The reliabilities of a wiring substrate and a semiconductor apparatus are improved by reducing the internal stress caused by the difference of thermal expansion coefficients between a base substrate and a semiconductor chip. A wiring layer (5) is provided on one surface of a silicon base (3). An electrode as the uppermost layer of the wiring layer (5) is provided with an external bonding bump (7). A through-electrode (4) is formed in the base (3) for electrically connecting the wiring layer (5) and an electrode terminal. The electrode terminal on the chip mounting surface is bonded to an electrode terminal of a semiconductor chip (1) by an internal bonding bump (6). The thermal expansion coefficient of the silicon base (3) is equivalent to that of the semiconductor chip (1) and not more than that of the wiring layer (5).

All of patents, patent applications, patent publications, scientific articles and the like, which will hereinafter be cited or identified in the present application, will hereby be incorporated by references in their entirety in order to describe more fully the state of the art, to which the present invention pertains.
Recently, for improving mounting density of a semiconductor package, shrinkage, miniaturization, and pin-multiplication of the package has been progressed. Aligning electrode terminal in the area is an effective technology against the shrinkage and pin-multiplication, while maintaining a wide pitch between electrode terminals. In the second mounting for bonding the semiconductor package and a motherboard, this technology means a Ball Grid Array type of semiconductor packaging technology which bonds the electrode to the motherboard with solder bumps arranged on an interposer substrate. On the other hand, in the first mounting for bonding a semiconductor chip and the interposer substrate, this means a Flip-Chip bonding technology for bonding the both by area aligning, for example, the solder bumps or gold bumps on a functional surface of the semiconductor chip.
FIG. 1 is a cross sectional view showing a structure of conventional semiconductor apparatus. A semiconductor apparatus, which uses the packaging technology like the above and the Flip-Chip bonding technology, is a Flip-Chip Ball Grid Array (FCBGA) shown in FIG. 1. This has advantages for the shrinkage, miniaturization, and pin-multiplication of the package, as well as having a low wiring resistance compared with a wire bonding type of semiconductor package which bonds the semiconductor chip and the interposer substrate with a gold wire, thereby suitable for high speed operation. Therefore, an increase of the technology application is being expected. A material of the interposer substrate is divided into a resin material and a ceramic material. The resin material having advantages in manufacturing cost and in electrical characteristics has been mainly used. An example using the Flip-Chip bonding technology has been disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 08-167630, in which a structure forming a wiring in a polymer material having a low thermal expansion coefficient close to that of silicon, and bonding a chip and the wiring with a through-hole is shown. Since a mounting area of this structure is decreased compared with the wire bonding, as well as shortening a bonding distance, and by using a material having a thermal expansion coefficient close to that of silicon, a thermal stress is also relaxed.
Up to now, a development of LSI has been carried out based on a scaling rule, in which if a dimension of a transistor is shrunk by 1/k, the density of the LSI becomes k2 times and an operation speed becomes k times. With a progress of the shrinkage and a demand for high speed operation, so-called, RC delay due to increase in a wiring resistance (R) and a capacitance (C) between wirings (hereinafter, referred to as wiring capacitance) has become not negligible. Therefore, employments of Cu as a wiring material for decreasing the wiring resistance and a low dielectric film (Low-k film) for an interlayer dielectric film for decreasing the wiring capacitance are supposed to be promising. In addition, for stable operation of LSI at high frequency region, a stabilization of power voltage and an arrangement of decoupling capacitor against a high frequency noise are essential. Therefore, a capacitor apparatus, which has a large capacitance formed on a silicon having a through-hole, or on a substrate composed of insulating film containing silicon, or on a sapphire substrate, and a module mounting the capacitor apparatus have been proposed. This is disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2002-008942.
In addition, because of high-scale integration of LSI and progress of pin-multiplication due to development of System-On-Chip technology configuring a system by forming, for example, various functional elements and memories on a single chip, a semiconductor chip still has a tendency to grow in size even after compensating contribution of the shrinkage and miniaturization by the electrode area alignment of the Flip-Chip.
However, according to the conventional technology, in the structure of Flip-Chip type of semiconductor apparatus shown in FIG. 1, when a resin substrate is used for the interposer substrate, a linear expansion coefficient of the resin substrate is around 15 ppm/C in contract with 2.6 ppm/C of that of semiconductor chip of which base material is mainly silicon. The difference is large, thereby causing a large internal stress within the semiconductor apparatus by the difference of thermal expansion coefficient between them. Currently, the reliability of the semiconductor apparatus is maintained by filling a resin in a space at bonding part between the semiconductor chip and the interposer substrate. However, by increase in internal stress due to growing in size of semiconductor chip according to increase of the number of external terminal in a future, it is predicted to become difficult to maintain the reliability. In the above-described Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2002-008942, the semiconductor chip is bonded on an organic layer forming a capacitor. Then, the issue of thermal stress concentration due to the difference of the expansion coefficient has not been solved. In addition, including the bonding structure disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 167630, the reliability of package mounted on the interposer substrate, of which thermal expansion coefficient is matched to that of silicon, is decreased due to an internal stress caused by the difference of thermal expansion coefficient when the package is mounted on a motherboard.
Furthermore, a dielectric constant of Low-k film, which is being supposed to be applied as a countermeasure for the RC delay, is decreased by doping, for example, fluorine, hydrogen, and organics in a silicon oxide (SiO2) film, or making the material porous. Then, it is well known that the Low-k film is fragile compared with a conventional interlayer dielectric film such as silicon oxide film. This means a decrease in allowable limit of the internal stress caused by the difference of linear expansion coefficient between the semiconductor chip and the interposer substrate, and may cause a reliability issue when the shrinkage and pin-multiplication are further progressed in a future.
Moreover, recently, there is a tendency to replace a Tin-Lead solder, which has conventionally been used so far for the solder material, with a Lead-free solder. Electronics industries have a plan to abolish completely a solder containing Lead. The Lead-free solder, in which Tin is a base material, has a substantially small stress relaxation effect compared with the Tin-Lead solder, which has a stress relaxation effect to decrease a stress generated at the bonding part through composition change of solder itself. Accordingly, the internal stress increases, and may cause a reliability issue when the shrinkage and pin-multiplication are further progressed in a future.

