A magnetic recording head with an overall planar design and tight dimensional control of throat height and notch width is achieved below the gap. Writer poles include very high magnetic moment material on both sides of the writer gap. Additionally the pole tips are shaped to provide high field with good spatial gradient for optimal writing conditions, thereby extending the capability of longitudinal recording heads for high density and high frequency applications.

The present invention relates generally to the storage and retrieval of data within magnetic media. In particular, the present invention relates to the placement of high magnetic moment material at the writer pole tip, a novel writer head design incorporating high magnetic moment material of the pole tip, and the process for manufacturing the novel writer head.
A typical magnetic head consists of two portions: a writer portion for storing magnetically encoded information on a magnetic media, for example a disc, and a reader portion for retrieving the magnetically encoded information from the disc. The reader portion typically consists of two shields with a magnetoresistive (MR) sensor positioned between the shields. Magnetic flux from the surface of the disc causes rotation of the magnetization vector of a sensing layer of the MR sensor, which in turn causes a change in electrical resistivity of the MR sensor. This change in resistivity of the MR sensor can be detected by passing a current through the MR sensor and measuring the voltage across the MR sensor. External circuitry then converts the voltage information into an appropriate format and manipulates that information as necessary.
The disc or other magnetic media is typically organized into tracks which are further organized into bit fields. The MR sensor is held in close proximity to the surface of the disc so that the sensor can be affected by the magnetic flux from each bit field within the disc. As the MR sensor travels along a track of the disc, any change in directionality of the magnetic flux between bit fields is detected by the MR sensor. The rotation of the magnetization vector with the change from one bit field to another results in the corresponding resistivity change and consequent voltage output from the MR sensor. Since it is the change from one bit field to another that is detected and results in the data output, it is critical that those transitions be sharp, that is, as narrow as possible. In other words, the domain wall between bit fields with opposite magnetization vectors will be as small in area as possible. Sharp transitions, as well as other characteristics for successful reading, are not controlled by the reader, but instead by the writer and the process used to encode the data within the magnetic media.
The writer typically consists of two magnetic poles separated from each other at an air bearing surface of the write head by a write gap. Additionally, the two magnetic poles are connected to each other at a region away from the air bearing surface by a back via. The magnetic flux path created by the two magnetic poles and back via is commonly called the magnetic core. Positioned between the two poles are one or more layers of conductive coils encapsulated by electrically insulating layers. To write data to the magnetic media, a time varying electrical current, or write current is caused to flow through the conductive coils. The write current produces a time varying magnetic field in the magnetic poles and across the write gap. A magnetic media is passed over the air bearing surface of the writer at a predetermined distance such that the magnetic surface of the media passes through the gap field. As the write current changes, the write gap field changes in intensity and direction.
The magnetic fringe field created by the writer gap causes and controls the write process. The cross sectional area of this writer gap is critical and determines the magnetic field strength. The cross-sectional area of the writer gap is defined by two parameters, the throat height and notch width. A very short throat height decreases the gap area and effectively increases the fringe field. A larger field allows the writer to activate the higher coercivity media that is necessary for high linear density recording. Control of the throat height is important for magnetic field control. Excessively short throat height can cause excessive magnetic flux density in the gap and create fringe field distortion. Dimensional control of the notch width is also important for reasons similar to those described for throat height control.
Recent years have seen a considerable increase in data storage densities. Generally, the storage capacity of a magnetic data storage and retrieval device is increased through use of magnetic media having an increased areal density. Areal density is the number of units of data stored in a unit area of the media. Areal density is determined by two components of the magnetic media: the track density (the number of data tracks per unit width of the magnetic media) and the linear density (the number of units of data stored per unit of length of the data track). To increase the areal density of a magnetic media one must increase the linear density and/or the track density of the magnetic media.
Increases in areal density have been achieved by: increasing the strength of the write gap field, decreasing the thickness of the gap between the magnetic poles at the air bearing surface, decreasing the width of the writer poles at the air bearing surface and increasing the coercivity of the magnetic media. These improvements require the material(s) of the magnetic core to conduct relatively high flux densities. Magnetic softness and well-defined anisotropy are properties of materials related to the ability to readily conduct magnetic flux.
Materials have a magnetic saturation level beyond which they will conduct no additional flux. Therefore each material has an intrinsic limit to the flux density that can be conducted. Consequently, it is desirable to incorporate high magnetic moment (HMM) materials because these materials can conduct a larger quantity of flux before reaching the point of magnetic saturation. The ability to conduct relatively high flux densities is especially desirable at those portions of the magnetic core or poles which are adjacent to the gap. Those portions, commonly called the pole tips, are critical for controlled and effective direction of the magnetic flux into the media.
In addition to the ability to conduct high flux densities, writer poles also need to avoid the formation of eddy currents. Eddy currents are induced through the magnetic core each time the write gap field changes directions. These eddy currents, which are counteracting to the flow of current from the change in direction of the write gap field, have a negative effect on the performance of the transducing head. First, the eddy currents act as a shield to prevent external fields from penetrating the magnetic core, thereby reducing the efficiency of the transducing head. Second, the increased eddy currents increase the time required to reverse the direction of magnetic flux through the magnetic core, thereby negatively impacting the data rate of the writer. Typically, eddy current effects can be minimized by increasing the resistivity of the material forming the magnetic core. Higher resistivity materials, however, generally have lower saturation moments and the high magnetic moment materials commonly have low resistivity.
Since it is difficult to find a material having the combined properties of a high magnetic moment, high permeability/low coercivity and a high resistivity, more recent prior art writers have used multiple materials to lend the combination of these properties to the writer. Frequently, prior art designs would focus on improving a single aspect of writer performance, for example reducing eddy currents. One such prior art approach is to form the magnetic core of two layers. One layer is formed of a high magnetic moment material and the other layer is formed of a material with a greater resistivity. But, the use of a multi-layer core will necessarily reduce the overall magnetic moment over that possible with a writer formed of solely high magnetic moment material.
A second prior art approach is to form a top pole of the magnetic core of two pieces: one piece of a high magnetic moment material and a second piece of a high resistivity material. This "two piece pole" (TPP) design originated from the need to build the pole tip separately from the pole yoke due to photo-processing concerns. Additionally, a bottom (or shared) pole of the magnetic core may be a recessed pole similarly formed of two pieces. In the case in which both the top and bottom pole are formed of two pieces, the build process of the writer would progress as follows: A planar second bottom pole piece would be deposited; a planar first bottom pole piece would be deposited on a portion of the second bottom pole piece; a write gap layer would be deposited over an exposed portion of the second bottom pole piece and the first bottom pole piece, a planar first top pole piece would be deposited over the write gap layer; a tri-layer stack formed of the first bottom pole piece, the write gap layer, and the first top pole piece would be shaped to define a pole tip region; insulating layers and coils would be deposited; and finally, a second top pole piece would be deposited over the first top pole piece, as well as over the insulating layers and coils. This build process is necessary because the first bottom pole piece and the second bottom pole piece need to be built on a flat surface to allow for proper shaping of the pole tips. Thus, the existing TPP structures all require stacking the first pole piece on the second pole piece, which is inefficient for flux transportation in addition to increasing the cost and complexity of the manufacturing process.
Accordingly, there is need for a high efficiency writer incorporating very high magnetic moment materials for use with high density magnetic data storage media.

Recording head writer with high magnetic moment material at the writer gap and associated process


The invention relates to active compound combinations, in particular within a composition, which comprises (A) an amidine compound of formula (I) and a further fungicidally (B). Moreover, the invention relates to a method for curatively or preventively controlling the phytopathogenic fungi of plants, to the use of a combination according to the invention for the treatment of seed, to a method for protecting a seed and not at least to the treated seed.

Field of the Invention
The invention relates to active compound combinations, in particular within a composition, which comprises (A) an amidine compound of formula (I) and a further fungicidally (B). Moreover, the invention relates to a method for curatively or preventively controlling the phytopathogenic fungi of plants, to the use of a combination according to the invention for the treatment of seed, to a method for protecting a seed and not at least to the treated seed.
Description of Related Art
WO-A 03/024 219, WO-A 05/089 547 and WO-A 05/120 234 each disclose fungicide combinations comprising at least one phenylamidine and at least one further known fungicidally active ingredient.
WO-A 00/46 184 and WO-A 2007/031513 each disclose the use of arylamidines as fungicides and their preparation starting from commercially available materials. WO-A 2007/0031513 discloses thiadiazolyloxyphenylamidine compounds according to formula (I), methods for producing such compounds starting from commercially available ingredients and its fungicidal uses.
Since the environmental and economic requirements imposed on modern-day crop protection compositions are continually increasing, with regard, for example, to the spectrum of action, toxicity, selectivity, application rate, formation of residues, and favourable preparation ability, and since, furthermore, there may be problems, for example, with resistances, a constant task is to develop new compositions, in particular fungicidal agents, which in some areas at least help to fulfil the abovementioned requirements. The present invention provides active compound combinations/compositions which in some aspects at least achieve the stated objective.


