A motorized rotary joint for robots integrates a joint bearing with a power transmission, such as a planetary type speed reducer, and provides a large central hole for passing electric and service lines therethrough. The rotary joint includes a built-in rotor and stator arrangement within the same joint housing structure, thus allowing the electric motor to share the same bearings and housing structure with the speed reducer. Preferably, the rotor also carries planets of the reducer and the stator is either integral or coupled to a housing of the reducer. The rotary joint also accommodates an encoder, a circuit board having electronic components thereon and a built-in brake to provide a totally integrated, intelligent rotary joint. A method for constructing a modular robot using the rotary joint is also provided, wherein several such rotary joints are coupled to simple structural elements by means of bolted interfaces to construct a multi-joint robot of an articulated structure. Such a modular robot has low cost, is easy to maintain and service, and can be readily and speedily constructed and reconfigured from integrated modular components.

Articulated arm robots have rotary joints that include supporting bearings, and speed reducers connected to prime movers such as electric motors. Position feedback for the joint is usually provided by resolvers or encoders connected either to the motor shaft or to one of two arms that interface at the joint. On some joints brakes are required, usually on the high speed motor side of the reducer, to hold the robot arms from falling under gravity. When such components are utilized as independent components, cost is associated with the use of multiple bearing sets in the joint, motor, encoder, and/or brake. Additional cost is associated mechanical interfaces and couplings between the components; the joint also becomes bulkier and loses its modularity.
Occasionally some components are integrated into fewer modules. For example, servo motors may include an encoder and/or a brake as part of one motor module. This simplifies the assembly and maintenance of the robot and reduces its overall size and cost. Direct drive motors do not need reducers, but are limited to relatively low torque applications. Some other modules integrate the joint bearing with the speed reducer, such as the commercially available Cycloidal and Harmonic drive speed reducers; by adding a motor-brake-encoder module, a robot joint can be built with only two modules.
While speed reducers have been used extensively for robot joints, they have not fully supported the particular needs of robot construction. For example, it is desirable that the robot joint be hollow to pass cables and service lines through the joints from a base to serially connected joints of the robot arm and finally to its end effector. It is also desirable to avoid the duplication of bearings at the joints wherein the robot joint, the speed reducer, and the motor have their own independent bearings.
Robots are also subjected to occasional overloads resulting from interference with peripheral equipment. Such interferences could damage the robot and render it inoperable unless the robot joints and reducers have inherently high overload carrying capacities. Furthermore, the robot operation under tight controls demands a robot joint having minimal backlash and high stiffness. Robot construction also benefits from the integration of components to simplify manufacturing, assembly, and maintenance and reduce robot cost.
Some commercial speed reducers offer some of these advantages. For example, rotary vector reducers, known as RV reducers, and harmonic drives can be integrated into the robot joints and share common bearings. RV reducers also have low backlash and high overload carrying capacity and can be provided with a small center hole. However, the RV reducer is heavy in weight, costly, and does not offer a hollow center core large enough to be of appreciable value. Harmonic Drives have excessive backlash, low overload capacity, and, do not provide a hollow center. Both drives have very limiting motor mounting options. Custom reducers, utilizing gear trains, can be built to provide the required characteristics but at undesirably high costs or with excessive compliance.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,904,148 to Larsson discloses a robotic arm for an industrial robot which includes joints appearing to have a cable passage therethrough.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,069,524 to Watanabe et al discloses a robotic hand and optical fiber connector coupling assembly having passages for the optical fiber cables and various pipes.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,918,344, 4,850,457, 4,690,010 and 3,239,699 to Chikamori et al, Taig, Matsumoto et al, and Ferrary, respectively, disclose combined electric motor and speed reducer mechanisms.
Consequently, it is highly desirable to have a single module that integrates all of the components of a rotary joint, such as bearings, motor, speed reducer, brake, and encoder. Such a joint is believed to be disclosed in a pending patent application owned by NASA and having inventors John M. Vranish, Paul W. Richards and Peter D. Spidaliere.
Such module can be produced as a unit at lower cost, have fewer components with high reliability and a compact package. It allows robots to be built more expeditiously, have low maintenance, and be of lower overall cost.
In general, it is desirable that such rotary joints are inherently compact and light weight, have built in encoders and brakes, be capable of accommodating variations in motor mounting locations, and have speed reducers of low backlash that provide optional speed reducing ratios, high overload capability and a large hollow center. An optimum robot joint would integrate in a single module all such desirable joint elements and functions and have a simple mechanical interface at two surfaces for coupling to two adjacent robot arms, or other purely structural parts.

Motorized rotary joint and method of constructing a modular robot utilizing same


Installing on a node of a computer network, an agent of a network system. The installed agent receives a network task via the network. The network task involves a second node of the network. The receiving agent generates a probe implementing the task and targeted to the second node. Either the receiving agent or the generated probe generates a command for the second node. The command is related to the probe and can be in the form of a data link layer protocol data unit for network operations, administration, and maintenance (OAM). The agent or node that generates the command communicates the command to the second node. The second node executes the communicated command. The second node communicates an acknowledgment of the executed command to the first node.

A computer network is a telecommunications network that allows computers to exchange data. Network devices that originate, route, and terminate the data are called network nodes. Network nodes can include hosts, such as personal computers, phones, and servers, as well as networking hardware. In computer networks, network nodes pass data to each other along data connections. Data is typically transferred in the form of packets. Connections between network nodes are established using various media, such as fiber optic cable, coaxial cable, and wireless links.
Computer network analytics can be used to monitor the performance of a network (for example, quality of service, network congestion, and network resilience), to monitor and enforce network security, to provide visualizations of network operation, and to support network configuration activities. Analytics applications that operate on data obtained from a network typically require the network to be configured to generate the necessary input data, in addition to aggregating that data and performing queries over that data. One aspect that typical computer network analytics applications have in common is that users need to decide beforehand which information to generate and which aggregation queries to perform. Typically, a user needs to initiate a separate query or analytics task and configure data sources to generate the data that is needed.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Control of network nodes in computer network systems


A positive electrode composition is provided. The positive electrode composition includes at least one electroactive metal selected from the group consisting of titanium, vanadium, niobium, molybdenum, nickel, iron, cobalt, chromium, manganese, silver, antimony, cadmium, tin, lead, copper, zinc, and combination thereof, an alkali metal halide, and aluminum, present in an amount of at least 0.5 weight percent, based on the weight of the positive electrode composition. Optionally, an amount of sodium iodide of up to about 1.0 weight percent, based on the weight of the sodium halide in the positive electrode composition, is included. The composition may be included in a positive electrode with a molten electrolyte salt comprising the reaction product of an alkali metal halide and an aluminum halide. An energy storage device including the composition is provided, as well as a method of operating the device.

The invention includes embodiments that relate to an electrode composition and method of its making and operation. The invention further includes embodiments that relate to an electrode for an energy storage device.
Metal chloride batteries, especially sodium-nickel chloride batteries with a molten sodium anode and a beta-alumina solid electrolyte, are widely employed for energy storage applications. When the metal chloride batteries are employed in mobile applications, like hybrid locomotives or plug-in electric vehicles (PHEV), or hybrid telecom devices, it is desirable for the batteries to be capable of providing and accepting power during discharging and charging of the battery, respectively. Historically, it has been a focus of battery technology to provide cell compositions that maintain the highest possible operating capacity. In some cell compositions, aluminum has been added, along with other additives, to improve cell performance. However, the amount of aluminum utilized has been minimized, for example to amounts below about 1 weight percent of the positive electrode composition, because amounts in excess of this generally impede operating capacity.
It has now been found that for certain applications, for example hybrid electric vehicles, hybrid telecom devices, and other uninterruptible power systems (UPS) applications, it may be desirable to provide a battery composition that delivers enhanced charge acceptance and cycle life, in conjunction with enhanced discharge power. Modifying the positive electrode composition of a battery may significantly improve the charge acceptance and cycle life, as wells as discharge power, of a battery, even if this is achieved at a reduced cell capacity.
Known battery composition modification mechanisms that have been tried include additives to increase the robustness of the nickel network, additives to promote greater nickel surface area, additives to increase salt availability or surface area, additives to increase use of greater amounts of iron, and the use of added sulfur, in the form of metal sulfides, to increase capacity retention, presumably by poisoning the nickel surface to mitigate against nickel particle growth. Most of these modifications have as their target improved cell capacity.

