A memory element and methods of constructing the memory element are described. The memory element may include a bottom electrode structure having an uppermost portion of a first dimension. The memory element may further include a MTJ pillar having a bottommost portion forming an interface with the uppermost portion of the bottom electrode structure. The bottommost portion of the MTJ pillar may have a second dimension that is less than the first dimension. The memory element may further include oxidized metal particles located on an outermost sidewall of the MTJ pillar. The memory element may further include a top electrode structure located in the MTJ pillar.

The present application relates to a magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) containing device and a method of forming the same. More particularly, the present application relates to one-time programmable (OTP) memory elements utilizing magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM) bits with reduced breakdown voltage.
Magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM) is a non-volatile random access memory technology in which data is stored by magnetic storage elements. These elements are typically formed from two ferromagnetic plates, each of which can hold a magnetization, separated by a thin dielectric layer, i.e., the tunnel barrier. One of the two plates is a permanent magnetic set to a particular polarity; the other plate's magnetization can be changed to match that of an external field to store memory. Such a configuration is known as a magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) pillar.
In some examples, MTJs used in MRAM can be used in one-time programmable (OTP) memory elements or bits. Data is written to an OTP bit by applying an amount of voltage exceeding a breakdown voltage of the MTJ to cause an electrical short, or to blow a fuse. An OTP bit, without voltage being applied, is registered as a logic '1'. The occurrence of the electrical short causes the OTP bit to register a logic '0'. The electrical short can be irreversible, thus causing a '0' to be permanently written in the OTP bit. However, the relatively high programming voltage required to program the OTP bits (e.g., the voltage to cause a breakdown) may lead to various technical challenges such as low drive current from access transistors, large area of programming circuitry, reliability of unselected devices, and/or other technical challenges.
To write data to the OTP bits with less programming voltage, the breakdown voltage of the OTP bits may need to be reduced. In some examples, OTP bits can be manufactured at smaller sizes to reduce the breakdown voltage. However, the OTP bits and corresponding devices printed in smaller sizes can cause manufacturing control issues. In some examples, it may be advantageous to use MTJ based anti-fuses as OTP elements in memory devices. MRAM bits can be relatively larger in size when compared to OTP bits. However, MRAM bits can be designed to have a relatively high breakdown voltage to provide a feature of rewriting data to the MRAM bit multiple times without causing accidental breakdowns. Based on this feature, MRAM bits may be typically used in multi-time programmable (MTP) memory elements.

MJT based anti-fuses with low programming voltage

International Business Machines Corporation


An aqueous ionic absorbent solution is disclosed containing (a) about 15 wt. % to about 80 wt. % of one or more diluents, based on the total weight of the aqueous ionic absorbent solution; and (b) an ionic absorbent containing a cation and an anion comprising an amine moiety.

1. Technical Field
The present invention generally relates to aqueous ionic absorbent solutions for carbon capture processes. The present invention further generally relates to aqueous ionic absorbent solutions containing an amine functionalized ionic absorbent dissolved in a sufficient amount of diluent for use in a carbon dioxide capture process.
2. Description of the Related Art
The removal of carbon dioxide from the natural gas is commercially practiced now in order to obtain natural gas which satisfies sales specifications or other process-dependent requirements.
Carbon dioxide is one of the primary combustion products as fuel is burned and is emitted into the atmosphere as a waste flow in the flue gas. Removal of carbon dioxide from the flue gas is not commonly practiced at present time. As the efforts to control the CO2 emissions to the atmosphere increases, the removal of carbon dioxide from the flue gas may become necessary and to be practiced in an industrial scale in order to satisfy the carbon dioxide emission requirements which are set by air pollution control authorities. The CO2 removal process from natural gas may not be directly applied to the CO2 removal from flue gas since the conditions of these two processes are very different.
Several processes for removing carbon dioxide from gases are known. Examples of such processes for carbon dioxide separation and capture include chemical absorption, physical and chemical adsorption, low-temperature distillation, gas-separation membranes, mineralization/biomineralization, and vegetation. The carbon dioxide absorption process is a unit operation where one or more components in a gas mixture are dissolved in a liquid (solvent). The absorption may either be a purely physical phenomenon or involve a chemical reaction, such as the reaction between carbon dioxide and an amine. Generally, the liquid solvent is an aqueous amine solution for the removal of carbon dioxide from gas streams.
An example of an absorption process is the process for removing carbon dioxide from flue gas by means of monoethanolamine (MEA) or diethanolamine (DEA). The flue gas is led into an absorption column where it comes into contact with MEA or DEA which absorbs the carbon dioxide molecules. Typically, these amines, MEA and DEA, are used as 25 to 30 wt. % amine in an aqueous solution. The amine solution enters the top of an absorption tower while the carbon dioxide containing gaseous stream is introduced at the bottom. The solvent is then led to a desorption process where the liquid is heated, and the carbon dioxide molecules are removed from the solvent by means of a desorption column. carbon dioxide and water emerge from the amine solution and the water is separated by condensing the water vapor in a heat exchanger. The solvent is cooled and then recycled back to the absorption tower for additional carbon dioxide absorption.
Solvent chemistry, corrosion, and viscosity consideration limit the amine strength to about 30 wt. % MEA. At flue-gas carbon dioxide partial pressures (e.g., 0.04 to 0.15 atm), the carbon dioxide-rich ("rich") solvent loading is about 0.42 to 0.45 mol CO2/mol MEA and the CO2-lean ("lean") solvent loading is about 0.15 to 0.17 mol CO2/mol MEA. The difference in loading (0.25 to 0.3 mol CO2/mol MEA) sets the circulation rate of the amine and influences capital and operating costs.
MEA also has disadvantages in that it has several mechanisms of loss, and a continuous makeup of MEA is required by post-combustion processes. For example, MEA degrades in the presence of oxygen from the flue gas. Thus, to limit the oxidative degradation, corrosion inhibitors may be used. MEA also degrades into heat-stable salts (HSS) from reaction with carbon dioxide. To solve this problem, a reclaimer would be added on the regenerator to separate the HSS from the amine solution to provide suitable makeup MEA. Lastly, the volatility of MEA results in the treated flue gas to contain in excess of 500 ppmv MEA when leaving the absorber to the vent. To address this, a wash section is added at the top of the absorber and makeup water is added to scrub the MEA from the treated flue gas. The mixture is then sent down the column along with the remaining lean solvent to absorb carbon dioxide from the incoming flue gas. Water washing can cut the MEA emissions to about 3 ppmv.
MEA may also degrade over time thermally, thereby limiting the temperature of operation in the absorber and regenerator. With a cooled flue gas inlet temperature of about 56° C., the absorber column may operate at a bottoms temperature of 54° C. and a pressure of 1.1 bar while the regenerator may operate at a bottoms temperature of 1.9 bar and 121° C. (2 bar saturated steam). For 30 wt. % MEA, the amine reboiler steam temperature is kept at less than 150° C. (4.7 bar saturated steam) to limit thermal degradation.
MEA also degrades in the presence of high levels of NOx and SOx which are common in facilities that burn coal and fuel oil. However, if carbon dioxide removal from a high NOx and SOx containing flue gas is desired, separate process facilities such as SCR (Selective Catalytic Reduction) and FGD (Flue Gas Desulfurization) are needed for removal of NOx and SOx, respectively.
Accordingly, to have a superior, post-combustion carbon dioxide removal technology that is better than those known in the art (30 wt. % MEA and similar aqueous amines), it is desirable to develop an improved carbon dioxide absorption solvent and a process for its use.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Aqueous solutions of amine functionalized ionic compounds for carbon capture processes


A circuit configuration for improving the driving behavior of an automotive vehicle tending to oversteering, which vehicle is equipped with an anti-lock control system, causes the slip and deceleration thresholds, decisive for the onset of control at the front wheel on the outside of the bend, to be raised upon the occurrence of a cornering identification signal.

There are situations when anti-lock control even increases the oversteering tendency of vehicles which tend to oversteer in case of a relatively high speed and of a relatively small radius of the bend. This is particularly true under the influence of a so-called yawing moment limitation. This will be explained in more detail in the following.

Circuit configuration for improving the driving behavior of an automotive vehicle tending to oversteering


The invention disclosed herein relates to compounds of formula (I)

