A method is provided for non-electrostatically transferring dry toner particles which comprise a toner binder and have a particle size of 8 micrometers or less from the surface of an element to a receiver. The receiver comprises a substrate having a coating of a semi-crystalline polyester on a surface of the substrate. The semi-crystalline polyester has a glass transition temperature in a range of from approximately 5.degree. C. to 80.degree. C.; a melting temperature in a range of from approximately 40.degree. C. to 200.degree. C.; a weight average molecular weight in a range of from approximately 10,000 to 150,000; a number average molecular weight in a range of from approximately 5,000 to 75,000; a crystallinity of from approximately 5 to 25 percent by weight, based on the total weight of the polyester and a surface energy of from approximately 44 to 52 dynes/cm. The method involves preheating the receiver to a temperature ranging from approximately 70.degree. C. to 95.degree. C. and contacting the toner-bearing element with the receiver to effectuate the transfer of virtually 100% of the toner particles from the element to the receiver and thereafter separating the receiver from the element while the temperature of the semi-crystalline polyester coating on the receiver is maintained above the glass transition temperature of the semi-crystalline polyester.. The method is particularly well suited for providing images having high resolution and low granularity from very small toner particles.

In an electrostatographic copy machine, an electrostatic latent image is formed on an element. That image is developed by the application of oppositely charged dry toner particles to the element. The image-forming toner on the element is then transferred to a receiver where it is permanently fixed, typically, by heat fusion. The transfer of the toner to the receiver is usually accomplished electrostatically by means of an electrostatic bias between the receiver and the element.
In order to produce copies of very high resolution and low granularity, it is necessary to use toner particles that have a very small particle size, i.e., approximately 8 micrometers or less. (Particle size herein refers to mean volume weighted diameter as measured by conventional diameter measuring devices such as a Coulter Multisizer, sold by Coulter, Inc. Mean volume weighted diameter is the sum of the mass of each particle times the diameter of a spherical particle of equal mass and density, divided by total particle mass.) However, it has been found that it is very difficult to electrostatically transfer such fine toner particles from the element to the receiver, especially when they are less than 8 micrometers in diameter. That is, fine toner particles frequently do not transfer from the element with reasonable efficiency. Moreover, those particles which do transfer frequently fail to transfer to a position on the receiver that is directly opposite their position on the element, but rather, under the influence of coulombic forces, tend to scatter, thus lowering the resolution of the transferred image and increasing the grain and mottle. Thus, high resolution images of low granularity require very small particles. However, images having high resolution and low granularity have not been attainable using electrostatically assisted transfer.
In order to avoid this problem, it has become necessary to transfer the toner from the element to the receiver by non-electrostatic processes. One such process is the thermally assisted transfer process where the receiver, typically comprised of printing paper, clay-coated graphic arts printing paper or uncoated copy paper, is heated, typically to about 60.degree. C. to about 90.degree. C., and is pressed against the toner particles on the element. The heated receiver sinters the toner particles causing them to stick to each other and to the receiver thereby effecting the transfer of the toner from the element to the receiver. The element and receiver are then separated and the toner image is fixed, e.g., thermally fused to the receiver. This method is described in detail in U.S. Pat. No. 4,927,727 to Rimai et al.
While the thermally assisted transfer process does transfer very small particles without the scattering that occurs with electrostatic transfer processes, it is sometimes difficult to transfer all of the toner particles by this process. The toner particles that are directly on the element often experience a greater attractive force to the element than they do to the receiver and to other toner particles that are stacked above them, and the heat from the receiver may have diminished to such an extent by the time it reaches the toner particles next to the element that it does not sinter them. As a result, the toner particles that are in contact with the element may not transfer. Attempts to solve this problem by coating the element with a release agent have not proven to be successful because the process tends to wipe the release agent off the element into the developer which degrades both the developer and the development process. Moreover, because the process tends to wipe the release agent off the element, the application of additional release agent to the element is periodically required in order to prevent the toner particles from adhering to the element during transfer.
An alternative approach utilized in the past for removing all of the toner particles from the element was to use as a receiver, a substrate such as printing paper, that had been coated with a thermoplastic polymer. During transfer, the toner particles adhered to or became partially or slightly embedded in the thermoplastic polymer coating and were thereby removed from the element. However, it was found that many thermoplastics that were capable of removing all of the toner particles also tended to adhere to the element. This, of course, not only seriously impaired image quality but it also had the potential of damaging both the element and the receiver. Moreover, it was not possible to predict with any degree of certainty which thermoplastic polymers would remove all of the toner particles from the element without sticking to the element during transfer and subsequent separation of the receiver from the element and which ones would not.
Efforts to overcome these problems first focused on applying a layer of a release agent to the surface of the thermoplastic polymer coating on the receiver substrate and heating the receiver above the Tg of the thermoplastic polymer during transfer as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,968,578 to Light et al. The release agent prevented the thermoplastic polymer coating from adhering to the element, but it would not prevent the toner from transferring to the thermoplastic polymer coating on the receiver and virtually all of the toner was transferred to the receiver. This constituted a significant advancement in the art because it was now possible not only to obtain the high image quality that was not previously attainable when very small toner particles were transferred electrostatically but, in addition, the problem of incomplete transfer was avoided. In addition, several other advantages were provided by this process. One such advantage was that copies made by this process could be given a more uniform gloss because all of the receiver was coated with a thermoplastic polymer which could be made glossy in contrast to receivers that were not coated with a thermoplastic polymer where only those portions of the receiver that were covered with toner could be made glossy and the level of gloss varied with the amount of toner. Another advantage of this process was that when the toner was fixed, it was driven more or less intact into the thermoplastic polymer coating rather than being flattened and spread out over the receiver. This also resulted in a higher resolution image and less grain. Finally, in images made using this process, light tended to reflect from behind the embedded toner particles that were in the thermoplastic layer which caused the light to diffuse more making the image appear less grainy.
For all of the benefits and advantages provided by this process, however, the application of a release agent to the thermoplastic polymer coating on the receiver in order to prevent the thermoplastic polymer coating from adhering to the surface of the element during transfer and subsequent separation of the receiver from the element created several problems. One such problem was that the release agent tended to transfer to and build up on the element or photoconductor thereby degrading image quality and causing potential damage to both the element and the receiver. Another problem was that the release agent tended to allow the thermoplastic polymer coating to separate from the support or substrate, especially during or after finishing, due to a reduction in the adhesion strength of the thermoplastic polymer coating to the receiver support caused by the tendency of the release agent, which had a lower surface energy than the thermoplastic polymer coating and hence a lesser predilection to adhere to the receiver support than the thermoplastic polymer coating, to migrate through the thermoplastic polymer coating to the interfacial region between the thermoplastic polymer coating and the support and to cause the thermoplastic polymer coating to separate from the support. It was also found that the release agent reduced the gloss of the finished image. Finally, the addition of a release agent to the thermoplastic polymer coating added to the overall cost of the process.
Recently, a technique was described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,043,242 to Light et al for obviating the foregoing limitations whereby fine toner particles having a particle size of 8 micrometers or less could be transferred from the surface of an element to a thermoplastic coated receiver with virtually 100% toner transfer efficiency using the thermally assisted method of transfer without having to apply a coating or a layer of a release agent to the toner contacting surface of the thermoplastic polymer coating on the receiver substrate prior to toner transfer in order to prevent the thermoplastic polymer coating from sticking or adhering to the element surface during transfer of the toner particles from the element to the thermoplastic polymer coated receiver and during the subsequent separation of the receiver from the element. Studies revealed that by carefully selecting, as the thermoplastic polymer coated receiver, a receiver in which the thermoplastic polymer coating material was a thermoplastic addition polymer which had a glass transition temperature that was less than approximately 10.degree. C. above the glass transition temperature of the toner binder and a surface energy within a range of from approximately 38 to 43 dynes/cm and, as the element on which the toner particles which were to be transferred to the receiver were carried, an element, which had a surface layer which comprised a film-forming, electrically insulating polyester or polycarbonate thermoplastic polymeric binder resin matrix and a surface energy not exceeding approximately 47 dynes/cm, preferably 40 to 45 dynes/cm, and further, that by heating the receiver to a temperature such that the temperature of the thermoplastic polymer coating on the receiver substrate during transfer was at least approximately 15.degree. C. above the Tg of the thermoplastic polymer, that it was possible to transfer such very small, fine toner particles non-electrostatically from the surface of the element to the thermoplastic coated receiver and to obtain high resolution transferred images which were not previously attainable using the electrostatic method of transfer while at the same time avoiding the problems of incomplete transfer and adherence of the thermoplastic polymer coating to the element during toner transfer in the absence of a layer of a release agent on the thermoplastic polymer coating, i.e., without having to apply a coating or layer of a release agent to the toner contacting surface of the thermoplastic polymer coating on the receiver substrate prior to contacting the thermoplastic polymer coating with the toner particles on the element surface and transference of the particles to the receiver. Furthermore, it was found that by maintaining the temperature of the receiver such that the temperature of the thermoplastic polymer coating was maintained above the Tg of the thermoplastic polymer immediately after transfer while the receiver was separating from the element surface, the receiver would separate readily and easily from the element, while hot, without the thermoplastic polymer coating adhering to the element surface and without the prior application of a release agent to the thermoplastic polymer coating. In addition, it was further found that all of the other advantages inherent in the use of a thermoplastic polymer coated receiver in a thermally assisted transfer process were preserved by this process including the production of copies having a more uniform gloss and images having a less grainy appearance. Finally, it was possible for the first time to determine in advance, in a thermally assisted transfer process, which thermoplastic polymers could be used as receiver coating materials which would not only remove virtually all of the toner particles from the element during transfer but, at the same time, would not adhere to the element during transfer and subsequent separation of the receiver from the element and which ones would not.
Unfortunately, this technique required that the receiver surface be heated to a temperature in excess of 100.degree. C., typically in excess of 110.degree. C. prior to contacting the toner particles on the element surface with the thermoplastic polymer coated receiver in order to effectuate the complete or nearly complete transfer of all of the toner particles from the element surface to the receiver. Having to preheat the receiver surfaces to such high temperatures prior to contacting the toner particles with the receiver created several problems. For example, when paper was used as the substrate for the thermoplastic polymer coated receiver, heating the receiver to a temperature of approximately 100.degree. C. or higher caused any moisture which was present in the paper to vaporize which in turn caused the paper and the overlying thermoplastic polymer coating to blister and/or buckle. Another problem inherent in having to preheat the receiver surface to such a high temperature was that the thermoplastic polymer coating on the substrate tended to delaminate from the substrate due to a reduction in the adhesion strength of the thermoplastic polymer coating to the substrate caused by such high temperatures. Still further, in those receiver sheets or webs which employed anti-curl backings composed of thermoplastic polymeric materials, such high temperatures caused the anti-curl backing to soften and adhere to the transfer rollers.