Composition, energy storage device, and related process


A lens holder is provided with objective lenses of different types. Rotating the lens holder causes one of the objective lenses to be placed in the optical path of the laser beam. Near one objective lens, there is provided a reflecting element that reflects part of the laser beam directed to the objective lens. When the objective lens is put in the optical path, the beam from the reflecting element is sensed by a sensor. From the sensing result, it is judged that a specific type of objective lens is in the optical path. Accordingly, there is provided an objective lens driving apparatus that includes at least two objective lenses with different numerical apertures according to optical information recording mediums complying with different standards, is capable of switching between the objective lenses according to the optical information recording medium to be used, and further has a simple structure capable of identifying the type of the objective lens selected by switching.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an objective lens driving apparatus provided on an optical disc apparatus, and more particularly to an objective lens driving apparatus that not only switches objective lenses with different numerical apertures according to the type of a recording medium but also identifies the type of the selected objective lens.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the recent development of optical information recording mediums, including optical discs and magneto-optical discs, objective lens driving apparatuses for use with the reproduction systems of those optical information recording mediums are actively being developed. Objective lens driving apparatuses have been widely used as compact disc (CDs) or CD-ROM driving apparatuses.
Recently, objective lens driving apparatuses have been developed for not only reproducing use but also recording use. Well-known recording methods used for those apparatuses are the magneto-optical recording method and the phase-modulation recording method. Many of such recording methods have been prescribed in detail by standards. In recent years, however, a high-density recording optical disc aimed at improvements in the recording density has appeared and the research and development of optical discs of the high-density recording type have been done at a rapid rate. With such optical discs, for high-density recording, pits serving as data recording units are required to be made smaller than those on conventional CDs and the pits are needed to be searched for with high accuracy. An optical disc of the high-density recording type differs from a conventional CD in the thickness of the substrate. For an apparatus for reproducing the optical disc, the wavelength of a laser beam searching for pits is shorter and the numerical aperture of the objective lens is set larger so that the diameter of the beam spot formed on the optical disc may be smaller.
When various modification are made on new discs appearing one after another as described above, it is difficult for apparatuses of the above-described type to record and reproduce the data onto and from optical discs complying with the conventional standards. It is an inconvenience to the users to prepare a disc apparatus according to the recording medium used.
To solve such a problem, a method of providing a plurality of optical heads with different focal lengths on a single optical disc apparatus has been proposed, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,235,581. With the disc apparatus, two optical heads are provided so as to enable tracking independently, thereby making it possible to record and reproduce the data onto and from a conventional compact disc, such as a compact disc.
In such a method, two optical heads are positioned so that they may face each other symmetrically with the center of the optical disc and the two optical heads cannot be placed side by side. Therefore, with an optical disc apparatus employing such a method, in the case of an optical disc (e.g., a CD ROM or MO) housed in a cartridge (caddie) with a window section, none of the two objective lenses can be positioned under the opening of the window section with a limited area. As optical disc apparatuses have been popularized, there have been great demands toward lower-cost apparatuses. The need for two optical heads, however, is an obstacle to such demands.
From this viewpoint, it is hoped that an optical head in which two or more objective lenses of different types are provided and which switches the objective lens therein will appear. With this configuration, the development of an optical head with a structure that can identify the type of the selected objective lens is also wanted.


A transducer element alignment structure for use with a two-dimensional transducer to form an ultrasonic three-dimensional image performs a three-dimensional scanning by using the smallest number of elements, wherein a number of transducer elements are aligned on a plurality of concentric circular grids. The first element is aligned at a location on each grid and the other elements are aligned at a respective location so that the circumferential distance between the elements has the same arc length, to thereby construct a simple system and effectively form ultrasonic three-dimensional images.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a transducer element alignment structure for use with a two-dimensional transducer array to form an ultrasonic three-dimensional image, and more particularly, to a transducer element alignment structure for use with a two-dimensional transducer array which can form an ultrasonic three-dimensional image by aligning a small number of elements on a circular grid.
2. Discussion of Related Prior Art
A medical ultrasonic system for displaying sectional structure and blood stream information in a human body as images is an essential piece of medical image diagnostic equipment. Ultrasonic three-dimensional image diagnostic equipment for providing three-dimensional images of medical information has recently been developed. However, to form an ultrasonic three-dimensional image, a large amount of scanning time and a complicated ultrasonic system is needed. A mechanical three-dimensional scanning method which takes a very long time to obtain a signal for forming three-dimensional images is influenced by the respiratory activity of a patient. More specifically, it is difficult to obtain reliable ultrasonic signal data from a patient using the above method, since the patient cannot stop breathing for the required length of time.
To reduce the required time to perform a three-dimensional scanning, a two-dimensional transducer array can be used. However, in the case when the two-dimensional transducer array is used, the system becomes very complicated due to the required number of transducer elements. Thus, in order to form an ultrasonic three-dimensional image by using a two-dimensional transducer array, a scheme for reducing the number of elements in the transducer array is inevitably needed.

Transducer element alignment structure in two-dimensional transducer array for forming ultra-sonic three-dimensional images


Compositions of (a) a salt of a metal and a carboxylic acid having at least 6 carbon atoms and (b) at least one salt of a metal other than the metal of (a) and a carboxylic acid having at least 6 carbon atoms in a fluid medium are stabilized towards storage decomposition and precipitation by incorporating in the composition (c) a complexing agent such as a ketoxime.

The present invention relates to compositions of mixed metal salts which exhibits improved storage stability, and to the use of such compositions as a stabilizer for polymers.
Mixed metal salts of carboxylic acids are useful for many purposes. In particular mixed metal salt of carboxylic acids having at least 6 carbon atoms have been used as industrial soaps and greases in various applications, including use as stabilizers for polyvinyl chloride and other chlorine containing polymers. Often the salts are overbased, as described hereinafter, and often such salts are used in the form of a concentrate, e.g. with an amount of oil sufficient to provide a mobile, homogeneous, pourable, and handleable material.
While such mixed salts and compositions are very useful, problems are sometimes encountered. In particular the stability of certain combinations of metal salts to standing or storage can be inadequate due to fundamental incompatibility among the metal salts employed. Such incompatibility can be exhibited in oil formulations by development over time of turbidity, increased viscosity, or insoluble solids. As a result the composition is no longer an easily-handled, homogeneous, readily pourable liquid and must be specially treated in order to be used. Even in the absence of added oil certain mixed salts can exhibit deleterious interactions. The present invention provides a composition of mixed metal salts in which such problems are minimized or completely eliminated and which, accordingly, is superior for various uses including use as a polymer stabilizer.
Various references have reported the use of carboxylate salts as polymer stabilizers, and various problems encountered therein. French publication 2,376,178, Jul. 28, 1978 discloses chemical stabilizers that protect halogenated vinyl polymers from rapid decomposition due to exposure to heat, comprising a tin complex or a complex of antimony, a hydrochloric acid acceptor, an organic chelating agent, and a lubricant. The hydrochloric acid acceptor is a salt of an alkali or alkaline earth metal or Zn, Cd, or Pb oxides, which can be cleaved by HCl. It is also possible to use superbasic salts. The organic chelating agent captures the metal chlorides produced during thermal degradation and forms stable and inoffensive complexes. Suitable agents include oxycarboxylic acids, polyols, polyamines, and organic phosphites.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,669,549, Darby et al., February 1954, discloses PVC stabilized with zinc stearate and calcium ethyl acetoacetate. The PVC is resistant to discoloration.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,123,399 and -400, Gay, Oct. 31, 1978, disclose a PVC formulation containing a mixed organometallic salt, a polyol, and a .beta.-diketone. The organometallic salt is e.g. calcium stearate plus zinc stearate. Other combinations include calcium or barium salts used conjointly with cadmium or zinc salts.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,102,933. Bae et al., Apr. 7, 1992, filed May 22, 1990, discloses a composition which is useful as a thermal stabilizer for PVC, comprising a substituted .beta.-diketone, mannitol, and a mixture of magnesium and zinc salts of benzoic and fatty aliphatic acids, preferably having at least 10 carbon atoms.

Stabilized compositions of mixed metal carboxylates


A method for purging fuel from a fuel system of a gas turbine engine on shutdown of the engine comprises, in one aspect, terminating a fuel supply to the fuel system and using the residual compressed air to create a reversed pressure differential in the fuel system relative to a forward pressure differential of the fuel system used to maintain fuel supply for engine operation, and under the reversed pressure differential substantially purging the fuel remaining in the system therefrom to a fuel source.

A gas turbine engine typically includes a fuel system for delivery of fuel from a fuel source to a combustor where the fuel in combination with compressed air is ignited and produces combustion gases to drive the turbine engine. The fuel is delivered through the system under a fuel pressure established by a fuel pump. When the turbine engine is shut down for any reason, fuel remains in the system. Fuel, particularly liquid fuel, in the fuel system can result in gumming, coking, and similar disadvantageous results, thereby decreasing the operational life of the components, such as fuel nozzles. Furthermore, cold fuel remaining within the fuel system which is not under pressure and is un-metered, can interfere with the next turbine start-up process. The fuel remaining in the system will eventually be lost through leakage from the fuel nozzles, which is not acceptable for ecological reasons and is not effectively used for engine operation. Efforts have been made to find methods of purging fuel from the fuel system on shutdown of the engine. Conventionally, fuel remaining in the system is discharged into the combustor and cannot be reused, or is sucked into an ecology valve cylinder to be stored for re-use in the next engine start-up process but this requires a complicated system structure and compromises the performance reliability of the fuel system and adds weight.
Accordingly, there is a need to provide an improved fuel system of gas turbine engines.