WO 95/00649 (SmithKline Beecham plc) describes the phospholipase A2 enzyme Lipoprotein Associated Phospholipase A2 (Lp-PLA2), the sequence, isolation and purification thereof, isolated nucleic acids encoding the enzyme, and recombinant host cells transformed with DNA encoding the enzyme. Suggested therapeutic uses for inhibitors of the enzyme included atherosclerosis, diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, stroke, myocardial infarction, reperfusion injury and acute and chronic inflammation. A subsequent publication from the same group further describes this enzyme (Tew D et al, Arterioscler Thromb Vas Biol 1996:16;591-9) wherein it is referred to as LDL-PLA2. A later patent application (WO 95/09921, Icos Corporation) and a related publication in Nature (Tjoelker et al, vol 374, 6 Apr. 1995, 549) describe the enzyme PAF-AH which has essentially the same sequence as Lp-PLA2 and suggest that it may have potential as a therapeutic protein for regulating pathological inflammatory events.
It has been shown that Lp-PLA2 is responsible for the conversion of phosphatidylcholine to lysophosphatidylcholine, during the conversion of low density lipoprotein (LDL) to its oxidised form. The enzyme is known to hydrolyse the sn-2 ester of the oxidised phosphatidylcholine to give lysophosphatidylcholine and an oxidatively modified fatty acid. Both products of Lp-PLA2 action are biologically active with lysophosphatidylcholine, in particular having several pro-atherogenic activities ascribed to it including monocyte chemotaxis and induction of endothelial dysfunction, both of which facilitate monocyte-derived macrophage accumulation within the artery wall. Inhibition of the Lp-PLA2 enzyme would therefore be expected to stop the build up of these macrophage enriched lesions (by inhibition of the formation of lysophosphatidylcholine and oxidised free fatty acids) and so be useful in the treatment of atherosclerosis.
A recently published study (WOSCOPS—Packard et al, N. Engl. J. Med. 343 (2000) 1148-1155) has shown that the level of the enzyme Lp-PLA2 is an independent risk factor in coronary artery disease.
The increased lysophosphatidylcholine content of oxidatively modified LDL is also thought to be responsible for the endothelial dysfunction observed in patients with atherosclerosis. Inhibitors of Lp-PLA2 could therefore prove beneficial in the treatment of this phenomenon. An Lp-PLA2 inhibitor could also find utility in other disease states that exhibit endothelial dysfunction including diabetes, hypertension, angina pectoris and after ischaemia and reperfusion.
Furthermore, Lp-PLA2 inhibitors may also have a general application in any disorder that involves lipid oxidation in conjunction with Lp-PLA2 activity to produce the two injurious products, lysophosphatidylcholine and oxidatively modified fatty acids. Such conditions include the aforementioned conditions atherosclerosis, diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, stroke, myocardial infarction, ischaemia, reperfusion injury and acute and chronic inflammation.
In addition, Lp-PLA2 inhibitors may also have a general application in any disorder that involves activated monocytes, macrophages or lymphocytes, as all of these cell types express Lp-PLA2. Examples of such disorders include psoriasis.
Furthermore, Lp-PLA2 inhibitors may also have a general application in any disorder that involves lipid oxidation in conjunction with Lp-PLA2 activity to produce the two injurious products, lysophosphatidylcholine and oxidatively modified fatty acids. Such conditions include the aforementioned conditions atherosclerosis, diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, stroke, myocardial infarction, ischaemia, reperfusion injury and acute and chronic inflammation.
Patent applications WO 01/60805, WO 02/30911, WO 02/30904, WO 03/016287, WO 03/042218, WO 03/042206, WO 03/041712, WO 03/086400, and WO 03/87088 disclose inhibitors of the enzyme Lp-PLA2.

Abstract: where the various groups are defined herein, and which are useful for treating inflammatory diseases such as atherosclerosis.


A heat exchanger apparatus for more effective use of a heat or hot water pipe as a radiant heat source. A pair of tubular members having a semi-circular lateral cross-section and outwardly extending fins attach to the outside surface of a pipe. The tubular members are held adjacent to the pipe by a spring clamp.

The present invention generally relates to space heaters. More specifically, this invention relates to an apparatus for the dispersion of heat from a pipe exposed in a room. A method of heating a room is also disclosed in the present invention.
In some residential buildings, particularly in the northeastern part of the United States, heat and hot water pipes are disposed to the inside of the walls of a room (as opposed to being constructed within the walls). These pipes represent a source of heat which can be used to warm a room. It is well known in heat exchanger technology that heat transfer between a pipe and the ambient air can be increased by increasing the transfer surface area. This principal has; led to the use of finned tubing in heat exchangers and the like. The present invention utilizes this principal to provide a heat exchanger apparatus permitting more effective and selective use of exposed heat and hot water pipes as radiant heat sources.
A heat exchanger for a combustion heater is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,657,074. Various other heat exchangers are also known in the prior art. Exemplary prior art heat exchangers are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 1,983,549 to Krackowizer which discloses plate fins having punched lugs arranged in an unsymmetripal manner over a plurality of tubes; U.S. Pat. No. 1,891,538 to Hicks which discloses a plurality of fins having notches at the corners thereof which are soldered to metal tubing; and U.S. Pat. No. 2,540,339 to Kritzer which discloses transversely-interlocked coil and fins. Further evidence of the prior art is illustrated in U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,988,494; 2,007,000; 2,007,001; 2,021,117; 2,051,402; 2,136,222; 2,189,652; 2,268,361; 2,602,650; 2,868,515; and 3,407,874. To the Applicant's knowledge no heat exchanger apparatus having the construction and directed to the purposes of the present invention is disclosed in the prior art.


A data processing system has a dynamic address translation function for dynamically translating virtual addresses into real addresses and processes data. The system employs a plurality of control registers for managing the developed addresses of address translation tables and a selector for selecting one of the control registers. The control register selected by the selector specifies one of the address translation tables, which is used to dynamically translate a virtual address into a real address.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a data processing system with a dynamic address translation function for translating a virtual address into a real address and for processing data, and particularly, to a data processing system with a dynamic address translation function that secures data from destruction.
As the number of users of computer systems and the importance to society of computers increases, protecting computer systems and user data is becoming more important.
2. Description of the Related Art
A computer system with a channel unit having a conventional dynamic address translation function to control input/output units will be explained.
The computer system provides users with virtual data spaces, respectively. If it provides each user with a real address, the user may access an area in a main memory of the system. Then, there will be a risk of the user unknowingly destroying data in a system area or data in other user areas in the memory. To avoid the risk, the users are provided with the respective virtual spaces and are allowed to access the main memory only through the virtual spaces.
When transferring data between the main memory and the input/output units, the channel unit translates a virtual address related to the data into a real address by the use of a single control register. The register holds an address that specifies a segment table, which is used to translate the virtual address into the real address.
This prior art uses the control register to translate virtual addresses related to not only a channel program but also user data into real addresses. Namely, a user space where the user data are developed is not independent of a system space where the channel program is developed, and therefore, each user can access the channel program in the system space, to sometimes destroy data in the system space without knowing it.

Data processing system with dynamic address translation function


A method of feeding solid ink sticks to a melting device in a phase change ink imaging device enables the solid ink sticks to move through the ink delivery system without buckling or being diverted from the feed path. The ink sticks fed to the ink delivery system have first and second contoured ends that complement the feed path to resist buckling due to feed forces and the bosses of one contoured end nest in the boss recesses of another contoured end of an adjacent ink stick to resist the effects of the feed forces as well.

Solid ink or phase change ink printers conventionally receive ink in a solid form, either as pellets or as ink sticks. The solid ink pellets or ink sticks are placed in a feed chute and a feed mechanism delivers the solid ink to a heater plate. The heater plate melts the solid ink impinging on the plate into a liquid that is delivered to a print head for jetting onto a recording medium or intermediate transfer surface.
In typical prior art feed channels, the sticks are positioned end to end in straight or linear channels or chutes with a melt device at one end and a spring biased push block on the other end. The space in solid ink printers, however, may be limited, and finding a location within the printer to accommodate a long straight chute for holding an ample supply of ink may be a challenge. The amount of ink that can be accommodated is limited by the physical dimensions of the printer and can not be greater with a linear ink loader than the length or width of available positions in the printer.
One method that has been used to increase the amount of ink that may be placed in a feed channel is to provide non-linear feed channels. The non-linear feed channels may include any number of linear and curved sections that can feed and guide ink sticks from an insertion end to a melt end of the feed channel. The non-linear feed channels typically include a feed mechanism, such as a belt, configured to move the ink sticks along the non-vertically oriented feed path of the channel. The use of rectangular sticks in channels that are curved or have an arcuate portion may result in buckling and camming of adjacent ink sticks in the feed channel.
Moreover, in previously known phase change ink jet printing systems, the interface between a control system for a phase change ink jet printer and a solid ink stick provided little information about the solid ink sticks loaded in the printer. For instance, control systems are not able to determine if the correct color of ink stick is loaded in a particular feed channel or if the ink that is loaded is compatible with that particular printer. Provisions have been made to ensure that an ink stick is correctly loaded into the intended feed channel and to ensure that the ink stick is compatible with that printer. These provisions, however, are generally directed toward physically excluding wrong colored or incompatible ink sticks from being inserted into the feed channels of the printer. For example, the correct loading of ink sticks has been accomplished by incorporating keying, alignment and orientation features into the exterior surface of an ink stick. These features are protuberances or indentations that are located in different positions on an ink stick. Corresponding keys or guide elements on the perimeters of the openings through which the ink sticks are inserted or fed exclude ink sticks which do not have the appropriate perimeter key elements while ensuring that the ink stick is properly aligned and oriented in the feed channel.
While this method is effective in ensuring correct loading of ink sticks in most situations, there are situations when an ink stick may be incorrectly loaded into a feed channel of a printer, newer ink loaders using larger sticks are particularly vulnerable to inappropriate use of earlier, smaller sticks. World markets with various pricing and color table preferences have created a situation where multiple ink types may exist in the market simultaneously with nearly identical size/shape ink and/or ink packaging. Thus, ink sticks may appear to be substantially the same but, in fact, may be intended for different phase change printing systems due to factors such as, for example, market pricing or color table. In addition, due to the soft, waxy nature of an ink stick body, an ink stick may be "forced" through an opening into a feed channel. This is easily done with earlier, smaller size sticks, most of which have a different, non-compatible, ink formulation. The printer control system, having no information regarding the configuration of the ink stick, may then conduct normal printing operations with an incorrectly loaded ink stick. If the loaded ink stick is the wrong color for a particular feed channel or if the ink stick is incompatible with the phase change ink jet printer in which it is being used, considerable errors and malfunctions may occur.

Method for feeding solid ink stick with multiple interlocking axis in a solid ink printer


The present invention provides a porous bioceramics for bone scaffold. The porous bioceramics according to the present invention comprises a biocompatible porous ceramic substrate having the property to thermal-decompose hydroxyapatite in contact with it; a fluorapatite (FA) inner layer formed on said porous ceramic substrate; and a hydroxyapatite (HA) outer layer formed on said fluorapatite inner layer. The insertion of FA intermediate layer can prevent the thermal reaction between ZrO2 and HA. Therefore, the present invention can provide the implant material into human body having excellent mechanical properties of zirconia as well as the biocompatibility, bioaffinity and bioactivity of HA. The present invention can also provide the implant material to promote osteoconduction and osteointegration in human body.

