A method for automatically connecting a call in a mobile station during an emergency situation. In the method a call connection request message including a service identifier previously set for automatic call connection and a password is received. Next, whether the call connection request message is valid is determined using the password included in the received call connection request message. If the call connection request message is valid, devices for outputting an alert signal of the mobile station are turned off, and a response signal for call connection in response to the call connection request message is automatically generated.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a method for connecting a call in a mobile station (MS), and in particular, to a call connection method for automatically performing call connection in response to a call connection request from previously reserved emergency call-available persons.
2. Description of the Related Art
Unfortunately, various kidnapping cases targeted on children and women occur. However, with the popularization of mobile communication, it is very common for an individual such as a child or a woman to carry their own mobile station. Therefore, various methods for dealing with emergency situations such as kidnappings and robberies using mobile stations are being developed.
Conventional methods for handling the emergency situations using mobile stations are commonly divided into (1) a method for transmitting position information to a particular person using a shortcut button of a mobile station, and (2) a method, by a user of a mobile station, for informing of an emergency situation by inputting a special key previously set to inform of an emergency situation to a particular person. However, these types of methods are available only when a user of a mobile station is in an isolated situation where the user is not watched by others, e.g., a person committing a crime, or when the user reports to an emergency center in case of an accident such as a traffic accident. For example, when a user of a mobile station is kidnapped by someone and confined under surveillance, it is impossible for the user to operate the mobile station. In addition, if the kidnapper determines that the user has attempted to inform somebody of the emergency situation using the mobile station, the user may be placed under stricter surveillance or face a dangerous situation.
When a person with their mobile station in hand is kidnapped or confined by somebody, if the mobile station can automatically perform call connection in response to a call connection request from previously reserved emergency call-available persons, e.g., family members or police, without being detected by surroundings, the emergency call-available persons can determine the user's position and damage on a real-time basis through a voice of the user.
Although mobile stations have different call receiving methods according to their types, common mobile stations are available for communication only when a user performs a predetermined operation, for example, pushing a particular button mounted an the outside the mobile station or opening a flip or folder in answer to an incoming call.
In another method, in a special case when a hands-free device is used, a mobile station automatically performs call connection after a lapse of a predetermined time upon receiving an incoming call. Such a method is effective when a user of a mobile station answers an incoming call while driving a vehicle, but the method may cause a side effect such as unintended answering of a call as the call is automatically connected depending upon only a set status of the mobile station without consideration of the current situation of the user.
Therefore, in the conventional call receiving methods, a mobile station cannot always be a help to a user in case of emergency.

Method for connecting a call in a mobile station during an emergency situation


A search engine includes a decision component that determines whether documents that are returned in response to a user search query are likely to be very relevant to the search query. Links that refer to documents that the search engine determines to likely be very relevant may be displayed with visual cues that assist the user in browsing the links. The decision component may base its decision on a number of parameters, including: (1) the position of the document in a ranked list of search results, (2) the click through rate of the document, (3) relevance scores for the document and other documents that are returned as hits in response to the search query, and (4) whether the document is classified as a pornographic document (the search engine may refrain from showing visual cues for potentially pornographic documents).

A. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to document search engines and, more particularly, to highlighting select documents returned from a search engine.
B. Description of Related Art
The World Wide Web ("web") contains a vast amount of information. Locating a desired portion of the information, however, can be challenging. This problem is compounded because the amount of information on the web and the number of new users inexperienced at web searching are growing rapidly.
Search engines attempt to return hyperlinks to web pages in which a user is interested. Generally, search engines base their determination of the user's interest on search terms (called a search query) entered by the user. The goal of the search engine is to provide links to high quality, relevant results to the user based on the search query. Typically, the search engine accomplishes this by matching the terms in the search query to a corpus of pre-stored web pages. Web pages that contain the user's search terms are "hits" and are returned to the user.
In an attempt to increase the relevancy and quality of the web pages returned to the user, a search engine may attempt to sort the list of hits so that the most relevant and/or highest quality pages are at the top of the list of hits returned to the user. For example, the search engine may assign a rank or score to each hit, where the score is designed to correspond to the relevance or importance of the web page. Existing techniques of determining relevance are based on the contents of the web page. More advanced techniques determine the importance of a web page based on more than the content of the web page. For example, one known method, described in the article entitled "The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Search Engine," by Sergey Brin and Lawrence Page, assigns a degree of importance to a web page based on the link structure of the web page. In other words, the Brin and Page algorithm attempts to quantify the importance of a web page based on more than just the content of the web page.
The goal of a search engine is to return the most desirable set of links for any particular search query. However, in addition to just returning the most desirable set of links, it may also be beneficial to present the set of links to the user in a manner that clearly and quickly informs the user of the content associated with each of the links.
One method of apprising the user of the content associated with a particular link is to also display a "snippet" of text with the link. Ideally, the snippet of text should summarize the content of the link. In practice, the snippets are typically drawn from text of the document referenced by the link. Although text snippets can be useful in summarizing the link, the quality of the snippet in accurately summarizing the link can vary based on factors such as the automated nature of snippet generation and the quality of the underlying document. Also, for snippets to be useful, the user must take time to read the snippet.
There is a need in the art for improved techniques for apprising the user of the contents of links returned in response to a search query.

Document search engine including highlighting of confident results


A sampler including an ejector and a sample channel extending to the ejector, which are placeable in a mixture of particles of a solid and a medium, the medium being a gas and/or a liquid. The ejector includes at least one inlet and an outlet. The ejector takes a mixture sample by using vacuum via the inlet and discharges it via the outlet so as to make the mixture sample flow from the inlet towards the outlet. The sample channel takes a desired measuring sample from the mixture sample flowing in the ejector, the solid particles and the medium being at least partly separable from one another in the ejector on the basis of the flow and inertia in the mixture sample.

When a combustible substance is burned, the quality of burning may be measured by sampling a combustion gas in the combustion chamber, the combustion gas being a heterogeneous mixture of a continuous gas phase and solid particles, and by measuring the amount of one or more substances in the sample, for instance, as a concentration. The gas phase generally comprises various gases produced in the combustion and gases entered into the combustion chamber from the environment.
The sampler may comprise, for instance, a probe locating in the combustion chamber and a pipe between the probe and a measuring part. A sample may be sucked by vacuum into the probe in the combustion chamber, wherefrom the pipe conveys the sample into the measuring part. Because the gas phase, especially, indicates the quality of combustion, the probe includes a filter that prevents access of at least major particles into the measurement. In addition, the filter prevents particles from blocking the pipe and the measuring part.
Sampling involves problems, however. Particles adhere to the filter in the probe all the time, whereby filtering capacity of the filter changes. This may change the measurement result constantly, and consequently it is difficult to obtain reliable information on the action of the combustion process. In addition, the filter may be blocked quickly, and it does not allow a gas sample to pass through at all, or only to an excessively small extent, and therefore the filter has to be replaced frequently. Replacing may be cumbersome, however, and it may require that the combustion process be extinguished. Even though the combustion process would not have to be extinguished, the filter replacement interrupts sampling and measuring, and thus prevents continuous sampling and measuring of the combustion process.
The replacement interval of the filters may be prolonged by cleaning the filters. Even though it may not be necessary to displace the filter for cleaning it, but the filter may be cleaned, for instance, by pressurized gas against the sampling, yet the cleaning operation interrupts the sampling and the measurement frequently.
On account of the above, there is a need for improved sampling of a heterogeneous mixture containing a gas phase and particles of a solid.


