A vehicle having a suspended body (1), at least two wheels (2) each mounted on a wheel support. Each wheel support is mounted on a suspension device (5) comprising a suspension support (4) and means for guiding the wheel support relative to the suspension support. The suspension device allows a vertical displacement of the wheel support relative to the suspension support, the size of the displacement being sufficient to produce the vertical suspension movement required. At least one wheel is arranged transversely on one side of the body and at least one other wheel is arranged on the other side of the body. Each suspension support is connected to the body by a height variation mechanism (3, 7, 11, 12) which allows the relative height of the suspension support relative to the body (1) to be varied. Each height variation mechanism is actuated by height control means (15, 16, 17, 18). The vehicle has centralised control means (19) for the height control means, and the action of the height control means on each side of the body is coordinated so that on that side of the body, the relative height of each suspension support is varied simultaneously.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention concerns the ground contact system of vehicles, in particular road vehicles. It concerns both the guiding of the wheels relative to the vehicle body, and the control of the level of the vehicle body, in particular its height and roll.
2. Background of the Invention
The purpose of the wheel guiding system is to ensure a rigorously controlled position of the wheel plane relative to the chassis or body of a vehicle during vertical movements of the suspension. In general, it is easy to identify a plane of symmetry on a vehicle. This longitudinal and vertical plane will be taken as a basis of reference related to the chassis. Remember that the "wheel plane" is the plane perpendicular to the rotation axis of the wheel and passing through the centre of the ground contact area of a tire or elastic cover fitted on the wheel. It is common to call the vertical displacement of the wheel relative to the chassis the "vertical suspension". The "camber" or "camber angle" is the angle between the wheel plane and a line perpendicular to the ground. "Steering" is the rotation of the wheel plane about a line perpendicular to the ground and passing through the centre of the contact area of the tire on the ground. Finally, the "roll" or "body roll" is the tilting of the body around a longitudinal axis.
The guiding of the wheel plane directly induces the attitude of the tire on the ground, and thus influences the forces undergone by the tire and whether it is in a more or less favourable position for transmitting forces, in particular transverse forces. Now, it is known that those forces are all-important for the vehicle's behaviour and thus for safety.
As is known, road vehicles as used nowadays undergo a rolling motion when rounding a curve, simply by virtue of their suspension. In effect, the centrifugal force results in a load transfer towards the outside of the curve, whose consequence is to increase the compression of the wheel suspensions on the outside of the curve and relax the suspensions on the inside of the curve, hence the roll. This rolling is prejudicial for the comfort of passengers but also for the road holding of the vehicle, particularly because of the wheel camber variation it causes. The most common way currently used to reduce this roll consists in using one or more so-termed "anti-roll" bars. Unfortunately, an anti-roll bar can only restrict roll, by opposing it with a reaction torque. Owing to its principle, it can only limit the amount of roll and cannot therefore totally prevent the camber variations of the wheels in a direction unfavourable to proper operation of the tires. Moreover, although the roll is reduced, the load transfer still takes place and this unequal load distribution on the tires tends to reduce the overall grip potential of the vehicle.
Patent application EP 0 878 378 discloses a vehicle that comprises a camber control mechanism which, viewed in a vertical plane perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the vehicle, forms a deformable parallelogram. This vehicle uses a vertical suspension system with a slide located in the wheel. The passenger compartment of the vehicle can also tilt relative to the chassis, so that passengers will not be so much affected by the transverse forces due to the centrifugal force. The system enables rigorous control of the orientation of the wheel plane and body. However, this arrangement is rather bulky.

Vehicle with a suspension system that allows individual suspension of the wheels and active control of the body height

Conception et Developpement Michelin S.A.


Method for determining a property of a fluid for a household device includes the following steps: measurement of a physical variable of the fluid associated with the property of the fluid, in each case when a first parameter influencing the physical variable has one of at least two predetermined values, in order to obtain at least two measurement values for the first parameter, and correlation of the at least two measurement values for the first parameter, in order to obtain a first value characterizing the property of the fluid.

In order to be able to control the operation of household devices reliably and automatically, it is necessary to determine their operating states reliably and accurately. Thus, it is known for example in household devices such as for example washing machines, dishwashers and dryers to monitor the actual properties of fluids that are employed. In the case of washing machines and dishwashers the optical transmission of cleaning liquid is for example measured in order to determine the actual degree of cleanliness of objects to be cleaned and to appropriately control the operation. The same also applies to the drying air used in dryers.
Also, the measurement of fluid temperature and electrical conductivity can provide information on the actual operating state and establish a basis for how the operation should subsequently be controlled, in order for example to achieve an optimum cleaning result.
Known approaches have disadvantages as regards the measurement accuracy and reliability. Thus, for example, measurements can be affected on account of the operation of the household device and the measurement methods that are employed, with the result that the measurement results may be inaccurate and unreliable. Also, time-consuming and complex methods are normally required to evaluate the measurement values.


A timepiece comprises an atomic oscillator for generating and outputting a reference clock signal, and a timepiece module that operates based on the reference clock signal, wherein the atomic oscillator and the timepiece module are disposed separately so as to be thermally separated. The timepiece also comprises a crystal oscillator for generating and outputting a first oscillation signal, an atomic oscillator for generating and outputting a second oscillation signal with a higher precision than the first oscillation signal, a timepiece module that operates based on the first oscillation signal and the second oscillation signal, and a thermal separator for thermally separating the atomic oscillator from the crystal oscillator and the timepiece module. A portable timepiece and electronic device can thereby be configured so that the effects of heat generation can be reduced and power consumption can be reduced even in cases in which the atomic oscillator is used as a reference oscillator.

1. Technological Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a portable timepiece and an electronic device that can be worn while walking, and particularly relates to a wristwatch and electronic device provided with an atomic oscillator for generating a reference clock signal.
2. Description of Relevant Technology
In some electronic timepieces, which are electronic devices, a reference clock signal outputted from a reference oscillator is divided to generate, for example, a 1-Hz signal, and time is measured based on the 1-Hz signal. One known example of this type of electronic timepiece is a VHP (very-high-precision) timepiece that achieves an accuracy that is within plus or minus several tens of seconds per year by using a temperature-compensated crystal oscillator as the reference oscillator (Japanese Examined Patent Application (Kokoku) No. 6-31731, for example).
In recent years, standard oscillators that use an atomic oscillator have been proposed (U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,806,784 and 6,265,945, for example).
However, when the same configuration as a timepiece that uses a conventional crystal oscillator is used in cases in which an atomic oscillator is used as the reference oscillator of an electronic timepiece, problems occur in that the heat from the atomic oscillator (for example, the heat from a heater resulting from maintaining the temperature of the cells, the heat generated by a laser diode, or the like; about 85° C.) causes the material of the gear train mechanism and other driven objects, the lubricating oil for allowing these objects to be driven smoothly, the power-supplying battery, and the like to be adversely affected by the increase in temperature.
Specifically, the elements (lubricating oil, oscillating circuit, drive circuit, battery, and the like) constituting the driven objects of the timepiece (the movement) are more likely to undergo deformation, degradation, a change in characteristics, and other undesirable changes.
Also, problems occur in that power loss increases along with heat generation, and power consumption increases as a result.

Portable timepiece and electronic apparatus


A brush conditioner for a semiconductor wafer cleaning tool including a pair if opposed, rotating flexible brushes. The conditioner is a wing-like structure having a leading edge and a trailing edge. The leading edge is forced against the rotating brushes flexing them to assist in removal of foreign material. The trailing edge tapers to a point and provides stability to the wing.

In the polishing and cleaning of semiconductor wafers, there is known a certain type of brush cleaning tool which uses a pair of rotating sponge brushes as described in Gill, Jr.'s U.S. Pat. No. 5,144,711. Such a cleaning tool is offered commercially by Westech Systems as their model 3800 Automated Wafer Cleaner. Andros, U.S. Pat. No. 5,311,634 also teaches a form of rotary brush cleaner.
It is well known in the CMP technology to provide for the cleaning of semiconductor wafers following a CMP process, see for example Blackwell, U.S. Pat. No. 5,320,706 for a general teaching of the use of a cleaning process.
It is also well know to provide for the conditioning of a polishing pad in situ during the actual polishing process as evidenced by reference to Bombardier et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,154,021 which teaches the conditioning of a polishing pad by the application of compressed air to the pad prior to its contact with the work piece and Prigge et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,167,667 which teaches the application of a liquid for treating a polishing cloth following the completion of a polishing process.
The IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin, "Water/Air Brush for Wafer Chem-Mech Polishing," Vol. 37, No. Mar. 03, 1994, p. 345, shows an in situ polishing and conditioner tool in which an air brush and hot water dispenser are placed on the polishing pad while the wafer/work piece is being polished.
In the processing of semiconductor wafers using a rotating brush tool of the Gill/Westech type following the CMP planarization of polysilicon filled trenches, residual particles were found to cause rejects of product due to the presence of foreign material (FM).
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to reduce the FM present after polishing semiconductor wafers while cleaning them with a rotary brush cleaner.
It is another object to increase the throughput of wafers cleaned after being polished by speeding up the cleaning process.

International Business Machines Corporation


The present invention provides a retrograde recombinant composition algorithm that creates new musical compositions based on existing musical compositions that are preferably written in software and is suitable for implementation in electro-mechanical and electronic devices that generate musical works based on existing bodies of music. The retrograde approach to recomposition according to the present invention provides a highly simplified code that executes at a high speed, and accordingly a reduced need for computational resources.

