An electrode, in the form of a spike, for insertion into a sample, has a large-area jacket adapted for applying an excitation current to the sample and a small-area tip electrically decoupled from the jacket, at which a potential measurement is made.

The measurement of potential differences in a sample is a prerequisite, inter alia, to the calculation of the electrical conductivity of the sample or a region or cross section of the sample. For this purpose the sample is generally excited with an electrical current. From the measured voltage drop and the amplitude of the current flow, the electrical resistance and its inverse, the conductivity of the sample can be calculated.
Various measuring units have been used in the art for the determination of resistivity or conductivity and methods of measuring the electrical conductivity are known.
Basically these units comprise at least one electrode pair. The so-called Kohlrausch arrangement encompasses two mutually opposite solid body electrodes, for example of carbon or platinum or platinized metal. The form of these electrodes can vary.
For carrying out the electrical conductivity measurement an alternating current voltage is applied to the electrode and current is thereby fed to an electrically conductive sample via electrodes. The resulting electrode potential is measured by the same electrodes as supplied the current.
A simple embodiment for carrying out such measurement uses so-called pole-to-pole measurements which are practiced with two electrodes. With these electrodes the current and the potential difference between the two electrodes are measured.
A drawback of this system is that the measurement results are influenced by the polarization effect at the boundary layers between the electrodes of the sample. In special cases with ground samples and other heterogeneously structured samples there arises between the sample and the electric current feeding electrodes high resistances which are functions of the point at which the electric current is fed to the sample.
A four-point method (four electrode method) of measuring the potential in soil samples can also be practiced. In that case, two electrodes are used to feed electrical signals into the sample. The electrodes serve at any given point in time either for applying the excitation alternating current or for the high ohmic measurement of the potential. From the known amplitude of the current flow and the measured potential difference, the resistance or the conductivity of the sample can be readily calculated. The transition resistance and other potential drops due to polarization effects at the interface between the sample and the electrode are not determined with such measurements.
A drawback of the prior art system for simultaneous measurement of the potential difference and application of electric current to the sample at two closely adjoining electrodes or two surfaces of the same electrode which closely adjoin one another is that the electrode must have a complex and expensive construction. With heterogeneously structured and dense samples, for example, soils, aquifers, rock and ore strata, a large number of electrodes must be employed in such samples. For measurements which are to determine the conductivity of specific areas and/or tomographic measurements which are to determine conductivity or resistivity of sections through the sample, a large number of different current-supply and measurement electrodes must be provided with different current-supply and measurement configurations. The measurement arrangements for complex samples especially those utilized for geophysical or geoelectrical analyses are known from German patent document 198 37 828.
There are, however, different drawbacks of such systems depending upon the measurement method. In principle, of course, for all measurements which are to be carried out utilizing a common electrode for application of the electric current and measurement of the potential, for example in the two electrode method, measurement errors arise because of the high variable and unknown transition resistances between the electrode and the sample, especially when the electrode is driven into the ground.
Four electrode measurement systems are either expensive or complex to use because installation becomes a major factor. From each measurement position, an additional electrode must be employed and the distances from each electrode to another electrode may not be precisely defined.
For area-like and tomographic measurements utilizing sequential feed of electric current through a sample, measurement errors occur as a result of polarization effects at the electrodes since in these methods the potential measurements are effected at the moment that the current is applied at the very same electrode surfaces and thus with polarized electrodes.

Device for the simultaneous application of electrical signals and measurement of the electrical potential in a sample


The via chain conduction failure due to non-conduction caused by insufficient etching in a contact plug/via plug forming process can be detected precisely in a short time. For its achievement, a defect is detected at high speed by taking advantage of characteristics of a potential contrast method using a via chain defect inspection structure and an electron beam defect detection apparatus which can perform continuous inspection while changing an inspection direction without rotating a wafer. Accordingly, the capturing efficiency of a critical electric defect and search efficiency of a defect point can be improved.

An example of the inspection of a semiconductor wafer will be described. A semiconductor device is manufactured by repeating a step of transferring a pattern formed on a photomask onto a semiconductor wafer through lithography process and etching process. In a manufacturing process of a semiconductor device, the yield of the semiconductor device is largely influenced by quality of the lithography process, the etching process and others, generation of a foreign material, and the like. Therefore, in order to detect the generation of failures and defects in an early stage or in advance, a method for inspecting a pattern on a semiconductor wafer during the manufacturing process has been conventionally implemented.
As a method of inspecting a defect present in a pattern on a semiconductor wafer, a defect inspection apparatus that irradiates the semiconductor wafer with white light to compare equal circuit patterns of a plurality of LSIs by using an optical image has been put into practical use. Brief summary of the inspection system is described in "Monthly Semiconductor World" August, 1995, pp. 96-99 (Non-Patent Literature 1). Also, as inspection methods using an optical image, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 3-167456 (Patent Literature 1) discloses a, system in which an image of an optically illuminated region on a substrate is formed by using a time-delay integrating sensor and the image and a design characteristic inputted in advance are compared to detect a defect, and Japanese Examined Patent Application Publication No. 6-58220 (Patent Literature 2) discloses a method in which image degradation at the time of image acquisition is monitored and the image degradation is corrected at the time of image detection, thereby performing a comparison inspection using a more stable optical image. When a semiconductor wafer is inspected in a manufacturing process by using such an optical inspection system, a residue and a defect of a pattern having a silicon oxide film or photosensitive photoresist material which is transmissive on its surface cannot be detected. In addition, etching residue and opening defect of a fine conduction hole which is smaller than a resolution power of an optical system cannot be detected. Further, a defect formed at a bottom portion of a step of a wiring pattern cannot be detected.
As described above, due to the miniaturization of circuit patterns, complexity of a circuit pattern shape and diversity of materials, defect detection by an optical image has become difficult. Therefore, a method of using an electron-beam image which is higher in resolution power than an optical image to perform a comparison inspection of a circuit pattern has been proposed,
When the comparison inspection of a circuit pattern is performed by using an electron-beam image, it is necessary to acquire the image much faster than the observation performed by scanning electron microscopy (hereinafter, abbreviated as SEM) so as to achieve a practical inspection time. Further, it is also necessary to secure the resolution power of the image acquired at a high speed and an SN ratio of the image. As a comparison-inspection apparatus for a pattern by using an electron beam, J.Vac. Sci. Tech.B, Vol. 9, No. 6, pp. 3005-3009 (1991) (Non-Patent Literature 2), J.Vac. Sci. Tech. B, Vol. 10, No. 6, pp. 2804-2808 (1992) (Non-Patent Literature 3), Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 5-258703 (Patent Literature 3), and a patent specification of U.S. Pat. No. 5,502,306 (Patent Literature 4) disclose a method in which an electron beam having electron-beam current equal to or more than one hundred times the ordinary SEM (10 nA or more) is irradiated to a conductive substrate (x-ray mask or the like), any of generated secondary electrons, reflection electrons and transmission electrons are detected, and comparison inspection of an image formed from signals corresponding to the detected electrons is preformed, thereby automatically detecting a defect.
As a method of inspecting or observing a circuit board having an insulator by an electron beam, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 59-155941 (Patent Literature 5) and "ELECTRON, ION BEAM HANDBOOK" (THE NIKKAN KOGYO SHIMBUN. LTD.) pp. 622-623 (Non-Patent Literature 4) disclose a method in which a stable image is acquired by low-accelerative electron-beam irradiation equal to or less than 2 keV so as to reduce influence of charge.
Further, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2-15546 (Patent Literature 6) discloses a method of irradiating ion from the rear side of a semiconductor substrate, and Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 6-338280 (Patent Literature 7) discloses a method of irradiating light to a surface of a semiconductor substrate to cancel the charge to an insulator, respectively. Furthermore, it becomes difficult to acquire a high-resolution image due to space charge effect in a case of a large-current and low-accelerative electron beam. Therefore, as a method of solving this problem, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 5-258703 (Patent Literature 3) discloses a method of decelerating a high-accelerative electron beam just before a sample and irradiating a substantially low-accelerative electron beam to the sample.
As a method of acquiring an electron-beam image at high speed, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open Publication No. 59-160948 (Patent Literature 8) and Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 5-258703 (Patent Literature 3) disclose a method of successively irradiating an electron beam to a semiconductor wafer on a sample table while continuously moving the sample table, thereby acquiring the electron-beam image. Also, as a detection apparatus of a secondary electron used in a conventional SEM, a structure including a scintillator (Al-evaporated phosphor), a light guide and a photoelectron multiplier tube is adopted. Since the detection apparatus of this type detects emission from a phosphor, frequency responsiveness is poor, and it is unsuitable for forming an electron-beam image at high speed. In order to solve this problem, as a detection apparatus for detecting a high-frequency secondary electron signal, detecting means using a semiconductor detector is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open Publication No. 5-258703 (Patent Literature 3).