Semiconductor device, wiring substrate, and method for manufacturing wiring substrate


A combine harvester includes threshing apparatus, separating apparatus, a grain cleaning system located downstream of the separating apparatus, and a material conveyance system arranged to convey crop material from the separating apparatus to the grain cleaning system. The grain cleaning system includes screening apparatus, a fan arranged to generate a cleaning airstream through the screening apparatus, and a fan control system configured to control a fan speed. The fan control system includes a proximity sensor mounted above the material conveyance system for sensing a material volume. The fan control system controls the fan speed in dependence upon the material volume.

The process of harvesting grain from crop fields has not changed substantially for many decades. Farmers use combine harvesters to cut a standing crop, thresh the crop material, separate the grain from the stem, and clean the grain while returning the crop material residue onto the field. Typically, combine harvesters include threshing apparatus, separating apparatus, and a grain cleaning system.
Grain cleaning systems use screening apparatus that typically include one or more sieves driven in an oscillating motion. A mixture of grain, chaff, unthreshed heads, and straw is delivered to an uppermost sieve, upon which the mixture is conveyed across the surface thereof. The chaff and straw may be referred to herein and in the art as 'MOG', meaning Material Other than Grain.
Generally speaking, clean grain finds its way down through the sieves to a collection trough. A fan is provided to generate a cleaning airstream through the cleaning apparatus. The cleaning airstream is directed through and/or over the sieves so as to lift and carry the MOG away from the surface of the sieves and eject the MOG from the cleaning system. The sieves are generally set up to screen the unthreshed heads which are 'returned' as tailings to a rethreshing system.
Today it is known to provide combines with control systems that automatically adjust settings of the various crop processing apparatus. Such "auto-setting" functionality relieves the operator of making manual adjustments to optimize the harvesting process, wherein the optimum settings continuously change as harvest conditions vary. However, for reliable auto-setting operation, an accurate representation of the current conditions within the various processing apparatus is required.

Combine harvester and method of controlling a combine harvester


A new and useful concept in electronic presentation and operation with a floor plan is provided, that is designed to enhance the ability of a buyer/renter to view or otherwise understand many of the attributes of a building A user (e.g. a building buyer/renter or prospective building buyer/renter) is enabled to access, and work with a floor plan that is electronically stored at a floor plan server, via interaction between the floor plan server and a client that can be placed in circuit communication with the floor plan server (e.g. over the interne via a web browser). The user is enabled to (a) electronically work with the selected floor plan to produce a modified floor plan, and (b) save an instance of the modified floor plan at the floor plan server so that the user (or someone to whom the user emails a link to the saved instance) can revisit and work with the saved instance.

The present invention relates to a new and useful floor plan server, client and method that enables a building buyer/renter (or prospective building buyer/renter) to preview a building, on line, and to enable the buyer/renter to customize a floor plan in various ways, on line, before touring the building in person. More specifically, the present invention provides a new and useful floor plan server, client and method that have several new and useful features; e.g. the present invention enables a user, (e.g. a building buyer/renter or prospective building buyer/renter) to select a floor plan for a building, to view aspects of the building in ways that help the buyer understand the building, and enable the buyer/renter to create a customized version of a selected floor plan, on line, transmit a link to the customized version to a selected address, so that the buyer/renter, or someone the buyer/renter is working with, can access the buyer's customized version, and modify the buyer's customized version.
When a real estate agent is showing a building to a prospective buyer, it is often useful and desirable for the real estate agent to show the prospective buyer a floor plan of the building. In addition, in the applicants' experience, it is also useful to be able to show the floor plan to the prospective buyer, on line, before the buyer/renter actually tours the building, so that the prospective buyer/renter can access the floor plan on line, and view the floor plan at the buyer/renter's convenience, without the real estate agent having to physically deliver a hard copy of the floor plan to the buyer/renter. Moreover, in the applicants' experience, it is also useful to provide the types of viewing and customization opportunities provided by the present invention to a buyer/renter, on line, before the buyer/renter actually tours the building, so that the buyer/renter can fully, efficiently and effectively explore the building, and its attributes before the buyer/renter decides whether to tour the building.
In addition, in the applicants' experience, a floor plan server, client and method that provides various additional features, of the type provided by the present invention, on line, can enhance the ability of the real estate agent to interest a buyer/renter in a building.


A system and method for more accurately and robustly estimating navigation state of a vehicle by adaptively processing signals from an inertial sensor assembly and other sensors. A navigation system receives signals from two or more sensors to evaluate and correct the attitude estimated by an Extended Kalman Filter (EKF). The navigation system selects sensor signals from the other sensor assemblies and processes the selected sensor signals in conjunction with estimates from the inertial navigation module to obtain more accurate estimates of the attitude. The parameters and conditions for using certain sensor signals may be adjusted based on the characteristics and configuration of the vehicle.

Modern vehicles need precise information about their navigation state such as position, velocity, attitude, and related dynamical states to perform their functions. For example, a robotic airplane may require such navigation state information to point a camera at a target, navigate to a destination, and otherwise control its movement. Inputs from multiple sensors may be needed to determine such navigation state of the vehicle. Conventional techniques for estimating the navigation state mostly rely on macroscopic moving parts or costly optical structures such as ring-laser and fiber-optic gyros. Lower-cost solid state inertial sensors have also been used but their lower performance requires more complex implementation using feedback signals to stabilize the navigation state information over extended periods of time.
In conventional navigation systems using such solid state inertial sensors, algorithms are complex and may require excessive computational resources to take advantage of the feedback signals. The algorithms are often executed in digital signal processors (DSPs) to process the feedback signals. Such software algorithms, however, are often too complex or require excessive computational resources for execution in resource-constrained embedded DSPs.
Further, feedback signals from solid state inertial sensors are prone to errors. Consequently, the navigation state of the vehicle estimated from the feedback signals may become corrupted by the very signals that are intended to provide stabilization to the navigation state information. Conventional methods to guard against sensor errors are inflexible and may not be adjusted according to various vehicle configurations and dynamics.

Configurable inertial navigation system with dual extended kalman filter modes


An epoxy powder is electrostatically charged and spray-coated onto the series loop connections 16, 18 of a dynamoelectric machine. With the series loop connections grounded, the electrostatically charged particles adhere to the connections and wrap about the front, back and sides of the connections to provide a substantially uniform thickness or build-up of the electrically insulating epoxy powder. With the series loop connections preheated, the epoxy will begin to melt and flow, further ensuring a uniform build-up and thickness about the connections. The spray-coating is then heat-cured, thereby affording electrically insulated series loop connections at the opposite ends of the dynamoelectric machine.

