The invention here relates to a product comprised of a cell line or lines intended for use as an allogeneic immunotherapy agent for the treatment of cancer in mammals and humans. All of the studies of cell-based cancer vaccines to date have one feature in common, namely the intention to use cells that contain at least some TSAs and/or TAAs that are shared with the antigens present in patients' tumor. In each case, tumor cells are utilized as the starting point on the premise that only tumor cells will contain TSAs or TAAs of relevance, and the tissue origins of the cells are matched to the tumor site in patients. A primary aspect of the invention is the use of immortalized normal, non-malignant cells as the basis of an allogeneic cell cancer vaccine. Normal cells do not possess TSAs or relevant concentrations of TAAs and hence it is surprising that normal cells are effective as anti-cancer vaccines. For prostate cancer, for example, a vaccine may be based on one or a combination of different immortalized normal cell lines derived from the prostate. The cell lines are lethally irradiated utilizing gamma irradiation at 50-300 Gy to ensure that they are replication incompetent prior to use in the mammal or human.

It is known in the field that cancerous cells contain numerous mutations, qualitative and quantitative, spatial and temporal, relative to their normal, non-cancerous counterparts and that at certain periods during tumour cells' growth and spread a proportion of these are capable of being recognised by the hosts' immune system as abnormal. This has led to numerous research efforts world-wide to develop immunotherapies that harness the power of the hosts' immune system and direct it to attack the cancerous cells, thereby eliminating such aberrant cells at least to a level that is not life-threatening (reviewed in Maraveyas, A. & Dalgleish, A. G. 1977 Active immunotherapy for solid tumours in vaccine design in The Role of Cytokine Networks, Ed. Gregoriadis et al., Plenum Press, New York, pages 129-145; Morton, D. L. and Ravindranath, M. H. 1996 Current concepts concerning melanoma vaccines in Tumor Immunology—Immunotherapy and Cancer Vaccines, ed. Dalgleish, A. G. and Browning, M., Cambridge University Press, pages 241-268. See also other papers in these publications for further detail).
Numerous approaches have been taken in the quest for cancer immunotherapies, and these can be classified under five categories:
Non-Specific Immunotherapy
Efforts to stimulate the immune system non-specifically date back over a century to the pioneering work of William Coley (Coley, W. B., 1894 Treatment of inoperable malignant tumours with toxins of erisipelas and the Bacillus prodigosus. Trans. Am. Surg. Assoc. 12: 183). Although successful in a limited number of cases (e.g. BCG for the treatment of urinary bladder cancer, IL-2 for the treatment of melanoma and renal cancer) it is widely acknowledged that non-specific immunomodulation is unlikely to prove sufficient to treat the majority of cancers. Whilst non-specific immune-stimulants may lead to a general enhanced state of immune responsiveness, they lack the targeting capability and also subtlety to deal with tumour lesions which have many mechanisms and plasticity to evade, resist and subvert immune-surveillance.
Antibodies and Monoclonal Antibodies
Passive immunotherapy in the form of antibodies, and particularly monoclonal antibodies, has been the subject of considerable research and development as anti-cancer agents. Originally hailed as the magic bullet because of their exquisite specificity, monoclonal antibodies have failed to live up to their expectation in the field of cancer immunotherapy for a number of reasons including immune responses to the antibodies themselves (thereby abrogating their activity) and inability of the antibody to access the lesion through the blood vessels. To date, three products have been registered as pharmaceuticals for human use, namely Panorex (Glaxo-Welicome), Rituxan (IDEC/Genentech/Hoffman la Roche) and Herceptin (Genentech/Hoffman la Roche) with over 50 other projects in the research and development pipeline. Antibodies may also be employed in active immunotherapy utilising anti-idiotype antibodies which appear to mimic (in an immunological sense) cancer antigens. Although elegant in concept, the utility of antibody-based approaches may ultimately prove limited by the phenomenon of 'immunological escape' where a subset of cancer cells in a mammalian or human subject mutates and loses the antigen recognised by the particular antibody and thereby can lead to the outgrowth of a population of cancer cells that are no longer treatable with that antibody.
Subunit Vaccines
Drawing on the experience in vaccines for infectious diseases and other fields, many researchers have sought to identify antigens that are exclusively or preferentially associated with cancer cells, namely tumour specific antigens (TSA) or tumour associated antigens (TAA), and to use such antigens or fractions thereof as the basis for specific active immunotherapy.
There are numerous ways to identify proteins or peptides derived therefrom which fall into the category of TAA or TSA. For example, it is possible to utilise differential display techniques whereby RNA expression is compared between tumour tissue and adjacent normal tissue to identify RNAs which are exclusively or preferentially expressed in the lesion. Sequencing of the RNA has identified several TAA and TSA which are expressed in that specific tissue at that specific time, but therein lies the potential deficiency of the approach in that identification of the TAA or TSA represents only a "snapshot" of the lesion at any given time which may not provide an adequate reflection of the antigenic profile in the lesion over time. Similarly a combination of cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) cloning and expression-cloning of cDNA from tumour tissue has lead to identification of many TAA and TSA, particularly in melanoma. The approach suffers from the same inherent weakness as differential display techniques in that identification of only one TAA or TSA may not provide an appropriate representation of a clinically relevant antigenic profile.
Over fifty such subunit vaccine approaches are in development for the treatment of a wide range of cancers, although none has yet received marketing authorisation for use as a human pharmaceutical product. In a similar manner to that described for antibody-based approaches above, subunit vaccines may also be limited by the phenomenon of immunological escape.
Gene Therapy
The majority of gene therapy trials in human subjects have been in the area of cancer treatment, and of these a substantial proportion have been designed to trigger and/or amplify patients' immune responses. Of particular note in commercial development are Allovectin-7 and Leuvectin, being developed by Vical Inc for a range of human tumours, CN706 being developed by Calydon Inc for the treatment of prostate cancer, and StressGen Inc.'s stress protein gene therapy for melanoma and lung cancer. At the present time, it is too early to judge whether these and the many other 'immuno-gene therapies' in development by commercial and academic bodies will ultimately prove successful, but it is widely accepted that commercial utility of these approaches are likely to be more than a decade away.
Cell-Based Vaccines
Tumours have the remarkable ability to counteract the immune system in a variety of ways including: downregulation of the expression of potential target proteins; mutation of potential target proteins; downregulation of surface expression of receptors and other proteins; downregulation of MHC class I and II expression thereby disallowing direct presentation of TAA or TSA peptides; downregulation of co-stimulatory molecules leading to incomplete stimulation of T-cells leading to anergy; shedding of selective, non representative membrane portions to act as decoy to the immune system; shedding of selective membrane portions to anergise the immune system; secretion of inhibitory molecules; induction of T-cell death; and many other ways. What is clear is that the immunological heterogeneity and plasticity of tumours in the body will have to be matched to a degree by immunotherapeutic strategies which similarly embody heterogeneity. The use of whole cancer cells, or crude derivatives thereof, as cancer immunotherapies can be viewed as analogous to the use of whole inactivated or attenuated viruses as vaccines against viral disease. The potential advantages are:    (a) whole cells contain a broad range of antigens, providing an antigenic profile of sufficient heterogeneity to match that of the lesions as described above;    (b) being multivalent (i.e. containing multiple antigens), the risk of immunological escape is reduced (the probability of cancer cells 'losing' all of these antigens is remote); and    (c) cell-based vaccines include TSAs and TAAs that have yet to be identified as such; it is possible if not likely that currently unidentified antigens may be clinically more relevant than the relatively small number of TSAs/TAAs that are known.
Cell-based vaccines fall into two categories. The first, based on autologous cells, involves the removal of a biopsy from a patient, cultivating tumour cells in vitro, modifying the cells through transfection and/or other means, irradiating the cells to render them replication-incompetent and then injecting the cells back into the same patient as a vaccine. Although this approach enjoyed considerable attention over the past decade, it has been increasingly apparent that this individually-tailored therapy is inherently impractical for several reasons. The approach is time consuming (often the lead time for producing clinical doses of vaccine exceeds the patients' life expectancy), expensive and, as a 'bespoke' product, it is not possible to specify a standardised product (only the procedure, not the product, can be standardised and hence optimised and quality controlled). Furthermore, the tumour biopsy used to prepare the autologous vaccine will have certain growth characteristics, interactions and communication with surrounding tissue that makes it somewhat unique. This alludes to a potentially significant disadvantage to the use of autologous cells for immunotherapy: a biopsy which provides the initial cells represents an immunological snapshot of the tumour, in that environment, at that point in time, and this may be inadequate as an immunological representation over time for the purpose of a vaccine with sustained activity that can be given over the entire course of the disease.
The second type of cell-based vaccine and the subject of the current invention describes the use of allogeneic cells which are be genetically (and hence immunologically) mismatched to the patients. Allogeneic cells benefit from the same advantages of multivalency as autologous cells. In addition, as allogeneic cell vaccines can be based on immortalised cell lines which can be cultivated indefinitely in vitro, thus this approach does not suffer the lead-time and cost disadvantages of autologous approaches. Similarly the allogeneic approach offers the opportunity to use combinations of cells types which may match the disease profile of an individual in terms of stage of the disease, the location of the lesion and potential resistance to other therapies.
There are numerous published reports of the utility of cell-based cancer vaccines (see, for example, Dranoff, G. et al. WO 93/06867; Gansbacher, P. WO 94/18995; Jaffee, E. M. et al. WO 97/24132; Mitchell, M. S. WO 90/03183; Morton, D. M. et al. WO 91/06866). These studies encompass a range of variations from the base procedure of using cancer cells as an immunotherapy antigen, to transfecting the cells to produce GM-CSF, IL-2, interferons or other immunologically-active molecules and the use of 'suicide' genes. Groups have used allogeneic cell lines that are HLA-matched or partially-matched to the patients' haplotype and also allogeneic cell lines that are mismatched to the patients' haplotype in the field of melanoma and also mismatched allogeneic prostate cell lines transfected with GM-CSF.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Use of human prostate cell lines in cancer treatment


Described embodiments provide systems and methods for inferring a network type and network conditions. The system includes a packet capturing engine configured to capture a plurality of network packets from a plurality of TCP network connections. The system includes a packet analyzer configured to analyze the plurality of network packets to generate a plurality of metrics. The system includes a network classifier configured to infer network types of the plurality of TCP connections based on the plurality of metrics and at least one classification model. The system also includes a conditions ranking engine configured to estimate a level of network congestion for each TCP connection based on the plurality of metrics and the network types.