Method of non-electrostatically transferring small electrostatographic toner particles from an element to a receiver


A control device that controls an electronic device including a top panel having an operation surface, a position detector that detects a position of operational input performed on the operation surface, and a first vibrating element that generates vibration in the top panel, the control device includes a first processor that outputs a first drive signal to the first vibrating element to drive the first vibrating element; a first capacitor inserted in series between the first vibrating element and the first processor; and a first differential amplifier that detects a first voltage of the first capacitor or the first vibrating element, wherein the first processor is configured to determine whether pressing operation to the top panel has been performed based on the first voltage detected by the first differential amplifier.

There is conventionally an operation device including an operation unit on which tracing operation is performed in a predetermined operation range, an excitation unit that applies vibration for tactile presentation to the operation unit, and a housing that supports the operation unit so that the operation unit can be vibrated under a predetermined vibration condition depending on application of vibration by the excitation unit.
The operation device further includes a control unit that generates a drive signal for driving the excitation unit under the predetermined vibration condition, and a load detection unit that detects an operation load when tracing operation is performed on the operation unit, and the control unit controls the operation load at the time of the tracing operation to be constant by controlling output intensity of the drive signal on the basis of an output of the load detection unit. As related art, Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2017-004262 is disclosed.
By the way, the conventional operation device includes the load detection unit that detects the operation load when the operation is performed. To detect the operation, the load detection unit is provided on a connection member between the operation unit having a panel shape and the housing.
A strain gauge is used as the load detection unit, and the connection member between the operation unit and the housing is a portion exposed to the outside of the operation device, so that a dedicated installation space is necessary on the outer surface of the operation device, and there is a problem that the configuration of the operation device (control device) is not simple. In view of the above, it is desirable to be able to provide a control device and an electronic device each having a simple configuration, and a method for controlling the electronic device.

Control circuitry, electronic device, and method for controlling electronic device


An expandable polyurethane composition contains (A) a polyisocyanate, (B) an active hydrogen containing compound containing (B1) a polyol and (B2) water, and (C) a cross-linking agent composition. The cross-linking agent composition (C) contains a cross-linking agent (C1) and a carboxylic acid (C2). The cross-linking agent (C1) can be selected from an alkanolamine (a) represented by an expression: HxR1yN((R2O)nH)3-x-y, and an aminosilane (b) represented by an expression: (R3O)qR43-qSi—R5—(NHCH2CH2)pNR6R7. A content of the cross-linking agent composition (C) is 0.1 parts by mass to 20 parts by mass relative to 100 parts by mass of the active hydrogen containing compound (B), and the containing number of moles of the cross-linking agent (C1) is larger than that of the carboxylic acid (C2). It is possible to delay a reaction without deteriorating a final reactivity, to suppress viscosity increasing just after an injection into a mold, to improve hardness and to attain lowering of a pressure to be applied to a cell communication.

A soft polyurethane foam is widely used for a cushion material for a vehicle, a furniture mattress, a bedding, general goods, and so on owing to high cushioning properties thereof. The soft polyurethane foam is generally manufactured by reacting an organic polyisocyanate and a compound of two or more kinds (water is generally contained) containing active hydrogen under existence of a catalyst, a foam adjusting agent, and the other additives. Kinds of polyol, kinds of polymer polyol obtained by radical polymerizing acrylonitrile and styrene in the polyol, kinds of primary and secondary polyamines, water, and so on are used as the active hydrogen containing compound.
In general, a method is taken in which starting materials are mixed with a high-pressure foaming apparatus, injected into a mold to form, and thereafter, foamed cells inside the foam are forcibly communicated by using a compressor, in manufacturing of, for example, a foam for a vehicle cushion seat.
In the manufacturing process as stated above, a reaction speed of the foam and a quick removal of mold are necessary because shortening of a molding time, enabling low-energy and so on are required. On the other hand, low-density is required to reduce weight corresponding to a fuel consumption restriction in the manufactured polyurethane foam, particularly in the foam for the vehicle, and therefore, it is desired to enhance hardness of the foam to advance the low-density.
Conventionally, it has been proposed to compound various additives to correspond to the requirements as stated above. A cross-linking agent being one of the additives has a function to improve stability of the foam by reacting with isocyanate and increasing a molecular weight. In general, it is known that an amine-based cross-linking agent is used in the manufacturing of the polyurethane foam. For example, a method to manufacture the polyurethane foam by using an alkanolamine as the cross-linking agent is proposed (refer to Reference 1). However, a foaming reactivity is improved but a viscosity increasing speed also increases according to the increasing of the reactivity, and therefore, there have been problems in which fluidity just after the injection into the mold is lowered, the reaction proceeds before the foam composition diffuses details of the mold, and a failure ratio increases.
Besides, a technology improving physical properties of the polyurethane foam by using a specific catalyst composition composed of a tertiary amine catalyst and 2-methyl-1,3-propanediol is proposed (refer to Reference 2). In the Reference 2, it is described that an open cell (cells in the foam are communicated) effect is enabled because the cells are communicated by a low-pressure at the compression time after the removal of mold. However, there has been a problem in which enough hardness as a high-rebound polyurethane foam cannot be obtained when the low-density is enabled, and so on in this method.

Expandable polyurethane composition and manufacturing method of polyurethane foam

MOMENTIVE PERFORMANCE MATERIALS JAPAN LLC


A method for estimating velocity dispersion in seismic surface waves in massive 3-D data sets (401) that improves upon auto-picking of a curve along the peak or ridge of the magnitude of the beam-formed field (402). The seismic data are transformed to the frequency-slowness domain, where nonlinear constrained optimization is performed on the transformed data. The optimization matches a nonlinear mathematical parametric model (403) of a beam-formed field to that in the transformed data, adjusting the parameters each iteration to reduce mismatch (404). Dispersion curves are determined by the center of the beam in the optimized models (405). A preferred nonlinear parametric mathematical model is a Gaussian-shaped beam or a cosine-tapered boxcar beam.

Seismic surface waves are often measured in exploration seismic survey in land or shallow-water environment. These surface waves typically exhibit dispersion, a physical phenomenon where different frequency components of the waves propagate at different speeds. Estimation of velocity dispersion is essential to noise mitigation and shallow earth characterization. In shallow earth seismic propagation, dispersion results from the fact that different frequencies probe to different depths in the near surface of the earth, and in a characteristically layered earth the velocities of deeper sediments are higher than the velocities of the sediments right near the earth's surface. By characterizing dispersion, the surface waves that travel along the earth's near surface can be characterized. Since such surface waves almost always represent undesirable noise in seismic data, surface-wave characterization permits the accurate removal of such noises. Surface-wave characterization also permits the determination of local earth properties in the vicinity of a seismic survey (Lee and Ross, 2009, WO 2009/120401 A1 and WO 2009/120402 A1; Park, et al. 2007).
The general methods of surface-wave characterization include:                Multi-channel analysis of surface waves ("MASW") for local, site-specific analysis—permits detailed analysis and signal processing on data (Park, et al. 2007).        For larger quantities of data, covering larger areas, or involving massive 3-D seismic surveys, there is a need for some automation and integration of estimation, quality control, visualization and mapping. Global seismology is an intermediate case between local, site-specific data analysis and massive 3-D seismic surveys, but data sets are still small enough to be mostly hand interpreted with the aid of analysis software (Herrmann, R. B., 2002) and visualization. The end member in terms of methods to deal with massive 3-D seismic surveys is represented by Lee and Ross (2009, WO 2009/120402 A1), where the surface wave velocity V is estimated as a function of two spatial coordinates x and y, and frequency f.        Other methods are more complete in the formalization of the inversion, such as that of Krohn (2010), Strobbia and Glushchenko (2010) and Baumstein, et al., (2011) using various forms of approximate or full-wave inversion to derive either dispersion properties (Krohn, Strobbia and Glushchenko) or earth properties (Baumstein, et al.).

