Methods and systems are provided for automatically adjusting a position of a table configured to be positioned in a bore of a medical imaging device. The table may be adjusted according to one or more of a table elevation, an anatomical reference, and a start scan location. The table elevation, anatomical reference, and start scan location may be obtained from a selected imaging protocol.

Non-invasive imaging technologies allow images of the internal structures of a patient or object to be obtained without performing an invasive procedure on the patient or object. In particular, technologies such as computed tomography (CT) use various physical principles, such as the differential transmission of x-rays through the target volume, to acquire image data and to construct tomographic images (e.g., three-dimensional representations of the interior of the human body or of other imaged structures).
In modern CT systems, a gantry—a circular frame with an x-ray tube on one side and a detector on the other—rotates around a patient positioned on a table, producing several thousand sectional views of the patient in one rotation. The systems require several manual steps to be performed by a system operator to prepare the patient for scanning, including positioning and orienting the patient on the table, setting an anatomically relevant start scan location, and adjusting table elevation to properly center the patient for a desired image quality and dose performance. This setup takes time and introduces an opportunity for user error, which may affect scan reproducibility and robustness.

Methods and systems for patient scan setup


A power tool with a quick release tool holder has a spindle with a central bore to receive a tool, a first aperture and second aperture extend into the central bore. A ball is in each of the first apertures. The ball locks the tool against axial movement. An elongated roller is in each of the second apertures. The roller prohibits rotation of the tool within the spindle. A first sleeve is fixed with the spindle. The first sleeve maintains the rollers in the apertures. A biasing member axially biases the rollers. A second sleeve is circumferentially positioned about the spindle and axially movable on the spindle. The second sleeve has a surface in contact with the balls. Also, a biasing member is provided to provide a force on the second sleeve such that the sleeve is moved against the force of the spring to enable insertion or removal of the tool.

The present invention relates to tool holders and, more particularly, to tool holders which enable a quick release tool to be retained in the holder.
Various types of tool retainers exist in the art. Several of the tool holders enable the tool to be easily retained and easily removed from the holder. While the tool holders appear to function satisfactorily for their intended purpose, designers strive to improve the art. Thus, it is desirable to provide a tool holder which provides strong retention and easy removal. Also, the tool holder should retain a cylindrical bit within the holder against movement in both axial and circumferential directions.


The battery terminal comprises a housing, cavities provided in the housing at predetermined internals, and a plurality of contacts mounted in the cavities, respectively. A free and triangular contact portion is provided at one end of each of the contact. The contact portion is extended outward from a surface of the housing.

In accordance with the trend for a compact, multifunctional electronic equipment, e.g., a mobile telephone and a portable personal computer, the number of types of batteries used for such an electronic equipment is increased. Regarding a connector (a battery terminal) used for electrically connecting the electronic equipment to the battery, many types of the batteries. For example, for a battery having an electrode parallel to the inserting direction of the battery (battery having an electrode that comes in slidable contact with the battery terminal) and a battery having an electrode intersecting the inserting direction of the battery (battery having an electrode that abuts against the battery connector to come in contact with it), terminals having different structures are used.


A central security control system (security system) interfaces between a plurality of requesters and a plurality of destinations such that it receives from the requesters requests for access to the destinations and communicates to the destinations a level of access that should be granted to a requester by that destination on a per request basis. In a preferred embodiment the security system also a) authenticates the requester to a predetermined level from which the level of access that is to be granted is derived and b) causes a direct connection to be established between the requester and the destination.

Only those individuals authorized to have access to any particular system or location, referred to herein as "destinations", should be granted such access. Indeed today, many destinations may be remotely accessed via telecommunications. Typical remotely accessible destinations include remote telephones, systems that provide access to credit and systems that provide value-added telecommunications services. On a regular basis, a large number of authorized individuals must authenticate their identity, i.e., to confirm that the person requesting the access is actually who he alleges that he is, to several destinations to which access is sought.
Typically each destination has its own systems and procedures for authenticating its authorized users. The resulting plurality of authentication systems is expensive. Also, each authentication system must keep a copy of all the information necessary to identify each of its authorized users, thereby creating large storage demands. Further, the compromising of a copy of an individual user's information that is required for access to one system tends to compromise the information contained in other authentication systems. This results because authentication systems tend to require the same basic information. Also, the number of copies of the information increases as the number of destinations to which the user may obtain authorized access increases. Since each copy is independently vulnerable to attackers of the system, the overall likelihood that any of the copies will remain secure decreases. In addition, each authentication system must be secured physically, as well as logically, against attackers which adds additional expense. These problems can be called the problems of a wide security perimeter.
From the viewpoint of a user, a plurality of authentication procedures is cumbersome and repetitive. The perceived constant requirement to comply with security arrangements encourages users to choose trivial identification means. The user typically deals with the most common security requirement of supplying a personal identification number (PIN) by employing an easy-to-remember PIN, such as a birthday, and employing the same PIN for each destination. Choosing the same PIN for each destination results in the undesirable effect that when one destination is compromised, all of the destinations are immediately compromised. Further, in selecting and easy-to-remember PIN, a user almost invariably selects a PIN that is easy to arrive at by guesswork or simple trial and error methods.
Another problem with prior security systems is how to manage the diverse security needs of a plurality of destinations and a plurality of authorized users. In particular, there is a need to insure that the ultimate bearer of the cost of erroneous access is capable of specifying the authentication level, i.e., the level of confidence of the accuracy of an identification, employed for any particular access. Each particular destination may have its own requirements as to the authentication level that is necessary before any particular level of access can be granted. In addition, a particular authorized user may wish to specify an authentication level that should be met before access is allowed for a request that alleges that user's identity. Prior security systems do not provide mechanisms for security level control by the user. Furthermore, if the access control is specified directly at the destination, the problems associated with a wide security perimeter result.
In order to actually authenticate the identity of an access requester, prior systems have made use of representations of various different identifying characteristics of a person. Identifying characteristics that have been employed include: voice samples, fingerprints, retina patterns, personal appearance, handwriting and even the manner in which a wave is polarized as it passes through a portion of the body. Such representations are known as authentication information. These prior systems obtain an identity that is alleged by the access requester. One method employed to obtain such an alleged identity is to require the requester to enter some type of a code. This code may be typed in via a keypad or scanned from a device in the requester's possession. The prior systems then attempt to authenticate that the requester is actually the individual whose identity was alleged by comparing a measure of the authentication information that has been previously stored with a measure of the same authentication information that is taken from the requester during the access request process. If the result of the comparison is that the stored authentication information matches the authentication information taken from the requester during the access request to within a predetermined limit the allegation of identity is confirmed and access is granted. Otherwise, access is denied.


A slipper has an upper portion. The upper portion is flexible. A lower portion is connected to the upper portion. The upper portion and the lower portion include ribbed formations. The upper portion and the lower portion are made of a material having shape memory.

1. Field
The embodiments relate to slippers, and more particularly to travel slippers made with material having shape memory.
2. Description of the Related Art
There are many slippers on the market today that serve the purpose of comfort, relaxation and that protect a person's bare or sock worn foot. Slippers can be used in many places and for many reasons. The existing slippers, however, have some limitations. One of these limitations is that the existing slippers cannot be stored in confined places. As travel vehicles become more stringent in allowing on-board items, the ability to store travel items in smaller more convenient places becomes more necessary.


A rock bit employs cemented tungsten carbide inserts for engaging a rock formation for drilling oil wells or the like. The cemented tungsten carbide inserts have as a binder phase a cobalt base alloy including from 10 to 35% by weight nickel, from 3 to 10% by weight chromium, from 1 to 6% by weight of molybdenum, and a balance primarily of cobalt. A particularly preferred composition has 6% by weight chromium, 17% by weight nickel, 4% by weight molybdenum and a balance of cobalt. Wear resistance is enhanced without loss of toughness in the inserts.

