A rotating electric machine for driving a drive object is provided. The rotating electric machine includes a motor case, a stator, a winding, a rotor, a shaft, a base cap, an end cap, an output rod, base cap holes, end cap holes, and through bolts. The base cap has base cap flanges formed on a circumferential edge and extending radially-outward beyond an outer wall of the motor case. The end cap has end cap flanges formed on a circumferential edge and extending radially-outward beyond the outer wall of the motor case. Base cap holes are formed on the base cap flanges and end cap holes in axial alignment with the base cap holes are formed on the end cap flanges. Through bolts fasten the base cap flanges to the end cap flanges.

Conventionally, a rotating electric machine is used as a power-assist source for a power steering device. For example, the rotating electric machine of a power steering device described in Japanese patent No. 4,679,783, a front end cap and a rear end cap respectively covering front and rear ends of a pipe-shaped motor case are fastened together by two through bolts.
The rotating electric machine is configured to have a structure including a flange of the front end cap and a flange of the rear end cap fastened together by two through bolts. Therefore, the axial force for fastening each of the two through bolts is greater than the axial force of a similar structure having three or more bolts. As a result, the through bolts must have a greater outer diameter. Further, the through bolts are positioned radially outside of the motor case. Therefore, the total overall outer diameter of the rotating electric machine, including the through bolts, may increase resulting in a greater overall volume and/or size of the rotating electric machine.
Further, the two through bolts of the rotating electric machine are positioned unevenly around the circumference of the front and rear end caps. Therefore, the axial force caused by the fastening of the through bolt is unevenly applied around the circumferences of the front and the end caps. In such a manner, the front and rear end caps may be coaxially misaligned causing misalignment of the shaft with respect to the bearings within the front and rear end caps and results in an increase of an airgap between the rotor and the stator. As a result, the output of the rotating electric machine may decrease.
Moreover, since the rotating electric machine is used as the driving source of a power steering device in a vehicle, the rotating electric machine may be shaken or vibrated as the vehicle travels, for example. Stress from such vibration may be concentrated at the two fastening positions of the front and rear end caps where the two through bolts fasten the front and rear end caps. Therefore, such fastening positions on the flanges may become deformed and/or broken. To prevent deformation and/or breakage, the flanges may be reinforced resulting in flanges of greater size. However, reinforcing the flanges may result in larger front and rear end caps causing the rotating electric machine to have a greater total volume and/or size.

Rotating electric machine and electric power steering device


A power supply apparatus includes a power supply unit that wirelessly outputs power to an electronic apparatus, a control unit that determines that a predetermined object is detected if a reflection corresponding to power outputted is greater than or equal to a first value and determines that the predetermined object is detected if a change of a reflection corresponding to power outputted by the power supply unit is greater than or equal to a second value.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a power supply apparatus for wirelessly supplying power, a method, and a storage medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, a power supply system including a power supply apparatus having a primary coil for wirelessly outputting power without connector-based connections, and an electronic apparatus having a secondary coil for wirelessly receiving the power supplied from the power supply apparatus has been known.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-275266 discusses such a power supply system in which an electronic apparatus charges a battery by using the power received from a power supply apparatus via a secondary coil.
A conventional power supply apparatus supplies power to an electronic apparatus via a primary coil, and the electronic apparatus receives the power supplied from the power supply apparatus via a secondary coil.
However, there has been a problem that, if a foreign object such as a metal is placed between the primary and secondary coils, the power supply apparatus cannot suitably supply the electric power to the electronic apparatus because of the effect of the foreign object.
To prevent such a problem, it becomes necessary, when the power supply apparatus supplies the power to the electronic apparatus, to detect whether a foreign object exists in the vicinity of the primary coil and to control the power supply depending on the presence or absence of a foreign object.

Power supply apparatus, method, and storage medium to output wireless power, detect value relating to output power, and charge based on detected value


A mobile computer includes an input section to input a password and an operation indication, and a password memory section to store the password to confirm the authorization of a user. Features of the mobile computer of the present invention are a security confirmation section and an unauthorized use prevention section. The security confirmation section requests the user to input the password when the operation indication for moving from one a screen of activation time to another screen is inputted by the input section. The unauthorized use prevention section turns off the power supply of the mobile computer if the input password requested by the security confirmation section does not coincide with the password stored in the password memory section.

Recently, through the development of networks and small sized computers, the use of mobile computers for personal use to easily execute schedule programs, address book programs and memo note programs have rapidly spread. In such a mobile computer, when the power supply is turned on, a schedule application program, which is most frequently used, activated first and the top-level menu is displayed.
In a general workstation or personal computer, one machine is commonly used by multiple users. It is necessary to confirm the identity of the person who is about to use the computer. Therefore, the user must input his password to confirm his identity after log-in. By contrast, in a mobile computer, it is prerequisite that the user is only one person, and it is not necessary to confirm the identity of the person who is about to use it. Therefore, input of the password is not necessary. However, in case the user leaves the mobile computer behind, it is possible that the person who next turns on the power supply may be confirmed as the true user. In short, someone other than the true user can access personal information such as schedule information, which constitutes a problem from the viewpoint of security. In order to avoid this problem, some mobile computers--like workstations and personal computers--request the user to input a password when he turns on the power supply. However, in this case, the user must input his password whenever he turns on the power supply, which complicates the user's operation of the mobile computer.
Furthermore, nowadays, many mobile computers are used by users such as businessmen who frequently work outside of the office. This kind of user connects the mobile computer to the company network by telephone or directly to the company network when working at the office. In this way, information necessary for customers (for example, stocks price, exchange rate, profile of new customers) is downloaded to the mobile computer. If necessary, the mobile computer can be connected to the company network from a public telephone to download the information. When only a small quantity of information is to be downloaded, or when a high-spread communication circuit is used, the information can be downloaded in several seconds.
However, if a large quantity of information such as image data is to be downloaded, or when using a low speed communication network, downloading can take several minutes. In this case, it is burdensome for a busy user to have to watch the mobile computer until the download is completed, when he can then turn off the power supply. Furthermore, if the user is distracted by other business while waiting for the downloading process to be completed, he sometimes forgets to return altogether. This results in the complete depletion of the battery power supply.
Furthermore, users such as businessmen sometimes negotiate with the customer by using application program (for example, simulation of insurance amount in case of life insurance, assessed amount simulation of used car and estimated price simulation of a new car in case of car business). At the end of the work day, the businessman creates a daily report describing the day's business and the customers with whom he did business. He sometimes connect the mobile computer to the company network from home or over the public telephone network and sends the report. It takes a long time for the businessman to create this kind of daily report. In order to save time, it is well known that the history of a user's operation is recorded and submitted as a daily report. In the mobile computer, personal information is stored as part of a schedule and address programs. Therefore, in this method, the personal information that the user does not intend to report is also recorded and included in the daily report. Even if the personal information is not included and if all of the operational history are included, the user feels the restraint that everything he does is managed. On the other hand, if all of the operational history is sent to a manager, the manager must extract the necessary information form the operational history. The fact that the quantity of information to be managed is large is a problem.
Furthermore, in the past, a keyword to predetermine a user's area of technical interest is registered as part of the user profile, and related information is periodically extracted from information media such as magazines or newspapers and sent to the personal information equipment. Users of such information presentation services request that the information presented be more fitted to their specific interests. Therefore, the user is asked whether he is interested in the presented information. However, in this method, the user must answer the inquiries in addition to watching the presented information and his burden increases. As another method, a question regarding the degree of interest of each inquiry is combined with the presented information and the user checks the degree of interest feedback his interest to the information presenter. However, in this method, the user must respond to the question in addition to viewing the presented information, and his burden increases. In such a situation, the user's interest can be guessed by the user's operation history. However, in the same way of the above-mentioned daily report, if all of the operation history is reported to the manager, the manager must extract the necessary information from the operation history, and the quantity of the information to be managed greatly increases.
As mentioned-above, the mobile computer of the prior art includes the following problems.
(1) In the mobile computer used by a predetermined user, if the user leaves the mobile computer behind, it is impossible to decide whether a person who uses the mobile computer next is the authorized user.
(2) If it takes a long time to transmit the information by wired or wireless and if the user does not turn off the power supply of the mobile computer after comfirming completion of the transmission, the battery will be depleted.
(3) In the method to uniformly obtain the user's operation history to support the daily report or customize the information presentation service, the user feels restrained to use the mobile computer. Furthermore, unnecessary information included in the operation history is also reported to the manager's side. Therefore, the manager's burden to extract the necessary information greatly increases.