The practice of algorithmic composition has a long history ranging from mechanical devices (such as wind chimes and automata), through musical dice games (Muisicalisches Wurfelschpiel, attributed to Mozart among others), mathematical, statistical, random and stochastic composition (e.g. the works of Iannis Xenakis) to computational software code and programs such as Cybernetic Composer by Charles Ames (see Ames, Charles. 1987. "Automated Composition in Retrospect: 1956-1986." Leonardo 20/2; 169-185; 1989. "The Markov Process as a Compositional Model: A Survey and Tutorial." Leonardo 22/2: 175-187.). These antecedents have been extensively surveyed in Computers and Musical Style (Cope 1991. Computers and Musical Style. Madison, Wis.: A-R Editions, pp 1-18).
While there are various patents that have aspects related to the topic of music composition, the inventor's own prior work is of more significance relative to the present invention. In particular, the inventors own work, commonly known as the "Emmy Algorithm" or "Emmy", is a software package that uses recombinant algorithmic composition and has been taught through the publication of volumes of work, including books and articles, by David Cope, including:
1991a. Computers and Musical Style. Madison, Wis.: A-R Editions;
1991b. "Recombinant Music." Computer Music Journal 24/7: 22-28;
1992. "Computer Modeling of Musical Intelligence in EMI." Computer Music Journal 16/2: 69-83;
1996. Experiments in Musical Intelligence. Madison, Wis.: A-R Editions;
2000. The Algorithmic Composer. Madison, Wis.: A-R Editions;
2001. Virtual Music. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press;
2003. "Computer Analysis of Musical Allusions." Computer Music Journal 27/1: 11-28;
2006. Computer Models of Musical Creativity. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press;
The process used within the Emmy software has been referred to throughout the inventor's work generically as Experiments in Musical Intelligence. The fundamental algorithmic sequence of the Emmy software can be represented by the logic flow illustrated in FIG. 1, which shows, from a music database 100, operations that include pattern matching step 110, segmentation step 120, hierarchical analysis step 130, non-linear recombination step 140, which result in the output 150.
The music database 100 is essentially the embodiment of a musical composition, or musical performance, in a tangible or legible form, format, language, or code that can be interpreted and executed by devices such as a computer, a musical instrument with a digital interface, a sound synthesizer, digital-to-analog audio reproduction system, or any combination of electrical, electromechanical, or mechanical musical devices. For instance, a musical score is, in and of itself a musical database of a composition, and a phonograph recording is an analog musical database of a performance. In an Emmy database, the groupings of notes in a musical phrase, or more precisely the "events" in a musical phrase, are assigned numerical values according to their pitch, duration, location in the work, voice, amplitude and/or other sonic and temporal qualities which characterize the notes. A single event is the grouping of notes which constitute a single beat in a musical work. Collections of numerical values of notes are compiled to represent successively longer measures, phrases, sections, and so forth. These compilations are called event lists, and are susceptible to processing by digital list-processing computer applications (such as the computer language known as LISP, short for List Processor).
Event lists describe the various attributes of each note with a single list of parameters of at least five separate but related elements, as follows:
The first element of the event list is the on-time, or the time elapsed between the beginning of the work and the initiation of the note. On-times are assigned numerical values in Emmy based on a standard metric of 1,000 ticks per second, which is usually equated with the length of a quarter note. On-times are relative, not absolute. As with printed music, the actual on-time of a pitch is determined by a combination of on-time (location in the score) and tempo (pace of playing). For example, an on-time of 1,000 could begin 1 second after 0 with a tempo of m.m. 60, 2 seconds after 0 with a tempo of m.m. 30, half a second after 0 with a tempo of m.m. 120, and so forth. Events describe only sound events (note ons and note offs), not silences or rests, relieving databases of vast amounts of unnecessary data. Silences, or rests, are represented by default as the result of a lack of events.
The second entry of the event list is pitch. In Emmy, pitch is assigned a numerical value using the established Musical Instrument Digital Interface ("MIDI") standard, with middle C (520 cycles per second) equal to MIDI note number 60. Additions and subtractions of 12 produce C in various octaves, and additions and subtractions of 1 create half steps. Thus, the numerical sequence 60-62-64-45-67-69-71-72 represents the C major scale with intervening numbers (61, 63, 66, 68, 70) producing chromaticism to that key.
The third entry of the event list is duration. Duration, as with on-time, is figured to a quarter note's equaling 1,000 ticks; relative durations are figured from that standard. The duration of an event implies the MIDI note off-time, which can be independently figured as the addition of the on-time plus the duration. Thus, an event with an on-time of 6,000 and a duration of 1,000 has an off-time of 7,000. Duration, as with on-time, is relative, being a factor of its value within the current tempo.
The fourth entry of the event list is channel number. The channel numbers indicate the original voice separation of the music entered into that database (e.g.: soprano, alto, tenor, bass; or, trumpet, saxophone, guitar, drums, etc.). Channel numbers are used to indicate the voice from which events were harvested or will be assigned for performance in the score of the new composition or, perhaps, for performance by a digitally enabled instrument (e.g. an instrument compatible with the industry-standard Musical Instrument Digital Interface). Channel numbers are theoretically unlimited, but in practice, 64 channels are sufficient for most music.
The fifth entry of the event list represents dynamics. Dynamics are based on 0 equaling silence and 127 equaling fortissimo, with the numbers between these values being relative to these extremes.
Numbering systems, while logical are arbitrary and therefore many alternative numbering systems are possible. For instance, a base metric of 10,000 ticks per second could be used for event duration, and a scale of 0 for silence to 254 fortissimo. Additional entries, a sixth, seventh and so on, into databases may be made as needed for other musical qualities and quantities pertaining to musical notes or events, such as tremolo, aftertouch, and so forth. Events are open-ended, that is, one may add any desired parameter to the end of event lists with no ill effects on the first five elements. Events are compiled into collections of larger phrase, section, or work, lists. Events are typically ordered sequentially (i.e. beat one, then beat two, and so forth) to make visual event reading simple and logical. Databases can be created by manually translating scores into event lists, or by software that automatically scans printed scores (sheet music) and translates them into events lists, by performing the work through a digitally-enabled instrument (sometimes referred to as "step entry") or by software that automatically analyzes performed music and translates it into events lists, or any combination of these techniques.
As with any large collection of data, in order for a database incorporating many musical events to be manageable it is beneficial to clarify, or make the data homogeneous in ways that preserve its essential characteristics and variety while facilitating analysis and processing. For instance, all works may be transposed into the same key signature, tempo, and so forth, without radically altering their distinctive melodic and harmonic characteristics and intervalic relationships between their notes. The precise format of the list will be determined by the type of application which will be used to process the data.
The Emmy algorithm assumes that every work of music contains an inherent set of instructions, or rules, for creating different but highly-related replications of itself—an assumption which is generally agreed to by musicologists. These instructions, when analyzed and interpreted correctly, lead to important discoveries about this music's structure as well as providing a key to producing new instances of music that are stylistically-faithful to it.
The pattern matching step 110 is the process of comparing events lists representing musical works or phrases in the musical database to discover what elements they have in common. Highly recurrent patterns in a single work typically represent thematic material, such as a particular melodic line and associated chord progression. However, patterns which recur in more than one work can be construed as the essence of the style of a particular composer or genre. Style is inherent in recurrent patterns of the relationships between the musical events, in more than one work. The primary constituents of these patterns are the quantities and qualities captured and represented in the musical database event lists—essentially pitch, duration, and temporal location in the work—although other factors such as dynamics and timbre may come into play. Patterns may be discerned in vertical, simultaneous relationships, such as harmony, horizontal, time-based relationships, such as melody, as well as amplitude-based relationships (dynamics) and timbral relationships. Patterns might be identical, almost identical, identical but reversed, identical but inverted, similar but not identical, and so forth. The Emmy algorithm searches the databases for such patterns using controllers that either restrict the search to detecting patterns that are highly similar, or widen the search to detect patterns that are loosely similar. The essence of this process is to reiteratively select the event list of differing portions of the music and look for other instances of the same, or similar, events lists elsewhere in the database, and to compile catalogues of matching events lists, ranking them by frequency of occurrence, type, and degree of similarity. The objective of this search, whether the pattern-matching net is cast tightly or widely, is to detect patterns that characterize the commonalities, or "style," of the bodies of music in the musical databases.
Matches that are long in duration and loosely similar, for instance, characterize the form which the works in the database share. In a rudimentary example, the basic twelve-bar blues form—(AAB)—would be discovered and registered as a match in a database containing several blues. Formal patterns, generally of long duration, will often have widely varied content within the components of the pattern. The pattern matching controllers are therefore set to discover and compare larger musical structures while de-emphasizing or ignoring the details within the form. (By analogy, a poetry-form pattern matcher would discover the sonnet form by finding commonalities in the number of lines, meter, and rhyming scheme, while ignoring the words. Even if some sonnets in the database were in English and others were in Italian, the form uniting them could be discovered.)
Matched patterns of shorter duration, such as beats, measures and short phrases, are also sought and catalogued. These commonalities are denominated "signatures" in Emmy. In the recomposition process, signatures are preserved and serve to ensure that stylistic qualities are inherent in the musical output.
In the Emmy algorithm, superficial, thematic material specific to a particular work should not be mistaken for deeper commonalities shared by many works by the same composer, or in the same genre. For instance the "di-di-di-dah" motif of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony is a thematic component specific to that work and is not a signature that is found in very many or all of Beethoven's work. The pattern-matching controllers in Emmy can be adjusted to reject thematic material as superficial and irrelevant to the discovery of signatures. This is achieved by rejecting matches that occur with relatively high frequency in a single work but occur with relatively low frequency, or are entirely absent, in other works.
The essential outcomes of the pattern-matching step 110 are two-fold: long forms present in the source material, particularly forms of musical-phrase length and larger, are identified for use as templates for future recomposition; and stylistic signatures are captured so that instances of them can be protected (not broken apart) and re-implanted in the composition process.
In order to recombine music it must, self-evidently, be broken into constituent elements first. This process is referred to in the Emmy software as segmentation step 120. Segments, typically, consist of beats—the groupings of notes which correspond with one beat in the music. However, segmentation of existing musical works into smaller components, and haphazard recombination of them into new orders, would produce musical gibberish, as would fragmenting written language sentences into words and haphazardly recombining the words without regard to grammar (syntax) or meaning (semantics). Although segmentation in the Emmy software is fundamentally straightforward—the identification of each beat and its conversion into an event list—each segment will become progressively more complex as contextual analysis is applied to it. Each beat-segment will accumulate and carry with it at least the following information: the destination note for each note in the beat (i.e. the note in the corresponding voice which follows it in the original work); the grouping of beats, or phrase, to which it belongs; the location of the phrase within the work; its SPEAC value (see below); and whether it is part of a signature that will be protected and not broken apart in the re-composition process.