A seal assembly includes an outer annular case disposed within and coupled with a rotatable outer member to be angularly displace about a central axis. An annular flexible seal is disposed within and coupled with the case to angularly displace about the central axis when the outer member rotates about the axis. The flexible seal has elastomeric sealing lip(s) engageable with an outer circumferential surface of the shaft or of a sleeve disposed about the shaft. An annular inner rigid seal is disposed within the outer case and has an inner end coupled with the shaft or the sleeve, the flexible seal being radially displaceable with respect to the inner rigid seal. An outer annular rigid seal is disposed about the inner seal and has an inner end sealing against the inner rigid seal. A biasing member biases the outer rigid seal against the inner rigid seal.

The present invention relates to seal assemblies, and more particularly to radial lip seal assemblies for use in harsh or extreme environments.
Radial lip seal assemblies are known and typically include at least one elastomeric member with one or more sealing lips inwardly engageable with a shaft or outwardly engageable with a housing, hub or other member mounted about a shaft. When used in relatively harsh or extreme environments, such as in roll lines of metal casting machines, the seals may be required to prevent potentially damaging substances, such as steam, metal scale, etc., from contacting other mechanical components, for example bearings. In such applications, these radial lip seals may be used in combination with rigid seal components, such as a thermoplastic scrapers, to provide an initial guard or barrier against such damaging substances.

Cassette seal for use in extreme environments


A fluid volumetric pumping system has a fluid pump and capacitor plates disposed around a pump chamber of the fluid pump. The capacitance between the capacitor plates changes as the volume of fluid in the pump chamber changes. An electrical circuit measures a change in the capacitance between the plates and outputs a signal indicative of the volume of fluid in the pump chamber. The pump having the capacitance sensor of the present invention fluidly connects to a patient. In an embodiment, a peritoneal dialysis system provides dialysate to the patient via the pump, and the capacitance sensor measures the volume of dialysate supplied to and drained from a peritoneal cavity of the patient.

The present invention generally relates to devices that sense fluid and measure volumes of fluid. More specifically, the present invention relates to sensors that measure fluid volumes, preferably medical fluids, for example, fluids used during dialysis therapy.
Due to disease, insult or other causes, a person's renal system can fail. In renal failure of any cause, there are several physiological derangements. The balance of water, minerals and the excretion of daily metabolic load is no longer possible in renal failure. During renal failure, toxic end products of nitrogen metabolism (urea, creatinine, uric acid, and others) can accumulate in blood and tissues.
Kidney failure and reduced kidney function have been treated with dialysis. Dialysis removes waste, toxins and excess water from the body that would otherwise have been removed by normal functioning kidneys. Dialysis treatment for replacement of kidney functions is critical to many people because the treatment is life saving. One who has failed kidneys could not continue to live without replacing at least the filtration functions of the kidneys. Hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis are two types of dialysis therapies commonly used to treat loss of kidney function.
Peritoneal dialysis uses a dialysis solution or dialysate, which is infused into a patient's peritoneal cavity. The dialysate contacts the patient's peritoneal membrane in the peritoneal cavity. Waste, toxins, and excess water pass from the patient's bloodstream through the peritoneal membrane and into the dialysate. The transfer of waste, toxins, and water from the bloodstream into the dialysate occurs by diffusion and osmosis because there is an osmotic gradient across the peritoneal membrane. The spent dialysate is drained from the patient's peritoneal cavity to remove the waste, toxins and water from the patient. New dialysate replaces the spent dialysate and the process repeats.
During dialysis therapy, a dialysis fluid exchange generally includes draining spent dialysis fluid from the peritoneal cavity and filling the peritoneal cavity with fresh dialysate. Keeping track of the amounts or volumes of dialysis solution drained from and supplied to the peritoneal cavity is important for proper dialysis therapy. A typical amount of dialysate solution drained from and supplied to the peritoneal cavity of an adult during an exchange can be roughly two to three liters. Dialysis fluid exchanges have been performed manually, usually by the patient, or automatically, by an automated dialysis machine.
Manually performed dialysate exchanges require that the patient or other person performing the exchange manually drain the proper amount of fluid from the peritoneal cavity and manually supply the proper new amount of fluid to the peritoneal cavity. Errors in the amount of fluid exchanged can occur when relying on manual fluid exchanges. If it is desired to know the cumulative amount of fluid used over multiple exchanges, the cumulative total fluid must be tracked manually.
So-called continuous flow peritoneal dialysis ("CFPD") systems that purport to provide continuous dialysate flow exist. In these systems, "spent" dialysate (waste laden dialysate) from the patient collects in a drain bag, which is discarded, or which runs into a household or other drain. A patient typically fills the peritoneal cavity with up to three liters of dialysate in one treatment. As a consequence, known CFPD dialysis treatments require a large amount of fresh dialysate, which must be tracked or calculated.
Automated dialysis machines use one or more fluid pumps to perform the dialysate exchanges, i.e., the pump pumps spent dialysate fluid out of the peritoneal cavity during the drain mode and pumps dialysate into the cavity during the fill mode. Known automated dialysis machines have measured and controlled the amount of fluid drained and filled during an exchange. One Automated Peritoneal Dialysis ("ADP") system uses a reference chamber and Boyle's Law to determine the volume of fluid pumped.
Another known method of measuring the volume of fluid used during dialysis treatment is weighing the fluid with a scale. In preparation for filling of the peritoneal cavity, a bag of dialysate is placed on a scale and the weight is recorded. After fluid is removed from the bag (supplied to the peritoneal cavity) the weight of the remaining fluid in the bag is read and recorded. The volume of fluid supplied to the patient can be determined from the reduced weight of the bag of fluid. Similarly, during the draining of the patient, a weight increase of the bag of fluid is used to determine the volume of fluid removed from the peritoneal cavity. Weighing the fluid to determine fluid volume requires a scale and a bag or other reservoir to be placed on the scale.
Another known method of measuring the volume of fluid pumped by a pump is simply by knowing the volume of the pump chamber and assuming that the chamber completely fills upon each pump stroke. The volume of fluid pumped is thereby determined by counting the number of pump strokes and multiplying the number by the volume of the pump chamber.
However, it is frequently the case that the pump chamber does not completely fill with fluid. For example, air can be present in the pump chamber or the pump may simply not complete a full stroke. Accordingly, the measurement of the amount of fluid pumped may be inaccurate, for example, less fluid may be actually pumped than the amount calculated. These drawbacks can become more pronounced over many pump strokes, such as when a smaller pump requires numerous pump strokes to fill or empty the peritoneal cavity.
The accuracy of measuring fluid volume pumped can become more difficult when the size of the pump chamber is small and the pump is operated through many pump strokes. For example, certain dialysis systems must pump two to three liters of dialysate into the peritoneal cavity with a pump having an inner volume of about ten to fifteen milliliters. Numerous pump strokes, about two-hundred strokes of a completely filled pump chamber, are required to pump the two to three liters of dialysate. If the pump chamber is not precisely and consistently filled or emptied with dialysate for each pump stroke, the total amount of dialysate pumped over the total number of pump strokes may be inaccurately measured.
Accordingly a need exists for devices that can accurately measure pumped fluid volume.


The present invention provides a microencapsulated pigment, wherein pigment particles having an anionic group on the surface are coated with a polymer comprising a repeating structural unit derived from a cationically polymerizable surface active agent and a repeating structural unit derived from an anionically polymerizable surface active agent and/or a hydrophilic monomer having an anionic group; and a process for producing a microencapsulated pigment, wherein the cationically polymerizable surface active agent is added to and mixed with an aqueous dispersion of the pigment particles having an anionic group on the surface, the anionically polymerizable surface active agent and/or the hydrophilic monomer having an anionic group are added thereto and the mixture was emulsified, followed by adding a polymerization initiator and carrying out emulsion polymerization. In addition, an ink jet recording ink comprising at least the above microencapsulated pigment and water.