Series loop connections at the opposite ends of a dynamoelectric machine comprise a substantial number of copper elbows, pipes and fittings for conducting electrical current between stator bar ends and connection rings and conducting a cooling medium about the stator bars. These series loop connections in effect form part of the stator windings at the opposite ends of the dynamoelectric machine and require electrical insulation. Additionally, the windings are conventionally cooled, typically with air, hydrogen or deionized water. Conventionally, the deionized water used for cooling purposes is flowed through this end piping, the outside of which is used to flow electrical current constituting the series connections among the stator bars. These series loop connections are very closely spaced relative to one another at the opposite ends of the dynamoelectric machine and to the end faces of the machine.
Previous to the present invention, it has been very difficult to electrically insulate these series connections. Because of the heat required to Braze the joints, i.e., on the order of 1200.degree. to 1400.degree. F., any prior applied electrical insulation would deteriorate because it could not withstand a temperature corresponding to the brazing temperature. Consequently, the series loop connections are always electrically insulated after the dynamoelectric machine is wound and Brazed. To accomplish that, the series connections have previously been taped. Because of the close spacing of these series loop connections, the taping has been performed manually and has required the use of taping hooks. Generally, the individual manually taping the series loop connections cannot fit his hand or the roll of tape between the series connections because of the tight spaces therebetween. Access between and behind the series connections is difficult to obtain. The effort therefore to apply insulation to the series loop connections by taping is very labor-intensive, slow and costly. Another method of insulating the series loop connections comprises applying a plastic insulating cap to each of the series loop connections. The cap, however, requires expensive molds to produce, is not generally used on a water-cooled dynamoelectric electric machine because of the complexity of the cap and still requires a labor-intensive manual assembly effort.

Electrostatic powder coating method for insulating the series loop connections of a dynamoelectric machine


A method of calculating position data for an airborne aircraft using a GPS-based airborne navigation system includes the processing of a position component of a relative state function by fusing a plurality of different types of measurement data available in the GPS-based system into a weighted least squares algorithm to determine an appropriate covariance matrix for the plurality of different types of measurement data.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to Global Positioning System (GPS)-based Relative Navigation Systems, and more particularly to a method for processing the relative state of the position component of an airborne navigation system.
2. Background of the Invention
A need has been found for providing a rapidly deployable, adverse weather, adverse terrain, day-night, survivable, and mobile precision approach and landing capability that supports the principles of forward presence, crisis response and mobility. The capability should enable military forces to land on any suitable surface world wide (land and sea), under both peace time and hostile conditions, with ceiling and/or visibility the limiting factor.
The Joint Precision Approach and Landing System (JPALS) is an integral part of such a strategic system. JPALS is a differential GPS that provides a rapidly deployable, mobile, adverse weather, adverse terrain, day-night, and survivable precision approach and landing capability. The JPALS allows an aircraft to land on any suitable land or sea-based surface worldwide, while minimizing the impact to airfield operations, because of low ceiling or poor visibility. This approach and landing system provides the capability of performing conventional and special operations from a fixed-base, shipboard, and austere environments under a wide range of meteorological and terrain conditions.
One of the primary functions of sea-based JPALS is to determine the relative state (position, velocity and acceleration) of an airborne vehicle with respect to its assigned ship. This function is called "Relative State Function" or "Relative Navigation" ("RelNav"). Existing civil and military systems do not satisfy JPALS requirements because they have a number of shortcomings that limit joint operations. The multiplicity of systems, in and of itself, hinders inter-Service, civil, and allied operations.
Among the limitations of conventional systems, especially as applied to calculating position data of an aircraft closing in on a target, is that in order to calculate an aircraft's position, numerous measurements must taken. Certain measurement types have better accuracy but require more processing time to achieve results. Traditionally, four measurements of the same type are needed to be used in a solution; otherwise optimal solutions can not be made available. Conventional methods that use a weighted least squares position solution use only a single measurement type. Furthermore, conventional methods have been less than satisfactory when relative position estimation is needed between two moving vehicles (e.g., between an aircraft and a ship).

Method for fusing multiple GPS measurement types into a weighted least squares solution


An apparatus for producing a visual image stored in a multi-output CCD image sensor for CCD image analysis which has a plurality of analog shift registers. Analog multiplexers are used to eliminate the need for a frame store.