In a device control apparatus, a processor that operates according to software, an OS storage unit stores Operating Systems that operate on the processor, and a storage unit stores privileged software which operates on the processor. The privileged software calls one of the Operating Systems when the processor receives an interrupt from a device, and the Operating System controls the device. Furthermore, a detecting unit detects an interrupt to the processor, a judging unit judges whether the Operating System has called the privileged software from the storage unit in a first predetermined time from detection of the interrupt, and a resetting unit resets the processor when the judging unit judges that the Operating Systcm 9em has not called the privileged software from the storage unit.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a device control apparatus having plural types of software installed thereon.
2. Description of the Related Art
Hitherto, in database systems and server machines designed for executing mission critical process, emphasis has been put on reliability or security from the viewpoint of importance of the processing and confidentiality of the data held inside. Recently, however, the reliability and security has increased their importance not only in such general computers but also in various devices such as embedded systems.
On the other hand, along with the recent downsizing trend of system LSI, there is an increasing tendency of realizing plural functions, which have been hitherto realized by individual and dedicated hardware, by the software by embedding a processor on the system LSI. By executing plural types of software on the processor in the system LSI, more functions can be realized by one system LSI.
In this case, it is necessary to prevent leakage of a group of software (for example, confidential programs such as encrypting programs executed on a processor, and valuable programs such as media processing) which realizes functions hitherto realized by the hardware, like data such as personal information.
When plural programs operate on one processor, if one program has a defect, execution of all other programs is disturbed and the operation of the entire apparatus may be stopped. Or if a program installed, for example, by downloading from outside is an evil or unjust program, secret information or program may be leaked outside, or may be destroyed or altered.
To solve such problems, it is necessary to control the access to resources such as memories or devices assigned to the program for realizing each function. For example, a program or a functional unit may be prohibited from accessing to the resources assigned to other program, or access from plural functions or programs to shared resource can be exclusively controlled. Access control mechanism and access control information themselves must be protected from arbitrary manipulation.
Virtual machine technique is proposed as a means for enhancing the reliability and security by realizing the protections and executing plural functions separately. The virtual machine technique can be implemented in various manners. According to one manner of implementation, a virtualization layer is provided between hardware and operating system (OS), and plural operating systems (guest OSs) operate on the virtualization layer. The virtualization layer is generally called hypervisor layer. The hypervisor layer manages the resources and provides a virtual machine which is composed of resources assigned to an individual guest OS. As a result, the plurality of guest OSs can be executed in isolated state without interfering with each other. When the function of the hypervisor layer is realized by software, such software is called hypervisor.
Processors used in general computers have hardware configuration themselves for supporting virtualization. One example thereof is a technology proposed by Intel® Corporation in "Intel® Virtualization Technology Specification for the IA-32 Intel® Architecture", [online], [searched on May 31, 2005], Internet <URL: ftp://download.intel.com/technology/computing/vptech/C97063-002.pdf>]. A processor which implements the technology is provided with many privilege modes indicating authority of the executed program, and the program can transit to a higher privilege mode during an execution of any instruction. As a result, the hardware can monitor access of the guest OS to shared resource, while the software granted with a higher privilege mode at a time of the access can check an access content of the guest OS.
Another example is a technology proposed by Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. A processor which implements this technology includes a mechanism for intercepting an interrupt, and a function for generating a virtual interrupt by software. Hence, after the hypervisor intercepts an interrupt, the processor can manage delivery of the interrupt to a guest OS which needs the interrupt. In addition, the processor is provided with a mechanism for monitoring the access of a guest OS to an address translation table. Thus, the guest OS is prevented from rewriting the address translation table freely in an attempt to access a memory region assigned to other guest OS.
However, unlike advanced processors used in server computers or general computers, existing processors embedded in system LSI or SoC (System on Chip) have limited functions and are not provided with functions for supporting virtualization: Usually, these processors support only two privilege modes, i.e., privilege mode and non-privilege mode. When plural guest OSs are executed on such a processor, each guest OS operates in the privilege mode of highest level.
When a guest OS operates on such a processor in the privilege mode of the highest level, the guest OS can freely use an access control mechanism of the processor. The processor cannot protect an interrupt vector table, in which instructions are stored to be executed in response to an interrupt request, from rewriting by the guest OS. The guest OS can make an attack by causing troubles by ignoring an interrupt of a device used by other guest OS, or returning a false reply to the interrupt of the device.
It means that the processor cannot protect itself using software alone when malicious software tries to disturb the delivery of an interrupt of a device. This is because, since the guest OS operates on the processor in the privilege mode of highest level, and the interrupt of a device does not occur synchronously with the operation of the processor, if the malicious software is operating at the moment the interrupt is notified to the processor, the processor cannot change over the control to other guest OS or the like.

Device control apparatus that calls an operating system to control a device


A copolymer for semiconductor lithography, comprising at least a recurring unit (A) having a carboxylic acid ester structure whose solubility in alkali increases by the action of an acid and a carboxyl group-containing recurring unit (B), which copolymer is obtained via a step (P) of (co)polymerizing at least a monomer giving a recurring unit (A) and a step (Q) of forming a recurring unit (B) in the co-presence of a recurring unit (A)-containing (co)polymer and/or a monomer giving a recurring unit (A), and an acid.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a copolymer for the lithography used in production of semiconductor and a process for producing the copolymer. More particularly, the present invention relates to a copolymer for the semiconductor lithography suited for fine processing using a radiation such as far ultraviolet radiation, X-rays, electron beam or the like, as well as to a process for producing the copolymer.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the lithography employed for semiconductor production, formation of a finer pattern is necessary with an increase in integration degree. In the formation of a fine pattern, a light source of short wavelength is essential. Currently, a lithography using a Krypton fluoride (KrF) excimer laser beam (wavelength: 248 nm) is the main lithography used in semiconductor mass production and, also, a lithography using an argon fluoride (ArF) excimer laser beam (wavelength; 193 nm) is being introduced in semiconductor mass production. Further, lithographies using a fluorine dimer (F2) excimer laser beam (wavelength: 157 nm), extreme ultraviolet radiation (EUV), X-rays, electron beam or the like are being developed.
The resist polymers used in these lithographies are constituted so as to contain the following recurring units:
a recurring unit having a structure wherein a polar group soluble in alkaline developing solution (the group is hereinafter referred to as alkali-soluble group) has been protected with an acid-dissociating, non-polar substituent group for suppressing the solubility in alkaline developing solution (the substituent group is hereinafter referred to as acid-dissociating, dissolution-suppressing group),
a recurring unit having a polar group for increasing the adhesivity to semiconductor substrate or the like, and, as necessary,
a recurring unit having a polar or non-polar substituent group for controlling the solubility in resist solvent or alkaline developing solution. In the lithography using a KrF excimer laser beam as the light source, there are known copolymers containing a recurring unit derived from hydroxystyrene, and a recurring unit wherein a phenolic hydroxyl group derived from hydroxystyrene has been protected with an acid-dissociating, dissolution-suppressing group or a recurring unit wherein a carboxyl group derived from (meth)acrylic acid has been protected with an acid-dissociating, dissolution-suppressing group or the like (reference is made to, for example, Patent Literatures 1 to 4). There are also known copolymers containing a recurring unit using an alicyclic hydrocarbon group as an acid-dissociating, dissolution-suppressing group for increasing the dry etching resistance and the dissolution contrast between exposed area and non-exposed area (reference is made to, for example, Patent Literatures 5 to 6).
In the lithography using an ArF excimer laser beam of shorter wavelength or the like as the light source, there was investigated a copolymer containing no recurring unit derived from hydroxystyrene having a high absorptivity coefficient to a wavelength of 193 nm. As a result, there are known copolymers having, in the recurring unit, a lactone structure as a polar group for increasing the adhesivity to semiconductor substrate or the like (reference is made to, or example, Patent Literatures 7 to 10), and copolymers having, in the recurring unit, a polar group-containing, alicyclic hydrocarbon group (reference is made to, for example, Patent Literature 11). With these copolymers, however, there arose a problem of generation of pattern defect after development and there have been made various studies for improvement. As one such improvement, there are known copolymers having a lactone structure and an alicyclic hydrocarbon group as recurring units and further containing a recurring unit derived from (meth)acrylic acid (reference is made to, for example, Patent Literatures 12 to 13).
These techniques can suppress development defect; however, they were not sufficient in lithography properties such as DOF (depth of focus) and the like. Thus, there have been strongly needed a resist polymer small in development defect and superior in lithography properties and a process for producing such a resist polymer.
Patent Literature 1: JP-A-1984-045439
Patent Literature 2: JP-A-1993-113667
Patent Literature 3: JP-A-1998-026828
Patent Literature 4: JP-A-1987-115440
Patent Literature 5: JP-A-1997-073173
Patent Literature 6: JP-A-1998-161313
Patent Literature 7: JP-A-1997-090637
Patent Literature 8: JP-A-1998-207069
Patent Literature 9: JP-A-2000-026446
Patent Literature 10: JP-A-2001-242627
Patent Literature 11: JP-A-1999-109632
Patent Literature 12: JP-A-2000-321771
Patent Literature 13: JP-A-2000-338673

Copolymer for semiconductor lithography and process for production thereof

Abstract: The copolymer is used in production of semiconductor as a resist polymer which is small in roughness, little in development defect and superior in lithography properties such as DOF and the like.


A cap assembly for use with an optical device having an eyepiece includes an attachment member defining a cavity having a first opening and a second opening that are colinear. The first opening is dimensioned such that the eyepiece is insertable into the cavity through the first opening to secure the cap assembly to the eyepiece. A camera holder is rotatably mounted with respect to the attachment member, such as via a hinge, such that the camera holder is selectively movable between a first position in which the camera holder is colinear with the first opening, second opening, and cavity, and a second position in which the camera holder is not colinear with the first opening, second opening, and cavity.