A computing environment can be configured to facilitate connections between user equipment, such as mobile phones, and other computing devices. For example, cellular networks allow users to communicate via mobile phones using a variety of network protocols and technologies. Network performance in a cellular network can be influenced by factors including signal strength and network congestion. However, it can be difficult to gain insight into the specific underlying causes of poor network performance by analyzing packets sent over the network.


A heavy hydrocarbon, oil-in-water emulsion that has a relatively low viscosity for improved transport is disclosed. The emulsion is produced by combining the heavy hydrocarbon with an aqueous solution of emulsifier with agitation. The emulsifier has an HLB value of about 13 to about 16. The emulsifier can be anionic, nonionic, amphoteric, or a mixture thereof. Stirring is effected at medium shear values of about 0.1 sec.sup.-1 to about 20 sec.sup.-1 and at a mixer speed of 50 to 2000 rpm. The mixer imparts sufficient power and shear to the emulsion so that a mean oil droplet size of about 30 .mu.m is obtained.

The movement of heavy crude through pipelines is difficult. The pumping of heavy crude, fuel oil, and the like is difficult because of the high viscosity of these materials and their resulting low mobility. A known method in the prior art for transporting these heavy, viscous crudes is the addition of lighter hydrocarbons, etc. to the heavy, viscous crudes by a technique such as distillate blending. This technique is expensive as it requires the addition of expensive, light crudes to transport the heavy, less valuable crude. Also, light crudes are more difficult to obtain than the heavy crudes.
Another known method for the transport of heavy, viscous crude is by heating the crude at frequent intervals along the pipeline. This method requires expensive heating equipment to be installed along the pipeline, and also requires maintenance of this equipment. This method also results in a loss of production that can amount to 15% or more of the crude being transferred, the loss resulting from the crude or other energy source utilized to heat the crude.
Yet another method involves the pumping of viscous hydrocarbon through a pipeline surrounded by a lighter viscosity liquid, such as water. In such cases the pressure drop through the pipeline is substantially that of the lighter viscosity liquid. This method of transportation has several disadvantages, however. The major disadvantage is the loss in core flow stability while being pumped over long distances. Slope changes, pipeline diameter changes, transport through booster or repumping stations, and the like expedients are all detrimental to stability. Also, if flow ceases for any reason, the fluid becomes very difficult to pump when transport is resumed, as the core intermixes with the outer layer once the flow of the fluid is ceased or otherwise interrupted.
The use of emulsions to transport heavy crude is also known in the art. Emulsions are typically prepared by adding a mixture of surfactant, blend of surfactants, stabilizer, corrosion inhibitor, pour point depressor and alkaline or neutral pH water to the heavy crude. However, these prior art emulsions fail to optimally reduce viscosity and improve stability of the emulsion while the emulsion is being transported through the pipeline.
Also, conventional systems prepare the heavy crude oil emulsion by conventional mixing using static or dynamic mixers in addition to other preparation steps. At various stages in such a conventional system, as the emulsion is prepared, the emulsion is first mixed and then pours out of pipes directly into tanks. U.S. Pat. No. 5,000,872 to Olah illustrates such a conventional system in which, for example, the emulsion travels through a static mixer just before pouring into a final emulsion tank at the entry to the transport pipeline. In such a system an opportunity for producing droplets of a uniform size without the need for additional mixers is lost.
Heavy crude emulsions, as well as methods of making such emulsions are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,618,348 to Hayes et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,781,207 to Balzer et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,265,264 to Sifferman; and European Patent No. 0 156 486 A2 to Chirinos et al. The emulsifiers utilized in the prior art are numerous. The emulsions in the prior art are manufactured using a variety of mixing conditions and techniques. However, the emulsions of the prior art are difficult to break down into water and oil. Furthermore, the emulsions of the prior art have not been optimized for viscosity and stability to effect efficient transport of these emulsions through pipelines and ultimate utilization.
It has now been found that certain combinations of anionic, nonionic and/or amphoteric emulsifiers, optionally in combination with natural and/or synthetic stabilizers, such as gum, gelatins, carboxymethylcellulose, and the like, when blended at certain shear rates with heavy crude, fuel oil, or the product bottoms from oil barrels, provide an improvement over prior art emulsions. Preparing the emulsions under optimum mixing conditions further enhances their properties. The resulting emulsions form reduced viscosity fluids of controlled stability which fluids can be transported with less effort and which can be utilized more efficiently at the desired destination.
In addition, according to this invention, a diffuser is attached to the end of pipes through which the emulsion must flow to enter an emulsion tank. As the output of the diffuser sprays into the tank droplets of a more uniform and, if desired smaller, size than produced by conventional systems are formed.

Method of produce low viscosity stable crude oil emulsion

Empresa Colombiana de Petroleos ("ECOPETROL")


A method of surface hardening cobalt-chromium based orthopedic implant devices, and a cobalt-chromium orthopedic implant device prepared by the disclosed method. An orthopedic implant device made of a cobalt-chromium or cobalt-chromium-molybdenum alloy, such as ASTM F-75 or ASTM F-799 is exposed to molecular nitrogen gas or ionized nitrogen at a process temperature and for a process time duration sufficient to enhance surface hardness and wear resistance properties, without the formation of a measurable nitrogen layer that tends to increase surface roughness and brittleness and diminish wear resistance properties. The process temperature is in the range of 500.degree. F. to 2400.degree. F., preferably about 1400.degree. F., and the process time duration at the preferred process temperature is approximately 48 hours. The hardened surface of the cobalt-chromium-molybdenum implant occurs primarily due to nitride formation and solid solution hardening of the cobalt-chromium-molybdenum with nitrogen and oxygen, by dissolution.

The present invention relates generally to cobalt-chromium (Co-Cr) based orthopedic implant devices and, more particularly, to a surface hardening process applicable to such devices, wherein surface hardness and wear resistance properties of the implant are enhanced with minimal loss in fatigue strength.
Cobalt-chromium based alloys have been used for orthopedic applications because of their strength, corrosion resistance, and biocompatability. However, under conditions of sliding wear or articulation of the cobalt-chromium alloy against other surfaces, particularly polymers, metals, ceramics, bone, and bone cement, the cobalt-chromium alloy will produce wear debris from articulating surfaces. Therefore, the surface of the alloys must be hardened in order to minimize wear.
In the past, surface hardening of cobalt-chromium based orthopedic implants has been achieved by depositing a titanium nitride coating on the surface of the implant, or by ion implantation of the cobalt-chromium substrate. Known surface hardening methods include gas nitriding, chemical salt bath nitriding, plasma or ion nitriding, and ion implantation. Of these methods, gas nitriding exhibits advantages over the other methods in terms of cost and ease of manufacture. For example, gas nitriding permits efficient batch processing of many parts concurrently in a furnace chamber; whereas, the ion implantation method requires line-of-sight bombardment of the workpiece, thereby limiting the dose uniformity and the number of parts that may be processed concurrently.
Gas nitriding of titanium based implants is well known. For example, surface hardening of titanium and its alloys has historically been performed by gas nitriding at elevated temperatures in the range of 700.degree. C. to 1200.degree. C. (1292.degree. F. to 2192.degree. F.). However, due to undesirable changes of certain physical and mechanical properties of the alloy based upon such high temperatures, a more recent process has been developed for surface hardening titanium alloys at a temperature of about 1100.degree. F. for approximately eight hours. The hardened surface of the titanium implant occurs primarily due to solid solution hardening of the titanium with nitrogen by dissolution. This process is disclosed in detail in U.S. Pat. No. 5,912,323 issued on Mar. 9, 1993, and entitled "METHOD OF SURFACE HARDENING ORTHOPEDIC IMPLANT DEVICES", which disclosure is hereby incorporated by reference.
It is also known that cobalt-chromium based alloys, specifically ASTM F-75 and ASTM F-799 alloys, can be strengthened by adding nitrogen into the alloy in the molten state or diffusing nitrogen into the alloy in the solid state. Specifically, forming gas (15% hydrogen, 85% nitrogen) is utilized in combination with either ammonia or argon. However, such processes actually change the chemistry of the alloy by significantly increasing the weight percent of nitrogen present throughout the alloy. It has been found that when nitrogen is added in this manner, the fracture toughness of the alloy is reduced significantly because of the gross change in the chemistry of the alloy. It has also been found that hydrogen embrittlement and decarburization results from the hydrogen which is present in large amounts in dissociated (cracked) ammonia. If decarburization occurs, carbon is lost from the surface of the alloy, thereby decreasing the hardness of the alloy. Consequently, it is desirable to enhance the surface hardness of the cobalt-chromium material without substantial losses in fatigue strength or wear resistance properties.