Dispersion estimation by nonlinear optimization of beam-formed fields


The invention relates a system (302) for medical stimulation. The system (302) comprises an implantable probe (304) bifurcated into a primary branch (306) and a secondary branch (308) at a bifurcation (310), wherein the probe is provided at its distal end (112, 312) with an electrode (114) for delivering electrical stimulation to tissue. Herein, the primary branch (306) is configured for at least temporarily mechanically co-operating with a guide wire (316) configured for guiding the probe (304) into said tissue whereas the secondary branch (308) is configured for electrically connecting said electrode to a device for generating the electrical stimulation.

Systems for neurostimulation have been used over the past ten years to treat acute or chronic neurological conditions. Such systems comprise a probe having a cylindrically shaped geometry and provided with an electrode situated in the distal end of the probe for delivering electrical pulses to a target tissue. The electrical pulses are generated by a pulse generator not situated in the probe. Therefore an electrical connection extending from the proximal end of the probe is to be established between the electrode and the pulse generator. The probe is guided into the target tissue using a guide wire fitting into the probe and thereby temporarily providing mechanical stiffness to said probe.
A problem of the aforementioned method is that the receiving of the guide wire by the probe complicates the electrical connection extending from the probe to be established before implanting the probe, i.e. before removing the guide wire from the probe, thereby impeding the application of a pre-manufactured electrical connection.

System for medical stimulation comprising a probe


In lane keep control apparatus and method for an automotive vehicle, a traveling state of the vehicle is detected, a determination is made on whether the vehicle has a tendency of a deviation from the traveling traffic lane according to the detected traveling state, a deviation avoidance control is executed for the vehicle in a direction to avoid the deviation according to the traveling state, steering angles before and after a start of the deviation avoidance control are detected, and a controlled variable of the deviation avoidance control is detected on the basis of a deviation between a steering angle before the start of deviation avoidance control and that after the start of deviation avoidance control when a determination is made that the vehicle has the tendency of the deviation.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to lane keep control apparatus and method for an automotive vehicle which are capable of preventing a deviation of the vehicle from a traffic lane on which the vehicle is traveling when the vehicle is about to deviate from the traffic lane during the travel.
2. Description of the Related Art
A Japanese Patent Application First Publication No. Heisei 11-96497 published on Apr. 9, 1999 exemplifies a first previously proposed lane keep control apparatus. In the first previously proposed lane keep control apparatus, the control apparatus determines that the vehicle has a tendency of deviation of the traveled position of the vehicle from a traveling traffic lane and outputs the steering control torque having a magnitude for a vehicle driver to overcome easily in accordance with a lateral deviation of the traveling position with respect to a reference position of the vehicle traveling position through a steering actuator so that the deviation of the vehicle from the traffic lane is prevented. In addition, a Japanese Patent Application First Publication No. 2001-310719 published on Nov. 6, 2001 exemplifies a second previously proposed lane keep control apparatus for the automotive vehicle. In the second previously proposed lane keep control apparatus, a yaw moment in a direction to avoid the deviation from the traveling traffic lane is developed according to a difference in a braking force between front and left road wheels so as to prevent the vehicle from being deviated from the traffic lane in a case wherein the control apparatus determines that the vehicle has the tendency to be deviated from the traveling traffic lane.

Lane keep control apparatus and method for automotive vehicle


A stretch valve which achieves precise control of fluid flow rates through the use of a cylindrical elastomeric valve element. This elastomer element is installed within the cylindrical flow path of a valve body. The flow path has a diameter that is slightly smaller than that of the elastomer element, which is therefore constrained within the flow path. Longitudinal stretching of the elastomer element causes the diameter of the elastomer element to decrease. As a result, a flow path is opened. The further the elastomer element is stretched, the larger is the fluid path that is created. Therefore, precise control of the fluid flow rate is made possible.

I. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a valve for controlling the passage of fluids. In particular, the present invention relates to an elastomer body which is installed in a main valve body and which can be stretched to control the fluid flow between two points.
II. Background and Description of Related Art
In biochemistry and biotechnology research, the precise metering of fluids is critical to the success or failure of experiments and/or the production of bioengineered products. Many existing valve designs are simply inappropriate for such use. Valves which are suited for such use, however, are those having designs which use elastomeric components, because of their resilient spring qualities. Elastomeric elements are especially well suited for the design of valves which are to be used to precisely control the flow rate of a fluid or to dispense a precise volume of fluid. Some valves, however, are designed to merely open or close an opening, without regard to the flow rate or output volume of fluid allowed by the valve. Such designs do not take into account precision fluid flow control. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,584,834 to Reid et al. discloses a valve assembly that features a rubber element that acts as both a stopper for the valve and as a spring. When a button is depressed, the stopper moves and the valve opens. When pressure on the button is released, the spring properties of the rubber element draw the stopper back into place. The stopper valve design is not directed to the precision control of fluid flow.
Other valves are designed to select among influents to be passed to an output port. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,275,765 to Dugas discloses a valve assembly utilizing an elastomeric member that is designed to enable a fast flush of body fluids from either of two catheters to a pressure transducer. The elastomer member has a cylindrical cavity into which a plunger is inserted. Pushing the plunger distorts the elastomeric member, allowing the fast flush of fluids. Again, the valve is not suitable for precise fluid flow control between ports, and fluid remains in the valve cavity even when the valve is closed. Thus, the valve itself must be flushed out if different ports are connected to it between uses and precision of flow is limited by the amount of fluid left in the is valve cavity when the valve is closed. In a precision valve, this unswept or dead volume must be minimized.
When the influent to a device is not pressurized, a valve is sometimes needed so that the influent may be drawn into a container and then passed along to an output port. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 2,888,034 to Clegg discloses a valve assembly utilizing a high density rubber piece as a valve element. The valve assembly includes an inlet port, an outlet port, and an intermediate chamber. A piston plunger causes a vacuum condition in the intermediate chamber, and the valve element allows fluid to flow from the inlet port into the intermediate chamber. The piston plunger then applies a pressure stroke and the valve allows fluid in the intermediate chamber to flow to the outlet port. Precision control of fluid flow from inlet port to outlet port is not provided by this two stroke valve.
In some applications, however, precise control of the flow of a pressurized fluid from an input port to an output port is necessary. For example, in chemical applications, minute quantities of particular fluids are frequently needed in forming compounds. In other cases, while the quantity required is not minute, the quantity that is provided must be precisely dispensed. In pharmaceutical applications, drug manufacturers require precise control of the volume of components making up the drug. In other medical applications, for example surgery, control of bodily fluid flow or of anesthetics is critical. Precise control of fluid flow rates is desirable in agricultural, aerospace, and other commercial applications as well.
Other known valves also use elastomer members. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,548,878 to Brigandi discloses a valve assembly utilizing a bellows type expansion plug formed out of a resilient material such as rubber. The pleats of the bellows provide resilient sealing points along the internal walls of the valve housing when the bellows is compressed. When a plunger causes the bellows to expand, fluid is allowed through the valve from an inlet port to an outlet port. A clear path is never made for fluid flow; fluid pressure must overcome the sealing force of the pleats for the fluid to flow. As the bellows expands, the sealing force of the pleats becomes weaker and easier to overcome by the fluid force. Fluid flow therefore becomes greater as the bellows is expanded.
For truly precise control of fluid flow, however, the pressure of the influent should not be relied upon to overcome the sealing force of the valve. A clear path for the fluid should be provided when the valve is in the open position. The elastomeric qualities of the valve element should not be solely relied upon to return the valve to the closed position. Such reliance can cause the valve element to wear out prematurely, and would certainly make the element less reliable over the lifetime of the valve. Rather, the valve should be equipped with a spring which returns the valve to the closed position and which counteracts fluid pressure forces which would otherwise tend to open the valve.
Some valves are known to use springs to close the valve. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 2,095,770 to Sorensen discloses a valve assembly that utilizes a coil spring. The force of the spring must be overcome in order to open the valve. However, the spring is the valve element itself; it is not used to return an elastomeric valve element.


An imaging apparatus (100) comprises a signal processor (130) generating image data according to an imaging result of an imaging device (110), and a data transmission status notifying part (180) controlling, when the image data has been output to the outside, a data transmission status displaying part (181) to notify that the image data has been output to the outside.

A technology that prevents a leakage of an image taken with, for example, a camera to protect privacy of a photographed person is known.
For example, Patent Literature 1 discloses a technology to alert a photographer, which has been requested to photograph a photographed person, that an in-camera of a mobile phone is in operation, when the photographer photographs the photographed person with the mobile phone.

Imaging apparatus, electronic device, and method for providing notification of outgoing image-data transmission

Sony Semiconductor Solutions Corporation


A method and apparatus for determining a three-dimensional orientation of a human head. The method includes first interposing a left and a right anthropological baselines on a patient's face, each anthropological baseline connecting an orbitale point and an auricular point on a corresponding side of the patient's face. A headgear unit having a pair of temple elements and a from housing rotatably attached to the temple elements, where the front housing includes at least two cameras and a 3D compass all movable within the front housing, is then positioned on a patient's head. Each of the two cameras is adjusted such that its view field picks up one of the two anthropological baselines on the patient's face. These view fields of the two cameras are then used to construct a Human Skull Base Plane as a plane formed by the left and right anthropological baselines when these anthropological baselines are parallel and aligned. The 3D compass is then positioned into a measuring plane coinciding with the Human Skull Base Plane, and is used to quantitatively measure a three-dimensional orientation of the patient's head at the time when the 3D compass is positioned within the measuring plane coinciding with the constructed Human Skull Base Plane.