Hydroxyapatite (HA) has very similar crystallographic and chemical properties to hard tissues such as bones and teeth of human body. Therefore, when it is implanted into a human body, it can naturally bind with surrounding tissues without adverse reaction with the tissues of human body. Actually, HA is composed of 95% or more of tooth enamel, and the bone is a composite of fibrous protein, collagen and about 65% of HA. Due to such excellent bioactivity, HA has been given a great deal of attention as a material to replace for the loss of teeth and bones. However, HA has a shortcoming that it is not good in mechanical properties such as mechanical strength and fracture toughness. Thus, it is not proper for use as a material for hard tissues of human body requiring high mechanical strength or fracture toughness such as artificial teeth or hip joints. It is only limited to be used in the part not requiring high mechanical strength such as ear-inside bones.
In order to supplement such lower mechanical properties of HA, material complexation of HA with metal or other ceramics having high mechanical properties has been tried to use the bioaffinity and bioactivity of HA. However, HA may decompose with dehydration due to its contact to the metal or ceramics at the time of heating process in the fabrication of the composite. This reaction produces tricalcium phosphate (TCP), tetracalcium phosphate, calcium oxide and so on, which may form new phases to deteriorate the biological and mechanical properties of HA. Accordingly, there has been a need of new means to prevent the thermal decomposition of HA due to the contact of HA with metal or other ceramics.
As such means, Korean Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-18897 (laid-open date: Apr. 6, 2000) disclosed a method for coating a thin layer of HA on a titanium or its alloy substrate having excellent mechanical properties in an electron beam deposition manner. This method can avoid the decomposition of HA due to thermal treatment by performing the processes at a lower temperature, even particularly, below room temperature.
As another means, Korean Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-2933 (laid-open date: Jan. 15, 2000) disclosed a method for manufacturing a sintered ceramic composite for implant having an inserted alumina barrier layer between zirconia and apatite layers by mixing apatite powder and zirconia powder coated with an alumina precursor and sintering them. This method is to enhance the fracture toughness of the composite by inserting as a barrier layer between zirconia and HA, alumina which has lower tendency of changing HA to β-tricalcium phosphate than that of zirconia during thermal treatment.

Porous bioceramics for bone scaffold and method for manufacturing the same

Seoul National University Industry Foundation


A process for manufacturing epoxy monomers and/or epoxides in high yields and useful quality and chemical stability by dehydrochlorination of the corresponding chlorohydrins with an alkaline agent, producing the corresponding side product dry salt in a high purity, characterized in that the process comprises the following steps: a. Reaction of the chlorohydrins with the alkaline agent to form corresponding epoxides and the corresponding precipitated chloride salt; b. Dehydration, and optionally completing the reaction, of the reaction mixture of step (a), by use of an azeotropic agent, added to step (b) or generated in situ in step (a), resulting in the producing of a dehydrated reaction mixture; c. Separating the resulting chloride salt by filtration from the dehydrated reaction mixture (b) and d. Isolating the epoxide from the filtered liquid fraction.

Glycidol is a versatile intermediate for further reaction, and has been known since the 19th century.
However, the large scale use of glycidol has not been fully realized in the past due to its poor availability in required quantities and consequent higher cost for downstream applications. This invention concerns a new route to this potentially valuable intermediate, produced preferably in a continuous manner, in high quality and derived particularly from renewable resources, such as glycerine. In addition the proposed process also provides substantially pure salt or pure brine as side product, in high quality for commercial use. The glycidol produced is particularly of high quality and this enables conversion to better quality, more useful, derivatives, e.g. thermosets of polyols.
The most common method for production of glycidol involves the oxidation of allyl alcohol, which itself is prepared from mainly propylene oxide by an isomerisation process. The propylene oxide is prepared from propylene and an oxidation agent such as hydrogen peroxide, percarboxylic acid, hydroperoxides etc., catalyzed by various types of catalyst. The known disadvantages of this method are in the numerous reaction steps for preparation of allyl alcohol prior to its oxidation, the extraction of glycidol from obtained homogeneous aqueous reaction mixture containing unreacted allyl alcohol and by-products such as glycerol, acrolein, β-hydroxy propionic aldehyde, glycerol allyl ether and decomposition products of catalyst, and the purification of glycidol after its isolation from the aqueous solution. Moreover, the catalyst used, such as tungsten trioxide, decomposes during the oxidation and contributes to higher production costs.
The previous procedures moreover involved precursors derived from fossil oil.
Other approaches have been described using glycerine as the starting precursor. These approaches are now of growing interest, as glycerine is an important bio-derived by-product of the manufacture process for bio-diesel, itself an important development in the growing green-tech industry for, e.g. new transportation vehicles. Glycerine derived from this new route is available in feedstock quantities, however with a new profile of associated impurities as a consequence of its bio-diesel refinery preparation route. The impurities can be fatty acids, protein, and/or various ionic salts, the concentration of which in the glycerol varies according to the source of the biomass used.
Previous routes to glycerine came from fossil oil, via the propylene route, and thus, this invention preferably concerns the use of bio-derived glycerine with its consequent impurities, to prepare certain grades of glycidol in a cost effective, preferably continuous process. However, should other sources of glycerine become available in the future, the process would be still applicable.
One approach of the conversion of glycerine involves carbonation to glycerol carbonate, which product subsequently forms glycidol and CO2, by decarboxylation of the carbonate. In the early 1950's, a new process for preparation of glycidol was developed involving the two-step synthesis by carbonylation of glycerol via glycerol carbonate. In the first step, a cyclic carbonate is transesterified with the glycerol in a solvent comprising an organic carbonate or mixture of carbonates, in the presence of a solid catalyst to form cyclic glycerol carbonate. The glycerol carbonate can also be prepared by carbamoylation of glycerol with urea, by oxidative carbonylation of glycerol with the mixture of carbon dioxide and oxygen, or by reaction of glycerol with phosgene under mild conditions (60 to 130° C., in the presence of a catalyst). The second step, i.e. thermic decarboxylation of glycerol carbonate is technologically more difficult. The reaction is usually kept at the temperature at 155 to 240° C. under vacuum to give glycidol and carbon dioxide, the yield of glycidol being about 60%, or with a basic catalyst. The reported yield of glycidol in the latter is over 80%, based on carbonate. Direct production of glycerol carbonate from glycerol and carbon dioxide under supercritical conditions or in the presence of tin or cerium catalysts has also been reported.
Glycerol carbonate is a relatively new material in the chemical industry, but one that could offer some interesting opportunities, as it can be prepared directly and in a high yield from glycerol. The advantage of the process for preparation of glycidol via glycerol carbonate is relatively simple two-step process. However, the lower yield of glycidol in the second step is considered to be the substantial disadvantage and attention has recently been paid to solve it. Therefore there is need to consider other routes.
Another route involves conversion of acrolein made from glycerol: WO2012/003519. In yet another approach, glycerine can be hydrochlorinated to monochloropropanediol, MCH, specifically the isomers 3-chloro-1,2-propandiol or 2-chloro-1,3-propandiol, using hydrogen chloride gas or aqueous hydrochloric acid. The MCH then can be converted to glycidol using alkaline agents yielding a reaction product mixture of the glycidol, corresponding salt and water (see, for example U.S. Pat. No. 2,070,990, U.S. Pat. No. 2,224,849, DE 1041488, DE 1226554, U.S. Pat. No. 3,457,282, U.S. Pat. No. 5,965,753, GB 822686, U.S. Pat. No. 5,198,117, U.S. Pat. No. 4,105,580, or U.S. Pat. No. 6,156,941). Historically, MCH was practically the first and only starting material for an industrial-scale preparation of glycidol. In fact, both MCH, as its isomers 3-chloro-1,2-propandiol or 2-chloro-1,3-propandiol, and glycidol itself were intermediates in the course of a multistage and expensive production of glycerol from allyl chloride via epichlorohydrin.
In order to purify the epoxy compound, azeotropic distillation has been employed to remove water (see, e.g. U.S. Pat. No. 2,248,635, U.S. Pat. No. 3,247,227, RU 2130452).
The modern process for production of glycidol starting from MCH is seen as a suitable technological alternative again. MCH can be now advantageously prepared by the recently developed technology of catalysed hydrochlorination of glycerine, as described in WO2005/021476, or WO2009/016149.
WO2009/016149 can be deemed as the closest prior art, hereafter cited as '149. The invention in '149 relates to a process for manufacturing glycidol comprising at least the following steps: a) glycerol and a chlorinating agent are reacted to form monochloropropanediol in a first reaction medium, following a preferred process described in WO2005/054167; and b) at least one basic compound is reacted with at least one part of the first reaction medium from step a) to form glycidol and a salt in a second reaction medium, the organic component of which has a monochloropropanediol content before reaction with the basic compound greater than 100 g/kg of organic component, following the processes described in FR 07/153375.
The object in '149 further is to obtain glycidol from MCH, at least one part of which was prepared by the reaction between glycerol and a chlorinating agent.
The MCH as a starting material for glycidol synthesis may be isolated from reaction mixture, or the reaction mixture was used without purification. No particular reference is made that the starting with MCH which has very reduced impurities can yield useful production of glycidol. Low levels of ester or acid in the MCH are not described.
The reaction mixture in '149 after saponification was than treated to isolate glycidol, solvent and other organic components and to obtain purified glycidol-based product in the first step, while water and salt were isolated in the second step, or the water-based composition was recycled to an electrolysis process.
The art '149 further focuses on use of solvents to separate the glycidol from the reaction mixture. It is notable that amongst solvents quoted in '149, as suitable for use in the separation treatment of the formed glycidol and salt mixture, are such solvents as described below taken from the passage in '149:
The extraction solvent is generally such as described in Application FR 07/55697 by Solvay SA, of which the content, and more specifically the passage from page 10, line 23 to page 13, line 12, is incorporated here by reference.
'The extraction solvent is generally an organic solvent which may be chosen from epoxides other than glycidol, esters, ketones, ethers, alcohols, carboxylic acids, organic phosphates and phosphine oxides. The organic solvents may contain water, preferably up to saturation. Dichloropropanol, epichlorohydrin and mixtures thereof are particularly preferred extraction solvents.'
In order to minimise these multi issues and obtain useful yields of glycidol with limited impurities, and to obtain a substantially pure salt as a valuable by-product, we have achieved a process which can be optimised readily around a number of parameters.
Thus, the risk factors that can affect the yield of glycidol are many and some are described in the following:                easy dimerization and rearrangement of glycidol,        presence of water and too high temperature of epoxidation or presence of free basic- or acid-acting agents even at relatively low reaction temperature can increase the risk of polymerization, condensation or hydrolysis, possibly with the presence of the rest of salt in relatively low concentrations,        above mentioned factors can be further complicated by serial reactions if there is prolonged residence time in process reactor,        loss of glycidol during distillation by entraining to the solvent and water,        low concentration of by-products is usually obtained during the saponification in diluted solutions; however, the higher the concentration of glycidol in the solution, higher is the content of by-products, which brings a significant problem in a continuous arrangement of reaction when carried out, e.g. in a CSTR reactor.        at low reaction temperature, e.g. below 5° C., the rate of dehydrohalogenation is low and longer retention time of reaction is necessary, especially in case of 2-chloro-1,3-propandiol isomer,        when using unrefined or poorly refined raw material (i.e. technical reaction mixtures) of the MCH, or indeed the starting glycerol from which MCH is derived, many impurities can become introduced into the reaction mixture and this causes problems with their removal, both from the glycidol and from the salt or brine,        the reaction mixture containing glycidol and traces of salt is unstable and is useful only as an intermediate for immediate processing, because despite rapid neutralization, the content of glycidol can drop significantly, even at the low temperature, e.g. below 0° C.,        in particular, actual kinetic trials show that during the addition of the sodium hydroxide solution, when the alkalinity of reaction mixture rises rapidly when system approaches the stoichiometric conditions, the mixture swells prior to reaching the equivalence point of—sodium hydroxide and MCH; this is connected with the formation of glycidyl ethers, glycerine a and polyglycerine, and (in case of processing in some alcohols) with formation of alkyl ethers of glycerol,        subsequently the formation of undesired by-products is accelerated with the molar excess of sodium hydroxide to monochlorohydrin, especially in combination with elevated reaction temperature, which can also lead to spontaneous polymerization.        extraction processes, as e.g. described in '149, can be used to isolate the glycidol from the reaction mixtures, instead of, for example distillation, in order to prevent the contact of the epoxide group with the sodium ions at elevated temperature; the disadvantage of such extraction processes is that there is the low efficiency of the separation in one step and the necessity of the multistage process for collecting a substantial portion of the glycidol. A part of organic compounds still remains in an aqueous phase containing ionic species, e.g. NaCl, and this makes the next processing impossible without an additional technological step. Thus the major problem in the extraction process is that the organic glycidol-rich phase still contains sodium ions which catalyse the degradation of the glycidol.
The next bottleneck is that the water-rich phase, which also contains ionic species, e.g. NaCl, still contains residual MCH and the rest of the glycidol, which must be recovered by further multistage extraction processes.