Method of surface hardening cobalt-chromium based alloys for orthopedic implant devices


A system and method are disclosed for leveling a vehicle when stationary. The system includes three zones with a first zone at the front end, and the second and third zones on opposite sides of the vehicle. All zones include leveling jacks, each having a blind side and a rod side. At least one leveling jack is located in the first zone, and at least two leveling jacks are located in each of the second and third zones. The blind sides of the jacks in each zone are connected together. The rod sides of all of the jacks are connected to a common fluid line, which typically is at low fluid pressure or pressure-free. The method involves extending all of the jacks from retracted positions to extended positions until they meet the surface upon which the vehicle is located. Fluid is then applied to the blind sides of either the second or third zone leveling jacks to raise the lower of the two sides. If the front end is lower than the rear end, fluid is applied to the blind side of the leveling jack in the first zone. If the front end is higher than the rear, fluid is relived form the blind side of the leveling jack.

This invention relates to leveling of vehicles, and in particular to leveling of a vehicle, such as a recreational vehicle, when the vehicle is in a stationary location in order to stabilize the vehicle in a particular orientation.
Recreational vehicles are typically transportable from one location to another. There are many different types of recreational vehicles, including self-contained vehicles that include an engine and driver's location, and vehicles that are towed behind a powered vehicle. In the latter case, towed vehicles are typically either attached to a bumper hitch, or attached to a bed hitch, with the latter being known as a fifth wheel vehicle.
No matter the type of the recreational vehicle, when the vehicle is parked and to be used in a stationary location, preferably the vehicle is stabilized so that it is not subject to the bounce and sway as it is being used. To this end, many types of leveling and stabilizing can be used, and the present invention is directed to leveling and stabilizing by means of extendable leveling jacks.
Leveling jacks are of three basic configurations. The first is a manually-operated jack, where the user extends or retracts the jack by means of a hand crank or the like. The second is an electrically-actuated jack, where the user employs an electric pump to extend or retract the jack. The third is a hydraulic jack, where fluid pressure from a hydraulic pump is used to extend or raise a jack.


A golf putting practice device includes a support body and a rod. The support body includes a housing, a pair of front leg members and a rear leg member. Each front and rear leg member is pivotally mounted to the housing. Each front and rear leg member is movable between lower extended and upper stored positions. The rod in the form of a series of rod segments telescopingly extendable and retractable with respect to one another. The rod also has a series of markings thereon indicating different distances from the golf ball. The rod is at the first end mounted to the housing of the support body such that the rod is disposed partially within a central interior passageway of the housing and elevated a predetermined height above a surface. The device further includes a surface contour indicating arrangement which includes a base provided on the housing and a ball rollably on the base and a cover rotatably mounted to the base. The cover defines a first plurality of markings which together with the ball indicate the number of degrees the device is away from level and a second plurality of markings which indicate the degrees between the centerline of the rod and a line pointing at a target on the surface upon which the device is placed such that an angle between the rod and the target can be measured.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to devices for practicing golf strokes and, more particularly, is concerned with a golf putting practice device.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Golf is a popular pastime throughout the world. A golf stroke requires a solid stance, a consistent swing of a golf club and square contact of the golf club with a golf ball. Putting, in particular, also requires the stroke to be compact in that a putter follows a straight path from a starting position through a back swing to a follow through in a forward swing of the putter. Other factors which come into play in a golf stroke include the direction of the ball after it is hit by the club and the contour of a putting surface, such as slopes or breaks in and the texture and level of wetness of the surface. A golfer must practice strokes to achieve the solid stance, consistent swing and square contact, and to develop skill in establishing proper direction and in reading contours.
Various devices have been developed over the years to assist golfers in practicing strokes. Representative examples of these devices are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,232,623 to Abrams et al., U.S. Pat. No. 3,942,802 to Wright, U.S. Pat. No. 5,011,154 to Bowen, U.S. Pat. No. 5,273,284 to Montgomery, U.S. Pat. No. 5,303,926 to Owens et al. and U.K. Pat. No. 2,192,797 to Massie. Many of the prior art devices disclose one or more rods or rails providing a guide or line of sight for the golfer. While the prior art devices appear satisfactory in use for the specific purposes for which they were designed, none of the devices alone seem to enable the golfer to practice stance alignment, stroke mechanics, directional guidance and reading surface contours.
Consequently, a need still exists for a device which provides a more comprehensive solution for aiding golfers in practicing strokes.


A coil-shaped fastener element is comprised of a coupling head bulging to both sides, upper/lower leg portions adjacent the coupling head and a connecting portion for connecting the upper and lower leg portions. With providing a stepped portion in a center of the upper leg portion, a portion of the fastener element on a side of the coupling head is formed thick while a portion thereof on a side of the connecting portion is formed thin. A coupling space is provided between the upper and lower leg portions. A protruded portion protruded into the coupling space is provided in a back of the stepped portion of the upper leg portion. A slope portion is formed such that the coupling space is expanded from an inside of an upper portion of the coupling head to a base portion of the protruded portion. A core thread is inserted between the upper and lower leg portions and sewed using a sewing yarn of multi-thread chain stitches as fixing yarn, such that a side edge of the core thread is protruded toward the coupling head. Upon coupling, the coupling head is allowed to be inserted quickly along the slope portion and an excessive insertion of a mating coupling element is prevented by the protruded portion and core thread so as to stabilize the coupling. Thus, the linear slide fastener enables a smooth and quick coupling operation.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a linear slide fastener, wherein coil-shaped or zigzag-shaped fastener elements of a particular shape are formed with monofilament of thermoplastic resin and the fastener elements are attached to a side edge of a fastener tape with fixing yarn of various type.
2. Description of the Related Art
According to a coil-shaped slide fastener as disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 49-23874, as shown in FIG. 14, by providing a stepped portion 8xe2x80x2 in an upper leg portion 5xe2x80x2 of each of the fastener elements 2xe2x80x2, a portion of the fastener element 2xe2x80x2 on a side of a coupling head is formed to be thick while a portion on the side of a connecting portion 7xe2x80x2 is formed to be thin. A core thread 28xe2x80x2 is inserted between the upper leg portion 5xe2x80x2 and a lower leg portion 6xe2x80x2 on the side of the connecting portion 7xe2x80x2 that are formed to be thin, and sewed to the side edge of the fastener tape 13xe2x80x2. Then, a horn is lowered to apply pressure to the leg portions 5xe2x80x2 6xe2x80x2 and connecting portions 7xe2x80x2 of the fastener elements 2xe2x80x2 around the core thread 28xe2x80x2. Then, while the fastener elements 2xe2x80x2 are heated, the fastener elements 2xe2x80x2, sewing yarn 15xe2x80x2 and fastener tape 13xe2x80x2 are fused together by ultrasonic processing.
According to coil-shaped fastener elements as disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 54-20895, with providing a stepped portion 8xe2x80x3 in an upper leg portion 5xe2x80x3 of each of the fastener elements 2xe2x80x3, a portion of the fastener element 2xe2x80x3 on a side of the coupling head 4xe2x80x3 is formed to be thick, while a portion thereof on a side of the connecting portion 7xe2x80x3 is formed to be thin. Then, the thin leg portion on the side of the connecting portion 7xe2x80x3 is sewed to a side edge of the fastener tape 13xe2x80x3 with sewing yarn 15xe2x80x3.
In the coil-shaped slide fastener shown in FIG. 14 and as described above, the coil-shaped fastener elements 2xe2x80x2 are disposed in such a state that each of the upper leg portions 5xe2x80x2 is parallel to each of the corresponding lower leg portions 6xe2x80x2 at a section from the corresponding coupling head 4xe2x80x2 to the stepped portion 8xe2x80x2 in a center thereof. Thus, a mating coupling head 4xe2x80x2 cannot be inserted smoothly at the time of coupling operation. Therefore, a sliding action of the slider becomes heavy so that it cannot be operated smoothly. Further, because the core thread 28xe2x80x2 inserted through the fastener elements 2xe2x80x2 is fused at a section from the stepped portion formed thin to the connecting portion 7xe2x80x2, a coupling head 4xe2x80x2 does not make an elastic contact with the mating coupling head 4xe2x80x2 at the time of coupling. Therefore, an cushion effect can not be expected, thus a smooth coupling can not be achieved.
In the coil-shaped slide fastener shown in FIG. 15, like the above described example, the fastener elements 2xe2x80x3 are disposed in such a state that each of the upper leg portions 5xe2x80x3 is parallel to each of the corresponding lower leg portions 6xe2x80x3 at a section from the coupling head 4xe2x80x3 to the stepped portion 8xe2x80x3 in a center thereof. Thus, a mating coupling head cannot be inserted smoothly at the time of coupling operation. Thus, a sliding operation of the slider becomes heavy, so that it cannot be operated smoothly. Further, because no core thread exists, the fastener elements 2xe2x80x3 are likely to be loose.
Accordingly, the present invention has been achieved in views of the above problems. Therefore, a main object of the present invention is to provide a linear slide fastener, wherein upon coupling operation, a coupling head of each of linear fastener elements in the slide fastener can be inserted into a coupling space of a mating coupling head quickly so that the coupling operation of the fastener elements can be carried out smoothly, thereby enabling to operate the slide fastener lightly, preventing an excessive invasion of the coupling head, and preventing a fixing yarn for fixing the fastener elements from being worn by a sliding of the slider, so as to ensure a long term use thereof.
Further, an object of the present invention is to provide a linear slide fastener, wherein the fastener elements are fixed firmly by specifying a use state of the fixing yarn for fixing the linear fastener elements onto a fastener tape and by applying the fixing yarn to various types of slide fasteners.
Furthermore, an object of the present invention is to provide a linear slide fastener, wherein different types of linear slide fasteners with beautiful appearance can be obtained by specifying configurations of the linear fastener elements in the linear slide fasteners.
Still further, an object of the present invention is to provide a linear slide fastener, wherein even if a pushing force is applied to the linear fastener elements in a coupling state, the coupling state is prevented from being broken by the core thread inserted through the linear fastener elements and the core thread can act as a cushion when the coupling heads couple each other so as to ensure a smooth and flexible sliding operation.
Still further, an object of the present invention is to provide a linear slide fastener, wherein the core thread inserted through the linear fastener elements in the coupling space is always protruded in an advantageous state so as to maintain a cushion state.
Still further, an object of the present invention is to provide a linear slide fastener, wherein fixing yarn disposed between the linear fastener elements can act as a cushion when the coupling heads couple each other so as to ensure a flexible and smooth sliding operation of the slider.
To achieve the above objects, according to the present invention, there is provided a linear slide fastener, wherein various kinds of linear fastener elements are formed of thermoplastic resin monofilament; with providing a stepped portion in a center of an upper leg portion of each of the linear fastener elements, a portion of the fastener element on a side of a coupling head is formed to be thick while a portion thereof on a side of a connecting portion is formed to be thin; a protruded portion protruded into a coupling space between the upper leg portion and the lower leg portion is provided on an inner face of the upper leg portion; a slope portion is formed such that the coupling space between the upper leg portion and the lower leg portion is expanded gradually from an inside of an upper portion of the coupling head to a base portion of the protruded portion; and the fastener elements are fixed to a fastener tape at the upper leg portion and the lower leg portion at the connecting portion side that are formed thin with fixing yarn.
Further, according to the present invention, there is provided a linear slide fastener, wherein the linear fastener elements are sewed on a surface of a side edge of the fastener tape using a sewing yarn as the fixing yarn for fixing the linear fastener elements.
Alternatively, according to the present invention, there is provided a linear slide fastener, wherein the linear fastener elements are woven into a side edge of the fastener tape using weaving yarn as the fixing yarn for fixing the linear fastener elements.
Further alternatively, according to the present invention, there is provided a linear slide fastener, wherein the linear fastener elements are knitted into a side edge of the fastener tape using warp knitting yarn as the fixing yarn for fixing the linear fastener elements.
Further, according to the present invention, there is provided a linear slide fastener, wherein the linear fastener elements are in a form of coil-shaped fastener elements produced by winding a monofilament in a coil-shaped shape.
Alternatively, according to the present invention, there is provided a linear slide fastener, wherein the linear fastener elements are in a form of zigzag shaped fastener elements produced by bending a monofilament in a zigzag shape.
Further, according to the present invention, there is provided a linear slide fastener, wherein a side edge of a core thread inserted between the upper leg portions and lower leg portions of the linear fastener elements is protruded toward the coupling heads beyond the protruded portions.
Furthermore, according to the present invention, there is provided a linear slide fastener, wherein a needle yarn of multi-thread chain stitches urges the core thread in the linear fastener elements such that the side edge of the core thread is always protruded.
Still further, according to the present invention, there is provided a linear slide fastener, wherein a side edge of the fixing yarn disposed between adjacent ones of the linear fastener elements is protruded toward the coupling heads beyond the protruded portions.