While the pattern matching step 110 analyzes form from an essentially syntactical point of reference, hierarchical, or SPEAC, analysis step 130 investigates the semantic structure of music and provides tools for ensuring that when music is recombined, syntactically correct music is also semantically intelligible.
The differentiation of two or more apparently identical but functionally different musical events by analyzing the context in which they occur is extremely important in the Emmy algorithm. The musical function of a note, or chord, in a piece of music depends on its context, particularly the musical interval between the notes or chords that precede or follow it. This may not be intuitively obvious to a non-musician, but can be illustrated by an analogy. In spoken language, homonyms (same-spelled and spoken words) can have quite different functions and meanings, for instance in the sentence "I saw the saw saw." The word "saw" appears three times in this sentence, with each appearance having a different meaning and making a different syntactic contribution (subject verb, object noun, object verb, etc.) and semantic meaning (because we know that saws cannot see, we infer that the final appearance cannot be a part of the verb "to see" and must therefore refer to the act of sawing). Only the context distinguishes each word's true function and meaning. The same is may be said of music.
Tonal-music leading tones provide an example of how hierarchical analysis differentiates between apparently identical functional motions in music. The leading-tone note in the key of C Major (B), for example, strongly leans toward the tonic note when found in dominant, dominant-seventh, and leading-tone harmonies. However, the same leading-tone note appearing as the fifth of the mediant triad does not necessarily lean toward the tonic note (C), but in fact often moves more naturally elsewhere—the submediant note (A), for example. Thus, the same leading-tone note can be analyzed differently depending on its context. This insight provides a very important foundation for Emmy approaches to structural analysis.
For these reasons the Emmy software adopts a hierarchical approach to musical analysis, which is based on a combination of musical tension and musical context that are analyzed, evaluated and assigned a numerical weighting. This weighting combination closely parallels the manner in which one hears music, almost regardless of its style or period of composition, and hence represents the core of the analysis component of Emmy composing programs The hierarchical approach uses a process that goes by the acronym SPEAC, the acronym being based on the identifiers—Statement (S), Preparation (P), Extension (E), Antecedent (A), and Consequent (C)—which will be assigned to events and groupings of events. SPEAC analysis also parses these selected groupings of events to extract information about their role in increasingly large musical structures, from beats to measures, to phrases, sections, and even to whole works. While traditional tonal functions provide analysis of surface detail, the SPEAC approach provides deeper insights into musical structure. In other words, SPEAC derives musical meanings from context as well as from content. SPEAC identifiers function in the following ways:
S=Statement; is stable—a declaration of material or ideas. Statements typically precede or follow any SPEAC function.
P=Preparation; is unstable—an introductory gesture. Preparations precede any SPEAC function though more typically occur prior to statements and antecedents.
E=Extension; is stable—a continuation of material or ideas. Extensions usually follow statements but can follow any SPEAC function.
A=Antecedent; is very unstable—requires a consequent function. Antecedents typically precede consequents.
C=Consequent; is very stable—results in consequent gestures. Consequents must be preceded directly or indirectly (with intervening extensions) by antecedents.
SPEAC identifier assignments follow an A-P-E-S-C stability order with the most unstable identifier to the left, and the most stable identifier to the right. Therefore, A and P require resolution while E, S, and C do not. Thus, progressions of identifiers such as PSEAC and SEA are musically logical, progressions such as AEPS and SAPC, while not impossible, are less logical. David Cope: "Algorithmic Composer" p. 194 provides an example of SPEAC analysis as applied to a Bach Chorale.
While these approaches to defining roots, tensions, and groupings seem logical in principle, methods of converting these roots and tensions into numerical values for contextual comparison and analysis is not obvious. To achieve conversion, the Emmy software uses an empirically derived formula:f(x)=y+(cos((−1*z)+x/z))/2
where x is the pitch-class interval, y represents the y coordinate, and z is a constant. This formula roughly accounts for the primary intervals (seconds, thirds, and fourths).
Secondary intervals (sixths and sevenths as inversions of thirds and seconds respectively) then approximately mirror the primary intervals, with the fifth is treated uniquely as it has very little tension. Intervals greater than an octave have slightly less (0.02) tension than their related less-than-octave-separated equivalents, because of their octave separation. When this formula is applied to the intervals within several chords in a particular work, the relative totals produced by the formula will indicate what the SPEAC role of each chord is. For instance, a chord which produced a total of 0.5 would be the antecedent, "A," in the context of a preceding chord with a value of 0.2 and a succeeding chord with a value of 0.3; however, the identical chord with its value of 0.5 would be a consequent, "C," in the context of a preceding 0.8 and a succeeding 0.4. While the intervals in the event determine its fixed value, or weighting, the context in which the event occurs determine its relative position in the SPEAC hierarchy—both in the original works in the database and in recombined works.
After SPEAC hierarchical analysis step 130 has been performed, every event and grouping of events, will carry with it its SPEAC identifiers and weightings, which will be essential in order to accomplish musically-logical, structurally sound, and context-sensitive re-location of events and event-groupings in the recombination process.
The Emmy software employs a recombination step 140, which is made possible by prior pattern-matching step 110, segmentation step 120, and prior SPEAC hierarchical analysis step 130 of the database 100. Non-linear recombination step 140 is the compositional process that synthesizes the results of the pattern-matching step 110 (form, and signature detection) and the hierarchical SPEAC analysis step 130 (context-sensitive, structural analysis) components of the Emmy algorithm.
Tonal music follows well-known principles governing pitch (notably major and minor scale derivation and complementary chromaticism), melody (primarily stepwise motion with leaps often followed by stepwise contrary motion), harmony (having prescribed functions and syntax), voice-leading (mostly stepwise motion with voice independence), hierarchical form (phrases, sections, and movements governed by logical repetitions, variations, and contrasts), and so on. One way to algorithmically create tonal music is by programming rules for each of these principles. Unfortunately, as has been shown (see David Cope: 2001a), this rules-based approach produces technically correct, but musically stale imitations. Additionally, this approach requires programming a new set of rules for every composer or genre of tonal music under consideration.
Recombinancy, on the other hand, is a method for producing new and logical, i.e. musically logical, collections of musical events (i.e. new compositions) by recombining existing data into new logical orders on the basis of the rules which have been acquired through analysis of specific works or bodies of work (as distinct from the imposition of generic rules).
Recombinancy appears ubiquitously as natural processes as well as a human creative process. As a simple human-creative example, all the great works of literature in the English language result from combination of the twenty-six letters of the alphabet into words, and recombination of those words. Similarly, most of the great works of Western art music consist of combinations of the twelve pitches of the equal-tempered scale, their octave equivalents, and the recombinations of groupings—melodies, harmonies, and so on—that result from these combinations.
As stated previously, the Emmy algorithm assumes that every work, or stylistically consistent body of music, contains an implicit set of instructions, or rules, for creating different but highly-related replications of itself. Consequently, recombinancy, based on rules acquisition (as distinct from rules imposition) provides logical and successful approaches to composing new, highly-related replications of the original work(s).
One of the most important impacts that SPEAC analysis has on algorithmic composition involves the order in which groupings of events are selected and embedded in new compositions in a way which is faithful to the sets of instructions, both formal (i.e. discovered by pattern-matching analysis), and context sensitive (i.e. identified and evaluated by SPEAC analysis), that have been acquired from the database. SPEAC allows for a non-linear approach to recombinant composition. Significant (relatively high SPEAC values) antecedent (A) and statement (S) groupings of a new work are selected first, and the remaining groupings follow in SPEAC priority order. In short, key components (groupings of musical events) of a new work may appear in many places within an overall formal structure initially, simultaneously, rather than appearing first at the beginning of a new work in progress and continuing to be added until the end is reached, in a linear manner. This non-linear process closely resembles how human composers create large-scale works, by envisioning an overall form, or structure, for the work, and then progressively filling in the details.
The non-linear recombination step 140 of the Emmy software algorithm is founded on the principles of Augmented Transition Networks (ATNs) widely employed in computational linguistics and adapted in the Emmy software for processing music instead of language. The implementation of ATNs in the Emmy software is highly complex, in large part because music, unlike spoken language, has few universal rules of syntax (grammatical rules). Short sequences of musical events do not have commonly-agreed meanings (comparable to the dictionary definition of a part-of-speech made up of letters of the alphabet). Nor do longer musical phrases have established meanings in the way that a sentence usually does. By way of illustration, many English speakers could readily explain how the sentence "The dog eats a bone." is grammatically-correct and also make sense, whereas the sentence "The dog sang a bone" although equally grammatically correct is illogical. But most listeners and even musicians would find it difficult if not impossible to explain why one piece of music might make less musical sense than another structurally similar one. However, music does share with language such qualities as form (poetic literary forms have much in common with musical forms) and style (the characteristics of certain writers can be recognized and to some extent defined). Music also has rules of syntax, but they are nor universal. Rather, they are specific to genres, composers, and in some case even to individual works. Music is not a language, but many languages, and many families of languages with countless idioms and dialects. It is precisely because there is no universal set of rules that can be discovered in all music that the Emmy software focuses on rules acquisition from the musical database in use. This enables the Emmy software to powerfully analyze almost any musical database and recompose in any style, rather than be restricted to a single style by a single set of rules.
The output 150 of the Emmy software is a musical database with an entire new composition, stylistically faithful to compositions in the original database and resembling them, derived from them but not replicating them, resulting from the integration and synthesis of the process steps described above. It can be manifested as a score to be played by musicians, a digital file which can be input into an electromechanical device, such as a MIDI-enabled instrument or sound synthesizer, or readily converted into any other form of musical expression or performance.
While the Emmy software has many advantages in many environments, it is complex and requires considerable memory just to store the executable code. Due to its high-level, AI functions, linguistics-based ATNs and other expert systems, it is also computationally intensive, requiring a very large number of computing cycles to execute the encoded instructions of the algorithm. It is therefore highly unsuited to the rapid, recombinant, re-composition of short musical works, such as would be deployed telephone ringtones, musical toys, videogames, music boxes, and other similar applications requiring rapid and repetitive iterations of new music based on existing bodies of music.