This invention relates to rock bits for drilling oil wells or the like where the cutting action is provided by wear resistant, corrosion resistant tungsten carbide inserts having as a binder phase a cobalt alloy including chromium and nickel.
Oil wells and the like are commonly drilled with rock bits having rotary cones with cemented tungsten carbide inserts. As such a bit is rotated on the bottom of a drill string in a well, the cones rotate and the carbide inserts bear against the rock formation, crushing and chipping the rock for extending the depth of the hole. Typical inserts have a cylindrical body which is pressed into a hole in such a cone and a somewhat blunt converging end that protrudes from the face of the cone. The converging end of the insert may be generally conical, roughly hemispherical, or have a somewhat chisel-like shape.
Another type of bit for drilling rock employs a steel body in which similar tungsten carbide inserts are embedded. Such a rotary percussion bit is hammered against the bottom of the hole for shattering rock and gradually rotated as it drills. Another type of rock bit referred to as a drag bit is simply rotated in the hole with carbide inserts "dragging" across the bottom of the hole for scraping the rock formation. Inserts provided in practice of this invention may be used in either type of rock bit, or in other related devices such as under-reamers.
Since the tungsten carbide inserts are the parts of the rock bit that engage and drill the rock, it is important to minimize wear and breakage of such inserts. Tungsten carbide inserts for rock bits are made by sintering a mixture of tungsten carbide (WC) powder and cobalt to form a dense body with very little porosity. Two important properties of such inserts are wear resistance and toughness. It is desirable to enhance the hardness of an insert where it engages the rock formation and maintain toughness for minimizing breakage of the insert as it is used.
It has been found that an element of wear resistance of rock bit inserts includes resistance to corrosion. Rock bits are commonly used in an environment of drilling mud which may include corrosion inhibitors. However, even so, the drilling mud may have changed pH and chemical composition, such as high amounts of chlorides, which may corrode the inserts as well as the steel of the rock bit. The cobalt binder phase in the cemented tungsten carbide inserts may be leached in either basic or acidic drilling mud, and the cobalt is particularly susceptible to corrosion by chloride containing compositions. It is therefore desirable to enhance the corrosion resistance of the cemented tungsten carbide inserts of a rock bit.
In rock bits designed for a particular type of service, one needs to have an appropriate balance between hardness and toughness. Hard inserts resist wear during drilling. On the other hand, a hard insert may be susceptible to fracture under the impact loads and other abuses necessarily involved in drilling wells. Enhanced toughness is also advantageous, since the part of the insert extending beyond the face of the cone does not need to be as blunt to resist fracture. This means that a longer, more aggressive cutting structure can be employed on a rock bit where fracture toughness is adequate.
In essentially all bits, it is desirable to have high hardness and wear resistance and relatively large insert protrusion. Achievement of these desiderata may, however, be limited by a lack of fracture toughness in the main body of the insert. Thus, it is desirable to have a hard and tough insert with good corrosion resistance.

Rock bit with cobalt alloy cemented tungsten carbide inserts


Verification of external interfaces of cores on system-on-chip (SOC) designs frequently entails the purchase of costly standardized software models to test the external interfaces. Typically, the standardized models provide more functionality than is needed. Instead of standardized models, test models may be developed and utilized, but this also incurs cost and delay. The present invention provides an efficient and economical alternative. A mirror interface, or copy of the external interface undergoing verification, is used with a standardized control mechanism to verify the external interface. Because all interface I/O connections can thereby be utilized, a cost-effective and highly reusable way of verifying such interfaces is provided.

The present invention relates generally to the verification of integrated circuit (IC) logic, and more particularly to a method and system for increasing the efficiency and re-usability of verification software.
Before ICs are released to market, the logic designs incorporated therein are typically subject to a testing and de-bugging process known as "verification." Verification of logic designs using simulation software allows a significant number of design flaws to be detected and corrected before incurring the time and expense needed to physically fabricate designs.
Software verification typically entails the use of software "models" of design logic. Such models may be implemented as a set of instructions in a hardware description language (HDL) such as Verilog®. or VHDL®. The models execute in a simulation environment and can be programmed to simulate a corresponding hardware implementation. The simulation environment comprises specialized software for interpreting model code and simulating the corresponding hardware device or devices. By applying test stimuli (typically in batches known as "test cases") to a model in simulation, observing the responses of the model and comparing them to expected results, design flaws can be detected and corrected.
Advances in technology have permitted logic designs to be packed with increased density into smaller areas of silicon as compared with past IC devices. This has led to "system-on-a-chip" (SOC) designs. The term "SOC" as used herein refers to combinations of discrete logic blocks, often referred to as "cores," each performing a different function or group of functions. A SOC integrates a plurality of cores into a single silicon device, thereby providing a wide range of functions in a highly compact form. Typically, a SOC comprises its own processor core (often referred to as an "embedded" processor), and will further comprise one or more cores for performing a range of functions often analogous to those of devices in larger-scale systems.
In its developmental stages a core is typically embodied as a simulatable HDL model written at some level of abstraction, or in a mixture of abstraction levels. Levels of abstraction that are generally recognized include a behavioral level, a structural level, and a logic gate level. A core may be in the form of a netlist including behavioral, structural and logic gate elements.
Verification of a SOC presents challenges because of the number of cores and the complexity of interactions involved, both between the cores internally to the SOC, and between the SOC and external logic. An acceptable level of verification demands that a great number of test cases be applied, both to individual components of the SOC, and to the cores interconnected as a system and interfacing with logic external to the SOC. There is a commensurate demand on computer resources and time. Accordingly, techniques which increase the efficiency of verification are at a premium.
According to one standard technique, already-verified models are used to test other models. The electronic design automation (EDA) industry has reached a level of sophistication wherein vendors offer standardized models for use in verification of other models still in development. In particular, such models are typically used for testing cores in a SOC that have external interfaces (i.e., communicate with logic external to the SOC). Such standardized models save the purchaser development resources, are typically well-tested and reliable, and are designed to have a wide range of applicability.
However, there are disadvantages associated with using standardized models. For instance, they can be very costly. Moreover, they can be very complex and provide much more functionality than is needed by the purchaser if only a subset of functions are required. Further, the standardized models must be integrated into existing verification systems, incurring more cost in terms of time and effort.
Alternatively to purchasing and using standardized models, designers may, of course, develop their own testing models. However, this is costly in terms of development time, with the typical result that such models are designed for limited application. Accordingly, they typically have limited functionality and re-usability.
An approach is needed to address the concerns noted in the foregoing.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method and system for logic verification using mirror interface

International Business Machines Corporation


A spherical container comprising an upper shell, a lower shell, a filter net and a connector. The connector, the upper shell and the lower shell form an airtight spherical cavity. The filter net is fixed within cavities of the connector. The upper surfaces and the lower surfaces of the connector are inwardly recessed to form upper locking slots and lower locking slots. The upper shell and the lower shell are formed respectively with upper locking portions and lower locking portions. Outer walls of the upper locking portions and of the lower locking portions are inwardly recessed to form upper grooves and lower grooves respectively. The connector is formed with upper hooks and lower hooks. Inner wall of the connector extends upwardly and downwardly to form buffer plates tightly fitted with inner walls of the upper shell and of the lower shell.

The present invention relates to a spherical container, and more specifically relates to a spherical container allowing rapid extraction. The spherical container allowing rapid extraction also enables convenient storage and extraction and achieves better extraction effect.
Coffee has become a beverage more and more popular during centuries of its development. Pressure brewed coffee is the most representative coffee beverage and it is now a brewed coffee which contains the best original taste. In the existing prior art, preparation of pressure brewed coffee requires specialized equipment and method. Since its preparation process is very elaborated and complicated, the taste of the pressure brewed coffee is much related to the skill of preparation. In particular, the taste is much related to the pressure, time and temperature during coffee extraction. Therefore, a cup of good tasting pressure brewed coffee costs a lot more time and money. Accordingly, pressure brewed coffee is not popular. Likewise, food ingredients such as tea leaves and soybean powder requiring extraction under high temperature and high pressure as in the case of coffee will only be made into brewed products not having a very good taste when the extraction of the food ingredients is done poorly due to improper skill and operation.

Spherical container allowing rapid extraction


An encapsulated endoscope system in accordance with the present invention comprises: an encapsulated endoscope that rotates to develop a thrust; a controller that moves the encapsulated endoscope in an intended direction of advancement; an imaging unit incorporated in the encapsulated endoscope; and an image processing unit that receives image data sent from the imaging unit, and produces an image, which results from rotation of the received image data, according to the rotational phase of the encapsulated endoscope.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an encapsulated endoscope system for driving and controlling an encapsulated endoscope that moves in a lumen by itself to image a region to be observed.
2. Description of the Related Art
For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2001-179700 discloses a movement control system for movable micro-machines. The movement control system comprises: a magnetic field generating section that generates a rotating magnetic field; a robot that rotates on receipt of the rotating magnetic field generated by the magnetic field generating section so as to develop a thrust; a position detecting section that detects the position of the robot; and a magnetic field deflecting section that changes the orientation of the rotating magnetic field generated by the magnetic field generating section so as to move the robot in the direction of a destination.

Encapsulated endoscope system in which endoscope moves in lumen by itself and rotation of image of region to be observed is ceased


To provide a fluoroether composition and a coating fluid that are able to form a surface layer having water/oil repellency, fingerprint stain removability and lubricity, and being excellent in abrasion resistance and light resistance, and an article having such a surface layer. A fluoroether composition, comprising: a specific compound (1) having a hydrolyzable silyl group at one terminal of a poly(oxyperfluoroalkylene) chain and a specific compound (2) having a plurality of hydrolyzable silyl groups at one terminal of a poly(oxyperfluoroalkylene) chain, wherein, in the fluoroether composition, the content of the compound (1) is from 10 to 90 mol %, to the total content of the compound (1) and the compound (2).