In a textile spinning apparatus a yarn joining device (12) begins to work to join the end of a newly spun yarn with a retrieved yarn end after the breakage of a yarn (2). During the joining process draw-off rollers (3) continue, to supply the yarn (2) such that yarn storage members (4, 11) have to be implemented during the joining process. In order to draw the yarn (2) into the interior of the yarn storage members (4, 11), air suction is applied in a known manner. After the yarn (2) joining process is completed in the yarn joining device (12), the yarn storage members (4, 11) are successively emptied by use of an acceleration in yarn draw off speed effected by a yarn storage draw-off roller (7) and an auxiliary friction roller (14).

The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for intermediate yarn or thread storage during piecing or thread joining for a broken yarn upon renewed yarn spinning in a ringless spinning and winding machine, wherein yarn ends are joined by means of gluing, splicing or tying.
The invention relates to the idea of intermediate yarn storage. There are numerous solutions in the art utilizing intermediate yarn storage to provide sufficient time for joining a broken yarn. For example, UK patent application GB 2 136 462 A and German A-document DE 38 17 222 describe such apparatuses and methods. GB 2 136 462 A shows an intermediate yarn storage apparatus consisting of storage tubes which are arranged in series behind one another. Filling and emptying of yarn takes place via a slide valve which controls suction pressure in the individual suction tubes. A disadvantage of such embodiment, however, is that after the splicing process is completed, empty suction tubes must be available for intermediate storage of the supplied yarn because yarn loops reside in the suction tubes and cannot be stored continuously. German disclosure DE 38 17 222 Al proposes different variations based on the same principle illustrated in GB 2 136 462 A and have the same deficiencies.

Method and apparatus for intermediate yarn storage during renewed spun thread joining


A lock for a door has a housing with an opening, a latch bolt and a further latch bolt both mounted to the housing for parallel displacement relative to the housing. A latch follower formed as part of a latch is connected to the latch bolt as is a changer, with the parallel displacement occurring due to the action of one of the latch follower via the latch and the changer via a key. A lock cylinder is situated in the housing opening. Two drive rods and associated control plates are provided along and a changer lever hinged to one of the control plates and connected to the lock cylinder. The lock cylinder can drive the changer via the changer lever and its hinged control plate. One side of the lock has, therefore, two drive rods.

Locks of this type are used in exterior doors or apartment entry doors, wherein in the most used embodiment they are inserted as mortise locks into a lock receptacle of the door leaf and are held in the door leaf by means of a plate or the like on the front side. After attaching this mortise lock to the door, the door latch or latches and a lock cylinder are also installed. In the case of an exterior door, a door latch is normally only located on the inside, while a so-called knob, i.e. a non-actuatable handle is installed opposite it on the outside. The latch bolt can be retracted with the aid of the rotatable door latch. If the bolt is in its unlocked position, the door can be opened when the latch bolt is also retracted If no door latch has been attached on the outside, the door can only be opened from the outside with the aid of a key, by means of which the latch bolt can also be retracted. Furthermore, the bolt can be locked as well as unlocked with the aid of key from the outside as well as from the inside.
Locks are also known which are not only locked with respect to the solid frame in the area of the lock or the case of the lock, but also above and/or below the actual lock or the case of the lock, with the aid of additional locking devices. These locking devices provided in additional lock cases must be capable of being actuated simultaneously with the bolt, i.e. brought into an effective position or returned from this position into an ineffective position. Locks are furthermore known wherein the bolt can be brought into an effective position or out of it into a release position by means of a rotatable door latch, wherein of course the latch is also used here for actuating the latch bolt. Locks of this type are available both with and without additional locking devices, at least along the lock side of the door.
An additional lock case is known from German Patent Publication DE 35 03 466 A1, which can be driven by the main lock via a drive rod. This main lock can be embodied in accordance with European Patent Publication EP 0 575 701 A1, for example. In a locking device of this type the bolt is locked and unlocked by means of the lock cylinder. However, it has been shown to be disadvantageous that when opening the door, for example by actuating the door latch, not only the latch bolt but also the bolt of the additional lock case is actuated and displaced into the unlocked position, so that the door can be opened. It is therefore not possible to prevent premature opening of the door, for example by small children, so that uninvited persons have direct access.


A method, apparatus and system for downlink pilot transmission solve the problem of power differences among OFDM symbols caused by Walsh Codes. The transmission method is that dedicated pilots are transmitted in the manner of code division multiplexing (CDM) or hybrid of CDM and frequency division multiplexing (FDM), wherein the dedicated pilots are configured with orthogonal sequence sets according to a preset frequency-domain granularity and rules on the resources for transmitting the dedicated pilots, and the same orthogonal sequence set is employed for the dedicated pilots in each frequency-domain granularity.

The new technologies of High-order Multi-Input Multi-Output (MIMO), multi-cell cooperative transmission, etc., will be adopted in a 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE)-Advanced system, i.e., the advancement of an LTE system, which is an evolved system of a third-generation mobile communication system, to improve the performance of the system.
Dedicated pilots are adopted in the LTE-A system to demodulate data in order to better support the new technologies. A dedicated pilot corresponds to a data stream, and pilots keep orthogonal between respective streams. In a transmission scheme with rank1 and rank2, orthogonality between pilots of the two streams is ensured in the Code Division Multiplexing (CDM) mode; in a transmission scheme with rank3 and rank4, orthogonality between pilots of the four streams is ensured in hybrid of Frequency Division Multiplexing (FDM) and CDM mode; and in a transmission scheme with rank5, rank6, rank7 and rank8, orthogonality between pilots of the eight streams is ensured in hybrid of FDM and CDM mode. As can be apparent, the CDM mode is involved for the pilots in all the transmission schemes. When Walsh codes or a normalized Walsh codes are adopted as pilots in the CDM mode, the power sum of pilots over one Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) symbol may differ from that over another so that the power of one OFDM symbol may differ from that of another.

Method, system and device for transmitting downlink pilots

CHINA ACADEMY OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY


A conductor provided in an interconnection layer is allowed to have a low resistance. An insulator film is provided over a substrate, and is comprised of SiO(1-x)Nx (where x>0.5 in an XRD analysis result). An interconnection is provided over the insulator film, and includes a first layer and a second layer. The first layer includes at least one of TiN, TaN, WN, and RuN. The second layer is provided over the first layer, and is formed of a material having a resistance lower than the first layer, for example, W.