The present invention relates to a purified, easily produced poly-.beta.-1.fwdarw.4-N-acetylglucosamine (p-GlcNAc) polysaccharide species. The p-GlcNAc of the invention is a polymer of high molecular weight whose constituent monosaccharide sugars are attached in a .beta.-1.fwdarw.4 conformation, and which is free of proteins, and substantially free of single amino acids, and other organic and inorganic contaminants. In addition, derivatives and reformulations of p-GlcNAc are described. The present invention further relates to methods for the purification of the p-GlcNAc of the invention from microalgae, preferably diatom, starting sources. Still further, the invention relates to methods for the derivatization and reformulation of the p-GlcNAc. Additionally, the present invention relates to the uses of pure p-GlcNAc, its derivatives, and/or its reformulations.

There exists today an extensive literature on the properties, activities, and uses of polysaccharides that consist, in part, of p-GlcNAc. A class of such materials has been generically referred to as "chitin", while deacetylated chitin derivatives have been referred to as "chitosan". When these terms were first used, around 1823, it was believed that chitin and chitosan always occurred in nature as distinct, well-defined, unique, and invariant chemical species, with chitin being fully acetylated and chitosan being fully deacetylated compositions. It was approximately a century later, however, before it was discovered that the terms "chitin" and "chitosan" are, in fact, very ambiguous. Rather than referring to well-defined compounds, these terms actually refer to a family of compounds that exhibit widely differing physical and chemical properties. These differences are due to the products' varying molecular weights, varying degrees of acetylation, and the presence of contaminants such as covalently bound, species-specific proteins, single amino acid and inorganic contaminants. Even today, the terms "chitin" and "chitosan" are used ambiguously, and actually refer to poorly defined mixtures of many different compounds.
For example, the properties of "chitins" isolated from conventional sources such as crustacean outer shells and fungal mycelial mats are unpredictably variable. Such variations are due not only to species differences but are also due to varying environmental and seasonal effects that determine some of the biochemical characteristics of the "chitin"-producing species. In fact, the unpredictable variability of raw material is largely responsible for the slow growth of chitin-based industries.
No reports exist today in the scientific literature describing the isolation and production, from material sources, of pure, fully acetylated p-GlcNAc, i.e., a product or products uncontaminated by organic or inorganic impurities. While McLachlan et al. (McLachlan, A. G. et al., 1965, Can. J. Botany 43:707-713) reported the isolation of chitin, subsequent studies have shown that the "pure" substance obtained, in fact contained proteins and other contaminants.
Deacetylated and partially deacetylated chitin preparations exhibit potentially beneficial chemical properties, such as high reactivity, dense cationic charges, powerful metal chelating capacity, the ability to covalently attach proteins, and solubility in many aqueous solvents. The unpredictable variability of these preparations, as described above, however, severely limits the utility of these heterogenous compounds. For example, the currently available "chitins" and "chitosans" give rise to irreproducible data and to unacceptably wide variations in experimental results. Additionally, the available preparations are not sufficiently homogenous or pure, and the preparation constituents are not sufficiently reproducible for these preparations to be acceptable for use in applications, especially in medical ones. Thus, although extremely desirable, true, purified preparations of chitin and chitosan, whose properties are highly reproducible and which are easily manufactured, do not currently exist.

Methods and compositions for poly-.beta.-1.fwdarw.4-N-acetylglucosamine cell therapy system


A micro-positioning device adapted for displacement in a direction of travel. The device has a frame, an actuator attached to the frame, and a hydraulic booster attached to the frame and operably connected to the actuator. The actuator is adapted for activation and de-activation in sequence to achieve a displacement in the direction of travel. The hydraulic booster is adapted for amplifying or de-amplifying displacement in the direction of travel. The hydraulic booster converts mechanical energy into hydraulic energy and converts hydraulic energy into mechanical energy to modify the displacement.

Various micro-positioning devices for generating motion are known, such as linear incremental motors or other incremental motors. As is known, a micro-positioning device includes at least one actuator comprising a "smart" material, i.e., piezoelectric materials, magnetostrictive materials, and other materials known in the art. For example, in a typical linear incremental motor (or "inchworm" device), one or more actuators typically is arranged in such a way and activated and de-activated in such a sequence as to cause the motor to take a large number of relatively small steps very quickly. Where piezoelectric actuators are used, for example, the activation is effected by way of applying appropriate voltages in an appropriate sequence.
A typical inchworm mechanism 20 is shown in FIG. 1A, and a typical complete cycle of activations and de-activations for the inchworm mechanism 20 is schematically shown in FIG. 1B. (As will be described, the remainder of the drawings illustrate the present invention.) The motion of the inchworm mechanism 20 along a guideway 21 is created by a sequence of signals fed into piezoelectric actuators 22, 24, 26 which are attached to a frame 28, and which are used for clamping and longitudinal extension. As shown in FIG. 1A, a first actuator 22 and a second actuator are attached at opposite ends 29, 30 of the frame 28, and a middle actuator 24 is positioned lengthwise between the first and second actuators 22, 26.
As is known in the art, a full cycle is composed of six steps, shown in FIG. 1B. In FIG. 1B only the actuators are shown, and shaded actuators are activated. Other actuators shown in FIG. 1B are not activated. For example, the six steps shown in FIG. 1B would result in movement in the direction of the arrow X. Such movement is generated as follows.
In the first step, the first actuator 22 is activated, causing a clamp connected thereto to clamp to the guideway 21. The middle actuator 24 is elongate, and the further elongation of the middle actuator 24 (i.e., upon activation thereof) while the first actuator 24 is activated results in the second end 30 being extended further away from the first end 29 in step 2 than in step 1 (see step 2 in FIG. 1B). In the third step, the second actuator 26 is activated, causing another clamp to clamp to the guideway 21. In the fourth step, the first actuator 22 is de-activated, causing the clamp associated therewith to release. In step 5, the middle actuator 24 is de-activated, allowing movement (i.e., displacement) of the first end 29 towards the second end 30. The direction of motion (shown by arrow X in FIG. 1B) can be changed by reversing the sequence of activations.
However, known micro-positioning devices are unable to operate at speeds which are necessary or desirable for various applications. As is known in the art, the speed of a micro-positioning device can be increased by increasing step size or increasing operating frequency of the device, or both. Higher structural stiffness of the device is desirable, as higher stiffness leads to operation at higher natural frequencies. Therefore, although increasing step size—i.e., amplifying the stroke—is desirable, it is at the same time desirable to maintain stiffness of the device.
Increasing the step size by means of including mechanical levers in a linear incremental motor has been found to be unsatisfactory because adding mechanical levers decreases the stiffness of the motor. For example, see P. E. Tenzer and R. Ben Mrad, "Amplification in Inchworm Precision Positioners", Proceedings, 2nd CanSmart Workshop on Smart Materials and Structures, Montreal, Canada, 2001, pp. 77–84.
Although amplifying the stroke (or displacement) in a micro-positioning device is desirable in certain circumstances, de-amplifying the stroke can also be desirable. For example, at present, the closed-loop accuracy of known micro-positioning devices is limited by the accuracy of sensors in the known micro-positioning devices. De-amplification could be useful to improve closed-loop accuracy of micro-positioning devices.
It is therefore desirable to provide a micro-positioning device adapted for displacement in a direction of travel which includes a means for modifying the displacement.


To search image information regarding image data, recorded on a storage medium, based on a desired search condition and to perform efficient display.

In recent years, recording devices for recording image data on storage media are widely available. In such a recording device, various types of image data are recorded on a storage medium, thereby making it more difficult to know what type of image data is recorded on the storage medium according to an increase in the amount of image data. In order to roughly know the content of image data recorded on the storage medium, for example, representative images for the image data are presented as thumbnails or text information indicating features of the image data is presented.
As one example of the recording devices, camcorders (camcorder: camera and recorder) perform recording based on a DVD-R (digital versatile disk recordable) standard or a DVD-RW standard in many cases. In this case, up to 99 titles can be recorded per disk and further each title can contain up to 99 chapters (PTT: Part of TiTle). For recording using the camcorder, one recording unit from the start of recording to the end of the recording is recorded as a chapter and recording units are recorded in the same title until a predetermined condition is satisfied. Examples of the predetermined condition for closing the title include a case in which the disk ejected (discharged), 99 chapters are reached in a title, 99 cells are reached in a title, and a the operation is switched from moving-image recording to still-image recording.
With disks recorded by such camcorders, a menu for each title is presented on the top menu. If it is desired to display a menu for each chapter, it is necessary to select a desired title on the top menu before proceeding to a chapter menu for the title (e.g., refer to Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2001-326910 (FIG. 4)).