Fluorinated compounds show high lubricity, water/oil repellency, etc. and are thus useful for e.g. a surface treatment agent. For example, when a surface of a substrate is coated with a surface treatment agent so as to form a surface layer, e.g. lubricity and water/oil repellency are imparted to the surface of the substrate, whereby it becomes easier to wipe off stain on the surface of the substrate, and therefore stain removability will be improved. Among the fluorinated compounds, a fluoroether compound having a poly(oxyperfluoroalkylene) chain in which an ether bond (—O—) is present in the middle of a perfluoroalkyl chain, is excellent in fat and oil stain removability.
A surface treatment agent containing the fluoroether compound is useful in applications for which a performance of readily removing a fingerprint adhered to the surface by wiping (fingerprint stain removability) is required, such as a surface treatment agent for a member constituting a surface to be touched with a finger, of a touch panel.
Further, the surface layer formed on the surface of a substrate is required to have a performance that water/oil repellency is less likely to be lowered even if rubbed repeatedly with a finger (abrasion resistance). A touch panel (such as a digital signage for vending machines, guide plates, etc.) for outdoor use, a touch panel mounted on a vehicle, or the like, is required to have such a performance that water/oil repellency is less likely to be lowered even the panel is exposed to light for a long period of time (light resistance).
In order to impart abrasion resistance to the surface layer formed on the surface of a substrate, a hydrolyzable silyl group is introduced to a terminal of the fluoroether compound. The fluoroether compound having a hydrolyzable silyl group can be bonded to the surface of a substrate by a silanol group formed by decomposition of the hydrolyzable silyl group.
However, a fluoroether compound having one hydrolyzable silyl group at one terminal is bonded to the surface of the substrate only at one site, and therefore the abrasion resistance of the surface layer to be formed may be insufficient.                As a fluoroether compound or composition capable of forming a surface layer excellent in abrasion resistance, for example, the following are proposed.        A perfluoropolyether group-containing silane compound having three hydrolyzable silyl groups via a branch of Si at one terminal (Patent Document 1)        A composition containing a fluorinated organosilane compound having one hydrolyzable silyl group at one terminal and a fluorinated organosilane compound having hydrolyzable silyl groups at both terminals (Patent Document 2)

Fluoroether composition, coating fluid and article


A toy with a moving head has a seat, a front and a rear support respectively mounted on the seat, and a gear box provided between the front and rear supports. A series of gears and a series of actuating wheels are rotatably mounted in the gearbox. A first motor is connected to the gearbox and a head is connected to the gearbox. When the motor drives the gearbox, the head is raised and lowered by a set of actuating wheels and the head is shaken by a second set of actuating wheels. The jaw of the head also opens and closes to present a dynamic effect to attract people.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a toy with a moving head, and more particularly to a toy, which can raise, lower or shake its head to attract attention with its dynamic effect.
2. Description of the Related Art
At present, many kinds of dynamic toys exist in the market, such as shaking Christmas trees and toy fish with moving tails. However, in certain environments, these toys are limited by their dynamic effect.
Therefore, the invention provides a toy with a moving head to mitigate or obviate the aforementioned problems.


An ultrasound diagnosis apparatus according to an embodiment includes processing circuitry. The processing circuitry is configured: to generate a piece of reflected-wave data by performing a phased addition process while using reflected-wave signals generated by transmitting an ultrasound wave with respect to mutually the same scanning line; to speculate a degree of saturation of the reflected-wave signals observed before the phased addition process on the basis of a relationship between signals and noise in a data sequence represented by a set made up of pieces of the reflected-wave data; and to output a result of the speculation. The processing circuitry is configured to cause a display to display data based on the result of the speculation.

In recent years, for use in Color Flow Mapping (CFM) methods, a technique has been developed with which it is possible to display a small blood flow having low flowing velocity lower than the velocity of movements of the imaged patient, although such a display had conventionally been impossible as being hindered by tissues of the patient. For example, a blood flow imaging method employing an adaptive Moving Target Indicator (MTI) filter that uses an eigenvector has been disclosed. To implement this blood flow imaging method, a method has been disclosed by which a correlation matrix is calculated for an entire image so as to apply a single MTI filter matrix to the entire image, and another method has also been disclosed by which an image is separated into sections to calculate correlation matrices and to apply mutually-different MTI filter matrices to blocks.
When such a blood flow imaging method employing the adaptive MTI filter is implemented, a significant side lobe may be exhibited when signals are saturated. In particular, when a plane wave transmission or a diffuse wave transmission is performed, a problem arises where an arc-shaped artifact may occur. To cope with this problem, a method has been disclosed by which, for example, saturation is detected with respect to signals observed before a beam forming process.

Ultrasound diagnosis apparatus, medical image processing apparatus, and medical image processing method


A system for dynamically resizing information handling system images which dynamically resizes information handling system images and enables presentation of images (such as product images) at multiple sizes in a consistent compression/quality ratio without having to create a new offline batch process for each image dimension and without requiring manual image manipulation.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to information handling system images and more particularly to dynamically resizing information handling system images.
2. Description of the Related Art
As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
It is known to provide on-line stores with the capability to custom configure and order a particular system. Known on-line stores offer customers the ability to select and price key system options, the ability to include multiple systems on a single order, and the ability to provide information necessary for the placement of a standard system order.
It is known to provide the capability to self-select system options and then price the options provided via an on-line configurator. This configurator enables customer selection of key, system-defining components from a display of available system options for a chosen system. The capability to include multiple items in a single order is afforded by the presence of a "shopping cart", where the shopping cart represents an equivalent to the traditional shopping cart. The shopping cart enables customers to group disparate systems together as an order, as well as specify a quantity for each individual system to be included on the order. Furthermore, the capability to provide customer-specific information required for the placement of a standard order is provided via an on-line "checkout", the checkout including essentially a form for facilitating the capture of requested and required information. The checkout form includes simple logic rules to assure entry of the required fields.
On-line stores are an example of a system that presents images to a customer, e.g., during the process of ordering or configuring a product. Often a particular image may be presented as different sized images in various locations within the on-line store. So for example, one size of a particular image may be presented in one part of the on-line store while a different size of the particular image may be presented in another part of the online store. In known systems, each of these different sizes of the particular image are stored as separate files which are accessed by the on-line store. This can present an issue as certain applications can use many images where each of the images include many sizes all of which are stored for access by the application. Thus, the size of the storage can grow to be quite large. Also, management of all of the different sizes of a particular image can be challenging. For example, when a particular image is updated, each of the different sizes of the updated image should also be updated. Also, creating each of the different sizes for many images can be very time intensive, which can in turn slow down release of a new version of the application which is accessing the images.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a system for dynamically resizing images when multiple sizes of a particular image are needed by an application.

System for dynamically resizing information handling system images


A system used to recycle exhaust gas during olefin polymer production, comprising: a compression cooling mechanism (101); a hydrocarbon membrane separation mechanism (102) and a hydrogen membrane separation mechanism (103), both connected to a first outlet (202) of the compression cooling mechanism; and a deep cooling mechanism (104) connected to a first outlet (208) of the hydrogen membrane separation mechanism. A method used to recycle exhaust gas during olefin polymer production, comprising a compression cooling step, a hydrocarbon membrane separation step, a hydrogen membrane separation step and a deep cooling step.

In a process of olefin polymer production, unreacted hydrocarbon substances (ethylene, ethane, propylene, butylene, butane, isopentane, hexene, etc.), nitrogen gas, hydrogen gas, remaining catalysts and so on are dissolved in polyolefin resin discharged from a reaction system. These unreacted hydrocarbons and the hydrogen gas must be removed, and residual catalysts in the polyolefin resin must be deactivated so as to meet environmental protection standards and to ensure safety of downstream processes and products. Therefore, the polyolefin resin needs to be devolatilized so as to obtain a qualified product. An exhaust gas produced in a devolatilization process contains a large amount of hydrocarbon components. If the exhaust gas is directly discharged to a flare system for burning without being recycled, it will cause serious waste of raw materials and economic loss, and meanwhile it will cause environmental pollution and fail to meet a specified emission index. Therefore, exhaust gas recycling is an important process step in the olefin polymer production process.
The compression condensation method is a traditional gas separation process, which achieves gas separation by utilization of a difference in dew points of respective components in the exhaust gas. The compression condensation method has a simple process and a large processing amount, and has been widely used in polyolefin exhaust gas recycling. The compression condensation method mainly has the following disadvantages: the lower a content of condensable hydrocarbons in the exhaust gas is, the lower efficiency of the compression condensation method is; and it is difficult to recycle C1-C3 hydrocarbons whose boiling point is close to that of the nitrogen gas which is a purge gas, and a recycling rate of the C1-C3 hydrocarbons is generally not more than 30%. If it is desired to further improve the recycling rate of hydrocarbon components, it is needed to use a normal temperature refrigeration ice machine to input cooling energy to a recycling system to achieve a lower temperature in the recycling system, and a commonly used temperature is −10 to 35° C. If it is desired to further reduce the temperature, it is needed to use a cascade refrigeration ice machine or a mixed refrigerant refrigeration ice machine. However, a refrigeration ice machine requires relatively large investment, and an ice machine refrigeration system has high energy consumption and poor operation stability.
In the pressure swing adsorption method, monomers in a polyolefin exhaust gas are recycled by utilization of a physical absorption-desorption process. The pressure swing adsorption method is generally used in combination with the compression condensation method, and is arranged to follow a compression condensation section. Although the pressure swing adsorption method can further recycle the hydrocarbons based on the compression condensation method, the pressure swing adsorption method has complicated procedures and a large number of devices. Moreover, pressurizing and depressurizing in a great deal of absorption towers repeatedly require extra energy consumption and utilities, resulting in a significant increase in operating costs and investment.
For many gas phase polyethylene apparatuses at home and abroad, a membrane separation device has been added for separation and recycling of the exhaust gas. Patent CN202485331U discloses a method for recycling of a film separation tail gas. In this method, hydrocarbons are further recycled by a deep cooling manner on the basis of recycling of hydrocarbon substances in a membrane system, and this method is characterized in that pressure of the tail gas is used to perform work through a turbo expander to achieve a low temperature required for condensing light components such as ethylene. However, this method cannot be combined with the devolatilization process of a polyolefin technology in a satisfactory manner. For example, the tail gas discharged in this method has low pressure, and cannot be further recycled. Besides, for the case of a high content of a hydrogen gas, recycling of the purge gas may cause accumulation of the hydrogen gas in the system, resulting in a series of problems such as a decrease in recycling efficiency.
Patent CN102161715B discloses a method for degassing a solid polymer and recycling an effluent gas. In this method for recycling the effluent gas, a gas membrane separation device is arranged to follow a compression condensation device, and the method for recycling the effluent gas is characterized in that high pressure of the effluent gas after compression is used to remove a small molecule gas or to further recycle a solvent and unreacted monomers in an uncondensed gas by the membrane separation device. By using this method, more than 95% of the solvent and the unreacted monomers can be recycled, and meanwhile recycling of a degassing medium can be realized. In this way, more than 5% energy can be saved by this method than by a conventional effluent gas recycling method.
Although recycling of hydrocarbons and nitrogen gas can be realized in the above methods, the following problems cannot be solved: the compression condensation device requires a normal temperature refrigeration ice machine as refrigeration equipment; and maintenance of power equipment is difficult, and the power equipment has high investment cost, affects operation stability, and increases separation energy consumption. Therefore, it has great economic benefits and practical significance to invent a system and a method for recycling a polyolefin exhaust gas which can efficiently recycle respective components in the exhaust gas and avoid using the ice machine as the refrigeration equipment.