Recombinant music composition algorithm and method of using the same


A method for forming a memory device structure is provided. The method includes providing a substrate, a first dielectric layer, a conductive via, a magnetic tunnel junction cell, a first etch stop layer, and a first spacer layer. The substrate has a first region and a second region, the first dielectric layer is over the substrate, the conductive via passes through the first dielectric layer over the first region. The method includes removing the first etch stop layer, which is not covered by the first spacer layer. The method includes removing the first dielectric layer, which is not covered by the first etch stop layer.

The semiconductor integrated circuit (IC) industry has experienced rapid growth. Technological advances in IC materials and design have produced generations of ICs. Each generation has smaller and more complex circuits than the previous generation. However, these advances have increased the complexity of processing and manufacturing ICs.
Semiconductor memories are used in IC for electronic applications, including radios, televisions, cell phones, and personal computing devices, as examples. One type of semiconductor memory device involves spin electronics, which combines semiconductor technology and magnetic materials and devices. The spins of electrons, through their magnetic moments, rather than the charge of the electrons, are used to indicate a bit.
However, since feature sizes of semiconductor memories continue to decrease, fabrication processes continue to become more difficult to perform. Therefore, it is a challenge to form reliable semiconductor memories at smaller and smaller sizes.

Memory device structure and method for forming the same

TAIWAN SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURING CO., LTD.


In an implantable sound receptor for hearing aids, the sound sensor is designed as an optical sensor (5) and arranged within the ear at a distance from the surface of a sound transmission part (3) capable of being excited to acoustic vibrations.