Ink jet recording is an image recording technique comprising ejecting ink droplets from fine nozzle heads to form letters or figures on the surface of a recording medium such as paper. Ink jet recording technologies that have been practically used include a method of recording letters or figures on the surface of a recording medium wherein electrical signals are converted to mechanical signals by using a piezoelectric actuator to discontinuously eject ink droplets stored in the nozzle head and a method of recording letters or figures on the surface of a recording medium wherein part of ink is rapidly heated to generate a bubble near the ejecting part of a nozzle head to discontinuously eject ink droplets by the volume expansion of the bubble.
Aqueous pigment inks having a pigment dispersed in water have recently been provided as ink jet recording inks. This is because inks using pigments have characteristics of excellent water resistance and light resistance as compared with inks using water-soluble dyes. It is generally practiced that such aqueous pigment ink is prepared by dispersing a pigment in an aqueous medium with the aid of a dispersant such as a surface active agent or a polymeric dispersant.
For example, in Patent Document 1, in a pigment ink using an acetylene glycol-based penetrant, it is investigated to secure the dispersion stability of the ink by using a polymeric dispersant as a dispersant for pigment particles and using water, a non-volatile organic solvent, or a lower alcohol as an aqueous medium. However, use of a dispersant for dispersing pigment particles leads to an increased number of elements involved in ink preparation, which makes it difficult to control ink physical properties such as viscosity within desired ranges. Besides this, the pigment ink still has the problem that a sufficient print density is hard to obtain.
Furthermore, in the aqueous pigment ink, a dispersant is merely adsorbed on the surface of pigment particles. Since a strong shear force is applied to the ink fluid when it is ejected through a fine nozzle of a nozzle head, the dispersant may come off the surface of pigment particles to deteriorate its dispersing capability, which may result in a tendency of instable ink ejection. A tendency of instable dispersibility may also be observed when the aqueous pigment ink is stored for a long period of time.
A technology of introducing a sulfonic acid group on the surface of pigment particles has been proposed as a technique for dispersing the pigment particles in water. For example, Patent Document 2 discloses a pigment ink containing a surface-sulfonated organic pigment which is obtained by treating an organic pigment dispersed in a solvent having no active protons with a sulfonating agent (conventional art 1). According to the conventional art 1, the pigment ink has excellent dispersion stability and exhibits satisfactory ejection stability from the nozzle of a recording head (the property of being stably ejected from the recording head in a fixed direction).
Moreover, Patent Document 3 describes that an organic pigment mass whose surface is positively charged is prepared by treating a sulfonated organic pigment mass with a monovalent metallic ion and further describes an aqueous ink composition containing a pigment prepared from the positively surface-charged organic pigment mass, a dispersant, and water and having a high storage stability (dispersion stability) (conventional art 2).
Although the ink using the surface-treated pigment particles of the above conventional arts 1 or 2 as a colorant is excellent in dispersion stability and ejection stability as compared with conventional pigment-based ink jet recording inks, the images obtained by printing it on recording media such as plain paper or inkjet recording media (recording media having an ink receiving layer designed for receiving an ink jet recording ink) have still insufficient abrasion resistance. This seems to be due to insufficient fixability of the surface-treated pigment particles on the recording media.
On the other hand, a technology of employing a microencapsulated pigment wherein colorant particles are encapsulated with a polymer is known for the purpose of improving fixability of pigments containing in a pigment-based ink jet ink on a recording medium.
Patent Documents 4 and 5 propose encapsulated pigment particles and Patent Documents 6 to 9 propose pigment particles whose surface is grafted with a polymer. Patent Document 10 proposes a method of microencapsulating a hydrophobic powder with an amphiphilic graft polymer, which has turned out to involve the problem that use of the previously polymerized polymer results in too large particle diameter after encapsulation.
In addition to the above proposals, Patent Documents 11 to 19 disclose inks using pigments coated with a resin capable of forming film at room temperature by phase inversion emulsification. Patent Documents 20 to 29 propose inks using pigments coated with an anionic group-containing organic polymer by acid precipitation.
Furthermore, Patent Documents 30 to 35 propose inks using a polymer emulsion having polymer fine particles impregnated with a colorant by phase inversion emulsification (conventional art 3). However, even using the colorant obtained by phase inversion emulsification or acid precipitation, the polymer adsorbed on the pigment particles may sometimes separate and dissolve in the ink, resulting in insufficient performance in terms of dispersion stability, ejection stability, image quality, and the like of the ink, depending on the kind of organic solvents such as a penetrant to be used in the ink. Because the ink according to the conventional art 3 not a little suffers from separation of the adsorbed polymer from pigment particles, the pigment content in the ink is limited in view of dispersion stability. As a result, the ink only provides recorded matters with low print densities and, when plain paper is used as a recording medium, there arise problems that blurring of an image tends to occur and color developability is also low.
Patent Document 1: JP 03-157464 A
Patent Document 2: JP 10-110129 A
Patent Document 3: JP 11-409974 A
Patent Document 4: JP 07-094634 B
Patent Document 5: JP 08-059715 A
Patent Document 6: JP 05-339516 A
Patent Document 7: JP 08-302227 A
Patent Document 8: JP 08-302228 A
Patent Document 9: JP 08-081647 A
Patent Document 10: JP 05-320276 A
Patent Document 11: JP 08-218015 A
Patent Document 12: JP 08-295837 A
Patent Document 13: JP 09-003376 A
Patent Document 14: JP 08-183920 A
Patent Document 15: JP 10-046075 A
Patent Document 16: JP 10-292143 A
Patent Document 17: JP 11-080633 A
Patent Document 18: JP 11-349870 A
Patent Document 19: JP 2000-007961 A
Patent Document 20: JP 09-031360 A
Patent Document 21: JP 09-217019 A
Patent Document 22: JP 09-316353 A
Patent Document 23: JP 09-104834 A
Patent Document 24: JP 09-151342 A
Patent Document 25: JP 10-140065 A
Patent Document 26: JP 11-152424 A
Patent Document 27: JP 11-166145 A
Patent Document 28: JP 11-199783 A
Patent Document 29: JP 11-209672 A
Patent Document 30: JP 09-286939 A
Patent Document 31: JP 2000-44852 A
Patent Document 32: JP 2000-53897 A
Patent Document 33: JP 2000-53898 A
Patent Document 34: JP 2000-53899 A
Patent Document 35: JP 2000-53900 A

Microencapsulated pigment, production process therefor, and aqueous dispersion and ink jet recording ink using the pigment


A speech section detection apparatus capable of reliably detecting a speech section even for a word containing a glottal stop sound or for a word containing a succession of “s” column sounds or “h” column sounds (sounds in the third column or the sixth column in the Japanese Goju-on Zu syllabary table). A speech signal detected by a microphone is amplified by a line amplifier, and converted by an analog/digital converter into a digital signal which is then stored in a memory. The stored speech signal is fetched into a pitch detector where a speech pitch is extracted by processing the speech signal in time domain. A gate signal generator controls the gate signal based on the speech pitch, and a speech section signal generator controls a speech section signal based on the gate signal. A word can be extracted by segmenting the speech signal stored in the memory in accordance with the speech section signal.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a speech section detection apparatus, and more particularly to a speech section detection apparatus capable of reliably detecting a speech section even for a word containing a glottal stop sound or for a word containing a succession of "s" column sounds (sounds belonging to the third column in the Japanese Goju-on Zu syllabary table) or "h" column sounds (sounds belonging to the sixth column in the same table).
2. Description of the Related Art
In speech recognition, speech sections, based on which speech is recognized, must be extracted from a time-series signal captured through a microphone. There is proposed a method that takes a period during which the short-duration power of speech is greater than a predetermined threshold as a speech section but, with this method, it has been difficult to achieve sufficient accuracy for speaker-independent systems intended to recognize a large variety of words spoken by unspecified speakers.
The applicant has previously proposed a pitch period extraction apparatus and method that can detect with high accuracy a pitch, the highness or lowness of tone, in a time domain, from a speech signal (Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 9-50297), but it is also possible to determine a speech section based on the pitch period.
However, in the case of a word A which contains a glottal stop sound in the word (for example, Japanese word "chisso"), a word B which contains a succession of "s" column sounds (sounds in the third column in the Japanese Goju-on Zu syllabary table) (for example, Japanese word "sushiya"), or a word C which contains a succession of "h" column sounds (sounds in the sixth column in the Japanese Goju-on Zu syllabary table) (for example, Japanese word "hihuka"), it has not been possible to avoid the possibility of erroneous detection resulting from a failure to detect all the constituent sounds of the word as one continuous speech section.
FIGS. 1A, 1B, and 1C show the speech section detection results obtained according to the prior art pitch period detection method. FIG. 1A shows the speech section detection result for the "word A", FIG. 1B for the "word B", and FIG. 1C for the "word C". In each figure, the upper part shows the speech signal, and the lower part the detected speech section.
As can be seen from the figures, in the case of the "word A", the sound in the first half of the word ("chi" in the Japanese word "chisso") is detected in the speech section, but the sound in the last half ("sso" in the Japanese word "chisso") is not detected.
In the case of the Japanese word "sushiya", there is a break in the speech section between "sushi" and "ya", while in the case of the Japanese word "hihuka", there is a break between "hifu" and "ka"; in either case, the word is not detected as one continuous speech section.
Possible causes for such erroneous detection include the following.
A: In the word A, the fricative "ss" that follows the glottal stop, and in the word B, the fricative "sh" that follows the "s" column sound "su", are not only low in level but also difficult to differentiate from noise, and as a result, it is difficult to detect the pitch period itself.
B: When there is no aspirated sound part or noise part preceding the word, and when the tone is low, the pitch period cannot be detected.
C: In the case of the word C, there is a relatively long pause between the series of "h" sounds ("hihu" in the Japanese word "hihuka") and the succeeding sound ("ka" in the Japanese word "hihuka").
D: Noise during a pause.