System and method used to recycle exhaust gas during olefin polymer production


A circuit presented automatically controls sound level. Sudden peak signal levels are controlled with a fast time constant of response and the overall sound level is controlled with a slower time constant of response. The feature can be enabled or disabled by the user via a microprocessor responsive to a remote control.

The sound output level from a television receiver can vary with changes of channel and/or program. Such a situation is considered by many users to be disturbing, and sometimes readjustment of the volume control is desired. For such situations, an automatic sound level control can enhance user comfort.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide apparatus for the automatic control of sound level when there is a variation in the sound output level between channels and/or programs.

Dual action automatic sound level control


A pharmaceutical composition includes polymer units α and β, each having a hydrophilic polymer chain bound to a cationic polymer chain, and a drug. The polymer units α and β are radially arranged such that the cationic polymer chains are directed inward and the hydrophilic polymer chains are directed outward, thereby forming a micelle with the drug encapsulated in the micelle. The cationic polymer chain of the polymer unit α has a phenylboronic acid group in a side chain, and the cationic polymer chain of the polymer unit β has a phenylboronic acid binding site in a side chain. The phenylboronic acid group and the phenylboronic acid binding site form a cross-linked structure that can dissociate in an acidic environment and/or in the presence of a substance capable of competitive binding.

Biological pharmaceuticals that utilize a biopolymer, such as a protein or a nucleic acid, are easily degraded by enzymes or eliminated by the immune system as compared to conventional pharmaceuticals that utilize low-molecular-weight compounds. In order to improve the delivery of such biological drugs to an affected area, drug delivery systems (DDS) have been developed that use polyamino acid-based block copolymers. An aim of this prior work has been to provide a carrier that achieves both stability in blood (retention properties of the biological drugs) and drug-releasing properties in a target cell, and further improvements are required in order to achieve excellent compatibility thereof.

KAWASAKI INSTITUTE OF INDUSTRIAL PROMOTION


An airbag cushion having a novel seam structure including either a tri-stitch fold-over seam structure or a double-stitch fold-over seam structure. The novel seam structure allows airbag cushions to be manufactured by using low tenacity yarns, preferably in the range of between about 40 cN/tex and about 65 cN/tex.

Airbag systems function by employing a sensor to detect a collision event, which triggers an inflator component to inflate the airbag cushion at high pressure. As a result of this process, the airbag cushion is subjected to a sudden and violent increase in gas pressure, which is then compounded by the impact of a vehicle occupant exerting external pressure against the airbag cushion. In order for the airbag cushion to protect occupants in a vehicle, it is necessary for the airbag to exhibit high burst strength.
Heretofore, various attempts have been made to manufacture an airbag cushion that is strong, robust, and exhibits high burst strength. One generally accepted method for manufacturing such cushions is by utilizing high tenacity multifilament yarns having tenacity of greater than 8.0 grams/denier (g/den).
Japanese unexamined patent publication no. 4-5,145 teaches a non-circular airbag made from hollow weave fabrics having an axis length thereof in a direction at a bias angle of 45 degrees from the warp direction, corresponding to 70 to 95% of the axis length thereof in the warp and weft direction.
Japanese unexamined patent publication no. 4-43,143 discloses an airbag made from non-circular hollow weave fabric pieces having a longer axis in a direction inclined at a bias angel from the warp or weft direction than an axis in the warp direction of the fabric pieces.
These attempts are based on the idea that a starting point in bursting of the airbag cushion resides in a seam-joining portion in a circumferential edge portion of the cushion, and provided a cushion made from non-circular woven fabric pieces having shorter axis in a bias direction than that in the warp or weft direction, to enhance the burst strength of the seam-joining portion.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,470,106 discloses the use of a woven fabric apron at the area surrounding the inflator connection to improve burst strength. Other attempts to improve burst strength have included the use of adhesive means to reinforce the weaker areas of the airbag. U.S. Pat. No. 5,296,278 teaches that bags having yarns with tensile strength measurements of less than 8.0 g/den (approximately 70 cN/tex or centi Newton/tex) do not perform well. This reference also discloses a means for applying silicone rubber at the seams to prevent fraying of the coated fabric to prevent failure at the seams.
Most of the efforts to improve the burst strength of airbag cushions have been focused on using high tenacity yarns, occasionally in combination with some other means or method for increasing seam strength. However, none of the prior art has provided an airbag cushion having a novel seam and low tenacity yarns in combination to provide high burst strength. One advantage to using low tenacity yarns in airbag cushion applications is that low tenacity yarns generally may be manufactured or purchased at a lower cost than high tenacity yarns.


Rotary positive displacement internal combustion two stroke engine with only one major moving part, i.e. engine's eccentric shaft, with cylinders encompassing eccentrics of the shaft, with said eccentrics being suitably sealed in said cylinders, wherein combustion gases exert force directly on said eccentrics of said eccentric shaft. Gas forces can be nullified by suitably phasing shaft's eccentrics, thus nullifying gas forces loading shaft's bearings. The engine is naturally perfectly balanced. The engine possesses natural self-cleaning capability, and is capable of being fueled by coal dust. Units of the type developing 2 000 MW and 3 000-3 6000 rev/min, intended to replace steam turbines in power stations, can be built.