Process for the manufacture of epoxy-monomers and epoxides

SPOLEK PRO CHEMICKOU A HUTNI VYROBU A.S.


A filmless X-ray apparatus and method of using the same include an X-ray source for directing X-rays through a subject such as an animal, human, or luggage in an airport security scanner into a fluorescent intensifying screen. An aluminum coated and lead back glass mirror reflect only the visible component of radiation passing through the fluorescent screen to one or more video cameras. Video signals from the video camera are directed to frame grabber circuitry operably associated with a computer provided with image enhancing and processing software.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to apparatus for the direct detection and computer enhancement of X-rays which obviates the need for X-ray film, developers, fixers, and processing equipment associated with prior art X-ray methods. The inventive apparatus provides faster image processing than conventional methods and requires less exposure for the subject. The inventive method and apparatus has advantages over the new computed radiography techniques including simplicity and potential for low cost application. This X-ray method and apparatus of the present invention has applications in many fields including airport security systems, industrial quality control, and medicine.
2. Description of the Prior Art
For almost eighty years photographic films have been used both to capture and display X-rays for diagnostic purposes. (See FIG. 1). Only in the last ten years have any alternative methods of X-ray imaging started to appear. Best known of these is the expensive and complicated CAT scan system used in many hospitals. Less well known filmless X-ray systems are now available which use a storage phosphor device to capture the X-ray image. These so called image plates can be scanned by a laser bean a short time later, causing the image plates to emit light proportional to the intensity of X-rays to which they were previously exposed. Such systems are also complicated and expensive, requiring special laser equipment for the scanning stage. They have however clearly demonstrated the great advantages of filmless, or digital, X-ray pictures.
Digital recorded X-rays are superior to those recorded with photographic film due to the greater dynamic range of the digital recording system. Photographic methods allow approximately one order of magnitude dynamic range whereas digital methods typically allow four orders of magnitude. This advantage is only realized if the actual capture of the X-ray image is digital. Merely scanning a previously recorded photographic X-ray will not do. In addition to the inherent advantages of the increased dynamic range, computer image processing techniques provide a wealth of capabilities to study otherwise obscured details within the image. Accordingly, the present invention proposes a filmless X-ray apparatus and method of using the same which has all the advantages of digitally captured radiography and in addition is mechanically very simple. This allows the apparatus to be made at much lower cost than current systems, making it suitable for installation in many more locations, e.g. radiology clinics outside of hospitals, veterinary clinics, chiropractic clinics, etc. The inventive apparatus will be a particular boon to remote settlements where "tele-medicine" is practiced, such as northern Canada and Alaska, because it allows an X-ray image signal to be transmitted over phone lines without an unacceptable loss of resolution.

Filmless X-ray apparatus and method of using the same


A socket apparatus for testing a semiconductor package includes a main body having a plurality of contact pins therein, a locking member disposed in the main body for securing the semiconductor package that is to be loaded into the main body, an unlocking member for releasing the package secured by the locking member, and a cover disposed above the locking member and the unlocking member. The socket apparatus improves a contactability between the external terminals of the package and the contact pins during the package testing and decreases production cost due to its simplified composition.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a package testing socket, and more particularly, to an improved socket apparatus for testing a semiconductor chip package, which is capable of preventing a contact error from occurring by downwardly supporting a mounted package.
2. Description of the Background Art
In recent years, a multi-functioning trend of electronic appliances causes a semiconductor package to be smaller in size and larger in pin number. Studies have been made in a way in which a socket development for such a multi-pin package inspection is directed to a further accuracy in a less time period.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,646,447 discloses a socket for inspecting a ball grid array (BGA) chip package as a multi-pin package. As disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,646,447, a slidable plate having a plurality of through holes to insert solder balls therethrough is slidably disposed on the upper surface of a base, and a cam shaft movably engaged to a cam shaft handle serves to operate the slidable plate. The through holes formed in the slidable plate thrusts respective upper portions of contact pins in order for the contact pins to be attached onto the solder balls of the package when the slidable plate is slid by the cam shaft.
However, the above-described package inspection socket is complicated in composition, thereby increasing production cost thereof, and although the socket strengthens a contactability between the solder balls and the contact pins of the package being normally mounted in the socket, an accurate inspection has been understood difficult when the package is mounted in the socket in an unstable state.


Novel spermicidal compounds which are organometallic cyclopentadienyl metal complexes, particularly vanadium IV complexes, are described including corresponding contraceptive and therapeutic compositions and method for providing contraception and selective killing of testicular germ cells. Included among the vanadium complexes are bis(methyl cyclopentadienyl)vanadium dichloride, vanadocene di-pseudohalides, and others. Most active found was vanadocene diselenocyanate.