To present an objective actuator small in the number of parts, easy in soldering and assembling, heightened in the motion precision and brake effect, free from undesired resonance due to torsional motion of the objective lens holding member, heightened in the secondary resonance frequency by the torsional motion of the objective lens holding member, and suppressed of its amplitude. A lens holding member holding an objective lens and a housing are simultaneously and integrally molded through four linear spring members inserted in a die. Afterwards, a pair of magnets are fixed on the lens holding member, and an electromagnetic coil is wound, and wire terminals are wound in the wire arrangement grooves, then a soldered coil frame is fixed on the housing. A brake member is injected into the recess space enclosing linear spring members with the inside of the side wall of the housing and the inner wall, the brake frame, its partition wall, and part of the coil frame, from the side surfaces. The objective lens is mounted on the middle and top of the lens holding member holding the objective lens, and an optical plate is fixed in the middle of the lower surface, thereby forming a rigid nearly hexahedral structure, in which the suspension center by the linear spring members and the driving center by the driving system of the electromagnetic coil and magnets are matched, and the moment balance of the lens holding member including the objective lens and optical plate is achieved on this driving center.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an objective lens actuator for recording or reproducing optically in a disk-shaped recording and reproducing medium.
2. Prior Art
Recently, the apparatus for recording and reproducing information (called an optical disk apparatus) by using a disk-shaped optical recording and reproducing media (called a disk) is widely used in recording of sound, picture, and data as its benefits of large capacity and high speed operation are recognized. Among the components incorporated in the optical disk apparatus, the objective lens actuator is regarded as an important mechanical part that determines the recording and reproducing performance.
A conventional objective lens actuator is described below while referring to related drawings. FIG. 13 is a perspective outline view of a conventional objective lens actuator, FIG. 14 is a perspective exploded view of the objective lens actuator, and FIG. 23 is a partial sectional view showing a mounting part of an electromagnetic coil of the same. This example shows an objective lens actuator using four linear spring members for holding a lens holding member, and is widely used at the present.
In FIG. 13 and FIG. 14, in a lens holding member 32, an objective lens 1 is adhered to the upper surface in the drawing, a balance weight 34 is adhered to the lower surface, soldering substrates 35 for soldering and fixing front ends of linear spring members 39 are adhered to both sides, and two magnets 3 magnetized in the N-S direction are adhered to the other sides as shown in the drawing. At one end on a base 40, a support holder 37 is fixed, and soldering substrate 38 for soldering the other ends of the linear spring members 39 are adhered to the support holder 37. The linear spring members 39 have been cut to specified length, and four members are arranged parallel through a tiny hole 43 of the soldering substrate 38 made of printed circuit board, a tiny hole 44 of the support holder 37, and a tiny hole 45 of the lens holding member 32, and the both ends are soldered at soldering parts 41 and 42 in the drawing in the soldering substrate 35 fixed to the lens holding member 32 and the soldering substrate 38 fixed to the support holder 37.
Oppositely across a clearance to the magnets 3, electromagnetic coils 36 for driving them electromagnetically are fixed at specified positions similarly on the base 40 through printed circuit boards 47 as shown in FIG. 23, and more specifically a winding 36b having an axis in arrow X1-X2, and a winding 36c having an axis in arrow Y1-Y2 are wound around a coil frame 36a, and leaders of beginning and end of these windings are wound around roots 36e of metal pins 36d planted on the coil frame 36a, and are soldered 36f. The pins 36d of this coil frame 36a are inserted into four holes 47a of the printed circuit board 47, and are fixed by soldering 47c, and are electrically connected to the print pattern. Mounting holes 47b of the printed circuit board 47 are fastened with screws to screw holes 40a of the base 40 as shown in FIG. 14 through spacers 48, and are drawn out by lead wires, not shown, soldered to the print pattern, and are connected to an electric circuit which is not shown. From above this assembly, a cover 46 having an opening 46a is put on the base 40 through a hook part 46b.
Referring now to FIG. 19, the structure of the root for supporting the four linear spring members 39 of the support holders 37 in FIG. 13 is explained. The peripheral parts not related with the description are not shown in the drawing. In FIG. 19, seeing the support holder 37 from the lens holding member 32 side, four holes 37d are formed in the root for supporting the linear spring members 39, and a viscoelastic material, such as silicone gel, is injected into the holes 37d as brake members 37e.
In thus constituted conventional objective lens actuator, the operation is described below. By the linear spring members 39 disposed parallel to each other, the lens holding member 32 is supported at one side on the support holder 37, so that the lens holding member 32 can be moved parallel in the direction of arrow X1-X2 and arrow Y1-Y2. When a current is passed in two windings having the axis in arrow X1-X2 of the electromagnetic coil 36 and axis in arrow Y1-Y2, a driving force in the directions of arrow X1-X2 and arrow Y1-Y2 is generated in the magnets 3 by the electromagnetic force generated between the magnets 3 magnetized in the N-S direction oppositely across a clearance, thereby driving the lens holding member 32, hence the objective lens 1 fixed thereon, in the directions of arrow X1-X2 and Y1-Y2.
Accordingly, through the objective lens 1, the focal point of the laser light focused on a disk, not shown, above the objective lens can be moved, and information signals are recorded or reproduced, following the runout in the disk surface and eccentricity in the radial direction.
Supposing to pass a constant current regardless of the frequency to the winding having an axis in arrow X1-X2 of the electromagnetic coil 36, the state of the lens holding member 32 supported by one side on the linear spring members 39 by the electromagnetic force acting between the magnetic field generated by this current and the magnets 3 in the direction of arrow X1-X2 is shown in the lens system driving frequency characteristic in FIG. 18 in which the axis of abscissas denotes the frequency (Hz) of the driving current of the electromagnetic coil 36 and the axis of ordinates is the lens amplitude (dB). In the diagram, a primary resonance point f1 appears usually around scores of hertz (about 30 to 50 Hz). If the vibration system balance is poor and the linear spring members 39 are distorted, a torsional vibration on the axis of the linear spring members 39 is caused in the lens holding member 32, and an unnecessary resonance appears around a double frequency, slightly above f1, as indicated by broken line, in FIG. 18. The primary resonance is attenuated usually by braking the linear spring members 39. As an example of this method, as shown in FIG. 19, a brake member composed of viscoelastic material is injected into the peripheral holes 37d of the linear sprig members 39 of the fixed supporting holder 37 of the linear spring members 39, or, although not shown, a tube made of viscoelastic material is put around the linear spring members 39, but these measures are not effective to suppress the undesired resonance or secondary resonance point f2 appearing at higher frequency.


A file system is setup in user space of an operating system (OS) of a device without editing kernal code of the OS. Data of a file at the device is archived to a target location. The data of the file is replaced with a link to the target location. The archived data is retrieved via the file system in response to an input/output (I/O) request to the data of the file.

Data archiving may be a process of moving data that is less actively used to a separate data storage device for long-term retention. Data archives may consist of older data that is still important for future reference, as well as data that is retained for regulatory compliance. Data archives may indexed and have search capabilities so that files and parts of files may be readily located and retrieved, such as via a file system.

Setup file system without editing kernel code


According to an aspect, a lighting apparatus includes a lighting unit including a long-shaped housing that has upper and lower openings and has an outer surface formed as a convex surface when seen in a cross-section perpendicular to a longitudinal direction, and a semiconductor light emitting device disposed inside the housing so as to emit light toward the lower opening. Further, the lighting apparatus includes a holding unit including a holding member in which at least a portion of a surface is formed as a concave surface corresponding to the convex surface when seen in a cross-section perpendicular to the longitudinal direction of the lighting unit. When seen in the cross-section, the convex surface has, in a region that faces the concave surface, a portion that is brought into contact with the concave surface, and a portion that is not brought into contact with the concave surface.

In recent years, development of semiconductor light emitting devices and lighting apparatuses that use a semiconductor light emitting element such as a light emitting diode (LED) as a light source has progressed (for example, see JP 2009-283449 A). The semiconductor light emitting device having a semiconductor light emitting element is gathering attention due to its power consumption or product lifespan.
Incidentally, the semiconductor light emitting device including a semiconductor light emitting element generates heat during driving (that is, when the device outputs light). When the heat generated by the semiconductor light emitting element is transmitted to various parts of the lighting apparatus, the heat may have adverse effect on the various parts. An object of the present invention is to provide a lighting apparatus capable of suppressing adverse effect resulting from heat generated by the semiconductor light emitting element.


A device includes a substrate having a first-face and a second-face. An electrode is provided in a through hole that penetrates through the substrate between the first-face and the second-face. A first-insulator is provided in the substrate and protrudes in a radial direction from an opening end of the through hole on a side close to the second-face to a center of the through hole as viewed from above the first-face. A second-insulator protrudes in the radial direction from the first-insulator as viewed from above the first-face, is thinner than the first-insulator, and is in contact with the electrode. A third-insulator is provided between an inner wall of the through hole and the electrode, and includes a first-portion that is in contact with the first-insulator and a second-portion that is in contact with the inner wall of the through hole and is closer to the second-face than the first-portion.

A semiconductor device has been developed which includes a plurality of semiconductor chips that are stacked and packaged. In this semiconductor device, a through electrode called a TSV (Through-Silicon Via) may be provided through the stacked semiconductor chips in order to electrically connect the semiconductor chips to each other.
Meanwhile, it is considered that the thickness of a substrate in each semiconductor chip is reduced in order to reduce the thickness of the semiconductor device. However, reduction of the thickness of the substrate in the semiconductor chip lowers an aspect ratio of the TSV. This eliminates the thickness difference of an insulating film, used as a mask when an opening of the TSV is formed, between on a top surface of the semiconductor chip and on a bottom surface of the TSV. In this case, it is difficult to selectively remove the insulating film on the bottom surface of the TSV, so that the opening at the bottom of the TSV becomes small. Size reduction of the opening of the TSV increases a resistance of connection by the TSV between the semiconductor chips.