Mobile computer and a method for controlling in a mobile computer


An ECU cuts off a fuel supply to an engine when a vehicle is decelerating. The ECU sets the cancellation of the fuel supply cut-off based on the target idle speed of the engine such that the power transfer state is prevented from switching from an engine driven state to an engine drive state even if the fuel supply to the engine is restarted. When the running condition of the vehicle satisfies the cancellation condition, the ECU then cancels the fuel supply cut-off to restart the fuel supply to the engine.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to a control device and control method for a vehicle. More specifically, the invention relates to a technology that sets a cancellation condition for canceling a fuel supply cut-off to an engine.
2. Description of the Related Art
Typically, in order to enhance fuel efficiency, a "fuel supply cut-off" control that cuts off a fuel supply (injection) to an engine is executed when a vehicle is decelerating. When the running condition of the vehicle satisfies a cancellation condition for canceling the fuel supply cut-off mode, the fuel supply to the engine is restarted. Namely, the fuel supply cut-off mode is cancelled. Thus, the power transfer state is switched from an "engine driven state" in which the engine is driven by the power transferred from a transmission to an "engine drive state" in which the transmission is driven by the power from the engine. Accordingly, when the fuel supply cut-off mode is cancelled, shock may be caused. Especially, because a load due to an auxiliary mechanism driven by the power from the engine is great, the target idle speed is set to a high value. Therefore, when the engine speed is increased up to the target idle speed by canceling the fuel supply cut-off mode, the power transfer state is switched from the "engine driven state" to the "engine drive state" and shock may be caused. In order to minimize such shock, a technology for reducing the output of the engine has been proposed when the fuel supply cut-off mode is cancelled.
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2004-197595 (hereinafter, referred to as "JP-A-2004-197595") describes a shift control apparatus for a vehicle automatic transmission that includes an automatic transmission and a fuel supply cut-off device that cuts off a fuel supply to an engine if the engine speed exceeds a threshold value when the vehicle is decelerating. The shift control apparatus described in JP-A-2004-197595 further includes a fuel supply cut-off mode cancellation determination unit that determines whether the fuel supply cut-off performed by the fuel supply cut-off device has been cancelled and the fuel supply to the engine has been restarted; an engine drive state predicting unit that predicts whether the automatic transmission will be brought into the "engine drive state" if the fuel supply cut-off mode cancellation determination unit determines that the fuel supply to the engine has been restarted; and an engine output reduction unit that reduces the output of the engine if the engine drive state predicting unit predicts that the automatic transmission will be brought into the "engine drive state".
With the shift control apparatus described in JP-A-2004-197595, if the engine drive state predicting unit predicts that the automatic transmission will be brought into the "engine drive state" when the fuel supply cut-off mode cancellation determination unit determines that the fuel supply to the engine has been restarted, the engine output reduction unit reduces the output of the engine. It is therefore possible to appropriately suppress shock and noise that are caused even if the fuel supply to the engine is restarted.
However, in the shift control apparatus described in JP-A-2004-197595, an extra control for reducing the output of the engine needs to be executed. In addition, constants used in the control based on the output of the engine, the control for reducing the output of the engine, etc. need to be accurately set by repeating experiments and simulations. This causes the inconvenience, that is, setting the constants used in these controls takes a lot of time.

Control device and control method for vehicle


A deburring tool for deburring bore edges of bores consists of a rotating tool holder on which one or more radially adjustable cutting knives are arranged. To ensure universal application of the deburring tool, additional cutting tools are arranged on the tool holder in axial distance from the known cutting knives so that additional chamfers and plane surfaces in the area of and outside the bore can be machined. Also, a drill or milling cutter can be connected to the tool holder on the front side of the tool holder.

Object of the present invention is a deburring tool in accordance with the introductory part of Patent claim 1. Such deburring tools are known in various variants for patents of the same applicant. Characteristic of such deburring tools is that either are able to deburr the upper bore edge when penetrating a through-hole and deburr the rear bore edge.
When passing through the through-hole, the movable cutting knives are moved radially inward in the tool holder in order to avoid an undesired machining of the inner surface of the through-hole.
The use of such deburring tools has shown that it would be advantageous to carry out additional operations on bores with such a deburring tool in order to make the scope of application of the known deburring tool more universal.

Deburring tool with additional cutting tool


A portable self-defense spray to protect a person from danger under an emergency situation is provided. The compressive-spray structure includes a compact case manufactured in various designs by using a flexible long-length filling tube filled with the CN solution. In a typical spray structure, CN solution is always sprayed at only a right position, the filled CN solution is not completely exhausted, and the design of the self-defense spray is limited. The filling tube to receive the CN solution is provided in the case without being twisted. The vacuum pump operating member cooperating with the button member having the spray port is installed at one side of the filing tube. A cap is provided at an opposite side of the filling tube for the sealing purpose. Vacuum is generated with the pressing of the button member, so that the CN solution in the filling tube is sprayed due to compression.

Recently, when a person is in danger such as kidnapping and robbery, the person has reported the danger to the policy by using a cellular phone carried by the person. However, when the danger is reported by using the cellular phone, the person cannot rapidly manipulate the cellular phone for the report of the danger to the policy, and cannot rapidly cope with the danger to be personally applied to the person. In addition, the person has no countermeasure against the danger to be applied until the policy reaches the site after the police has been reported and dispatched.
The dangerous situation more seriously happens to women, which are more easily exposed to crimes, than men.
Accordingly, many portable self-protection articles have been provided. Among them, a self-defense spray has been mainly used to rapidly cope with the dangerous situation due to a small size, portability, and simple operation.
The self-defense spray has a structure of spraying CN solution, which is received in a receiving part provided in a case, to a spray port through an introduction tube, which is provided perpendicularly to the receiving part, as a button is pressed.
However, the self-defense spray has following disadvantages. Since most introduction tubes are separated from a bottom surface to some degree without completely making contact with the bottom surface in order to smoothly introduce the CN solution received in the receiving part, the CN solution remains on the bottom surface. In addition, when the spray is inclined for use, the CN solution is not smoothly introduced into the filling tube provided perpendicularly to the receiving part, so that the spray is not actually used.
Therefore, according to Korean Patent Registration No. 10-1078154 registered after being applied by an applicant of the present disclosure in order to improve the above problem, a case provided at the front portion thereof with a spray port includes a storage vessel filled with CN solution and having a rubber packing and the spray port having a vacuum pump operating member, so that the CN solution may be sprayed in any direction through a vacuum pump scheme if a press member is pressed.
However, since the case has a structure in which the storage vessel to receive the CN solution and the vacuum pump operating member are aligned in line with the spray port, the shapes of the self-defense spray are not various, but limited and crude, so that the user has resistance against the use of the spray.
The above information is presented as background information only to assist with an understanding of the present disclosure. No determination has been made, and no assertion is made, as to whether any of the above might be applicable as prior art with regard to the present disclosure.

Self-defense spray manufactured in various designs with portability


Secure private database querying on a database for a query having a formula evaluation on at least two keywords A and B comprises: a server receiving a Bloom filter tree comprised of encrypted Bloom filters of encrypted keywords from the database, wherein each Bloom filter in the Bloom filter tree is separately masked by a random mask pad P; receiving an encrypted version of the keywords A and B from the client; and obtaining masked Bloom filter indices for the keywords A and B. The client and server participate in secure function evaluation (SFE) with the client. The server has an input comprising the masked Bloom filter indices for the keywords A and B and the client has an input comprising the random mask pad P. The secure function evaluation comprises: removing the random mask pad P from the masked Bloom filter indices input by the server; determining if there is a matching Bloom filter for each of the keywords A and B; and applying the formula evaluation to determine if the formula is satisfied.

Secure Anonymous Database Searching has been employed when different parties possess data of mutual interest. See, for example, M. Raykova et al., "Secure Anonymous Database Search," Cloud Computing Security Workshop (CCSW) (Nov. 2009); and V. Pappas et al., "Private Search in the Real World," Proc. of the 27th Annual Computer Security Applications Conference (ACSAC) (Dec. 2011). Generally, secure anonymous database searching techniques allow a client to search information residing on a server without revealing the identity of the client or the content of the query to the server. At the same time, the server is protected in that the query capability is only granted to authorized clients and the clients do not learn anything unrelated to the query.
In one exemplary implementation, the server S encrypts the database with a separate key for each entry and provides the encrypted database to an index server IS. In addition, the server S creates an encrypted search structure that is also given to the index server IS. When a client C wants to query the database, the client C encrypts the query, sends it to the index server IS, and the query is executed blindly by the index server IS using the encrypted search structure.
In order to reduce the leakage of information about the query and the response, Bloom filters (BFs) of encrypted keywords have been used as the search structure. Heterogeneous elements, such as keywords, can be inserted into a Bloom filter. At a later time, a user can check whether a particular element was inserted into the Bloom filter by checking that several bits of the Bloom filter are set to one.
In a secure anonymous database searching system that employs Bloom filters, each encrypted database row that is stored by the index server IS has an associated encrypted Bloom filter. Checking encrypted keywords (supplied by the client C) with the Bloom filter allows the index server IS to determine if that keyword was associated with the corresponding database record, and to return the required records. Since the keywords are encrypted, the index server IS does not learn the content of the query.
Eu-Jin Goh, "Secure Indexes," Cryptology ePrint Archive: Report 2003/216 (http://eprint.iacr.org/2003/216), improves the scalability of such secure anonymous database searching systems by proposing the use of a tree of Bloom filters. Generally, a binary tree is built on top of the Bloom filters corresponding to database rows, with internal nodes being Bloom filters that include all the keywords included in any of the Bloom filters of the sub-tree. The database can now be searched more quickly, since the matching database row is identified by going down the Bloom filter tree.
A need remains for secure anonymous database searching systems that can process more complex queries than just keyword search. In particular, a need remains for secure anonymous database searching systems that can process queries requiring a formula evaluation, such as formulas, range queries, negations and approximations. Yet another need remains for secure anonymous database searching systems that can process queries requiring a formula evaluation without revealing whether each term of the formula is matched by the Bloom filter.