Existing successful heat engines are steam turbines, gas turbines and positive displacement engines (reciprocating piston and rotary Wankel) utilizing various thermodynamic cycles (Diesel (or rather Sabathe), Otto and Stirling cycle). These engines, although now having been developed for more than century (almost 2 centuries in the case of Stirling), still stop short from fulfilling the requirements imposed on prime movers by modern economy. Thus steam turbines require huge steam boilers and steam condensers and are troublesome to exploit, therefore their applications are restricted to power plants and propulsion of ships and some other heavy machinery. Moreover the overall efficiency of steam turbine power plants is significantly inferior to that of large Diesel engines. Most important advantage of steam turbines over other known heat engines is their ability to cope with large outputs, approximately 2 000 MW in largest units, i.e. 25 times the output of largest reciprocating engines. Another important advantage of power plants utilizing steam turbines is their multi-fuel capability.
Gas turbines, thermal efficiency of which can achieve even 55% in large units destined for power generation and industrial applications (which in fact are compound heat machines with large heat exchanger), usually, particularly in small units, display much poorer figure than positive displacement engines, are more complicated technologically and more expensive, and therefore are unlikely to earn as dominant position as Diesels enjoy today due to these and other well-known inherent drawbacks and limitations. Moreover, gas turbines require high quality, expensive fuels, and their ability to accept cheap solid particulate fuels (mainly pulverized coal) is problematic, due to unacceptably low durability of turbine's blades coming in contact with unburned hard solid particulates produced by burning pulverized coal.
Thus positive displacement engines still have important advantages over turbines that render them irreplaceable for most applications.
Most common positive displacement engine in use (and in fact most common heat engine), Diesel engine, achieves maximum overall efficiency of slightly beyond 50% (large stationary or marine units, which again are compound heat machines comprising Diesel engine, turbocharger, supercharging air cooler and auxiliary power turbine), and average Diesel efficiency is merely ˜40%, a poor figure in comparison with 70-75% originally assumed by its inventor in late 19th century. Thermal efficiency of Diesel cycle rises with the compression ratio, but this method for improving overall efficiency of real Diesel engines is negated by friction loses generated by various engine's kinetic couples loaded with the gas force (piston-connecting rod, crosshead-slider, connecting rod-crankshaft, crankshaft-engine's body) rapidly rising with loads of engine's mechanism. Moreover, conventional connecting rod—crank mechanism's strength becomes a concern in highly loaded Diesel engines.
Another well-known positive displacement heat engine is the (external combustion) Stirling engine. This engine is closest to the ideal Carnot engine in terms of thermal efficiency, and another important advantage over known internal combustion engines is its capability to utilize various sources of thermal energy. However, Stirling engine is expensive to manufacture and troublesome to maintain, and this renders it considerably inferior to internal combustion engine in most applications, and prevents from earning wide acceptance. Moreover, Stirling engine shares with diesels main disadvantages of reciprocating engines mentioned above.
There are many non-conventional designs of heat engines (most of them focusing on transforming gas force into driving torque of rotating shaft), e.g. rotary engines like Wankel, recently patented quasi turbine (see U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,164,263 and 6,899,075), spherical engines (see U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,325,038, and 6,941,900, and Russian patent 2,227,211) and oscillating pivotal engine (see www.PivotalEngine.com). However, so far none of those non-conventional engines, with Wankel-type engine being the only exception of economically (but certainly not conceptually) marginal importance, was successful, and probably none of them includes any chance to even go beyond the stage of prototyping. Technically, this is due to the fact that the answer to the principal question any new engine is obliged to answer: "Does the new engine do its work better than conventional one?" is decidedly negative for all those non-conventional designs, including Wankel's. Even the answer to the more general question: "Does the new engine do its work in any aspect better than conventional one?" is negative for almost all non-conventional engines. (In the case of the Wankel engine, the answer to this more general question is positive, but superiority of Wankel over conventional engines in certain aspects (great power/weight and power/volume ratios, kinetic simplicity and smoothness of operation) is overshadowed by its inherent drawbacks (weak structure, inability to cope with large outputs, inferior efficiency, weakness of sealing, inherent inability to incorporate high compression ratios and to cope with large outputs)). Conceptually, this is mainly due to the fact that those new engine designs (e.g. quasi turbine) focus on certain isolated aspects of heat engine while ignoring some other aspects (e.g. sealing, mechanical strength and reliability).
For example, recently patented positive displacement rotary engine, quasi-turbine, is complex both kinetically and structurally, its moving elements of complicated shapes are likely to be subjected to excessive thermal stresses and renders the engine weak structurally and more difficult to seal than Wankel engine; thus the engine is unlikely to do well the job of heat engine (it would be better as pump or compressor). Some other rotary engines (e.g. satellite engine, see publication WO9618024) use toothed wheels to transfer the pistons movement to rotary motion of engine's shaft. This not only makes these engines complex but also unreliable, as engine's elements that meet along a line are not well suited to bear shock loads met with in internal combustion engines.
Fuel cell is a very promising source of power for many applications, but it seems improbable it will become appropriate for applications where high power density and large power are essential in any foreseeable future.
Electricity is most often generated by electromechanical generators, primarily driven by heat engines fueled by combustible fuels like coal dust, or nuclear fission, but also by other means such as water turbines utilizing kinetic energy of flowing water. Capability of achieving large powers (250-2000 MW), revolving very fast (3000-3600 rev/min) to be able to directly (i.e. without the necessity of being augmented by large multiplication gears, which would be impractical if not impossible) drive generators, and capability of being fueled by cheap solid fuels like coal dust, are well known to be essential requirements for heat engines destined for applications in power plants. By now only steam turbines or closed cycle turbines (e.g. utilizing helium as a motive fluid) are capable of fulfilling these requirements. Contemporary reciprocating internal combustion engines are well known to hardly accept fueling by coal dust due to unacceptably rapid wear of engine's moving parts caused by unburned solid hard particulates produced by combustion of such fuel (some attempts have been made to fuel reciprocating internal combustion engines by coal dust (see for example U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,052,963, 4,056,080, 4,070,996, 4,070,997, 4,086,883, all assigned to Sulzer Bros. Ltd.), but, up to my knowledge, none of these attempts was a success; to be more specific, the problem of fueling Diesel engine by coal dust is only partially solved: the problem of supplying coal dust to engine's cylinder in precisely metered portions seems to be satisfactorily solved, while removing unburned solid particulates from engine's cylinder is still a serious challenge).
Moreover maximum power achieved by reciprocating engines is approximately 80-87 MW (Wartsila-Sulzer RTA96-C or largest MAN-B&W 14-cylinder engines weighing ˜2300 metric tons), and largest reciprocating engines are not capable to revolve faster than approximately 100 rev/min due to large inertia mass forces generated by heavy reciprocating engine's parts (piston, piston rod, crosshead, and connecting rod, total weight of which amounts to tens of tons multiplied by the number of engine's cylinders), poor figures in comparison with steam turbines; all these drawbacks render reciprocating internal combustion engines impractical as far as large scale power generation is concerned. Note, that increasing rotational speed of the RTA96 engine mentioned above to 3000 rev/min would increase its output to more than 2500 MW, a goal that obviously cannot be achieved due to at least 30-fold increase of mass forces that would inevitably have destroyed the engine (of course there are also other well known obstacles).
Thus there is a need for highly efficient internal combustion engine capable of being fueled by coal dust (which is the cheapest combustible fuel), and capable of developing very large power comparable to largest steam turbines, while revolving at 3000-3600 revolutions per minute.
It is to be stressed that none of the non-conventional engine designs in United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and European Patent Office (EPO) patent data bases offers satisfactory mechanical structure of the ICE suitable for coping with extreme large power and high rotary speed while assuring engine's compactness and good sealing. Moreover, none of the known positive-displacement internal combustion engines approaches highly desirable kinetic simplicity of gas turbines.

Rotary two-stroke internal combustion engine fueled by solid particulate


A device for inducing alternating tactile stimulations in a human subject is disclosed. The device includes a first vibrating element and a second vibrating element connected to a controller. The subject holds the first vibrating element in one hand and the second vibrating element in the other hand. When the device is activated the following occurs in sequence: the first vibrating element vibrates, pauses, the second vibrating element vibrates, pauses, the first vibrating element vibrates, pauses, the second vibrating element vibrates, pauses, and so forth, until the device is deactivated. The first and second vibrating elements are preferably of a hand-held size and shape. The controller has several operating features including: (a) a vibration-duration control which regulates and controls the duration, and thereby intensity, of vibrations (typically 50 to 200 milliseconds), and (b) a pause-duration control which regulates and controls the length of the pause between vibrations (typically 100 to 2000 milliseconds). The controller has a visual display module with: (a) left and right blinking indicators which are synchronized to the activation of the first and second vibrating elements, and (b) a counter display which shows a count of the number of times the first and second vibrating elements have cycled.

1. Field of Invention
The present invention is a device for inducing alternating tactile stimulations in a subject. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is generally characterized by anxiety attacks, sleep disturbances, flashbacks, and other symptoms which relate to a prior traumatic event. PTSD is particularly common to victims of physical and sexual assault, and to war veterans. Traditional treatments for PTSD, such as "flooding" and "systematic desensitization" have met with limited success.
Recently a new treatment for PTSD was discovered, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), where the EMDR therapist instructs the client to recall a picture from the traumatic event, identify related negative thoughts/beliefs, notice associated body sensations, and move their eyes rapidly back and forth. Before, during and after this procedure the client is asked for their subjective level of disturbance. It has been found that after EMDR treatment, traumatized clients report significantly reduced levels of PTSD symptoms.
There are three variations of the EMDR procedure. The first variation is the procedure as stated above, using rapid eye movements. The other two variations are identical to the above in every way except that they involve alternatives to rapid eye movements. One variation involves the use of soft, alternating tones. For example, tone in right ear, then left ear, then right ear, then left ear and so forth. The other variation involves the use of gentle, alternating tactile stimulation of the client's hands, knees, shoulders, feet, or other bilateral body parts. For example, the therapist can gently touch the client's right hand, left hand, right hand, left hand, and so forth. All three EMDR procedure variations (rapid eye movements, alternating tones, and alternating tactile stimulations) appear to produce the same beneficial treatment effects.
Clients tend to have a preference for one variation or another. Some will choose one because they like it, or because they do not like the alternatives. For example, some clients prefer to process their traumatic memories with eyes closed (ruling out eye movements), and some prefer processing trauma in a quiet environment (ruling out alternating tones). Some clients prefer the tactile stimulation because it helps them feel more grounded. Sometimes intense crying interferes with the client's ability to maintain rapid eye movements making it necessary to switch to tones or tactile stimulations in mid-session. Children may have attention spans too short for processing trauma with eye movements, necessitating an alternative. Client handicaps, such as blindness or deafness, may also rule out one or more procedure variations. It is recommended that EMDR therapists be flexible and open to the varying needs and preferences of clients when deciding which variation to use at a given moment. All three variations are useful and have a necessary place in EMDR therapy.
2. Discussion of Prior Art
Most clients find it difficult to maintain rapid eye movements without assistance. Because of this, clients are usually asked to track the therapist's hand or fingers moving rapidly back and forth across the client's field of vision. Some therapists have reported disadvantages to this method, such as difficulty maintaining constant both rate of speed and straightness of path. A device for overcoming this problem has been invented by David L. Wilson (U.S. Pat. No. 5,343,261, Aug. 30, 1994). Wilson's device for inducing saccadic eye movements involves a series of evenly-spaced light emitting diodes (LEDs) on a horizontal bar. In use, the LEDs blink on and off in a linear sequence, back and forth across the bar. By tracking the blinking LEDs many clients can easily maintain the rapid eye movements. Wilson's invention also includes a means for generating alternating tones.
While Wilson's invention is useful, it only assists EMDR therapists with two of the three EMDR procedure variations, and does not induce alternating tactile stimulations. Currently EMDR therapists manually induce them by tapping on the client. There are several disadvantages to doing this:
(a) The therapist has to lean over to physically touch the client. A full session of bending over may require that the therapist maintain an uncomfortable posture for a prolonged period. (EMDR sessions are typically 1-2 hours long.) Over days, weeks, and months this can lead to chronic discomfort and muscle strain. PA1 (b) During EMDR therapy, the therapist must pay attention to both verbal and non-verbal communications from the client. It is sometimes difficult to do this while counting right and left taps. (The standard EMDR protocol has recommended guidelines for the number of saccadic eye movements, tones, or taps in a treatment set.) PA1 (c) Some clients feel threatened when touched. If a therapist taps on such a client he/she risks compromising the therapeutic alliance and ultimately client progress. PA1 (d) Some clients may construe the therapist's touch as a sexual overture, leaving clinicians vulnerable to complications in the therapeutic process and possibly lawsuits. PA1 (a) A therapist using this device can sit in a comfortable and relaxed posture instead of holding, for extended periods, the awkward postures necessary for manually tapping on clients. PA1 (b) During each treatment set the invention counts and clearly displays the number of induced tactile stimulations for the therapist. Therefore, a therapist using this device can focus entirely on listening to and watching the client. No additional attention is needed for counting. PA1 (c) With this device a therapist can induce alternating tactile stimulations with clients who might otherwise feel threatened by the therapist's touch. PA1 (d) With this device a therapist can induce alternating tactile stimulations in a non-intimate, non-personal way. Therefore, clients will be unlikely to perceive the implementation of this EMDR procedure variation as a sexual overture. PA1 (e) A therapist can adjust the device's duration and pause controls to suit the individual preferences of clients.