This invention relates to metallocene compositions containing vanadium (IV). More particularly, the invention relates to Vanadium (IV) complexed metallocene, having spermicidal activity.
The known spermicidal agents, nonoxynol-9 and gramicidin, exert their effects via a detergent-like ability to damage the sperm plasma membrane, perturb its conformation and destroy its semi-permeable nature thereby impairing the sperm motility and egg fertilizing functions (Wilborn, et al., Fertil Steril 1983; 39:717-719; Bourinbaiar, et al., Life Sci 1994; 54:PL 5-9). Because of their non-specific membrane disruptive properties, such vaginal spermicides have been shown to damage the cervicovaginal epithelium, as well, which may lead to a lower degree of protection from sexually transmitted diseases (Niruthisard, et al., Sex Transm Dis 1991; 18:176-179). A novel vaginal contraceptive preferably does not function with the non-specific membrane toxicity mediated by detergent-type action of the currently available vaginal contraceptives.
Vanadium is a physiologically essential element which can be found in one of five (I to V) oxidation states. Several inorganic salts containing vanadium with oxidation state +4 (IV) have been shown to function as modulators of cellular redox potential and to exert pleiotropic effects in multiple biological systems by catalyzing the generation of reactive oxygen intermediates. See, for example, Shi, et al., Ann Clin Lab Sci 1996; 26:390-49; Byczkowski, et al., Bull Environ Contam Toxicol 1988; 41:696-703; Younes, et al., Toxicology 1991; 66:63-74, and Sakurai, et al., Biochem Biophys Res Commun 1995; 206:133-137. Reactive oxygen intermediates have been reported to affect sperm motility by a combination of peroxidation of membrane lipids and proteins (Aitken, et al., Biol Reprod 1989; 40:183-197; Jones, et al., Fertil Steril 1979; 31:531-537). Peroxidative damage to the sperm plasma membrane is an important pathophysiological mechanism in the onset of male infertility (Aitken, et al., BioEssays 1994; 16:259-267). It has also been shown that superoxide radicals generated by the action of xanthine oxidase exert a direct, suppressive effect on many aspects of sperm function (Aitken, et al., J. Reprod. Fertil. 1993; 97:441-450). Sperm are thought to be particularly susceptible to oxidative stress by virtue of their high content of unsaturated fatty acids and their relative paucity of cytoplasmic enzymes for scavenging the reactive oxygen intermediates that initiate lipid peroxidation (Alvarez, et al., J Androl 1987; 8:338-348).
There is a need for new spermicidal compounds for contraceptive purposes. The ability of vanadium IV containing organometallic complexes to catalyze the generation of reactive oxygen species was evaluated for its potential to impact sperm activity. Results of studies with structurally distinct organometallic complexes containing vanadium (IV) surprisingly demonstrated these compounds to be potent spermicidal agents at nano-micromolar concentrations. These compounds have also surprisingly been found to exhibit selective apoptosis-inducing activity against testicular germ cells in vivo.
Organometallic complexes containing vanadium (IV), including vanadocene dichloride (VDC), bis(methylcyclopentadienyl)vanadium dichloride (VMDC), vanadocene dibromide (VDB), vanadocene diiodide (VDI), vanadocene diazide (VDA), vanadocene dicyanide (VDCN), vanadocene dioxycyanate (VDOCN), vanadocene dithiocyanate (VDSCN), vanadocene diselenocyanate (VDSeCN), vanadocene ditriflate (VDT), vanadocene monochloro oxycyanate (VDCO), and vanadocene monochloro acetonitrilo tetrachloro ferrate (VDFE) were found to have spermicidal activity. Specifically, the xe2x80x9cvanadocenexe2x80x9d complexes elicited potent spermicidal activity at nano-micromolar concentrations with an order of efficacy VDSeCN greater than VDSCN greater than VDB greater than VMDC greater than VDA greater than VDC greater than VDI greater than VDT greater than VDFE greater than VDCO. In contrast, control metallocene complexes containing titanium, zirconium, molybdenum, and hafnium lacked spermicidal activity.
Accordingly, the present invention includes a contraceptive composition containing a spermicidal effective amount of an organometallic cyclopentadienyl vanadium IV complex and a pharmaceutically acceptable carrier, diluent or vehicle.
Another aspect of the present invention is a method of contraception including the step of contacting sperm with a spermicidal effective amount of an organometallic cyclopentadienyl vanadium IV complex.
Yet another embodiment of the invention utilizes the selective apoptotic-inducing properties of organometallic cyclopentadienyl vanadium IV complexes against testicular germ cells to selectively kill normal testicular germ cells and testicular germ cell tumors.

Vanadium (IV) metallocene complexes having spermicidal activity


A medical treatment system for determining administration of medications to a patient is disclosed. The system uses a plurality of sensors to perform a first set of physiologic measurements in a right side of the heart and a second set of physiologic measurements in a left side of the heart. The system also includes a receiver configured to receive measurement data regarding the first and second sets of physiologic measurements and output to a display device the received measurement data.