The invention relates to an implantable sound receptor for hearing aids, in particular for implantable hearing aids.
The majority of the known hearing aids is unsuitable for implantation. In principle, such hearing aids employ converters that are able to convert sound waves into electric signals. Such converters are known in the form of microphones and require appropriate membranes whose vibrations can be transformed into electric signals. The sensitivity of such microphones is largely influenced by the site of attachment and, above all, the size of the membrane. Acoustic vibrations can be picked up by pressure-sensitive membranes as is usually the case with microphone structures, or they can be detected by vibrometers receiving vibrations as acceleration signals or even as expansion measuring signals at deformations of vibrating structural components.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,531,787, accelerometers in the form of piezo-resistive vibration sensors have been proposed. Alternatively, capacitive acceleration sensors are known to scan sound vibrations. Such miniaturized sensors have already been proposed for implantation in the region of the middle ear, whereby acoustic pressure waves generated in the region of the middle ear are scanned in the form of mechanical vibrations. In principle, such microphone structures are, however, relatively insensitive, because precise tuning to the acoustic impedance between the sensor and the tympanic cavity of the middle ear is not readily feasible.
Also other references such as, for instance, U.S. Pat. No. 3,557,775 have described microphones which may be implanted under the skin to receive audio signals, transmission being effected into the middle ear. Such arrangements, too, in terms of sensitivity are subjected to a number of not readily controllable foreign influences such as, for instance, the thickness of the skin and an unforeseeable formation of scar tissue and granulation tissue during the healing process, so that the sensitivity at the frequencies that are important to hearing will be attenuated in a variable and uncontrolled manner.
In principle, sounds that are heard are generated by sound waves, the pitch of a tone increasing with increasing frequency and the loudness increasing with increasing amplitude. In addition to tones and sounds, which constitute tonal mixtures, also a plurality of tones irregularly sounding simultaneously and having different frequencies and pitches are generated, which are heard as noises. By the natural hearing process, those sound waves are distinguished which are conducted from the auricle to the external auditory, thus causing the tympanic membrane to vibrate. The tympanic membrane is grown together with the hammer shank, whereby further transmission is effected via the auditory ossicles through the base of the stapes to the perilymphatic liquid, which causes the organ of Corti to vibrate. The excitation of the hair cells in the organ of Corti cause the generation of nerve impulses which are conducted by the auditory nerve into the brain, where they will be distinguished consciously.
The tympanic membrane functions as a pressure receiver and has a diameter of about 1 cm. If microphones having such large membranes are to be used to receive sound waves, such microphones will hardly be suitable for implantation, since the space required therefor is not available in the region of the ear.
Impaired hearing may have various causes. In a considerable number of hearing defects, the mechanical part of the vibration transmission from the tympanic membrane via the auditory ossicles to the liquid in the scala vestibuli is intact. It has, therefore, been already proposed to connect a vibration sensor directly with the membrane or the auditory ossicles in order to accordingly convert into electric signals, and amplify, the vibrations brought about by sound. Such an intervention has the drawback that, on the one hand, relatively high operating expenditures are involved in the arrangement of such sensors and, on the other hand, every mechanical influence of vibrating parts and, in particular, the damping of such vibrating parts, considerably influences the vibration behavior of those parts such that correct signals as are generated during the natural hearing process will not be obtained in that case, either. In principle, the miniaturization of microphones results in a decrease of sensitivity, this being not least due to the missing tuning of the acoustic impedance between microphone and ambient air. Even if this effect can be improved by implanting the microphone under the skin, this will lead to an alteration of the scannable frequency range with, in particular, higher frequencies being more strongly attenuated. Also other mechanical sound wave receptors such as, for instance, tubes filled with fluids, lead to an attenuation due to the viscosity of the used fluid, whereby rigid acoustic couplers, in general, are unsuitable for implantation.
The invention aims to provide a small-structured implantable sound receptor which avoids the drawbacks of the known sound receptors while maintaining the acoustic sensitivity on a constantly high level over the entire frequency range that is essential to hearing, i.e., from about 100 Hz to more than 10 kHz. The invention, furthermore, aims to keep the structural dimensions so small as to enable its implantation in the middle ear and/or the adjacent mastoid antrum. The surgical intervention preferably is to be reversible, whereby no substantial deterioration of the previously existing audition is to occur at a functional failure of the sound receptor. In a restrictive manner, an operative interruption of the sound transmission chain may, however, be required as a function of the employed actuator and its point of application, in order to avoid feedbacks. In addition to these demands set on an implantable sound receptor, also the energy consumption of the sound receptor and of a consecutive evaluation circuit is, of course, to be kept so low as to enable a total implantation due to miniaturization.
To solve this object, the implantable sound receptor for implantable hearing aids according to the invention essentially consists in that the sound sensor is designed as an optical sensor for vibration and distance measurements and is arranged within the ear at a distance from the surface of a sound transmission part capable of being excited to acoustic vibrations. Due to the fact that, as opposed to the hitherto applied physical principles of sound receptors for hearing aids, contactless scanning by means of an optical scanner has been proposed, it is actually feasible to measure the vibrations that are physiologically transmitted by the tympanic membrane and the auditory ossicles. The contactless configuration prevents undesired side effects of an attenuation of such vibrating auditory ossicles and the tympanic membrane and enables the unhampered use of the relatively large vibration pickup surface of the tympanic membrane for measuring, so that a considerably higher sensitivity can actually be attained than would be feasible with accordingly smaller membranes. Due to the fact that the optical sensor is arranged or arrangeable within the ear at a distance from the surface of a vibration transmission part capable of being excited to vibrations, it is ensured that any attenuation of the vibrations of such vibration transmission parts capable of being excited to vibrations will be reliably excluded and the use of optical sensors will allow the use of extremely small-structured sensors.
By optical sensors, sensors that do not necessarily use visible light are to be understood in this context. For optical sensors, electromagnetic waves in a relatively wide frequency range that goes beyond the spectrum of visible light may be used. As transmitters, laser diodes may, in particular, be used both in the infrared and ultraviolet ranges of radiation and in the visible range, as long as the vibrating surface to be measured is sufficiently reflective in the range of the irradiated wavelength. Optical sensors, thus, in the first place serve to measure the optical parameters of the reflected portions of the emitted signal, the evaluation of the signals of the sound receptor advantageously being effected in a manner that the optical sensor is connected with an interferometer to evaluate the amplitude, the frequency and/or the relative phase relationship of the vibration of the scanned part. The use of the interferometer principle, for which various configurations are known, allows the reliable detection of even slight amplitudes of natural vibrations in the region of the auditary ossicles in a contactless manner. The range to be detected extends from amplitudes of 10xe2x88x9211 m to approximately 10xe2x88x925 m, whereby higher amplitudes than approximately 5xc3x9710xe2x88x925 m as may be observed at a sound irradiation of about 120 dB, as a rule, will not be taken into consideration for further measurements since these may already cause damage to the internal ear.
The vibrations of the auditory ossicles and the tympanic membrane as observed upon excitation by acoustic waves, however, are overlaid in the ear also by a low-frequency quasi-static or slow dislocation of the tympanic membrane and the ossicles, which is due to differences in the air pressure or the pressure prevailing within the internal ear. Such low-frequency dislocations are caused, for instance, by changes in the air pressure when going by a lift, cable car or airplane, whereby important low-frequency deviations are also observed when blowing one""s nose due to the sudden opening of the auditory tube. Such low-frequency dislocations in terms of amplitude may be higher by a factor of at least 102 than the maximum amplitudes occurring at the physiological exposure to sonic waves. Thus, optical sensors must be arranged in a manner that no contact with the part to be scanned will occur even during such dislocations, and the configuration according to the invention is, therefore, devised such that the optical sensor is arranged at a distance from the scanned part that is larger than the maximum dislocation of the scanned part occurring in the direction of the sensor, and/or is adjustably retained at a collision-preventing distance. The use of an adjustable retention means to maintain a defined distance may comprise a servomotor, the adjustment signals of the servo-motor being applied to determining the acoustic vibrations and the adjustment movements themselves being triggered by the optical sensor.
Optical scanning in a particularly simple manner is feasible in that the optical sensor cooperates with at least one light or laser diode and the reflected signals are fed to at least one optoelectronic switching component, for instance a photodiode, of an electronic evaluation circuit via fibers of waveguides, in particular optical waveguides. The sensor part to be implanted in the middle ear or in the epitympanum or epitympanic recess in such a configuration is restricted to the relatively small free end of the optical waveguide via which the optical signals are fed and the reflected signals are picked up. In the beam path also one or several optical systems such as, for instance, lenses, beam splitters, prisms, mirrors or the like may, of course, be arranged depending on the orientation and structure of the device, in order to render measurements accordingly precise or locate the same.
The evaluation circuit subsequently must provide an accordingly amplified signal to the stimulus of the auditory nerve, the configuration in this respect advantageously being devised such that the evaluation circuit generates signals for the electromechanical vibration generator, and/or the electric stimulation of the organ of Corti and/or the auditory nerve and/or the brain stem, and comprises connections for the respective signal lines.
In order to prevent the free end of the optical sensor to be implanted preferably in the middle ear from being subjected to measuring errors or sensitivity fluctuations caused by turbidities, the configuration advantageously is devised such that the free ends of the optical sensor are provided with a cell-growth-inhibiting coating.
In order to suppress fading effects which are to be observed in the interferometric evaluation and overlay of low-frequency dislocations, it is particularly advantageous to detect also the relative phase position of the vibration of the scanned part in addition to evaluating its amplitude and frequency. To this end, it may advantageously be proceeded in a manner that at least two signals are fed to the evaluation circuit to determine the phase relationship, the determination of the phase relationship in a known manner enabling the respective active or passive stabilization as a function of the type of interferometer used and the circuit arrangement of the evaluation circuit chosen. Depending on the arrangement, the optimum sensitivity of the optical sensor is based on a predetermined operating point pregiven by a defined distance relative to the surface to be measured. Low-frequency dislocations of the parts to be scanned naturally may lead to the leaving of that optimum operating point or even to the occurrence of a phase shift or phase reversal. Such undesired side effects, which may cause xe2x80x9cfadingxe2x80x9d of the measured signal advantageously may be eliminated in that the evaluation circuit comprises a stabilizing circuit to compensate for the shift of the operating point of the interferometer by low-frequency dislocations of the scanned part. Alternatively or additionally, appropriate compensation may be safeguarded in that a sensor for the detection of the distance of the part to be scanned from the optical sensor is additionally provided. The stabilization of interferometric signals may be effected in a particularly simple manner by comparison with a reference signal or by measuring a plurality of signals, whereby polarizing beam splitters may be arranged in the beam path and the signals may be detected independently and by different photodiodes. Conclusions as to the correct phase position may be drawn also from a mathematical analysis of the shape of the measuring signal, frequency comparisons and, in particular, the evaluation of higher-order vibrations in the stabilizing circuit being applicable to this end.
In order to enable the precise positioning of the sound receptor, the configuration in a particularly simple manner is devised such that the free end of the optical sensor is adjustably fixed in a bearing block and/or connected with an adjustment drive, thus safeguarding the precise orientation and precise positioning relative to the surface of the part whose vibration is to be measured.
The actual configuration of the interferometer subsequently calls for the respectively preferred algorithms for evaluation. Interferometers in this regard may be configured according to any desired mode of construction such as, for instance, as a Michelson, Fabry-Perot or Fizeau interferometer, suitable stabilizing algorithms being described, for instance, in the article by K. P. Koo, A. B. Tveten, A. Dandridge, xe2x80x9cPassive stabilization scheme for fiber interferometers using (3xc3x973) fiber directional couplersxe2x80x9d, in Appl.Phys.Lett., Vol. 41, No. 7, pp. 616-18, 1982; G. Schmitt, W. Wenzel, K. Dolde, xe2x80x9cIntegrated optical 3xc3x973 coupler on LiNbO3: Comparison between theory and experimentxe2x80x9d, Proc.SPIE, Vol. 1141, 5th European Conference on Integrated Optics: ECIO 89, pp. 67-71, 1989, R. Fuest, N. Fabricius, U. Hollenbach, B. Wolf, xe2x80x9cInterferometric displacement sensor realized with a planar 3xc3x973 directional coupler in glassxe2x80x9d, Proc.SPIE, Vol. 1794, Integrated Optical Circuits II, pp. 352-365, 1992; L. Changchun, L. Fei, xe2x80x9cPassive Interferometric Optical Fiber Sensor Using 3xc3x973 Directional Couplerxe2x80x9d, Proc.SPIE, Vol. 2895, pp. 565-571, 1995. Other proposals are to be found, i.a., in A. Dandridge, A. B. Tveten, T. G. Giallorenzi, xe2x80x9cHomodyne Demodulation Scheme for Fiber Optic Sensors Using Phase Generated Carrierxe2x80x9d, IEEE J.Quantum Elec., Vol. QE-18, No. 10, pp. 1647-1653, 1982, J. H. Cole, B. A. Danver and J. A. Bucaro, xe2x80x9cSynthetic Heterodyne Interferometric Demodulationxe2x80x9d, IEEE J.Quantum Elec., Vol. QE-18, No. 4, pp. 694-697, 1982.

Implantable sound receptor for hearing aids


A heat circuit may include a controller configured to execute a first process and then a defrosting operation. The first process may be a process to execute a first air-heating operation and a heat storage operation simultaneously. The second process may be a process to execute a defrosting operation. The controller may be configured, in the first air-heating operation, to cause the radiator to heat a radiator passage and cause the air-heating apparatus to heat air using heat of a air-heating passage while circulating the heat medium in the radiator passage and the air-heating passage. The controller may be configured, in the heat storage operation, to circulate the heat medium in an electrical apparatus passage and a bypass passage. The controller may be configured, in the defrosting operation, to circulate the heat medium in the electrical apparatus passage and the radiator passage.

Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2017-150352 describes a heat management device to be mounted on a vehicle. The heat management device includes a plurality of heat circuits (a heater circuit, an engine circuit, and the like) in which heat media respectively circulate. The heat management device can execute an air-heating operation and an air-cooling operation by heat exchange with the heat media.