Secure private database querying system with content hiding bloom filters


A slurry system for a chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) process and a method for using the same wherein the slurry system includes an aqueous dispersion comprising at least abrasive polymer containing particles in an alkaline solution having a pH of less than about 9.5; and wherein the method includes providing a semiconductor wafer process surface including a oxide containing material and metal filled semiconductor features; providing the system; and, polishing in a CMP process the semiconductor wafer process surface using the slurry system to remove at least a portion of the oxide containing material and the metal comprising the metal filled semiconductor features.

Planarization is increasingly important in semiconductor manufacturing techniques. As device sizes decrease, the importance of achieving high resolution features through photolithographic processes correspondingly increases thereby placing more severe constraints on the degree of planarity required of a semiconductor wafer processing surface. Excessive degrees of surface non-planarity will undesirably affect the quality of several semiconductor manufacturing process including, for example, photolithographic patterning processes, where the positioning the image plane of the process surface within an increasingly limited depth of focus window is required to achieve high resolution semiconductor feature patterns.
In the formation of conductive interconnections, copper is increasingly used for forming metal interconnects such as vias and trench lines since copper has low resistivity and good electromigration resistance compared to other traditional interconnect metals such as aluminum. The undesirable contribution to electrical parasitic effects by metal interconnect residual resistivity has become increasingly important as device sizes have decreased. One problem with the use of copper relates to its relatively high degree of softness making it subject to high differential material removal rates compared to adjacent dielectric insulating oxide materials during planarization processes such as chemical mechanical polishing (CMP).
CMP planarization is typically used several different times in the manufacture of a multi-layer semiconductor device. For example, CMP is used as one of the processes in preparing a layered device structure in a multi-layer device for subsequent processing. CMP is used to remove excess metal after filling anisotropically etched semiconductor features with metal to electrically interconnect the several layers and areas that make up a multi-layer semiconductor device.
CMP generally includes placing a process surface of the wafer in contact against a flat polishing surface, and moving the wafer and the polishing surface relative to one another. The polishing action is typically aided by a slurry which includes for example, small abrasive particles such as colloidal silica (SiO2) or alumina (Al2O3) that abrasively act to remove a portion of the process surface. Additionally, the slurry may include chemicals that react with the process surface to assist in removing a portion of the surface material, the slurry typically being separately introduced between the wafer surface and the polishing pad. During the polishing or planarization process, the wafer is typically pressed against a rotating polishing pad. In addition, the wafer may also rotate and oscillate back and forth over the surface of the polishing pad to improve polishing effectiveness.
There are also several different types of slurries used in the CMP process. The most common abrasives used are silica (SiO2), alumina (Al2O3), ceria (CeO2), titania (TiO2), and zirconia (ZrO2). The abrasives are typically formed using two different methods that result in fumed and colloidal abrasives. Fumed abrasives include agglomerated particles that are larger in size than the dispersed, discrete particles of colloidal abrasives. For the same solids concentration, the removal rate using a fumed abrasive is higher than that using a colloidal abrasive due to sharp edged particle features and a broader particle size distribution in fumed abrasives. For the same reasons, the defect density using a fumed abrasive also tends to be higher.
To minimize defect formation, the colloidal abrasives having a more uniform particle size distribution are preferred. However, to achieve the same material removal rate as using a fumed abrasive, the solids concentration of a colloidal slurry must be almost three times higher. The higher required solids concentration undesirably increases the cost of the slurry and leads to difficult to clean surface residues.
One particular problem with the prior art methods of CMP involve the unique problems associated with the use of low-k (low dielectric constant) materials as an inter-layer dielectric (ILD) together with copper filled features. For example, poor adhesion between the copper and the low-k material causes peeling back of the ILD layer at the copper sidewall to occur upon subjecting the polishing surface to CMP stresses. Other defects associated with CMP of copper together with low-k materials include erosion along the ILD layer/copper feature interface (feature sidewall erosion) in both relatively wide copper areas such as bonding pads and relatively long and narrow copper filled areas such as trench lines having high pattern density.
Further, the lower strength of the low-k materials has led to increased vulnerability of copper/low-k systems to CMP induced defects caused by slurries using abrasives with relatively high hardness such as fumed alumina and silica. On the other hand, slurries with colloidal particles including alumina and silica require excessively high solids content which is believed to contribute to feature sidewall erosion and difficult to clean surface residues. For example, typical slurries in the prior art have included a relatively high solids content of about 6% to about 25% by volume. The relatively high solids content tends to increase polished material residue and slurry residue accumulation within eroded or dished portions of the surface requiring extensive cleaning processes to fully remove the accumulated residues. In addition, other chemical characteristics of prior art slurries such as pH and polishing methods adapted for polishing one layer of material in a copper CMP process may not be conducive to achieving optimal surface planarity during the polishing of other material layers underlying the copper layer. As such, it has been difficult to develop CMP methods including abrasive slurries that can accomplish both requirements of an acceptable material removal rate while minimizing the introduction of defects at the semiconductor wafer surface including feature sidewall erosion.
For example, referring to FIG. 1A, a cross sectional side view of a portion of a semiconductor wafer is shown having a copper filled feature e.g., 12, for example a bonding pad or trench line, is formed in ILD layer 14A by an anisotropic etching process. The feature is typically filled with copper layer 16B by an electroplating process after forming an adhesion/barrier layer e.g., 16A, for example tantalum nitride (TaN) to line the feature opening. The feature openings are anisotropically etched into a low-k dielectric material ILD layer 14A formed of, for example, carbon or fluorine doped oxide, and one or more layers of an oxide 14B, for example having an ARC coating, for example formed of silicon oxynitride (e.g., SiON) and an optional oxide capping layer, for example SiO2, formed overlying the ILD layer 14A.
Referring to FIG. 1B, in a typical CMP process, the excess copper in copper layer 16B above the feature level is first removed followed by removal of an overlying adhesion/barrier layer 16A above the feature level. Finally an oxide CMP polishing process, using a slurry containing a polishing formulation according to the prior art is then used to remove the oxide layer 14B and buff or remove residual scratches in the ILD layer 14A. During the polishing process, feature sidewall erosion, for example as shown at 18A at the ILD layer/copper interface forms a sidewall recess with acts to trap slurry and polished material residue. In addition, peeling of the ILD layer away from the copper filled feature during CMP frequently occurs. Further, the presence of recessed areas in the copper feature surface caused by dishing or erosion during the CMP process compromises device electrical reliability.
For example referring to FIG. 1C is shown a feature profile at line A1 as obtained by a profilometer measurement of a copper filled bonding pad following a CMP process including an oxide polishing process according to the prior art. Shown on the vertical axis is relative depth in Angstroms from the wafer surface adjacent the copper bonding pad. Shown on the horizontal axis is the distance in microns along the wafer surface including the copper bonding that the profilometer is passed over (scan length). The sidewall recesses are indicated at A2 and A3 having a depth of about 1400 Angstroms.
Therefore, there is a need in the semiconductor art to develop a slurry composition and method for polishing a metal filled semiconductor feature to reduce CMP induced defects including sidewall feature erosion.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide a slurry composition and method for polishing a metal filled semiconductor feature to reduce CMP induced defects including sidewall feature erosion while overcoming other shortcomings and deficiencies in the prior art.

Polymeric particle slurry system and method to reduce feature sidewall erosion

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd


Modular pressurized hotbox for use and substitution in a variety of pressurized electrochemical applications to include reversible solid oxide electrolyzer and fuel cells, energy storage systems, renewable fuel production, solid-state hydrogen pumping and liquefaction, and oxygen transport membranes. This is enabled by mixed electronic and ionic conducting compositions of vanadia-yttria and vanadia-calcia stabilized zirconia and a dry powder method of manufacture for ceramic core stacks.