A wireless network employs at least a base station (1 to 3) and a plurality of assigned terminals (4 to 14) for exchanging user data and control data. That base station (1 to 3) includes a device (21, 22) for correlating a signaling sequence transmitted by at least one terminal (4 to 14) to indicate the wish to use a contention channel and for detecting the pulse evolved from a received and correlated signaling sequence. After a signaling sequence has been detected, the base station (1 to 3) transmits a provision message over a contention channel to be utilized by the assigned terminals (4 to 14).

The invention relates to a wireless network comprising at least a base station and a plurality of assigned terminals for exchanging user data and control data.
In the document "ETSI SMG2, Meeting no. 24, Cork, Ireland, 1-5 Dec. 1997, Tdoc SMG2 359/97, Concept Group Alpha—Wideband Direct-Sequence CDMA (WCDMA), EVALUATION DOCUMENT (3.0), part 1: System Description, Performance Evaluation"a radio network operating according to the CDMA method (CDMA—Code-Division Multiple Access) is proposed. The radio network comprises a plurality of radio cells having each a base station and terminals or mobile stations located therein. After a terminal has been registered and synchronized, it transmits a random-access burst over a contention channel which is denoted a Random-Access CHannel RACH, for example, when a user channel is requested. The random-access burst comprises a preamble part and a data part. The preamble part comprises 16 symbols (preamble sequence) which is spread by an orthogonal Gold code (preamble code). The orthogonal Gold code contains 256 chip intervals. The data part contains a field with an identification for the terminal, a field for featuring the requested service (short packet transmission, dedicated—channel set-up, etc.), an optional field for data packets (optional user packet) and a CRC field for error detection. A random-access burst received from a base station is supplied via a matched filter, a preamble correlator, and a peak detector to a circuit portion estimating the time delay of the data part, which circuit portion controls a RAKE circuit for the evaluation of the data part. Thus, a peak detection based on a correlation is used here with subsequent message decoding. The RACH channel is permanently available then (permanent channel).

Wireless network for requesting a contention channel


In a method of manufacturing a semiconductor device including a capacitor having improved structural stability and enhanced capacitance, a contact region is formed on a surface portion of a semiconductor substrate. After a mold layer is formed on the substrate, a stabilizing member is formed to encompass a storage electrode. A contact hole is formed through the mold layer to expose a sidewall of the stabilizing member and the contact region. The storage electrode is formed on the exposed contact region and on the exposed sidewall of the stabilizing member. A dielectric layer and a plate electrode are successively formed on the storage electrode. The capacitor including the storage electrode and the stabilizing member will have improved structural stability that resists mechanical collapse even when the capacitor has an extremely high aspect ratio.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor device and a method of manufacturing the semiconductor device. More particularly, the present invention relates to a semiconductor device including an improved structural stability and an enhanced capacitance, and a method of manufacturing the semiconductor device.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, semiconductor memory devices such as dynamic random access memory (DRAM) devices or static random access memory (SRAM) devices can store data or information therein. The data or information is stored in the semiconductor memory devices, and also the data or information is read from the semiconductor memory devices. A typical single unit memory cell of the semiconductor memory device includes one capacitor and one transistor. The capacitor of the semiconductor memory device generally has a storage electrode, a dielectric layer, and a plate electrode. To improve the storage capacity of the semiconductor memory device, the capacitor needs a large capacitance.
As the degree of integration of the semiconductor memory device has increased, the unit memory cell of the semiconductor memory device has continuously decreased in area. To ensure a sufficient storage capacitance of the semiconductor memory device, the capacitor may have various shapes such as a box, a fin, a crown, a cylinder, etc. However, due to design constraints of the semiconductor memory device that include size decreases, the capacitor should have an increasingly large aspect ratio, defined as the ratio between the height and width of the capacitor. Thus the capacitor may have sufficient capacitance when formed in a limited unit area of the semiconductor memory device. As a result, however, the capacitors having a high aspect ratio may mechanically collapse so that a so-called two-bit failure may occur between adjacent capacitors.
A conventional capacitor includes a cylindrical storage electrode connected to a contact pad formed on a semiconductor substrate. The cylindrical storage electrode is electrically connected to the contact pad through a contact plug formed in an insulation layer that covers the semiconductor substrate. To increase the storage capacitance of the semiconductor memory device, the cylindrical storage electrode of the capacitor has a greatly increased height. When the cylindrical storage electrode has this greatly increased height, the cylindrical storage electrode may collapse toward an adjacent cylindrical electrode so that adjacent capacitors may be inadvertently connected to each other. The collapse of the cylindrical storage electrode is referred to as a two-bit failure. When the two-bit failure occurs in the semiconductor memory device, the semiconductor memory device may not properly operate.
Accordingly, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2003/85420 discloses a semiconductor device including a beam-shaped insulating member between capacitors of the semiconductor device to improve the mechanical strength of the capacitor.
FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view illustrating the semiconductor device including the beam-shaped insulating member, and FIG. 2 is a plan view illustrating the semiconductor device in FIG. 1.
Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, after a semiconductor substrate 40 is divided into an active region and a field region by forming an isolation layer 45 on the semiconductor substrate 40, gate structures 60 are formed in the active region of the semiconductor substrate 40. Each of the gate structures 60 includes a gate oxide layer pattern, a gate electrode and a mask pattern.
Impurities are implanted into portions of the semiconductor substrate 40 by an ion implantation process using the gate structures 60 as masks, thereby forming source/drain regions 50 and 55 at the portions of the substrate 40 between the gate structures 60. Thus, metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) transistors are formed on the semiconductor substrate 40.
After a first insulating interlayer 80 is formed on the substrate 40 to cover the MOS transistors, capacitor plugs 63 and a bit line plug 65 are formed through the first insulating interlayer 80. The capacitor plugs 63 and the bit line plug 65 are connected to the source/drain regions 50 and 55, respectively.
After a second insulating interlayer 85 is formed on the first insulating interlayer 80, the second insulating interlayer 85 is partially etched to form a bit line contact plug 70 making contact with the bit line plug 65.
A third insulating interlayer 90 is formed on the second insulating interlayer 85. The third and second insulating interlayers 90 and 85 are successively etched to form capacitor contact plugs 75 making contact with the capacitor plugs 63, respectively.
After an etch stop layer 95 is formed on the third insulating interlayer 90 and the capacitor contact plugs 75, holes 100 exposing the capacitor contact plugs 75 are formed through the etch stop layer 95. Cylindrical bottom electrodes 105 making contact with the capacitor contact plugs 75 are formed in the holes 100, respectively. Here, the cylindrical bottom electrodes 105 are electrically connected to the source/drain regions 50 and 55 through the capacitor contact plugs 75 and the capacitor plugs 63.
After beam-shaped insulating members 130 are formed between sidewalls of adjacent bottom electrodes 105, dielectric layers 110 and top electrodes 115 are successively formed on the bottom electrodes 105 to thereby form capacitors 120 on the semiconductor substrate 40.
An additional insulation layer 125 is formed over the substrate 40 to cover the capacitors 120. Since the beam-shaped insulating members 130 are formed between the sidewalls of the adjacent bottom electrodes 105, the mechanical strength of the capacitor 120 may be improved.
However, in the above-described semiconductor device, processes for manufacturing the semiconductor device are complicated because at least four beam-shaped insulating members 130 should be formed between the adjacent bottom electrodes 105 in order to improve the mechanical strength of the capacitor 120. Thus, manufacturing cost and manufacturing time for the semiconductor device is increased. Additionally, the manufacturing processes are more complicated because the capacitor 120 has a complex structure including the bottom electrode 105, the beam-shaped insulating members 130, the dielectric layer 110 and the top electrode 115 as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. Further, the additional insulation layer 125 may not be precisely formed between the capacitors 120 having the complex structure so that the capacitors 120 may be inadvertently electrically connected to an upper wiring formed on the capacitors 120. As a result, the processes for manufacturing the semiconductor device including the capacitor 120 having the complex structure may have poor throughput.