Image-information recording device and image-information display device

Abstract: An attribute-information obtaining section 221 obtains attributes. For respective chapters, the attributes are held by an attribute file 500. A condition searching section 223 searches the attributes for the respective chapters in accordance with a condition input from a condition inputting section 222. A thumbnail obtaining section 224 obtains thumbnails that match the search condition. An index displaying section 226 displays the obtained thumbnails. When a thumbnail is selected via an image selecting section 227, an image reproducing section 228 reproduces image data in accordance with link information extracted by a link-information extracting section 225.


Methods and apparatus to parallelize data decompression are disclosed. An example method selecting initial starting positions in a compressed data bitstream; adjusting a first one of the initial starting positions to determine a first adjusted starting position by decoding the bitstream starting at a training position in the bitstream, the decoding including traversing the bitstream from the training position as though first data located at the training position is a valid token; outputting first decoded data generated by decoding a first segment of the bitstream starting from the first adjusted starting position; and merging the first decoded data with second decoded data generated by decoding a second segment of the bitstream, the decoding of the second segment starting from a second position in the bitstream and being performed in parallel with the decoding of the first segment, and the second segment preceding the first segment in the bitstream.

Data decompression refers to the conversion of the compressed data bitstream to the original bitstream (or, in the case of partial decompression such as in multi-layer or multi-technique compression, a partially compressed version of the bitstream). Lossless data compression refers to a technique by which a data bitstream can be stored in a compressed bitstream consisting of fewer bits than the original bitstream. Importantly, the original data bitstream can be perfectly recovered from the compressed data bitstream.
The figures are not to scale. Wherever appropriate, the same reference numbers will be used throughout the drawing(s) and accompanying written description to refer to the same or like parts.


A fluid flow control valve is housed within a canister (31) which is semi-permanently fixed in the wall (12) of a fuel tank, and has pipe connections (17, 18). The movable valve parts, including a valve sub-assembly (32, 33) and an electrical actuator (34), may be removed without requiring access to the fuel tank.

This invention relates to a valve and actuator, suitable for controlling flow of fluids in a duct.
Fluid flow valves are well known and generally comprise a housing defining an inlet and an outlet, and a movable valve member within the housing, having an internal through passageway to connect the inlet and outlet. The valve member is pivotable or rotatable between an open condition in which the inlet and outlet is connected and a closed condition in which the inlet and outlet are not connected.
Typically the valve member has a pivot axis perpendicular to the internal through passage, which is straight. Thus movement between the open and closed conditions requires a quarter turn. It will be appreciated that the valve member may also throttle flow in a partly closed condition.
An actuator may be provided to move the valve member, and is typically an electric motor and gearbox responsive to an electrical control signal.
Fluid ducts connected to the inlet and outlet are usually spaced away from a wall to which the valve is mounted, so as to give access for connection and disconnection. In consequence the valve may be attached to a pedestal, so that the valve is spaced from the mounting wall by a suitable distance.
Valves of this kind are used in aircraft to control the flow of fuel, and typically are mounted on the inside face of a fuel tank wall. The corresponding actuator is mounted on the outside face of the tank wall, typically in a contained space, and drives the movable valve member via a shaft passing through the pedestal. The actuator may be behind a fairing or false works which require to be removed for access.
Maintenance and repair of such valves can be problematic. If a pedestal or valve requires replacement, access to the wet side of the fuel tank is required, and the fuel tank may require to be drained. Replacement of an actuator requires access to the confined space on the dry side of the fuel tank.
Furthermore the existing arrangement of actuator, ball valve and pedestal cannot be quickly assembled and tested in a new aircraft.


A space efficient planar transformer can include a coupled inductor circuit that can include a metallic core, a first planar winding comprising a conductive coil having an electrical path encircling a first post of the metallic core, and a second planar winding configured to magnetically couple with the first winding via the metallic core. The second planar winding can have multiple portions. A portion of the second winding can include a first sub-portion comprising a single U-shaped planar conductive trace wrapped about the first post and a second sub-portion comprising a single U-shaped planar conductive trace wrapped about the first post. A layout of the first sub-portion can be oriented opposite a layout of the second sub-portion.

DC-DC switching regulators may use high-frequency switching to generate a desired output voltage for an electronic device. In certain applications, the demand for low voltage electronics to accept relatively high supply voltages creates challenges for stepping down the supply voltage to a low supply voltage. Similar challenges can also be found in step-up applications where a high supply voltage is converted from a low input supply voltage.

Techniques for a coupled inductor circuit

Analog Devices International Unlimited Company


An inflatable footwear for providing customized support for the user. The inflatable footwear includes an inner assembly with sole and upper portions and an outer assembly also having sole and upper portions, said outer assembly being coupled to said inner assembly along a annular edge and defining an interior air chamber for being inflated and supporting the foot and ankle of the user.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to foot-ware devices and more particularly pertains to a new inflatable footwear for providing customized support for the user.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The use of footwear devices is known in the prior art. U.S. Pat. No. 6,006,448 describes a device using a fixed third web bubble material for the formation of footwear, but has a fixed inflation and size so as not to be customizable. Another type of footwear devices in U.S. Pat. No. 5,526,584 having a plastic film for producing a waterproof sole for a sock-like insert.
While these devices fulfill their respective, particular objectives and requirements, the need remains for a device that has certain improved features including by way of illustration and not limitation, customizable support for the entire foot of the user, and customizable sizing.


Aspects of the methods and apparatus relate to exploiting the spectrum of a high power base station cell to provide higher capacity in a wireless communication system. Generally, a small cell with multi-carrier support may detect an absence of high power base station cell coverage or absence of high power base station cell users and may harness the high power base station cell carrier spectrum to provide higher data download rates and/or serve more mobility users. Specifically, aspects of the methods and apparatus include transmitting a first signal on a first carrier from a first access point and determining a current ability of a second access point on a second carrier. Thereafter, aspects of the methods and apparatus include transmitting a second signal on the second carrier from the first access point according to the determined current ability of the second access point.

Aspects of the present disclosure relate generally to wireless communication systems, and more particularly, to exploiting the spectrum of a high power base station cell to provide higher capacity in a wireless communication system.
Wireless communication systems are widely deployed to provide various telecommunication services such as telephony, video, data, messaging, and broadcasts. Typical wireless communication systems may employ multiple-access technologies capable of supporting communication with multiple users by sharing available system resources (e.g., bandwidth, transmit power). Examples of such multiple-access technologies include code division multiple access (CDMA) systems, time division multiple access (TDMA) systems, frequency division multiple access (FDMA) systems, orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) systems, single-carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA) systems, and time division synchronous code division multiple access (TD-SCDMA) systems.
These multiple access technologies have been adopted in various telecommunication standards to provide a common protocol that enables different wireless devices to communicate on a municipal, national, regional, and even global level. An example of an emerging telecommunication standard is Long Term Evolution (LTE), LTE is a set of enhancements to the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) mobile standard promulgated by Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). It is designed to better support mobile broadband Internet access by improving spectral efficiency, lower costs, improve services, make use of new spectrum, and better integrate with other open standards using OFDMA on the downlink (DL), SC-FDMA on the uplink (UL), and multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antenna technology. However, as the demand for mobile broadband access continues to increase, there exists a need for farther improvements in LTE technology. Preferably, these improvements should be applicable to other multi-access technologies and the telecommunication standards that employ these technologies.
To supplement conventional, relatively high transmit power base stations, e.g., macro base stations or cells, additional restricted power or restricted coverage base stations, referred to as small cells or small coverage base stations or cells, can be deployed to provide more robust wireless coverage to mobile devices. For example, small cells including wireless relay stations and low power base stations (e.g., which can be commonly referred to as Home NodeBs or Home eNBs, collectively referred to as H(e)NBs, femto node, pico nodes, etc.) can be deployed for incremental capacity growth, richer user experience, in-building or other specific geographic coverage, and/or the like. Such low transmit power or small coverage (e.g., relative to the transmit power or coverage of macro network base stations or cells) cells or base stations can be connected to the Internet via broadband connection (e.g., subscriber line (DSL) router, cable or other modem, etc.), which can provide the backhaul link to the mobile operator's network. Thus, for example, the small coverage cells or base stations can be deployed in user homes or in buildings to provide mobile network access to one or more devices via the broadband connection.
Generally, high power base station or cell deployment along with small cell deployment is increasingly seen as a way to guarantee coverage in a given area, to provide services to high mobility users, and to provide other services to users when small cells are overloaded. However, in many locations or at many instances of time, situations that make it favorable for a high power base station cell to provide coverage and services to a user may not occur. As such, in those situations, the spectrum of the high power base station cell may not be optimally utilized, and therefore in these situations, there may be a need to better utilize the spectrum of the high power base station cell.