A read-only memory (ROM) and method for manufacturing a ROM having trench-type gate regions and source/drain regions, wherein the trench-type gate regions are provides in a substrate. The ROM further includes an insulating layer for isolating the substrate from the source/drain regions so to prevent current leakage between the source/drain regions and the substrate and to reduce area required by components of the ROM, thereby increasing component integration. The ROM also comprises a checkerboard conductive layer having a plurality of parallel source/drain regions a plurality of parallel channel regions connected to the plurality of parallel source/drain regions, wherein the plurality of parallel source/drain regions and the plurality of parallel channel regions cross each other at right angle, while the source/drain regions and the trench-type gate regions are approximately parallel to each other.

1. Field of Invention
This invention relates generally to read-only memories (ROMs) and a method for manufacturing the same, and more particularly to ROMs and a manufacturing method for ROMs having a trench-type gate structure buried within a substrate and a source/drain terminal structure formed above the substrate.
2. Description of Related Art
ROMs are widely used in digital equipment such as microcomputers and microprocessor operating systems. ROMs normally store resident programs, such as BIOS used by operating systems. ROM manufacturing processes involve time-consuming steps and material processes. Generally, ROM customers submit program codes to a ROM manufacturer, and the ROM manufacturer encodes the program codes into the ROM during manufacturing.
Despite the different program codes stored during manufacturing, most ROMs have identical physical structures. Therefore, ROM manufacturers complete ROM manufacturing to a state immediately before actual programming, and then store the partially finished ROMs in a warehouse. When customers order ROMs requiring a particular program code, the manufacturer creates a set of photomasks and subsequently program,s the partially-finished ROMs in inventory with the program code provided by the customer. This procedure of photomask programming a prefabricated ROM has become the norm in the semiconductor manufacturing industry.
Generally, a basic memory cell unit of a ROM comprises a channel transistor. During the programming phase, ions are selectively implanted into specified channels of the channel transistor, adjusting the threshold voltage thereof and achieving ON/OFF control of the memory cell unit. FIGS. 1A-1C show the manufacturing steps involved in the creation of a conventional ROM. FIG. 1A is a partial top view, FIG. 1B is a partial front view, and FIG. 1C is a partial cross-sectional side view of the conventional ROM. As shown, the conventional ROM includes a substrate 10, such as, for example, a P-type silicon substrate, having a plurality of bit lines 11, an oxide layer 12 and a plurality of word lines 13 formed on a top surface of substrate 10. Referring to FIG. 1A, areas 14 enclosed by the rectangular dash lines comprise the memory cell units. Whether or not ions are implanted into a channel 16 of the memory cell unit determines if the memory cell unit contains a binary bit of "0" or "1", respectively.
As shown in FIG. 1C, N-type impurities, such as arsenic ions, are implanted into substrate 10 forming the plurality of equidistant bit lines 11, wherein the areas between two bit lines 11 constitute channel regions 16. Next, an oxidation process forms an oxide layer 12 on the surface of bit lines 11 and channel regions 16. A conductive layer, such as for example, a heavily doped polysilicon layer, is subsequently formed, followed by photolithographic and etching processes that form word lines 13 crossing over bit lines 11, and thus form the completed prefabricated conventional ROM.
In the programming phase of manufacturing the conventional ROM, program codes are encoded in the ROM by forming a masking layer 15 on the surface of word lines 13 that exposes channel regions 16 to be encoded. The programming phase is complete upon implantation of P-type impurities, such as, for example, boron ions, in the exposed channel regions 16. Different doping sources may be used during the programming phase so to obtain different properties for the transistors.
FIGS. 2A and 2B show another conventional ROM. FIG. 2A is a partial top view and FIG. 2B is a cross-sectional side view of the second conventional ROM. The area 24 within the rectangular dash lines of FIG. 2A comprises the memory cell unit. The manufacturing method for the conventional ROM shown in FIGS. 2A and 2B comprises the steps of implanting N-type impurities, such as, for example, arsenic ions, into a substrate 20 forming a plurality of equidistant source/drain terminals 21, wherein the area between two source/drain terminals 21 constitutes a channel region 25. A subsequent step comprises encoding program codes in the ROM by exposing channel regions 25 to be encoded to implantation of P-type impurities, such as, for example, boron ions. A further step includes forming an oxide layer 22 and a conductive layer, such as a heavily doped polysilicon layer. Thereafter, the method comprises the step of forming the conductive layer into word lines 23, constituting channel transistors, by using photolithographic and etching processes. A subsequent step includes forming an insulating layer 27 on word lines 23 and providing a plurality of contact window openings 28 in the insulating layer 27, wherein a bottom portion of the plurality of contact window openings 28 is connected to source/drain terminals 21. Finally, the method comprises the step of forming contact windows 26 by filling the plurality of contact window openings 28 with a metal, such as aluminum.

Read-only memories and method for manufacturing the same


A method and system for providing location based presence status and enhancing location privacy management in a mobile, instant messaging or social networking environment. A user specifies or saves their favorite locations (e.g. home, work, school, or particular business or point of interest locations), and specifies or selects names and/or categories to be shared for each user-specified location. In addition, the system provides multiple sharing levels for sharing multiple types of location contextual information. When user's current location corresponds to user-specified locations, location based presence status is provided to specified contacts according to the sharing level settings, and provides user the option to share location contextual information without sharing location coordinates of the user. When user is driving, location based presence status is updated accordingly, and when user is at other business or POI locations, corresponding location contextual information is shared based on user's settings for each sharing level.

1. Field
The invention is a method and system for providing location based presence status and enhancing location privacy management in mobile, social networking and instant messaging environments.
2. Description of the Related Art
Location based services (LBS) have been on the wireless carrier product roadmaps for several years, however there has been limited mainstream adoption of such services, and much of the infrastructure and systems have been put in place to meet the emergency services (E-911) mandates.
With the advancements in Global Positioning System (GPS) technology for mobile devices, the accuracy of mobile positioning systems has improved significantly, and consumer LBS applications such as real-time navigation using mobile devices are now available on selected mobile devices offered by carriers. However, both carriers and consumers are concerned about consumer privacy and liability issues involved with offering and enabling such applications.
A significant percentage of mobile phones sold today are enabled with a GPS chip, which can determine the precise location of the user. While users are given the ability to turn off location tracking on their mobile devices for all location based applications with the exception of E-911 services, this results in the user not being able to take advantage of any location based services.
Location based presence, messaging and mobile social networking applications require users to share their location coordinates, however due to privacy concerns many users don't take advantage of such services. Some of the location based applications offer ability to share location coordinates by user or a group of users, and/or restrict sharing location information at the city or zip code level. However, in order to convey location information related to a subscriber's presence at a precise and specific location, such as the subscriber's home or work, or a business or point of interest, the subscriber has to share their location coordinates or address information with other users and/or applications.
Further, the process of updating presence status with other users in a mobile instant messaging environment imposes additional challenges compared to the desktop instant messaging environment. Particularly, due to the battery, memory, processing and screen size limitations of the mobile devices, current mobile instant messaging applications drain the battery of the mobile device in the process of sending real time updates of the presence information of the entire buddy list.
Also, several mobile location-based and social networking applications require a mapping interface to display the mobile user's location. Due to bandwidth constraints of the mobile network, and the memory, processing capability and battery limitations of the mobile device, delivering mapping information on mobile networks adds additional costs and complexity limiting the adoption of such applications.

Location based presence and privacy management


A varactor on a substrate is provided. The varactor comprises a bottom electrode, an upper electrode, a first dielectric layer and a conductive layer. The bottom electrode has several doped regions arranged in the substrate as an array with several rows and several columns, wherein the doped regions in adjacent columns are arranged alternatively. The upper electrode is located over the substrate and the upper electrode is composed of several electrode locations and has several openings, wherein each opening exposes the corresponding doped region. Furthermore, each electrode location is surrounded by three doped regions. The first dielectric layer is located between the substrate and the upper electrode. The conductive layer is located over the upper electrode, wherein the conductive layer and the upper electrode are isolated from each other and the conductive layer and the doped regions are electrically connected to each other.

1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor structure. More particularly, the present invention relates to a varactor structure.
2. Description of Related Art
In a typical communication system, information signals, such as television program, will be tuned and placed on high frequency carrier waves to facilitate transmission of signals. Lots of information signals are transmitted simultaneously due to the properties of different frequencies having different carrier wave signals. Therefore, a receiver in a communication system is required to use a voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) to separate information signals from the carrier waves. In a VCO, a LC (inductance-capacitance) circuit comprised of the varactor and the inductance is included. The oscillation frequency of the VCO is modified by the properties of the capacitance of the varactor being modified according to the tuning of the voltage.
Commonly seen varactors include a MOS varactor with metal-oxide semiconductor transistor structure, and a Junction varactor with p-type doped regions and n-type doped regions arranged alternatively. Although the MOS varactor has a feature of a large range of tuning ((the maximum capacitance to the minimum capacitance)/the minimum capacitance), the capacitance is determined by the ratio of the upper electrode (i.e., the gate of the MOS varactor) and the sum of area of the bottom electrode between the both sides of the upper electrode in the substrate (i.e., the source area/the drain area of the MOS varactor), that is the unit capacitance is direct proportion to the ratio of the area of the upper electrode to both sides of the bottom electrode. Accordingly, how to increase the ratio of the area of the upper electrode to the sum of the area of the bottom electrode to improve the unit capacitance becomes an important issue of current development of the varactor.