Applications of MEIC include separation membranes and electrodes for power production, electrolysis, and solid-state pumping. A small number of lanthanide perovskite ceramic materials have been identified as suitable MEICs for cathode electrodes in SOFCs due to their high conductivity and stability in oxidizing environments. SOFCs directly convert chemical energy from hydrogen, natural gas, or liquid hydrocarbon fuels into electrical work through solid-state electrochemistry. FIG. 1 outlines the basic principles of operation with two MEIC's sandwiching an ionic conductor. The oxygen ion conducting electrolyte, commonly YSZ, prevents electron flow, directing the electrons through an external electrical circuit to perform work. The cathode catalyzes the oxygen gas splitting so it can conduct via the electrolyte to the anode. The anode catalyzes the fuel oxidation reaction and conducts the electrons to the electrical circuit. The difference in chemical potentials between the electrons in the cathode and anode side (after chemical reaction) results in an electrical voltage that can perform work. In SOECs, the pathway of electrons and ions is reversed, using electricity to split steam into component hydrogen and oxygen.
Efficient oxygen conducting cells require a thin non-porous layer to facilitate ionic diffusion surrounded by electrodes and gas channels. Individual cells are stacked using metallic interconnects which conduct electrons and route the fuel and oxidant gases across the SOFC surface. Current production technologies include extrusion or tape-casting, followed by screen printing or thermal spraying. Additive manufacturing with ink-jet printers has also been attempted. Use of metal components in the SOFC stack has drawbacks. Chrome which gives steel stability at high operating temperatures (650 C to 750 C) forms a chromia layer on the cathode that is highly electrically resistive and dramatically increases the area specific resistance (ASR) of the cell. Nickel in the anode is poisoned by sulfur compounds common in natural gas and liquid hydrocarbon fuels. Despite these problems, the SOFC community continues to use metal for interconnects because it is the lowest cost material that can conduct electrons and not oxygen ions in both reducing and oxidizing gaseous environments. The SOFC community has invested considerable time and money into chemical coatings that delay or minimize chrome poisoning while simultaneously not affecting the chemistry of the cathode materials.
Alternatives to YSZ electrolytes that exhibit sufficient oxygen ion conduction, typically lack mechanical strength or chemical stability in either oxidizing or reducing gaseous environments, and thus require specialized barrier layers. Oxygen conducting perovskites, cubic fluorite cerias, Brownmillerite-structured oxide ion conductors, and layered aurivillius-structured compounds have all been examined for fuel cell applications. Lanthanide perovskites effectively catalyze the oxygen gas splitting, but don't survive in reducing environments, and in electrolysis operation these cathodes delaminate from the defect cubic structure of the YSZ electrolyte. Ni-YSZ cermet (metal-ceramic composite) commonly used in SOFC anodes adheres well to the YSZ electrolyte but oxidizes quickly in a non-reducing environment. Special care must be taken to manage start-up and shut down to avoid oxidizing this anode. Additionally, the nickel forms NiS (sulfide) and evaporates when exposed to fuels containing ppm levels of H2S. Carbon cokes easily on the nickel's surface in an oxygen deficient fuel reaction, requiring systems to recirculate additional steam through the anode chamber. The carbon coking can be reversed with excess water and slight amount of oxygen flow in the anode side while the sulfur poisoning is irreversible.
Solutions to individual issues commonly exacerbate other problems or create altogether new dilemmas. For example, a ceria bond coat added prior to cathode layer deposition minimizes delamination by effectively bonding to both the cubic zirconia and the cathode perovskite, but the ceria coating includes a rare and expensive element and increases contact resistance. Molybdenum similarly addresses the coking and sulfur intolerance of the anode while increasing material cost and contact resistance.
Individual manufactures differ, but Ni-YSZ/YSZ/LSM cells with stainless steel (SS) interconnects have become the most common within the SOFC community. Various chemistry improvements enhance durability or initial performance, but none address the challenges of pressurization in future SOFC development. Pressurization increases the coking and sulfur degradation rate and increases delaminating of the cathode. Most development work attempts to improve SOFC/SOEC performance with the same component materials: varying cell production methods, stacking arrangements, and balance-of-plant control systems to collectively manage fundamental material issues.
Tape casting produces uniformly thin sheets of support material, either electrolyte or anode, that can be cut to desired cell sizes and shapes. The remaining layers are deposited onto this support layer prior to co-sintering of the cell. Tape casting produces single cells that require metal interconnects to electrically bridge the cells. Warpage of the cell after sintering, caused by drastically different theoretical densities of the dissimilar layers, is a common challenge that limits the scale-up. Warpage can cause mechanical failures and increases the difficulty and expense of sealing.
Screen printing is commonly employed to deposit either a thin electrolyte or electrode layer. Ink is transferred onto a substrate using a blade to scrape the ceramic ink over an open mesh. A thin, single layer can be printed with intricate aerial patterns. The ink has to dry and the ink polymer burnt out prior to deposition of the next layer. Thermal spraying differs slightly from screen printing. It is a continuous process, similar to tape casting and different from the batch processing of screen printing. A heated stream of pure ceramic powder is accelerated at high velocities and temperatures (plasmas) and embedded onto the substrate. The ceramic layers can be between 10s of microns to a few mm Thermal spraying has a fast deposition rate, but stacking multiple layers is not advised as there is a high chance of material diffusion that could compromise a thin gas tight electrolyte layer. These production techniques are best suited for wide area thin cells with external and expensive gas manifolding and electrical bridging.