Semiconductor device and manufacturing method thereof


There is provided a metallic glass component with its surface layer having both durability of a film and chromatic color properties, and a method for forming the surface layer. Surface active treatment is performed wherein the surface of the metallic glass component is reacted with a mixed aqueous solution of nitric acid and hydrofluoric acid to remove an oxide film and to provide an anchor bond shape on the surface of a metallic glass component, and electroplating or electroless plating is then performed, to form a plating film on the surface of the metallic glass component. It is thereby possible to form a surface layer of a metallic glass which has both durability and a chromatic color.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a metallic glass component with its surface layer having both chromatic color properties and durability of a film such as corrosion resistance, weathering resistance, fingerprint wiping properties, and peeling resistance, and a method for forming the surface layer.
2. Description of the Related Art
Metal glass has a composition in which an amorphous metal is formed even at a cooling temperature of not higher than 100 K/second, and there is known a method for forming a large-shaped amorphous metal (bulk metallic glass) directly from a molten metal by using already developed water hardening, arc melting, mold casting, high-pressure projection molding, suction casting, or some other methods. Metal glass has a unique mechanical characteristic of being free from a defect as having high strength, a low Young's modulus, high corrosion resistance, and a grain boundary, which is an essential property of an amorphous metal and is not of a crystalline metal. Furthermore, it has been possible to obtain a large-sized amorphous bulk body by the above-mentioned methods, and it has been widely expected to put the bulk body into practical use.
The surface of such metallic glass is treated so as to have an added value as a component in addition to its essential, excellent mechanical characteristics and physical properties. For example, (1) anodization (e.g. Patent Document 1) and (2) atmosphere heating oxidation (e.g. Patent Document 2) have been attempted as conventional surface treatment, and the surface has been colored by such treatment.    Patent Document 1: National Publication of International Patent Application No. 2005-509090 "Improved metal frame for electronic device and flat panel display", Liquid metal Technologies    Patent Document 2: Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-166044 "Method for toning zirconium-base amorphous metal", YKK Corporation
However, (1) although anodization enables vivid coloring depending upon conditions, since it is treated with an electrochemical function, coloring has often been nonuniformly finished in the case of three-dimensionally treating a large area of the surface of a metallic glass component. Further, for the same reason, a tone of color has sometimes been changed over time despite the passivated surface.
Moreover, (2) atmosphere heating oxidation not only leads to coloring with limited chromatic colors, but also, coloring has often been nonuniformly finished in the case of three-dimensionally treating a large area of the surface of a metallic glass component. Further, there has been a drawback in that, on an oxide film formed by atmosphere heating, natural oxidation proceeds over time to bring about a change in tone of color.
Furthermore, there has also been problems in that, on a nonuniform film formed by above (1) anodization or (2) atmosphere heating oxidation, a corrosion product tends to be generated from salt or mineral floating in the air, a mineral element contained in sweat or a fingerprint when the film is touched with a hand, or the like, to bring about deterioration in appearance and durability.

Method of surface treatment for metal glass part, and metal glass part with its surface treated by the method


A boost voltage generating circuit for a memory device prevents excessive voltage on a word line for a memory cell array and reduces power consumption by utilizing an internal array reference voltage signal as a reference signal for the boost voltage generating circuit. The circuit maintains the boost voltage power supply signal at a predetermined level independently of the voltage level of an internal peripheral reference voltage signal which is applied to a peripheral circuit and which can be increased to increase the speed of the memory device without causing excessive voltage on the word line. The boost voltage generating circuit includes a level detector circuit which receives the array reference voltage signal as a reference signal. The boost voltage generating circuit also includes a pulse generator and a pumping circuit which utilize the array reference voltage signal as a power supply.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to semiconductor memory devices, and more particularly to a boost voltage generator for controlling a memory cell array.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the general structure of a semiconductor memory device. As shown in FIG. 1, the memory device includes a plurality of memory cell array blocks 10. Each cell array block has an associated row decoder 12 for selecting a word line and column decoder 14 for selecting a bit line so as to select a memory cell within the cell array block. The memory device also includes a peripheral circuit portion 16 for controlling the operation of an internal signal.
The external power supply voltage applied to the semiconductor memory device is divided into a peripheral reference voltage signal (VREFP) which is an internal power supply signal that is applied to the peripheral circuit. The external power supply is also divided into an array reference voltage signal (VREFA) which is an internal power supply signal that is applied to the memory array circuit. The voltage level of each internal power supply is adjusted as needed. The voltage levels of these two internal power supply signals is maintained at a constant level in certain areas of the integrated circuit by maintaining the external power supply signal (VCC) at a constant level.
However, the voltage levels required for the two internal power supply signals might be different for different circumstances. For example, since the speed of the semiconductor memory device is related to the voltage level of the VREFP signal which is applied to the peripheral circuit, it is advantageous to increase the level of the VREFP signal as long as the power supply current remains within an acceptable level. Also, the current consumed by the semiconductor memory device is related to the voltage level of the VREFA signal which is applied to the memory cell array, and thus, it is advantageous to reduce the voltage level of the VREFA signal as low as possible.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a prior art boost voltage generator which generates a boosted power supply voltage signal (VPP). The circuit of FIG. 2 includes a level detecting portion 20, a pulse generating portion 22 and a pumping portion 24. The boosted power supply voltage signal VPP is generated from the VREFP signal (which is applied to the peripheral circuit) and controls the word lines of the semiconductor memory cell arrays.
Referring to FIG. 2, after the VREFP signal is applied to the peripheral circuit, the pulse generating portion 22 and the pumping portion 24 continuously operate to generate the boosted power supply voltage signal VPP at a predetermined voltage level. When the voltage level of the boosted signal VPP reaches the predetermined level, the level detecting portion 20 stops the operation of the pulse generating portion 22. Thus, the pumping portion 24 stops operating as well.
The level detecting portion 20 receives the boosted power supply voltage signal VPP and outputs an oscillating boosted power voltage signal (VPPOSCE). The pulse generating portion 22 generates a boosted power driving voltage signal (VPPDRV) responsive to the VPPOSCE signal. The pumping portion 24 receives the VPPDRV signal from the pulse generating portion 22 and continuously performs the pumping operation until the boosted power voltage signal VPP reaches a predetermined level. Thus, the boosted power voltage signal VPP, which is generating according to the process described above, controls the word lines of the semiconductor memory cell arrays, thereby controlling the memory cells. FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a prior art memory cell having a cell transistor in a general semiconductor memory device.
Referring to FIG. 3, the boosted power voltage signal VPP for controlling the cell transistor 30, which is connected to a word line W/L, should be maintained at a voltage level corresponding to the sum of the VREFP signal, a threshold voltage (VT) of the cell, and a predetermined margin voltage so that an adequate read/write operation can be performed through a full active RESTORE operation.
FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram showing the detailed structure of the level detecting portion 20 of the boost voltage generating circuit shown in FIG. 2. The signal VREFP is provided to the level detecting circuit shown in FIG. 4 and the signal VPPOSCE is output therefrom.
In the prior art level detector, the internal boosted power supply signal VPP which controls the word lines of the memory cells is generated using the VREFP signal as a power source and a reference signal. However, if the voltage level of the VREFP signal is increased to increase the speed of the semiconductor memory device, several problems occur. First, the voltage level of the boosted power supply signal VPP, which controls the word line of the chip, is increased above the required level such that an excessive voltage is applied to the wordline during normal operation. This becomes a more serious problem as the difference between the voltage levels of the two signals increases.
Second, when the voltage level of the VREFP signal increases, the boost voltage generator must operate at an excessive rate to maintain the voltage level of the boosted power supply signal VPP above the required level. This results in excessive current consumption.
Accordingly, a need remains for an improved technique for generating a boosted power supply signal for controlling a memory cell array in a semiconductor memory device.

Boost voltage generator for controlling a memory cell array


Methods and apparatus for sharing network bandwidth between devices connected to a bus are presented. Each of the devices belongs to one of a number of device classes. Each device class is associated with a respective data transfer rate at which information may be exchanged over the bus. An exemplary method includes the step of assigning a gap interval to each device based on at least the data transfer rate of the class to which the device belongs, the assigned gap interval being inserted between portions of a data stream sent by the corresponding device over the bus. The assigned gap interval may be inserted between portions of a data stream sent by the corresponding device over the bus to achieve the desired data rate resulting in an equitable sharing of bandwidth between the devices connected to the bus.