Method and apparatus for time and spatial utilization of a high power base station cell spectrum by a small cell


The present invention relates to a novel oxirane pre-polymer comprised of the catalyzed or uncatalyzed reaction product of phenyl intermediates with a difunctional oxirane oligomer having at least one aromatic moiety and at least one aliphatic moiety, characterized in that substantially hydrolyzable oxygen atoms in said phenyl are bonded to said oligomers, and there is substantially no bonding between oligomer moieties. In a particularly preferred embodiment the present invention relates to a novel oxirane prepolymer comprising the reaction product of a phenyl intermediate with an inorganic oxide having at least one hydrolyzable oxygen and a difunctional oxirane oligomer aliphatic moiety characterized in that a majority of all hydrolyzable oxygen atoms in said oxide are bonded to at least one of the phenyl groups of the intermediate phenyl and one phenyl group is bonded to said oligomer and there is substantially no bonding between oligomer moieties.

This invention relates to novel polymers and more particularly to high performance polymers provided by a cross-reaction involving an organic oligomer, particularly oxirane oligomers.
The formation of tri and tetra functional oxirane polymers such as polyglycidyl ether of phenolformaldahyde novolac, glycidoxy tetraphenylethane, and tris (hydroxyphenyl) methane triglycidyl ether are well known but have processing problems in that when these epoxies are homopolymerized, they form brittle structures. Since homopolymerization gives the best temperature and chemical resistance from these tris and tetra epoxies, brittleness becomes its biggest detractor. A further drawback of these epoxies is that they are high melting point solids.
The advantage of the present invention is that high molecular weight polymers can be made from lower molecular weight oxirane oligomers giving the new polymers high numbers of aromatic groups for chemical and temperature resistance and high numbers of ether groups for elongation and toughness.
Previously, work has been conducted with respect to increasing the molecular weight of oxirane polymers by their catalyzed reaction with dihydric phenols. Epoxy resins cross-linked with dihydric phenol, such as resorcinol, hydroquinone, bisphenol A, etc. are well known. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,643,323, herein incorporated by reference, discloses an epoxy resin prepared from a 1, 2 epoxy and a dihydric phenol in the presence of one or more advancement catalysts.
However, increasing the molecular weight of oxirane oligomers with phenyl's such as poly (p-hydroxystyrene); tris-phenyls, such as tris (P hydroxy-phenyl) ethane or tris (4-hydroxyphenyl) 1,3,5-trisopropylbenzene has not been performed. The particular molecular structures of these presently preferred phenyls include the following. Tris (P-Hydroxy-Phenyl) ethane, a solid at room temperature having the molecular structure: ##STR1## Molecular weight: 306
Melting point: 247.2.degree. C. Tris (4-Hydroxy-Phenyl) 1, 3, 5-trisispropylbenzene, a solid at room temperature having the molecular structure: ##STR2## Molecular Weight: 480 Melting point: 189.degree. C.
Poly(p-hydroxystyrene), a solid at room temperature having the molecular structure: ##STR3## Molecular Weight: 5,400-7,000 Melting Point: 200.degree. C.


The present disclosure concerns a state monitoring or diagnostics system, and also a method for monitoring the state of devices or for diagnosing devices, in particular for overvoltage protection devices, as well as a method for transmitting measured values. Each of the devices comprises a functional component to be monitored and a monitoring and transmitting apparatus, wherein the monitoring and transmitting apparatus consists solely of a resonator circuit made of passive electrical components with no microchip, in particular with no RFID transponder. The information to be interrogated resides in the resonant frequency of the resonator circuit.

Overvoltages are potentially disruptive factors that can cause damage or destruction in electrical equipment. For this reason, overvoltage protection devices are employed in many areas of electrical engineering, such as in electric power engineering, measurement, control, and regulation technology, information technology, and for transmitting and receiving facilities. Examples of this can be found at www.phoenixcontact.de/ueberspannungsschutz, for example.
Although overvoltage protection devices are designed to withstand high transient current loads, high-energy overvoltage interference can nevertheless overload the protection devices. When an overvoltage pulse occurs, it is possible for the pulse to be properly arrested by the overvoltage protection device although the overvoltage protection device is itself damaged by the event. Then, the overvoltage protection device may no longer function properly at the next occurrence of an overvoltage, and the electrical equipment may suffer damage that the overvoltage protection device is specifically intended to prevent. Consequently, the surge arresters are checked every so often so that the overvoltage protection measures are always effective. To this end, the overvoltage protection devices, which frequently are designed as replaceable modules, are removed from the system by the user and placed in a tester to be tested.
In addition, it is known from DE 10 2004 006,987 B3 to use RFID transponders for state monitoring and logging of overvoltage protection devices in order to permit remote interrogation. In this design, a known error detection unit is used that is read and interrogated through an RFID transponder. In the event of a fault in the overvoltage protection device, the error detection unit is caused to short-circuit or interrupt the transponder antenna circuit or to change the resonant frequency of the transponder antenna circuit.
However, the use of RFID transponders, especially in overvoltage protection devices, entails the risk that the RFID transponders themselves can be destroyed by an electromagnetic pulse. In this context, a problem with the method described in DE 10 2004 006 987 is that in some cases it may not be possible to identify whether the RFID transponder has been destroyed or whether the error detection unit has triggered. It is possible, namely, that the RFID transponder has been destroyed but that the overvoltage protection device itself is still functional. This can result in an unnecessary and costly replacement. In addition, RFID transponders have low electromagnetic compatibility (EMC), which is especially problematic for the stated applications. Apart from this, the use of RFID transponders is complicated and costly, which limits their use to relatively complex equipment.


An air cleaner (40) includes a housing (48) and an access cover. The internal volume of the housing (48) can be reached through an opening (70) in a side wall of the housing. A filter element (50) having fluted filter media is removable and replaceable from the air cleaner (40). The housing is constructed and arranged to cam the element (50) into sealing engagement with the housing (48). The access cover includes structure to help support and ensure proper seating of the filter element within the housing. A method of installing the filter element in the air cleaner includes sliding a portion of the filter element against a slide surface in the housing. A method of servicing an air cleaner includes tilting the filter element against a tilt surface in the housing to release a seal between the filter element and the housing. The filter element can have a handle to assist in servicing of the air cleaner. The housing can have a window to allow visual inspection of the internal component of the housing and to determine visually whether a filter element is installed therein.

Gas streams often carry particulate material therein. In many instances, it is desirable to remove some or all of the particulate material from a gas flow stream. For example, air intake streams to engines for motorized vehicles or power generation equipment, gas streams directed to gas turbines, and air streams to various combustion furnaces, often include particulate material therein. The particulate material, should it reach the internal workings of the various mechanisms involved, can cause substantial damage thereto. It is therefore preferred, for such systems, to remove the particulate material from the gas flow upstream of the engine, turbine, furnace or other equipment involved. A variety of air filter or gas filter arrangements have been developed for particulate removal. In general, however, continued improvements are sought.


A method for controlling data flow by a proxy server connected between a User Equipment (UE) and a content server is disclosed. The proxy server estimates a first amount of data reception indicating an amount of data received by the UE and calculates a second amount of data reception indicating an amount of data received by the proxy server from the content server. The proxy server delays transmission of acknowledgement (ACK) on data received by the proxy server from the content server and waits until a time allowed for the transmission, if the second amount of data reception is greater than the first amount of data reception by a predetermined threshold. The resent disclosure may prevent a waste of network load and unnecessary resources by the proxy server controlling download data rate from the content server.