During the past decade, the number of coronary deaths in the United States has steadily decreased thanks to advancements in medical science and treatment, but the relative number of heart failure deaths has increased, indicating that more people are living with a high risk of heart failure than ever before. Generally, heart failure occurs when the heart cannot supply enough blood to the body. As a result, lower volume output leads to a higher filling pressure in the left heart to help compensate for the lack of output. Lower volume output also causes lower organ perfusion, including a reduction in kidney or renal perfusion. Reduced kidney perfusion can result in a retention of excess fluid. An acute decompensation episode is when fluid levels rise and/or vascular blood distribution declines to a state that causes the patient to experience fatigue and dyspnea (trouble breathing), thus presenting to the hospital. If left untreated, this may result to serious complications and death.
It has been observed that heart failure primarily initiates as a result of left-side heart issues. In a normal healthy heart, oxygenated blood is first carried from the pulmonary veins, through the left atrium, into the left ventricle, and into the aorta, after which the blood is carried throughout the body. Thereafter, deoxygenated blood is carried from the two vena cavae into the right atrium, through the right ventricle, and into the pulmonary arteries, which then carry the blood into the lungs for oxygenation. The pumping performance of the left ventricle can be affected by the thickening/thinning of the left ventricular wall or by the aortic/mitral valve damage, causing less blood to be pumped to the rest of the body.
There are at least two categories of heart failures: HFrEF (heart failure with reduced ejection fraction) and HFpEF (heart failure with preserved ejection fraction). In HFrEF, the left ventricle fills with enough blood, but cannot pump enough blood out due to poor contraction of the heart muscle. This is also called systolic heart failure. In HFpEF, the heart can pump blood out normally, but the left ventricle fills with less blood due to poor relaxation of the heart muscle creating less blood volume in the ventricle. This is also called diastolic heart failure. In either case, there generally is not enough blood being pumped to the body. Less commonly, biventricular failure can occur, which is when the left heart cannot pump enough blood out to the body and the right heart cannot pump enough blood to the lungs.
Pharmacological treatments are commonly employed to reduce heart pressure and prevent acute decompensation episodes. Remotely, the particular drug used is often determined by a trial and error approach using sign/symptoms such as weight gain, or by a singular intra-cardiac blood pressure measurement. Medications that are used today to reduce heart pressure and prevent acute decompensation episodes primarily include diuretics and vasodilators (nitrates, hydralazine, ace inhibitors, etc.) while other medications can be beta-blockers, inotropes, and more. Diuretics primarily target excess fluid buildup (fluid retention) and work by making the kidney release more sodium into the urine. The sodium then takes water with it from the bloodstream, thereby decreasing the amount of fluid flowing through the blood vessels and ultimately reducing blood pressure. Loop diuretics, which are common in chronic heart failure, are also known to have a vasodilator effect on the venous vasculature, causing an increase in venous capacitance. Therefore, diuretics primarily help lower the preload on the heart by reducing blood volume from circulation.
Vasodilators are medications that open or dilate blood vessels, which can include nitrates, hydralazine, ace-inhibitors, and angiotensin receptor blockers, to name a few. As a result, blood flows more easily through the vessels, primarily arterial resistance vessels, and the heart does not need to pump as hard, thereby reducing intra-cardiac blood pressure. Nitrates, for example, are venous dilators at very low initial doses, but primarily increasingly affect arterial dilation in moderate to high doses (typical dosage of heart failure). Unlike diuretics, vasodilator therapy is primarily used to help reduce vascular resistance and afterload on the heart, which enhances stroke volume and cardiac output and leads to secondary decreases in left ventricular preload and venous pressures resulting in lower left sided filling pressure. Beta-blockers work to make the heart pump slower, i.e. induces lower heart rate, and with less force, thereby reducing blood pressure. Inotropes work to increase the strength of ventricular contraction and therefore increase the heart rate. This medication is used in severe cases where extremely poor perfusion exists and a ventricular assist device (VAD) or heart transplant is needed. Generally, when a remote monitoring system indicates a rise in intra-cardiac pressure, the rise signals the need for one of the aforesaid medications to be added or the dosage of said medications to be increased, in order to reduce the intracardiac blood filling pressure. Increasing the dosage of the medications to keep down the intracardiac filling pressure before it gets too high is thought to be the key to reduce the number of hospitalizations.
Early preventative analyses have been proven to be effective in reducing rehospitalizations due to heart failure. As shown in FIG. 1A, by monitoring the predictive biomarkers and performing the appropriate early interventions, the risk of rehospitalization in a patient is significantly lowered. For example, in the earliest stages preceding a potential hospitalization event when the heart is hemodynamically stable, using measurement devices to measure an increase in the filling pressure of the heart can treat the earliest symptoms. Afterwards, when the heart experiences pre-symptomatic congestion, the intrathoracic impedance changes. Later, other signs like a sudden weight gain, swelling in the feet and ankles, weakness or shortness of breath (dyspnea), and changes in the frequency of urination show that the body is retaining fluid. At this stage, however, the disease is already at a later stage that is dangerously close to a decompensation of vital organs in the body, which in many cases include the kidneys. Therefore, it is best to treat the earliest symptoms because when the patient experiences the later symptoms that occur prior to a decompensation episode, it may be too late and permanent damages may have already been done to the organs.
To understand and treat a patient's heart failure, the hospital performs many acute analyses using various means of measurements. These include noninvasive measurements as well as invasive ones so that the medical service providers can get a better understanding of the patient's disease. Noninvasive measurements include: echocardiogram, which is used to diagnose the disease, monitor blood flow, and visualize changes in physiology; weight gain, which determines changes in fluid retention; visual inspection of the jugular vein, which determines fluid retention status; blood pressure readings, which estimate the blood flow of the body; heart rate; electrocardiography (ECG); and oxygen saturation. Invasive measurements include: right heart catheterization and left heart catheterization.
Right heart catheterization, which is performed using Swan-Ganz catheterization, can measure the central venous pressure, right atrial pressure (RAP), right ventricular diastolic and systolic pressures, pulmonary arterial diastolic and systolic pressures, and pulmonary artery wedge pressure (PAWP). Also, this method can measure the oxygen status, temperature, and heart rate of the patient, as well as calculate the cardiac output, systemic vascular resistance, and pulmonary vascular resistance. The right heart catheterization is primarily used to check pressures, cardiac output, resistance, and fluid status in the heart. Left heart catheterization can measure the left atrial pressure as well as the left ventricular diastolic and systolic pressures. The right heart catheterization can be left in a patient for a few days while the medical service providers attempt to reduce the patient's intracardiac blood filling pressure back to acceptable levels using medications. This is an effective practice in an acute setting. During the ESCAPE clinical trial, the use of pressure measurements was determined as a viable means to improve a patient's overall status in the acute setting, for example by targeting a RAP of ≤8 mm Hg and a PAWP of ≤15 mm Hg. However, it was not an ongoing solution, and therefore did not prevent rehospitalizations because the pressures were assumed to change relatively shortly after leaving the hospital. Therefore, a right heart catheter is primarily used to guide therapy to reduce symptoms and pressure in the acute setting.
As such, there is a need for a more convenient but accurate means of measuring the blood pressure within the heart. Current art in the field can be divided into two broad settings: acute and remote. The acute setting is where a patient is in a hospital and assessed using various methods (invasive or noninvasive) as discussed above, in a one-time event, in which the patient is sitting down or lying down in a stationary manner while these tests and measurements are performed. The remote setting is where the patient's pressure readings are done outside the hospital, such as at home, and medications are adjusted in this setting.
In the acute setting, a right heart catherization gives the medical service providers the information they need to choose the right medications for the patient to reduce symptoms. Primarily, it is very useful in separating the effects of fluid retention and fluid distribution. This is done by observing both the PAWP and the right atrial pressures together. Medical service providers will look at the absolute values and ratios to distinguish between the two issues, particularly in the left heart failure, such that they know when fluid is offloaded and are then able to determine the status of the blood distribution. In current practice, the acute setting allows for the most accurate measurement of the heart's health because pressure readings from different locations within the heart are taken into consideration simultaneously. In contrast, the remote cardiac pressure sensors which are currently commercially available only report a single pressure measurement.
FIG. 1B is illustrative of how a right heart catheterization is implemented. The measurement device 40 is attached to the end of a pulmonary artery catheter 18 which passes through the right atrium 1, the tricuspid valve 7, the right ventricle 2, through the pulmonary valve 58, and into the pulmonary artery 16 where the device 40 takes measurement of the blood pressure as deoxygenated blood is carried into the lung 22. Then, fresh air is carried into the lung 22 from the trachea 23 after which oxygenated blood is carried through the pulmonary vein 17, the left atrium 3, the mitral valve 6, the left ventricle 4, and the aortic valve 57. The catheter 18 also has a proximal injection port which injects cold saline bolus 20 into the right atrium, and a thermistor 21 located at a distal end of the catheter to measure the temperature of the blood in the pulmonary artery 16. This method of measurement is known as thermodilution, which measures the blood flow based on the premise that when the cold saline bolus is added to the circulating blood, the rate of blood flow is inversely proportional to the rate of change in blood temperature resulting from the cold saline bolus over time. This provides a measure of cardiac output.
Pulmonary artery wedge pressure and pulmonary artery diastolic is a surrogate measurement for the pressure within the left ventricle, which is a typical area of concern in heart failure. It has been shown that the pulmonary artery and left ventricular filling pressures correlate on most occasions except for certain comorbidities such as primary pulmonary arterial hypertension. Such pressures change because of circulating volume increase (fluid retention) or declining pumping efficiency of the left ventricle (e.g., thickening, dilation, or vasoconstriction of the peripheral resistance vessels).
Various attempts have been made to remotely monitor cardiac pressures in order to identify more effective pharmacological treatment programs. These systems seek monitor increases in intracardiac pressures to provide an early predictor of an impending acute decompensation for a patient with prior history of heart failure (e.g., as a much more reliable indicator than other measurements such as weight gain, thoracic impedance, etc.) For example, the CardioMEMS™ heart failure monitoring system by Abbott resides in the pulmonary artery and seeks to effectively monitor pulmonary artery pressures as a surrogate for left atrial pressure.
Other examples of remote monitoring systems known in the art include: Chronicle® by Medtronic and HeartPOD™ by Abbott/St. Jude. A short overview of each of these prior-art devices is provided below.
With Chronicle®, the measurement device resides in the right ventricle and reports an estimated pulmonary artery diastolic pressure (ePAD) to a receiving device. It has been stated that the measurements showed a correlation between right ventricular diastolic pressure, right ventricular systolic pressure, and ePAD, with the increase in all these pressure readings acting as indicators of an impending hospitalization.
HeartPOD™ uses a lead-and-can design with delivery of a measurement device by septal puncture method, with the measurement device remaining in the atrial septum and measuring left atrial pressure.
Over the past several decades, the prior art has been focused on finding a reliable predictor of an upcoming hospitalization event. Measuring left sided filling pressure and surrogates have demonstrated to be the most predictive and effective means of predicting an upcoming hospitalization event. However, the prior art has not addressed effective management of the patient alongside the prediction. Without signs and symptoms to rely upon, other additional measurements are required to effectively treat the patient with medications and other therapies. Each case of the prior-art devices described above creates a singular confounded measurement because each measurement is able to indicate an early rise in pressure to show that "something" is changing, but the measurement itself is insufficient to define specifically "what" is changing. This can be contrasted to acute right heart catheterization, because with these prior art devices there is not enough data provided to more accurately detect the cause of the problem remotely. This confounding measurement often leaves medical service providers with no other choice but to perform trial-and-error with medications, which may result in ineffective treatment and even cause serious complications in the patient's health. It may also lead to a right heart catheterization procedure to understand what is going on and address the problem in the acute setting.
For example, the medical service providers will first try diuretics to reduce the pressure, if they assume that the pressure increase is due to a fluid retention issue. If this does not work, they may increase the dosage of diuretics again. If this still does not work, the medical service providers may then decide that the problem is not in the fluid retention, but in the fluid distribution, after which they will attempt to use medications such as vasodilators and eventually inotropes. In other words, this method relies heavily on the medical service providers' intuitions which may eventually lead to a correct diagnosis, but at the cost of spending a longer time to do so.
The abovementioned trial-and-error method has a number of drawbacks. Because the heart failure decompensation is a time-based event, which means that blood pressure will rise over time leading to a hospitalization event, every attempt with medication changes has a few days of turnaround time from resulting pressure changes, leaving a relatively small window for error. Also, applying diuretics when there is not enough fluid in the system (in the case of a wrong guess made by the medical service providers) leads to overdiuresis, which can create a hypovolemic state and harm the kidneys. Medical service providers often send the patient to the lab for a creatinine test to assess the health of the kidneys, and if the creatinine levels are outside the normal range for a healthy kidney, the medical service providers then know that damage may have been implicated on the kidneys and that they have performed too much diuresis. More importantly, the longer the pressures remain high, the more likely it is that further damages can occur to the patient's body. For example, the right heart failure may accelerate, the left heart failure may accelerate, the valves within the heart may be damaged, and the kidney failure may accelerate.
In general terms, there is an ongoing need for improved diagnostic system to assist in proper treatment regimens for patients at risk of heart failure hospitalizations based on the physiologic measurements performed.

Medical treatment system using measurement data from multiple sensors


A heat dissipating assembly. The heat dissipating assembly comprises a frame, a clamping member, and a rotatable handle. The frame comprises a locking member. The clamping member is disposed crossing the frame. The rotatable handle is rotatably connected to the frame and abuts the clamping member. The rotatable handle exerts pressure on the clamping member, and the locking member locks the rotatable handle.

The present invention relates to a heat dissipating assembly, and in particular, to a heat dissipating assembly that is easily constructed and provides structural strength.
A conventional heat dissipating assembly as disclosed in Taiwan Patent No. 511,733 provides a dissipating structure mounted on a base, a fan is disposed on a frame and the frame engages to the base such that the dissipating structure is sandwiched therebetween. The fan is disposed directly under the dissipating structure, for efficient heat dissipation.
The frame and the base in the mentioned conventional heat dissipating assembly are connected by a simple mounting structure requiring tools and individual fasteners such that a firm connection is difficult to achieve. Thus, the frame and the base are easily separated, due to vibration induced by fan operation. Further, the connection is skewed and may break after long time use.


An end effector for a vacuum system is disclosed. In various embodiments, the end effector includes a central duct having a first end configured for connection to a vacuum source and a second end defining a central duct inlet; a base member proximate the second end of the central duct; and a plurality of passages extending from an outer surface of the base member to an inner surface of the central duct, the plurality of passages characterized by a passage axis having an axial vector component.

Additive manufacturing (AM) is a method of manufacture where component parts are constructed through layer-by-layer deposition of material. Compared to other methods of manufacture, AM offers several advantages, including, for example, reduced material waste, part consolidation and the ability to produce parts directly without the need for expensive part-specific tooling. Metallic AM methods, including, for example, laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF) methods, are capable of producing net-shape parts by utilizing thin (e.g., 20-80 μm) layers of material and small (e.g., 50-100 μm) laser spot sizes. Unlike the case with more conventional methods, such as forging or casting, metallic AM methods may be used to create parts having complex internal geometries.
With many AM techniques or, more broadly, 3-D printing techniques, residual powder may remain in a chamber within which the component parts are being fabricated. The residual powder, which is expensive and may comprise a volume many times the volume of the component parts being manufactured, is advantageously removed and reclaimed for subsequent use. Current removal techniques may, however, prove cumbersome and result in lost or contaminated material. Current vacuum-based removal techniques may also result in partially or completely clogged vacuum lines or hoses, particularly as a result of surge phenomena occurring due to inadequate flow of air or the surrounding gas. Methods and apparatus that reduce the occurrence of surging and increase the efficiency of vacuum-based removal techniques may serve to reduce the overall cost of component part fabrication using additive manufacturing techniques.