Semiconductor device including a capacitor having improved structural stability and enhanced capacitance, and method of manufacturing the semiconductor device


A voltage output circuit has a controller controlling ON/OFF switching of a first switch which switches ON/OFF voltage transformation by a first charge pump circuit in order to turning a first voltage outputted from a first voltage output terminal into a desired value, a second charge pump circuit transforming the voltage with the use of an electric power obtained by storing an input voltage according to ON/OFF of the first switch and outputting the voltage as a second voltage, a second switch selecting whether to store the electric power used for transformation by the second charge pump circuit, and a switching unit switching ON/OFF the second switch on the basis of the second voltage outputted from a second voltage output terminal. The circuit having a simple configuration can transform the input voltage and output desired positive and negative voltage, while accomplishing a reduction in cost and size of the circuit.

There has been a positive/negative voltage output circuit 100 as shown in, for example, FIG. 22, as a positive/negative output circuit of an electronic device (for example, audio equipment) which requires two power supplies of positive and negative voltages as a power supply. The positive/negative voltage output circuit 100 generates a positive voltage and a negative voltage with the use of two switching controllers 110 and 120.
In concrete, the positive/negative voltage output circuit 100 comprises a boost positive voltage output circuit 100-1 which boosts an input voltage (denoted as "Vin" in the drawing) inputted from the input terminal 101 and outputs a positive voltage from a positive voltage output terminal 100-2, and a negative voltage output circuit 102 which drops the input voltage and outputs a negative voltage from a negative voltage output terminal 103.
The boost positive voltage output circuit 100-1 comprises a boost switching controller 110; a switching element 115; a coil 116; a diode 117 for rectification; a capacitor 118 for smoothing and resistors 119a and 119b for output voltage feedback. The boost voltage switching controller 110 switches ON and OFF the switching element 115 to boost the input voltage.
The boost switching controller 110 comprises an error amplifier 112 which detects an error between a resistance division value of positive voltage outputs yielded by the resistors 119a and 119b for output voltage feedback and a reference voltage 111; a triangular wave oscillator 113 which generates a triangular wave; and a PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) control circuit 114 which controls the switching between ON and OFF of the switching element 115 on the basis of the triangular wave generated by the triangular wave oscillator 113 and an error signal fed from the error amplifier 112.
The PWM control circuit 114 controls a time period during which the switching element 115 is ON (ONDuty) so that the resistance division value by the resistors 119a and 119b for output voltage feedback becomes the same as the reference voltage 111, whereby the boost positive voltage output circuit 100-1 boosts the input voltage and outputs a desired positive voltage (Vo1) from the positive voltage output terminal 102.
On the other hand, the negative voltage output circuit 100-2 is configured almost similarly to the boost positive voltage output circuit 100-1. Namely, the negative voltage output circuit 100-2 comprises a negative voltage switching controller 120; a switching element 125; a coil 126; a diode 127 for rectification; a capacitor 128 for smoothing; and resistors 129a and 129b for output voltage feedback. The negative voltage switching controller 120 switches ON and OFF the switching element 125 to drop the input voltage.
The negative voltage switching controller 120 comprises an error amplifier 122 which detects an error between a resistance division value of a negative voltage output and a reference voltage 129c yielded by the resistors 129a and 129b for output voltage feedback, and a reference voltage 121; a triangular wave oscillator 123 which generates a triangular wave; and a PWM control circuit 124 which controls a switching between ON and OFF of the switching element 125 on the basis of the triangular wave generated by the triangular wave oscillator 123 and an error signal fed from the error amplifier 122.
The PWM control circuit 124 controls a time period during which the switching elements 125 is ON so that the resistance division value yielded by the resistors 129a and 129b for output voltage feedback is the same as a reference voltage 121, whereby the negative voltage output circuit 100-2 drops the input voltage and outputs a desired negative voltage (Vo2) from a negative voltage output terminal 103.
However, the known positive/negative voltage output circuit 100 shown in FIG. 22 requires two sets of expensive switching controllers 110 and 120 and coils 116 and 126, which causes an increase in cost and size of the circuit.
To overcome the above disadvantage, there is proposed a composite power supply unit which outputs both a positive voltage and a negative voltage with one controller and one coil (see Patent Document 1 below).    Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2005-168247

Voltage output circuit, integrated circuit and electronic device


A telescoping boom has a plurality of boom sections, and the boom sections nest together. The sections include an outer base section, intermediate sections, and an inner section that forms the outer end of the boom when extended. A hydraulic actuator and mechanical flexible links control the extension and retraction of the boom sections, and a hose carrier housing that is mounted as a subassembly carries hoses of sufficient length to carry hydraulic fluid under pressure from a base end of the boom to the outer end. The hose carrier housing supports the hoses folded into lengths in a zigzag form to provide sufficient length for boom extension. All connections to the hoses are accessible at the base end or at the outer end of the inner boom section. The entire hose carrier housing and the hoses are capable of being removed from and replaced into the boom as a unit.

The present invention relates to an extendable working boom mounted on a prime mover platform (a support vehicle) that has telescoping boom sections that can elongate to a substantial height, and which have hydraulically operated attachments at an outer end to which hydraulic fluid under pressure must be delivered. The boom has a single operating hydraulic cylinder operable to extend and retract the boom. The boom includes a hydraulic hose and line carrier formed as a cartridge or subassembly that slips into the boom and can be removed as a subassembly unit for service, such as replacement of connections, checking for leaks and the like.
Extendable booms have been made in the past, using a single hydraulic cylinder to extend and retract the boom. However, the assembly of the hydraulic hoses and lines necessary to carry hydraulic fluid under pressure to the outer end of the extendable boom have generally involved complex arrangements with line connections in the interior of the boom tubes, and the consequent need for disassembly of the boom in order to service the hydraulics. Usually the connections that may cause problems are on the interior of one of the boom sections, so difficult procedures have to be followed to remove the hoses and lines that are used.

Extendible boom with removable hydraulic hose carrier


A method, system, and program for estimating hold queue wait times are provided. Call times are individually estimated for multiple calls within a call center. In particular, call times may be estimated according to representative profiles, caller profiles, and current caller activity of the multiple calls within the call center. The identity of each caller may be authenticated and a caller profile accessed from a central server according to authenticated caller identities. The central server may be accessible to multiple call centers, where each call centers accesses and updates caller profiles according to a single caller identifier for each caller. In addition, call times estimates and factors utilized to calculate call time estimates may be output to a caller, preferably according to an output interface specified by the caller in the caller profile.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates in general to telecommunications and, in particular, to call hold queues. Still more particularly, the present invention relates to estimating hold queue wait times and displaying factors affecting hold queue wait times to callers.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many companies provide telephone-based access to help staff, sales personnel, representatives, and automated menus. Where high telephone call traffic is typical in telephone access to a company's representatives, a PBX system receives the call and distributes the call to an automatic call distributor (ACD). ACDs are often employed to provide an even and systematic distribution of incoming calls to multiple representatives. In particular, ACDs typically provide incoming calls with a direct connection to an available representative until all representatives are busy. Then, calling parties are placed in a call queue, and selectively connected to a representative once a representative comes available.
Call queues may cause frustration and ill will of consumers towards a company, particularly where excessively long waits, full queues and accidental disconnects are encountered. One way to alleviate some of the frustration associated with call queues is by alerting callers to a current position within the call queue and an estimated hold time.
For example, a call queue system may inform callers waiting in a call hold queue of the average wait time for callers in the hold queue through a voice announcement. However, the average wait time for callers in a hold queue only indicates a generic time averaged across callers within a particular time period.
Therefore, in view of the foregoing, it would be advantageous to provide a method, system, and program for publishing call queue information to each caller that will aid each caller in understanding the relative position of each caller within a call queue. Further, it would be advantageous to provide a method, system, and program for providing an estimation of an expected wait time for each individual caller in a call queue.

International Business Machines Corporation


A new and distinct Heuchera plant characterized by leaves which are colored deep purple colored year round, medium size, glossy leaves with fluted margins, purple pink flowers on dark peduncles, great winter foliage color, a medium, mounding habit, a high crown count, excellent tolerance to heat and humidity, and excellent vigor.