Conventional spotting scopes and binoculars used for hunting and target shooting provide significant advantages to their users but require that the eye of the user be positioned over the eyepiece of the scope or binoculars. A target shooter often has to change his/her shooting position to view the target. A hunter does not want to spend too much time looking through a scope or binoculars in case game is seen outside the field of view of the scope or the binoculars.


A motor vehicle has a motorized steering lock including a bolt which locks the steering column by engaging in a recess in the steering shaft in the column. The bolt is actuated by an internally threaded slider which is carried on an externally threaded drive rod, and which cooperates with abutment surfaces formed on the bolt so as to displace the latter between its locking and unlocking positions. Besides its threaded portion, and in extension of the latter, the drive rod has a portion of reduced diameter such that, when the drive rod is rotated, the slider can slide axially along the portion of the drive rod having the reduced diameter, to a position in which its internal thread is out of mesh with the external thread of the drive rod.

In such locking devices, the locked and unlocked positions of the bolt are generally determined by simply stopping the electric motor that rotates the drive rod. This may for example be achieved by the provision of interrupters which are actuated, for example, by a cam which is coupled to the bolt, and which transmits pulses to an electronic circuit for controlling the motor. This circuit then cuts off the power supply to the motor.
However, between the instant at which the power supply to the motor is cut off and the effective cessation of rotation of the motor shaft, a time interval elapses. It is difficult to forecast the duration of this time interval, which depends, in particular, on the inertia of the moving parts of the motor and on various friction effects that occur within the locking device. Accordingly, there is always some uncertainty as to the effective unlocked position of the bolt, and this disadvantage is amplified by the fact that this position varies every time the motor is stopped.

Motorized locking device for a motor vehicle, such as a steering lock, having improved means for limiting the course of travel of the bolt


The invention provides methods and compositions generally useful to the use of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification of trace DNA sequences from formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) biopsy samples and specifically relevant to the identification of multi-drug resistant H. pylori in such biopsy samples.

H. pylori is a significant human pathogen primarily found in the stomach. H. pylori plays an important role in gastritis, peptic ulcers and gastric cancer. Drug resistant and multi-drug resistant strains of H. pylori are increasingly common and front line therapy for treating H. pylori usually involves triple antibiotic therapy, comprising administering a proton-pump inhibitor (PPI) and two more antibiotics, typically clarithromycin and either metronidazole or amoxicillin, simultaneously. However, such therapy is only effective if the clinical isolate against which it is targeted is not clarithromycin resistant or resistant to metronidazole or penicillin-like drugs such as amoxicillin. Other antibiotics may be used, but in each case it is critical to know whether the H. pylori strain afflicting the patient is predisposed to resistance to any particular antibiotic to provide effective therapeutic treatment. A number of diagnostic methods for detecting the presence of H. pylori have been developed including, a urea breathe test, rapid urease tests, and anti-H. pylori antibody tests for serum and stool samples as well as an extensive range of immunohistologic staining methods. For the most part such methods require use of cultured isolates or recently obtained clinical samples. Culture of H. pylori and antibiotic susceptibility testing are not commonly performed in routine practice due to the specific requirements of H. pylori in terms of growth and transport. It is difficult and not always successful. Furthermore, there are no good methods that allow the drug resistance profile of any H. pylori detected to be determined. A robust and inexpensive method capable of detecting H. pylori while simultaneously determining the drug resistance profile of the detected bacteria represents a significant improvement over existing technologies.
Historically, biopsy tissue, specifically gastric biopsy tissue is preserved in formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded sample (FFPE) "blocks". Such blocks do not require special handling or storage and represent a common way of preserving human biopsy materials in clinical histology laboratories. FFPE preserves the ultrastructural relationships of the embedded tissue over long periods of time, the samples are not subject to exogenous contamination and FFPE facilitates processing for histological staining and is amenable to many antibody based analyses. Unfortunately, formalin fixation, which allows immobilization of cellular matter (primarily by cross-linking nitrogenous groups in macromolecules), reduces the efficacy of many nucleic acid methods such as polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification of specific gene sequences in FFPE biopsy samples. The DNA-dependent DNA polymerases used for PCR amplification can neither traverse nor accurately replicate DNA sequences that are chemically cross-linked or contain many modified nitrogenous bases.
Fortunately, the level of cross-linking in most FFPE samples does not completely preclude nucleic acid analysis. The methods and compositions described here improve the efficacy of PCR amplification of such cross-linked and otherwise damaged trace DNA from biopsy FFPE samples over existing methods. Typically, PCR amplification of DNA from FFPE preserved samples is targeted to analysis of the human DNA sequences present in the biopsy and there is a relatively large amount of target DNA that can be amplified. This is important, since chemical cross-linking by formalin occurs randomly and with sufficiently high copy numbers of any given target DNA sequence within a PCR amplification reaction, it is likely that at least one or some combination of the multiple copies of the desired target DNA sequence is available for amplification and thus amenable to PCR-based analyses. Commercial kits are available for direct analysis of human DNA recovered from FFPE biopsy samples, for example Illumina's TruSeq Custom Amplicon Low Input Kit (Illumina). However, the situation is very different when applied to less abundant DNA sequences such as those of bacterial pathogens present at low copy number within the FFPE preserved tissue. In cases where the DNA sequence targeted for PCR amplification is at very low copy number the likelihood of a cross-link or adduct comprising each and every copy of the target DNA is a major concern. To maximize the chances of a successful PCR amplification it is necessary to limit the size of DNA fragments produced by the PCR amplification (amplicons) to the minimum necessary for analysis, to use only the most favored primer sequences producing such minimal amplicons, and to produce as many diagnostic amplicons from a single aliquot of target DNA as possible.
The requirement for such small amplicon size limits the number of choices for distributing primers along a target sequence and requires that multiple closely related priming sites be used to ensure that no single site is compromised by cross-linking or the presence of a disruptive adduct within the primer binding sequence. Because, DNA sequences are not entirely heterologous, and because optimal primer binding sites tend to favor higher G-C content, especially at the 3′ end of the primer sequence, the best primers for generating a set of amplicons tend to cluster into narrow regions of a given target sequence. To ensure that each amplicon is produced specifically and solely from the desired primer pair usually each amplicon must be produced individually to avoid formation of primer dimers or recombinant amplification products produced during the PCR amplification process by cross hybridization of amplicon strands. Practically speaking, this requires that the target DNA be diluted among multiple PCR reactions which is an inefficient use of target DNA and is not practical with the tiny amount of bacterial DNA that can be recovered from FFPE biopsy samples. The more efficient method disclosed here involves segregating PCR primer pairs into mutually compatible pools such that there is minimal risk of primer-dimer formation or cross-hybridization between nascent amplicons during PCR amplification. This sort of segregational pooling of primer pairs allows efficient and automatable handling of FFPE samples containing rare DNA sequences to be analyzed by PCR-amplification-based methods in a clinical laboratory setting.

Methods and compositions for characterizing drug resistant bacteria from formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded biological samples


A metallic inner pipe for the positional adjustment of the gravitational center is inserted in a metallic shaft body from a large-diameter end aperture thereof, and this inner pipe is secured in a large-diameter end portion of the metallic shaft body. This metallic inner pipe is located in an internal area of the shaft body which ranges between 0 mm and 350 mm from the large-diameter extremety of the shaft body, while on the other hand, the metallic inner pipe is 50 mm to 350 mm in the length thereof, and is 10 g to 50 g in the weight thereof. The inner pipe is secured to the large-diameter end portion of the metallic shaft body by using adhesives or any other suitable fixing means. If the inner pipe is secured to the metallic shaft body, the outside end of the metallic inner pipe is aligned with the large-diameter end of the metallic shaft body.

The present invention relates to improved golf club shafts.
In general, conventional metallic golf club shafts comprise their body portions which are formed in a stepped configuration by cold-drawing a tubular chrome molybdenum steel material of wall thickness equal or even in any portion thereof. The gravitational centers of such conventional golf club shafts are located in a position ranging between 50% and 54% of their overall length from their ends of small diameter in terms of values obtained by dividing by the overall length the distance from such ends to the positions of the gravitational centers.
What is called the swing balance or the swing weight of the golf club is the turning moment around a constant point on the club shaft which is located 355.6 mm (14 inches) inwardly from the grip end of the golf club. In a plurality of golf clubs which are all equal in the values of their turning moments thus identified as the swing balance or the swing weight, one or those in which the positions of the gravitational centers are nearer located to the large-diameter side end, namely, the grip end of the club can be still more increased in their head weight.
However, in the foregoing conventional type golf club shafts, it was difficult from the viewpoints of their construction to locate the positions of their gravitational centers so as to be nearer to their largest-diameter ends. For this reason, in order to allow the positions of the gravitational centers to be located nearer to the shaft ends of large diameter, integrally formed golf club shafts as described and shown in, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,871,649 and U.K. Patent Application GB 2227418A were constructed such that their large-diameter side end portions are increased in their wall thickness as compared with their small diameter side end portions.
However, if a tubular material of wall thickness equal or even in any portion thereof is cold-drawn into a golf club shaft, the large-diameter side end portion thereof is inevitably thinner in the wall thickness thereof than the small-diameter side end portion thereof.
Under the circumstances, it becomes necessary to use as a shaft manufacturing material a special tube in which the wall thickness thereof is the greatest in an end portion thereof to be formed into a large-diameter side end portion, and is gradually reduced towards the other end portion thereof. Also, an applicable cold-drawing operation is required to form the special material tube into a golf club shaft in which the wall thickness thereof is greater in the large-diameter side end portion thereof and is small in the small-diameter side end portion thereof than in the conventional golf club shafts. This special manufacturing method causes the manufacturing process to be complicated, thereby increasing the manufacuring cost. This is a disadvantage of the special manufacturing method.
It is therefore a primary object of the present invention to provide for an improved metallic golf club shaft in which the position of the gravitational center is located nearer to the large-diameter end portion than in the conventional golf club shafts by using a simple manufacturing process.
Also, it is a second object of the present invention to provide for an improved golf club shaft in which the weight of the head thereof is increased as compared with the conventional golf club shafts while the swing balance thereof remains identical with that of the conventional golf club shafts.