Charge-coupled devices (CCD) image sensors are photosensitive devices which are frequently used in electronic imaging. As technology has advanced, the resolution of these CCD image sensors has increased and the number of image sensor sites has increased. These sensor sites are called pixels. A line at a time of information is read in parallel into a shift register. the information is sequentially read out of the shift register. A problem with this arrangement is that as the number of pixels increases, the time to read out the charge from all the pixels increases and hence the frame rate actually decreases. In order to maintain or increase the frame rate of an area image sensor, two approaches have been used. The first is simply to increase the horizontal shift register clock frequency to increase the readout rate and the second is to employ analog, multiple shift registers and readout information from each shift register through an output terminal to increase the frame rate without changing the horizontal clock frequency or both.
Normal video image sensors are designed for 30 frames per second. There are, however, situations where it is highly desirable to have an increasing rate of frames per second. In some specific scientific applications it is desirable to have at least 40,000 frames per second. Such type of arrangements require the use of the multiple readout shift registers. With large numbers of pixels and multiple outputs, it is important to analyze the output of a CCD image sensor 10 to determine whether there are defects in the image sensor pixels.
A real time display (image) on a monitor is needed for test and analysis. In the past, this has been accomplished using expensive frame stores. Turning now to FIG. 1, we see a CCD image sensor 10 with which the present invention can be used. To use a conventional display there can, for example, be 512 pixels per line and 512 lines. In FIG. 1, there are 64 shift registers 11, one for each block of image data. More particularly, there are 64 blocks of information in the CCD. Each shift register 11 corresponds to a single block of image data. Each output from one of the 64 analog shift registers 11 is coupled to a conventional sample and hold circuit 14.
Turning now to FIG. 2, sample and hold circuits 14 provide input into individual A/D converter 17. Accordingly, since there are 64 blocks, there are 64 sample and hold circuits and 64 A/D converters. Under the control of timing and control circuit 25 the sample and hold circuits 14 deliver analog data to A/D converters 17. The A/D converters deliver digital pixel data to storage locations in a frame store 16 under the control of microcomputer 22. The number of image locations in the frame store 16 will correspond to twice the total number of pixels in the CCD image sensor 10. For example, the first A/D converter 17 feeds a dual block (two frames) store 1. This corresponds to the traditional two frames required to display a complete image. The microcomputer 22 control all the necessary programming for providing timing and addressing information into the frame store 16 and to deliver each digitized pixel signal to its appropriate location in each dual block store in the frame store 16. It also controls the operation of the readout from the frame store 16 to a digital to analog converter 27 which applies its output to a display unit 26. A keyboard 28 associated with the microcomputer, permits a user to control the frame store in accordance with software programming for display on the CRT display unit (monitor) 27.
For a more complete disclosure of a system which uses a CCD with a plurality of blocks of information and control electronics see commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 4,638,371 to Milch the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein.
When it is desired to visually determine if there are defects in the CCD, then a predetermined target pattern is focused onto the CCD and repeatedly readout from the CCD into the frame store 16. Pixel information is then delivered into the display 26 for visual test and defect analysis. Such defects can be bright point defects and dim point defects. Using this arrangement as a test device requires expensive frame store arrangements as well as special programming.
For a CCD sensor with single output the image is normally displayed onto a NTSC display CRT or monitor or onto a high persistence display or monitor depending on the frame rate at which the sensor is operating. If the sensor operates at less than 10 frames per second then the flicker on the monitor becomes unacceptable. For such sensor testing the video signal from the sensor is sent to a frame store and refreshed onto the monitors at 60 frames per second. This means the picture on the monitor is updated at the frame rate of the sensor but displayed at 60 frames per second. This arrangement normally needs a frame store and an associated microcomputer as shown in FIG. 2. Now for a sensor with 64 outputs we need 64 frame stores each with its high speed A/D. The 64 frame stores need to be synchronized and coordinated by a computer. This requires the development of expensive necessary software. For testing the wafers and packaged devices this elaborate expensive arrangement will increase the cost of the device, but it should be recognized that all that is needed for the test purposes is to identify bright point defects and dim points, charge transfer inefficiencies and smear.

Apparatus for testing image sensors that simultaneously output multiple image blocks


A method for reducing the problem space associated with determining intra-network circuit provisioning paths within a large communications network by selecting only a sub-set of the total network nodes, including the start-node and end-node of a communication path by bounding, using one of a plurality of predefined shapes having an appropriate size, and calculating the best path using only the network elements included within the sub-set of total nodes.

Telecommunication networks and other networks are increasing in both size and complexity. It is anticipated that this trend will continue such that very large telecommunication networks (greater than 25,000 nodes) will become commonplace in the not too distant future. Unfortunately, as such networks increase in size, the network management function also increases in complexity. This means that critical tasks such as provisioning (allocating resources to form a communications link), restoration, reinstatement and the like must be completed in a reasonable time using network management tools available to a network manager at a single location.
In a manual provisioning mode, an operator specifies all details of a circuit such as end points, all links, time slots and all network elements. The manual provisioning mode allows the operator to select a particular circuit for routing a communication, such as a telephone call or other communication. However, the manual provisioning mode is slow (the operator must select all links manually) and error prone (the operator may make an error in selecting these links).
In an automatic provisioning mode the operator specifies end points (i.e. start node and end node) and type of circuit needed to provide the desired communication. A network manager system responsively examines all of the spare resources available in the network and selects the optimum path for the requested circuit. This automatic provisioning mode requires the identification of all spare resources such as channels and communication links from a data base, the constructing of a graphical or other depiction of the spare resources within computer memory and the execution of a shortest path algorithm to find the optimum route.
Unfortunately, while the automatic provisioning mode is a dramatic improvement over the manual provisioning mode, the automatic provisioning mode tends to have some drawbacks. Specifically, in an automatic provisioning mode such as presently used in the art, the system loads all available spare resources (i.e., channels) in the network into memory, the details of each of the spare resources being kept in a data base of the network management system. For a network of 25,000 nodes and average connectivity of 10 links per node, 250,000 spares are to be loaded from a data base used by the network manager system. This produces the following shortcomings: (1) large amounts of data must be retrieved from the data base (e.g., 250,000 links); (2) large amounts of data must be stored in the main memory of a computer or work station utilized by the network operator (data associated with the 250,000 links); (3) large amounts of time are required to build a graph of the network in the computer memory; (4) large amounts of time are required to run the shortest path or optimum path algorithm to find the appropriate communications path within the network; (5) the size of the program implementing the automatic provisioning task is relatively large, thereby requiring more powerful computers in terms of both hardware, memory and other parameters which increase system cost; (6) due to the large size of the system required, the network manager and element manager typically need separate computer systems; and (7) the data base in which resource data is stored must be "locked" during the above-described automatic provisioning process, thereby reducing throughput of the network management system (i.e., reducing the number of circuits provisioned per hour by all operators using that system). Due to the above disadvantages, network operators most of the time use manual provisioning modes in spite of the disadvantages with the manual provisioning mode.
It is noted that the above disadvantages of the automatic provisioning mode are exacerbated by increasing the size of the network to be provisioned.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method and apparatus for optimizing routing through network nodes


Control logic monitors use of a particular functional element (e.g., a divider, or multiplier or the like) in a programmable processor, and the control logic powers the unit down when it has not been used for a specified time period. A counter (local or central) and time threshold determine when the period has elapsed without use of the element. The control logic also monitors how soon the functional unit is woken up again, to determine if power control is causing thrashing. Upon the determination of such thrashing, the unit automatically adjusts its threshold period, to minimize thrashing. In an example of the logic, when it determines that it is being too conservative, it lowers the threshold. Mode bits may allow the programmer to override the power-down logic to either keep the logic always powered-up, or always powered-down.