In the communication system, a proxy server acts as a cache that downloads data from a content server and transfer the data to User Equipment (UE) over a radio access network.
For example, the UE accesses a Wireless Access Point (WAP) and downloads data like a video file from the content server on a network. In this regard, the proxy server operates as an intermediary between the content server and the WAP to send data to the UE as soon as the proxy server downloads the data required by the UE from the content server.
The UE may have a Just-In-Time delivery (JIT) function to control download speed of data properly. The JIT function refers to a function to control, for example, a video file like Video On Demand (VOD) to be downloaded not so much as it is played by the user, in order to control transmission bandwidth to a proper level while reducing the amount of data to be unnecessarily downloaded just in case the user stops watching the video halfway. The JIT function is very useful in that a waste of resources may be prevented in case that the user stops playing a video file halfway before the end of the video file.
In the case the proxy server acts as an intermediary between the UE and the content server, sometimes, the proxy server also does not need to download data unnecessarily faster than the UE does. Accordingly, a need exists for a technology for the proxy server to control data to be downloaded at a proper speed by taking into account a download speed of the UE.

Method and apparatus for controlling data flow by using proxy server


Disclosed herein are ethylene-based polymers having a melt index less than 50 g/10 min, a ratio of Mw/Mn from 4 to 20, a density from 0.90 to 0.945 g/cm3, and a substantially constant short chain branch distribution. These polymers can be produced using a dual catalyst system containing a boron bridged metallocene compound with a cyclopentadienyl group and an indenyl group, and a single atom bridged metallocene compound with a fluorenyl group.

Polyolefins such as high density polyethylene (HDPE) homopolymer and linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) copolymer can be produced using various combinations of catalyst systems and polymerization processes. In some end-use applications, it can be beneficial to use a dual metallocene catalyst system to produce copolymers having broad and/or bimodal molecular weight distributions. Moreover, it can be beneficial for such copolymers to also have a flat or uniform comonomer distribution. Accordingly, it is to these ends that the present invention is directed.

Dual catalyst systems for producing polymers with a broad molecular weight distribution and a uniform short chain branch distribution


The invention is a modular cable termination plug having a conductor divider having an entrant barb and a plurality of divider channels, a load bar having a plurality of through holes and a plurality of slots, and a plurality of contact terminals. Additionally, the invention may include a housing, a strain relief collar and a strain relief boot.

Communications networks generally transmit data at a high frequency over cables having a plurality of twisted signal pairs of conductors. For example, according to currently accepted performance standards, Category 5 products operate at frequencies up to 100 MHz and Category 6 products operate at frequencies up to 250 MHz over Unshielded Twisted Pair (UTP) cable that contains eight (8) individual conductors arranged as four (4) twist pairs. When data is transmitted via an alternating current in a typical telecommunication application at such high frequencies, each individual conductor and each signal pair creates an electromagnetic field that can interfere with signals on adjacent conductors and adjacent signal pairs. This undesirable coupling of electromagnetic energy between adjacent conductor pairs, referred to as crosstalk, causes many communications problems in networks.
Crosstalk is effectively controlled within communication cables through the use of twisted pairs of conductors. Twisting a signal pair of conductors causes the electromagnetic fields around the wires to cancel out, leaving virtually no external field to transmit signals to nearby cable pairs. In contrast, Near End Crosstalk (NEXT), the crosstalk that occurs when connectors are attached to twisted pair cables, is much more difficult to control. Since twisted signal pairs must be untwisted into individual conductors in order to attach a connector, high levels of NEXT are introduced when portions of transmitted signals within the connector are electromagnetically coupled back into received signals.
In efforts to control NEXT, a wide variety of modular plugs have been developed for terminating communications cables that contain twisted signal pairs of conductors. As communication technology advances, however, and allows transmission at higher and higher frequencies, the modular plugs known in the prior art are no longer capable of maintaining NEXT levels within the ranges specified in widely accepted national performance standards. For Category 6 products, for example, the Commercial Building Telecommunications Wiring Standard (ANSI/TIA/EIA-568) specifies a de-embedded NEXT test plug range which all patch cord plugs should meet to ensure interoperable Cat 6 performance. In order to satisfy TIA/EIA 568B-2.1, patch cord plugs must be designed with low NEXT variability centered within the specified de-embedded NEXT test plug range. In standard plug designs, however, pair-to-pair distortion, twist rate, and individual conductor positions are not strictly controlled. Hence, large variations of NEXT performance occur. Prior art modular plug designs also cause increased de-embedded NEXT variability by utilizing strain relief components that consist of a latching bar that pinches the cable jacket, prohibiting cable movement within the plug housing. In order to generate sufficient retention force, these bar style strain relief components significantly deform the cable jacket and the twisted pair conductors within the jacket. This pinching deformation causes distortion and displacement of twisted pairs of conductors that in turn causes increased de-embedded NEXT variability.
Accordingly, there is a demand for an improved modular cable termination plug.


Disclosed is a gas sensor element having: a solid electrolyte body containing oxygen-ion conductive ZrO2; a detection electrode disposed on the solid electrolyte body to be exposed to a gas under measurement; and a reference electrode disposed on the solid electrolyte body to be exposed to a reference gas. In the gas sensor element, the detection electrode contains Pt and ZrO2; the detection electrode has a thickness of 3 to 10 μm; the amount of ZrO2 contained relative to Pt in the detection electrode is 12 to 18 wt %; the detection electrode has a porosity of 5% or lower; and, in a particle size distribution graph of ZrO2 particles in the detection electrode, a cumulative value of peaks appearing in a range of 0.025 μm to 0.200 μm is 60 to 75%, and a cumulative value of peaks appearing in a range of 1.000 μm to 3.162 μm is 2 to 7%.

There is known a gas sensor having a gas sensor element whose electrical characteristics change according to the concentration of a specific gas component in a gas under measurement as disclosed in Patent Document 1.
For example, Patent Document 1 discloses a gas sensor element including: a bottomed cylindrical-shaped solid electrolyte body with a closed front end; a reference electrode formed on an inner surface of the solid electrolyte body; and a detection electrode formed on a front end portion of an outer surface of the solid electrolyte body. This gas sensor element is used to detect the concentration of a specific gas component in e.g. an exhaust gas discharged from an internal combustion engine.


An electronic document display apparatus includes a display unit and an analysis-and-setting unit including a determination unit and a first correction unit. The display unit displays an electronic document in display layout set by the analysis-and-setting unit. If the determination unit determines that an image related to a display-range text of a display range to be displayed by the display unit is not included in the display range, the first correction unit adds an image display region where the image is displayed to the display range so as to correct the display layout in such a way that the image and at least a portion of an image text related to the image are included in the display range. The analysis-and-setting unit changes a display state of the image displayed in the image display region on the basis of a predetermined condition.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic document display apparatus, an image processing apparatus, an image output method, and a computer readable recording medium which stores a program therein.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, there has been developed an electronic document display apparatus which can display electronic documents such as electronic books and electronic paper having digitalized text data and image data.
Examples of the electronic documents include an electronic document in PDF (Portable Document Format), which presets the whole layout, and an electronic document in EPUB (Electronic PUBlication) format, which holds only limited information, such as a display order of data, page breaks and starting points of paragraphs in accordance with a common format using XML (eXtensible Markup Language). When an electronic document display apparatus displays an electronic document in a format using XML, if a user changes a character size displayed on a display screen of the electronic document display apparatus to suit his/her preference, reflow is performed. The reflow is to appropriately adjust positions of line breaks, the number of lines displayed per screen and the like in accordance with the size of the display screen.
Because such change is flexibly dealt with, when a text and another element, such as an image, a figure, a title, a header or a footer, coexist in an electronic document in a format using XML, its layout may be completely different from what its creator expects. Then, in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No, 2008-135024, an information processing apparatus is disclosed. The information processing apparatus performs display processing by which text display blocks and image display blocks are made, and a screen is divided, whereby a minimum layout setting can be made, and also a scaling can be performed on each block.
However, in a manual, a technical book or an academic book in particular, one image may be referred to multiple times (in a plurality of pages)), or a text including an explanatory note on one image (image text) may be longer than a text of a page (page text/display-range text) displayed as one page. In such a case, the electronic document display apparatus cannot display the image and the text (image text) related to the image on a display screen at the same time, which makes it inconvenient for a user to refer to the image.