This application and its disclosure generally relate to the field of determining orientation of a human head in three-dimensional geometric modeling.
Head orientation measurements in 3D geometric modeling are currently based on a combination of measurements determined by different gyroscopes, accelerometers and electronic compasses. For example, one such system is based on measurements provided by a three-axis accelerometer and a resonator gyroscope mounted on a headgear.
Other methods and measuring systems, currently in use, utilize dual inclinometers, bubble goniometers, radiographs, compass technology, visual estimation, ultrasound, geometric methods, digital optoelectronic instruments, computerized kinematic analysis using passive markers and infrared TV cameras, MRI or sensors attached to the subject's head for head orientation determination. However, none of the existing methods yield a sufficient accuracy in defining the neutral position of a human head in three-dimensions.
This lack of a precise definition of the neutral position of the 3D orientation of the human head is a serious disadvantage in current 3D geometric modeling, especially when one needs to determine some specific measurements and orientation of the human head during motion. In certain applications, for example in dental arts, the existing methods result in significant errors and distortions in the subject's measurements and, consequently, in the resulting 3D model.

Method and apparatus for unambiguously determining orientation of a human head in 3D geometric modeling


Traditional techniques of 3D data retrieval using names and subjective attributes are not robust and are difficult to automate over large 3D repositories. Certain techniques developed for search and classification of 2D engineering designs, are in general, difficult to extend to 3D models. These issues are addressed by a system for automated search and classification for 3D CAx models based on their geometric “shape,” which is often an indication of design, analysis and manufacturing process similarity. A new method and system are provided for representing 3D shape as a composition of multiple 2D image projections, which are transformed using the Discrete Fourier and Harr Wavelet transforms. Key coefficients of the transforms are then stored in the 3D model repository and are used to efficiently search and classify such repositories.

3D CAD/CAM/CAE (CAx) models are widely used by product development organizations. Most product development organizations have large databases or repositories of 3D models. These repositories necessarily archive the 3D shape or geometry of the 3D models. The repositories also usually archive related textual and multi-media data associated with the models.
Repositories for 3D models in a product development organization can rapidly grow in size over time as more and more 3D models get archived into the system. Larger repositories of 3D models necessarily require larger amounts of time and result in larger costs for maintenance. It is therefore important to keep the size of these repositories to the minimum required in order to save maintenance costs. Furthermore, an automated system for managing the repositories is necessary to save on maintenance time.
Traditionally, most product development organizations usually develop proprietary conventions for assigning unique names and subjective attributes to archived 3D models. These conventions are dictated by the needs of a particular business model and are based on a multitude of industry standard, software and vendor specific keywords. These names and attributes are stored in the repositories along with the 3D shape or geometry information. However, due to their inherent subjective nature these conventions are difficult to enforce across a large number of engineers and designers, and across different departments in the same organization.
Reuse of existing 3D shape and related data when developing a new product significantly decreases the time to market and cost for the product. Reuse is effective during all stages of the design-to-manufacturing cycle. Furthermore, where direct reuse of existing model is permitted, it also saves on maintenance costs related to storing duplicate models in a repository. However, browsing for and locating a reusable model in a large repository can be a tedious exercise, the cost of which sometimes exceeds the cost savings related to reuse. This is due to the fact that current CAx/PDM repositories only allow searching based on the model names and subjective attributes, and are thus lacking in robustness.
It is of interest to engineers and designers to have a method to quickly identify reusable models based directly on their 3D shape or geometry. This is because the 3D shape similarity between models is often an indication of design, analysis and manufacturing process similarity. A 3D shape based method can be used as a tool in conjunction with existing search systems available in CAx/PDM repositories, to quickly identify reusable models.
Prior art systems are available for 3D shape based searching. The key parameters for evaluating such shape based search methods are: (i) The ability to discriminate a model sufficiently among a large set of dissimilar models; (ii) Tolerance to relatively small changes that occur across similar models; (iii) Computationally inexpensive to derive and compare against many models. Much of the prior art has been concentrated on general and approximate methods, with less emphasis on application specific and accurate methods. Moreover, most prior art techniques do not meet the three said evaluation criteria. The prior art methods used can be broadly grouped into four categories—gross parameters, statistical measures, graph based methods and transform based methods.
Briefly considering the four generic categories, gross shape measures capture gross properties of the 3D model such as volume, surface area, moments, etc. Gross measures may also include certain domain specific information (like molecular weight, in 3D molecular databases). Several gross parameters ("crinkliness", "compactness" etc.) have been used in describing the shape and matching in the domain of CAD databases. (See Rea, J., Corney, J. R., Clark, D. E. R., Pritchard, J., Breaks, M. L., and MacLeod, R. A.: Part-Sourcing in a Global Market. Proceedings of ICeCE 2001. 2001 International Conference on eCommerce Engineering: New Challenges for Global Manufacturing in the 21st Century, Sep. 16-18, 2001. Xi'an, P. R. China.) The use of "feature vectors" and moments as gross parameters for 3D shape comparison have also been described. (See Vranic, D. V., and Saupe, D.: 3D Model Retrieval. In: Proceedings of the Spring Conference on Computer Graphics and its Applications (SCCG2000) (ed. Falcidieno, B.), Budmerice, Slovakia, May 2000, pp. 89-93.)
Gross parameters describe only a subset of the information comprising shape and related properties of 3D models. Therefore gross measures can be used effectively only in small sized databases where domain specific information can be leveraged. Gross parameters usually become too indiscriminating for repositories containing a large number of models.
Statistical shape measures capture the shape of a model by some form of sampling. Statistical shape histograms have been used for nearest neighbor search and classification in 3D molecular databases. (See Ankerst, M., Kastenmüller, G., Kriegel, H.-P., and Seidl, T.: 3D Shape Histograms for Similarity Search and Classification in Spatial Databases. In Proc. 6th International Symposium on Spatial Databases (SSD'99), Hong, Kong, China, July 1999.) Further, various forms of shape distributions for comparing 3D models, have also been analyzed. (See Osada, R., Funkhouser, T., Chazelle, B., and Dobkin, D.: Matching 3d models with shape distributions. International Conference on Shape Modeling and Applications. ACM SIGGRAPH, The Computer Graphics Society and EUROGRAPHICS, IEEE Computer Society Press, Genova, Italy, May 7-11 2001, pp. 154-166.) Another statistical 3D shape similarity measure has been described which is based on sampling of gross measures like moments, average surface distance and its variance along the principal axes of inertia; (See Ohbuchi, R., Otagiri, T., Ibato, M., and Takei, T.: Shape-Similarity Search of Three-Dimensional Models Using Parameterized Statistics. In the proceedings of the Pacific Graphics 2002, Beijing, China, October 2002, pp. 265-274.)
Statistical shape based methods are based on sampling a large number of sample measures, and are hence relatively expensive to compute in comparison to gross parameters. However, the major drawback of such statistical measures (as in the case of gross parameters) is that their discriminating power decreases rapidly with increase in the number of models in the repository. Moreover, as the complexity of the 3D model increases most statistical distributions tend towards some standard shaped distributions (like the normal distribution).
Graphs describe shape using some connectivity structure. Graph based methods have been used in case of 2D shape matching, in fields like character recognition and silhouette matching. In 3D, a method of matching 3D models has been developed using connected skeletal approximations called multi-resolution 'Reeb Graphs'. (See Hilaga, M., Shinagawa, Y., Kohmura, T., and Kunii, Tosiyasu L.: Topology matching for fully automatic similarity estimation of 3D shapes. In SIGGRAPH, ACM, ACM Press, New York, N.Y., USA, August 2001, pp. 203-212.) Further, various feature-graph based techniques have been developed using manufacturing features of CAD models and graph based heuristics for determining the similarity between different 3D CAD models. (See Elinson, A., Nau, D. S., and Regli, W. C.: Feature-based similarity assessment of solid models. In: Christoph Hoffman and Wim Bronsvoort (ed.): Fourth Symposium on Solid Modeling and Applications, pp. 297-310, New York, N.Y., USA, May 14-16 1997. ACM, ACM Press, Atlanta, Ga.)
Graph based methods in 3D (as against in 2D) involve steps which are computationally very expensive such as computing the 3D skeleton graph or extracting features for forming feature nodes in the feature graph. Moreover, adapting the graph based techniques for handling models with multiple bodies (with or without connectivity) and surface models is a non-trivial problem.
Transform based methods usually transform the 3D shape into alternative representations of reduced dimension in terms of certain key coefficients. This makes the 3D shape matching task much simpler (as in the case of gross parameters and statistical measures) and simultaneously minimizes the loss of shape information. Transform based methods are also relatively inexpensive to compute as compared to graph based methods.
Transforms based methods are usually applied on some approximation of the 3D model, like the voxel approximation. A voxellized representation allows various relatively fast and discrete mathematical transforms to be applied to the 3D model, which retain only the most important and relevant characteristics of shape information. The "Reflective Symmetry" transform and the "Spherical Harmonics" transform have been used directly on the voxellized representation of the 3D model. (See Kazhdan, M., Chazelle, B., Dobkin, D., Funkhouser, T. and Rusinkiewicz, S.: A reflective symmetry descriptor for 3D models. Algorithmica, Special Issue on Shape algorithmics. 2003, and Funkhouser, T., Min, P., Kazhdan M., Chen, J., Halderman, A., Dobkin, D., and Jacobs D.: A Search Engine for 3D Models. ACM Transactions on Graphics, 22(1), pp. 83-105, January 2003.) Further, the use of the "3D Discrete Fourier" transform on a voxellized representation of the 3D model has been proposed. (See Vranic, D. V., and Saupe, D.: 3D Shape Descriptor Based on 3D Fourier Transform. In: Proceedings of the EURASIP Conference on Digital Signal Processing for Multimedia Communications and Services (ECMCS 2001) (editor Fazekas, K.), Budapest, Hungary, September 2001, pp. 271-274.) The "3D Hough" transform has also been used as a 3D shape descriptor. (See Zaharia, T., and F. Preteux, F.: Shape-based retrieval of 3D mesh models. In Proc. 2002 IEEE International Conference on Multimedia and Expo (ICME'2002), Lausanne, Switzerland, August 2002.)
In most transform based techniques (as against other methods) it is necessary to make the 3D model invariant to affine transforms. Therefore, several of the transform based methods tend to neglect the phase information associated with the transform in order to achieve affine invariance. In contrast, some transform based methods perform a prior pose-estimation step to orient the 3D model into a canonical pose before applying the transforms.
In summary, while gross and statistical measures are invariant to affine transformations, these measures are usually too indiscriminating for large repositories of models. Graph based methods can be used to capture structural, topology or feature information in a model, but these methods are computationally very expensive for non-trivial models. In contrast, the availability of a large number of existing transform based techniques allows for encoding various forms of shape data efficiently.