Fuel cell and electrolyzer hotbox module using conductive zirconia stacks


The present invention provides a toner which is excellent in low-temperature fixability and transparency and has high gloss, and which is excellent in offset resistance, storage stability, and development stability. The toner is characterized in that: a square radius of inertia Rt at a peak top of a main peak in GPC-RALLS-viscometer analysis of tetrahydrofuran (THF) soluble matter when the toner is dissolved in a THF solvent at 25° C. for 24 hours is 1.0 nm to 3.8 nm; and the square radius of inertia Rt and a square radius of inertia Rp at a peak top of a main peak in GPC-RALLS-viscometer analysis of THF soluble matter when linear polystyrene, having an absolute peak molecular weight value at the same value as a main peak value of the toner, is dissolved in a THF solvent at 25° C. for 24 hours satisfy the relationship of Rt/Rp<0.85.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a toner for use in an image forming method intended for visualizing an electrophotograph, or an electrostatic charge image.
2. Description of the Related Art
A large number of image forming methods such as electrostatic recording methods, magnetic recording methods, and toner jet methods have been conventionally known. For example, a large number of electrophotographic methods have been known (see, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 2,297,691, JP 42-23910 B, and JP 43-24748 B). Electrophotographic methods generally involve: utilizing a photoconductive substance first to form an electrostatic latent image on a photosensitive member of various means; next, developing the latent image with toner to provide a visible image; transferring the toner onto a transfer material such as paper as required; and then fixing the toner image onto the transfer material by using heat, pressure, or the like to provide a copied article. The toner remaining on the photosensitive member without being transferred is cleaned by various methods, and then the above-mentioned steps are repeated.
Various methods and device have been developed for the step of fixing the toner image onto a sheet such as paper, as the above-mentioned final step. A method commonly used in recent years is a pressure and heat fixing system using a heat roller. The pressure and heat fixing system using a heat roller involves passing the transfer material while bringing a surface of the heat roller having releasability with respect to toner and a surface of a toner image on the transfer material into contact with each other under pressure to fix the toner image. In the mode, the surface of the heat roller and the toner image on the transfer material are brought into contact with each other under pressure, so the mode provides extremely good thermal efficiency upon fusion of the toner image onto the transfer material, and allows fixation to be quickly performed.
By the way, various different toners have been used in copying machines and printers depending on models of the copying machines and the printers. This is mainly due to differences in fixation speed and fixation temperature. In other words, the reason for the foregoing is that fixability or a gloss of a fixed image is largely affected by the fixation speed or temperature because the surface of the heat roller and the toner image in a molten state are brought into contact with each other under pressure. General setting is as follows: the temperature of the surface of the heat roller is set to be low when a fixation speed is low, while the temperature of the surface of the heat roller is set to be high when the fixation speed is high. This is due to a need for keeping a quantity of heat to be applied by the heat roller to the toner at a nearly constant value irrespective of the fixation speed in order that the toner may be fixed onto the transfer material.
Under such circumstances, a user's preference for, in particular, gloss varies from image to image, so it has been desired that the user should be capable of selecting a level of glossiness. A relationship between a loss modulus G″ and a temperature at which the loss modulus is obtained has been described as an approach for controlling the gloss (see, for example, JP 2002-099110 A and JP 2004-151438 A). However, a temperature region in which desired gloss can be obtained in each of the documents cannot be said to be sufficient, and is still susceptible to improvement.
In addition, when the quantity of heat to be applied onto the transfer material varies, the gloss of an image to be obtained also varies. Suppose, for example, the following case: when the transfer material is passed through a fixing unit, the temperature of a heat roller decreases so that the quantity of heat to be applied to a leading end portion of the transfer material at the time of onset of fixation is different from the quantity of heat to be applied to a rear end portion of the transfer material at the time of completion of the fixation. In this case, the end portions of the resultant image are different from each other in gloss. One is apt to have a feeling of discrepancy in a case of a full-color image in particular. Further, when a large number of images are continuously outputted, the temperature of the heat roller decreases, with a result that an image at the time of onset of the image output and an image to be obtained at the time of completion of the image output are different from each other in gloss in some cases.
In addition, a fixing device according to a film heating mode has been recently put into practical use from the viewpoints of quick start property and energy savings (see, for example, JP 04-44075 A and JP 04-204980 A). However, the fixing device is problematic in terms of quantity of heat when the device is used for a full-color image forming device or a high-speed machine, each of which requires a large quantity of heat. In addition, in the fixing device, applied pressure of a fixing nip portion cannot be made very large, so the device is problematic in terms of improvements in gloss and speed.
Further, a toner has been desired which not only allows a toner image to be certainly brought into close contact with paper but also prevents a fixing roller from generating, for example, an offset upon fixation, and which does not cause any image defect due to a stress after the fixation.
Meanwhile, a method of increasing a degree of branching of a polymer of a vinyl resin by using a macromonomer (see, for example, JP 03-87753 A and JP 03-203746 A), and a method involving use of a hydroxy vinyl monomer modified with ε′-caprolactone (see, for example, JP 04-24648 A) have been proposed. However, when a large number of macromonomers are used for increasing the degree of branching in each of those methods, a glass transition temperature of the resin decreases, and storage stability of the toner reduces. Examples of a method of keeping the storage stability of the toner at a good level include: a method involving increasing molecular weight of a main chain of the polymer to increase the glass transition temperature of the main chain of the polymer; and a method involving changing a monomer composition of the main chain of the polymer without changing the molecular weight of the main chain to increase only the glass transition temperature of the main chain. However, any of those methods increase the fixation temperature. In addition, a lowering effect of the temperature at which the toner is fixed due to an increase in the degree of branching is small, so an improvement in gloss is difficult to be obtained.
A method involving the use of: a polyvalent carboxylic acid which is trivalent or more or a polyhydric alcohol which is trivalent or more; or a dicarboxylic acid having a side chain or a diol having a side chain has been proposed as a method of increasing the degree of branching of a polyester resin (see, for example, JP 59-228658 A and JP 62-195678 A). However, the method involving the use of a polyvalent carboxylic acid which is trivalent or more or a polyhydric alcohol which is trihydric or more increases an amount of a gel component (i.e., THF insoluble matter), though the method increases the degree of branching. As a result, hot offset resistance is improved, but a fixation temperature is increased.
A relationship between weight average molecular weight measured by a light scattering method and weight average molecular weight measured by GPC of a component showing a molecular weight of 50,000 or less in a molecular weight distribution by GPC in a THF soluble matter of a toner binder resin has been described (see, for example, JP-09-6050 A). In addition, a relationship between a weight average molecule weight measured by a light scattering method and an inertial radius in a toner binder resin having a molecular weight in a region of 2,000 to 100,000 has been described (see, for example, JP 09-146305 A). Further, a toner containing the low-molecular-weight polymer component whose molecular weight is 50,000 or less and, whose branching index is less than one has been described (see for example, JP 07-230188A). However, the toner binder resin described in each of those documents has a low degree of branching and a limited molecular weight range. Accordingly, the resin cannot sufficiently take balance of low-temperature fixability, offset resistance, and night gloss at a high level.
Further, the respective color toners mounted on a full-color copying machine or printer must be sufficiently mixed in a heat pressure fixing step without an impairment of an improvement in color reproducibility or transparency of an overhead projector (OHP) image.
For example, a toner containing a linear polymer excellent in low-temperature fixability, gloss, and OHP image transparency as the binder resin has been described (see, for example, JP 2002-07255 A). However, the toner is still susceptible to improvement in a recent high-speed developing system.
As described above, in a high-speed developing system, a toner has been desired which provides a high-quality image without causing any image defect due to a stress after fixation, and which provides an image having a constant gloss width in a wide temperature region irrespective of the constitution of a fixing unit.


A protection cell for a cell library. The protection cell defines a protection circuit for an IC having a driving device with a first supply voltage Vdd1 and an output, and a driven device having an input and a second supply voltage Vdd2. The protection circuit includes a first device from the group consisting of a P-diode and a gate-Vdd PMOS. The first device is coupled between a first power bus connected to Vdd2 and the input of the driven device. The input of the driven device is coupled by way of a resistor to the output of the driving device. A second device corresponding to the first device is provided, from the group consisting of an N-diode and a grounded gate NMOS. The second device is coupled between the input of the driven device and a ground bus.

With the continued miniaturization of integrated circuit ("IC") devices, the current trend is to produce integrated circuits having shallower junction depths, thinner gate oxides, lightly-doped drain ("LDD") structures, shallow trench isolation ("STI") structures, and self-aligned silicide ("salicide") processes, all of which are used in advanced sub-quarter-micron complementary metal oxide semiconductor ("CMOS") technologies. All of these processes cause the related CMOS IC products to become more susceptible to damage due to ESD events. Therefore, ESD protection circuits are built onto the chip to protect the devices and circuits on the IC from ESD damage.
As semiconductor processing technology advances, the gate dielectric of MOS transistors becomes thinner and increasingly susceptible to damage caused by ESD current. This issue becomes more serious when the MOS transistor is used in a multi-power domain circuitry. where a diode module is typically connected to an I/O ground bus between two power domains. When the ESD occurs, the diode module may induce the ESD current to flow through a damaging path other than the I/O ground bus as a desired path, thereby damaging the thin-gate-dielectric MOS transistors.
According to the ESD Association's Charge Device Model (CDM) roadmap, with the advent of larger capacitance IC packages, the higher capacitance will lead to relatively higher magnitude discharge peak current levels, creating new challenges.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd.


A communication apparatus includes: a first determination unit configured to determine whether a first voltage identified under conditions where a telephone connection terminal is connected to a modem unit is greater than or equal to a first threshold value; a second determination unit configured to, if the first determination unit determines that the first voltage is greater than or equal to the first threshold value, determine whether a second voltage identified under conditions where the telephone connection terminal is disconnected from the modem unit tends to decrease; and a third determination unit configured to determine connection states of the telephone connection terminal and a line connection terminal based on determination results of the first determination unit and the second determination unit. If the second determination unit determines that the identified second voltage has decreased more than once, the third determination unit determines that a wrong connection has been made.

Field of the Disclosure
The present disclosure relates to a communication apparatus that performs communication via a telephone line, and that includes a line connection terminal to which the telephone line is connected, and a telephone connection terminal to which a telephone is connected.
Description of the Related Art
In various communication apparatuses, such as a facsimile machine and the like, that perform communication via a telephone line, a telephone for a voice call is further connected to the communication apparatuses in some cases. In such cases, the communication apparatuses each includes a line connection terminal to which the telephone line is connected, and a telephone connection terminal to which the telephone is connected. In many cases, however, there are used a line connection terminal and a telephone connection terminal that are the same in shape, the respective terminals are therefore connected to respective wrong connection destinations sometimes, and thus the communication apparatuses do not operate properly. Incidentally, there is known a communication apparatus including a connection unit (hereinafter also referred to as "telephone connection relay") that controls whether or not a telephone connection terminal is to be connected to a modem unit and a line connection terminal. Japanese Patent Publication No. 5146430 discloses the following method. A line voltage acquired under conditions where a telephone connection terminal is connected by a relay is compared with a line voltage acquired under conditions where the telephone connection terminal is not connected by the relay, and, if the line voltage acquired under conditions where the telephone connection terminal is connected is higher, it is determined that a wrong connection has been made.
Incidentally, a telephone to be connected to the telephone connection terminal typically includes an element (hereinafter referred to as "capacitance element") having a capacitance component, such as a capacitor or varistor, for various purposes. For this reason, when a telephone line is connected to the communication apparatus, the capacitance element is charged by a line voltage supplied from the telephone line to a value (for example, 48 V) close to the line voltage. In a normal standby state, the telephone is not disconnected by the telephone connection relay, and is connected to the line within the communication apparatus, and thus the capacitance element included in the telephone is charged even if the telephone is subjected to a wrong connection. Even if the telephone line is disconnected by the telephone connection relay under such conditions, electric charges accumulated in the capacitance element included in the telephone subjected to a wrong connection are not discharged quickly. For this reason, in the method described in Japanese Patent Publication No. 5146430, the voltage may not decrease depending on a charge voltage or discharge state of a capacitance element, and, although a telephone is actually wrongly connected to a line connection terminal, it may be erroneously detected that the telephone is correctly connected. In particular, in the case where an exchange is a private branch exchange, a voltage value applied is typically low, a phenomenon in which the value of a reduction in voltage decreases is therefore more conspicuous, and thus the line voltage acquired under conditions where the telephone connection terminal is connected and the line voltage acquired under conditions where the telephone connection terminal is not connected are substantially the same value.