An aircraft includes a canard having a trailing edge, a forward swept and fixed wing having a horizontal plane and a trailing edge, and a plurality of tilt rotors. At least one of the plurality of tilt rotors is attached to the trailing edge of the canard and at least one of the plurality of tilt rotors is attached to the trailing edge of the forward swept and fixed wing. The aircraft also includes a T-tail having a horizontal plane, where the horizontal plane of the T-tail is at a height that is higher than the horizontal plane of the forward swept and fixed wing.

New types of aircraft which can take off and land with smaller footprints are being developed. For example, these aircraft may be used in areas where there is no airport or runway. Some such aircraft designs have tilt rotors which are attached to the trailing edge of a forward swept and fixed (main) wing. New features and/or new configurations of the aircraft which can further improve upon the performance of the aircraft would be desirable. For example, if some or all of the horizontal lift surfaces of the aircraft were to stall out, improved stability and/or control would be desirable.

Fixed wing aircraft with trailing rotors and T-tail


A process is provided for the preparation of an immunoglobulin composition from a plasma fraction having immunoglobulins, and antibody preparations prepared utilizing the process.

Immunoglobulin compositions prepared from human plasma and suitable for intravenous administration are known in the art and for several decades have played an important role in the treatment of a wide range of diseases. Immunoglobulins are used, for example, for the treatment of infections in humans and can be assigned to various classes with various biochemical and physiological properties. Immunoglobulin G participates in defending against viral antigens, whereas IgM is predominantly active in antibacterial and antitoxin immune responses.
The immunoglobulin solutions comprise IgG, IgA and IgM in various percentages, with different preparations having different treatment applications, e.g. preparations with a higher percentage of IgM are used in the prophylaxis or treatment of bacterial infections. In contrast to IgG preparations IgM antibodies easily aggregate in solution. IgM preparations are difficult to stabilize especially if they are enriched compared to plasma concentrations and stored in liquid solution.
The immunoglobulin solutions are usually prepared from fractions of blood plasma or serum, e.g. Cohn fractions. These fractions are then subjected to a number of purification steps to remove contaminants including viruses, denatured proteins, proteases and lipids. Human plasma for fractionation is collected from thousands of donors and may contain pathogen viruses despite thorough testing of the source plasma. Therefore process steps to inactivate or remove viruses are essential in order to achieve safe products for use in medicine. Several techniques for virus inactivation/removal are known in the art, e.g. chemical treatments, irradiation with UVC light or nanometer filtration, which are performed in order to ensure overall virus safety. However, such steps can have a negative impact on the activity of the immunoglobulins; for example extended irradiation times with UVC can reduce the yield of native and active IgM obtained in the final immunoglobulin solution.
The virus removal or inactivation capacity of the process steps is validated using laboratory scale models of the production process and for each step a removal or inactivation factor is determined. An increase of the inactivation/removal factor adds additional viral safety to the pharmaceutical product. Today guidelines from regulatory authorities require at least two effective steps for enveloped and non-enveloped viruses in the manufacture of plasma-derived pharmaceuticals.
In addition to viruses which are potentially present it is also necessary to remove other contaminants like proteases, protein aggregates, and denatured immunoglobulins, to achieve a well tolerated product. Denatured immunoglobulins especially are a potential risk for the patients because they have a high capacity to activate complement unspecifically, leading to severe side effects in patients receiving these denatured immunoglobulins. This anticomplementary activity (ACA) is measured by a standardized test described in the European Pharmacopoeia.
The removal of all these contaminants is essential (1) in order for the product to be tolerated by the patient after intravenous administration, (2) to ensure the product complies with bio-safety guidelines regarding viral contamination, (3) to allow the product to be stable during long-term storage, and (4) to generate the desired compound mixture/pharmaceutical composition.
The initial purification of human IgM solutions has been carried out by classical Cohn plasma fractionation methods or its well known modifications (e.g. Cohn/Oncley, Kistler/Nitschmann). Using cold ethanol precipitation processes the IgM fraction is recovered in fraction III or fraction I/III (also called B or B+I). Starting from fraction III or I/III methods have been described for purification of protein solutions enriched in IgM. EP0013901 describes a purification method starting from fraction III including steps using octanoic acid, β-Propiolactone and an adsorption step using an anionic exchange resin. This method is used to produce Pentaglobin®—to date the only commercially available intravenous IgM product. EP0352500 describes the preparation of an IgM concentrate for intravenous application with a reduced anti-complementary activity by using anionic exchange chromatography, β-Propiolactone, UVC light irradiation and an incubation step at increased temperature (40° C. to 60° C.). β-propiolactone is a well known chemical used in sterilization steps in order to inactivate viruses which are potentially present. As β-propiolactone is a very reactive substance which causes the chemical modification of proteins there is also substantial loss of the anti-viral and anti-bacterial activities of the immunoglobulins. The preparation produced by this method was stable in liquid solution for a limited time due to the chemical modification. The IgM concentration was above 50% from the total immunoglobulin content.
The preparation of protein solutions enriched in IgM without chemical modification by β-propiolactone has been described in EP0413187 (Biotest) and EP0413188 (Biotest). These methods involve subjecting a suitable protein solution to octanoic acid treatment and anionic exchange chromatography, starting from Cohn fraction III or II/III. In patent EP0413187 (Biotest) the octanoic acid treatment is carried out by stirring for 15 min, in order to remove lipids being present in Cohn fraction III.
As large amounts of immunoglobulins are administered intravenously to patients a tolerable pharmaceutical preparation must be achieved. IgM preparations have been described as being difficult to prepare for intravenous application. IgM by nature is a vigorous activator of complement after the binding of antigens. Therefore unspecific anticomplementary activity of denatured IgM molecules is far more dangerous to patients than denatured IgG molecules. The preparation according to EP0413187 had a low anticomplementary activity, between 0.6 and 0.8 CH50/mg protein, but had to be stabilized and virus inactivated by β-propiolactone. Low anticomplementary activity is considered to be ≦1 CH50/mg protein according to EP monograph for immunoglobulins.
EP0413188B1 (Biotest) describes the preparation of an IgM-enriched preparation for intravenous administration by using an anion exchange chromatography in order to reduce the anti-complementary activity. Additionally a heat treatment at pH 4-4.5 at 40 to 60° C., preferably between 50 and 54° C., was described to reduce the anticomplementary activity. This preparation had to be lyophilized to ensure stability of the preparation for several months. Long term stability as a liquid solution could not be shown.
Another method describes the use of mild-heat treatment of IgM preparations at 40 to 62° C., preferably 45 to 55° C., at pH 4.0 to 5.0 (EP 0450412, Miles) to reduce the non-specific complement activation. In this patent application octanoic acid is added to a Cohn fraction III suspension in order to remove prekallikrein activator and lipoproteins by centrifugation. Nevertheless this treatment led to partial loss of antigenic determinants of IgM. This may increase the risk of generating neo-antigens leading to a increased immunogenicity in humans or the loss of activity.
The preparation of an IgM containing protein solution for intravenous application by using a protease treatment (e.g. with pepsin) after an octanoic acid precipitation step has been described in EP0835880 (U.S. Pat. No. 6,136,312, ZLB). Protease treatment leads to partial fragmentation of the immunoglobulin molecule impairing the full functional activity of the Fab and Fc parts. Therefore protease-treated immunoglobulins cannot be regarded as unmodified. Also this preparation method leads to about 5% fragments with a molecular weight of <100 kD.
The described methods to carry out the octanoic acid treatment (EP0413187 and EP0835880) have the drawback that the octanoic acid treatment is not effective with respect to removal and inactivation of non-enveloped viruses, and does not remove substantially all proteolytic activity.
In EP 0345543 (Bayer, Miles) a highly concentrated IgM preparation with at least 33% IgM for therapeutic use is disclosed, the preparation being substantially free of isoagglutinin titres. In this patent application an octanoic acid precipitation is carried out by adding the octanoic acid and the isoagglutinins are removed by Synsorb affinity chromatography. The final preparation had to be freeze dried.
Altogether the preparation of a IgM containing preparation with low anticomplementary activity is possible if the immunoglobulins are chemically or enzymatically modified and/or further purified by chromatography and/or subjected to a mild heat treatment.
Nevertheless the methods of the prior art leading to an unmodified immunoglobulin preparation are not able to achieve the virus inactivation capacity for all viruses which are potentially present. Although several methods, such as solvent/detergent treatment, octanoic acid treatment, nanometer filtration and heat treatment, are effective to inactivate or remove enveloped viruses there are only a few methods known to inactivate or remove non-enveloped viruses, for example Parvo viruses. These non-enveloped viruses are mostly very small, usually passing through nanometer filters with pore sizes above 20 nm. This pore size is too small for IgM molecules having a diameter up to 30 nm. Non enveloped viruses are effectively inactivated by chemicals like β-propiolactone which, however, also leads to a modified immunoglobulin with impaired functions. Another effective treatment is UVC-irradiation (EP1842561, CAF-DCF). However, known solvent/detergent treatments, octanoic acid treatment and mild heat treatment have no substantial effect on non-enveloped viruses.
Therefore all the chemically unmodified IgM containing preparations, which are prepared by the methods of the prior art, and which have low anticomplementary activity, are not safe for human use with respect to non enveloped viruses e.g. Parvoviruses.
In summary the methods of the prior art which isolate an intravenous-tolerable IgM-containing preparations have certain drawbacks, such as an inability to effectively inactivate or remove non-enveloped viruses and the limited ability to remove proteolytic activity while keeping IgM with high yield in solution. (Proteolytic activity refers to the sum of proteases being present in the preparation). As a liquid protein preparation must be storable for long periods (e.g. 2 years), residual protease activities must be omitted, as these activities might lead to degradation of the pharmaceutical preparation.
Thus, it is the aim of the present invention to address these drawbacks.