Geometry based search method for 3D CAx/PDM repositories


The contact angle of the ball 15 with each first guide track 21 of an inner joint member 12 is made to become smaller gradually from an opening portion side toward a bottom portion side, and the curvature radius for the first guide track 21 is made to become larger gradually from the opening portion side toward the bottom portion side. If the contact angle only were made to become smaller gradually from the opening portion side toward the bottom portion side, the contact angle would become too small thereby to cause chattering in rotation to be generated. If the curvature radius only were made to become larger gradually from the opening portion side toward the bottom portion side, a contact ellipse M2 defined by the ball 15 and the first guide track 21 would become tool small, which would cause the ball 15 to make dents on the surface of the first guide track 21. However, the aforementioned drawbacks can be obviated by gradually diminishing the contact angle and gradually enlarging the curvature radius from the opening portion side toward the bottom portion side.

Heretofore, there have been known constant velocity joints of the ball joint type wherein the angle (joint angle) between two axes intersecting with each other is variable and wherein the constant or equality of velocity in the transmission of rotational movement is maintained between the two axes. The constant velocity joint is provided with an inner joint member, an outer joint member, a cage with ball retaining windows, and balls.
The inner joint member has its external surface taking a spherical surface and provided with plural first guide tracks extending in the axial direction thereof. The outer joint member is of a cup-shape having its internal surface taking a spherical surface and provided with plural second guide tracks of the same number as those of the first guide tracks, extending in the axial direction thereof. The cage is fit between the inner and outer joint members. The balls are retained in the ball retaining windows and are engaged with the first and second guide tracks for transmitting the torque of the inner joint member to the outer joint member.
The first and second guide tracks are formed to become shallower gradually from an opening portion side toward a bottom portion side of the outer joint member. The first and second guide tracks are constituted so that each of the balls is kept in contact with the first and second guide tracks at a constant contact angle over the whole length from the opening portion side toward the bottom portion side. Further, each of the first and second guide tracks is formed to have its cross-section constituted by two curved surfaces which intersect with each other at a track bottom center, and each of the curved surfaces is defined by a radius whose curvature is constant over from the opening portion side to the bottom portion side.
The term "contact angle" used herein means the angle that a contact center of the ball with the guide truck and the track bottom center of the guide track make with respect to a reference at the center of the ball. The term "contact center" herein means the point at which a major axis and a minor axis intersect with each other on a contact surface (contact ellipse) of an elliptical shape which is formed by the contact of each ball with each guide track. The term "major axis" means the axis which constitutes the longest portion in a lengthwise direction of the contact ellipse, and the term "minor axis" means the axis which constitutes the longest portion in a direction orthogonal to the major axis.
However, in the constant velocity joint of the foregoing prior art, the first and second guide tracks are formed to become shallower gradually from the opening portion side toward the bottom portion side (i.e., from the left side (opening portion side) toward the right (bottom portion side) as shown in FIG. 1). For this reason, as shown at the lower half in FIG. 1 and as shown in FIG. 5(a), when located at the bottom portion side of the outer joint member 113, each ball 101 occupies a deep track portion of the first guide track 102 of the inner joint member 112. Thus, the elliptical contact surface (hereafter referred to as "contact ellipse D" which is formed by the contact of the ball 101 with the first guide track 102 does not protrude from the first guide track 102.
However, the following problem arises when each ball 101 is located at the opening portion side of the outer joint member 113 as shown at the upper half in FIG. 1 and as shown in FIG. 5(b). That is, although the contact angle is the same as the contact angle (β) at the opening portion side and the curved surface is the same as the curved surface (K) at the opening portion side, the major-axis side radius of the contact ellipse D protrudes from the edge portion 102a of the first guide track 102, because the first guide track 102 of the inner joint member 112 is shallow. In this state, the ball 101 is liable to run on the edge portion 102a of the first guide track 102 thereby to exert an excess load on the edge portion 102a. Thus, the edge portion 102a is liable to chip off.
The present invention is made taking the foregoing circumstances into consideration, and it is an object thereof to provide a constant velocity joint which is capable of preventing each ball from protruding from a guide track therefor and of securing a sufficient contact area of the ball with the guide track.


An albedo estimating section produces an albedo image of an object from an original image captured by an image-capturing section by using light source information estimated by a light source information estimating section and shape information of the object obtained by a shape information obtaining section. An albedo super-resolution section performs super-resolution of the albedo image according to a conversion rule obtained from an albedo DB. A super-resolution section produces a high-resolution image obtained by performing super-resolution of the original image by using the super-resolution albedo image, the light source information and the shape information.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an image processing technique, and more particularly to a technique for performing a super-resolution process.
2. Background Art
The importance of image processing is increasing as the camera-equipped mobile telephones and digital cameras become widespread. One of such image processes is a super-resolution process, also known as "digital zooming". The super-resolution process is used for arbitrarily enlarging a captured image, and is important in the editing process performed after capturing images.
Various methods have been proposed for the super-resolution process. As ordinary methods, there are methods using interpolation such as, for example, the bilinear method (linear interpolation process) or the bicubic method (Non-Patent Document 1). With interpolation, however, the process can only produce intermediate values of sampled data. Therefore, when synthesizing an image enlarged by a factor of 2×2 or more, the sharpness of the edge, and the like, is likely to deteriorate, resulting in a blurred image. In view of this, there is proposed a method that uses an interpolated image as an initial enlarged image, and then extracts edge portions so as to enhance only the edges (Patent Document 1, Non-Patent Document 2). With this method, however, it is difficult to differentiate between an edge portion and noise, and the process is likely to also enhance noise as it enhances the edge portions, thus leading to a deterioration in the image quality.
In view of this, there is proposed a method that uses a database as a method for enlarging an image while suppressing the image quality deterioration. Specifically, the process captures a high-resolution image in advance by using a high-definition camera, or the like, and also obtains a low-resolution image of the same object under the same environment as the captured high-resolution image. The low-resolution image may be obtained by, for example, using another camera, capturing the high-resolution image with a zoom lens and then changing the zoom factor, and sub-sampling the high-definition image through a low-pass filter. Many such pairs of low-resolution images and high-resolution images are prepared, and the relationship therebetween is learned in a database as a super-resolution method. The super-resolution process is realized by using the database.
Such a method using a database does not require an enhancement process as described above, and is therefore capable of realizing a super-resolution with less image quality deterioration. For example, as such a process, a method in which an image is divided into blocks and the blocks of image are learned is known in the art (for example, Patent Document 2).
Patent Document 1: U.S. Pat. No. 5,717,789 (FIG. 5)
Patent Document 2: Japanese Patent No. 3278881
Non-Patent Document 1: Shinji Araya, "Meikai 3-Jigen Computer Graphics (3D Computer Graphics Elucidated)", Kyoritsu Shuppan Co., Ltd., pp. 144-146, Sep. 25, 2003
Non-Patent Document 2: Makoto Nakashizuka, et al., "Image Resolution Enhancement On Multiscale Gradient Planes", Journal of the Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers D-II Vol. J81-D-II, No. 10, pp. 2249-2258, October 1998

Super-resolution device, super-resolution method, super-resolution program, and super-resolution system


An adjustable length cannula which may be longitudinally extended or retracted in order to accommodate a range of body cavity wall thicknesses. The cannula includes an annular flange which abuts the skin surface to provide lateral stability to the inserted cannula and to prevent the associated trocar from being inserted too far into the body cavity. A low external profile of the cannula further contributes to its lateral stability. An adjustable length trocar for use with one embodiment of the adjustable length cannula is also disclosed.