Vortex assisted powder removal end effector


A process for converting lipid-containing bacterial capsular polysaccharide, such as lipo-polyribosyl ribitol phosphate, lipo-PRP, into lipid-free, endotoxin-free polysaccharide, such as polyribosyl ribitol phosphate, PRP, by solubilizing polysaccharide-containing powder derived from culture media of bacteria, such as Haemophilus influenzae type b, cleaving covalently bound fatty acids from the polysaccharide, and removing the lipids, and endotoxin.

The invention is a process for the production of lipid-free, capsular polysaccharide from cultures of bacteria, including type-specific capsular polysaccharide from Gram-negative bacteria, free of endotoxin, without incurring substantial loss of the capsular polysaccharide. The process converts capsular polysaccharide which has covalently bound glycerol diester moieties into lipid free polysaccharide. In a preferred embodiment of the invention, lipopolysaccharides, LPS or endotoxin, is also removed from the capsular polysaccharide from which covalent lipid has been cleaved.
In one embodiment of the invention, the process is adapted to the production of lipid-free polyribosyl ribitol phosphate, hereinafter referred to as PRP, which is the capsular polysaccharide derived from cultures of the pathogenic bacterium Haemophilus influenzae type b, also referred to as Hib. The PRP produced is suitable as a component for the preparation of vaccines for induction of immune responses which protect against development of diseases caused by Hib. From this invention, it is predictable that the capsular polysaccharide of other pathogenic bacteria which have a similar covalent lipid, as in E. coli or Neisseria meningitidis, may be produced in similarly high yield by employing the teaching disclosed herein.
The pathogenic bacterium, Hib, is responsible for a number of diseases, the most significant of which is bacterial meningitis and systemic bacterial disease which occurs primarily in children under 5 years of age. Recently, vaccines directed against Hib have been licensed for use in humans by the FDA, see 1991 Physicians Desk Reference, pp. 1476-1478 for Merck & Co., Inc.'s PedvaxHIB.RTM., and pp. 1174 1176 for Lederle's Hib TITER.RTM..
One method of producing a vaccine against Hib is provided by the process described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,695,624 and 4,882,317. The PRP used in that process is derived from culturing Haemophilus influenzae type b, and isolating a fraction of polysaccharide from the culture medium. The isolated PRP is then conjugated with the outer membrane protein complex from Neisseria meningitidis b which acts as an immune enhacing carrier for the PRP which by itself is poorly immunogenic in infants.
Referring now to U.S. Pat. No. 4,695,624, an 800 L fermentation of Haemophilus influenzae type b is concentrated, in column 16, line 24, to 377 g of wet paste. The PRP is recovered by selective precipitation at different ethanol concentrations in the presence of calcium chloride. In column 17, line 1, 68 grams of dry product is obtained, hereinafter referred to as pre-phenol powder. Further workup involves phenol extraction and ethanol precipitation, yielding 39 grams of dry product in column 17, line 49, and then, finally ending up with 34.7 grams of dry product in column 18, line 14. This material will hereinafter be referred to as post-phenol powder. The post-phenol powder may be conjugated or subjected to further purification to remove endotoxin.
Endotoxin is a major contributor to elevation of temperature in mammals upon inoculation with bacterial derived immunogens. This so-called pyrogenic response may be eliminated by removal of lipid A containing lipopolysaccharides, hereinafter referred to synonomously as endotoxin, pyrogen or LPS, from the immunogen. In order to achieve this goal, the post-phenol PRP product obtained above may be further purified so that regulatory standards for pyrogen are met. Until the development of the instant invention, this was achieved by losing about 70% of the PRP present in the post-phenol powder, by selective ethanol fractionation. This involves precipitation of LPS from the post-phenol PRP by addition of ethanol to a sufficient concentration to just initiate precipitation, the so-called cloud point as outlined in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,039,610 and 5,045,456. Ethanol is added to the cloud point, which is where about a two-fold increase in turbidity is achieved. An additional 0.5-2% ethanol is added, and the precipitate, which was heretofor a waste-product, hereinafter referred to as low-cut, is obtained, while lipid-free PRP remains in solution. Low-cut contains about 70% of the PRP and essentially all of the LPS.
In an attempt to overcome the loss of PRP which results from selective ethanol fractionation for endotoxin removal, the inventors of the process of U.S. Pat. No. 5,019,502 developed a method to remove LPS without substantial loss of PRP. The method involves passage of solubilized post-phenol powder through a hydrophobic adsorption step, either in the batch mode or column chromatographic mode, and preferably using nonionic resins to which endotoxin binds, but to which polysaccharides do not bind.
Use of a resin of highly porous styrene and divinylbenzene copolymer, such as HP20 does indeed quantitatively remove essentially all endotoxin, while providing almost quantitative yield of the PRP. This material is hereinafter referred to as post-HP20 PRP. However, a substantial portion of the PRP produced by Hib is in the form of a covalent lipo-PRP.
The possibility that PRP is produced by Haemophilus influenzae type b as lipo-PRP was first recognized by Kuo et al., [J. Bacteriol. 163, 769-773 (1985)], wherein Haemophilus influenzae type b was grown in a liquid medium supplemented with radioactive palmitate and/or radioactive ribose. The polyribosyl ribitol phosphate purified from the culture supernatant contained both radioactive ribose and palmitate which had been incorporated into the PRP during biosynthesis. Phospholipase A.sub.2 (PLA.sub.2) treatment was shown to remove some of the radioactive palmitate from the PRP whereas methods that would disrupt noncovalent association were unsuccessful. A structure for lipo-PRP was not given, but the data presented was consistent with the data reported in an earlier publication which proposed a structure for the meningicoccal group A, B, C and E Coli K92 polysaccharides [Gotschlich et al., J. Biol. Chem. 25b, 8915-8921 (1981)]. In the present invention, work with specific phospholipases has revealed a structure for lipo-PRP which is consistent with that presented in the detailed description below.
Lipo-PRP does not bind to the hydrophobic resin used in the U.S. Pat. No. 5,019,502 invention, due to the minor hydrophobic nature conferred on lipo-PRP by the covalent lipids, as opposed to the overwhelmingly anionic nature of the very large polysaccharide portion of the molecule. Thus, the final product obtained from that process contained a substantial portion of lipo-PRP as well as lipid-free PRP. This lipo PRP is removed, either by selective ethanol fractionation, which incurs about a 70% loss of PRP, or by employing the process deisclosed herein, whereby essentially all of the PRP is recovered as lipid-free PRP.
Thus, an object of this invention is to provide a process for recovery of lipo-free capsular polysaccharide such that a conjugate product is produced that is indistinguishable from conjugate prepared using only that fraction of lipid-free polysaccharide obtained by selective alcohol fractionation. Another object of this invention is to provide a process for high-yield production of PRP which comprises conversion of lipo-PRP into lipo-free PRP, rather than discarding the lipo-PRP. Another object is to provide a process which is reproducible for the amount and consistency of PRP obtainable from cultures of Haemophilus influenzae type b to ensure consistency of conjugate vaccine produced with the PRP so produced. Other advantages and objects of the invention will become apparent from the complete description as follows.

Process for converting lipid-containing bacterial capsular polysaccharide into lipid-free polysaccharide


A system and method for providing a fork sensor including an emitter, a receiver, and at least one lens assembly wherein the width of the effective beam does not depend upon the size of the emitter or the receiver. One aspect of the present invention is a method for detecting or counting the number of objects interrupting the effective beam of the fork sensor. Another aspect of the present invention is a method for measuring the dimensions of objects using the fork sensor.

Photoelectric sensors debuted as throughbeam devices composed of lights and reflectors. Over the years, these sensors have developed into a multitude of designs, each used for a variety of purposes. One of these designs is the self-contained throughbeam, sometimes called a fork sensor. This sensor style, typically configured in a block letter C-shape, sends an electromagnetic signal (e.g., a beam of visible light, a laser beam, etc.) across from one arm of the sensor to another. Self-contained fork sensors can be used for a variety of applications, such as in production lines. For example, the sensors can be used to detect the presence or absence of items passing through the beam along a conveyor.
FIG. 1 illustrates a schematic of a fork sensor 100 currently used in industry. Housing 110 of the fork sensor 100 includes a first and second arm 101, 102 extending from a base 105. The first arm 101 includes an emitter 107 at a distal end 103. A second arm 102 includes a receiver 108 at a distal end 104. The emitter 107 is connected to a power source (not shown) and the receiver 108 is connected to a signal processing assembly (not shown). The emitter 107 is aligned with the receiver 108 such that a beam of light transmitted by the emitter 107 is received by the receiver 108 and converted into an electrical signal output. Placing a sufficiently opaque object between the emitter 107 and the receiver 108 interrupts a portion of the transmitted light before it reaches the receiver 108, thereby changing the signal output.
The beam of light has an effective width W1, which is defined by the amount of light transmitted by the emitter 107 that is also received by the receiver 108. The magnitude of the effective width W1 depends on the size of the emitter 107 and the receiver 108. Generally, both the emitter 107 and the receiver 108 are on the order of a couple millimeters wide. Therefore, the effective width W1 of the beam is only on the order of a couple millimeters.
In order for an object to interrupt the beam as it passes between the emitter 107 and the receiver 108, at least a portion of the object must pass within those few millimeters. Therefore, movement of smaller objects through the fork sensor 100 must be accurately controlled.