What is described are methods and apparatus for sharing network bandwidth. In particular, methods and apparatus for sharing network bandwidth in packet switched networks between different classes of devices having equal access rights to the network are presented.
Traditional networks, such as the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), are based on circuit switching technology, in which a dedicated line is allocated for transmission between two devices. Circuit switching is ideal when data must be transmitted quickly and must arrive in the same order in which it's sent. Traditionally, circuit switching technology has been used to transfer real-time data, such as live audio and video. But having dedicated connections between devices can lead to inefficiencies in the allocation and use of the overall available network bandwidth.
Packet switching can be more efficient and robust for data that can withstand some delay in transmission. Packet switched networks use protocols in which messages are divided into packets before they are sent. Each packet is then transmitted individually and can even follow different routes to its destination. Once all the packets forming a message arrive at the destination, they are recompiled into the original message. Most modern Wide Area Network (WAN) protocols, including TCP/IP, X.25, Frame Relay, and Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) are based on packet switching technologies. Traditionally, packet switching has been used to transfer e-mail messages and Internet web pages, but modern protocols have evolved to the point where acceptable transfer of live audio and video information are being achieved.
Many of the networking schemes either being used or proposed for the home networking environment also utilize packet switching technology. Two of the leading schemes today are wireless (RF) and powerline carrier (PLC). The home networking environment raises unique challenges in the areas of efficient bandwidth allocation and utilization. One factor behind these challenges is that typical home networking schemes require that control and status information be transferred between devices on the network, while at the same time supporting the transfer of audio and video data between the networked devices. These different traffic types often require conflicting amounts of bandwidth. For example, certain types of traffic, such as command or response cycles, occur infrequently, but require that a certain maximum total transmission loop time be met. Other types of traffic, such as audio or video streaming, may be able to accommodate relatively long transmission gaps at irregular intervals, but must have a guaranteed average bandwidth available to them. Techniques for dynamically managing and allocating bandwidth to account for these conflicting requirements can become quite complex and time consuming.
Another factor behind the challenges of bandwidth allocation in the home networking environment is that the physical medium for the network is typically shared between a number of separate entities that may not coordinate efficiently (or equitably) in sharing the total available bandwidth. The bandwidth sharing problem is exaggerated when several devices on the network seek access to the shared medium simultaneously. This situation can lead to a momentary peak of network activity, that in turn may cause the parameters for, e.g., either sending command/response cycles or sending streaming data to be violated.
Accordingly, what is needed are techniques for "flattening" the network traffic peaks and reducing the probability that any one particular network device will not be able to perform its data transactions according to its required traffic parameters. Moreover, it would be desirable to develop techniques that will ensure the available bandwidth of the network is shared on an equitable basis, to allow both time-limited and bulk data transactions to be accomplished according to their needs.
Packet switched networks are typically designed to support the transfer of packets having a given maximum packet length, and to require a particular interpacket time gap to be placed between transmitted packets. The goal in choosing these parameters is to achieve a maximum data throughput given the physical parameters of the network medium, as well as the logical parameters of the media access control (MAC) function that manages access to the network. Typically, all network devices share these same parameters, and network access is typically granted on a non-discriminatory basis. For example, if a particular network device has one hundred Kbytes of data to transmit over the network, it may transmit this data at the maximum rate supported by the network, even if doing causes data transmission problems for other devices on the network.
Accordingly, there also exists a need for techniques that will enforce that the data transmissions of any particular network device be spread out over a longer period of time, thus reducing the level of contention with other devices needing to access the network.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,108,306 to Kalkunte et al. ("Kalkunte") describes an arrangement in which a network switch dynamically allocates bandwidth to a number of switch ports based upon the activity of network nodes connected to the ports. The switch assigns a bandwidth value to each active port based on the switch capacity and the total number of active ports. Each switch port forwards its assigned bandwidth to a corresponding network node that then calculates an interpacket gap interval based on the size of the packet being transmitted and the assigned bandwidth value. The switch port also calculates the size of the interpacket gap to determine if transmission of another data packet begins at the expiration of the calculated gap interval. If a new data packet is not received by the time the gap interval expires, the port is determined to be inactive and the switch redistributes the inactive port's bandwidth to the remaining active ports.
A drawback of Kalkunte's arrangement is that a network switch is required to control the described bandwidth allocation. Since each of the network nodes in Kalkunte's arrangement compete for network access on a more or less equal basis (Kalkunte describes that different priorities can be assigned to the different switch ports), without the network switch, each node could attempt to utilize the full network bandwidth one hundred percent of the time. This would result in a total network overload condition. Even including the functionality of the network switch, Kalkunte's arrangement does not address the problem of ensuring that both low bandwidth time-limited data transfers and high bandwidth bulk data transfers are accommodated without violating their respective network parameters, as is required in the home networking environment.


An antenna apparatus includes a power converting section which receives microwave energy and converts it to DC power. An actuator for folding/unfolding a mirror-supporting member and an actuator for adjusting the configuration of an antenna reflection mirror are driven and controlled by the DC power supplied from the power converting section.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an expansible antenna apparatus adapted to be mounted on a spacecraft such as an artificial satellite and constructed in outer space.
2. Description of the Related Art
Research and development carried out in the field of space technology have resulted in the creation of the expansible antenna apparatus comprising an antenna reflection mirror which is folded while on earth and unfolded in outer space, since the former configuration is required for ease of launching into space. A proposed expansible antenna apparatus has an antenna reflection mirror formed of a flexible conductive film, which is attached to an expansible mirror-supporting member. In such a case, the mirror surface accuracy of an antenna reflection mirror must be kept in a range of about 1/50 to 1/100 of the wavelength used (the r.m.s. value of the entire mirror surface).
Hence, it is essential that the expansible antenna be able to fold and unfold with high reliability and accuracy. In addition, expansion errors in the case of the antenna reflection mirror and accuracy errors in the mirror surface, both stemming from heat deformation caused by changes in temperature in the outer space environment must be controlled and the required mirror surface accuracy maintained.
However, since, in the type of expansible antenna apparatus as described above, components such as the mirror-supporting member are remote-controlled, this results in various troubles.
For example, the above antenna apparatus requires the provision of a relatively large number of connection cables between the power source system and actuators for unfolding the antenna apparatus and adjusting the mirror surface. Therefore, when the mirror-supporting member is in the process of being folded or unfolded, there is a possibility of the connection cables being interwound with the mirror-supporting member and the like, making it difficult or impossible to fold or unfold the antenna and thus adversely affecting the apparatus' performance.


A catheter having a balloon comprised of a polymer material comprising first monomer units of an alkyl amide having 2 to 6 carbon atoms and second monomer units of an alkyl amide having 7 to 12 carbon atoms. The first and second monomer units are copolymerized with each other in a random fashion to form a random copolyamide polymer.

Balloon catheters having balloons manufactured from nylon materials alone or in combination with other materials are well known in the art. For example balloon materials comprised of copolymers of polyamide are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,906,244; 5,108,415; 5,156,612; 5,236,659; 5,304,197; 5,356,591; 5,449,371; 5,738,653; 6,110,142; 6,500,146; 6,500,148 and of copolymers of polyamides and polyether are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,556,383, 5,830,182, 5,951,941, 6,146,356, 6,171,278 and 6,406,457.
Catheter balloons have thin walls because the balloon's wall and waist thicknesses limit the minimum diameter of the distal end of the catheter and therefore determine the limits on vessel size treatable by the method and the ease of passage of the catheter through the vascular system. High strength is necessary because the balloon must not burst under the high internal pressures necessary to open a blood vessel. The balloon must have some elasticity so that the inflated diameter can be controlled, so as to allow the surgeon to vary the balloon's diameter as required to treat individual lesions, but that elasticity must be relatively low so that the diameter is easily controllable. Small variations in pressure must not cause wide variation in diameter.
While angioplasty balloons are considered inelastic relative to balloons used in most other applications, there is in the art a general classification of such balloons based on their expandability or compliance relative to each other. "Compliant" balloons are more distensible, having distensions generally in the range of 16-40% and typically about 21% over a 6-14 atm pressure range. Maximum distensions, i.e. distension from nominal diameter to burst, of various balloon materials may be significantly higher than the distension percentages discussed above because wall strengths, and thus burst pressures, vary widely between balloon materials. The 6-14 atmosphere (atm) inflation range is used in the present application to allow direct comparison of the compliance attributes of various balloons.
The strongest balloons are the most inelastic, being made of highly orientable polymers such as polypropylene, polyethylene terephthalate or other phthalate polyesters or copolyesters, and nylons. Tensile wall strengths are commonly 20,000-50,000 psi. Commercial angioplasty balloons made of such materials with nominal diameters in the range of 1.5-4.5 mm have distensions in the non-compliant to semi-compliant range and can often be rated to pressures of 16 atm or higher without risk of bursting (actual burst pressures may exceed 20 atm). Generally, however, as compliance increases the wall strength decreases. Other semi-compliant and compliant balloons are made of less highly orientable polymers such as ethylene-vinyl acetate, polyvinyl chloride, olefin copolymers and ionomer resins. The wall strengths of balloons made from these less orientable materials are still lower than those made from the highly orientable polymers, commonly in the range of 6,000-15,000 psi, resulting in lower rated maximum inflation pressures of 9-10 atm.
The particular distension and maximum pressure attributes of a balloon are also influenced both by polymer type and by the conditions under which the balloon is blown. Angioplasty balloons are conventionally made by blowing a tube of polymer material at a temperature above its glass transition temperature.
For any given balloon material, there will be a range of distensions achievable depending on the conditions chosen for the blowing of the balloon. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,906,244 to Pinchuck there are described balloons of nylon (i.e. aliphatic polyamide) materials, such as nylon 12, nylon 11, nylon 9, nylon 6/9 and nylon 6/6. It has also been suggested to prepare balloons of thermoplastic elastomers in U.S. Pat. No. 4,254,774 to Boretos, and polyamide elastomers have been mentioned among a number of possible balloon materials suggested in U.S. Pat. No. 5,250,069 to Nobuyoshi, et al, but there are many of such thermoplastic elastomer polymers and before the invention hereof it has been expected that performance of balloons made from these materials would not be generally any better than conventional thermoplastic polymers such as polyethylene ionomer, polyvinyl chloride, polyethylene or ethylene-vinyl acetate. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,290,306 polyester ethers and polyetheresteramide polymers of Shore D hardness less than 55 have been proposed for use as a sleeve or co-extruded outer layer to a balloon of a biaxially oriented nylon or polyethylene terephthalate (PET) material, so as to provide the balloon with improved softness and pin-hole and abrasion resistance.
Polyurethane block copolymers having flexural modulus of about 190,000 and an ultimate elongation of 250% are disclosed as balloon materials in EP 0592885 and mention is made of also using polyester block copolymers or polyamide block copolymers but no suggestion is made that such alternative copolymers could be usefully employed if their flexural modulus was substantially lower or their ultimate elongation was substantially higher than the disclosed polyurethane block copolymers.