Prior to laparoscopic or arthroscopic surgery, a cannula is inserted through the skin to access a body cavity through the cannula tube. In order to penetrate the skin, the distal end of the cannula tube is placed against the skin and a trocar is inserted through the tube. By pressing against the proximal end of the trocar, the point of the trocar is forced through the skin until it enters the body cavity. At this time, the cannula tube in inserted through the perforation made by the trocar and the trocar is withdrawn, leaving the cannula tube as an access way into the body cavity.
It has been found that often a great deal of force is required to cause the trocar point to penetrate the skin and underlying tissue. When the point finally breaks through this tissue, resistance to penetration is suddenly removed, and the trocar point can suddenly penetrate to reach internal organs of the body, which may cause lacerations and other injury to the internal organs.
For this reason, when a laparoscopy is performed, a pneumoperitoneum is first performed by introducing into the peritoneal cavity 3-4 liters of CO.sub.2. The pneumoperitoneum causes rising of the front abdominal wall and separation of the internal organs thereof and in particular, if the patient is placed into a slight Trendelemburg's position, the internal organs tend to move to the upper abdominal region. The trocar needle must then be introduced at an angle of 45.degree. in the lower periumbilical seat after sectioning of the skin (in a semi-circle around the lower edge of the navel) and the subcutis until reaching the aponeurosis. In addition, the trocar must be pushed carefully to avoid sudden deep penetration which could injure the internal organs or large vessels. However, despite all of these precautions, it is not always possible to avoid traumatic complications of the anatomic structures mentioned above and the complications connected with the pneumoperitoneum.
An additional problem in current laparoscopic procedures is that the thickness of abdominal tissue which must be traversed by the cannula tube varies from patient to patient. Because of this, a variety of different length cannulas are available for use in laparoscopic procedures, requiring the doctor to estimate the thickness of the abdominal tissue for the particular patient and then select a cannula having the proper length. Additionally, the present fixed length cannulas also contain no means for stabilizing the cannula against the surface of the patient's body. The result is that movement of the cannula during the laparoscopic procedure can cause tissue trauma in the area of skin surrounding the cannula. The surgeon performing the laparoscopic procedure must therefore stabilize the top of the cannula tube with one hand while using the other hand to insert the laparoscopic instrument into the cannula tube. Finally, present cannula tubes protrude from the skin's surface a substantial distance, which contributes to their general instability, easily becoming entangled in tubes and other devices used in the surgical procedure.
There is therefore a need in the prior art for a cannula tube which may be used to penetrate varying thicknesses of abdominal tissue, which provides a stable interface between the cannula and the patient and which exhibits a low profile above the surface of the patient's skin. Additionally, there is a need in the prior art for a trocar which will minimize the chance of accidental trauma to the abdominal organs due to penetration of the trocar to too great a depth within the abdominal cavity. The present invention is directed toward meeting these needs.


This invention relates to off-road tires, more specifically off-road tires for use with all-terrain vehicles, agricultural equipment, and construction equipment. A plurality of elongated pads are interposed between circumferentially adjacent lugs, preventing damage to the tire's inner tread without impeding the soil shedding characteristics of the tire's soil discharge channels. The width of the puncture prevention pads may vary to compensate for the greater spacing between circumferentially adjacent lugs at the shoulder region of the tire.

As used in this patent the term "off-road" tires means pneumatic tires that have a primary use or working surface condition that is not on a paved road. Such tires include construction equipment tires, agricultural tires, lawn and garden tires, and all-terrain vehicle tires, including, but not limited to off-road dirt bike tires and ATV tires. Of particular interest are tires that have low operating pressures and minimal belt reinforcements. For example, ATV tires generally operate at less than 10 pounds per square inch ("psi") of pressure and often have no belt reinforcing structure.
All-terrain vehicles are relatively lightweight with a relatively low center of gravity. Early three wheel versions had knobby tires having small square block elements and a relatively shallow tread depth. Later versions of "quad runners" or 4-wheel type ATV's were developed and have been more widely accepted due to their improved stability. Horsepower increases and improvements in both vehicle suspension and chassis has resulted in vehicles capable of relatively high speed and much greater load carrying capacity.
As previously noted, the tires used on all-terrain vehicles are operated at very low pressures, in the range of 10 psi (0.7 bar) or less. The tires are very wide with relatively large air chambers, which assist in absorbing shock and vibration. The tires generally have nominal rim diameters of 14 inches (36 centimeters) or less and overall diameters of 28 inches (72 centimeters) or less. Often the rear tires are of a slightly larger size than the more lightly loaded front tires.
In aggressive off-road applications, ATV tires must have a very open tread pattern that employs elongated members called "lugs" which provide effective straight-line or "drawbar" traction to enable the vehicle to climb hilly and rough terrain, as shown in U.S. Design Pat. No. D308,038, issued to Guidry. Additionally, the tread must provide excellent lateral traction for vehicle stability during turning maneuvers as is disclosed in Harms U.S. Pat. No. 5,259,429. The tire disclosed by Harms employs a repeating pattern of long, intermediate length and short lugs arranged to provide improved traction. The arrangement of these lugs is such that each lug wraps completely over the tread shoulder region. The lugs are also circumferentially relatively closely spaced such that numerous lugs are in the footprint of the tire at any one time. The tire made according to this prior art invention is considered one of the best mud tires in its class according to its manufacturer.
The space between circumferentially adjacent lugs of an off-road tire is commonly referred to as a "soil discharge channel." The soil discharge channels extend generally from the equatorial plane of the tread axially outwardly over the edge of the tread, called the "tread shoulder." The channels are designed to shed mud which accumulates in the channels, aided by gravity and centrifugal force generated by the rotating tire. In wet soils with heavy clay content there is a tendency for the tread of an off-road tire to pack with mud between the elongated lugs. If the soil discharge channels are packed with mud, the tread effectively loses its ability to provide any traction. This is because the lugs are buried in the packed mud, giving the tire the appearance of a slick or racing tread devoid of grooves.
For the very reasons off-road tires have such good traction capabilities, they exhibit a relatively high potential for damage in the area of the inner tread surface. The inner tread surface lies between the tread lugs and is relatively thin in comparison to the lugs, rendering it vulnerable to sharp objects, such as rocks, sticks, thorns, stubble, and roots. The sharp objects are able to penetrate the inner tread surface, damaging the tire and causing it to deflate. A partial solution to this problem is disclosed in Rooney U.S. Pat. No. 6,401,774 wherein elongated pads are located on the inner tread surface to protect the tire from sharp objects. However, tires utilizing the elongated pads as taught by Rooney are still subject to damage in the tread shoulder area due to the larger spacing between adjacent lugs at the tread shoulder. The larger spacing between shoulder lugs is sometimes required to improve tread cleaning. When the spacing between lugs increases, the pressure on the soil trapped between the lugs decreases. Because the lugs in the center of the tire footprint are closer together than the shoulder lugs, the pressure on the soil is higher at the center of the footprint than at the shoulder. Thus, the soil is pushed from the center of the footprint to the edges of the footprint by this pressure differential. This allows the soil to move faster through the tire footprint and prevents the tire from packing up. There is a need for a means to protect the tread shoulder area of an off-road tire from damage due to sharp objects. There is a further need to provide this damage protection without compromising the tire's ability to discharge soil and maintain traction.
It is an object of the present invention to minimize tire damage, especially in the tire shoulder area, without increasing tire weight or losing tire performance. A further objective of the present invention is to provide protection from tire damage without compromising the tire's ability to discharge soil and maintain traction.

Off road tire having variable width puncture preventing pads


An apparatus that includes a first print engine positioned to print front side information on a base material. The first print engine further includes a multi-color print head having a pile height leveling ink delivery system. A fuser is positioned to affix the front side information on the base material, and a second print engine positioned to print a removable scratch-off layer covering at least part of the front side information after the fuser affixes the front side information.

1. Technical Field
The disclosed embodiments generally relate to the field of printing and more particularly, a printing apparatus and method for printing a scratch-off document.
2. Description of the Related Art
Scratch-off type documents are used in many applications. For example, instant lottery tickets are printed with data that is covered by a scratch-off material. When the scratch-off material is removed by rubbing with a coin, fingernail, or other object, the data under the scratch-off coating is revealed. In addition to lotteries, other such documents are often used for other games, such as retail store contests or product giveaways.
The production of scratch-off documents involves a complex printing application, requiring high volume, low cost printing and numerous areas of variable data. Areas of variable data include, for example, winning indicia, number marking and bar code generation. It may also require a release coating and removable scratch-off printing for the scratch-off layer.
The scratch-off material in a scratch-off document must adhere to the base material sufficiently so that it does not rub off in ordinary handling, but so that it is easy to rub off with a scratching object such as a coin or fingernail. Scratch-off documents are traditionally produced using a preprinted document in which a wax-like coating or film is applied over the data that is desired to be hidden. The application of wax-like coatings requires the use of additional or specialized hardware, thus increasing the associated costs and maintenance associated with producing the scratch-off ticket.
The disclosure contained herein describes attempts to address one or more of the problems described above.