The present invention relates to a semiconductor device, and provides a technique applicable to a semiconductor device including, for example, interconnections.
In one DRAM configuration, a bit line is disposed in a layer below a capacitive element. For example, as described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2002-134477 (JP-A-2002-134477), the bit line in such a configuration typically has a structure where a tungsten layer is stacked on a titanium nitride layer. In JP-A-2002-134477, the bit line is provided on a silicon oxide film.


A fascia ventilator has a polyvinyl chloride extruded, unitary panel having an upper panel section adapted to be attached to a roof-covering support member, an intermediate section forming a drip edge, and a lower section supported parallel to the fascia board. In one version, the baffle is mounted between the lower panel section and the fascia board. In another version the lower edge of the panel is perforated and bent to form a baffle for receiving air passing between the ventilator and the fascia board. The ends of adjacent ventilator panels may be joined in an end-to-end overlapping connection.

Fascia ventilators are mounted beneath the overhang of a roof for guiding air flow through an opening between the roof and the fascia board. U.S. Pat. No. 4,607,566 which was issued to David Bottomore and Colin F. Gibson on Aug. 26, 1986 for "Ventilator for Use in a Roof Structure" illustrates an example of such a ventilator. Similar devices are illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 4,660,463 which was issued Apr. 29, 1987 to David Bottomore for a "Roof Space Ventilator"; U.S. Pat. No. 3,683,785 which issued Aug. 15, 1972 to Howard L Grange for a "Roof Construction Providing Air Flow from Eave to Ridge"; U.S. Pat. No. 2,954,727 which was issued Oct. 4, 1960 to Harold M. Katt and James M. Simmons; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,995,308 which was issued Feb. 26, 1991 to Richard L. Waggoner for "Roof Ventilating Apparatus".


A pixel substrate and a fabrication method thereof are provided. The method includes: forming a gate and a lower pad on a substrate; forming a gate insulating layer overlaying the gate and the lower pad; forming a channel layer and a first electrode layer on the gate insulating layer, in which the projection areas of the channel layer and the gate on the substrate are overlapped; forming an etching-barrier material layer on the substrate and simultaneously forming a contact opening at the gate insulating layer to expose the lower pad; forming a source, a drain and an upper pad on the substrate; forming a protective layer; forming a second electrode layer with multiple slits on the protective layer, in which one of the first and second electrode layers is electrically connected to the drain. The invention can simplify the process steps and reduce fabrication time.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention generally relates to a substrate and a fabrication method thereof, and more particularly, to a pixel substrate and a fabrication method thereof.
2. Description of Related Art
In recent years, along with the development of display technology, the requirements on the displayed image quality of displays from the consumer community have become increasingly demanding. In order to increase the display quality of an LCD (liquid crystal display), various display techniques on the current market have been launched, such as in-plane switching (IPS) LCD, multi-domain vertically alignment (MVA) LCD and fringe field switching (FFS) LCD.
Taking the FFS LCD as an example, because of its wide viewing angle, fast response and accurate color reproduction characteristics, it has been widely used in various display products. However, for the existing pixel structure of an FFS display, it needs eight mask processes for fabrication, which is considerable time-consuming and costs high.

Pixel substrate and fabrication method thereof


A fan blade (34) of a gas turbine engine (10) includes a pair of root rails (54) disposed on a bottom (56) of a dovetail root portion (44) thereof. The pair of root rails (54) has a wedge-shaped contour and is tapered in a decreasing cross-section from the leading edge (50) to the trailing edge (52). The root rails (54) provide a wide, stable base for the blade to minimize tangential motion during windmilling. A pair of slot rails (76) is provided on the base (70) of a dovetail-shaped slot (40) retaining the dovetail root portion (44) of the blade (34). The slot rails (76) of the dovetail slot (40) mate with the root rails (54) of the dovetail root portion (44).

A widely used type of a gas turbine engine is a turbofan. The distinguishing feature of the turbofan is an axial flow fan disposed in the forward portion of the engine within an open duct. The fan is equipped with rotating blades and stationary vanes. Each fan blade comprises an airfoil portion and a dovetail-shaped root portion secured in a fan disk. The fan disk includes a plurality of dovetail-shaped slots disposed circumferentially therein to engage the dovetail root portion of the blades. The disk and the blades are typically manufactured from a metal alloy.
Windmilling is one of many conditions to which the gas turbine engine is subjected, having adverse consequences. During windmilling, which occurs when the aircraft is parked on the ground with its engine shut down, wind enters the forward or aft portion of the engine and imparts tangential (with respect to the disk) motion to the fan assembly, thereby subjecting the fan blades to rocking motion within the disk slots. As the fan blades and disk rotate, a gravitational force tends to pull each blade reciprocally in opposite tangential direction depending upon which side of the engine the blade is disposed. As the blades reciprocate tangentially due to windmilling, they rock from one side of the slot to the opposite side of the slot banging against the opposite side of the slot. Such repetitive impact causes abrasion on the disk and the blades. Although both the disk and the blades are coated with an antigallant coating, both the disk and the blades are nonetheless damaged gradually over extended periods of time.
Although the top portion of the dovetail root portion experiences the most damage due to additional wear caused by the centrifugal loading during operation of the engine, the bottom of the dovetail portion also becomes worn. The problem of abrasion on the bottom of the dovetail is exacerbated by the location of vent openings thereon, which are characteristic of and necessary for the manufacture of hollow fan blades. Furthermore, the vent openings must be sealed to prevent potential contaminants, such as sand, dust, or oil, from entering into internal cavities of the blade. The sealants used to close the vent openings must also be protected from abrasion due to motion of the blades within the slot.
The worn blades and disks either must be repaired periodically or replaced if damage is beyond repair. Both alternatives are costly. The problem of tangential motion in fan blades during windmilling is particularly acute in modern blades that do not include mid-span shrouds. The mid-span shrouds tend to provide structural support and to hold blades separated and in an upright position.
U.S. Pat. No. Re 33, 954 entitled "Rotor Blade Assembly" issued to Honda et al and assigned to United Technologies Corporation discloses a fan assembly having a single wedge-shaped protrusion extending outwardly from the base of each disk slot and a tapered surface at the bottom of the root section of the corresponding blade. Although the arrangement facilitates improved disassembly of blades from the disk, it does not minimize the above noted reciprocating tangential motion of the blades during windmilling.
During operation of the engine, the disk experiences extreme stresses, including a circumferential (hoop) stress. The circumferential stress field in the disk is a substantially circular, continuous field occurring in a "live rim", which is defined as a continuous outer contour within the disk, without any interruptions. The circumferential stress is particularly undesirable if it occurs in locations such as the above-noted wedge-shaped protrusions at the bottoms of the disk slots.
Thus, there is a need to minimize damage to fan blades and to the disk that may be caused by the reciprocating tangential motion of the fan blades within the disk slots without a weight penalty. Additionally, it is necessary to reduce hoop stress proximal to the bottoms of the disk slots.

Ramped dovetail rails for rotor blade assembly


A method for transcoding a CELP based compressed voice bitstream from source codec to destination codec. The method includes processing a source codec input CELP bitstream to unpack at least one or more CELP parameters from the input CELP bitstream and interpolating one or more of the plurality of unpacked CELP parameters from a source codec format to a destination codec format if a difference of one or more of a plurality of destination codec parameters including a frame size, a subframe size, and/or sampling rate of the destination codec format and one or more of a plurality of source codec parameters including a frame size, a subframe size, or sampling rate of the source codec format exist. The method includes encoding the one or more CELP parameters for the destination codec and processing a destination CELP bitstream by at least packing the one or more CELP parameters for the destination codec.

The present invention generally relates to techniques for processing information. More particularly, the invention provides a method and apparatus for converting CELP frames from one CELP based standard to another CELP based standard, and/or within a single standard but a different mode. Further details of the present invention are provided throughout the present specification and more particularly below.
Coding is the process of converting a raw signal (voice, image, video, etc) into a format amenable for transmission or storage. The coding usually results in a large amount of compression, but generally involves significant signal processing to achieve. The outcome of the coding is a bitstream (sequence of frames) of encoded parameters according to a given compression format. The compression is achieved by removing statistically and perceptually redundant information using various techniques for modeling the signal. Hence the encoded format is referred to as a "compression format" or "parameter space". The decoder takes the compressed bitstream and regenerates the original signal. In the case of speech coding, compression typically leads to information loss.
The process of converting between different compression formats and/or reducing the bit rate of a previously encoded signal is known as transcoding. This may be done to conserve bandwidth, or connect incompatible clients and/or server devices. Transcoding differs from the direct compression process in that a transcoder only has access to the compressed signal and does not have access to the original signal.
Transcoding can be done using brute force techniques such as "tandem" which has a decompression process followed by a re-compression process. Since large amount of processing is often required and delays may be incurred to decompress and then re-compress a signal, one can consider transcoding in the compression space or parameter space. Such transcoding aims at mapping between compression formats while remaining in the parameter space wherever possible. This is where the sophisticated algorithms of "smart" transcoding come into play. Although there has been advances in transcoding, it is desirable to further improve transcoding techniques. Further details of limitations of conventional techniques will be described more fully throughout the present specification and more particularly below.

Transcoding method and system between CELP-based speech codes with externally provided status


A cartridge case for encasing therein a recording medium disc. The cartridge case includes a shutter which is slidably mounted thereon for opening/closing at least one head insertion hole formed in the cartridge case, a guide portion formed in the front edge of the cartridge case in an insertion direction toward a recording and reproducing apparatus, a slider slidingly engaged with the guide portion for supporting the shutters and a return coil spring for biasing the shutter through the slider to a position where the shutter closes the head insertion hole. The spring includes an elastic wire coiled portion and two arms which extend therefrom. One of the arms includes a first extension portion extending substantially along a circumferential periphery of the disc from the coiled portion and a second extension portion bent from the first extension portion along a front wall in the insertion direction of the recording and reproducing apparatus.