Process for preparing an immunoglobulin composition


Electrochromic module including first and second substrates is provided in which the first and/or second substrate are/is electrically conductive or are/is equipped with an electrically conductive coating. A first electrochromic polymer coating is arranged on the first substrate or the conductive coating, an ion-storage or charge-compensating layer is arranged on the second substrate or the conductive coating, and a polymer gel electrolyte is disposed between the electrochromic coating and the ion-storage or charge-compensating layer. The electrochromic polymer, a polymer of tetraarylbenzidine and (hetero)aromatic diol, is colorless in one redox state and colored in at least two redox states. The ion-storage or charge-compensating layer is formed from material selected from the group comprising cerium oxide, titanium oxide, tungsten oxide, nickel oxide, molybdenum oxide, vanadium oxide and mixtures thereof or redox-active polymer. The inventive modules achieve a large number of switching cycles, a high electrochromic contrast and a high electrochromic efficiency.

Electrochromic modules for use as light filters, displays, dazzle-free rear view mirrors and the like are known. These involve reversible electrochemical oxidation and reduction of redox-active materials such as tungsten oxide, viologen or various polymers such as polythiophene, polyethylenedioxythiophene (PEDOT) derivatives, polyaniline inter alia, which changes the color thereof. Even though the various known electrochromic systems work quite well in individual cases, there are also a number of disadvantages. The electrochromic materials such as bipyridinium compounds (viologens) can be switched between three redox forms, reversibly from the dication to the radical cation and irreversibly to the uncharged form. In this case, the pimerization of the radical cations (formation of a π-complex through the π-electron planes) causes an altered absorption spectrum and has an adverse effect on the color contrast and the lifetime of the EC systems.
Stabilization materials are required, such as metallocenes and metallocene derivatives (DE 102007037619A1, US 2009/0259042A1, DE 102008024260B4) and also other compounds known, for example, from EP 1288275A2 and DE 102006061987, which, by guaranteeing a reversible anodic component reaction, ensure an improved lifetime of the cathode-switching electrochromic formulation (preferably 4,4′-bipyridinium salts) with regard to long-term contrast stability. Here, however, there are likewise problems with regards to color contrast and lifetime. In long-term studies, formation of metallocenium cations becomes perceptible through formation of a yellow-brown layer at the anode. Moreover, the addition of metallocenes to an electrochromically active formulation leads to separation processes which have been uncontrolled to date, for example the deposition of ferrocene aggregates.
Most of the electrochromic materials of significance for applications are switchable only between two colors: viologens (colorlessblue/violet), tungsten oxide (WO3) (light blueblue), poly-3-hexylthiophene (violetblue), polyethylenedioxythiophene derivatives, such as polyethylenedioxythiophene-polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT-PSS) (light bluedark blue). It is thus possible to implement only two-color filters or only monochrome displays.
Moreover, many electrochromic materials, for example WO3 or PEDOT-PSS, are merely pseudo-colorless in thin layers, and so they are only of limited suitability for the applications where the colorless state is required within a broad wavelength range (500-nm).
Numerous studies have been conducted to date with regard to organic materials using the electrochromic effect. The great advantage of the electrochromic polymers and the controllable multichromicity thereof through modification of the chemical structure, and the inexpensive production of arbitrarily thin and large-area layers both on glass or metal substrates and on flexible films and textiles.
Known polymers suitable for electrochromic applications are polythiophenes, polypyrrole, polyphenylenevinylenes and polyaniline. However, these electrochromic conductive polymers have a tendency to alterations under air, especially with regard to the electrical properties and electrochemical stability thereof, and as a result have only a short lifetime. It is therefore important to encapsulate the EC modules and to protect them from outside influences. In this context, the necessary rigid encapsulation impairs the flexibility. Moreover, such polymers have a low glass transition temperature, and polypyrrole and polyaniline, for example, have a poor solubility, and so they are processable with difficulty. These disadvantages constitute serious hindrances to the practical use thereof.
Particular polymers having di- or triarylamine units are known as hole conductors, electroluminescent materials and light-emitting materials, and also multicolored electrochromes (W. Holzer et al., Optical Materials 15, 2000, 225-235).
Examples of the use of diphenylamine and derivatives thereof as electrochromic material or in combination with anthraquinones are described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,752,119. It has been proposed that a solution of a diphenylamine and a conductive salt in a chemically stable organic solvent (preferably propylene carbonate) between two electrodes be used. A TiO2 scattering layer was applied to an electrode, in order to better perceive the color change on the white background. As a result of the application of a voltage of 1.0 V to 1.5 V, the solution takes on a green color. If the voltage is increased to 2.2 V, a blue-green color forms in the solution. If the voltage is switched off, the system returns to the colorless ground state via diffusion. After 106 switching cycles, only relatively small electrochromic deteriorations in the cell were registered. However, such systems comprising liquid media are problematic in terms of the operating temperatures and lifetime; therefore, they have to be hermetically encapsulated.
The invention according to DE 3717917 relates to a novel polymer which consists of repeat units of N,N,N′,N′-tetraphenyl-p-phenylenediamine and has electrochromic properties. The polymer is soluble in organic solvents and only becomes insoluble once it has been doped with an electron acceptor and then dedoped. This polymer film shows a yellow color in the potential region of 0.3 V (with respect to Ag/AgCl), a green color in the oxidized state of the first stage at 0.85 V, and a dark blue color in the oxidized state of the second stage at 1.2 V. An electrochromic display was produced through the following steps: a transparent glass plate was subjected to vapor deposition of an insulation film of MgF2 (80 nm) outside the display region, then coated with the abovementioned polymer from a chloroform solution (200 nm), subsequently doped with iodine at 100° C. and then dedoped under high vacuum. On another glass plate coated with a graphite fiber layer, a Prussian blue film (300 nm) was electrolytically deposited. Between the two glass sheets was disposed a porous background panel made from alumina, and the two electrodes were sealed. The electrolyte used was 1 mol/l solution of LiClO4 in propylene carbonate. This electrochromic display was switched repeatedly up to 105 times by applying a coloring voltage of 8 V and a lightening voltage of −8 V. In the course of this, only a small change in the amount of charge was determined in the oxidation reaction compared to the starting value. The production of the electrochromic display is a multistage operation, combined with various different technological operations (doping with iodine at 100° C., dedoping under high vacuum, electrolytic deposition of Prussian blue), which leads to increased technical complexity and investment. Furthermore, the coloring and lightening voltages off ±8 V are very high compared to conventional EC cells and are economically disadvantageous.
DE 3615379 A1 describes a dazzle-free mirror. The first electrochromic layer is formed from a conjugated polymer such as a substituted or unsubstituted triphenylamine, and the other EC layer is a transition metal oxide, such as WO3. In the process described, a film is applied to the electrode from suitable triphenylamine monomer or polymer solutions using a coating process and is subsequently polymerized or crosslinked by means of oxidizing agents, such as iodine, antimony pentafluoride, arsenic pentafluoride or iron oxide. A further means of film formation is an electrolytic polymerization from monomer solution. For example, such a mirror consists of 4,4′-dichlorotriphenylamine polymer and WO3 EC layers with an electrolyte solution of LiClO4 in propylene carbonate with 3% by weight of water. The reflection of the mirror in the ground state is about 70%. In the case of application of a voltage of about 1.45 V, the mirror turns dark blue within about 4 s, and so the reflection is lowered to about 10%. A voltage of about −0.35 V led to decoloring of the mirror. The subsequent coloring (1.1 V, 15 s) and decoloring (−0.4 V, 90 s) were stably reproducible even after 30 000 repetitions. The in situ polymerization or crosslinking of the coating film has the disadvantage that residues of the oxidizing agent in the film can lead to unwanted side reactions in the case of repeated oxidation and reduction, and as a result to an unsatisfactory lifetime of the device. Equally, it gives an additional methodological step for practical use.
Electron-rich triphenylamines have a tendency to be oxidized in the presence of oxygen and light to form an unstable radical cation, which dimerizes further to a tetraphenylbenzidine. This oxidation leads both to yellowing of the polymer layers and to a limitation in the lifetime of the EC elements. By exchange of a group in the para-phenyl position, the dimerization reaction can be significantly reduced. However, it has been published recently that the conjugated homopolymer poly(4-methoxytriphenylamine) has only a moderately stable EC effect up to about 50 cycles (G.-S. Liou et al., Journal of Polymer Science: Part A: Polymer Chemistry, (2007), V. 45, 3292-3302).
Preparation and basic electrochemical properties of polymers having aryl-substituted arylenediamine polymers are present in DE 19832943. It has been found that the electrooxidation of a solution of a 3,3′-substituted triphenyldiamine dimer polymer (TPD polymer) reversibly gives rise to a blue color.
It is desirable to use TPD and tetraarylbenzidine polymers as electrochromic materials in an electrochromic module with suitable electrolyte and a suitable ion-storage or charge-compensating layer, which ensures the performance of redox reactions with favorable cyclic periodicity and hence a stable EC effect.