Apparatus and method for printing a scratch-off document


A zoom lens unit includes, in order from an object side to an image side: a first lens group having a positive refracting power; a second lens group having a negative refracting power; a third lens group having a positive refracting power; a fourth lens group having a negative refracting power; a fifth lens group having a positive refracting power; and a sixth lens group having a negative refracting power, an aperture stop is disposed between the second lens group and the third lens group, and when changing magnification from a wide-angle end to a telephoto end, at least the second lens group, the third lens group and the fifth lens group are moved, and the first lens group includes a reflecting optical element which bends a light path in the first lens group to obtain a predetermined light path length.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a zoom lens unit and an imaging apparatus including the zoom lens unit. In particular, the zoom lens unit according to the present invention is suitable for use in such as a video camera or an electronic still camera which employs a solid-state image sensor as an imaging device. The imaging apparatus including the zoom lens unit according to the present invention is suitable for use as a video camera or an electronic still camera.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, higher performance and compactness have been required for digital cameras. In addition, both higher performance and compactness have been required for zoom lens units used in photographing lenses. Considering the application of the zoom lens unit to a high end, for example, the digital camera, at least a resolution corresponding to an image pickup device having 5 million to 10 million pixels over all a zoom area is necessary to achieve higher performance of such zoom lens units.
In addition, many users require a photographing lens with wide-angle capability and high magnification ratio, and it is desirable that a half-field angle of a zoom lens unit at a wide-angle end be 38 degrees or more. The half-field angle of 38 degrees corresponds to a focal length of 28 mm in terms of a 35 mm silver salt camera (so-called Leica version). Moreover, a magnification ratio of five or more is desired.
Regarding compact cameras, JP H8-248318 A and JP 2005-215165 A disclose zoom lens units in which a prism is disposed in an optical system to bend the light path, and thus a thin-model camera equipped with the zoom lens unit can be obtained.
Each zoom lens unit described in JP H8-248318 A and JP 2005-215165 A is suitable for a video camera, and a magnification ratio is 8 times or more in an embodiment of JP H8-248318 A, or is 7 times or more in an embodiment of JP 2005-215165 A, both of which are excellent. However, a half-field angle at a wide-angle end is about 33 degrees in JP H8-248318 A, or is about 34 degrees in JP 2005-215165 A, therefore both fail to achieve a half-field angle of 38 degrees or more, which is desirable for digital cameras recently.


The present invention provides a memory controller which includes a host interface connected to a host apparatus and receives a first data write-in unit of reception data, a memory interface connected to nonvolatile semiconductor memory in which is written a second data write-in unit of data larger than the first data write-in unit of data, and transmits the first data write-in unit of write-in data, and a central processing unit, which writes the reception data in a temporary write-in block of the nonvolatile semiconductor memory via the memory interface, reads out from the temporary write-in block the write-in data corresponding to area data when a total amount of reception data received by the host interface has reached amount of the second data write-in unit of the area data, and writes the area data including the read-out write-in data in a target block different from the temporary write-in block.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a memory controller and a control method for the same. More specifically, it relates to a memory card or a memory device in which a nonvolatile semiconductor memory, such as NAND flash memory, is embedded.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the case of writing data in a memory component, such as a flash memory, the amount of data to be written at one time may be fixed. In addition, with a higher level apparatus, such as a computer with a file system, a unit of write-in data is determined separately from the memory component. The write-in unit of data for the memory component may be larger than that for a higher level apparatus (apparatus employing a memory card: host) such as a write-in unit of 2048 bytes for the memory component and a write-in unit of 512 bytes for the higher level apparatus.
The memory device, such as a memory card, is embedded with a memory component that writes in such large units of data and responds to a write-in instruction from the higher level apparatus. The memory device must also be capable of processing write-in of a small unit of data.
When the allowable unit of data write-in for the higher level apparatus is small (e.g., 512 bytes) and that for the nonvolatile memory component is large (e.g., 2048 bytes), after writing small unit data D1 in the nonvolatile memory component from the higher level apparatus, small unit data D2 may be written in an area subsequent to the page in which the data D1 is written. There may be a flash memory that does not allow division of a page to write in data. In this case, that flash memory must copy data other than the data D1, from the block including the data D1, into another block and write the data D1 and D2 in that other block. Such processing is hereafter referred to as 'sacrificed moving' for convenience sake. When this 'sacrificed moving' occurs frequently, as it accompanies an operation of copying un-rewritable data, write-in performance of the memory device is impaired. Therefore, there is a problem that writing in a flash memory typically used as the nonvolatile memory component takes a long time.
Note that a high-speed write-in method of temporally storing write-in data from a host in a nonvolatile memory and processing the write-in data under control of a memory controller, and then writing the data back in a cache memory, when booting an apparatus after processing, has been interrupted due to power failure or the like is disclosed in Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. Hei 5-151094.

Memory controller, memory device and control method for the memory controller


Systems, aircraft, and non-transitory media are provided. An avionics system for an aircraft includes a storage device and one or more data processors. The storage device stores instructions for monitoring an actual performance of the aircraft. The one or more data processors are configured to execute the instructions to: generate a lateral component and a longitudinal component of a measured moving air mass relative to the aircraft; generate a plurality of wind independent positions of the aircraft along a potential aircraft trajectory based on a prediction model; and generate a plurality of wind corrected positions of the aircraft based on the plurality of wind independent positions, on the lateral component, and on the longitudinal component.

Determining the forces acting on an aircraft during flight utilizes complex equations that require computationally intense trigonometric functions to calculate longitudinal and lateral forces from wind through which the aircraft is flying. Such complex equations would require very large computational capacity onboard an aircraft to predict potential aircraft performance and position for high resolution and/or multiple trajectory aircraft modeling.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide methods, systems, and aircraft that provide accurate position information that accounts for wind while reducing the computational burden of the trigonometric functions. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics of the present disclosure will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and the foregoing technical field and background.

Potential aircraft trajectory wind effect computation


An umbrella and shoe drying device, for use removing moisture, dirt, and debris from shoes and umbrellas, having a mat portion, a blower housing, and an umbrella holder. The mat portion has a substantially flat top surface having a grating upon which shoes are placed. The blower housing is mounted upon the flat top surface of the mat portion, supports the umbrella holder, and contains a blower. The umbrella housing has a main bore for accommodating umbrellas. The blower is in communication with the main bore and grating, and generates suction that removes moisture, dirt, and debris from umbrellas in the main bore and from shoes positioned upon the grating.

The invention relates to an umbrella and shoe drying device. More particularly, the invention relates to a device which provides an air current for cleaning and drying shoes and has a receptacle for holding and drying umbrellas.
When arriving at a business or residence during a rain or snow storm, a person often is wearing wet shoes and is carrying a wet umbrella. Wet shoes and a dripping umbrella are incompatible with most interior floor coverings and furnishings. At most residences, then, the practice is to leave the shoes and umbrellas at the door. For various reasons, however, this practice does not work well at a place of business.
Even in dry weather, however, shoes can pick up a wide variety of dirt, dust, debris, allergens, and germs while their wearer walks outdoors. When going back indoors, such items are easily re-deposited by the shoes on the floors of interior spaces, creating an unsightly appearance and even creating a health hazard.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,373,339 to Roberts; 4,570,358 to Sacerdote; 5,938,049 to Susholz; 5,261,541 to Li; and 5,625,960 to Fujita all disclose various devices for drying umbrellas. These devices, however, are not intended for drying shoes.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,712,022 to Berg discloses an umbrella holding device. U.S. Pat. No. 2,199,194 to Cohen discloses a combination umbrella stand and rubber utilities closet.
While these units may be suitable for the particular purpose employed, or for general use, they would not be as suitable for the purposes of the present invention as disclosed hereafter.


Bioreactors suitable for housing a predetermined volume of culture medium comprising a plurality of containers of approximately equal internal volume in which the culture medium resides, wherein the predetermined volume of culture medium is retained in approximately equal amounts within each of the plurality of containers during operation of the bioreactor, and wherein the internal volume of each container is selected so that the amount of culture medium in each container exceeds 50 vol. % of the container internal volume during operation of the bioreactor, and related methods of use.

A variety of vessels and methods have been developed over the years to carry out chemical, biochemical and/or biological processing. Stainless steel fermentation vessels of several hundreds of thousands liters are not uncommon for the growth of microorganisms that produce enzymes or secondary metabolites. The methods include batch, fed-batch, continuous or semi-continuous perfusion. Gradually, more challenging cultures such as mammalian, insect or plant cells have been adapted for growth in fermentation vessels using highly specialized media. Although the design of these vessels differs in detail, they have several common features. The cells are kept in suspension by rotating stirring blades placed vertical in the vessel, and gas exchange is facilitated by injection of air, oxygen or carbon dioxide.
There are several drawbacks to this design: the shearing forces that are introduced through the stirring blades and the cavitation of miniscule air bubbles is detrimental to more sensitive cell types or organisms. Also, these vessels have to be rigorously cleaned between production runs to prevent cross-contamination, which is time consuming and needs to be validated for individual cultures. Furthermore, the use of stirred fermentors requires highly trained operators. The cost price for stirred fermentors is high across the whole size range and therefore they are used repeatedly over long periods of time, thus increasing infection risks as a result of mechanical failures. Perhaps most significantly, the optimization of culture conditions for stirred fermentors in a small scale cannot be transferred in a linear way to commercial scale production. For example, the fluid dynamics, aeration, foaming and cell growth properties change with an order of magnitude when the scale increases. In addition, for more delicate cell types or organisms, a large scale stirred fermentation vessel is not a viable device, even when more subtle stirring techniques such as airlift fermentors are used.
These drawbacks have led to the development of disposable fermentors. Examples of such disposable fermentors are systems based on wave agitation. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 6,544,788; PCT Publication WO 00/66706. This type of fermentor may be used to culture relatively sensitive cells such as CHO cells (e.g., Pierce, Bioprocessing J. 3: 51-56 (2004)), hybridoma cells (e.g., Ling et al., Biotech. Prog., 19: 158-162 (2003)), insect cells (e.g., Weber et al., Cytotech. 38: 77-85 (2002)) and anchorage-dependent cells (e.g., Singh, Cytotech. 30: 149-158 (1999)) in a single disposable container. Such disposable units are relatively cheap, decrease the risk of infection because of their single use and require no internal stirring parts as the rocking platform induces wave-like forms in the liquid phase to facilitate gas exchange. However, this principle cannot be expanded to the size of hundreds of thousands of liters (such as the industrial fermentors) but are currently available from 1 liter to 500 liters (total volume of the disposable bag, available from Wave Biotechnology AG, Switzerland; Wave Biotech Inc., USA). Moreover, the hydrodynamics for each size of these disposable bags will differ as a result of differences in depth and height. Therefore, the use of these disposable bags requires optimization and re-validation of each step in an up-scaling process.
Although bioreactor systems and related processes are known, improvements to such systems and processes would be useful in the preparation of a variety of products produced from a biological source.