Balloon catheter formed of random copolymerized nylons


The present invention which makes use of knowledge developed at the program writing stage by the programmer or by software tools such as a compiler that some substantial number of data accesses would miss in the cache hierarchy to the detriment of performance and that it would be possible to prefetch the necessary data in parallel with performing useful work. The invention provides a background memory move (BMM) mechanism by which the program can specify such prefetching of data from main memory to a quickly-accessible data cache and by which the program can determine which such prefetches have completed. This mechanism makes it possible to improve the performance of the computer system through the effective use of added concurrency while avoiding the overheads of process-swapping.

1. Field of Use
The present invention relates to data processing systems and more particularly to management of the memory subsystem of such systems through processor enhancements.
2. Related Art
A data processing system comprises, in general, a processor, a memory subsystem and an I/O (input/output) subsystem. The instructions describing the required behavior of the data processing system, together with various working values, are stored in the memory subsystem, and the system operates by the continual action of the processor in fetching instructions in an orderly manner from the memory subsystem and performing the operations specified by them, reading data values from memory and writing them back in accordance with the instructions' requirements.
The overall performance of such a system depends upon a number of aspects. Among the most important are the rate at which the processor can execute instructions and the work done by each instruction. All other things being equal, the more work defined by each instruction and the more frequent the execution of the instructions, the more work that is done per unit time.
The rate at which the processor can execute instructions is the lesser of two values, the rate at which the processor could execute the instructions were the memory subsystem to take no time to deliver the values (whether instructions or data) requested by the processor, and the rate at which the memory system can actually deliver the values. It has long been the case that it is straightforward to build a processor which can execute useful instructions much faster than an economical memory subsystem can manage to deliver them. To mitigate the effects of this throttling of performance by the memory subsystem, computers have long provided private local memories, called caches, for the processor in which copies of recently-used data values and instructions are held and which offer performance matched to the needs of the processors. In a system employing caches, it is expected that the majority of requests for instructions or data that the processor makes of the memory subsystem will be supplied by the cache(s), with only some reasonably small percentage of requests actually having to go to the `real` memory subsystem. In such a circumstance, the processor will be able to execute instructions at close to its maximum capability a large proportion of the time.
When an instruction access `misses` in the cache (i.e., must go to the real memory subsystem for the instruction), a conventional processor has no choice but to wait, doing no work, until the memory subsystem delivers the instruction. The time to do this can be sufficient for the processor to have executed several hundred instructions. When a request to read data `misses` in the cache, the processor is often able to continue work at least for a while, if the program was organized in such a way as to request or prefetch the data some time before it was needed. Except in the case of very regular programs (i.e., programs which have well-defined and well-understood patterns of access to memory, such as those which do most of their work operating on matrices and other regular structures), it is unusual for it to be possible to arrange for there to be several hundred instructions between the request and the use of the data. When a request to write data misses in the cache, there can often be little impact on performance, since the processor may copy the value into a buffer for writing into memory at its own pace and so other work may continue in parallel.
To show the effects of cache misses on performance, suppose that the cache on a hit can supply data immediately, but that the memory takes a time equivalent to that needed for the execution of 100 instructions which hit in the caches. Then, if all data accesses hit, but just 1% of the instructions miss in the cache, the processor will execute programs at about half its capability (i.e., on average, each 100 instructions executed will have the first 99 instructions executed at peak rate, while the hundredth instruction will take another 100 instruction times).
There are some workloads, or programs, which have an unfortunate pattern of memory utilization such that their `hit rate` (i.e., the percentage of memory accesses which can be satisfied from an economically-sized cache) is rather low. Because of the effects described before, this can sharply reduce the effective performance of the computer system, reducing it from its peak capability by a factor of 5-10 times.
An example of such a workload is that offered by commercial data-processing workloads typified by database/transactional processing. A further example of such a workload is that offered by current and future multimedia applications, in which large amounts of data are manipulated. A final example is that offered by traditional numerically-intensive computational workloads, which also have very large amounts of data to be manipulated.
To improve the performance of the system under such circumstances, it would be necessary to have other work for the system to perform, and to have the system detect that a that a cache miss had occurred and cause it to perform the other work when this happens. A system organized as an SMP (Symmetrical Multi-Processor) is constructed to take advantage of such a situation. An SMN will generally have more pieces of work outstanding or in progress than there are available processors, and as each piece of work (or `process`) encounters some blocking event (e.g. such as needing data from a disk) the associated operating system arranges to suspend the execution of the blocked process in favor of another process which is not blocked. In this manner, the system can make use of its computational resources fairly efficiently in the presence of extremely long-latency operations like disk I/O.
A generalization of this scheme allows the operating system to be notified- when other blocking events occur, such as a load instruction missing in the cache. Provided that a processor can cease execution of the current process and reactivate an available process in less time than it takes the memory system to provide the requested data, this can also increase resource utilization. In computer systems which embody this approach, it is usual to provide some fast mechanism for swapping out the current `state` of the processor (the values of all its registers, etc.) and swapping `in` the suspended set. This may be done by providing the processor with multiple copies of the necessary resources, and selecting between them; or by providing the processor with access to some very fast private memory in which it can keep copies of the needed resources and swap between sets by performing high speed dump and restore operations. A processor with such a capability is often referred to as `multi-threaded`. Even with a multithreaded processor, context switching can be quite expensive since there may be many registers to save and restore.
While these schemes can provide performance advantages, the process-swapping is always an unexpected event to the processor and is invisible to the software. Therefore, it is most desirable to avoid the overhead costs of process swapping.
Accordingly, it is the primary object of the present invention to provide an efficient method and mechanism for enhancing the overall performance of a processor through the ability to do useful work in parallel with long-latency main memory accesses.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an efficient method and mechanism which can be easily incorporated or added to current microprocessor architectures.

High performance processor employing background memory move mechanism


Provided is a method of fabricating a T-type gate including the steps of: forming a first photoresist layer, a blocking layer and a second photoresist layer to a predetermined thickness on a substrate, respectively; forming a body pattern of a T-type gate on the second photoresist layer and the blocking layer; exposing a predetermined portion of the second photoresist layer to form a head pattern of the T-type gate, and performing a heat treatment process to generate cross linking at a predetermined region of the second photoresist layer except for the head pattern of the T-type gate; performing an exposure process on an entire surface of the resultant structure, and then removing the exposed portion; and forming a metal layer of a predetermined thickness on an entire surface of the resultant structure, and then removing the first photoresist layer, the blocking layer, the predetermined region of the second photoresist layer in which the cross linking are generated, and the metal layer, whereby it is possible to readily perform a compound semiconductor device manufacturing process, and to reduce manufacturing cost by means of the increase of manufacturing yield and the simplification of manufacturing processes.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of fabricating a T-type gate and, more particularly, to a method of fabricating a T-type gate capable of facilitating a compound semiconductor device manufacturing process, enhancing the yield, and reducing the manufacturing cost by forming two kinds of patterns from one kind of photoresist layer using electron beam and photolithography technologies and by interposing a blocking layer between upper and lower photoresist layers for reversing the patterns.
2. Discussion of Related Art
In general, in methods of fabricating a compound semiconductor device such as a metal semiconductor field effect transistor (MESFET), a high electron mobility transistor (HEMT), a heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) and so on, which have ultra-high frequency characteristics as a high performance transistor, small parasitic elements of a gate electrode, high reliability, and high operating speed, a process of fabricating a T-type gate, which is a core process, individually adapts photoresist layers depending on each pattern in order to form a body and a head of the T-type gate. The process has difficulties in implementing the devices since it is difficult to realize a fine pattern, the process becomes complicated, and the device cannot be easily manufactured.
In a conventional method of forming a T-type gate, a fine body pattern of the T-type gate is formed by exposing and developing a first photoresist using electron beams. However, in forming the fine pattern using the electron beams, it is more difficult to adapt the photoresist layer on an insulating layers rather than a metal layer due to an electron charging effect.
In addition, in a process of transferring the fine pattern to a lower insulating layer using a predetermined photoresist layer as a mask, a two-step etching process including a dry etching process for allowing a portion of the insulating layer to remain in order to prevent the substrate from being damaged and a wet etching process for removing the remaining layer without damaging the substrate is required, thereby lengthening the process.
As described above, according to the conventional method, many steps are required and it is difficult to form the fine pattern. Also, a metal lift-off process cannot be smoothly performed since the metal is not deposited with a low step coverage required.

Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute


The disclosure relates to a composition comprising two or more immunogenic staphylococcal polypeptides and a multivalent vaccine composition comprising the immunogenic staphylococcal polypeptides.