Electronic document display apparatus, image processing apparatus, image output method, and computer readable recording medium storing program


A stereo code which can display a large amount of information on a small area without impairing the beauties of the goods etc. is provided, the stereo code comprising: a first stage information displaying region as a basic shape, comprising an inlaying body made up of a first rectangle having a prescribed area and displaying code information, and an inlaid body which is a second rectangle having an area half the first rectangle placed such that each intersection point of each two side constructing the inlaid body is internally touched with each side of the inlaying body, and displaying optically or magnetically readable code information based on the reflection of an irradiated light or magnetic force of a magnetic substance applied on the regions of four corners formed by surrounding the inlaid body by the inlaying body; and a second stage information displaying region comprising an inlaying body which is the inlaid body of the first stage and an inlaid body internally touched with the inlaying body, a third stage information displaying region comprising an inlaying body which is the inlaid body of the second stage and an inlaid body internally touched with the inlaying body, and similarly an n th stage information displaying region comprising an inlaying body which is the inlaid body of the previous stage and an inlaid body internally touched with the inlaying body.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method for displaying code used for code information such as merchandise management in POS (point of sales) system, the classification of baggage and prepaid card.
2. Prior Art
In conventional, so-called bar code is used in many cases for the merchandise management described above. In the bar code, 13 kinds of numeric codes are displayed by 4 kinds of lines and blank space, and the numeric codes display the name of country produced, the name of maker, the item of goods. However, the information which can displayed by the bar code is little and printing of the bar code requires high printing accuracy. Moreover, it is impossible to print the bar code in a small space. Consequently, so-called Karura code has been suggested in which a square is divided into four equal parts along the cross lines, and the four divided squares are painted in 16 manners to thereby display the numeric codes from 0 to 15, and has been partly popularized. The Karura code can increases an amount of information which can be displayed by arranging two or more squares, but the increase in an amount of information has problematic as in the bar code in terms of the increasing the area to be displayed.


Embodiments of systems and methods for bypassing an aftercooler are disclosed. According to one embodiment, the bypass valve system may include a turbocharger, an air temperature sensor, an aftercooler, a three-way bypass valve, an aftercooler conduit, a bypass conduit, a pipe fitting, an engine, a radiator, an expansion tank, a pump, a bypass control system and a locomotive control system. The temperature of the charge air is measured and sent to the bypass control system. The locomotive control system sends engine throttle conditions, such as engine notch position, to bypass control system. Bypass control system determines whether to circulate coolant through the aftercooler or bypass the aftercooler based on the temperature measurements and the engine throttle conditions. Bypass control system then sends a signal to the bypass valve to either to circulate coolant through the aftercooler or bypass the aftercooler through the conduit.

Locomotive diesel engines often include turbochargers to produce higher power output, lower emissions levels, and improve efficiency. However, when a turbo charger compresses intake air and outputs charge air, the temperature of the charge air is typically higher than the temperature of the intake air. The temperature of the charge air also typically increases as locomotive throttle notch or locomotive speed increases. Generally, locomotive diesel engines are equipped with aftercoolers (i.e., a "liquid-to-air heat exchanger," or "intercooler") that lower the increased temperature of the charge air by transferring heat to liquids. Typically, charge air temperature is lowered by passing through an aftercooler. The temperature of the charge air as it passes through an aftercooler may be lowered by controlling the flow of coolant through the aftercooler.
Although aftercoolers typically lower charge air temperature, at low locomotive throttle notches or speeds, the temperature of the ambient air may be lower than the temperature of the coolant circulating through the aftercooler. As a result, passing charge air through an aftercooler under these conditions has the adverse effect of warming the charge air.
Prior art systems exist that enable the flow of an engine's charge air to be bypassed around an aftercooler under certain conditions. However, these bypass systems typically require additional piping to circumvent the charge air around the aftercooler. Thus, these charge air systems are typically impracticable or inefficient to include in systems with confined spatial requirements.
Other prior art systems exist that reduce or stop the flow rate of coolant to an aftercooler by reducing or stopping the flow rate of the coolant throughout a coolant loop. However, when coolant flow is reduced or stopped in these prior art systems, the coolant flow is also reduced or stopped to other components in the coolant loop, such as radiators, engines, etc.
Accordingly, there is a need to efficiently prevent the unintentional warming of charge air in a diesel engine when an engine's charge air is colder than the temperature of the coolant circulating through the aftercooler.
Other drawbacks exist.

System and method for an aftercooler bypass


One embodiment relates to a charged-particle beam apparatus. The apparatus includes at least a source for generating the charged-particle beam, a first deflector, and a second deflector. The first deflector is configured to scan the charged-particle beam in a first dimension. The second deflector is configured to deflect the scanned beam such that the scanned beam impinges telecentrically (perpendicularly) upon a surface of a target substrate. Other embodiments are also disclosed.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to charged-particle beam apparatus.
2. Description of the Background Art
Charged-particle beam apparatus utilize particles such as electrons, protons or ions. Such apparatus include, for example, scanning electron microscopes (SEMs), electron beam inspection/review tools, electron beam metrology tools, and various other apparatus.

Large-field scanning of charged particles


The invention refers to a medical system comprising a first subsystem with a first connection portion (7), and a second subsystem with a second connection portion (12). The invention also refers to a device and a method for connecting the subsystems to each other. One of the subsystems contains a fluid. The connecting device is adapted to connect the subsystems to each other to permit transport of the fluid from one of the subsystems to the other subsystem. The device comprises a container (21) enclosing an inner space. A substantially sterile atmosphere is provided in the inner space. The container receives the first connection portion and the second connection portion in the inner space. A mechanism is provided for connecting, from outside the container, the first connection portion and the second connection portion to each other in the inner space.

The present invention generally refers to the creation of sterile or substantially sterile conditions for handling fluids for medical purposes.
In particular, the present invention refers to a connecting device for a medical system comprising a first subsystem having a first connection portion, and a second subsystem having a second connection portion, at least one of the subsystems containing a fluid, the connecting device being adapted to connect the subsystems to each other to permit transport of the fluid from at least one of the subsystem to the other subsystem, the device comprising a container enclosing an inner space, the container being adapted to receive the first connection portion and the second connection portion in the inner space.
Further, the present invention refers to a medical system comprising: a first subsystem having a first connection portion; a second subsystem having a second connection portion, at least one of the subsystems containing a fluid; and a connecting device being adapted to connect the subsystems to each other to permit transport of the fluid from at least one of the subsystem to the other subsystem, the connecting device comprising a container enclosing an inner space, the container being adapted to receive the first connection portion and the second connection portion in the inner space.
Still further, the present invention refers to a method for connecting in a medical system a first subsystem having a first connection portion and a second subsystem having a second connection portion to each other.
In the medical field, there are numerous situations where a fluid is to be transported from one subsystem to another subsystem during sterile conditions for preventing contamination of the fluid or any one of the subsystems. According to a first possible application of the present invention, the first subsystem may be a system for supplying infusion liquid to the blood system of a patient. A second application of the present invention may be the transfer of blood products or the transfer of blood from the blood system of an individual to the blood system of another individual, either directly between the individual or via any system for storing blood. Further applications of the present invention may include any supply of medical fluids into the body of an individual. A common aspect of these applications is that one of the subsystem is a biological system, such as the blood system of an individual. However, the present invention is also applicable to the transport of a fluid between two non-biological subsystems, for instance during the manufacture, cleaning, processing or treating of biological fluids of medical fluids, and during cleaning, processing or treating of biological fluids.
In the following, the present invention will be described in connection with dialysis, which is an important application of the invention. However, the invention is not restricted to this application, but may be applied to other fields as defined above.
There are two major dialysis therapies used today, namely haemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis. Haemodialysis is often performed three times a week for each patient during a respective treatment period of about four hours. Haemodialysis is normally carried out at clinics, hospitals or similar institutions, whereby the patient is bound to the dialysis apparatus, and thus in principal prevented from taking part in any other activity during the treatment procedure.
Peritoneal dialysis can be carried out at home and by the patient himself, who can operate the equipment required for the performance of the treatment. Peritoneal dialysis is initiated by the patient who connects himself via a catheter introduced into the abdominal cavity to a dialysis container set comprising a waste bag and a bag with dialysis liquid. In a first step the liquid present in the abdominal cavity is discharged to the waste bag, and then the new dialysis liquid is supplied from the dialysis liquid bag into the abdominal cavity. When the dialysis liquid has been introduced, which takes about half an hour, the patient disconnects himself. The dialysis treatment then takes place during a certain time period during which the patient can take part in other activities and in principal live a normal life. After said time period, the dialysis liquid has to be exchanged, whereby the patient connects himself for replacement of the dialysis liquid in the abdominal cavity with new dialysis liquid. These operations can be performed by the patient himself at any suitable place. Consequently, peritoneal dialysis has important advantages in that it increases the freedom of life for the patients, and can thus be a preferred treatment method.
There are, however, problems which prevent a continuing use of peritoneal dialysis and which make a change to haemodialysis necessary. These problems involve, for instance, inadequate dialysis and peritonitis. Investigations have been performed, which show that peritonitis is a major problem in connection with peritoneal dialysis. Peritonitis can occur due to various reasons, for instance, contamination due to contact with the surrounding air, contamination due to direct touching of the catheter by the patient himself, catheter related infections, etc. Contamination due to touch contact or air contact can occur during the connection and disconnection of the dialysis container set to the patient. During this connection and disconnection, there exist the risks of contamination of the catheter, for instance by the surrounding air, by direct contact with the skin of the patient or with the floor or any other surrounding object. If the catheter is contaminated, bacteria and other micro-organisms can find there way into the patient and cause peritonitis.
In British Medical Journal, Volume 288, 4 Feb. 1984, pages 353-356, it has been proposed to perform the connection of the patient to the dialysis container set by enclosing the conduit end portions in a flexible sterile bag containing a disinfectant liquid. This proposed method is, however, rather complicated since it includes a number of steps to be performed by the patient. The conduit end portions are to be introduced in the flexible bag vi openings, and then the openings have to be tighten around the conduits in order to provide a sealed inner space in the bag. In the bag there are two gauze pieces which are provided around the end portions for removing the caps and for sterilising the end portions before the connection.