The present invention relates to a disc cartridge for encasing a recording medium such as an optical disc or a magnetic disc.
In general, a magnetic disc or an optical disc is encased in a cassette case made of two shell halves. A hole into which a spindle for rotating the disc is to be inserted is formed in a central portion of the cassette case. Head insertion holes into which a write and read head is to be inserted is formed in the cassette case so as to extend in the radial direction to traverse the recording surface of the disc.
Such a disc cartridge is shown in, for example, Japanese Utility Model Unexamined Publication No. 62-168176. This cartridge has a shell for encasing the disc. A spindle hole is formed in the central portion of the shell half. A hub formed in the central portion of the disc is located in the spindle hole of each shell half. The spindle of the recording and reproducing apparatus is to be located at the hub which is sucked by a turntable.
The head insertion holes are formed on an insertion side of the cartridge relative to the recording and reproducing apparatus. A write and read head (pickup head) is inserted into one of the head insertion holes. The head insertion holes are closed and opened by sliding movement of the shutter.
The shutter is bent at its intermediate portion so as to extend to the top and bottom of the cartridge to cover the head insertion holes and two spindle holes. On the insertion side of the cartridge into the recording and reproducing apparatus, the shutter is slidingly moved along a guide portion of the cartridge front edge to open and close the insertion holes and the spindle holes.
However, it is general that the shutter is made of metal, whereas the cartridge is made of plastic. Therefore, when the shutter is frequently moved on and along the cartridge, frictional or abraded chips are generated due to the sliding movement between the metal and plastic. The chips would enter through the openings of the cartridge into the interior thereof to stick or adhere to the disc.
Also, the sliding movement of the shutter of the conventional cartridge is not smooth, which would lead nonsmooth sliding contact between the shell and the shutter.

Disc cartridge with bent spring design for closing a closure shutter


A multi-chamber reservoir includes an upper and a lower body welded into unitary reservoir. A pressure relief device is interposed between a pressure chamber and the overflow chamber of the reservoir. A snap-in siphon tube is mounted into the reservoir and includes an orientation feature enforcing a desired alignment. A snap lock feature retentively mounts the siphon tube in alignment during reservoir welding.

Closed loop liquid coolant systems are frequently applied to remove heat that develops during the operation of internal combustion engines. A well known problem with closed loop coolant systems is that the volume of a fixed mass of coolant media will expand proportionally to the rise in coolant temperature. As the fluid capacity of the coolant recirculation system is fixed, this "excess" volume of coolant results in increasing internal pressure in the closed loop coolant system, eventually making it necessary to allow this "excess" coolant to escape to prevent overpressurization and failure of the cooling system. One quite old and well known solution is to allow this "excess" coolant to escape into the outside environment. This, of course, is highly undesirable. Also, when the engine ceases to operate and begins to cool, the opposite effect occurs. As the temperature of the coolant media drops, the volume occupied by the coolant media reduces with the temperature. This contraction in fluid volume results in a partial vacuum in the cooling system and leads to the creation of empty voids or air pockets within the cooling system. To remediate these issues, various types of coolant reservoir or surge tanks were developed and integrated with the closed loop cooling system to capture and store this "excess" coolant as the coolant temperature increases and then later return this "excess" coolant to the cooling system as the coolant temperature drops. Typically, coolant reservoirs include additional capacity above the expected "excess" to make additional coolant volume available to the coolant system to handle ongoing coolant losses over time, such as due to evaporation and minor coolant system leaks.
Various types of coolant reservoirs are known. In automotive applications coolant reservoirs are typically manufactured using an easily molded and lightweight material such as any of a variety of known plastics. Plastic also permits the reservoirs to be made transparent so that the fluid level in the reservoir can be easily discerned. It is also well known that plastic can be easily molded into a variety of useful and perhaps unusual shapes, this is often useful when fitting a reservoir into limited free space in an engine compartment. Some varieties of reservoirs are considered as "pressurized" as they are in direct fluid communication with the cooling system and experience the operating pressure seen in the closed loop coolant system. Other varieties of coolant reservoirs are considered as "overflow" tanks and are not pressurized. One typical way this is implemented is to interpose the cooling system pressure cap or pressure relief device between the reservoir and the pressurized coolant system. In such a configuration the "overflow" tank may be vented to the atmosphere without causing undesirable pressure loss to the closed loop cooling system.
During operation of the engine various gasses may become entrapped and gas bubbles may form in the coolant. The presence of entrained gas bubbles in the coolant fluid is undesirable as such gas bubbles reduce the efficiency of heat removal from the engine components, may become trapped in pockets inside the engine further reducing cooling, and is known to cause partial or total blockage of coolant flow to vehicle heater cores resulting in reduced heater performance. Therefore, degassing or deaeration of the coolant is highly desired.
In an effort to address the above problems of coolant expansion, retention and coolant deaeration, various types and configurations of coolant reservoirs have been developed.
One example is provided by U.S. Pat. No. 6,718,916 which discloses a plastic coolant reservoir having multiple chambers, a first chamber which has a direct connection to the coolant system and is therefore "pressurized", and at least a second chamber that serves as an overflow. The overflow section is isolated from the pressurized side by a spring-loaded relief device in the pressure cap. Coolant enters the overflow chamber at the top of the overflow chamber and falls into the overflow chamber.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,680,833 discloses a multi-chambered coolant receiving bottle having upper pressurized deaeration chamber and a lower overflow chamber in which the chambers are hydraulically connected to each other through a hose external to the bottle.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,000,576 discloses a container for liquids having a first fluid chamber, a second fluid chamber and a non-fluid chamber between the first and second chambers, resulting in two reservoirs in a single housing which is less expensive to manufacture and easier to install.
Unfortunately, the past methods and apparatus for multi-chamber closed liquid coolant system reservoirs have disadvantages. Some designs introduce the "excess" coolant into the overflow chamber at the top of the chamber, above the liquid level of the chamber. Such configurations result in an overflow chamber that can be filled but is difficult to draw liquid from, or in other cases that an additional hose or fluid passage be provided to draw coolant from the bottom of the overflow chamber. Additionally, it is known that introducing "excess" coolant above the overflow chamber liquid level can disturb the surface of the coolant and entrain additional air bubbles into the coolant.
As can be seen, there is a need for an improved multi-chamber coolant reservoir that overcomes the problems of the prior art.

Siphon tube for a multi-chamber fluid reservoir


A thermoplastic polyolefin elastomer film includes a continuous phase that includes a thermoplastic polyolefin elastomer and a nanoinclusion additive dispersed within the continuous phase in the form of discrete domains, wherein each discrete domain is elongated with a long axis, wherein the axes are aligned in the machine direction (MD) when the film is relaxed, and wherein the axes are aligned in the cross direction (CD) when the film is stretched in the CD. Also, an article includes the thermoplastic polyolefin elastomer film.

Articles such as packages and absorbent articles can be constructed from a generally liquid-permeable layer, a generally liquid-impermeable layer, or a combination of these. Polyolefin films are often used in the construction of such layers of the article. For example, the components of many absorbent articles can include a polyethylene film. Because of the dynamic nature of the use of such products, it is desirable to use materials that exhibit stretchability and flexibility while maintaining strength and sealing properties. While attempts have been made to increase the elasticity of materials, these attempts have often led to costly and ineffective materials. As such, a need currently exists for films that can have increased elasticity without sacrificing performance or favorable properties when used in an article.

Reinforced thermoplastic polyolefin elastomer film


A method for identifying content in a document. The method includes determining that a user of a computing device has accessed one or more documents and determining a subject matter of the one or more documents. The method includes determining that the user has accessed at least one additional document. The method further includes searching the at least one additional document for the determined subject matter and responsive to finding the determined subject matter, identifying the found subject matter in the at least one additional document.

When working in a computing environment, such as an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) or web browser environment, a plurality of windows are often opened and displayed to a user. Depending on the environment, the windows may comprise, for example, elements such as programs, files, documents, web pages, etc. Additionally, users may have a large number of windows open at any given time, and, especially in a web browser environment, each window may include multiple tabs, making it difficult to navigate through the windows in an efficient and organized manner.

Guiding a user to identified content in a document

International Business Machines Corporation


A solid state image pickup apparatus comprises pixels each of which is composed of a photoelectric transducer element having a function of amplification, and further comprises FPN suppression circuits basic cells provided for the pixel, wherein the FPN suppression circuit comprises an inverting amplifier; an input capacitor connected between the output of the pixel and the input of the inverting amplifier; a n-MOS transistor for supplying an initial voltage to the input of the inverting amplifier; a feedback capacitor one terminal of which is connected to the input of the inverting amplifier; a n-MOS transistor connected between the other terminal of the feedback capacitor and the output of the inverting amplifier; and a n-MOS transistor connected between the node connecting the above two elements and a reference voltage source. As an advantage of this configuration, it is possible to achieve a solid state image pickup apparatus in which the FPN, caused by offset difference among the pixels composed of photoelectric transducer elements having a function of amplification, is suppressed without increasing chip area, and in which it is possible to perform a non-destructive readout.