Communication apparatus and control method for the same


A method for measurement reporting to improve throughput when using multicarrier cells is disclosed. The method can include a wireless communication device performing a first measurement of a primary carrier and performing a second measurement of a secondary carrier. The method can further include the wireless communication device deriving a combined measurement as a function of the first measurement and the second measurement. The method can also include the wireless communication device reporting the combined measurement to a serving network.

Endeavors to develop improved cellular networks providing greater throughput to support faster data transfer rates is ongoing. One area in which development is occurring is the development of dual carrier cells. In dual carrier cells, a wireless communication device can be assigned two frequency carriers that can be used concurrently to support higher throughput.
For example, dual carrier high-speed packet access (HSPA) technology is being deployed widely in areas such as the United States, Canada, and Europe. In dual carrier HSPA, instead of a device being assigned a single 5 megahertz (MHz) carrier, two adjacent 5 MHz carriers are used. Both of the carriers can be capable of equal throughputs. When a device initiates a data transfer, the device usually initiates the data transfer on a single carrier. The network can subsequently configure the device with a secondary carrier and set up radio bearers so that the device can use both carriers to support the data transfer.
A wireless communication device configured with dual carriers can send measurement reports to the serving network that can be used by the network to make handover decisions (e.g., decisions to change the serving cell). However, wireless communication devices configured with dual carriers typically perform measurement reporting based only on the primary carrier. While relying only on measurement of the primary carrier can work in many cases, it can be a problem if the device's secondary carrier is impacted by a high level of interference and/or loading, which can affect the channel quality and, thus, the throughput available on the secondary carrier. In such a situation, the device may enjoy a high level of throughput on the primary carrier, but may have a low throughput level on the secondary carrier. As such, while the primary carrier can provide a good level throughput for the device, the overall throughput of the carriers configured for the device can be reduced due to the low throughput on the secondary carrier. However, since reporting is based only on the primary carrier, the network can determine to maintain the device on the present dual carrier pair due to the high quality reported for the primary carrier and, thus, the device can remain stuck with the dual carrier pair in spite of the low overall throughput of the dual carrier pair.

Enhanced measurement reporting to improve throughput when using multicarrier cells


A process for detecting upstream congestion within an ATM switch. The switch includes several junctions linked together by a cross-connector. In each input junction, the number of incoming cells bound for a same specified output port of a junction are counted. Results of the count supplied by the input junctions are transferred to the output port. Results of the counts in the output junction are aggregated and a congestion is declared in the output port if the aggregate number of cells is greater than a specified threshold value.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a process for detecting upstream congestion within a distributed-architecture switch such as those used in packet-switched data transmission networks, known by the abbreviation ATM standing for xe2x80x9casynchronous transfer modexe2x80x9d.
2. Discussion of the Background
It applies in particular to the implementation within ATM networks of the category of service known by the abbreviation ABR standing for xe2x80x9cavailable bit ratexe2x80x9d. This service allows a user to use the passband available over the path of a previously established connection without obliging him/her to make a static reservation of resources when establishing the connection. In return for this flexibility, the two ends of the connection must adapt their bit rate to the passband available. For this purpose, particular ATM cells, known as RM cells, where RM stands for xe2x80x9cresource managementxe2x80x9d, make it possible to inform the ends of a connection about the availability of the resources in the network. These cells, generated and processed in real time by the end equipment and also by the ATM switches, comprise fields intended to convey bit rate information, and in particular the ER bit rate recommended to the source by the network, ER being the abbreviation for xe2x80x9cexplicit cell ratexe2x80x9d.
Switches which have this capabiity calculate the ER bit rate and write it to the RM cells. The various known algorithms for calculating the ER bit rate make it possible to share out the resources of a given output port among the various connections which pass through this port. These algorithms generally operate differently depending on whether the switch is in a state of congestion or not, that is to say whether the stream of cells bound for a relevant port is larger than the output bit rate permitted on this port or not.
Congestion is in principle excluded for categories of services which require a static reservation of the resources which they use. Moreover, the ATM cells corresponding to these categories of services are generally switched straightaway, without waiting. This is not the case for services which do not necessitate any reservation of resources, such as ABR, hence buffer memories are generally provided so as to absorb the excess cell rate, by waiting for the sources to reduce their rate in response to the network indications conveyed in the RM cells.
Under these conditions, the momentary congestion of an ouput port of a switch is manifested mechanically as an accumulation of cells bound for this port in the buffer memories. In the case of a distributed-architecture switch composed of several input junctions coupled together by a cross-connector, a momentary congestion of an output port is manifested as an accumulation in the input junctions of the cells bound for this port. This is referred to as upstream congestion. This distributing within the input junctions of the cells bound for a specified output port makes it difficult to aggregate the various partial items of information relating to the cells waiting in each junction, so as to allow bookkeeping operations on them.
The purpose of the invention is to solve this problem by defining the information to be managed in each input junction and by defining a means for integrating the partial items of information.
To this end, the subject of the invention is a process for detecting upstream congestion within a distributed-architecture ATM switch composed of several input and output junctions for transmission in an ATM cell network, including counting in each input junction the number of incoming cells and outgoing cells bound for a specified output port of a junction, transferring the results of the counts supplied by the input junctions to the output port, aggregating the results of the counts in the output junction, and declaring a congestion in the output port if the aggregate number of cells is greater than a specified threshold value.

Method for detecting upstream congestion in an ATM commutator with a switching system architecture and input memorization


An audio/video synchronizing system and a monitor apparatus can provide a set of contents where the images and the sounds of the contents show lip synchronization to the user so that the user may not have any strange and uneasy feeling if only the images are transmitted wirelessly. A contents server outputs sounds of a set of contents at a timing delayed by an initial delay time (1 second) that is greater than the transmission delay time according to the PTS and the DTS defined by the contents server by taking the largest transmission delay into consideration. The monitor corrects the time base of the STC added to the video packets according to the transmission delay time and subsequently outputs the images according to the SCR, the time base of which is corrected, and the PTS and the DTS, for which the initial delay time is defined. With this arrangement, it is possible to compensate the delay of the transmission delay time and display the images at a timing synchronized with the timing of outputting the sounds. Thus, it is possible to realize lip synchronization between the sounds and the images if only the images are transmitted wirelessly.