Many devices utilize integrated processors, such as microprocessors and digital signal processors, with complex arrangements of logic for performing data processing functions in accord with program instructions. Many applications of these processors, for example in portable devices having battery power supplies, warrant careful control of power consumption, typically, to extend life of a charge in the battery power supply. Many functions or applications of the processor do not require the full processing capability of the processor device, or require the full processing capability only for a very limited time. If fully powered continuously, however, unused logic is unnecessarily consuming power.
Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) logic gates have traditionally been very good at minimizing power consumed by idle elements as they only consume dynamic power when a circuit is actively switching. However, they also have a static, or leakage, component to their power consumption. Commonly, the dynamic component has largely outweighed the static. However, in newer deep-submicron technologies, the static component is starting to contribute a significant amount to the overall power consumption. In order to be power efficient, modern devices may need to actively limit the amount of static power dissipated.
To achieve power reduction, for battery-powered embedded applications like cell phones, attempts have been made to power down unused portions of logic, thereby removing the leakage power loss. Some have relied upon software control to turn off unused logic components. For this purpose, instructions in the program may turn certain processor elements on when they will be needed and off when not needed. While this results in power savings, it imposes additional overhead on the software and requires the programmer to actively control various processor functions.
Automated systems may be used to shut down an unused component after a given amount of time. However, cases arise where time-based powering down of a logic element is potentially problematic. Waking or powering up the component can result in additional power consumption. In some cases, it takes more to power-up the element than to just keep the element on for some short period of time. Also, it takes time to power a component back up. The resulting delay or latency in restarting the component my result in processor stalls, which degrades performance.
Therefore, it is desirable to ensure that the component is not repeatedly powered down only to be powered up a short while later. Repeated power-down and power-up may be termed "thrashing." A need exists for a technique to selectively control power to an element of a processor, so as to effectively reduce power consumption yet avoid undue thrashing.

Method and system for reducing power consumption of a programmable processor


A pivotal hinge has multiple washers, positioning spacers and an oil-retaining collar mounted around the washers and the positioning spacers filled with lubricating oil. The oil-retaining collar prevents the lubricating oil from flowing out of the pivotal hinge, prevents the components from wearing away, keeps the pivotal hinge rotating smoothly and has hooks formed separately on the two edges. The hooks hold the collar securely around the pivotal hinge.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a hinge, especially to a hinge with an oil-retaining collar mounted around the positioning spacers and washers filled with lubricating oil.
2. Description of the Prior Arts
Electronic devices such as laptops, mobile phones, personal digital assistants (PDA), etc. have a base, a cover and a hinge. The hinge connects the cover to the base to allow the cover to pivot relative to the base.
The conventional hinge has a rotating bracket, a shaft, multiple washers, a stationary bracket, a stationary positioning spacer, a rotating positioning spacer, a biasing member and a nut. The rotating bracket connects to the cover of the electronic device and is mounted on an end of the shaft. The stationary bracket, the washers, the stationary positioning spacer, the rotating positioning spacer and the biasing member are mounted around the shaft. The nut is mounted securely on another end of the shaft to hold the all components. The stationary bracket connects to the base of the electronic device. The stationary positioning spacer has two detents. The rotating positioning spacer has two bosses corresponding to the detents of the stationary positioning spacer to hold the rotating positioning spacer in place.
The washers and the positioning spacers are respectively mounted and abut the rotating and stationary brackets to provide a resistance force so that the cover can be reliably positioned at a desired height. The washers and the positioning spacers further have holes or recesses filled with lubricating oil to prevent those components from wearing away and to keep the pivotal hinge rotating smoothly. However, lubricating oil might flow out of the pivotal hinge between the washers and the positioning spacers causing the pivotal hinge to rotate roughly and wear away if not filled with enough lubricating oil.
To overcome the shortcomings, the present invention provides a pivotal hinge with an oil-retaining collar to mitigate or obviate the aforementioned problems.

Pivotal hinge with an oil-retaining collar


The invention provides methods, compositions, apparatus, and a computer data retrieval system for conducting proteomics.