Provided is anisotropic graphite for producing an anisotropic graphite composite having excellent thermal conduction property and excellent long-term reliability as a heat dissipating member. Given an X axis, a Y axis orthogonal to the X axis, and a Z axis perpendicular to a plane defined by the X axis and the Y axis, and a crystal orientation plane of the anisotropic graphite is parallel to an X-Z plane, and a specific number of holes each having a specific size are formed in at least one surface out of surfaces of the anisotropic graphite which are parallel to an X-Y plane.

Anisotropic graphite has a high thermal conductivity in the direction parallel to a crystal orientation plane of graphite and a low thermal conductivity in the direction perpendicular to the graphite crystal orientation plane. Known examples of anisotropic graphite include a graphite stack.
Anisotropic graphite, due to its excellent thermal conductance, is used, in a semiconductor package, as a material for effectively transferring heat generated by a semiconductor element, which is located in an upper part of the semiconductor package, to a cooler and dissipating the heat, to prevent concentration of the heat in the semiconductor package.
For example, known is an anisotropic graphite composite in which anisotropic graphite and an inorganic material layer are joined together. Here, the anisotropic graphite and the inorganic material layer can be joined by a method of using, as a joining material, an active metal brazing material containing titanium. For example, Patent Literature 1 discloses an anisotropic heat conductive element obtained by joining a plate-shaped graphite structure and a copper plate together via an insert material containing titanium under pressure.

Anisotropic graphite and anisotropic graphite composite


In accordance with the present invention, a method for manufacturing tungsten carbide components is provided. The method includes forming a composite material out of tungsten carbide powder and binder powder, pressing the composite material into a plurality of components, heating the plurality of components, optionally under pressure, to liquefy the binder, cooling the plurality of components until the binder solidifies, optionally grinding each of the plurality of components to a desired size, and cascading the plurality of components in a cascading machine under high energy conditions.

Abrasive wear components, such as tungsten carbide components, are used in a variety of applications where high hardness and toughness are often desired traits. These include drilling, where cemented abrasive inserts are used in numerous drill bits, and even ballistics, where cemented abrasive tips are used on armor-piercing ammunitions.
Typically, abrasive wear components are formed by combining grains of an abrasive material, such as tungsten carbide, with a binder material, such as cobalt, to form a composite material. This composite material is pressed into a desired shape and heated, sometimes under pressure, such that the binder material liquefies and cements the grains of abrasive material together. The cemented abrasive component is then allowed to cool and ground to shape. The component may also be subjected to a low-energy cascading, or tumbling, process to improve the surface finish of the component. Oftentimes, this involves tumbling the component along with other components in a mixture of liquid and abrasive material, or detergent. Some processes use attritor balls in place of, or in addition to, the abrasive material or detergent.
In contrast to this low-energy cascading, high-energy cascading has been used rarely in industrial applications, such as finishing cemented abrasive components. Instead, most high-energy cascading has been limited to polishing various objects, such as dental implants, and has only been used to improve the surface finish of an object, not to change its physical properties.

High-energy cascading of abrasive wear components


The present invention relates to methods of inhibiting shikimate pathway, comprising administering to a subject a pharmaceutically acceptable composition comprising a compound having a formula:

Helicobacter pylori
A gram-negative spiral bacterium inhabits the gastric mucosa of humans, in which it may persist for a lifetime. The colonization of this unique ecological niche in approximately one-half of the human population makes it one of the most successful pathogens known to humankind. Enduring infection by H. pylori provokes active gastritis, alters gastric physiology, and may subsequently lead to peptic ulcer, atrophic gastritis, or even gastric adenocarcinoma. It is also recognized in the etiology of low-grade B-cell lymphoma.
H. pylori can be eradicated by the standard triple therapy comprised of a proton pump inhibitor and two antibiotic agents. The treatment of H. pylori infection using high-dosage antibiotics; however, has resulted in decreased efficacy. The infection proves to be difficult to cure; at least two high-dose antibiotics plus a proton pump inhibitor, twice daily for a 7- to 10-day period, is required to achieve high efficacy. Even more worrying, there is increasing emergence of resistant isolates that impede the cure rates, as seen for other bacteria including Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The development of novel drugs for resistant infections is thus needed for more effective control of these diseases in the future. Similarly, other resistant organisms including Staphylococcus aureus have become more and more difficult to cure. The need for new antibacterial therapies to overcome the problem of antibiotic resistance is therefore a major concern of healthcare professionals.
Current antibiotic agents are targeted towards a relatively small number of proteins, including cross-linking enzymes in the cell wall, ribosomal enzymes, and polymerases in DNA synthesis. One potential approach towards discovering new classes of inhibitors is to target crucial proteins in bacterial but not in mammals. The shikimate pathway, which involves seven sequential enzymatic steps in the conversion of erythrose 4-phosphate (E4P) and phosphoenolpyruvate (PEP) into chorismate for subsequent synthesis of aromatic compounds, is unique to microbial cells and parasites but absent in animals. Therefore, enzymes of this pathway are attractive targets for the development of nontoxic antimicrobial compounds, herbicides, and anti-parasitic agents. Indeed, the sixth-step enzyme, 5-enolpyruvylshikimate 3-phosphate (EPSP) synthase, has been exploited as a target with glyphosate, a well-known herbicide.
Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) are microaerophilic spiral or curved-shaped gram-negative bacteria with 4 to 6 flagella. Human is the natural host of H. pylori, over 50% of population was infected by H. pylori around the world, and persistent infection of H. pylori is associated with intestinal disease including duodenal ulcers and gastric adenocarcinoma. The increasing problem of antibiotic resistance leads to treatment failure has become a concerning issue.
Shikimate Pathway
The shikimate pathway as shown in FIG. 1 links metabolism of carbohydrates to biosynthesis of aromatic compounds. In a sequence of seven metabolic steps, phosphoenolpyruvate and erythrose 4-phosphate are converted to chorismate, the precursor of the aromatic amino acids and many aromatic secondary metabolites. All pathway intermediates can also be considered branch point compounds that may serve as substrates for other metabolic pathways. The shikimate pathway only exists in plants, fungus and microorganisms, but not seen in animals which makes the pathway an attractive target for development of antimicrobial agents.
In microorganisms, the shikimate pathway is used to synthesize three proteinogenic aromatic amino acids, that is, tryptophan, phenylalanine, and tyrosine; the folate coenzimes; benzoid and naphtoid quinones; and a broad range of mostly aromatic, secondary metabolies, including some siderophores. Although the shikimate pathway branches at points, chorismate is the last common branch point for the above-mentioned compounds. Five distinct enzymes to prephenate, anthranilate, aminodeoxychorismate, isochorismate, and p-hydroxybezoate, respectively convert from chorismate. These metabolites comprise the first committed intermediates in the biosynthesis of Phe, Tyr, Trp, folate, menaquinone and the siderophore enterobactin, and ubiquinone, respectively. The synthesis of these precursors is in most cases highly regulated.
In plants, thousands of primary and secondary aromatic compounds, which play a role in plant growth, development, and defense, are synthesized via the shikimate pathway. The flow through the shikimate pathway accounts for up to 20% of the photosynthetically fixed carbon in plants, most of which is shuttled through Phe and Tyr to generate abundant phenylpropanoid metabolites. The complexes demand for aromatic secondary metabolites in specific cell types and in response to multiple environmental stimuli suggests that regulation of Phe and Tyr biosynthesis in plants may differ fundamentally from regulation observed in microorganisms.
In microorganisms, the shikimate pathway is regulated by feedback inhibition and by repression of the first enzyme 3 deoxy-D-arabino-heptulosonate-7-phosphate synthase (DAHPS). In higher plants, no physiological feedback inhibitor has been identified, suggesting that pathway regulation may occur exclusively at the genetic level. This difference between microorganisms and plants is reflected in the unusually large variation in the primary structures of the respective first enzymes. Several of the pathway enzymes occur in isoenzymic forms whose expression varies with environmental condition changes and, within the plant, from organ to organ.

Shikimate pathway inhibitors and the use thereof

Abstract: or pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof. The present invention also provides a synergistic antibacterial composition containing compound