Device for inducing alternating tactile stimulations


A connection structure of a coaxial cable to an electric circuit substrate, having a cable block connected to a ground line of the electric circuit substrate and a coaxial cable whose shield is connected to the cable block.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a structure of connecting a coaxial cable to an electric circuit substrate and a structure of connecting a coaxial cable to an electric circuit substrate preferably applied to an electric device testing apparatus for testing a semiconductor integrated circuit element and other variety of electric devices (hereinafter, also simply referred to as an IC).
2. Description of the Related Art
An electronic devices testing apparatus called a xe2x80x9chandlerxe2x80x9d conveys a large number of ICs held on a tray to inside of a testing apparatus where the ICs are pressed against socket terminals connected to a test head, then the IC testing unit (tester) is made to perform a test. When the test is ended, the ICs are conveyed out from the test procedure and reloaded on trays in accordance with results of the tests so as to classify them into categories of good ICs and defective ones.
Here, a socket board 505 (an electric circuit substrate) of the test heads is connected to a coaxial cable 506 shown in FIG. 5. In the related art, a coaxial cable was connected to a socket board by soldering a core wire 506a of the coaxial cable 506 to the socket board 505 and a jumper cable J soldered to the socket board 505 and a shield 506b of the coaxial cable 506 were twisted together and soldered. By connecting a large number of such coaxial cables 506 to the socket board 505, sending and receiving of test signals is performed between the tester and the test head at the time of pressing ICs against socket terminals.
In the above connection structure of a coaxial cable to a socket board in the related art, however, since the core wire 506a constituting a signal line and the jumper cable J constituting an earth line were connected one to one, a space S between the core wire 506a and the jumper cable J needs to be at least 2 to 3 mm, so there was a disadvantage that a packaging density of the coaxial cable 506 could not be made higher.
Also, since an earth line was configured by connecting the jumper cable J and the shield 506b, the earth line inevitably became long, consequently, there was a disadvantage that inductance of a high frequency range increased and frequency characteristics declined.
Furthermore, there was a disadvantage that consistency of impedance of a signal was poor since exposing portions of an insulation body 506c of the core wire was large and not covered by the shield 506b.
An object of the present invention is to provide a connection structure of a coaxial cable to an electric circuit substrate which can heighten a packaging density of coaxial cables and has excellent electric characteristics.
According to the present invention, there is provided a connection structure of a coaxial cable to an electric circuit substrate, comprising a cable block connected to a ground line of the electric circuit substrate and a coaxial cable wherein the ground line is connected to said cable block.
In this connection structure, since a ground line of a coaxial cable is connected to a ground line of an electric circuit substrate via a cable block connected to the ground line of the electric circuit substrate, a plurality of coaxial cables can be grounded by one cable block. Accordingly, an area occupied by the ground line of the electric circuit substrate becomes smaller and a higher packaging density of coaxial cables becomes attainable. Also, since the ground line of the coaxial cable is directly connected to the cable block, the length of the ground line becomes shorter and frequency characteristics improves. Furthermore, by directly connecting the ground line of the coaxial cable to the cable block, the core wire is covered by the ground line to the end of the coaxial cable, as a result, consistency of impedance of signals becomes preferable.
It is not particularly limited in the above invention, but the cable block preferably has a concave portion in accordance with an outward form of the coaxial cable, and the ground line of the coaxial cable is connected to the concave portion.
By setting an outward form of the coaxial cable in a concave portion of the cable block at the time of connecting the ground line of the coaxial cable to the cable block, a position of the core wire of the coaxial cable can be made accurate.
Also, it is not particularly limited in the above invention, but the core wire of the above coaxial cable is preferably connected to a land of a signal line of the above electric circuit substrate.
By connecting the core wire of the coaxial cable to the land of the signal line, connection bias becomes small and a capacity can be made small.
Particularly, as explained above, since the position of the core wire of the coaxial cable is accurately determined by setting the ground line of the coaxial cable in the concave portion in the cable block, relative position with respect to the land of the signal line can be also made accurate.
Also, it is not particularly limited in the above invention, but preferably, the above cable block is formed a conductive material layer, for example, a copper plating layer on a surface of the substrate.
By making a plating layer by a conductive material having a large heat capacity, a temperature rising speed at the time of soldering.
Further scope of the applicability of the present invention will become apparent from the detailed description given hereinafter. However, it should be understood that the detailed description and specific examples, while indicating preferred embodiments of the invention, are given by way of illustration only, since various changes and modifications within the spirit and scope of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from this detailed description.

Connection structure of coaxial cable to electric circuit substrate


A collaboration server determines a response to a posting on a communication forum. The collaboration server determines whether or not to convey an email notification to a posting user via email based upon a distance threshold established for email notifications. The distance threshold is an integer value. The collaboration server calculates a current distance between the response and the posting, where the current distance represents a quantity of responses to the posting from forum participants that have occurred without a new response from the posting user being submitted to the communication forum. Responsive to the current distance being less than the distance threshold, an email is conveyed to an email account of the posting user informing the posting user of the response. Otherwise, no email is conveyed.

The present invention relates to the field of communication forums and email notifications sent for postings to communication forums.
Many communication forums exist where users can submit posts, view posts from others, and respond to posts from others. These communication forums are often managed by a collaboration server. The communication forums may be accessible via a Web browser accessing a Web site served by the collaboration server or may be accessible through a client-side application interface linked to the collaboration server. The collaboration server can be a chat server, a workflow management system server, a project management server, a software configuration management server, an intranet server, and the like.
Regardless of the specific nature of the collaboration server, one feature of the collaboration server may include email notifications, which are generated by postings and/or responses to postings submitted to the communication forum. System users may receive overwhelming volumes of these notifications, which decreases their effectiveness.
For example, an IBM Rational Team Concert® server is a collaboration server (specifically a software configuration management server, for permitting a team to collaborate on work items). Using the server, one or more colleagues can provide a comment or description for a specific work item, where each work item is often a software defect or issue to be resolved by a collaborating team. These comments or descriptions on work items may be considered (for purposes of this disclosure) posts to the communication forum. IBM Rational Team Concert® permits a "mail configuration", which sends an email notification to a user based on notification generating actions linked to the communication forum. For example, an email notification can be sent when new comments are added to a work item, when a summary or description of a work item is changed, when a severity, priority, or planned for attribute of a work item is changed, when an owner of a work items is changed, when a subscriber is added or removed to a work item, and the like. It is not unusual for some developers to receive fifty email notifications a day from an IBM Rational Team Concert® server. Business developers, receiving fifty email messages from the collaboration server, often ignore these messages or give them a decreased urgency, which results in these developers not being timely informed about important items.

Using distance from a forum posting as criteria to selectively convey email notifications or not

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION


A rodder assembly to be moved through an underground conduit includes a tube adapted to receive fluid under pressure. In some embodiments the rodder assembly includes at least one rigid rod, and a nozzle is attached to the tube to discharge fluid from the tube.