A goal of genomics research and differential gene expression analysis is to develop correlations between gene expression and particular cellular states (e.g., disease states, particular developmental stages, states resulting from exposure to certain environmental stimuli and states associated with therapeutic treatments). Such correlations have the potential to provide significant insight into the mechanism of disease, cellular development and differentiation, as well as in the identification of new therapeutics, drug targets, and disease markers. Correlations of patterns of gene expression can also be used to provide similar insights into disease and organism metabolism that can be used to speed the development of agricultural products, transgenic species, and for metabolic engineering of organisms to increase bioproduct yields or desirable metabolic activities.
Many functional genomic studies focus on changes in mRNA levels as being indicative of a cellular response to a particular condition or state. Recent research, however, has demonstrated that often there is a poor correlation between gene expression as measured by mRNA levels and actual active gene product formed (i.e., protein encoded by the mRNA). [4] This finding is not surprising since many factors—including differences in translational efficiency, turnover rates, extracellular expression or compartmentalization, and post-translational modification—affect protein levels independently of transcriptional controls. Thus, the evidence indicates that functional genomics is best accomplished by measuring actual protein levels (i.e., utilizing proteomic methods) rather than with nucleic acid based methods. The successful use of proteins for functional genomic analyses, however, requires reproducible quantification and identification of individual proteins expressed in cell or tissue samples.
It is at the protein level that metabolic control is exercised in cells and tissues. Comparison of the levels of protein expression between healthy and diseased tissues, or between pathogenic and nonpathogenic microbial strains, can speed the discovery and development of new drug compounds or agricultural products. Analysis of the protein expression pattern in diseased tissues or in tissues excised from organisms undergoing treatment can also serve as diagnostics of disease states or the efficacy of treatment strategies, as well as provide prognostic information regarding suitable treatment modalities and therapeutic options for individual patients.
Many proteins are expressed at varying levels in different cells. Proteins extracted from tissue or cell samples, using conventional techniques, must first be separated into individual proteins by gel or capillary electrophoresis or affinity techniques, before the individual proteins levels can be compared both within a sample and across samples obtained from different tissue sources. Because of the number of proteins expressed by a cell at any given time, multiple electrophoretic techniques (e.g., isoelectric focussing followed by electroporation through a polyacrylamide gel) are often applied to isolate all the individual proteins contained in a given sample.
Several techniques have been used to quantify the relative amounts of each protein present after the separation, including: staining proteins separated in a polyacrylamide gel with dyes (e.g., Brilliant Blue and Fast Green), with colloidial metals (e.g., gold or silver staining), or by prior labelling of the proteins during cellular synthesis by the addition of radioactive compounds (e.g., with 35S-methionine or 14C-amino acids, or 3H-leucine). Staining techniques yield poorly quantitative results because varying amounts of stain are incorporated into each protein and the stained protein must be resolved against the stained background of the gel or electroblotting substrate. Since radioactive labels are applied only to the proteins prior to separation, they overcome the background problem of staining techniques. However, feeding radioactive compounds to human subjects or handling radioactive materials in an uncontrolled field environment (e.g., crop plants) restricts the usefulness of this approach. Both staining and radiolabelling techniques also require inordinately long times to achieve detection. Staining and destaining of gels is a diffusion limited process requiring hours. Radiolabels must be quantified by exposing the labelled gel to photographic film or a phosphor screen for several hours to days while waiting for the radioactive decay process to produce a quantitative image. Direct infrared spectrophotometric interrogation of the proteins in a gel has also been used previously as a method for providing quantitative protein expression data. However, this quantitative resolution possible from this approach is adversely affected by variations in gel thickness and differential spreading of the protein spot between gels (changing the local concentration). Furthermore, the comparatively low absorption cross-section of proteins in the infrared limits the detection sensitivity. Analysis of the protein expression pattern does not provide sufficient information for many applications.
Several methods have also been proposed for the identification of proteins once they are resolved. The most common methods involve referencing the separation coordinates of individual proteins (e.g., isoelectric point and apparent molecular weight) to those obtained from archived separation coordinate data (e.g., annotated 2-D gel image databases) or control samples, performing a chemilytic or enzymatic digestion of a protein coupled with determination of the mass of the resulting peptide fragments and correlating this peptide mass fingerprint with that predicted to arise from the predicted genetic sequence of a set of known proteins (see James, P., M. Quandroni, E. Carafoli, and G. Gonnet, Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun., 195:58–64 (1993); Yates, J. R., S. Speicher, P. R. Griffin, and T. Hunkapiller, Anal. Biochem., 214:397–408 (1993)), the generation of a partial protein sequence that is compared to the predicted sequences obtained from a genomic database (see Mann, M., paper presented at the IBC Proteomics conference, Boston, Mass. (Nov. 10–11, 1997); Wilm, M., A. Shevchenko, T. Houthaeve, S. Breit, L. Schweiger, T. Fotsis and M. Mann, Nature, 379:466–469 (1996); Chait, B. T, R. Wang, R. C. Beavis and S. B. H. Kent, Science, 262:89–92 (1993)), or combinations of these methods (see Mann, M., paper presented at the IBC Proteomics conference, Boston, Mass. (Nov. 10–11, 1997); Wilm, M., A. Shevchenko, T. Houthaeve, S. Breit, L. Schweiger, T. Fotsis and M. Mann, Nature, 379:466–469 (1996); Chait, B. T, R. Wang, R. C. Beavis and S. B. H. Kent, Science, 262:89–92 (1993)). Recent work indicates that proteins can only be unambiguously identified through the determination of a partial sequence, called a protein sequence tag (PST), that allows reference to the theoretical sequences determined from genomic databases (see Clauser, K. R., S. C. Hall, D. M. Smith, J. W. Webb, L. E. Andrews, H. M. Tran, L. B. Epstein, and A. L. Burlingame, "Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. (USA), 92:5072–5076 (1995); Li, G., M. Walthan, N. L. Anderson, E. Unworth, A. Treston and J. N. Weinstein, Electrophoresis, 18:391–402 (1997)). However, between 8 to 18 hours is currently required to generate a PST for a single protein sample by conventional techniques, with a substantial fraction of this time devoted to recovery of the protein sample from the separation method in a form suitable for subsequent sequencing (see Shevchenko, A., et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. (USA), 93:14440–14445 (1996); Mark, J., paper presented at the PE/Sciex Seminar Series, Protein Characterization and Proteomics: Automated high throughput technologies for drug discovery, Foster City, Calif. (March, 1998). This makes the identification of all separated proteins from a tissue a time and cost prohibitive endeavor. This has restricted more widespread use of proteomic methods, despite their advantages for functional genomics and inhibited the development of proteomic databases, analogous to the genome databases now available (e.g., Genbank and the Genome Sequence Database).
Thus, current methods for identifying and quantitating the protein expression patterns ("protein fingerprints") of cells, tissues, and organs are lacking sufficient resolution, precision, and/or sensitivity. The present invention addresses these features lacking in the methods known in the art.
Polypeptide Separation Methods: Capillary Electrophoresis
Two-dimensional (2-D) gel electrophoresis is currently the most widely adopted method for separating individual proteins isolated from cell or tissue samples [5, 6, 7]. Evidence for this is seen in the proliferation (more than 20) of protein gel image databases, such as the Protein-Disease Database maintained by the NIH [8]. These databases provide images of reference 2-D gels to assist in the identification of proteins in gels prepared from various tissues.