The present invention relates to a solid state image pickup apparatus whose unit pixel is composed of a photoelectric transducer element, and more particularly, to a solid state image pickup apparatus whose fixed pattern noise (hereafter referred to as FPN) due to the difference in characteristics of amplification elements between each pixel is suppressed, and also to its driving method.
In addition to MOS and CCD type devices, there is known another type solid state image pickup device whose pixel includes an amplification element, such as SIT, AMI, CMD, BASIS, and FGA. This type solid state image pickup device has characteristic features which cannot obtained by solid state image pickup devices, such as MOS and CCD. For example, amplification elements in pixels make it insensitive to noise entering signal lines. Therefore, a high S/N ratio is achievable. Besides, non-destructive read-out is available in this device. While it has the above advantages, it has a drawback that it exhibits large FPN due to the variation in amplification element characteristics between pixels, and this large FPN results in a low S/N ratio.
In view of such high FPN, there are proposed various circuits provided on a chip for suppressing FPN. FIG. 1 shows an example of a configuration of a FPN suppression circuit used in FGA disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No.64-2354 or in "A New Device Architecture Suitable for High-Resolution and High-Performance Image Sensors", IEEE Trans. on ED, Vol. 35, No. 5, May, 1988. In FIG. 1, S is a unit pixel which is one of pixels arranged in 2-dimensional form. There is provided a source line (vertical signal line) to connect amplification elements in common for every column of a pixel array arranged in 2-dimensional form. A FPN suppression circuit is connected for every column. Outputs of the FPN suppression circuits are connected alternately every two column to one of two signal output lines 101 and 102. 103 is a bias transistor, 104 is a capacitor, 105 is a clamping transistor, 106 is a sample-and-hold transistor, 107 is a capacitor, 108 is a switching transistor, and 109 is a horizontal scanning circuit. In this configuration, suppression of FPN is achieved in the following way: That is, during a horizontal blanking interval, the capacitor 107 stores the voltage corresponding to the difference between the signal output obtained after performing of photo integration for a selected row of the pixel array and the output obtained just after the resetting, then, during a horizontal scanning period, the charge stored in the capacitor 107 is read out.
Now, referring to the timing chart in FIG. 2, operation of this suppression circuit will be described. During a period T.sub.1, both of the clamping transistor 105 and sample-and-hold transistor 106 are ON, thus the capacitor 107 is reset and the voltage of node 111 is clamped to a reference voltage Vref. At this time, the signal output including a offset voltage V.sub.0 appears at the other node (node 110) of the capacitor 104. As a result, the capacitor 104 stores the charge described as (V.sub.PS +V.sub.0 -Vref).Co, where V.sub.PS is a voltage increment given by integration. Then, during a period T.sub.2, the clamping transistor 105 is turned off and all pixels of the selected row are reset. At the same time, the sample-and-hold transistor 106 is also turned off. After that, during a period T.sub.3, because each pixel has been just reset, only the off set voltage V.sub.0 including no signal component appears at the node 110. In this state, when the sample-and-hold transistor 106 turns on, the capacitor 107 stores a voltage V' including no offset, given by EQU V'=Co/(C.sub.L +Co).multidot.(Vref-V.sub.PS) (1)
where Co and C.sub.L are capacitances of the capacitors 104 and 107, respectively. This signal is read out during a period T.sub.4. Taking into account a parasitic capacitance C.sub.P of the signal output line 101 (102) , the output voltage V.sub.OUT is given by ##EQU1##
In this way, the signal output with suppressed FPN due to the variation in offset voltage is achieved.
FIG. 3 shows another example of a configuration of a FPN suppression circuit applied for a BASIS, disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No.63-86471. As in the case of FGA, this FPN suppression circuit is also shown just for one pixel S. In FIG. 3, a suppression circuit is provided for every vertical signal line of each column, and the outputs of all suppression circuits are connected in common to a signal output line 201 or 202.
Referring to the timing chart shown in FIG. 4, operation of the above FPN suppression circuit will be described. During a period T.sub.1, resetting of capacitors C.sub.t1 and C.sub.t2 is carried out. During a period T.sub.2, the pixel S is read out and the capacitor C.sub.t1 stores a signal voltage including a offset voltage V.sub.0. Representing a voltage increment in accordance with photo integration by V.sub.PS, the capacitor C.sub.t1 stores a voltage V.sub.t1 given by EQU V.sub.t1 =V.sub.PS +V.sub.0 ( 3)
During a period T.sub.3, resetting of the pixel S is carried out and the photo integration charge stored in the pixel is swept out. During a period T.sub.4, a voltage obtained just after resetting the pixel S is stored in the capacitor C.sub.t2. Here, the voltage V.sub.t2 given to the capacitor C.sub.t2 is described by EQU V.sub.t2 =V.sub.0 ( 4)
During a period T.sub.5, transistors Q.sub.S1 and Q.sub.S2 are turned on so that the charges stored in capacitors C.sub.t1 and C.sub.t2 are connected to the signal output lines 201 and 202, respectively, so as to read out the difference between the voltages of these signal output lines via a differential amplifier 203. Assuming that capacitances of the capacitor C.sub.t1 and C.sub.t2 are C.sub.t1 =C.sub.t2 =C.sub.t, the parasitic capacitance of the signal output lines 201 and 202 is C.sub.P, and the gain of the differential amplifier 203 is 1, the output voltage V.sub.OUT obtained from an output terminal S.sub.OUT is given by ##EQU2##
As described above, the readout signal including a photo charge and the signal obtained just after the photo charge is reset are stored in different capacitors respectively, then by taking the difference between these signals as an output, the suppression of FPN is achieved.
However, the above methods for reducing FPN of solid state image pickup devices have the following problems: First, in both methods, as can be seen from equations (2) and (5) , the parasitic capacitance C.sub.P existing on the signal lines causes the reduction in output voltages. To avoid this reduction, capacitances of the capacitors C.sub.t, C.sub.L, and Co must be sufficiently large compared to the parasitic capacitance C.sub.P. However, the increase in these capacitances requires the increase of the chip area. Secondly, when charges stored in capacitors are read out, the charges are distributed to the parasitic capacitances of the signal lines. As a result, the storage charges are destroyed and it is impossible to perform the non-destructive readout.

Solid state image pickup apparatus and driving method


A method, an apparatus, a device and a computer readable storage medium for designing a dual-mirror shared conf partition file are provided. The method includes pre-configuring disk space occupation capacities for a first flash mirror file, a second flash mirror file, and a shared conf partition of the BMC, and generating a FW file of the BMC which does not include a shared conf partition file. The method further includes mounting partitions configured in one of the first and second flash mirror files firstly and then mounting the shared Conf partition at last, in response to an instruction for starting the one of the first and second flash mirror files. The shared conf partition stores a configuration file of the BMC. The shared conf partition and the configuration file are automatically generated when the BMC runs normally for the first time.

The BMC (baseboard management controller) is a controller that provides intelligent management under the IPMI (Intelligent Platform Management Interface) structure. The BMC has its own power supply and can automatically obtain information of temperature, voltage, fan, power consumption, the power supply, a memory state of CPU and others, to monitor an operation state of a system. Moreover, the BMC supports interfaces of IPMI, Restful, Redfish, SNMP, SMTP and others, and supports Web UI access and IPMI command access.
With a rapid development of server technology, in order to ensure the stability and reliability of the BMC, many server systems support a BMC dual-mirror system, where a 64M flash memory is divided into two 32M BMC mirror partition files, namely a first mirror Image1 and a second mirror Image2. When starting Image1 by default, partition files corresponding to Image1 are mounted. Image2 is used as a backup, and is automatically selected to be started by the BMC restarted when the file of the Image1 is damaged, avoiding refreshing of Image1.
However, partition files of Image1 and Image2 are independent to each other, especially a conf partition for storing a configuration file of the BMC, so that it cannot be guaranteed that files in Image1 and Image2 for starting the conf partition are consistent, and thus a further configuration is required. Furthermore, when saving a configuration to refresh one of Image1 and Image2, the configuration files in Image1 and Image2 cannot be the same after the refreshing, causing a lot of unnecessary troubles.
Therefore, it is desired in the art to design a more reasonable and effective dual-mirror shared conf partition file for a BMC dual-mirror system.

Method and apparatus for designing dual-mirror shared conf partition file

ZHENGZHOU YUNHAI INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.


A hole injecting electrode composed of ITO is formed on a glass substrate. On the hole injecting electrode, a hole injecting layer composed of CuPc (copper phthalocyanine), a plasma thin film of CFx formed by plasma CVD, a hole transporting layer of NPB, and a light emitting layer are formed in the order. On the light emitting layer, an electron transporting layer is formed, and an electron injecting electrode is formed thereon.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an organic electroluminescent device and a method of fabricating the same
2. Description of the Background Art
Organic electroluminescent devices (hereinafter referred to as organic EL devices) are new self-emitting devices of great prospect. Such organic EL devices have a stacked structure in which a carrier transporting layer (an electron transporting layer or a hole transporting layer) and a light emitting layer are formed between a hole injecting electrode and an electron injecting electrode.
As a material of the hole injecting electrode, an electrode material having a large work function such as gold or ITO (indium-tin oxide) is used, whereas as a material of the electron injecting electrode, an electrode material having a small work function such as Mg (magnesium) or Li (lithium) is used.
Moreover, organic materials are used for the hole transporting layer, the light emitting layer, and the electron transporting layer. A material having the property of a p-type semiconductor is used for the hole transporting layer, and a material having the property of an n-type semiconductor is used for the electron transporting layer. The light emitting layer is composed of an organic material having carrier transportability such as electron transportability layer and hole transportability and emitting fluorescence or phosphorescence.
Each functional layer, that is, the hole transporting layer, electron transporting layer, and light emitting layer, can be composed of a plurality of layers, or be omitted, depending on the organic materials used.
In order to improve the operating stability of such organic EL devices, it has been proposed that a CuPc layer (copper phthalocyanine) be interposed between the hole injecting electrode and the hole transporting layer. However, interposing the CuPc layer actually has the disadvantage of increasing the operating voltage. In an attempt to enhance the hole injectability and to improve the operating stability, an organic EL device where a polymer thin film of fluorocarbon synthesized by RF (radio frequency) plasma polymerization method is interposed between the hole injecting electrode and the hole transporting layer has been proposed (e.g. see JP 2000-150171 A).
However, the above conventional organic EL device exhibits degraded heat-resistance due to the interposition of the polymer thin film between the hole injecting electrode and the hole transporting layer.