The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Heuchera and given the cultivar name of 'TNHEUFP'. Heuchera is in the family Saxifragaceae. Heuchera 'TNHEUFP' originated as a controlled cross using Heuchera K608-2, a proprietary, unnamed plant as the seed parent, and Heuchera K698-6, a proprietary, unnamed plant as the pollen parent.
Compared to the seed parent K608-2, the new cultivar the new cultivar has leaves that have a stronger purple color and flowers that are on shorter inflorescences.
Compared to the pollen parent K698-6, the new cultivar has leaves that have a stronger purple color.
Compared to Heuchera 'Grape Soda', U.S. Plant patent application Ser. No. 13/999,447, the new cultivar has deep purple foliage rather than rose to light plum.
Compared to Heuchera 'Georgia Plum', U.S. Plant Pat. No. 24,507, the new cultivar has deep purple foliage rather than rose to light plum.
This new Heuchera is uniquely distinguished by:                1. leaves deep purple colored year round,        2. medium size, glossy leaves with fluted margins,        3. purple pink flowers on dark peduncles,        4. great winter foliage color,        5. a high crown count,        6. a medium, mounding habit,        7. excellent tolerance to heat and humidity,        8. and excellent vigor.
This new cultivar has been reproduced only by asexual propagation (tip cuttings and tissue culture). Each of the progeny exhibits identical characteristics to the original plant. Asexual propagation by cuttings and tissue culture using standard micropropagation techniques with terminal and lateral shoots, as done in Canby, Oreg., shows that the foregoing characteristics and distinctions come true to form and are established and transmitted through succeeding propagations. The present invention has not been evaluated under all possible environmental conditions. The phenotype may change with variations in environment without a change in the genotype of the plant.


Provided is a join processing device that performs a similarity join process to plural tuples using an edit distance threshold value τ (positive integer). The join processing device includes a join processing unit that excludes, from a target of edit distance calculation, a pair of tuples that do not have any common character in an end portion ranging from a head character or a tail character to a (τ+1)th character in a join key string in each of the tuples.

A string similarity join is a technique for detecting all pairs of a given element s and a given element r from element sets S and R, respectively, in a manner such that a distance between strings contained in the individual elements of each pair satisfies a condition of a threshold value. For the measurement of distances between strings, there exist various types of distance scales having different characteristics such as Jaccard index, cosine index, and edit distance.
The edit distance represents the minimum number of procedures (inserting, deleting or replacing a letter) necessary for converting one string to another string. For example, it determines how many procedures including inserting, deleting or replacing letters are necessary in order to calculate an edit distance between two strings "kitten" and "sitting" to convert the word "kitten" (or "sitting") into the word "sitting" (or "kitten"). In this case, the string "kitten" can be converted into the string "sitting" by replacing "k" with "s," replacing "e" with "i," and inserting "g." Thus, the edit distance between the string "kitten" and the string "sitting" is three (replacing twice and inserting once).
Hereinafter, the string similarity join is also simply referred to as a string join or join. Further, a tuple set serving as an input of the string similarity join is also referred to as data or input data. Each tuple set contains at least one tuple. The tuple is formed by plural attribute values. The tuple contained in the input data contains at least one string as an attribute value. Hereinafter, an attribute having a string set thereto as the attribute value is also referred to as a string attribute. The string attribute used as a key in the string similarity join is referred to as a join key attribute, and a value of the join key attribute is referred to as a join key or join key string.
FIG. 20 is a schematic view illustrating an example of the string similarity join employing the edit distance. In the example illustrated in FIG. 20, the tuple sets S and R serve as the input data. The input data S and R each have a string attribute "product number," and the string attribute "product number" is used as the join key attribute. The string similarity join detects all pairs of a tuple s and a tuple r that satisfy a condition in which the edit distance between a join key of the tuple s contained in the input data S and a join key of the tuple r contained in the input data R is less than or equal to a predetermined threshold value (for example, two).
Hereinafter, the edit distance between the join key of the tuple s and the join key of the tuple r is also referred to as an edit distance between the tuples s and r, an edit distance of a tuple pair (s, r), or an edit distance between a tuple s and a tuple r. Further, in the case where an edit distance of a certain tuple pair is less than or equal to a predetermined threshold value τ, the tuples s and r of this pair are referred to as "having similarity."
In the left table in the lower portion of FIG. 20, the output results of the string similarity join process are shown. In the example illustrated in FIG. 20, four pairs having the edit distance less than or equal to 2 are outputted. In the example illustrated in FIG. 20, each of the tuples of the outputted pair is indicated with a tuple pointer formed by a tuple identifier for identifying a tuple and a data identifier for identifying a tuple set (data) containing this tuple. The tuple identifier is a value of an attribute TID. Further, for example, in a first line of a table located left below in FIG. 20, a pair of a tuple s indicated with a tuple pointer (S:101) and a tuple r indicated with a tuple pointer (R:201) is shown. In the example illustrated in FIG. 20, the tuple s is a tuple having a value of the attribute TID of 101 in an input data S, and the tuple r is a tuple having a value of the attribute TID of 201 in the input data R.
The table located right below in FIG. 20 shows an integrated state in which the tuple s and the tuple r in each of the pairs contained in the results of the string similarity join process shown in the table located left below are integrated into one tuple.
Methods of the string similarity join employing such an edit distance are proposed, for example, in Non-patent Documents 1 to 4 below. These methods employ different approaches according to average string lengths of input data serving as a target. Here, the average string length of the input data means an average of lengths of strings (number of characters) serving as the join key in each input tuple. Thus, when the average of the lengths of strings serving as the join key in each tuple is short, it is indicated that the input data has a short average string length.
In the method proposed in Non-patent Documents 1 to 3, the target is set to input data having a relatively long average string length such as a text. In general, the time required for calculating the long edit distance between strings is long. Thus, in the case where data having a long average string length is targeted, the time required for the string join process increases. In view of the facts described above, the methods proposed in Non-patent Documents 1 to 3 subject the join key to signature to convert the join key into short bit stream, calculate a distance between signatures (or degree of similarity), and leave pairs of tuples that are highly likely to have a similarity (filtering). Thus, by calculating edit distances only for filtered pairs from among all the pairs in the input tuple (refining), it is possible to increase the speed of the string similarity join process.
Non-patent Document 4 proposes an approach different from the filter-and-refine approach, and targets data having a relatively short average string length. The method proposed in Non-patent Document 4 first stores all the join keys of the input data S and R in one trie (Trie). The trie represents a data structure that can express plural strings in a compressed manner, and is frequently used as an index for the string. In general, with the trie that stores a set formed by short strings, it is possible to search the tree in a relatively short period of time. The method proposed in Non-patent Document 4 searches the trie that stores all the join keys, and calculates the edit distance between the join keys, thereby performing the join for the data having relatively short average string lengths at a relatively high speed.
As described above, with the string similarity join, the edit distances are calculated for all the pairs of tuples in the input data S and the input data R, and hence, the time required for the processing increases with an increase in the data volume in the input data S and the input data R. In view of the facts described above, Non-patent Documents 5 and 6 propose a method of processing the string similarity join in parallel to reduce the time required for the entire processing. The method proposed in Non-patent Document 5 employs the filter-and-refine approach in a parallel manner, and is suitable for data having a long average string length. The method proposed in Non-patent Document 6 employs a distance scale different from that for the edit distance, and performs the parallel processing for the string similarity join using characteristics of the distance scale.

Join processing device, data management device, and string similarity join system


A food product comprises an oligosaccharide composition that is digestion resistant or slowly digestible. The oligosaccharide composition can be produced by a process that comprises producing an aqueous composition that comprises at least one oligosaccharide and at least one monosaccharide by saccharification of starch, membrane filtering the aqueous composition to form a monosaccharide-rich stream and an oligosaccharide-rich stream, and recovering the oligosaccharide-rich stream. Alternatively, the oligosaccharide composition can be produced by a process that comprises heating an aqueous feed composition that comprises at least one monosaccharide or linear saccharide oligomer, and that has a solids concentration of at least about 70% by weight, to a temperature of at least about 40° C., and contacting the feed composition with at least one catalyst that accelerates the rate of cleavage or formation of glucosyl bonds for a time sufficient to cause formation of non-linear saccharide oligomers, wherein a product composition is produced that contains a higher concentration of non-linear saccharide oligomers than linear saccharide oligomers.

A variety of carbohydrates are used in food products, such as various sugars and starches. Many of these carbohydrates are digested in the human stomach and small intestine. Dietary fiber in food products, in contrast, is generally not digested in the stomach or small intestine, but is potentially fermentable by microorganisms in the large intestine.
There is an interest in developing ingredients that are suitable for use in food products and that are either non-digestible or only digestible to a limited extent, in order to enhance the dietary fiber content or reduce the caloric content of the food. These modifications have certain health benefits.
There is a need for edible materials which have a reduced content of easily digestible carbohydrates, and which can be used in place of, or in addition to, conventional carbohydrate products in foods.