Universal bioreactors and methods of use


Techniques for measuring ion beam emittance are disclosed. In one particular exemplary embodiment, the techniques may be realized as an apparatus for measuring ion beam emittance. The apparatus may comprise a measurement assembly comprising a first mask, a second mask, and a pivot axis, such that the measurement assembly rotates about the pivot axis in order to scan an ion beam using either the first mask or the second mask to measure ion beam emittance for providing a measure of ion beam uniformity.

Ion implanters are widely used in semiconductor manufacturing to selectively alter conductivity of materials. In a typical ion implanter, ions generated from an ion source are directed through a series of beam-line components which include one or more analyzing magnets and a plurality of electrodes. The analyzing magnets select desired ion species, filter out contaminant species and ions having undesirable energies, and adjust ion beam quality at a target wafer. Suitably shaped electrodes may modify the energy and the shape of an ion beam.
In production, semiconductor wafers are typically scanned with an ion beam. As used hereinafter, "scanning" of an ion beam refers to the relative movement of an ion beam with respect to a wafer or substrate surface.
An ion beam is typically either a "spot beam" having an approximately circular or elliptical cross section or a "ribbon beam" having a rectangular cross section. For the purpose of the present disclosure, a "ribbon beam" may refer to either a static ribbon beam or a scanned ribbon beam. The latter type of ribbon beam may be created by scanning a spot beam back and forth at a high frequency.
In the case of a spot beam, scanning of a wafer may be achieved by sweeping the spot beam back and forth between two endpoints to form a beam path and by simultaneously moving the wafer across the beam path. Alternatively, the spot beam may be kept stationary, and the wafer may be moved in a two-dimensional (2-D) pattern with respect to the spot beam. In the case of a ribbon beam, scanning of a wafer may be achieved by keeping the ribbon beam stationary and by simultaneously moving the wafer across the ribbon beam. If the ribbon beam is wider than the wafer, a one-dimensional (1-D) movement of the wafer may cause the ribbon beam to cover the entire wafer surface. The much simpler 1-D scanning makes a ribbon beam a desired choice for single-wafer ion implantation production.
However, ribbon beams, as well as spot beams, can suffer from intrinsic non-uniformity problems. For example, a ribbon beam may consist of a plurality of beamlets, wherein each beamlet may be considered, conceptually, as one spot beam. Although beamlets within a ribbon beam are directed in the same general direction, any two beamlets may not be directed in exactly the same direction. In addition, each beamlet may have an intrinsic angle spread. As a result, during ion implantation with a ribbon beam, different locations on a target wafer may experience different ion incident angles. Furthermore, the beamlets may not be evenly spaced within the ribbon beam. One portion of the ribbon beam where beamlets are densely distributed may deliver a higher ion dose than another portion of the ribbon beam where beamlets are sparsely distributed. Therefore, a ribbon beam may lack angle uniformity and/or dose uniformity.
Ion beam angle uniformity and/or dose uniformity may be controlled by several ion implantation components. For example, electric and/or magnetic elements may be utilized.
FIG. 1 shows a conventional ion implanter 100 comprising an ion source power supply 101, an ion source 102, extraction electrodes 104, a 90° magnet analyzer 106, a first deceleration (D1) stage 108, a 70° magnet analyzer 110, and a second deceleration (D2) stage 112. The D1 and D2 deceleration stages (also known as "deceleration lenses") may each comprise multiple electrodes with a defined aperture to allow an ion beam 10 to pass therethrough. By applying different combinations of voltage potentials to the multiple electrodes, the D1 and D2 deceleration lenses may manipulate ion energies and cause the ion beam 10 to hit a target workpiece 114 at a desired energy. A number of measurement devices 116 (e.g., a dose control Faraday cup, a traveling Faraday cup, or a setup Faraday cup) may be used to monitor and control characteristics of the ion beam 10. The above-mentioned D1 or D2 deceleration lenses may be electrostatic triode (or tetrode) deceleration lenses.
Significant changes in ion energies that take place in the electrostatic deceleration lenses can have a substantial impact on a shape of the ion beam 10. For example, space charge effects are more significant in low-energy ion beams than in high-energy ion beams. Therefore, a considerable number of ions may be lost before they reach the target wafer as when using low-energy ion beams. As a result, the effective dose and angle uniformity of the ion beam 10 may be substantially reduced.
There have been several attempts to reduce the above-described space charge effects in electrostatic triode lenses. For example, tuning voltages of deceleration lenses may help reduce space charge effects. However, because forces associated with space charge effects may be highly non-linear (especially if the ion beam 10 is not elliptical), tuning voltages of deceleration lenses may be very challenging without accurate tuning assistance to compensate for space charge effects. Another example may include using one or more magnetic elements (e.g., corrector bars) at entrance and/or exit regions of a magnetic deflector to improve uniformity across a target wafer.
Although these additional electric and/or magnetic components have been utilized in conventional ion implanters to somewhat improve either angle uniformity and/or dose uniformity of an ion beam, a more efficient solution has yet to be made available for providing ion beams that meet current dose and angle uniformity requirements for ion implantation production. For example, it is typically required that a ribbon beam should produce, in a wafer plane, a dose uniformity with less than 1% variation together with an angle uniformity with less than 0.5° variation. Such stringent uniformity requirements are becoming more difficult to meet since both types of uniformity may be elusive, especially in semiconductor manufacturing which require relatively high specificity and reliability.
In view of the foregoing, it may be understood that there are significant problems and shortcomings associated with current ion implantation technologies.

Varian Semiconductor Equipment Associates, Inc.


Methods of making and using, as prophylatics or therapeutics for preventing or treating certain diseases including cancer, O-desulfated heparin compositions, preferably 2-O, 3-O desulfated heparin compositions, wherein the methods permit regulating the degree of 2-O, 3-O desulfation to produce compositions that are variably desulfated including about 99% and 75% desulfated at the 2-O and 3-O positions, respectively.

Heparin
Heparin/heparan sulfate is a member of a class of polysaccharides known as glycosaminoglycans (GAG). These materials are copolymers of alternating hexosamine and aldouronic acid residues which are found in sulfated forms and are synthesized as proteoglycans. In the compositions of interest herein, heparan sulfate and heparin, the hexosamine which predominates is N-acetylated or N-sulfated glucosamine (GlcNAc and GlcNS). The aldouronic acid is mostly L-iduronic in heparin and mostly D-glucuronic acid in heparan sulfate. Heparan sulfate is commonly considered to have a higher proportion of glucuronic acid than heparin.
Problems of heterogeneity in preparations of heparan sulfate or heparin isolated from tissues make sharp distinctions difficult. Conventional heparin (used as an anticoagulant) has a molecular weight of 5-25 kd and is extracted as a mixture of various chain lengths by conventional procedures. These procedures involve autolysis and extraction of suitable tissues, such as beef or porcine lung, intestine, or liver, and removal of nonpolysaccharide components. The molecular weight of the chains in the extract is significantly lower than the 60-100 kd known to exist in the polysaccharide chains of the heparin proteoglycan synthesized in the tissue. The GAG moiety is synthesized bound to a peptide matrix at a serine or threonine residue through a tetrasaccharide linkage region of the sequence D-GlcA-D-Gal-D-Gal-D-Xyl.fwdarw.protein, which is then elongated at the D-GlcA residue with alternate additions of GlcNAc and GlcA. The polymer undergoes epimerization at certain of the GlcA residues to give IdoA, and subsequent sulfation.
Due to their chemical similarity, isolated "heparin" may contain considerable amounts of what might otherwise be classified as heparan sulfate.

Method for controlling o-desulfation of heparin and compositions produced thereby


In one embodiment, a semiconductor device includes a first insulator, a plurality of interconnections provided in the first insulator. The device further includes a second insulator provided on the first insulator and the plurality of interconnections, and a conductor provided on a first interconnection among the plurality of interconnections and having a shape that is projected upwardly with respect to the first interconnection in the second insulator. The device further includes a plug provided on the first interconnection via the conductor. The device further includes a first pad provided above the plug and electrically connected to the plug, and a second pad provided on the first pad and electrically connected to the first pad.

To achieve high integration, semiconductor devices such as three-dimensional memories that are each formed of layered memory cells have been developed. With the progress of such layering, some of the three-dimensional memories are manufactured by joining metal pads on a wafer and metal pads on another wafer by a bonding process. In such semiconductor devices, interconnections may be thinned to further improve the integration, or a plug may be formed on a thin interconnection to be connected to an upper-layer interconnection to shorten the interconnection length. In such a case, there are problems that positioning a plug and a corresponding interconnection is difficult, and a short between the plug and another interconnection easily occurs. The same problems may occur in a case where a plug is formed on an interconnection in semiconductor devices other than the three-dimensional memories.

Semiconductor device and method of manufacturing same