Connecting device, a medical system, and a method of connecting medical subsystems


An optical memory having a light valve for each memory bit. Each bit is programmed in a WRITE mode to pass or inhibit optical energy emitted from a local source of illumination and thus store a binary value of "1" or "0". A short length of optical fiber guides light from the light valve in a READ mode to the core of a transmission fiber which acts as a series transmission line for an optical pulse sequence when each of a plurality of the light valves is illuminated by a respective optical source, e.g., a light emitting diode. An optical energy absorbing termination is located at one end of the series transmission fiber while an optical amplifier device is located at the opposite or output end and, where necessary in between, with the amplified pulse sequence from the transmission fiber being thereafter coupled to one or more individual optical receiver and transducer units which generate respective corresponding electrical utilization signals.

This invention relates generally to digital memory systems and more particularly to an electro-mechanically stored and optically retrieved memory system.
Digital memory systems are generally known and heretofore typically have used magnetic disks or tapes as a storage medium. Because the disks are required to rotate and the tape must be wound and unwound to access information, the average time required to access a desired piece of information can be found to be excessively long for a particular application. Recently with the development of optical disk type systems using compact disks, the information is optically stored in binary form; that is, the information is coded as a sequence of optically generated 0's and 1's, which are represented by a sequence comprised of pulses of light. For example, the absence of a pulse represents a digital "0", while the presence of light pulse represents a digital "1". While such apparatus operates very well there is an on-going need and search for economical devices and systems which provide faster access times and increased density of data storage.
It is an object of the present invention, therefore, to provide an improvement in digital memories.
It is a further object of the invention to provide an improvement in optical type digital memories.
And it is yet a further object of the present invention to provide an optically retrieved memory having improved access time for retrieving a desired piece of information.


A method of removing bacterial endotoxin from a pharmaceutical process solution is disclosed. In one embodiment, the method comprises treating the solution with a surfactant effective to dissociate the endotoxin from a pharmaceutical drug or vaccine substance in the solution, and then filtering the solution through a molecular cut-off filter having a pore size effective to retain the pharmaceutical drug or vaccine substance but allow the dissociated bacterial endotoxin to pass therethrough.

Endotoxins are lipopolysaccharides which are typically derived from the cell walls of bacteria, and in particular Gram negative bacteria. Contamination with endotoxin is a common problem in the pharmaceutical industry, particularly in non-sterile production processes.
Vaccines, for example viral vaccines, can be produced by inoculating a suitable viral substrate with a virus, incubating the substrate to allow viral replication and then harvesting the virus from the substrate. The virus is then inactivated using a suitable inactivating agent and the viral solution is further processed and purified to give the vaccine.
In one method of producing vaccines, and in particular viral vaccines such as influenza vaccine, eggs are used as the substrate for the virus. Thus the eggs are inoculated with seed virus, incubated to allow viral replication, and the allantoic fluid containing the virus harvested from the eggs. The allantoic fluid is then subjected to a sequence of purification steps to give a purified viral fraction which may then be lysed with a detergent such as Triton to disrupt the virus and release the desired viral antigens. The viral antigens are further purified and optionally blended, where desired, with other antigens to give a multivalent vaccine composition. Preparation of the vaccines is typically conducted in sterile rooms, and preservatives such as thiomersal are added at various stages during the process to minimise or prevent bacterial growth.
When eggs are used as the viral substrate, although they go through a cleaning process prior to inoculation to reduce the bioburden, the cleaning process does not guarantee complete removal of microorganisms. Moreover, it is possible that the eggs may not be pathogen free and may contain bacteria. Consequently, during the period of viral growth in the eggs, any contaminating bacteria will also multiply. Although the bacteria may be killed by preservative, the endotoxin-containing bacterial cell walls remain. During the disruption of the viral particles with detergent, the bacterial cell walls are also ruptured leading to release of endotoxin which may copurify into the final vaccine composition. If high levels of bacterial endotoxin are detected in the vaccine, current practice is to discard the contaminated vaccine rather than attempt to remove the endotoxin. As a consequence, there can be significant and expensive wastage during vaccine production as a result of endotoxin contamination.
Endotoxin contamination represents a particular problem in the manufacture of influenza vaccines. The primary constituents of influenza vaccines are the haemagglutinin (HA) surface antigens, along with smaller amounts of neuraminidase surface antigens (NA). Both the HA and NA can form characteristic rosette structures, either alone or as mixed rosettes containing both types of antigens. This behaviour is typical of membrane proteins where the hydrophobic stalks which traverse the membrane are forced to self-associate to produce a stable hydrophobic microenvironment.
The haemagglutinins generally exist in the form of trimers whilst the neuraminidase antigens tend to exist in tetrameric forms. Once formed, the rosettes are very stable and, for example, are not easily disrupted with detergents (Sian Renfrey PhD Thesis, University of Oxford 1994).
Bacterial endotoxins are lipopolysaccharides which possess a large hydrophilic polysaccharide chain, and a hydrophobic fatty acid-containing tail. Thus they have an amphiphilic structure. When in an aqueous environment, there will be a tendency for them to form aggregates.
It has been found that influenza surface antigens and endotoxin are difficult to separate from one another, and it is believed that this may be due to the fact that both influenza surface antigens, such as HA, and endotoxin have an amphiphilic structure and may become strongly associated under aqueous conditions. It also appears that endotoxin is incorporated into the HA/NA rosettes.
Any method of removing endotoxin from vaccine compositions must fulfil a number of criteria. Firstly, the method must not result in excessive loss of the product antigen. Secondly, it must be capable of removing relatively high concentrations of endotoxin (for example it should be capable of reducing the levels of endotoxin to less than 200 EU/ml, e.g. to less than 100 EU/ml). The method must not introduce potentially toxic chemicals into the product and any chemicals which are used must not adversely affect the antigens. Any such method must also be suitable for scaling up for use under production conditions. A method which works on only a small scale, but cannot be scaled up efficiently, is of no use in a manufacturing context. Finally, it is desirable that the method of removal of endotoxin should be capable of being carried out using existing process and production equipment.
A number of attempts have been made to remove endotoxin from vaccines but these have hitherto been generally unsuccessful.
Sucrose density gradient centrifugation is a technique which relies on the separation of substances on the basis of their specific molecular densities, assuming that there is no interaction between them. This technique has been applied by the present applicants to the problem of endotoxin removal from influenza antigen solutions; it was found that although 30% of the endotoxin eluted separately from the haemagglutinin on the sucrose density gradient, the remaining 70% remained associated with the surface antigen. Addition of detergent to the sucrose density gradients only improved endotoxin resolution from haemagglutinin by a relatively small extent.
It has been reported that triethylamine interacts with endotoxin causing an increase in endotoxin hydrophobicity and hence it was postulated that triethylamine may induce separation of the HA/NA/endotoxin complex believed to be formed. Triethylamine was therefore added to the sucrose density gradient, but this was unsuccessful in improving the resolution of endotoxin from haemagglutinins.
Non specific absorption of endotoxin onto activated charcoal, glass, anion exchange media (DEAE) and polystyrene have also been attempted but such attempts were not successful.
A number of affinity chromatography media are commercially available for the purpose of removing endotoxin from pharmaceuticals. The proprietary detoxifying media "Acticlean Etox, Prosep-Remtox and CUNO Zeta Plus ZA" were tried with varying degrees of success. Thus "Acticlean Etox" was successful in separating 99% of the endotoxin from the haemagglutinins in a small scale experiment, but the small scale separation could not be reproduced adequately and the method did not work effectively on a larger scale. "Prosep-Remtox" did not adsorb either endotoxin or haemagglutinin, whereas CUNO Zeta Plus ZA" adsorbed 100% endotoxin and 100% haemagglutinin.
Thus, there remains a pressing need for a method of removing endotoxin from pharmaceutical compositions, and in particular vaccine compositions.