Food products comprising a slowly digestible or digestion resistant carbohydrate composition


Archiving a database and point in time recovery of the database. A method includes taking a first snapshot of a database. The first snapshot of the database includes a first snapshot of the data in the data storage and a first snapshot of the log records in the log storage. The method further includes taking a second snapshot of the database. The second snapshot of the database includes a second snapshot of the data in data storage and a second snapshot of the log records. The method further includes restoring the database to a particular point by applying the first snapshot of the data in the data storage to the database, applying the first snapshot of the log records in the log storage to the database and applying a portion of the second snapshot of the log records in the log storage to the database.

Backups of very large databases have limitations in that they require a large movement of data from the database files to backup media. In a cloud environment, that may mean moving data from cloud storage to a virtual machine and back to cloud storage, crossing expensive boundaries. Storage system snapshots have helped this by providing a metadata-only mechanism to achieve an image of the storage at that point in time. However, this has had the disadvantage that such backups cannot restore the database to an arbitrary point in time between snapshot backups. Rather, the backup is only restored to the point of the snapshot, and any changes to the database after the backup are lost.
Other solutions have relied on streaming backups, which suffer from the data movement problem, or they rely completely on snapshots, which give the ability to restore only to the discrete times when the snapshot is taken.
The subject matter claimed herein is not limited to embodiments that solve any disadvantages or that operate only in environments such as those described above. Rather, this background is only provided to illustrate one exemplary technology area where some embodiments described herein may be practiced.

Point in time database restore from storage snapshots


Provided are systems and methods for generating clean speech from a speech signal representing a mixture of a noise and speech. The clean speech may be generated from synthetic speech parameters. The synthetic speech parameters are derived based on the speech signal components and a model of speech using auditory and speech production principles. The modeling may utilize a source-filter structure of the speech signal. One or more spectral analyzes on the speech signal are performed to generate spectral representations. The feature data is derived based on a spectral representation. The features corresponding to the target speech according to a model of speech are grouped and separated from the feature data. The synthetic speech parameters, including spectral envelope, pitch data and voice classification data are generated based on features corresponding to the target speech.

Current noise suppression techniques, such as Wiener filtering, attempt to improve the global signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and attenuate low-SNR regions, thus introducing distortion into the speech signal. It is common practice to perform such filtering as a magnitude modification in a transform domain. Typically, the corrupted signal is used to reconstruct the signal with the modified magnitude. This approach may miss signal components dominated by noise, thereby resulting in undesirable and unnatural spectro-temporal modulations.
When the target signal is dominated by noise, a system that synthesizes a clean speech signal instead of enhancing the corrupted audio via modifications is advantageous for achieving high signal-to noise ratio improvement (SNRI) values and low signal distortion.

Speech signal separation and synthesis based on auditory scene analysis and speech modeling


A method of generating a projection beam for projecting an image includes collimating the projection beam and filtering infra-red or ultraviolet radiation from the projection beam after the projection beam has been collimated.

Image projection is used in a variety of different applications. For example, electronic slide shows and presentations are frequently projected onto a wall or screen for viewing by a relatively large audience. Additionally, many television and home entertainment systems use an image projected onto a wall or screen to provide a much larger display than is readily available using a monitor or cathode ray tube.
As image data, both still and motion picture, is created and stored digitally, digital projectors have been created that project high quality images onto a viewing surface using digital image data. Examples of digital projectors include digital mirror devices (DMD) and liquid crystal display (LCD) projectors. A DMD uses hundreds of thousands of individually-addressable reflective micro-mirrors to create an image for projection. An LCD projector uses an array of individually driven light absorbing or transmissive LCD panels to create an image for projection.
Both DMD and LCD projectors utilize high intensity lamps and reflectors to generate the light needed for projection. Light generated by the lamp is concentrated as a 'fireball' that is located at a focal point of a reflector. Light produced by the fireball is directed by the reflector into a projection assembly that produces images and utilizes the generated light to project the image onto a viewing surface.
In addition to generating the visible light used for projection, projection lamps also naturally produce both infra-red and ultraviolet radiation. This non-visible radiation is undesirable because it heats up the system, is potentially unsafe for the human eye, and can damage some optical components over time. Consequently, projection systems have typically included infra-red and ultraviolet filters to remove such unwanted components of the projection beam.

Infra-red and ultraviolet filtration in projection systems

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


Embodiments of a variable gain amplifier circuit are described. In one embodiment, multiple resistor devices are coupled in series to form a string of resistor devices and to receive an input current. A multiple input operational amplifier device has an amplifier output coupled to a feedback resistor in the string of resistor devices and multiple amplifier input pairs, each amplifier input being coupled into the string of resistor devices as a tap between two respective adjacent resistors, each amplifier input pair being controlled by a corresponding bias current transmitted from a respective bias current source.

For certain applications, variable gain amplifier circuits need to provide fine gain variation, i.e. fine variation of the ratio of resistors within the respective circuits.
Several attempts have been made to vary the gain in such variable gain amplifier circuits. FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a prior art circuit 10 and represents one such prior attempt. The circuit 10 includes a string of resistors, of which resistors R1 through R7 are shown, and an operational amplifier 11. The negative input of the amplifier 11 is coupled to multiple switches, of which switches S1 through S6 are shown, each switch being also connected into the string of resistors R1 through R7. The output of the operational amplifier 11 is coupled to the feedback resistor R7. In FIG. 1, the value of the gain depends on the particular switch being closed. For example, if switch S1 is closed, the gain can be calculated with the formulag1=R2+R3+ . . . +R7/R1 Similarly, if switch S2 is closed, the gain can be calculated as g2=R3+ . . . +R7/R1+R2.
Thus, fine variation of the value of the gain can be achieved if large numbers of resistors and switches are provided in the circuit 10, which leads ultimately to very complex and expensive circuits.


A method performed by a network node for enabling communication with a wireless device via a radio network node in a communication network, which network node supports a first set of functionalities out of a total set of functionalities in a core network of the communication network. The first set of functionalities belongs to a first network slice of the core network, and is separated from another set of functionalities out of the total set of functionalities in the core network. The network node initiates a transmission of an indication, during a connection setup for the wireless device, to the radio network node, which indication indicates the supported first set of functionalities.