The image recording device includes a paper feed device for feeding a recording paper, a photosensitive body, a toner feeding unit, a module for forming a toner image on the photosensitive body, and a transferring roller. The photosensitive body is opposed to the transferring roller such that the recording paper fed from the paper feed unit is nipped between the photosensitive body and the transferring roller. The image recording device also includes a voltage generator for generating a voltage to be applied to the transferring roller. The voltage to be generated by the voltage generator is adjusted such that transfer of the toner image onto the paper is properly carried out. The collective resistance of the transfer roller and photosensitive body is detected and the voltage generated by the voltage generator is adjusted accordingly.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an image recording device of an electrophotographic type for transferring a toner image on a photosensitive body onto paper by means of a transferring roller to which a voltage is applied.
2. Background Art
Generally, an image recording device of an electrophotographic type is provided with a charger for uniformly charging the surface of a photosensitive drum, an exposer for forming an electrostatic latent Image by irradiating light on the surface of the photosensitive drum, a developer for forming a toner image by adhering toner to the electrostatic latent image and a transfer unit for transferring the toner image onto paper. A conventional transfer unit is provided with a discharge wire for carrying out corona discharge. In transferring the toner image, a predetermined high voltage is applied to the transferring roller which is located on the opposite side of the photosensitive drum over the paper by corona discharge from the transfer unit. Further, the toner image on the photosensitive drum is attracted toward the paper based on a potential difference between the voltage of the photosensitive drum and the voltage of the transfer unit and is transferred onto the paper.
Corona discharge is accompanied by generation of ozone, and in recent years, in view of environmental concerns, an image recording device that does not generate ozone, more specifically, a technology for transferring a toner image without using corona discharge has been requested. To meet the request, a transfer unit is designed to have a roller made from urethane foam or the like and a predetermined high voltage is applied to the transferring roller so that a potential difference is produced between a photosensitive drum and a transferring roller which are arranged to nip the paper.
However, the transferring roller constructed of urethane foam or the like has a resistance value which changes in accordance with changes in the surrounding environmental conditions such as temperature, humidity or the like. Therefore, even if a voltage predetermined under a particular condition as an optimum voltage (optimum voltage for transferring a toner image) is applied to the transferring roller in order to set the voltage of the transferring roller to the predetermined voltage, the environmental conditions of the transferring roller may have already changed when the voltage is actually applied to the transferring roller. Since the optimum voltage varies with the environmental conditions, always applying the same predetermined voltage to the transferring roller would result in insufficient adhesion of the toner image to the paper and deterioration of the quality of the transferred image.
Another conventional image recording device is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application, Laid-Open Publication No. 8-123222. This image recording device adjusts the application voltage depending upon various conditions, but the resistance of the transferring roller and environmental temperature are not among these conditions.
Still another conventional image recording device is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application, Laid-Open Publication No. 4-275583. This image recording device determines a voltage Vt' to be applied to a transfer member by the equation of Vt'=aVt+b where Vt is the voltage of the transfer member when no image transfer operation is conducted, and "a" and "b" are compensation coefficients. The voltage Vt is compared with a reference value and the coefficients "a" and "b" are changed based on a difference between the voltage Vt and the reference value such that the application voltage Vt' is adjusted according to changing conditions.

Image recording device with transfer control


A substance having binding sites for at least two molecules may be detected within a sample. A molecule which can be recognized by the substance is labelled such that when at least two of the labelled molecules are bound the binding sites on the substance, the labels on the molecules electronically interact with each other and vary the wavelength dependance of their spectra. This variation in the spectra of the label can be detected. If the sample is suspected of containing the unlabelled form of a molecule, such as biotin or cocaine, a known amount of the above substance, along with a known amount of the corresponding labelled biotin or cocaine is added to the sample. In this instance, the amount of the suspect molecule in the sample is then determined by the extent to which the variation in the spectra of the label has been reduced. Alternatively, the present invention can be used to determine the binding characteristics of the substance within the sample. The method of the present invention is useful in immunoassays or other bioassays as well as in studies of surface interactions.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to assays and more specifically to light emission- or absorbance-based binding assays.
2. Background Art
Binding assays, for example, immunoassays and receptor based assays, are widely used in the medical community as diagnostic tests. There are several binding assays that have been produced and are currently on the market since the principle was developed by R. S. Yalow and S. A. Berson, J. Clinical Investigations, 39 1157(1960). An example of a binding assay is Radioimmunoassay (RIA) (D. Monroe, Anal. Chem., 56 920A(1984)). All immunoassays exploit the binding capabilities of antibodies. However other molecules that are capable of recognizing and specifically binding other molecules may be employed. Antibodies are protein molecules which are frequently considered fighters of infections. They fight infections by binding to the infectious material in a specific manner, forming a complex. This is then a signal to the organism to reject that complex. However, antibodies may also be produced to bind to an individual compound, as a key fits a lock. To be useful in an assay, this recognition event must generate a signal that is macroscopically observable. The method employed to generate such a signal is what distinguishes the various types of immunoassays. In the above example, radioactivity is employed. RIA is quite sensitive and widely used, but the expense and restrictions for handling radioactive material makes alternative immunoassays desirable.
Fluorescence and chemiluminescence have been used in various types of assays, such as enzyme assays and immunoassays. In each of these systems, energy-coupling reactions have been exploited.
Carmel et al., FEBS Letters, Vol. 30, No. 1, February 1973, pages 11 through 14, describe the use of fluorescent donors and acceptors which are in close proximity to each other to measure the rate of enzymatic cleavage of a suitable labelled peptide. In their system, a peptide is labelled with two fluorophores. One fluorophore (the donor) accepts excitation light and fluoresces. If the other fluorophore (the acceptor) is in close proximity to the donor, it can accept the emitted light of the donor as excitation light or energy and then emit its own fluorescence. Since Forster, Ann. Physik., 2 (1948) 55, has shown that the probability of the donor exciting the acceptor decreases with the sixth power of the distance between them, if they are separated by enzymatic cleavage of the peptide linker, the fluorescence of the acceptor will decrease substantially. Thus, a measure of the fluorescent intensity of the acceptor is inversely proportional to the rate of enzymatic activity. Although such a system is quite sensitive, it is difficult to find appropriate donors and acceptors such that the donor may be exclusively excited by the incident radiation without exciting the acceptor.
Binding assays have been produced by using the donor/acceptor scheme described above. In this case, the donor is a fluorescently labelled hapten and the acceptor is the antibody with many fluorescent acceptors attached. This large concentration of fluorescent acceptors is needed because the distances are greater than in simple peptide enzymatic substrates. However, the same problems occur with finding appropriate donors and acceptors that occur with enzymatic substrates. Patel et al., Clin. Chem., Vol. 29, No. 9, 1983, 1604-1608, have overcome some of these difficulties by using chemiluminescence to excite the acceptor. To achieve the reported high sensitivities, a very sensitive instrument must be employed.
Similar systems (Pohl et al., Analytical Biochemistry 165, 96-101 (1987)) have used fluorescent quenching to measure the distance between a quencher and a fluorophore, both attached to the same peptide linker. The increase in fluorescence when the peptide linker is cleaved is a measure of the enzymatic activity. However, the quencher is not very efficient in reducing fluorescent such that only a five- to eight-fold increase in fluorescence is observed when the peptide linker is cleaved.
Among the numerous binding assays that are possible, the one of most interest is that for detection of small molecular weight species. For immunoassays, i.e., use of an antibody as the binding molecule, this type of binding assay is termed a competition immunoassay.

Light emission- or absorbance-based binding assays

The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy


A method and apparatus identify a clean speech signal from a noisy speech signal. To do this, a clean speech value and a noise value are estimated from the noisy speech signal. The clean speech value and the noise value are then used to define a gain on a filter. The noisy speech signal is applied to the filter to produce the clean speech signal. Under some embodiments, the noise value and the clean speech value are used in both the numerator and the denominator of the filter gain, with the numerator being guaranteed to be positive.

The present invention relates to speech processing. In particular, the present invention relates to speech enhancement.
In speech recognition, it is common to enhance the speech signal by removing noise before performing speech recognition. Under some systems, this is done by estimating the noise in the speech signal and subtracting the noise from the noisy speech signal. This technique is typically referred to as spectral subtraction because it is performed in the spectral domain.
Since it is impossible to estimate the noise in a speech signal perfectly, any estimate that is used in spectral subtraction will have some amount of error. Because of this error, it is possible that the estimate of the noise in the noisy speech signal will be larger than the noisy speech signal for some frames of the signal. This would produce a negative value for the "clean" speech, which is physically impossible.
To avoid this, spectral subtraction systems rely on a set of parameters that are set by hand to allow for maximum noise reduction while ensuring a stable system. Relying on such parameters is undesirable since they are typically noise-source dependent and thus must be hand-tuned for each type of noise-source.
Other systems attempt to enhance the speech signal using a Wiener filter to filter out the noise in the speech signal. In such systems, the gain of the Wiener filter is generally based on a signal-to-noise ratio. To arrive at the proper gain value, the level of the noise in the signal must be determined.
One common technique for determining the level of noise is to estimate the noise during non-speech segments in the speech signal. This technique is less than desirable because it not only requires a correct estimate of the noise during the non-speech segments, it also requires that the non-speech segments be properly identified as not containing speech. In addition, this technique depends on the noise being stationary (non-changing). If the noise is changing over time, the estimate of the noise will be wrong and the filter will not perform properly.
Another system for enhancing speech attempts to identify a clean speech signal using a probabilistic framework that provides a Minimum Mean Square Error (MMSE) estimate of the clean signal given a noisy speech signal. Unfortunately, such systems can provide poor estimates of the clean speech signal at times, especially when the signal-to-noise ratio is low. As a result, using the clean speech estimates directly in speech recognition can result in poor recognition accuracy.
Thus, a system is needed that does not require as much hand-tuning of parameters as in spectral subtraction while avoiding the poor estimates that sometimes occur in MMSE estimation.

Method and apparatus for constructing a speech filter using estimates of clean speech and noise


The present disclosure provides methods of generating neural stem cells from differentiated somatic cells. The present disclosure also provides induced neural stem cells generated using a subject method, as well as differentiated cells generated from a subject induced neural stem cell. A subject neural stem cell, as well as differentiated cells derived from a subject neural stem cell, is useful in various applications, which are also provided in the present disclosure.

The use of pluripotent and multipotent stem cells in the field of regenerative medicine has garnered much interest in recent years. Various methods have been employed to reprogram somatic cells to become pluripotent stem cells. Nevertheless, there remains a need in the art for methods of generating multipotent cells, such as neural stem cells (NSCs), from somatic cells.