Duct or conduit rodders are devices which are inserted into underground conduits to clear a path in the conduit so that a cable may be placed into the conduit. Specifically, a duct rodder, which is a rod typically made of fiberglass, is pushed into an underground conduit, for example at a manhole, and is intended to extend to a second manhole which could possibly be a thousand feet or more away from the first manhole. During that process, it is the intent that the rod will move any obstruction, such as dirt, mud, or other cables already in the conduit, out of the way. Then at the second manhole, a tape or rope is attached to the rod, and the rod is then pulled back through the conduit exposing the tape at the first manhole. At that time, a cable which is to be placed in the conduit is attached to the tape, and the cable may be inserted into the conduit by pulling on the tape at the location of the second manhole.
A problem with these rodders is that they tend to flex or undulate as they move through the conduit which limits the distance that they are effective. This problem is magnified if there are obstructions in the conduit which cause potential additional flexing. As such, the rodders could become lodged in the conduit rendering their effort fruitless, or at a minimum, they are only usable for short manhole runs of four to six hundred feet at most.
Thus, the need exists for a duct rodder that can extend through a conduit without being obstructed and without flexing or undulating.


A stationary machine tool column supports a spindle head to be movable in an axial direction of the spindle. A table on which a workpiece is mounted is moved in directions orthogonal to the axial direction of the spindle. A cutting liquid feed device is fixed to the column through a support member and includes a cutting liquid nozzle and a shower nozzle. The cutting liquid nozzle is adapted to discharge cutting liquid toward a tool mounted to the spindle. The shower nozzle is adapted todischarge cutting liquid as a curtain of fluid to surround a cutting area.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an apparatus for preventing chips resulting from cutting a workpiece with a machine tool and/or a cutting liquid from being scattered.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A problem with a machine tool is that chips resulting from cutting a workpiece are scattered, leading to the degradation of a working environment. When the machine tool uses a cutting liquid for cutting the workpiece, the cutting liquid is also scattered. Further, the scattered cutting liquid becomes mist, leading to the pollution of a surrounding environment.
In particular, addition of various additives to the cutting liquid has been recently conducted for the purpose of providing an improved machinability, an increased cutting accuracy, an extended life of a cutting tool and so on. As a result, although the improvement on cutting conditions and the reduction in cutting time or the like are attainable, rubber and resin-made parts of the machine tool are damaged under the influence of these additives, resulting in the development of defects in some cases.
In addition, how to reduce the effect on the environment with the increasing production is generally at issue. From this point of view, a demand for preventing the chips and/or cutting liquid from being scattered is increasing particularly in the field of cutting performed with the machine tool.
FIG. 11 is a view showing a general configuration of a conventional machine tool having been realized in consideration of prevention of the chips and/or cutting liquid from being scattered. In FIG. 11, there is shown an instance of a machine tool that employs a mist collector for collecting a misty cutting liquid.
A spindle head 2 is mounted to a column 1 through a translation guide 15 in such a manner as to be movable in an axial direction of a spindle 13. A spindle unit 14 is mounted to the spindle head 2. The spindle unit 14 has the spindle 13, to which one of various tools 4 exchangeable by a tool exchanger 3 is mounted. The tool 4 mounted to the spindle 13 revolves at various revolving rates together with the spindle 13 to make a relative movement with respect to a workpiece 6 in various manners suited to cutting modes, thereby cutting the workpiece 6. The workpiece 6 is fixed in place on a table 5 supported in such a manner as to be movable in two directions (X- and Y-axis directions) orthogonal to the axial direction (Z-axis direction) of the spindle 13.
The spindle head 2 has a plurality of nozzles 22. A cutting liquid pump 20 is adapted to feed a cutting liquid from a cutting liquid tank 11 to the plurality of nozzles 22 through a cutting liquid hose 21. The cutting liquid is discharged through the nozzles 22 from the side of the spindle 13 to a plurality of predetermined positions of the tool 4. The reason why the plurality of nozzles 22 is required is that an exchange of tools involves a choice of a suitable tool among a plurality of tools, so that the cutting liquid needs to be fed to proper positions depending on the shape of the chosen tool.
When the cutting liquid hits against the revolving tool, it scatters and then becomes misty. If the revolving tool is a small-diameter tool, the cutting liquid becomes relatively less misty. However, when a large-diameter tool such as a milling cutter is used, or the cutting liquid discharged through the nozzles 22 directed to the tip end of a small-length tool hits against a large-diameter holder part of a large-length tool, it is feared that the cutting liquid yields a large quantity of mist, which is then sent to the outside of the machine tool in a scattered manner.
In this connection, in order to prevent the cutting liquid from being scattered, a cutting section of the machine tool is covered with a splash guard 23, and a mist collector is provided to collect the scattered misty cutting liquid with a duct 25. The splash guard 23 has a door 24.
The door 24 is closed while the workpiece 6 is being cut. The cutting liquid pump 20 is adapted to feed the cutting liquid from the cutting liquid tank 11 to the plurality of nozzles 22 through the cutting liquid hose 21, and the cutting liquid is discharged through the nozzles 22 toward the revolving tool 4. In this manner, the tool 4 cuts the workpiece 6.
Streams of the cutting liquid running out of a cutting area and relatively large mass droplets of the cutting liquid and/or the chips are returned into the cutting liquid tank 11 along the inside of the splash guard 23. On the other hand, the finely misty cutting liquid is exhausted through the duct 25 placed at an upper part of the machine tool, together with air being drawn into the splash guard 23 through an opening provided in a lower part of the machine tool. Although not shown, a structure is adopted, in which the misty cutting liquid having been sent to the mist collector is drained into the cutting liquid tank through a filter and/or a centrifugal separator, thereby permitting circulation of the cutting liquid.
Use of the splash guard 23 may suppress the leakage of the resultant misty cutting liquid from the machine tool to the outer circumference thereof to a large extent, while the machine tool is continuously in operation. However, it is feared that the machine tool develops defects therein in some cases under the influence of the cutting liquid and/or the chips. In such a case and/or on termination of the cutting, the door 24 needs to be opened for setup of the next cutting. It takes much time to sufficiently ventilate air in the machine tool closed up with the splash guard 23 and the door 24. For this reason, if the door is opened immediately after the termination of the cutting, the misty cutting fluid would run out of the machine tool through an opened door portion, resulting in the pollution of the outside of the machine tool with the cutting liquid and/or the chips.
Specifically, the scattered cutting liquid and/or chips exert the following influences on the machine tool and others.                Adhesion of the chips to an empty tool pot or a standby tool of the tool exchanger makes a tool exchange operation difficult, leading to the degradation of a cutting accuracy.        When the cutting liquid and/or chips are scattered on the inside of the machine tool, adhesion of the scattered cutting liquid and/or chips to a window of the splash guard makes it impossible to check to see the inner conditions of the machine tool.        Adhesion of the cutting liquid to resin- or rubber-made parts degrades (such as swelling and hardening) these parts, whose mechanical properties will be lost, leading to damages to these parts.        Adhesion of the cutting liquid to a machine tool portion coated with grease degrades or sweeps away the grease, leading to the development of defects attributable to an insufficient lubrication.        An operator who opened the door in front of the machine tool may inhale the misty cutting liquid.        When the cutting liquid is released out of the machine tool, adhesion of the released cutting liquid to a floor surface creates a dangerous slippery working environment.
In this connection, there is provided a variety of methods for preventing the chips and/or cutting liquid from being scattered, in addition to the above method that employs the splash guard and the mist collector. For instance, in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 62-74546 and No. 2000-94261 and Japanese Utility Model Registration No. 2592097, a method is disclosed, in which there is provided a spindle head mounted with a cutting liquid feed device, which is adapted to discharge a cutting liquid in a circular shape, thereby allowing the cutting liquid to provide a shower curtain for preventing the cutting liquid and/or the chips from being scattered.
In the above conventional method wherein a shower is formed with cutting liquid around the tool and the spindle in order to prevent the cutting liquid and/or chips from being scattered, the cutting liquid feed device for providing the shower curtain of the cutting liquid is mounted to the spindle head. For this reason, the weight of a spindle part increases, resulting in the degradation of the acceleration/deceleration performance of the spindle part, which leads to a decreased productivity. The above method also needs to stop the feed of the cutting liquid in case of exchanging the tool. Accordingly, it is feared that the misty cutting liquid having been confined in the shower curtain might be scattered outward. It is also feared that the cutting might be started before a shower curtain is formed again subsequent to the exchange of the tool, thereby causing the misty cutting liquid to be scattered into the splash guard. If an operator starts cutting on confirming the formation of a shower curtain subsequent to the exchange of the tool in order to prevent the misty cutting liquid from being scattered, a cutting time will be prolonged, leading to the decreased productivity.
Furthermore, in the above method, the cutting liquid feed device is moved together with the spindle during the cutting operation, so that a distance between the cutting liquid feed device and the workpiece varies. Although a length of the shower curtain also varies with the movement of the cutting liquid feed device as the spindle is moved in the axial direction thereof, the volume of a space enclosed with the shower curtain tends to be kept constant. Thus, a variation in shower curtain shape occurs. As a result, the above method involves a problem in that when the spindle is moved away from the workpiece, for instance, shrinkage of the shower curtain (in other words, shrinkage of a sectional area of the shower curtain as viewed in a plane orthogonal to the tool axis in the vicinity of the workpiece) arises to such an extent that the shower curtain makes contact with a revolving part of the spindle and/or the tool, thereby causing the cutting liquid to become mist. In addition, there is a limit in the length of a shower curtain for stable formation of the shower curtain. Thus, if a tool equal to or longer than such a shower curtain is in use, a passage will be opened up through the shower curtain. It is thus feared that the chips and/or the misty cutting liquid might run out of the shower curtain through the passage thereof. Furthermore, in a horizontal-type machine tool with the spindle having an axis in parallel to a horizontal direction, there is a limit in the length of a shower curtain for stable formation of the shower curtain under the influence of gravity. Thus, all that is attained is a small-length shower curtain. Accordingly, the above method is not supposed to be suitable to the horizontal-type machine tool.