Organic electroluminescent device having a thin film formed by plasma on a surface of a hole injection layer


A structure using integrated optical elements is comprised of a substrate, a buffer layer grown on the substrate, one or more patterned layers formed on the buffer layer and one or more active layers formed on or between the patterned layers, for instance by Lateral Epitaxial Overgrowth (LEO), and including one or more light emitting species. The patterned layer comprises a mask (made of insulating, semiconducting or metallic material) and material filling holes in the mask. The patterned layer, due to a large index difference with the active layer and/or variations of a refractive index between the mask and materials filling holes in the mask, acts as an optical confinement layer, a mirror, a diffraction grating, a wavelength selective element, a beam shaping element or a beam directing element.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention is related to lasers, and more particularly, to horizontal emitting, vertical emitting, beam shaped, distributed feedback (DFB) lasers by growth over a patterned substrate.
2. Description of the Related Art
A laser diode is a semiconductor device that emits light in a stimulated manner when electrically biased in the forward direction. The feedback required to reach auto-oscillation is provided by mirrors, usually obtained by cleaved facets, or by mirror-coated facets for horizontal in-plane lasers, or by dielectric multi-layer mirrors for vertical surface emitting lasers (VCSELs). Some lasers incorporate a dispersive element, such as a grating, providing distributed feedback (DFB) to achieve single mode emission.
Lasers generally comprise a chip of semiconducting material impregnated, or doped, with impurities to create a structure called a pn junction. When biased forwardly, electrons are injected into the junction from the n-region and holes are injected from the p-region, usually in a thin emitting layer called a quantum well (QW). The electrons and holes in the quantum well release energy in the form of photons as they recombine. The wavelength of the light, and therefore its color, depends on the bandgap energy of the materials forming the pn junction.
As semiconductor materials have improved, the efficiency of semiconductor devices has also improved and new wavelength ranges have been used. Gallium nitride (GaN) based lasers are probably the most promising in a variety of applications. GaN provides efficient illumination in the ultraviolet (UV) to amber spectrum when alloyed with varying concentrates of indium (In), for example.
Unfortunately, besides huge materials challenges, nitride lasers are difficult to manufacture. Cleaved facets have a low reflectivity, due to the low refractive index of nitrides. In addition, cleavage is hard to achieve because a sapphire substrate is typically used with nitride lasers.
To obtain good nitride lasers, it is necessary to obtain good mirrors using a planar fabrication technique. Other desirable properties include vertical emission, high power, single mode emission, etc. However, these properties, especially vertical emission, are extremely hard to obtain, as the high quality mirrors required for vertical cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) prove extremely difficult to manufacture.
The present invention aims at solving these challenges by using device growth techniques over a patterned substrate, wherein the pattern provides the function of a mirror, optical confinement layer, grating, wavelength selective element, beam shaping element or beam directing element.

Horizontal emitting, vertical emitting, beam shaped, distributed feedback (DFB) lasers by growth over a patterned substrate

The Regents of the University of California


A dryer section of a machine for manufacturing fiber webs, which includes a plurality of heatable drying cylinders arranged to form at least a first dryer group and a second dryer group, and arranged in horizontal cylinder rows, and including a plurality of suction rolls each being disposed between two adjacent cylinders. The cylinders of the first group have axes disposed in a first plane I, the suction rolls of the first group have axes disposed in a second plane II, the cylinders of the second group have axes disposed in a third plane III, and the suction rolls of the second group have axes disposed in a fourth plane IV. In accordance with different embodiments planes I and II may be coplanar, planes II and III may be coplanar; planes I and III may be disposed between planes II and IV; and the axes of the first drying cylinders and its associated suction roll of the second group may be disposed below the axes of the other drying cylinders and suction rolls of the second group.

In FIG. 3 of U.S. Pat. No. 4,986,009, a dryer section is disclosed. The purpose of such a dryer section is to dry a fiber web, in particular within a paper-making machine having a verv high operating speed. The maximum operating speed may be about 1,500 m/min or even higher.
Critical points of such a dryer section are:
1. The area where the fiber web is transferred from one dryer group to the next dryer group. PA1 2. The so-called departure points where the fiber web and the support belt depart from the drying cylinders.
In the above-mentioned FIG. 3, for transferring the web from a first to a second dryer group, a first suction roll of the second dryer group has the function of a pick-up roll (75). The support belt (70) of the first dryer group travels around a last suction roll (74) and then tangentially to the periphery of the pick-up roll (75) around which the support belt of the second dryer group travels. Upstream of pick-up roll (75), the two support belts (70 and 80) are forming a so-called convergence angle which may be, e.g. between 3.degree. and 30.degree..
This configuration disclosed in FIG. 3 is preferred to that of FIG. 1 of the above-mentioned U.S. patent. In FIG. 1, the pick-up roll is designated (24a) upstream of which the two support belts are traveling parallel (from roll 24 to the roll 24a). In this configuration the fiber web may be subjected to stress, if the two support belts must travel at a certain differential speed.
The high operating speed mentioned above is obtainable, among others, due to the suction rolls since the fiber web is held by suction against the support belt when it travels over the suction rolls, against the centrifugal force exerted on the fiber web. In the area, where the fiber web and the support belt are traveling from the periphery of the so-called delivering drying cylinder onto the periphery of the following suction roll, the fiber web should also be safely held against the support belt. To accomplish this goal, it is known from international publication WO 83/00514, FIG. 2, to provide a very short distance between the periphery of the suction roll and the peripheries of the adjacent drying cylinders. However, a problem may arise from the fact that the suction roll is positioned symmetrically with respect to the two adjacent drying cylinders: in some cases, an air blow box may be arranged on the periphery of the suction roll, preferably covering only the second half of the zone looped by the support belt (as disclosed in FIG. 3 of the above-mentioned U.S. patent). This may result in an unfavorable small distance between the air blow box and the periphery of the adjacent drying cylinder.
It is a general object of the invention to improve the runability of the dryer section (allowing an extremely high operating speed and avoiding web breaks) while maintaining a high drying efficiency.
It is a further object of the invention to improve the function of the pick-up roll such that the fiber web is safely transferred from one dryer group to the next, permitting a very high operating speed and avoiding any stress subjected to the fiber web. To accomplish this, according to a first aspect of the invention, the second support belt comes into contact with the first support belt only within a small portion of the periphery of the pick-up roll. In other words, a small portion of the periphery of the pick-up roll is wrapped by the support belt of the first dryer group. Preferably, the angle of this periphery portion is selectable during operating of the machine.
It is a further object of the invention to provide an open web draw or open transfer between adjacent dryer groups in order to allow a small web speed differential between the two groups. This results from a further aspect of the invention wherein the support belt is adjustable so that it is out of contact with the periphery of the pickup roll.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a configuration which guarantees holding the fiber web against the support belt when it travels from one of the drying cylinders to the following suction roll while an air blow box may be arranged on the periphery of the suction roll, preferably in the second half of the zone wrapped by the support belt and/or while a certain space should be maintained where vapor escapes from the web before the web comes into contact with the next cylinder.


An integrated circuit may include a first standard cell including first and second active regions extending in a first horizontal direction and a first gate line extending in a second horizontal direction orthogonal to the first horizontal direction; and a second standard cell including third and fourth active regions extending in the first horizontal direction and a second gate line aligned in parallel to the first gate in the second horizontal direction and being adjacent to the first standard cell. A distance between the second active region of the first standard cell and the third active region of the second standard cell may be greater than a distance between the first and second active regions of the first standard cell, and may be greater than a distance between the third and fourth active regions of the second standard cell.

An integrated circuit may include a plurality of standard cells arranged in a plurality of rows. The capabilities and/or characteristics of standard cells, such as power consumption, operation speed, and the like, may be highly related to the capabilities and/or characteristics of an integrated circuit that includes the standard cells. Accordingly, standard cells having improved capabilities and/or characteristics and high reliability of operation may be desirable. It may also be important to shorten a development period of standard cells to shorten the time to market.

Integrated circuits including standard cells and methods of manufacturing the integrated circuits


An outgassing shield (40) for a lamp socket (22) comprises a cup-shaped unit that fits over the end of the socket that penetrates a lamp reflector (12), reducing the temperature upon the socket body and substantially eliminating outgassing. The elimination of the outgassing prevents deleterious buildup of outgassed materials on the reflector surface and the interior of the lens, thereby enhancing light output.

While applicable to any lamp socket constructed of a material having a tendency to outgass material that can be adversely deposited upon a viewing surface, this invention is particularly applicable to automotive sockets employed in taillights and turn signal lights. Such sockets are shown, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,411,407 and 5,971,814, both assigned to the assignee of the present invention.
Such sockets can be constructed of nylon with a 43% glass fill and are usually designated as S8 sockets that take S8 bulbs. The S8 bulb has a wedge base that frictionally engages contacts within the socket and these bulbs can operate at temperatures above 100° C. At such temperatures entrained gases can be out-gassed from the socket material and deposit upon the lamp envelope adversely affecting the lamp's performance.