THUERINGISCHES INSTITUT FUER TEXTIL- UND KUNSTSTOFF-FORSCHUNG E.V.


A platform host for deploying a runtime adaptable application has in-line application scope parameters and is capable of interacting with code selection logic when executed. The platform host includes one or more processors coupled to a non-transitory processor-readable storage medium having processor-executable instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the platform host to: instantiate the code selection logic in an execution platform, the code selection logic being based, at least in part, on the in-line application scope parameters; determine values of platform configuration parameters at runtime, and execute the runtime adaptable application based on the code selection logic and the values of the platform configuration parameters.

The expansion of the Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) models means that more and more software applications are executed on (usually large and distributed) computing clusters and/or execution environments that are operated by a third party. In such environments, it can be desirable that applications are able to adjust to different runtime states (e.g., with regard to available resources, identified bottlenecks, usage fluctuation, etc.).
Traditionally, this ability to adjust to different runtime states, hereinafter called "adaptability", is implemented by the software application developer as a set of conditional program flows that are determined by a set of states, which are a priori known to the application developer and can be changed at runtime (e.g., by an operator, a system monitor, an orchestrator, or any other application). The inventors have recognized that this developer coded adaptability is problematic. For example, the developers may not have full knowledge of potential runtime states (making their programs less adaptable and inefficient), and implementing adaptable code in such a manner requires complex coding.
In addition to the developer coded adaptability approach, other techniques have been considered for addressing application adaptability, but the inventors have recognized that these other approaches are also problematic.
For example, aspect-oriented programming (AOP) has been considered. AOP is based on cross-cutting concerns that are implemented as aspects (i.e., functions that are executed before, around, or after other functions). AOP theoretically could be employed to slightly lower the development complexity of adaptable software (e.g., by maintaining process flow code selection logic as an aspect that is injected before program parts that have multiple possible flows in order to set a selection variable). However, similar to the above approach, this would not eliminate the potentially very complex conditional statements of the application code. Additionally an AOP approach would also introduce the problem of having to explicitly code remote calls to the platform. For a further discussion of AOP, see Gregor Kiczales and Erik Hilsdale, "Aspect-oriented programming," Proceedings of the 8th European software engineering conference held jointly with 9th ACM SIGSOFT international symposium on foundations of software engineering (ESEC/FSE-9), 313 (ACM, New York, N.Y., USA, 2001), the entire contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference herein.
Runtime code replacement has also been considered. Runtime code replacement (e.g., hot code swapping such as jRebel and HotSpot VM, and just-in-time (JIT) compiler) refers to replacing or activating function implementations of running programs. However, runtime code replacement is complex and might only be a good fit when it is actually required to change the code during runtime. In typical adaptable solutions, the conditions can be evaluated by the same code.
New programming languages or extensions for mode-based programming (e.g., ENT), have also been considered for use to characterize the behavior of program fragments based on modes (e.g., in energy-saving mode do A, otherwise do B). However, they introduce too many language syntax changes and their extensions are not generic enough. For example, ENT is tailored to energy management and not focused on exporting the selection logic. For a further discussion on ENT, see Anthony Canino and Yu David Liu, "Proactive and adaptive energy-aware programming with mixed typechecking," Proceedings of the 38th ACM SIGPLAN Conference on Programming Language Design and Implementation, 217-232 (ACM, New York, N.Y., USA, 2017), the entire contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference herein.

System and method for runtime adaptable applications


The present invention relates to a product for, and a method of, treating gases, fumes and vapors with fragments of crustacean shell so as to extract one or more components/pollutants from the gases.

Cleaning or decontaminating of effluent gases, as opposed to cleaning or contaminating effluent liquids present a unique problem to the environment.
A variety of bioadsorbents have been employed over the years for the treatment of gases to either detoxify or reduce their odor. The types of molecules removed are generally related to the functionalized biopolymers from which the bioadsorbent is composed. These bioadsorbants include, cellulose, alginates, chitin, chitosan and carrageenan. In addition 'activated' microporous materials such as activated carbon, activated silica and molecular sieves have also been used.
A problem associated with the use of purified extracts for gas treatment lies not only in the cost of extraction but in their efficacy.
It is known from the prior art to "scrub" volatile zinc fumes produced from hot dip galvanizing plants by using crushed limestone. The crushed limestone is allowed to contact the zinc fumes in a filter bag arrangement so as to bind the zinc, thereafter the bound zinc/limestone is disposed of However, a problem with this method of scrubbing metal fumes is that not all of the metal becomes bound to the limestone. Moreover the bound metal is not easily recoverable from the limestone and the bound product in itself is difficult to dispose of.
The present invention provides an alternative bioadsorbant material and a method of producing and using it which is not only more cost effective than prior art material but is more efficient at extracting component(s)/pollutants from the fumes/gas vapors.


Systems and methods for classifying defects on a wafer are provided. One method includes dilating an extended bounding box (EBB) surrounding a defect position on a wafer in two dimensions in proportion to a width and height of a pattern of interest (POI) for a hot spot closest to the defect position. The method also includes determining if polygons in the POI match polygons in the dilated bounding box. If the polygons in the POI do not match the polygons in the dilated bounding box, the defect is classified as a non-hot spot defect. If the polygons in the POI match the polygons in the dilated bounding box, the defect is classified as a hot spot defect if the area of the EBB intersects the area of interest associated with the hot spot and a non-hot spot defect if the EBB area does not intersect the area of interest.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to systems and methods for classifying defects detected on a wafer.
2. Description of the Related Art
The following description and examples are not admitted to be prior art by virtue of their inclusion in this section.
Inspection processes are used at various steps during a semiconductor manufacturing process to detect defects on wafers to promote higher yield in the manufacturing process and thus higher profits. Inspection has always been an important part of fabricating semiconductor devices such as ICs. However, as the dimensions of semiconductor devices decrease, inspection becomes even more important to the successful manufacture of acceptable semiconductor devices because smaller defects can cause the devices to fail. For instance, as the dimensions of semiconductor devices decrease, detection of defects of decreasing size has become necessary since even relatively small defects may cause unwanted aberrations in the semiconductor devices.
A design "hot spot" is a well-defined structure or rule within the design that has been identified as a relatively high risk for failure, either through simulations, defect inspection, or electrical testing. Hot spots are often due to optical proximity effects. For example, when a lithography tool such as a scanner "prints" a wafer, structures that are relatively close to each other can interact optically (meaning that the printing of one structure can affect the printing of another structure due to their proximity). This interaction can elevate the risk of failure at a particular location. Two structures may be considered to be "close" to one another if they are within a few multiples of the wavelength of light used to print the wafer (e.g., about 200 nm to about 250 nm).
Current methods of identifying whether a defect "belongs" to a hot spot assume that the coordinate accuracy of the inspection tool used to detect the defect is wider than the bounds of the polygons that define the hot spot. However, the coordinate accuracy of many modern optical and scanning electron microscope (SEM) imaging tools can often be smaller than the bounds of the hot spots. When current methods for identifying whether a defect belongs to a hot spot are applied to one of these modern tools, it effectively negates the advantages provided by the improved coordinate accuracy of these tools.
Accordingly, it would be advantageous to develop systems and methods for classifying defects detected on a wafer that do not have one or more of the disadvantages described above.

High accuracy design based classification


An ADC circuit (50) is disclosed. It comprises a global input configured to receive an input voltage (Vin) and a plurality of converter circuits (1051-105N). Each converter circuit (105j) comprises a comparator circuit (70j) having a first input connected to the global input, a second input, and an output configured to output a one-bit output signal of the comparator circuit (70j). Furthermore, each converter circuit (105j) comprises a one-bit current-output DAC (110j) having an input directly controlled from the output of the comparator circuit (70j) and an output connected to the second input of the comparator circuit (70j). The second inputs of all comparator circuits are interconnected. The ADC circuit (50) further comprises a digital output circuit (130) configured to generate an output signal z[n] of the ADC circuit (50) in response to the one-bit output signals of the comparator circuits (70j).