Self-contained fork sensor having a wide effective beam


A system and method for detecting a feature located on a surface, comprising: attaching a label to said feature; generating a label radiation from said label, a feature radiation from said feature, and a surface radiation from said surface; collecting said label radiation, said feature radiation, and said surface radiation; separating said label radiation from said feature radiation and said surface radiation; capturing the separated label radiation for generating an image of label, with said image of label having one or more pixels; and locating label pixels corresponding to said label radiation by searching for pixels, in said image of label, that possess substantially different pixel values when compared to other pixels in local neighborhood, whereby said feature is located by detecting said label.

Integrated circuit (IC) technology has continually advanced in the last few decades. In doing so, ICs have enabled a variety of applications ranging from smart consumer electronic devices to interplanetary communication. Interestingly, advances in ICs have also resulted in a dramatic reduction in cost of individual IC components. This reduction in cost is enabled by the ability of modern IC fabrication technology to produce increasingly large number of IC components on a single semiconductor wafer.
A couple of factors play an indispensable role in setting the trend of continuous IC advancements. Firstly, in what is known as node scaling, the size of the components of ICs are shrinking with each next generation technology node. This means that an increasingly large number of components can be fabricated on a single wafer. Remarkably, the shrinking of components also enable a significant increase in IC performance. Secondly, the size of semiconductor wafers continually increase to accommodate an increasingly more number of components on a single wafer. Together, the two factors allowed IC components to be mass produced at increasingly large scales.
Although modern semiconductor fabrication has enabled mass production of ICs, the produced ICs are useful only if they are functional. The ratio of the number of ICs that meet performance specifications to the total number of produced ICs is called yield, an important quantity that semiconductor fabs strive to maximize. Yield maximization leads to reduction in unit cost of IC. However, maximizing yield is a formidable task because of the exhaustive number and complexity of process steps involved in IC fabrication. The fabrication of ICs typically involves hundreds of process steps where a semiconductor wafer is subjected to steps such as ion implantation, deposition, lithography, etching, and polishing. Together, these steps fabricate intricate nanometer scale structures in ICs. Because of the exhaustive nature of IC fabrication, it is difficult to use data from functional tests of ICs to associate a failure in IC functionality to an abnormality in a particular process step. Nevertheless, knowing precisely where the abnormality occurred is crucial for maximizing yield. Accordingly, wafer inspection tools are employed after every significant process step to inspect for the presence of abnormalities or defects. If an increased number of defects are observed at a particular stage of fabrication, efforts are undertaken to identify the root cause of defects and to eliminate the root cause. Containing the root cause of defects quickly would prevent defects from affecting multiple wafers, thereby minimizing the impact on yield. Therefore, yield maximization is dependent on: a) ability of wafer inspection tools to detect defects, and b) effectively eliminating the source of defects.
Unfortunately, advances in semiconductor fabrication have made it very difficult to maximize yield. This is primarily because of the inability of wafer inspection tools to detect increasingly small yield-affecting defects. As the size of structures in ICs shrink due to node scaling, increasingly small defect sizes become problematic. In other words, the probability of a 14 nm defect to affect yield is substantially higher in a 14 nm technology node than in a 22 nm node. In order to maintain yield in a next generation technology node, the defect sensitivity of wafer inspection tools must follow the node scaling factor of the next generation technology node. In other words, if a next generation technology node shrinks by a factor of 1.5× with respect to a previous generation technology node, defect sensitivity of wafer inspection tools will also need to shrink by 1.5× in order for the next generation node to maintain the same yield as the previous generation node. However, in hindsight, it is discomforting to notice that the defect sensitivity of wafer inspection tools have been significantly lagging behind node scaling. In the last ten years, while the smallest IC structures shrank from 130 nm to 14 nm (over 9× reduction), defect sensitivity improved at a substantially slower rate from 50 nm to 20 nm (2.5× reduction). For the 130 nm technology node, defect sizes 2.6× smaller than the node size were detected. However, for the 14 nm technology node, wafer inspection tools are unable to even detect defects sizes 1× the node size. As a result, an increasing number of yield affecting defects pass undetected through wafer detection systems, leading to a significant negative impact in yield.
There are two fundamental reasons for the inability of wafer inspection tools to match up to the fast pace of node scaling. Firstly, the intensity of light scattered by defects decreases exponentially as the size of defect decreases. A 2× reduction in defect size leads to a 64× reduction in scattered light intensity. As a result, photodetectors used in wafer inspection tools receive exponentially smaller radiation levels from small defect sizes. Secondly, surface roughness present in wafer creates an undesirable background radiation called haze, which overwhelms scattered radiation from small defects. Traditional wafer inspection tools strive to maximize defect sensitivity by reducing the wavelength of incident light and increasing the power of incident light. However, doing so not only increases scattered radiation from defects but also increases haze. Furthermore, higher power beams with shorter wavelengths have the potential to induce a permanent damage to a semiconductor wafer.
Traditional wafer inspection suffers from a number of problems: a) reduced sensitivity; b) reduced scattering intensity for small defects; c) background scatting due to surface roughness; d) low signal to background ratios; e) need for a high power laser beam; and f) need for increasingly short wavelength laser beams.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved wafer inspection that can improve sensitivity; increase scattering intensity for small defects; reduce background scattering due to surface roughness; increase signal to background ratios; relax the need for a high power laser beam; and relax the need for shorter wavelength laser beams.


This encoding device (100) is provided with: a CELP encoding unit (102) that decodes CELP encoded data resulting from CELP encoding an input signal, generating a CELP decoded signal; a transform encoding unit (106) that generates a decoded signal spectrum by decoding transform encoded data resulting from using the spectrum of the input signal and the suppression spectrum of suppressing using a first suppression factor to transform encode the amplitude of the spectrum of the CELP decoded signal, and that outputs an index of the transform encoded frequency component; a pulse index recording unit (107) that forms and records an array using the index; and a CELP component suppression unit (109) that uses a second suppression factor and the array to suppress the amplitude of the spectrum resulting from adding the decoded signal spectrum and the suppression spectrum.

As a coding scheme which can compress speech, music, or the like at a low bit rate and with high sound quality, there has been proposed a coding scheme which combines a CELP (Code Excited Linear Prediction) coding scheme suitable for a speech signal with a transform coding scheme suitable for a music signal in a layered structure (see, for example, Non-Patent Literature (hereinafter, referred to as "NPL") 1). Hereinafter, a speech signal and a music signal may be collectively referred to as a sound signal.
In this coding scheme, an encoding apparatus first encodes an input signal using the CELP coding scheme to generate CELP encoded data. The encoding apparatus then performs transform coding on a residual spectrum obtained by converting a residual signal between the input signal and a CELP decoded signal (result of decoding the CELP encoded data) (hereinafter, referred to as a CELP residual signal) into a frequency domain, thereby providing high sound quality. As the transform coding scheme, there has been proposed a scheme which generates pulses at frequencies having high residual spectrum energy and encodes information of the pulses (see NPL 1).
However, although the CELP coding scheme is suitable for encoding a speech signal, the CELP coding scheme may degrade the sound quality of a music signal because the coding model is different for a music signal. Accordingly, when a music signal is encoded using the CELP coding scheme, there is a problem in that it is difficult to improve the sound quality even when the CELP residual signal (residual spectrum) is encoded using the transform coding scheme because of a larger component of the CELP residual signal.
To solve the above problem, there has been proposed a coding scheme which provides high sound quality by performing transform coding on a residual spectrum calculated using a result of suppressing an amplitude of a frequency component of a CELP decoded signal (hereinafter, referred to as a CELP component) (hereinafter, referred to as a CELP component suppressing method) (see, for example, Patent Literature (hereinafter referred to as "PTL") 1 and NPL 1 (section 18.104.22.168)).
In the CELP component suppressing method disclosed in NPL 1, when a sampling frequency of an input signal is 16 kHz, the amplitude of the CELP component is suppressed (hereinafter, referred to as CELP suppression) only in an intermediate band between 0.8 kHz and 5.5 kHz. In NPL 1, an encoding apparatus does not perform transform coding on the CELP residual signal alone, but applies another transform coding scheme in a lower layer prior to the transform coding, thereby reducing the CELP residual signal (see, for example, NPL 1 (section 184.108.40.206)). Therefore, the encoding apparatus does not perform CELP suppression on the frequency component encoded by another transform coding scheme even in the intermediate band and passes the transform encoded data in the lower layer to a higher layer and determines whether each frequency component has a value other than 0. For a frequency component having a value other than 0, the encoding apparatus determines that transform coding has been performed in the lower layer and does not perform CELP suppression. Meanwhile, for a frequency component having a value of 0, the encoding apparatus determines that transform coding has not been performed in the lower layer and performs CELP suppressing processing. CELP suppressing coefficients indicating the degrees (levels) of CELP suppression are uniform in frequencies in the intermediate band other than the frequencies for which CELP suppression is not performed.
The encoding apparatus performs CELP suppression by multiplying the CELP component (CELP decoded signal) by a CELP suppressing coefficient stored in a CELP suppressing coefficient code book prior to the transform coding and then obtains a residual spectrum between the input signal and the CELP decoded signal (CELP decoded signal that has been subjected to the CELP suppression) and performs transform coding on the residual spectrum.
Meanwhile, a decoding apparatus suppresses the CELP component of the CELP decoded signal using a CELP suppressing coefficient transmitted from the encoding apparatus and adds a transform coding decoded signal to the CELP decoded signal in which the CELP component has been suppressed. By this means, the decoding apparatus can obtain a decoded signal with less degradation in sound quality due to CELP coding when performing coding in which CELP coding and transform coding are combined in a layered structure.

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