The present invention relates to an audio/video synchronizing system and a monitor apparatus that can suitably be applied to an intra-car entertainment system.
FIG. 1 of a known intra-car entertainment system 1 adapted to select a set of contents of a program, or an audio and/or video work, coming from a TV broadcasting station or a radio broadcasting station or stored in a DVD (digital versatile disk) or a hard disk 2 by means of a selector 3 according to a controller operation made by a user and transmits the contents data of the selected set of contents to a decoder 4.
The decoder 4 restores the images and the sounds of the contents by decoding the transmitted contents data and causes a display 5 to display the restored images and a speaker 6 to output the restored sounds. Thus, the images and the sounds are output in a synchronized state.
Meanwhile, Japanese Patent Appln. Laid-Open Publication No. 2004-201022 discloses a technique for outputting images and sounds in a synchronized state. More specifically, the sounds of a moving picture are wirelessly transmitted to a remotely located speaker or the like and output in synchronism with the images being displayed on a display apparatus.
On the other hand, so-called mini-vans and other wagon type automobiles that have become popular in recent years are mostly equipped with a wireless rear monitor for providing contents to the passenger(s) sitting on the rear seat for the purpose of entertainment. Then, the images of a set of contents can be wirelessly transmitted from a contents server arranged near the front seats to the wireless rear monitor arranged near the rear seat and displayed there.
Concretely, as shown in FIG. 2, an intra-car entertainment system 10 using a wireless rear monitor includes a wireless rear monitor 12 and is adapted to transmit wirelessly only the video data of a set of contents from a contents server 11 arranged near the front seats to the wireless rear monitor 12 arranged near the rear seat.
Thus, the wireless rear monitor 12 decodes the video data of a set of contents received from the contents server 11 at the side of the front seat and displays the set of contents. The wireless rear monitor 12 can also electrically charge the internal battery it has by means of a charging station 14 that is connected to a power source 13 and also arranged near the rear seat. The wireless rear monitor 12 may be arranged on the charging station 14. It may be needless to say that the wireless rear monitor 12 can display the images of a set of contents while it is arranged on the charging station 14.
FIG. 3 is a schematic block diagram of the intra-car entertainment system 10, in which the components same as those of FIG. 1 are denoted respectively by the same reference symbols. Referring to FIG. 3, contents server 11 of the intra-car entertainment system 10 selects a set of contents from sets of contents including those that are compressed and encoded by an encoder 21 and those that are read out from a hard disk 2 by means of a selector 3 that operates according to the operation of a controller and transmits the selected set of contents to a distributor 22.
The distributor 22 separates the video data and the audio data of the contents data of the set of contents and transmits only the audio data to an audio decoder 23, which decodes the audio data so that the decoded audio data are output from a front speaker 6 as the sounds of the set of contents. On the other hand, the distributor 22 packetizes the video data and wirelessly transmits the packetized video data to a wireless transmitter/receiver 25 of the wireless rear monitor 12 by way of a wireless transmitter/receiver 24.
In the wireless rear monitor 12, the video data received by means of the wireless transmitter/receiver 25 are sent out to a video decoder 26, which video decoder 26 decodes the contents and displays the images of the contents on the display 27.
Referring to FIG. 4, the wireless transmitter/receiver 24 of the contents server 11 is adapted to transmit video data as PS (program stream) packets when it transmits video data to the wireless rear monitor 12. A PS packet is composed of a PS header and a PES (packetized elementary stream) packet.
A start code, SCR bases and an SCR extension are described in the PS header. The SCR bases represent the upper order digit values of an SCR (system clock reference) expressed by upper order 33 bits with a degree of precision of 90 [khz], whereas SCR extension represents the lower order digit values expressed by lower order 9 bits with a degree of precision of 27 [MHz].
Note that an SCR is a time stamp for transmitting clock time information of the transmitting side, or the contents server 11, to the wireless rear monitor 12. The system time clock (to be referred to as STC hereinafter) of the contents server 11 and the STC of the wireless rear monitor 12 are synchronized with each other by means of the SCR.
Referring now to FIG. 5, a PES packet is composed of a PES header and video data of an access unit as defined in the International Organization for Standardization (ISO)/IEC13813-1. A start code, a stream ID, a packet length . . . , a PTS (presentation time stamp) and a DTS (decoding time stamp), . . . are described in the PES header.
A PTS is a clock counter value as observed at a 90 [khz] clock that indicates the output clock time of the access unit of the video data. A DTS is a clock counter value as observed at a similar 90 [khz] clock that indicates the decoding time clock, showing the timing of decoding.
Thus, the video decoder 26 of the wireless rear monitor 12 is adapted to reproduce the STC according to the SCR of the PS packet received from the contents server 11, decode the video data at the time when the clock time of the STC becomes equal to the value of the PTS and that of the DTS value and output the decoded data to the display 27.
In an intra-car entertainment system 10 having the above-described configuration, transmission delays can occur due to various factors such as retransmission control that is required when a transmission error arises because video data that are packetized to PS packets are wirelessly transmitted from the contents server 11 to the wireless rear monitor 12.
More specifically, as shown in FIGS. 6A and 6B, the video decoder 26 of the wireless rear monitor 12 is adapted to decode the video data according to the SCR and the PTS and the DTS of the PES packet contained in the PS packet of a frame (29.97 [Hz]) it receives from the contents server 11 on the basis of a 1 access unit and output the decoded video data to the display 27.
Note that the PTS and the DTS are the values of the readings of clock counters as observed by means of [90 khz] clocks respectively and the SCR is the value of the reading of a clock counter as observed by means of a [27 MHz] clock. The value of the reading of the clock counter of the SCR is expressed by that of a clock counter of frequency division of 1/300. Thus, the video data of a frame is transmitted at every reading of "3003" of the clock counter.
The wireless rear monitor 12 decodes video data and outputs them to the display 27 according to the SCR, the PTS and the DTS it receives from the contents server 11. If, for instance, a transmission delay of 0.5 seconds occurs between the contents server 11 and the wireless rear monitor 12 due to a control operation for retransmitting video data due to a transmission error at the time of the wireless transmission, there arises a time lag of 0.5 seconds in the clock time information of the SCR between the contents server 11 and the wireless rear monitor 12 so that the sounds output from the front speaker 6 by the contents server 11 and the images displayed on the display 27 of the wireless rear monitor 12 would no longer show lip synchronization.
Thus, even when the images that are displayed on the display 27 of the wireless rear monitor 12 show a delay of 0.5 seconds relative to the sounds output from the front speaker 6 by the contents server 11 in an intra-car entertainment system 10, the user watching and listening the set of contents may feel strange and uneasy.
In view of the above identified circumstances, it is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an audio/video synchronizing system and a monitor apparatus that can provide a set of contents where the images and the sounds of the contents show lip synchronization so that the user may not have any strange and uneasy feeling if only the images are transmitted wirelessly.

Audio/video synchronizing system and monitor apparatus


The present disclosure relates to methods and compositions for the treatment of cancer using an ACAT1 inhibitor. The cancer may be any of melanoma, lymphoma, esophageal cancer, liver cancer, head and neck cancer, bladder cancer, endometrial cancer, kidney cancer and thyroid cancer. In some embodiments, the cancer itself it not responsive directly to the ACAT1 inhibitor but is rather treated through the immune system activated by the ACAT1 inhibitor. Combination therapies are also provided, for instance in combination with an alkylating antineoplastic agent.

CD8+ T cells play a central role in antitumor immunity, but their activity is suppressed in the tumor microenvironment. Reactivating the cytotoxicity of CD8+ T cells is of great clinical interest in cancer immunotherapy. However, tumor can escape immune attack by various mechanisms of immunosuppression. It is therefore of great clinical interest to develop other therapies to potentiate the antitumor activity of CD8+ T cells by modulating different pathways.

Center for Excellence in Molecular Cell Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences


The present invention concerns isolated nucleic acid molecules encoding the novel TIE ligands NL1, NL5 and NL8, the proteins encoded by such nucleic acid molecules, as well as methods and means for making and using such nucleic acid and protein molecules.