There is a trend in wireless transceivers for 5G (5th generation cellular networks) and other standards to use ever higher bandwidth, posing stringent requirements on the analog to digital converters (ADCs). One way of achieving high speed is using flash-ADCs. It uses one separate comparator per digital level of the signal, i.e. 2N−1 comparators, where N is the number of bits. By performing 2N−1 parallel comparisons, the N-bit analog to digital conversion can be completed in a single clock cycle. The accuracy requirement in terms of noise and offset in each comparator also increases exponentially with N. Although fast, it is therefore typically difficult to achieve sufficient resolution for wireless systems, and the power consumption is often high. To ensure efficient use of the 2N−1 comparators implemented, the noise (and offset) levels are designed to be significantly lower than the quantization noise, i.e. such a flash ADC is normally not thermal noise limited. Another issue is the high input capacitance, posing stringent requirements on buffers. Although newer semiconductor technologies offer higher speed, the supply voltage to offset and noise ratio is degraded, which is a drawback to high resolution flash-ADCs.
One way of achieving higher resolution is to use delta-sigma modulators. The increase of resolution, however, comes at the cost of reduced speed, so for very high speed the additional resolution that can be achieved is limited. A combination of a fast and medium resolution flash-ADC and delta sigma modulation can then be attractive. However, all delays in the loop must be kept short to avoid stability issues.
To address the problem of comparator offsets in flash-ADCs, and even turn it into something useful, statistical (or "stochastic") flash-ADCs can be used. A larger number of relatively small comparator circuits are then used, with the same reference level, and the number of comparators with high logic level outputs are counted to find the digital output. With a Gaussian distribution of comparator circuit offset and noise, the ADC gets a corresponding transfer, i.e. a Gaussian one. To address the non-linearity of the Gaussian function, a calibration with selection of comparator circuits with uniformly distributed offsets can be performed, which is e.g. described in T. Sundström, A. Alvandpour, "Utilizing Process Variations for Reference Generation in a Flash ADC", IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems—II, Vol. 56, No. 5, pp. 364-368, May 2009. Another way is to cascade the statistical flash-ADC with the inverse non-linearity in a post-distortion arrangement, which is e.g. disclosed in B. Verbruggen et. Al., "A 60 dB SNDR 35 MS/s SAR ADC with Comparator-Noise-Based Stochastic Residue Estimation", IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuit, Vol. 50, No. 9, pp. 2002-2011, September 2015.
Hirai et al, "A Delta-Sigma ADC with Stochastic Quantization", IPSJ (Information Processing Society of Japan) Transactions on System LSI Design Methodology, vol. 8, pp. 123-130, August 2015, considers application of stochastic analog-to-digital conversion to multi-bit delta-sigma modulators. A resistive reference ladder is used to coarsely determine quantization levels, whereas digitally controlled comparators implemented using stochastic flash ADCs finely determine the quantization levels.


An optical element Oc comprising, in order from an object side: a first segment group Gr1 having positive refractive power; a second segment group Gr2 having positive refractive power; a third segment group Gr3 having negative refractive power; and a fourth segment group Gr4 having positive refractive power; focusing on a near-distance object point from an infinite-distance object point being conducted by moving said first segment group Gr1 along an optical axis, said third segment group Gr3 being moved in a direction including a component perpendicular to the optical axis, and said optical element having positive refractive power on the whole, thereby providing an optical element including both of the focusing lens and the vibration reduction lens and capable of downsizing an imaging optical system including this optical element and acquiring a high image forming performance.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical element, a zoom lens including the optical element, an optical apparatus including the zoom lens, an method for manufacturing the optical element and a method for manufacturing the zoom lens.
2. Related Background Art
A zoom lens, a single-focal-length lens, etc, which are used for an electronic still camera, have hitherto been proposed in such as Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2006-221092.
A conventional imaging optical system such as the zoom lens has a problem of a difficulty to downsize the imaging optical system due to disposing a focusing lens drive mechanism and an vibration reduction lens drive mechanism separately because of a focusing lens and a vibration reduction lens being positioned in different lens groups.

Optical element, zoom lens, optical apparatus, method for manufacturing optical element and method for manufacturing zoom lens


The present invention relates to a system and method by which the magnitude of an interfering electrical and/or magnetic field may be sampled locally (in the X-ray detector for example) and reduced or eliminated. More specifically, embodiments comprise a system and method by which an interfering field may be sampled within the same orientation as the X-ray detector panel, and then subtracted out of each respective element sample.

This application is directed in general to the design and manufacture of an X-ray detector and an X-ray detector formed thereby. Specifically, this application is directed to the design and manufacture of flat panel X-ray detectors and the flat panel X-ray detectors formed thereby, which in turn may be used in medical imaging systems, devices or other apparatus for example.
It should be appreciated that engineering and manufacturing flat panels adapted to be used in X-ray detectors for example, is a complex endeavor. Solid state X-ray imaging technology has steadily advanced due in part to the development of photo sensitive semiconductor arrays using either indirect X-ray-to-light scintillation panels (Amorphous Silicon with CsI for example) or direct X-ray conversion panels (Amorphous SE, PbO or Hgl for example). It is contemplated that one or more of those technologies may use transistor switches (TFT-FETs for example) providing effective multiplexing of a pixel array, enabling board analog-digital conversion to be performed using a smaller number of converters in comparison to the total number of converters than the total number of pixels in a given X-ray detector panel.
It is further contemplated that one or more of these technologies may use deposited metal lines (conduction paths formed by sputtering Mo, Al, Cu or other conductor metals for example) forming data and scan lines in a grid of rows and columns, facilitating the control of the TFTs (in one direction) while carrying a charge from the photo elements (in a different or opposing direction). As the X-ray detector panel pixel sizes decrease, and panel sizes increase, the ratio of signal (charge) to path length from photo sensor to the A/D converter dramatically decreases. This phenomenon is found to be true for both X-ray and CT detectors.
At the same time, in order to handle the smaller and lengthier data line paths and still produce acceptable image quality, the design of the A/D conversion system has become increasingly complex. It is contemplated that, in order to produce acceptable Signal to Noise Ration ("SNR"), noise levels well below about 2000 electrons are not uncommon in these types of systems. However, such complex solid state systems have become inherently more susceptible to electric and/or magnetic (referred to as Electro-Magnetic or "EM") noise induced onto the photo sensor panel (induced primarily onto the data line paths).
Effectively shielding high frequency, Electro-Magnetic noise has been shown to be feasible, but not without some level of X-ray photon attenuation into the X-ray sensitive surface of the detector. Effective shielding of low and high frequency, Electro-Magnetic noise is not possible using current materials, as low frequency magnetic fields require metallic elements which greatly attenuate X-ray photons in medical applications. For example, EM noise has been shown to be at sufficient levels to effect images within certain solid state X-ray systems which are in close proximity to organ and catheter navigational systems, pace maker placement and programming systems, magnetic catheter drive systems as well as RF ablation systems. These types of systems may cause electric and/or magnetic or EM field strengths well in excess of those required for susceptibility testing as part of the international certification.

Method and means for reducing electromagnetic noise induced in X-ray detectors


When the vehicle approaches an intersection, traffic signals located at the intersection are displayed on an intersection view, a traffic signal to be considered is displayed in a manner so as to be identifiable from the other traffic signals, arrows in the same directions as those of arrow signals for the traffic signal to be considered are displayed; and an arrow corresponding to an arrow signal permitting the vehicle to proceed in the direction of a guidance route is displayed in a manner so as to be identifiable from the other arrows.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to navigation systems and their intersection guidance methods, and specifically to a navigation system and its intersection guidance method allowing the driver to identify a traffic signal and arrow signal to be considered at a complex intersection.
2. Description of the Related Art
A navigation system searches for and displays a guidance route to a destination on a map. When the vehicle approaches an intersection on the guidance route, the navigation system shows an intersection view on the map or on one half of a split screen, indicates by an arrow the direction of travel at the intersection, and at the same time gives the direction of travel by a voice message. There have been proposed a variety of navigation systems with intersection guidance functions (for example, see Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2002-174527). In this known technique, a method of indicating the remaining distance is changed according to the distance to an intersection. When the vehicle is far from the intersection, the remaining distance is indicated by a bar graph. When the vehicle approaches the intersection, a vehicle position mark, which had been displayed in a fixed position, is moved along the guidance route according to the travel of the vehicle, while an arrow indicating the direction of travel is shortened to display the remaining distance.
At a complex intersection, such as a forked (four-way, five-way, or more) intersection, the driver may be confused about which one of a plurality of visible traffic signals to consider. It may also be possible that the driver is confused, at an intersection, as to which one of multiple indication arrows (arrow signals) for a traffic signal indicates the vehicle's direction of travel, because the arrow signals are oriented in various directions. Therefore, there is a possibility that the situations described above may cause traffic accidents and congestion at an intersection.
Although known navigation systems indicate, at a forked intersection, the direction of travel by an arrow and voice message, such known navigation systems do not clearly indicate which traffic signal and arrow signal the driver should refer to with respect to the direction of travel.

Navigation system and intersection guidance method