Selectively releasing conductive runner and substrate assembly


An image forming apparatus having a photosensitive member, an image forming device which forms an image by forming an electrostatic latent image on the photosensitive member and developing the electrostatic latent image in accordance with an image forming condition, a copy number detector for counting the number of images formed by the image forming device, a first control program for correcting the image forming condition in accordance with a correction value whenever a predetermined number is counted by the copy number detector, a second control program for manually regulating the image forming condition corrected by the first control program, a memory for storing the image forming condition regulated by the second control program, and a third control program for revising the correction value in accordance with the image forming condition stored by the memory.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus capable of suitably correcting an exposure light value in accordance with the deterioration of the sensitivity of a photosensitive member.
2. Description of the Related Art
In conventional image forming apparatus, Se, Cds and OPC (organic photoconductor) are used as materials for photosensitive members. However, when photosensitive members produced of such materials are subjected to repeated charging, charge elimination, light exposure, toner adhesion and the like, the sensitivity of said photosensitive member gradually deteriorates and does not match the initial conditions of the image forming apparatus.
Generally, image forming apparatus such as, for example, copying apparatus, are constructed such that the quality of a produced copy image is visually judged, and a service person adjusts the exposure lamp voltage, developing bias voltage to set the surface potential of the photosensitive member, or the number of produced copies is counted and when a predetermined number of copies is attained, the exposure voltage value and the like are corrected.
The aforesaid method whereby the quality of a produced copy is visually judged and the image forming conditions are then adjusted is disadvantageous insofar as it is based on a vague judgement standard. Further, the method whereby the number of copies is counted and exposure voltage value and the like are corrected when a predetermined number of copies is attained is disadvantageous in that the degree of deterioration in sensitivity of the photosensitive member varies not only in relation to the number of copies but also through operating conditions of the copying apparatus, such that over long-term operation the image forming conditions become mismatched.

Image forming apparatus controlled according to changing sensitivity of photoconductor


A fuel assembly mechanical flow restriction apparatus for detecting failure in situ of nuclear fuel rods in a fuel assembly during reactor shutdown.