The present invention concerns isolated nucleic acid molecules encoding novel TIE ligand homologous, the TIE proteins encoded by such nucleic acid molecules, as well as methods and means for making and using such nucleic acid and protein molecules.
The abbreviations xe2x80x9cTIExe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9ctiexe2x80x9d are acronyms, which stand for xe2x80x9ctyrosine kinase containing Ig and EGF homology domainsxe2x80x9d and were coined to designate a new family of receptor tyrosine kinases which are almost exclusively expressed in vascular endothelial cells and early hemopoietic cells, and are characterized by the presence of an EGF-like domain, and extracellular folding units stabilized by intra-chain disulfide bonds, generally referred to as xe2x80x9cimmunoglobulin (IG)-likexe2x80x9d folds. A tyrosine kinase homologous cDNA fragment from human leukemia cells (tie) was described by Partanen et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 87, 8913-8917 (1990). The mRNA of this human xe2x80x9ctiexe2x80x9d receptor has been detected in all human fetal and mouse embryonic tissues, and has been reported to be localized in the cardiac and vascular endothelial cells. Korhonen et al., Blood 80, 2548-2555 (1992); PCT Application Publication No. WO 93/14124 (published Jul. 22, 1993). The rat homolog of human tie, referred to as xe2x80x9ctie-1xe2x80x9d, was identified by Maisonpierre et al., Oncogene 8, 1631-1637 (1993)). Another tie receptor, designated xe2x80x9ctie-2xe2x80x9d was originally identified in rats (Durmont et al., Oncogene 8, 1293-1301 (1993)), while the human homolog of tie-2, referred to as xe2x80x9corkxe2x80x9d was described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,447,860 (Ziegler). The murine homolog of tie-2 was originally termed xe2x80x9ctek.xe2x80x9d The cloning of a mouse tie-2 receptor from a brain capillary cDNA library is disclosed in PCT Application Publication No. WO 95/13387 (published May 10, 1995). The TIE receptors are believed to be actively involved in angiogenesis, and may play a role in hemopoiesis as well.
The expression cloning of human TIE-2 ligand homologous has been described in PCT Application Publication No. WO 96/11269 (published Apr. 18, 1996) and in U.S. Pat. No. 5,521,073 (published May 28, 1996). A vector designated as "xgr"gt10 encoding a TIE-2 ligand named xe2x80x9chtie-2 ligand 1xe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9chTL1xe2x80x9d has been deposited under ATCC Accession No. 75928. A plasmid encoding another TIE-2 ligand designated xe2x80x9chtie-2 2xe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9chTL2xe2x80x9d is available under ATCC Accession No. 75928. This second ligand has been described as an antagonist of the TIE-2 receptor. The identification of secreted human and mouse ligands for the TIE-2 receptor has been reported by Davis et al., Cell 87 1161-1169 (1996). The human ligand designated xe2x80x9cAngiopoietin-1xe2x80x9d, to reflect its role in angiogenesis and potential action during hemopoiesis, is the same ligand as the ligand variously designated as xe2x80x9chtie-2 1xe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9chTL-1xe2x80x9d in WO 96/11269. Angiopoietin-1 has been described to play an angiogenic role later and distinct from that of VEGF (Suri et al., Cell 87 1171-1180 (1996)). Since TIE-2 is apparently upregulated during the pathologic angiogenesis requisite for tumor growth (Kaipainen et al., Cancer Res. 54, 6571-6577 (1994)) angiopoietin-1 has been suggested to be additionally useful for specifically targeting tumor vasculature (Davis et al., supra).
The present invention concerns novel human TIE ligand homologous with powerful effects on vasculature. The invention also provides for isolated nucleic acid molecules encoding such ligands or functional derivatives thereof, and vectors containing such nucleic acid molecules. The invention further concerns host cells transformed with such nucleic acid to produce the novel TIE ligand homologous or functional derivatives thereof. The novel ligands may be agonists or antagonists of TIE receptors, known or hereinafter discovered. Their therapeutic or diagnostic use, including the delivery of other therapeutic or diagnostic agents to cells expressing the respective TIE receptors, is also within the scope of the present invention.
The present invention further provides for agonist or antagonist antibodies specifically binding the TIE ligand homologous herein, and the diagnostic or therapeutic use of such antibodies.
In another aspect, the invention concerns compositions comprising the novel ligands or antibodies.
In a further aspect, the invention concerns conjugates of the novel TIE ligand homologous of the present invention with other therapeutic or cytotoxic agents, and compositions comprising such conjugates. Because the TIE-2 receptor has been reported to be upregulated during the pathologic angiogenesis that is requisite for tumor growth, the conjugates of the TIE ligand of the present invention to cytotoxic or other anti-tumor agents are useful in specifically targeting tumor vasculature.
In yet another aspect, the invention concerns a method for identifying a cell that expresses a TIE (e.g. TIE-2) receptor, which comprises contacting a cell with a detectably labeled TIE ligand homologous of the present invention under conditions permitting the binding of such TIE ligand to the TIE receptor, and determining whether such binding has indeed occurred.
In a different aspect, the invention concerns a method for measuring the amount of a TIE ligand homologous of the present invention in a biological sample by contacting the biological sample with at least one antibody specifically binding the TIE ligand, and measuring the amount of the TIE ligand-antibody complex formed.
The invention further concerns a screening method for identifying polypeptide or small molecule agonists or antagonists of a TIE receptor based upon their ability to compete with a native or variant TIE ligand of the present invention for binding to a corresponding TIE receptor.
The invention also concerns a method for imaging the presence of angiogenesis in wound healing, in inflammation or in tumors of human patients, which comprises administering detectably labeled TIE ligand or agonist antibodies of the present invention, and detecting angiogenesis.
In another aspect, the invention concerns a method of promoting or inhibiting neovascularization in a patient by administering an effective amount of a TIE ligand homologous of the present invention in a pharmaceutically acceptable vehicle. In a preferred embodiment, the present invention concerns a method for the promotion of wound healing. In another embodiment, the invention concerns a method for promoting angiogenic processes, such as for inducing collateral vascularization in an ischemic heart or limb. In a further preferred embodiment, the invention concerns a method for inhibiting tumor growth.
In yet another aspect, the invention concerns a method of promoting bone development and/or maturation and/or growth in a patient, comprising administering to the patient an effective amount of a TIE ligand homologous of the present invention in a pharmaceutically acceptable vehicle.
In a further aspect, the invention concerns a method of promoting muscle growth and development, which comprises administering a patient in need an effective amount of a TIE ligand homologous of the present invention in a pharmaceutically acceptable vehicle.
The TIE ligand homologous of the present invention may be administered alone, or in combination with each other and/or with other therapeutic or diagnostic agents, including members of the VEGF family. Combinations therapies may lead to new approaches for promoting or inhibiting neovascularization, and muscle growth and development.


The disclosure provides a wireless gauge reader system for use on an existing electrical substation where the substation has a window through which at least one glow tube is visible. The system includes a frame fastened to the substation that surrounds at least a portion of the window, and a door in connection with the frame that allows the door to open and close. The door includes a wireless gauge reader (WGR) that has an optical sensor that is positioned to view the glow tube when the door is closed. The WGR also has a transmitter to transmit a wireless signal based on the illumination state of the glow tube. Various aspects of the connection of the door to the frame are disclosed.

Industrial and other facilities may include monitor and/or control devices, such as gauges or glow tubes to track parts of processes or systems. Readings from such devices are periodically taken to ensure such processes/systems are operating as desired. This can consume considerable time and manpower.
Systems may be upgraded by replacing an entire device (e.g., gauge or glow tube) with a replacement device having a built in transmitting capability. A drawback to such an approach is that replacement of an entire gauge can be invasive. In the event the gauge is utilized in an active process, the process may have to be shut down entirely while the gauge is replaced with a transmitting unit. Further, once a transmitting unit is installed, such a unit may have to be independently tested to ensure it is transmitting a correct signal. In addition, a transmitting unit may require wiring from the transmitter to a central location. This can require additional labor, and assumes suitable wiring paths are available at the site.
Even overcoming these deficiencies, the replacement of the device may not be desirable, however. The operators of the facility often like to keep their equipment in as an original state as possible because they have several years of training and familiarity with the equipment.
What is therefore needed is a retrofit device that maintains the original device, while allowing automatic readings to be transmitted and the operators to independently read the device to confirm the operational status of the equipment.

Device for automatically reading a glow tube


A protection circuit prevents, from a short load, excessive current flow through a field effect transistor that delivers current to a daytime running light on a vehicle. The present invention uses commonly available devices, such as resistors and transistors, and a low number of such devices for low cost. Furthermore, the present invention includes a latching circuit for maintaining the switching transistor to be turned off once the current level through the switching transistor reaches an excessive level to prevent the daytime running light from flashing on and off. A voltage, which develops across a resistor that is coupled to the field effect transistor, is an indication of the current level through the field effect transistor. This voltage turns on a first transistor which couples the gate of the field effect transistor to a ground node when the current level through the field effect transistor is greater than a predetermined level. The field effect transistor turns off when the gate of the field effect transistor is coupled to the ground node to prevent excessive current flow through the field effect transistor. A second transistor is configured in a latching configuration with the first transistor to maintain the first transistor to be turned on once the current level through the field effect transistor is greater than a predetermined level and until the power source is reapplied to the field effect transistor.

Daytime running lights augment vehicle safety by enhancing the visibility of a vehicle having daytime running lights. Thus, daytime running lights are becoming a more common feature on vehicles. Because of the recognized importance of daytime running lights on vehicles, Canada has legislated to require daytime running lights on vehicles that are sold in Canada.
In daytime running lights on a vehicle, a high-power output switching transistor delivers current to a high wattage daytime running light bulb filament on the vehicle. Referring to FIG. 1, a high-power MOSFET (Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor) 102 is used to deliver current from a power source 104 to the filament of a daytime running light 106. The intensity (and thus the brightness) of the daytime running light is determined by the duty cycle of a switched DC voltage, from a voltage switching circuit 108, applied to the gate of the MOSFET 102.
The MOSFET 102 is shown as an example field effect switching device. A field effect transistor is preferred as the switching device rather than a BJT (Bipolar Junction Transistor) because of the higher switching speed and lower resistance of a field effect transistor when the field effect transistor is turned on.
The power source 104 is typically from a battery system of the vehicle, and the battery system includes a fuse which blows and open-circuits the drain of the MOSFET 102 from the power source 104 when excessive current flows though such a fuse. However, a partial short load 110 may be coupled to the source of the MOSFET 102. The partial short load 110 has an impedance which is not low enough to blow the fuse of the battery system. Nevertheless, the impedance of the partial short load 110 may be low enough to cause high current to flow through the switching MOSFET 102. Such high current flowing through the switching MOSFET 102 results in damage to the switching MOSFET 102.
Prior art protection circuits prevent damage to a field effect switching transistor from a short load. However, the prior art protection circuits use relatively complicated circuitry having relatively numerous components. Such complicated circuitry may add higher costs and higher possibility of malfunction if one of the components were to become inoperative. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,750,079 to Fay et al. uses digital circuitry to remove an enable signal from a MOSFET, U.S. Pat. No. 5,272,392 to Wong et al. uses a feedback mechanism to maintain a constant level of current through a MOSFET, U.S. Pat. No. 5,390,069 to Marshall uses a current mirror in a protection circuit for limiting current through a MOSFET, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,694,282 to Yockey uses a microprocessor for limiting current through a MOSFET.
In addition, the prior art protection circuits, including U.S. Pat. No. 4,595,966 to Huber et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 5,438,237 to Mullins et al., do not include a latching circuit to keep the switching transistor 102 turned off once the current through the switching transistor 102 reaches an excessive level. Without the latching circuit, the daytime running light may flash on and off as the current through the switching transistor alternately increases and decreases from the mechanism of the prior art protection circuit. Such flashing on and off of the daytime running light may be a traffic hazard on the road and also may cause further degradation of the switching transistor 102.

Apparatus and method for preventing from a short load excessive current flow through a field effect transistor that delivers current to a daytime running light on a vehicle