Apparatus for preventing chips and/or cutting liquid from being scattered in machine tool


One method disclosed herein includes forming a conformal liner layer in a plurality of trenches that define a fin, forming a layer of insulating material above the liner layer, exposing portions of the liner layer, removing portions of the liner layer so as to result in a generally U-shaped liner positioned at a bottom of each of the trenches, performing at least one third etching process on the layer of insulating material, wherein at least a portion of the layer of insulating material is positioned within a cavity of the U-shaped liner layer, and forming a gate structure around the fin. A FinFET device disclosed herein includes a plurality of trenches that define a fin, a local isolation that includes a generally U-shaped liner that defines, in part, a cavity and a layer of insulating material positioned within the cavity, and a gate structure positioned around the fin.

1. Field of the Invention
Generally, the present disclosure relates to the manufacture of sophisticated semiconductor devices, and, more specifically, to various methods of forming 3D semiconductor devices, such as FinFET devices, by performing a liner recessing process to define the fin height of the FinFET device, and to a FinFET device that includes such a recessed liner structure.
2. Description of the Related Art
The fabrication of advanced integrated circuits, such as CPU's, storage devices, ASIC's (application specific integrated circuits) and the like, requires the formation of a large number of circuit elements in a given chip area according to a specified circuit layout, wherein so-called metal oxide field effect transistors (MOSFETs or FETs) represent one important type of circuit element that substantially determines performance of the integrated circuits. A FET is a planar device that typically includes a source region, a drain region, a channel region that is positioned between the source region and the drain region, and a gate electrode positioned above the channel region. Current flow through the FET is controlled by controlling the voltage applied to the gate electrode. If there is no voltage applied to the gate electrode, then there is no current flow through the device (ignoring undesirable leakage currents, which are relatively small). However, when an appropriate voltage is applied to the gate electrode, the channel region becomes conductive, and electrical current is permitted to flow between the source region and the drain region through the conductive channel region.
To improve the operating speed of FETs, and to increase the density of FETs on an integrated circuit device, device designers have greatly reduced the physical size of FETs over the years. More specifically, the channel length of FETs has been significantly decreased, which has resulted in improving the switching speed of FETs. However, decreasing the channel length of a FET also decreases the distance between the source region and the drain region. In some cases, this decrease in the separation between the source and the drain makes it difficult to efficiently inhibit the electrical potential of the source region and the channel from being adversely affected by the electrical potential of the drain. This is sometimes referred to as a so-called short channel effect, wherein the characteristic of the FET as an active switch is degraded.
In contrast to a FET, which has a planar structure, a so-called FinFET device has a three-dimensional (3D) structure. More specifically, in a FinFET, a generally vertically positioned fin-shaped active area is formed and a gate electrode encloses both sides and an upper surface of the fin-shaped active area to form a tri-gate structure so as to use a channel having a three-dimensional structure instead of a planar structure. In some cases, an insulating cap layer, e.g., silicon nitride, is positioned at the top of the fin and the FinFET device only has a dual-gate structure. Unlike a planar FET, in a FinFET device, a channel is formed perpendicular to a surface of the semiconducting substrate so as to reduce the physical size of the semiconductor device. Also, in a FinFET, the junction capacitance at the drain region of the device is greatly reduced, which tends to reduce at least some short channel effects. When an appropriate voltage is applied to the gate electrode of a FinFET device, the surfaces (and the inner portion near the surface) of the fins, i.e., the substantially vertically oriented sidewalls and the top upper surface of the fin with inversion carriers, contributes to current conduction. In a FinFET device, the "channel-width" is approximately two times (2×) the vertical fin-height plus the width of the top surface of the fin, i.e., the fin width. Multiple fins can be formed in the same foot-print as that of a planar transistor device. Accordingly, for a given plot space (or foot-print), FinFETs tend to be able to generate significantly stronger drive currents than planar transistor devices. Additionally, the leakage current of FinFET devices after the device is turned "OFF" is significantly reduced as compared to the leakage current of planar FETs due to the superior gate electrostatic control of the "fin" channel on FinFET devices. In short, the 3D structure of a FinFET device is a superior MOSFET structure as compared to that of a planar FET, especially in the 20 nm CMOS technology node and beyond.
One process flow that is typically performed to form FinFET devices involves forming a plurality of trenches in the substrate to define the areas where STI regions will be formed and to define the initial structure of the fins. These trenches are typically formed in the substrate during the same process operation for processing simplicity. The trenches have a target depth that is sufficient for the needed fin height and deep enough to allow formation of an effective STI region. After the trenches are formed, a layer of insulating material, such as silicon dioxide, is formed so as to overfill the trenches. Thereafter, a chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) process is then performed to planarize the upper surface of the insulating material with the top of the fins (or the top of a patterned hard mask). Thereafter, an etch-back process is performed to recess the layer of insulating material between the fins and thereby expose the upper portions of the fins, which corresponds to the final fin height of the fins.
Some integrated circuit products contain FinFET devices that have a different fin pitch, i.e., different fin spacing. FIG. 1A schematically depicts an illustrative prior art integrated circuit product 10 at a point of fabrication wherein a plurality of trenches 12 have been formed in a bulk semiconducting substrate 14 by performing an etching process through a patterned hard mask layer 16, e.g., a patterned layer of silicon dioxide. The etching process results in the formation of a plurality of fins 20. The product 10 comprises a region 20N where the FinFET devices have fins with a relatively narrow fin pitch 22N, e.g., 20-50 nm, and another region 20W where the FinFET devices have fins with a relatively wide fin pitch 22W, e.g., 1 μm or more. These regions are typically spaced apart on the substrate 14.
FIG. 1B depicts the product 10 after the patterned hard mask layer 16 has been removed, a layer of insulating material 24, e.g., silicon dioxide, has been deposited so as to overfill the trenches and a CMP process has been performed on the layer of insulating material in an effort to planarize the upper surface of the layer of insulating material 24 with the upper surface of the fins 20. As a result of the relatively wider fin pitch in the area 20W, there may be more dishing 26 in the region 20W than in the region 20N having the narrower fin pitch.
FIG. 1C depicts the prior art product 10 at a point in fabrication wherein a timed etching process has been performed on the layer of insulating material 24 to reduce its thickness and thereby define a reduced-thickness layer of insulating material 24R. Typically, semiconductor manufacturers try to establish the final height of the fins for the FinFET devices by controlling this etching process and the resulting thickness of the reduced-thickness layer of insulating material 24R.
There are several problems with the aforementioned process of forming fins for FinFET semiconductor devices. More specifically, as depicted in FIG. 1C, such a process flow may produce fins with varying heights 28A, 28B and 28C across the substrate. Such variations in fin height are undesirable from a design, manufacturing and performance standpoint. For example, if the fin height on a FinFET device is less than the target fin height determined by the design process, the resulting FinFET device may not produce as large of drive current as is anticipated by the circuit designer and the circuit may not function as well as anticipated. Having fins with differing height levels can also make manufacturing more difficult in that it becomes more difficult to achieve a planar surface in subsequent processing operations.
Such differences in fin height may be the result, at least in part, of several factors. Since the etching process that is performed to recess the layer of insulating material 24R (see FIG. 1C) is a timed etching process, there are variations in the resulting thickness of the reduced-thickness layer of insulating material 24R. Another factor that contributes to this undesirable situation may be excessive dishing 26 of the layer of insulating material 24 during the CMP process depicted in FIG. 1B. As a result of such dishing 26, after the recess etch process is performed, the fins in areas where such dishing is present may have a fin height that is greater than the target fin height due to the reduction in thickness of the layer of insulating material 24 as a result of the excessive dishing. Additionally, the initial depth of the trenches 12 in the region 20N may be different than the depth of the trenches 12 in the region 20W due to the difference in fin pitch in those two regions.
Device manufacturers are under constant pressure to produce integrated circuit products with increased performance and lower production cost relative to previous device generations. Thus, device designers spend a great amount of time in an effort to maximize device performance while seeking ways to reduce manufacturing cost and improve manufacturing reliability. As it relates to 3D devices, device designers have spent many years and employed a variety of techniques in an effort to improve the performance capability and reliability of such devices.
The present disclosure is directed to various methods of forming 3D semiconductor devices, such as FinFET devices, by performing a liner recessing process to define the fin height of the FinFET devices, and to a FinFET device that includes such a recessed liner structure, that may solve or reduce one or more of the problems identified above.

FinFET semiconductor device with a recessed liner that defines a fin height of the FinFet device