Vaccines protect against a wide variety of infectious diseases. Many modern vaccines are therefore made from protective antigens of the pathogen, which are isolated by molecular cloning and purified. These vaccines are known as 'subunit vaccines'. The development of subunit vaccines has been the focus of considerable research in recent years. The emergence of new pathogens and the growth of antibiotic resistance have created a need to develop new vaccines and to identify further candidate molecules useful in the development of subunit vaccines. Likewise the discovery of novel vaccine antigens from genomic and proteomic studies is enabling the development of new subunit vaccine candidates, particularly against bacterial pathogens. However, although subunit vaccines tend to avoid the side effects of killed or attenuated pathogen vaccines, their 'pure' status means that subunit vaccines do not always have adequate immunogenicity to confer protection.
An approach to improve the efficacy of vaccine compositions is to provide multivalent vaccines comprising dominant antigens that provoke both a B cell and T cell response thereby mounting a more rigorous immune response in the subject receiving the vaccine. A typical multivalent vaccine might be a whole cell vaccine comprising multiple antigenic molecules. For example the Bacillus Calmette Guerin ["BCG"] vaccine includes an attenuated Mycobacterium bovis strain that provokes protective immunity in humans. For many pathogens chemical or heat inactivation while it may give rise to vaccine immunogens that confer protective immunity also gives rise to side effects such as fever and injection site reactions. In the case of bacteria, inactivated organisms tend to be so toxic that side effects have limited the application of such crude vaccine immunogens and therefore vaccine development has lagged behind drug-development. Moreover, effective vaccine development using whole cell inactivated organisms suffers from problems of epitope masking, immunodominance, low antigen concentration and antigen redundancy.
Currently there is no effective vaccination procedure to prevent or treat Staphylococcus aureus infection. S. aureus is a bacterium whose normal habitat is the epithelial lining of the nose in about 20-40% of normal healthy people and is also commonly found on people's skin usually without causing harm. However, in certain circumstances, particularly when skin is damaged, this pathogen can cause infection. This is a particular problem in hospitals where patients may have surgical procedures and/or be taking immunosuppressive drugs. These patients are much more vulnerable to infection with S. aureus because of the treatment they have received. Antibiotic resistant strains of S. aureus have arisen since their wide spread use in controlling microbial infection. Methicillin resistant strains are prevalent and many of these resistant strains are also resistant to several other antibiotics.
S. aureus is therefore a major human pathogen capable of causing a wide range of diseases some of which are life threatening diseases including septicaemia, endocarditis, arthritis and toxic shock. This ability is determined by the versatility of the organism and its arsenal of components involved in virulence. At the onset of infection, and as it progresses, the needs and environment of the organism changes and this is mirrored by a corresponding alteration in the virulence determinants which S. aureus produces. At the beginning of infection it is important for the pathogen to adhere to host tissues and so a large repertoire of cell surface associated attachment proteins are made. The pathogen also has the ability to evade host defenses by the production of factors that reduce phagocytosis or interfere with the ability of the cells to be recognised by circulating antibodies.
There is therefore a continuing need to identify staphylococcal antigens that are protective and can be used in multivalent vaccines. The combinations may be used in combination with non-protein immunogenic molecules such as polysaccharide antigens and anti-bacterial agents to provide a treatment regimen for control of staphylococcal infection. It is also within the scope of this disclosure to modify the treatment regimen to immunize subjects with a series of temporally separated administrations as an alternative to the administration of a single vaccine comprising multiple antigens.


A hair curler comprising a cylindrical body having a longitudinal axis and a transverse axis and a removable rod extending through the body along the transverse axis thereof. The inventive curler enables a novel method of curling hair including the steps of curling the hair around the curler comprising a cylindrical body having a longitudinal axis and a transverse axis and a removable rod extending through the body along the transverse axis thereof and securing the curled hair to the head of a user by inserting a rod through the body of the curler along the longitudinal axis thereof. In the illustrative embodiment, the cylindrical body is perforated and has multiple protrusions. The cylindrical body has a variable diameter with tapered ends. The diameter of the body is smaller in the middle section thereof. The rod is beaded and has bends therein.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to personal grooming apparatus and methods. More specifically, the present invention relates to hair curlers.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is well-known to style hair by creating curls. One common method for curling hair involves the application of heat by way of a curling iron. Unfortunately, the high heat required to make the hair curl is deleterious to the hair. Hair rollers, also known as hair curlers, are commonly used as an alternative to heat to form semi-permanent curls in the hair of humans or animals. Typically hair rollers are formed as short cylindrical elements, such as metal or plastic rods or tubes, open-cell or closed-cell foam rods and the like. Rollers come in a variety of diameters for forming "tight" or "loose" curls depending on the particular style or fashion that a person desires or is in vogue at the time.
Curlers are typically used by rolling up the hair around the exterior periphery of the cylindrical curler and securing the curler to the hair with a frame, rubber band, Velcro fastener or other retaining solution. There are two problems with the use of conventional curlers.
First, existing arrangements to hold the hair in place on the curler often damaged the hair or otherwise created an unsightly crease therein. Such typical prior apparatus include a simple hair pin which has been used to physically pin hair to the roller along the longitudinal axis thereof.
Second, curlers are not attractive when in use and do not complement the looks of the user. Although the use of hair rollers is often carried out as part of an everyday private female toilette, it is uncommon for women to use rollers in the company of others. It is also uncommon to see women in public places with rollers in their hair. Some users view the use of hair rollers as a relatively embarrassing, albeit necessary task for maintaining an attractively curly hairdo.
Occasionally, however, a user may balk at the prospect of having to endure hair rollers in her hair for the first time or at any time. The reason for this is that hair rollers are visible implements and they typically do not make for a sight which users—mostly women—find flattering or attractive. Ordinarily, hair rollers are constructed as purely functional devices and none of the features of those devices promote or encourage the use of regular rollers outside of the privacy of the personal toilette where no-one or hardly anyone sees the regular rollers in use. Indeed, women do not want to be seen using regular rollers because they know this is an unflattering, unbecoming sight. Accordingly, conventional hair rollers are generally considered to be unsightly and unbecoming when in use, both by its users as well as by most people seeing them in use.
Hence, there is a need in the art for a hair roller that is not harmful to the hair and is constructed so as to promote and encourage the use of rollers in public, that is beyond the privacy of places and times of or for personal grooming, i.e. while socializing or present in public spaces outside private homes or in common rooms of a private home (or building) the use of which is shared with others. That is, there is a need for a safe, less unsightly and less unbecoming, and yet fully functional hair curler/roller solution.


A pedal rod for an automotive vehicle braking system has a spring seat formed between the ball and the head by displacing a thin peripheral laminar layer through a finite longitudinal dimension thereby to form a circumferentially continuous annular radially outwardly projecting spring seat.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates specifically to a pedal rod of the type utilized in the vehicular vehicle industry and wherein devices are actuated by an operator exerting force via a rod-like instrumentality interconnecting a foot or hand operated member and the operating mechanism of a vehicle such as the braking system of a car or truck.
2. The Prior Art
In my prior U.S. Pat. No. 5,425,286 issued Jun. 20, 1995 I disclosed a pedal rod of the type utilized in this invention wherein a spring seating shoulder is formed on the pedal rod by a transverse stamping operation. The spring seat is formed by displacing the metal of the surface in a transverse direction so that it is literally moved out of the peripheral surface of the body portion and is projected outwardly so that a plurality of projections circumferentially spaced apart from one another extend radially outwardly of the pedal rod body, thereby affording a spring seating means.

Pedal rod with longitudinally pressed spring seat


A linear magnetic sensor shield system comprises first and second shield parts. The system may include first and second field sensor assemblies, each having field sensors disposed therein. The first shield part may be disposed adjacent to a first side and a third side of the first field sensor assembly, and the second shield part may be disposed adjacent to a second side of the second field sensor assembly. The shield parts may be formed of mu metal, by of example, or they may have a curved shape or a thickness in the range of about 0.015 inch to about 0.030 inch. A torque transmitting device is also provided.

The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may or may not constitute prior art.
Transmissions and other powertrain components in automotive vehicles are complex mechanisms controlled by hydraulic systems and electronic control modules. In order to provide proper control, it is desirable to have feedback on the operating conditions and performance of the transmission as the transmission operates. For example, transmissions typically include a plurality of sensors that communicate information indicative of the operating state of the transmission to the electronic controller. These sensors take many forms and perform various functions. For example, it is often desirable to determine the engagement condition of a torque transmitting device, such as the clutches used in a dual clutch transmission. Accordingly, one or more linear displacement sensors are used to measure the reactive position of the clutches in order to determine engagement state. Often these sensor use magnetic fields and magnetic field transducers to produce an output voltage without contact to the mechanical element they are measuring.
However, in certain environments, it is possible that other nearby components may give off magnetic flux that causes the sensors to incorrectly measure the flux emitted from the intended magnet. While current linear displacement sensors are useful for their intended purpose, there is room in the art for an improved linear displacement sensor system that reduces or eliminates magnetic flux interference in areas of a transmission where various components may exhibit magnetism.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


Transducer-based systems and methods may be configured to display a graphical representation of a transducer-based device, the graphical representation including graphical elements corresponding to transducers of the transducer-based device, and also including between graphical elements respectively associated with a set of the transducers and respectively associated with a region of space between the transducers of the transducer-based device. Selection of graphical elements and/or between graphical elements can cause activation of the set of transducers associated with the selected elements. Transducer activation characteristics, such as initiation time, activation duration, activation sequence, and energy delivery characteristics, can vary based on numerous factors. Visual characteristics of graphical elements and between graphical elements can change based on an activation-status of the corresponding transducers. Activation requests for a set of transducers can be denied if it is determined that a transducer in the set of transducers is unacceptable for activation.