Method of removing endotoxin from vaccines


A grease-like silicone composition comprising at least a liquid organopolysiloxane comprising siloxane units represented by the formula R2SiO2/2, siloxane units represented by the formula RSiO3/2, and siloxane units represented by the formula R3SiO1/2 and a thickening agent. A grease-like silicone composition is provided that is capable of containing a large amount of thickening agent and possesses superior heat resistance.

Grease-like silicone compositions comprising liquid organopolysiloxane and thickening agents, such as zinc oxide powders, aluminum powders, etc., have been offered, for example, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. Sho 50-105573, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. Sho 51-55870, and Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. Sho 61-157587. However, the problem with these compositions is that they cease to display grease-like characteristics when they contain a large amount of thickening agent, and allowing them to stand at high temperatures leads to a noticeable drop in their penetration and leads to hardening.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a grease-like silicone composition capable of containing a large amount of thickening agent and possessing superior heat resistance.


A surface inspection apparatus includes an illumination means for illuminating a pattern formed through a predetermined pattern forming process containing a process of exposure of a resist layer formed on a substrate having a periodicity with a linearly polarized light, a setting means for setting a direction of the substrate such that a plane of vibration of the linear polarization and a direction of repetition of the pattern are obliquely to each other, an extraction means for extracting a polarization component having a plane of vibration perpendicular to that of the linear polarization out of specularly reflected light from the pattern, and an image forming means for forming an image of the surface of the substrate based on the extracted light. A pattern forming condition in the pattern forming process is specified based on the light intensity of the image of the surface of the substrate formed by the image forming means.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an inspection apparatus and an inspection method for inspecting a pattern formed on a surface of a semiconductor wafer, a liquid crystal substrate, or the like.
2. Related Background Art
Various methods have been proposed, in order to determine quality of a pattern formed on the surface of a semiconductor wafer, which measure a sectional form of the pattern upon observation by a scanning type electronic microscope (SEM). Measurement of a sectional form of a pattern by SEM is performed by scanning with electron beams applied on the pattern on a subject substrate in the sectional direction of the pattern, and detecting and analyzing reflection electrons or secondary electrons from the pattern so as to obtain the sectional form of the scanned part. This operation is performed on several points on the pattern, so as to determine the correctness of a form of the whole pattern. It is further checked whether there is any problem in an exposure process or an etching process for forming a pattern from the sectional form of the pattern, or whether appropriate process conditions are selected. For example, as to the exposure process, correlation between an exposure condition and the sectional form of a pattern is obtained in advance, so as to determine whether or not the exposure condition of an exposure apparatus should be corrected from the sectional form of the inspected pattern, and to obtain an appropriate exposure condition on the basis of the correlation described above, if the correction is needed. As to the etching process, correlation between conditions such as a type of a gas, a pressure of the gas and accelerating voltage and the sectional form of the pattern is obtained in advance, and the same condition check is performed. It has been disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-302214.
As described above, since irradiation with electron beams on the pattern to scan is performed several times repeatedly in the measurement by SEM, an enormous time is required for obtaining the form of a pattern. Also, since the observation magnification is high, it is difficult to obtain all of the pattern forms on a wafer, which results in that several patterns are sampled to be inspected for determining the quality of the whole wafer. As a result, any defect in a part other than the sampled ones may be overlooked. Also, in a resist pattern, when electron beams are applied, the electron beams are absorbed and charged by the resist owing to accelerating voltage, so that the number of the patterns is reduced. In some cases, discharge of electricity occurs and a pattern may fall down, which may bring about inconveniences in subsequent processes. As a result, the optical observation conditions are also calculated by varying the accelerating voltage, the observation magnification, and so on. For this reason, still more time is required for the measurement.
According to the prior art, there occurs a problem that a trouble of an exposure apparatus or an etcher can not be fully detected by such overlooking. Also, since an enormous time is required for the measurement, any trouble of the exposure apparatus or the etcher which is detected from the measurement can not be fed back to these apparatuses swiftly.

Surface inspection apparatus, surface inspection method and exposure system


A safety valve has a lock open feature that is actuated by expanding or penetrating the flow tube to disconnect the link between the piston in the hydraulic control system and the flow tube. In normal operation, downward movement of the piston moves the flow tube against a power spring. When the flow tube is expanded, penetrated, or otherwise altered, the piston no longer acts on the flow tube and the flow tube can be simply pushed down and locked in position with the flapper wide open.

SSSVs are normally closed valves that prevent blowouts if the surface safety equipment fails. Conditions can arise where the SSSV fails to function for a variety of reasons. One solution to this situation has been to lock open the SSSV and to gain access into the pressurized control system that is used to move the flow tube to push the flapper into an open position against the force of a closure spring that urges the valve into a closed position. Thereafter, a replacement valve is delivered, normally on wireline, and latched into place such that the newly formed access to the control system of the original valve is now straddled by the replacement valve. This allows the original control system to be used to operate the replacement valve.
There have been several variations of lock open devices in the past. U.S. Pat. No. 4,577,694 assigned to Baker Hughes teaches the use of a flapper lock open tool (FLO) which delivers a band of spring steel to expand when retaining sleeves on the FLO tool are retracted. The tool latches inside the SSSV and with the flow tube in the flapper-closed position the band is released. This design offered the advantages of the lockout device not being integral to the SSSV. Instead it was only introduced when needed through a wireline. Another advantage was that the release of the band did no damage to the SSSV or the FLO tool. The band expanded into a recessed area so as to allow full-bore through-tubing access. The flow tube did not have to be shifted so that no spring forces acting on the flow tube had to be overcome to actuate the FLO tool. Subsequently, when the SSSV was retrieved to the surface, the band was easily removed by hand without special tools. The FLO tool had safety features to prevent premature release or incorrect placement. The FLO tool did not require fluid communication with the control system, as its purpose was solely flapper lock out.
The FLO tool did have some disadvantages. One was that the band could become dislodged under high gas flow rates. The tool was complicated and expensive to manufacture. The expanding ring presented design challenges and required stocking a large variety to accommodate different conditions. The running method required two wireline trips with jar-down/jar-up activation.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,579,889 assigned to Camco, now Schlumberger, required latching in the SSSV and stroking the flow tube down to the valve open position. The flow tube would then be outwardly indented in the valve open position so that the indentations would engage a downwardly oriented shoulder to prevent the flow tube from moving back to the valve closed position. This design had some of the advantages of the Baker Hughes FLO design and could accomplish the locking open with a single wireline trip. The disadvantages were that the flow tube was permanently damaged and that the flow tube had to be forced against a closure spring force before being dimpled to hold that position. This made disassembly of the SSSV with the flow tube under spring pressure a potentially dangerous proposition when the valve was later brought to the surface.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,564,675 assigned to Camco, now Schlumberger, also involved forcibly pushing the flow tube against the spring to get the flapper into the open position. In fact, the flow tube was over-stroked to push the actuator piston out of its bore in the pressurized control system, at which point the piston would have a portion splay out preventing its re-entry into the bore, thereby holding the flow tube in the flapper open position. This design had the safety issues of disassembly at the surface where the flow tube was under a considerable spring force. Additionally, fluid communication into the control system was not an option when locking open using this tool.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,059,041 assigned to Halliburton uses a tool that forces the flow tube down to get the flapper in the open position. It then releases a band above the flow tube that lodges on a downwardly oriented shoulder to hold the flapper open. This system has the risk of a flow tube under a spring force causing injury when later disassembled at the surface. This tool is fluid activated and must overcome the spring force to get the flow tube to the flapper open position. Finally, the tool is fluid pressure actuated, which will require a long fluid column to eventually communicate with the formation, a particular disadvantage in gas wells.
Also of interest in the area of lock open devices for SSSVs are U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,624,315, 4,967,845 and 6,125,930 (featuring collet fingers on the end of the flow tube that engage a groove in the SSSV body).
One of the objectives of the present invention is to disconnect the flow tube from the power spring to facilitate pushing it down far enough to lock it in the flapper open position. The flow tube can be expanded and even slightly deformed or penetrated to operate the release between the hydraulic control system and the flow tube. Various locking devices are contemplated once a tool easily shifts the flow tube down to the flapper locked open position. These and other features of the present invention will be more readily understood from a review of the description of the preferred embodiment, and the claims, which appear below.

Method of disabling and locking open a safety valve with releasable flow tube for flapper lockout