The present invention relates to nuclear fuel assemblies and, in particular, to an apparatus for detecting the failure of nuclear fuel in a nuclear fuel assembly.
As a nuclear reactor operates and generates power, the nuclear fuel is gradually consumed and it becomes necessary at periodic intervals to inspect for failure of nuclear fuel rods composing the nuclear fuel assemblies. Such failures include a breach of the cladding of the fuel rod permitting the escape of fission products such as radioactive iodine, xenon and krypton into the reactor coolant water which circulates through the reactor core. In commercial nuclear reactors, the core comprises nuclear fuel assemblies consisting of nuclear fuel rods. The fuel rods comprise a circular or cylindrical housing commonly known as the cladding within which are stacked nuclear fuel pellets leaving a plenum space above the fuel columns and which are sealed at both ends. Failure of the cladding could result in contamination of the coolant by the escape of radioactive products from the fuel rods and which could interfere with plant operations. In practice, leak detection is not normally carried out on individual fuel rods but on fuel assemblies containing several fuel rods. Leak detection of a fuel assembly takes place by measuring fission products in a gas and/or water sample which is taken from a fuel assembly and is commonly referred to as xe2x80x9cfuel sippingxe2x80x9d.
Some methods involve isolating a fuel assembly in a test chamber filled with water. This has the disadvantage in that the fuel assembly must be removed from the reactor core and placed within the chamber which is time consuming, particularly when conventional nuclear reactors contain several hundred nuclear fuel assemblies in the reactor core. In other methods, sipping tests are performed on nuclear fuel assemblies while they are still positioned inside the reactor core, eliminating the need for time consuming fuel assembly movements in accomplishing the testing of the fuel. The intent of the sipping tests is to detect assemblies that contain failed fuel rods so that these assemblies can be removed from the reactor and further examined or repaired. In accomplishing these sipping tests, the reactor head and upper, internals are removed, thus exposing the tops of the fuel assemblies in the core. The reactor vessel is water filled, and a continuous water coolant flow is maintained to remove decay heat from the fuel assemblies. The basic principle of the in-core sipping technique typically involves (1) restricting the coolant flow by the application of air pressure within a hood overlying the fuel assembly resulting in a temperature increase in the fuel assembly; then (2) sampling an air bubble trapped above the fuel assembly (ies) by the hood fit over the fuel assembly for gaseous fission product activity; and (3) sample the water in the fuel assembly. The temperature increase results in an internal pressure increase leading to the release of the radioactive fission products from the interior of a failed rod through the rod defect. By measuring for the presence and quantity of the radioactive isotopes in the collected gas and/or water samples taken from the assembly, the assembly can be identified as containing one or more failed fuel rods.
Thus, current techniques employed for in-core sipping depend upon achieving a fuel assembly temperature rise to release the radioactive fission products from the failed fuel rods.
However, at higher reactor shutdown coolant flow rates, the necessary temperature rise is difficult to achieve.
In order to successfully detect which assemblies have failed, it is most advantageous to selectively be able to increase the temperature of the fuel assemblies being tested, to temperatures above their normal reactor shutdown temperature. To accomplish this, the normal reactor shutdown flow rate through the fuel assemblies must be reduced or stopped during testing. The standard techniques employed in existing systems to reduce flow rates through the fuel assembly being tested involve either creating a pressurized air bubble within the test hood placed over the top of the fuel assembly or involve effectively increasing the column length of water within each fuel assembly by extending the fuel channel heights within the hood. These techniques merely add flow xe2x80x9cresistancexe2x80x9d to the normal reactor coolant flow in the tested channels.
The techniques currently employed to restrict flow are only partially effective. As a result, at higher levels of reactor coolant flow, the current techniques cannot restrict flow enough to permit the necessary fuel rod temperature rise to occur. This results in extended test times and/or inaccurate and unreliable test results.
It would therefore be an advantage over prior art designs to provide an apparatus for detecting failed fuel elements from a BWR, that provides an effective way to restrict coolant flow, and to thereby effect a temperature rise of the fuel rods in the fuel assembly being tested over a wide range of reactor shutdown coolant flow conditions.
In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, a fuel assembly mechanical flow restriction apparatus is provided for detecting failure of a nuclear fuel rod in a nuclear fuel assembly situated in a reactor core of a boiling water reactor, the reactor core comprising a plurality of nuclear fuel assemblies comprising parallel fuel rods supported at an upper end by an upper tie plate and an outer channel surrounding the fuel rods for the passage of reactor coolant from a lower end to the upper end of the fuel assembly, the outer channel having upper edges, the upper end of the fuel assembly passing through and being supported by a reactor core top guide structure, the fuel assembly mechanical flow restriction apparatus comprising a testing hood comprising a top plate and side plates to form a structure with an open bottom forming an internal volume for positioning over the tops of at least one of the nuclear fuel assemblies and for receiving gases escaping from a failed fuel rod within the fuel assembly, the side plates for resting on the reactor core top guide structure, and a flow restrictor positioned within the testing hood and over at least one of the nuclear fuel assemblies, the flow restrictor comprising a sealing plate for positioning on the upper edges of the outer channel of the fuel assembly for mechanically blocking fuel assembly coolant flow exiting the upper end of the fuel assembly, and a probe assembly having at least one probe head for sampling the coolant water within the fuel assembly for detecting failure of a nuclear fuel rod in the nuclear fuel assembly, and means for causing the sealing plate of the flow restrictor to be positioned on the upper edges of the outer channel of the fuel assembly for mechanically blocking fuel assembly coolant flow from exiting the upper end of the fuel assembly and for causing the probe head to be immersed in the fuel assembly reactor coolant water within the outer channel.
In accordance with another embodiment of the present invention, a fuel assembly mechanical flow restriction apparatus is provided for detecting failure of a nuclear fuel rod in a nuclear fuel assembly situated in a reactor core of a boiling water reactor, the reactor core comprising a plurality of nuclear fuel assemblies comprising parallel fuel rods supported at an upper end by an upper tie plate and an outer channel surrounding the fuel rods for the passage of reactor coolant from a lower end to the upper end of the fuel assembly, the outer channel having upper edges, the upper end of the fuel assembly passing through and being supported by a reactor core top guide structure, the fuel assembly mechanical flow restriction apparatus comprising a testing hood comprising a top plate and side plates to form a structure with an open bottom forming an internal volume for positioning over the tops of at least one of the nuclear fuel assemblies and for receiving gases escaping from a failed fuel rod within the fuel assembly, the side plates for resting on the reactor core top guide structure, and a flow restrictor positioned within the testing hood and over at least one of the nuclear fuel assemblies, the flow restrictor comprising a sealing plate for positioning on the upper edges of the outer channel of the fuel assembly for mechanically blocking fuel assembly coolant flow exiting the upper end of the fuel assembly, and a probe assembly having at least one probe head for sampling the coolant water within the fuel assembly for detecting failure of a nuclear fuel rod in the nuclear fuel assembly, and means for causing the sealing plate of the flow restrictor to be positioned on the upper edges of the outer channel of the fuel assembly for mechanically blocking fuel assembly coolant flow from exiting the upper end of the fuel assembly and means for causing the probe head to be immersed in the fuel assembly reactor coolant water within the outer channel.

Fuel assembly mechanical flow restriction apparatus for detecting failure in situ of nuclear fuel rods in a fuel assembly during reactor shutdown


A data driver circuit and a delay-locked loop (DLL) circuit that can operate normally in spite of errors, etc., caused when an analog data signal is applied to a display panel are provided. The data driver circuit receives a first data signal and a first clock signal and outputs a second data signal to be transmitted to a display panel. The data driver circuit includes a data driver for sampling the first data signal in response to a second clock signal and outputting the second data signal obtained by analog-converting the first data signal, a mask signal generator for generating a mask signal indicating presence within a predetermined time period measured from a point in time at which the second data signal begins to change, and a DLL for generating the second clock signal from the first clock signal. Here, there is a delay between the first and second clock signals, the delay changes according to a phase difference between the first and second clock signals, and the change in the delay according to the phase difference is prevented by the mask signal.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a data driver circuit and a delay-locked loop (DLL) circuit, and more particularly, to a data driver circuit and a DLL circuit capable of operating normally in spite of an error, etc., caused when an analog data signal is applied to a display panel.
2. Discussion of Related Art
A data driver circuit functions to apply an analog data signal corresponding to a data signal transmitted from a timing controller to a display panel. The data driver circuit receives a clock signal (also referred to as a horizontal synchronization signal) synchronized with the data signal, together with the data signal from the timing controller, and may include a DLL to restore the original clock signal from the received clock signal. Meanwhile, when the analog data signal output from the data driver circuit to the display panel is changed, a large current momentarily flows from the data driver circuit to the display panel and causes noise in the data driver circuit (for example, the current momentarily changes a power supply voltage and/or ground voltage of the data driver circuit). Due to the noise, one or more clocks of a received clock signal input to the DLL may be lost, which may unlock the DLL. Once the DLL is unlocked, it takes a considerable amount of time to lock it again. Thus, errors in a received clock signal occurring within a short period of time have long-lasting repercussions due to unlocking of the DLL.

Data driver circuit and delay-locked loop circuit