Cardiac surgery was initially undertaken using highly invasive open procedures. A sternotomy, which is a type of incision in the center of the chest that separates the sternum was typically employed to allow access to the heart. In the past several decades, more and more cardiac operations are performed using intravascular or percutaneous techniques, where access to inner organs or other tissue is gained via a catheter.
Intravascular or percutaneous surgeries benefit patients by reducing surgery risk, complications and recovery time. However, the use of intravascular or percutaneous technologies also raises some particular challenges. Medical devices used in intravascular or percutaneous surgery need to be deployed via catheter systems which significantly increase the complexity of the device structure. As well, doctors do not have direct visual contact with the medical devices once the devices are positioned within the body.
One example of where intravascular or percutaneous medical techniques have been employed is in the treatment of a heart disorder called atrial fibrillation. Atrial fibrillation is a disorder in which spurious electrical signals cause an irregular heartbeat. Atrial fibrillation has been treated with open heart methods using a technique known as the "Cox-Maze procedure". During this procedure, physicians create specific patterns of lesions in the left or right atria to block various paths taken by the spurious electrical signals. Such lesions were originally created using incisions, but are now typically created by ablating the tissue with various techniques including radio-frequency (RF) energy, microwave energy, laser energy and cryogenic techniques. The procedure is performed with a high success rate under the direct vision that is provided in open procedures, but is relatively complex to perform intravascularly or percutaneously because of the difficulty in creating the lesions in the correct locations. Various problems, potentially leading to severe adverse results, may occur if the lesions are placed incorrectly. It is particularly important to know the position of the various transducers which will be creating the lesions relative to cardiac features such as the pulmonary veins and mitral valve. The continuity, transmurality and placement of the lesion patterns that are formed can impact the ability to block paths taken within the heart by spurious electrical signals. Other requirements for various ones of the transducers to perform additional functions such as, but not limited to, mapping various anatomical features, mapping electrophysiological activity, sensing tissue characteristics such as impedance and temperature and tissue stimulation can also complicate the operation of the employed medical device.
In this regard, there is a need for intra-bodily-cavity transducer-based devices with improved performance and reduced complexity as compared to conventional devices.

Systems and methods for activating transducers


The present invention relates to a write and read circuit for an anti-fuse non-volatile memory, and especially for an OTP (one-time-program) NOI (Non-overlapped implementation) MOSFET memory device. The NOI MOSFET memory device can be written with a programming bit by using anti-fuse technique through the write circuit of the present invention. To accomplish the bit-programming process, the write circuit applies a high voltage to the Drain terminal of the NOI MOSFET memory device for carrying out a punch through breakdown between the Drain terminal and the Source terminal of the NOI MOSFET memory device, and then the programming bit is written into a side wall adjacent the gate terminal of the NOI MOSFET memory device. Therefore, the programming bit stored in the NOI MOSFET memory device can also be read out by using the read circuit of the present invention.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the technology field of non-volatile memory accessing circuits, and more particularly to a write and read circuit for anti-fuse non-volatile memories.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Recently, the role a non-volatile memory plays in semiconductor memory devices has become all the more important. Moreover, with the popularization of portable electronic products such as notebook, digital camera, smart phone, and tablet PC, the non-volatile memories are broadly applied and required to include higher unit-area storage capacity.
NOI (Non-Overlapped Implementation) metal-oxide semiconductor field-effect transistor, including the cross-sectional structure shown by FIG. 1, is a navel non-volatile memory device. As shown in FIG. 1, by using CHEI (Channel Hot Electron Injection) way, the NOI device 1′ can be written with the bits 13′ in two spacers 12′ formed on the two sides of the Gate terminal 11′ thereof. For accomplishing the CHEI, it is able to apply a high voltage on the Gate terminal 11′ and the Drain terminal 14′ (or Source terminal 15′) of the NOI device 1′ for accelerating the speed of the electrons flowing out from the Source terminal 15′ (or Drain terminal 14′) in the channel under the Gate terminal 11′ and two non-overlapped implementation regions under the spacers 12′. On the contrary, the bits 13′ stored in the spacers 12′ can also be erased (eliminated) by using HHI (Hot Hole Injection) way. In order to carry out the HHI, it needs to simultaneously apply a negative voltage and a high positive voltage on the Gate terminal 11′ and the Drain terminal 14′ (or the Source terminal 15′) of the NOI device 1′.
According to researches, the NOI device 1′ can not only be a multi-bits non-volatile device but also an OTP (one-time program) non-volatile device. As the cross-sectional structure of the NOI device 1′ shown by FIG. 2, it can form a LDD (Lightly Doped Drain) region 151′ adjacent to the junction of the Source 15′ of the NOI device 1′. Therefore, a forward read threshold voltage (Vth) and a reverse read threshold voltage can be obtained after treating a forward read and a reverse read to the NOI device 1′, respectively. Moreover, the absolute value of the voltage difference between the forward read threshold voltage and the reverse read threshold voltage may be greater than 0.5V, and such result implies that the NOI device 1′ has been written with one bit after the LDD region 151′ is formed adjacent to the junction of the Source 15′. However, the formed LDD region 151′ cannot be removed from the NOI device 1′ anymore.
Besides aforesaid LDD-forming technique for facilitating the NOI device 1′ be written with one bit, there still has another way for making the NOI device 1′ become an OTP memory device, wherein the another way is called anti-fuse programming. As the cross-sectional structure shown by FIG. 3, a punch through breakdown (PTB) between the Source 15′ and the Drain 14′ is achieved after applying a high voltage of 7.5V˜8.0V to the Drain terminal 14′ of the NOI device 1′ for forming an SDE (Source Drain Extension) region 152′ extended from the Drain 14′ to the Source 15′. Thus, the value of the current read from the NOI device 1′ having the SDE region 152′ may reach 1 mA, and then such NOI device 1′ can be defined to the memory device been programmed (written). On the contrary, if the NOI device 1′ does not be programmed through the PTB way, the current read from the NOI device 1′ can be as low as 1 pA; meanwhile, the NOI device 1′ is defined to the memory device without being programmed (written). Similar to aforesaid LDD formation, the established PTB cannot be eliminated from the NOI device 1′ anymore.
Although researches has been found the NOI device 1′ can be selectively used as a multi-bits memory device or an OTP memory device, a specific bit-writing circuit and/or a specific bit-reading circuit for accessing the NOI devices 1′ does still not be proposed. Accordingly, the inventor of the present application has made great efforts to make inventive research thereon and eventually provided a write and read circuit for anti-fuse non-volatile memory.

Write and read circuit for anti-fuse non-volatile memory


An aftertreatment system includes a reductant source, a junction, a dosing pump module, a valve assembly, and a dosing module. The reductant source stores reductant. The junction receives the reductant from the reductant source. The dosing pump module receives the reductant from the junction and selectively provides the reductant to a first conduit. The valve assembly receives the reductant from the first conduit. The valve assembly is operable between a first state, where the valve assembly provides the reductant to the junction, and a second state, where the valve assembly provides the reductant to a second conduit. The dosing module receives the reductant from the second conduit when provided by the valve assembly. The dosing module is configured to dose exhaust gases with the reductant when provided by the valve assembly.

For internal combustion engines, such as diesel engines, nitrogen oxide (NOx) compounds may be emitted in the exhaust. To reduce NOx emissions, a selective catalytic reduction (SCR) process may be implemented to convert the NOx compounds into more neutral compounds, such as diatomic nitrogen, water, or carbon dioxide, with the aid of a catalyst and a liquid reductant. The catalyst may be included in a catalyst chamber of an exhaust system, such as that of a vehicle or power generation unit. A liquid reductant, such as anhydrous ammonia, aqueous ammonia, diesel exhaust fluid (DEF), or aqueous urea, is typically introduced into the exhaust gas flow prior to the catalyst chamber.
To introduce the liquid reductant into the exhaust gas flow for the SCR process, an SCR system may dose or otherwise introduce the liquid reductant through a dosing pump that vaporizes or sprays the liquid reductant into an exhaust pipe of the exhaust system up-stream of the catalyst chamber. In some applications, the reductant may be subject to relatively cold temperatures, such as in cold climates or during winter, before being sprayed into the exhaust pipe. The reductant typically has a freezing point that may cause the reductant to at least partially transition from a liquid phase to a semi-solid (e.g., gel, etc.) phase when exposed to these cold temperatures. Accordingly, a mechanism is needed to heat the reductant in these applications. Some conventional engine systems provide this mechanism by routing another fluid (e.g., engine coolant, oil, heat transfer fluid, etc.) through a heat exchanger designed to heat the reductant. Other conventional engine systems utilize an electric heater designed to heat the reductant. However, each of these approaches requires additional energy input and decreases the overall efficiency of the engine system.