Capillary electrophoresis (CE) is a different type of electrophoresis, and involves resolving components in a mixture within a capillary to which an electric field is applied. The capillary used to conduct electrophoresis is filled with an electrolyte and a sample introduced into one end of the capillary using various methods such as hydrodynamic pressure, electroosmotically-induced flow, and electrokinetic transport. The ends of the capillary are then placed in contact with an anode solution and a cathode solution and a voltage applied across the capillary. Positively charged ions are attracted towards the cathode, whereas negatively charged ions are attracted to the anode. Species with the highest mobility travel the fastest through the capillary matrix. However, the order of elution of each species, and even from which end of the capillary a species elutes, depends on its apparent mobility. Apparent mobility is the sum of a species electrophoretic mobility in the electrophoretic matrix and the mobility of the electrophoretic matrix itself relative to the capillary. The electrophoretic matrix may be mobilized by hydrodynamic pressure gradients across the capillary or by electroosmotically-induced flow (electrosomotic flow).
A number of different electrophoretic methods exist. Capillary isoelectric focusing (CIEF) involves separating analytes such as proteins within a pH gradient according to their isoelectric point (i.e., the pH at which the analyte has no net charge) of the analytes. A second method, capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE) fractionates analytes on the basis of their intrinsic charge-to-mass ratio. Capillary gel electrophoresis (CGE) is designed to separate proteins according to their molecular weight. (For reviews of electrophoresis generally, and CIEF and CZE specifically, see, e.g., Palmieri, R. and Nolan, J. A., "Protein Capillary Electrophoresis: Theoretical and Experimental Considerations for Methods Development," in CRC Handbook of Capillary Electrophoresis: A Practical Approach, CRC Press, chapter 13, pp. 325–368 (1994) (electrophoresis generally); Kilar, F., "Isoelectric Focusing in Capillaries," in CRC Handbook of Capillary Electrophoresis: A Practical Approach, CRC Press, chapter 4, pp. 325–368 (1994); and McCormick, R. M., "Capillary Zone Electrophoresis of Peptides," in CRC Handbook of Capillary Electrophoresis: A Practical Approach, CRC Press, chapter 12, pp. 287–323 (1994). All of these references are incorporated by reference in their entirety for all purposes).
While 2-D gel electrophoresis is widely practiced, several limitations restrict its utility in functional genomics research. First, because 2-D gels are limited to spatial resolution, it is difficult to resolve the large number of proteins that are expressed in the average cell (1000 to 10,000 proteins). High abundance proteins can distort carrier ampholyte gradients in capillary isoelectric focusing electrophoresis and result in crowding in the gel matrix of size sieving electrophoretic methods (e.g., the second dimension of 2-D gel electrophoresis and CGE), thus causing irreproducibility in the spatial pattern of resolved proteins [20, 21 and 22]. High abundance proteins can also precipitate in a gel and cause streaking of fractionated proteins [20]. Variations in the cross-linking density and electric field strength in cast gels can further distort the spatial pattern of resolved proteins [23, 24]. Another problem is the inability to resolve low abundance proteins neighboring high abundance proteins in a gel because of the high staining background and limited dynamic range of gel staining and imaging techniques [25, 22]. Limitations with staining also make it difficult to obtain reproducible and quantifiable protein concentration values. In some recent experiments, for example, investigators were only able to match 62% of test spots of the spots formed on 37 gels run under similar conditions [21; see also 28, 29]. Additionally, many proteins are not soluble in buffers compatible with acrylamide gels, or fail to enter the gel efficiently because of their high molecular weight [26, 27].
Thus, currently used methods of capillary electrophoresis provide significant limitations with regard to their usefulness is providing a detailed protein expression fingerprint of a cell or tissue sample.
Protein Species Identification/Protein Sequence Tags
In contrast to characterizing proteins on the basis of their electrophoretic mobility or isoelectric point, an approach to identifying the protein species that are expressed in a tissue or cell sample is to obtain partial or complete peptide sequence information from proteins purified from the sample. Needless to say, but this approach is laborious and is of limited-sensitivity as it requires extensive and often problematic purification steps to isolate individual protein species to allow for unambiguous sequence determination, and in many cases is simply not feasible for proteins which are not highly abundant and/or are not readily purifiable free from contaminant protein species.
It is also important that primary amino acid sequence or a partial sequence (i.e., a protein sequence tag, "PST") be determined so that the reason underlying changes in the protein expression pattern related to proteins that appearing at different separation coordinates, can be determined. Proteins may appear at more than one separation coordinate, depending on the degree of post-translational modification exercised on that protein by the cell or tissue. The separation coordinate for a protein may also change due to genetic mutations. Changes in the relative abundance of a protein at any given separation coordinate may also be due to changes in the regulation of gene expression. Only by unambiguously identifying each of the proteins resolved can the reason underlying any variations in protein expression across different samples be deduced.
Several methods have previously been proposed for determining the sequence or a protein sequence tag of separated proteins. These include: sequential rounds of N-terminal or C-terminal labeling followed by liberation and determination of the labeled amino acid, exoproteolytic digestion of the protein one amino acid at a time, endoproteolytic digestion of larger proteins into smaller peptides followed by N- and C-terminal labeling and amino acid determination, and mass spectrometric fragmentation pattern recognition. Sequential labeling and digestion techniques (e.g., Edman chemistry) are time consuming, even when automated, because the process must be repeated through many cycles before a sufficiently large protein sequence tag can be accumulated. Propagation of errors-i.e., either from incomplete labeling on each round, incomplete liberation of the labeled amino acid, or both-also limits the length of protein sequence that can be determined using these techniques. While a more complete protein sequence can be obtained by first using endoproteases to cleave the protein into smaller fragments prior to application of the sequential labeling and digestion chemistry, this also introduces the time and labor intensive step of reseparating and purifying the protein fragments, usually by reapplication of an electrophoretic separation technique. Determining the sequence order of these peptide fragments in the original protein can also present additional problems. Carboxy-terminal methoxy labeling of cyanogen bromide digests has been used to identify the C-terminal peptide fragment from other fragments formed by cyanogen bromide digestion of a larger protein.
Protein Sequence Determination By Mass Spectrometry
Mass spectrometric techniques are increasingly being applied to protein identification because of their speed advantage over the more traditional methods. Electrospray and matrix assisted laser desorption ionization (MALDI) are the most common mass spectrometric techniques applied to protein analysis because they are best able to ionize large, low volatility, molecular species. Two basic strategies have been proposed for the MS identification of proteins after separation: 1) mass profile fingerprinting ('MS fingerprinting') and 2) sequencing of one or more peptide domains by MS/MS ('MS/MS sequencing'). MS fingerprinting is achieved by accurately measuring the masses of several peptides generated by a proteolytic digest of the intact protein and searching a database for a known protein with that peptide mass fingerprint. MS/MS sequencing involves actual determination of one or more PSTs of peptides derived from the protein digest by generation of sequence-specific fragmentation ions in the quadrapole of an MS/MS instrument. Refinements in both of these techniques have also reduced the amount of individual proteins needed to achieve signature detection.