Systems and methods for heating reductant


An X-ray computed tomographic apparatus comprises a scanner to scan in a three-dimensional region of a subject by X-rays, a storing unit to store projection data acquired by the scanning, a reconstruction processing unit to generate volume data which corresponds to a three-dimensional region, based on the stored projection data, an MPR processing unit to generate slice image data relating to three-direction slice planes from the volume data, a displaying unit to display the slice image data together with a graphic element representing a reconstruction range, an operating unit to operate the graphic element, and a reconstruction processing unit to reconstruct tomographic image data which corresponds to the reconstruction range represented by the graphic element, based on the stored projection data.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an X-ray computed tomographic apparatus and an image processing apparatus which generate tomographic image data based on projection data acquired by scanning a subject by means of X-rays.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, in an X-ray computed tomographic apparatus, with advancement of practical use of volume scan (referred to as a cone beam scan) due to helical scan or multiply arrayed X-ray detectors, a wide range of data has been successfully acquired in a short time. In such a situation, unlike a conventional technique, instead of carrying out scanning in a scan range according to a reconstruction range which has been set in advance, it is believed that there will be an increasing demand for a technique for setting a reconstruction condition or a reconstruction range after scanning to reconstruct an image. Processing for reconstructing an image by setting the reconstruction condition or reconstruction range after scanning is referred to as batch reconstruction processing in order to discriminate processing for speedily reconstructing an image immediately after scanning the reconstruction condition or reconstruction range which has been set in advance. In the batch reconstruction processing, in order to set the reconstruction range, an axial image is displayed together with a scanogram, as shown in FIG. 8. The range in a body axis direction is specified on the scanogram, and the range in two directions orthogonal to the body axis is specified on the axial image.
The scanogram is a projection image, and moreover, is low in resolution, and thus, a morphological structure is hardly recognized. Thus, an axial image check is made in order to finally determine the range in the body axis direction. While switching axial images, namely, while moving a slice position of the axial image along the body axis, an operator checks the morphological structure in detail, and finally determines the range in the body axis direction. In this method, operability is very poor, and a large amount of tine interval is required to set the reconstruction range.

X-ray computed tomographic apparatus and image processing apparatus


In an Internet chat environment, chat feedback indicators show receiver users of a chat application that at least one sender is in the process of preparing a message for viewing by chat environment participants. As a sender types text, a length of the text is sent to the receivers via unreliable data packets. Thus, the receivers are shown mask characters that correspond to the number of textual entries mede by the sender. The sender is, therefore, provided with some sense of security in that the typed text will not be displayed to the receivers until complete. In addition, the receivers are provided with an indication that something is being prepared for display to them.

Internet Service Providers (ISP's) such as America On Line and IRQ provide a Chat communication interface for their users to talk to each other over the Internet. IRQ estimates they have over 2.5 million users that use their Chat facility. There are many other ISPs competing in this area that also use Chat facilities.
Prior art comprises Chat facilities provided by ISPs. For currently existing Chat facilities, it is the quality and usability of the provided Graphical User Interface which is the main selling point that attracts customers to use a particular service. One service provider provides character-by-character feedback (ie., the receiver sees each character as soon as the sender types the character). An option is typically provided to turn this immediate feedback function off when network latency (time for information delivery) is great. Some services do not provide this function as a result of their overall network inefficiency (ie., current character-by-character feedback requires reliable (TCP/IP) communication which greatly increases the amount and frequency of data required to be delivered over the network). Additionally, this character-by-character feedback function may have undesirable effects because the receiver/addressee can see what the sender is typing before he/she has even decided whether or not to send the text, thereby severely limiting the sender's opportunity for reconciliation.
Thus, there is a need for a method and system which provides efficient network Chat feedback and which allows reconciliation by the sender before the actual text is viewable by the receiver.

Method and system for efficient network desirable chat feedback over a communication network


A lead routing module for interconnecting two devices in a suspension assembly. The suspension assembly including at least a suspension, a slider/head assembly, and a lead routing module. The suspension assembly may also include a microactuator. The lead routing module routes electrical signals between at least two devices in the suspension assembly such that the termination leads and/or pads of each device may be conveniently located. The suspension assembly may be used in a disk drive system, or alternatively, in a disk test system used for testing disks.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to magnetic storage systems, and more particularly, to suspension assemblies that include a lead routing module.
2. Description of Prior Art
Direct access storage devices (DASD), or disk drives, store information on concentric tracks of one or more rotatable magnetic recording disks. A magnetic head or transducer element is moved from track to track to record and read the desired information. Typically, the magnetic head is positioned on an air bearing slider to form a slider/head assembly which flies above the surface of the disk as the disk rotates. A suspension supports the slider/head assembly and couples the slider/head assembly to a linear or rotary actuator. The combination of the suspension and slider/head assembly may be referred to as a suspension assembly or head gimbal assembly. In general, a rotary actuator moves the slider/head assembly above the disk surface in a generally arcuate path along the radius of the disk surface, whereas a linear actuator moves the slider/head assembly above the disk surface in a generally linear path along the radius of the disk surface.
Many conventional disk drive systems today use a rotary actuator to position a slider/head assembly. For example, FIG. 1 illustrates the translational motion of a slider/head assembly 113 with respect to a disk 112 when positioned by a rotatory actuator 119. The actuator 119 is coupled to slider/head 113 via a suspension 115. During data access operations, disk 112 rotates in the direction indicated by arrow 150 and actuator 119 selectively positions slider/head assembly 113 over disk 112 in response to control signals from a servo electronics (not shown).
The actuator 119 rotates about an axis 127 in the directions indicated by arrows 144. A voice coil 139 is provided at one end of actuator 119 between two pairs of permanent magnets, one of which is shown by reference numeral 137. The outer magnet is attached to the inner side of disk drive system 100. The control signal from the servo control electronics causes a current to flow in voice coil 139 and to generate a magnetic flux. The flux creates force in either direction parallel to the surface of the permanent magnets 137, causing actuator 119 to move in a desired direction. Actuator movement is limited by one or more crash stops 146 that block the range of movement of a protrusion 148. Thus, rotary actuator 119 moves slider/head assembly 113 above the disk surface in a generally arcuate path along the radius of disk 112.
The translational motion of rotary actuator 119 requires in-line mounting of slider/head assembly 113 to suspension 115. For in-line mounting, the head termination pads of the read/write elements located at the trailing end 113A of slider/head assembly 113 are mounted in-line or parallel with suspension 115.
During manufacturing when a disk is tested, one or more testers or test platforms may use a linear actuator, as compared to a rotary actuator, to position a slider/head assembly over the disk. The physical constraints of the test equipment often requires the use of a linear actuator. Unlike rotary actuators, linear actuators require the read/write termination pads located at the trailing end of the slider/head assembly to be mounted orthogonally rather than in-line to the suspension.
FIG. 2 illustrates the relative motion of a suspension assembly with respect to a disk surface when the suspension assembly is positioned by a linear actuator. A slider/head assembly 219 is suspended from a suspension 218. The combination of slider/head assembly 219 and suspension 218 is referred to as a suspension assembly or head gimbal assembly. During data access operations, the suspension assembly is designed to move in a linear translational motion above the surface of a disk 221 as disk 221 is spinning in the direction indicated by arrow 250. The linear translational motion is shown by arrow 230.
As hard disk drives become smaller in size and as their recording track density increases, smaller suspensions are often necessary. Many conventional suspensions are often referred to as "wired suspensions" because individual wires are strung along the suspension and attached to a slider/head assembly. Often the smaller sized suspensions makes it more difficult to string individual wires along the suspension to the head. As a result, there is an industry trend towards integrated lead suspensions in which electrical leads are etched directly into the suspension rather than stringing separate wires.
Integrated lead suspensions generally provide better control of the flying height of a slider/head assembly. However, by integrating the leads into the suspension, the orientation of the wires cannot be changed without redesigning the suspension. It is not an easy task to redesign an integrated lead suspension because it not only needs to be designed with a careful layout of the electrical leads to provide a transmission line for the electrical signals but also needs to provide good mechanical "balance" to properly support the slider/head assembly flying under the influence of air-bearing forces and mechanical forces that occur during high speed access operations. Thus, when the disk testers or platforms require the leads to be configured for orthogonal mounting, a dedicated test suspension may be required for testing, particularly when using an integrated lead suspension. Often it is not economical to design and build the small quantity of these dedicated test suspensions required for testing.
Additionally, as the track densities of hard disk drives increase, it may be advantageous to provide a two-stage servo system that includes both coarse and fine positioning. Generally, the coarse positioning is performed by the conventional actuator such as linear or rotary actuator, and the fine positioning is accomplished by a separate device referred to as a microactuator. The microactuator may be a device coupled between the suspension and slider/head assembly. However, the size and design constraints of a microactuator may not make it feasible to place its termination pads in a location convenient and/or efficient for attachment to the suspension wires.

Interconnect module for use in a suspension assembly

Hitachi Global Storage Technologies Netherlands B.V.