In one approach, a protein is chemilytically (e.g., cyanogen bromide) or enzymatically (e.g., trypsin) digested at sequence specific sites to form peptides. The specificity of the cleavage yields peptides of reproducible masses that can subsequently be determined by MS. The mass spectrometric peptide pattern detected from an individual protein is then compared to a database of similar patterns generated from purified proteins with known sequences or predicted from the theoretical protein sequence based on the expected digestion pattern. The identity of the unknown protein is then inferred to be that of the known protein that best matches its peptide mass fingerprint.
Historically, techniques such as Edman degradation have been extensively used for protein sequencing. However, sequencing by collision-induced dissociation MS methods (MS/MS sequencing) has rapidly evolved and has proved to be faster and require less protein than Edman techniques. MS sequencing is accomplished either by using higher voltages in the ionization zone of the MS to randomly fragment a single peptide isolated from a protein digest, or more typically by tandem MS using collision-induced dissociation in the ion trap (quadrapole). However, the application of CID methods to protein sequencing require that the protein first be chemilytically or enzymatically digested.
Several techniques can be used to select the peptide fragment used for MS/MS sequencing, including accumulation of the parent peptide fragment ion in the quadrapole MS unit, capillary electrophoretic separation coupled to ES-TOF MS detection, or other liquid chromatographic separations. The amino acid sequence of the peptide is deduced from the molecular weight differences observed in the resulting MS fragmentation pattern of the peptide using the published masses associated with individual amino acid residues in the MS, and has been codified into a semi-autonomous peptide sequencing algorithm. In this approach the peptide to be sequenced is typically accumulated in the quadrapole of a mass spectrometer. CID is then accomplished by injecting a neutral collision gas, typically Ar, into this ion trap to force high energy collisions with the peptide ion. Some of these collisions result in cleavage of the peptide backbone and the generation of smaller ions that, by virtue of their different mass to charge ratio, leave the quadrapole and are detected. The majority of the peptide cleavage reactions occur in a relatively few number of ways, resulting in a high abundance of certain types of cleavage ions. The peptide sequence is then deduced from the apparent masses of these high abundance peptide fragments detected.
Mass spectrometry has the additional advantage in that it can be efficiently coupled to electrophoretic separation techniques both with or without endoproteolytic (e.g., trypsin digestion) or chemilytic (e.g., cyanogen bromide) cleavage of the protein into smaller fragments. However, no mass spectrometric technique has previously been described that directly determines the protein sequence or a protein sequence tag of unknown proteins. Furthermore, no MS sequencing technique has previously been described that directly couples to electrophoretic methods used to separate large numbers of proteins from a mixed protein sample.
For example, in the mass spectrum of a 1425.7 Da peptide (HSDAVFTDNYTR (SEQ ID NO:1)) isolated in an MS/MS experiment acquired in positive ion mode, the difference between the full peptide 1425.7 Da and the next largest mass fragment (y11, 1288.7 Da) is 137 Da. This corresponds to the expected mass of an N-terminal histidine residue that is cleaved at the amide bond. For this peptide, complete sequencing is possible as a result of the generation of high-abundance fragment ions that correspond to cleavage of the peptide at almost every residue along the peptide backbone. The generation of an essentially complete set of positively-charged fragment ions that include either end of the peptide is a result of the basicity of both the N- and C-terminal residues (H and R, respectively). If a basic residue is located at the N- or C-terminus, especially R, most of the ions produced in the CID spectrum will contain that residue since positive charge is essentially localized at that site. This greatly simplifies the resulting spectrum since these basic sites direct the fragmentation into a limited series of specific daughter ions. Peptides that lack basic residues tend to fragment into a more complex mixture of fragment ions that makes sequence determination more difficult.
Extending this idea, others demonstrated that attaching a hard positive charge to the N-terminus is an effective approach for directing the production of a complete series of N-terminal fragment ions from a parent peptide in CID experiments regardless of the presence of a basic residue at the N-terminus. Theoretically, all fragment ions are produced by charge-remote fragmentation directed by the fixed-charged group. Peptides have now been modified with several classes of fixed-charged groups, including dimethylalkylammonium, substituted pyridinium, quaternary phosphonium, and sulfonium derivatives. The characteristics of the most desirable labels are that they are easily synthesized, increase the ionization efficiency of the peptide, and (most importantly) direct the formation of a specific fragment ion series with minimal unfavorable label fragmentation. The most favorable derivatives that satisfy these criteria are those of the dimethylalkylammonium class with quaternary phosphonium derivatives being only less favorable due to their more difficult synthesis. Substituted pyridinium derivatives are better suited for high-energy CID as opposed to alkylammonium derivatives.
Despite some progress in peptide analysis, protein identification remains a major bottleneck in field of Proteomics, with up to 18 hours being required to generate a protein sequence tag of sufficient length to allow the identification of a single purified protein from its predicted genomic sequence. Unambiguous protein identification is attained by generating a protein sequence tag (PST), which is now preferentially accomplished by collision-induced dissociation in the quadrapole of an MS/MS instrument. Limitations on the ionization efficiency of larger peptides and proteins restrict the intrinsic detection sensitivity of MS techniques and inhibit the use of MS for the identification of low abundance proteins. Limitations on the mass accuracy of time of flight (TOF) detectors can also constrain the usefulness of MS/MS sequencing, requiring that proteins be digested by proteolytic and chemolytic means into more manageable peptides prior to sequencing. Clearly, rapid and cost effective protein sequencing techniques would improve the speed and lower the cost of proteomics research. Finally, the separation agents and buffers used in traditional protein separation techniques are often incompatible with MS identification methods.
The present invention provides such methods.
Applications of Protein Expression Datasets
Although the limited usefulness of existing protein expression profiling techniques have yielded fairly small and incomplete datasets of protein expression information, the art has been considering theoretical uses of higher resolution protein expression datasets, should they become available in view of new or improved techniques.
If high-resolution, high-sensitivity protein expression profiling methods and datasets were to become available to the art, significant progress in the areas of diagnostics, therapeutics, drug development, biosensor development, and other related areas would be possible. For example, multiple disease markers could be identified and utilized for better confirmation of a disease condition or stage (see U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,672,480; 5,599,677; 5,939,533; and 5,710,007). Subcellular toxicological information could be generated to better direct drug structure and activity correlations (see Anderson, L., "Pharmaceutical Proteomics: Targets, Mechanism, and Function," paper presented at the IBC Proteomics conference, Coronado, Calif. (Jun. 11–12, 1998). Subcellular toxicological information can also be utilized in a biological sensor device to predict the likely toxicological effect of chemical exposures and likely tolerable exposure thresholds (see U.S. Pat. No. 5,811,231).
The present invention provides compositions, methods, apparatus, and computer-based databasing systems for high-throughput, high-resolution, and sensitive protein expression profiling from samples containing a plurality of polypeptide species, such as for example cells, tissues, and organs of bacteria, plants, and animals, and related aspects and uses thereof.
The literature citations discussed herein are provided solely for their disclosure prior to the filing date of the present application. Nothing herein is to be construed as an admission that the inventors are not entitled to antedate such disclosure by virtue of prior invention.