In a typical communication network, wireless devices, also known as wireless communication devices, mobile stations, stations (STA) and/or user equipments (UE), communicate via a Radio Access Network (RAN) to one or more core networks. The RAN covers a geographical area which is divided into service areas or cell areas, with each service area or cell area being served by a radio network node such as a radio access node e.g., a Wi-Fi access point or a radio base station (RBS), which in some networks may also be denoted, for example, a "NodeB" or "eNodeB". The area or cell area is a geographical area where radio coverage is provided by the radio network node. The radio network node communicates over an air interface operating on radio frequencies with the wireless device within range of the radio network node.
A Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) is a third generation telecommunication network, which evolved from the second generation (2G) Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM). The UMTS terrestrial radio access network (UTRAN) is essentially a RAN using wideband code division multiple access (WCDMA) and/or High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) for user equipments. In a forum known as the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), telecommunications suppliers propose and agree upon standards for third generation networks, and investigate enhanced data rate and radio capacity. In some RANs, e.g. as in UMTS, several radio network nodes may be connected, e.g., by landlines or microwave, to a controller node, such as a radio network controller (RNC) or a base station controller (BSC), which supervises and coordinates various activities of the plural radio network nodes connected thereto. This type of connection is sometimes referred to as a backhaul connection. The RNCs are typically connected to one or more core networks.
Specifications for the Evolved Packet System (EPS), also called as Fourth Generation (4G) network, have been completed within the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) and this work continues in the coming 3GPP releases, for example to specify a Fifth Generation (5G) network. The EPS comprises the Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN), also known as a radio access network of an LTE network, and the Evolved Packet Core (EPC), also known as System Architecture Evolution (SAE) core network. E-UTRAN/LTE is a 3GPP radio access network wherein the radio network nodes are directly connected to the EPC core network rather than to RNCs. In general, in E-UTRAN/LTE the functions of an RNC are distributed between the radio network nodes, e.g. eNodeBs in LTE, and the core network. As such, the RAN of an EPS has an essentially "flat" architecture comprising radio network nodes connected directly to one or more core networks, i.e. they are not connected to RNCs. To compensate for that, the E-UTRAN specification defines a direct interface between the radio network nodes, this interface being denoted the X2 interface. EPS is the Evolved 3GPP Packet Switched Domain and comprises the EPC and E-UTRAN. FIG. 1 is an overview of the EPC architecture. This architecture is defined in 3GPP TS 23.401 v.13.4.0 wherein a definition of a Packet Data Network Gateway (PGW), a Serving Gateway (SGW), a Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF), a Mobility Management Entity (MME) and a wireless or mobile device (UE) is found. The LTE radio access, E-UTRAN, comprises one or more eNBs. FIG. 2 shows the overall E-UTRAN architecture and is further defined in for example 3GPP TS 36.300 v.13.1.0. The E-UTRAN comprises eNBs, providing a user plane comprising the protocol layers Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP)/Radio Link Control (RLC)/Medium Access Control (MAC)/Physical layer (PHY), and a control plane comprising Radio Resource Control (RRC) protocol in addition to the user plane protocols towards the wireless device. The radio network nodes are interconnected with each other by means of the X2 interface. The radio network nodes are also connected by means of the S1 interface to the EPC, more specifically to the MME by means of an S1-MME interface and to the S-GW by means of an S1-U interface.
The S1-MME interface is used for control plane between eNodeB/E-UTRAN and MME. The main protocols used in this interface are S1 Application Protocol (S1-AP) and Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP). S1AP is the application Layer Protocol between the radio network node and the MME and SCTP for example guarantees delivery of signaling messages between MME and the radio network node. The transport network layer is based on Internet Protocol (IP).
A subset of the S1 interface provided functions are:                S1-interface management functions such as S1 setup, error indication, reset and the radio network node and MME configuration update.        UE Context Management functionality such as Initial Context Setup Function and UE Context Modification Function.        E-UTRAN Radio Access Bearer (E-RAB) Service Management function e.g. Setup, Modify, Release.        Mobility Functions for wireless devices in EPS Connection Management (ECM)-CONNECTED, e.g. Intra-LTE Handover and inter-3GPP-Radio Access Technology (RAT) Handover.        S1 Paging function.        Non Access Stratum (NAS) Signaling Transport function.
Establishment of the S1-MME interface on S1AP protocol level is shown in FIG. 3 as the S1 setup procedure. The purpose of the S1 Setup procedure is to exchange application level data needed for the radio network node and the MME to correctly interoperate on the S1 interface. The radio network node may initiate the procedure by sending an S1 SETUP REQUEST message to the MME once it has gained IP connectivity and it has been configured with at least one Tracking Area Indicator (TAI). The TAI(s) are used by the radio network node to locate IP-addresses of the different MMEs, possibly in different MME pools. The radio network node includes its global radio network node identity and other information in the S1 SETUP REQUEST message. The MME responds with an S1 SETUP RESPONSE message. This S1 SETUP RESPONSE message includes for example the Globally Unique MME identifier(s) (GUMMEI) of the MME.
An Initial Context Setup process is shown in FIG. 4. An INITIAL CONTEXT SETUP REQUEST message is sent by the MME to request the setup of a UE context or context of a wireless device. This INITIAL CONTEXT SETUP REQUEST message comprises information related to both the UE context and different E-RABs to be established. For each E-RAB the MME includes E-RAB Quality of Service (QoS) parameters such as QoS Class Identifier (QCI) and Allocation and Retention Priority (ARP). The QCI is a scalar that is used as a reference to radio access node-specific parameters that control bearer level packet forwarding treatment, e.g. scheduling weights, admission thresholds, queue management thresholds, link layer protocol configuration, etc., and that have been pre-configured by the operator owning the radio network node. Current assumption is that the RAN-CN split is similar for 5G as for 4G, implying an (evolved) S1 interface. An INITIAL CONTEXT SETUP RESPONSE message is sent by eNB to the MME confirming the setup.
The wireless communication industry is at the verge of a unique business crossroads. The growing gap between capacity and demand is an urgent call for new approaches and alternative network technologies to enable mobile operators to achieve more with less. Today, mobile broadband data is growing at an annual rate of 40-50 percent per year in the U.S. and other regions globally. Mobile service providers address these rapidly expanding traffic volumes through deployment of additional network functions, which will be a significant capital expenditure (CAPEX) challenge. The nature of that mobile broadband data traffic is also evolving with new services including new video applications, connected cars and the Internet of Things (IoT). This rapid capacity growth and increasing traffic diversity in LTE networks stresses the assumptions of existing network architectures and operational paradigms.
Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) provides a new path that can increase the flexibility required by mobile service providers and network operators to adapt and accommodate this dynamic market environment. NFV is a new operational approach applying well-known virtualization technologies to create a physical Commercial Off-the-Shelf (COTS) distributed platform for the delivery of end-to-end services in the context of the demanding environment of telecom network infrastructure and applications.
Because EPC is critical to the realization and management of all LTE traffic, it is important to consider use cases related to virtualization of the EPC elements. Each individual EPC element also has specific considerations that determine whether to deploy with NFV. Virtualized EPC (vEPC) is a good example: Multiple virtualized network functions (VNF) can be deployed and managed on a Network Functions Virtualization Infrastructure (NFVI) but must cater to performance scalability in both signaling/user and control plane, each potentially demanding different levels of NFVI resources.
vEPC elements can benefit from more agile deployment and scalability. However, virtual resource monitoring and orchestration, along with service awareness, are essential for implementing elasticity effectively. Due to the nature of telecom networks, service Level Agreements (SLA) will be a key issue for a virtualized mobile core network. Because virtualization usually leads to a performance trade-off, equipment vendors must optimize data-plane processing to satisfy carrier-grade bandwidth and latency requirements and sufficient control-plane performance for SLAs needed to ensure availability of regulatory services, such as emergency calls.
VNF is a virtualized network function which serves as a VNF Software for providing virtual network capabilities. A VNF could be decomposed and instantiated in roles such as Virtualized MME (vMME), Virtualized PCRF (vPCRF), Virtualized SGW (vSGW) or Virtualized PDN-GW (vPDN-GW).
NFV is seen as an enabler for network slicing that is described herein.
When looking at the wide range of applications and use cases that are addressed with a 5G network, it is quite obvious these cannot effectively be addressed with a traditional approach of having a purpose built network for each application. This will lead to high cost for networks and devices as well as inefficient use of valuable frequency resources. An operator may have one physical network infrastructure and one pool of frequency bands, which may support many separate virtualized networks, also called network slices. Each network slice may have unique characteristics for meeting the specific requirements of the use case/s it serves.
A key function of 5G Core network is to allow for flexibility in network service creation, making use of different network functions suitable for the offered service in a specific network slice, e.g. Evolved Mobile Broadband (MBB), Massive Machine Type Communication (MTC), Critical MTC, Enterprise, etc.
Slicing can also be used to isolate different services in an operator's network. Future networks are expected to support new use cases going beyond the basic support for voice services and mobile broadband currently supported by existing cellular network, e.g. 2G/3G/4G. Some example use cases include:                Evolution of MBB                    Evolved communication services            Cloud services            Extended mobility and coverage                        Mission critical Machine Type Communication                    Intelligent traffic systems            Smart grid            Industrial applications                        Massive Machine Type Communication                    Sensors/actuators            Capillary networks                        Media                    Efficient on-demand media delivery            Media awareness            Efficient support for broadcast services
These use cases are expected to have different performance requirements, e.g. bit-rates, latencies, as well as other network requirements, e.g. mobility, availability, security etc., affecting the network architecture and protocols.
Supporting these use cases could also mean that new players and business relations are needed compared to existing cellular networks. For instance it is expected that future network should address the needs of                Enterprise services        Government services, e.g. national safety        Verticals industries, e.g. automation, transportation        Residential users
These different users and services are also expected to put new requirements on the network. Network slicing introduces the possibility that the network slices are used for different services and use cases. FIG. 5 shows an example of the network slicing for a case when there exists different network slices in the core network for MBB, Massive MTC and Critical MTC.
A new standard denoted 3GPP DÉCOR is developing solutions where wireless devices with different performance and robustness requirements like machine type and mobile broadband can be isolated from one another over the different network slices. Thereby misbehaving wireless devices in one network slice should not negatively impact performance of other network slices. The concept of network slices is at the moment limited to separating resources or functionalities in packet core, but may also be extended to servers with connectivity to packet core within the same Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN).
Network slicing introduces the possibility that the network slices are used for different services and use cases and there is a need to use these services for wireless devices in the wireless communication network. This is illustrated in FIG. 6, where a tablet using Voice over LTE (VoLTE) is served by a network slice#1 and the vehicle being a MTC device is served by a second network slice, network slice#2.
The same or similar communication services may be used via different network slice types. In FIG. 7 this is exemplified using IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS), but the problem is not limited to IMS. In FIG. 7 the tablet is using an MMTel service via IMS through the network slice#1 and the MTC device is using an MMTel service via IMS through the second network slice, network slice#2. Hence, same Quality of Service Class Identifier (QCI) bearers may be used via different network slices illustrated as QCI=x.
In today's RAN scheduling, all traffic that is sent via e.g. a particular QCI bearer may be scheduled in a same way for all subscribers leading to a non flexible system with a limited performance of the communication network.

Network node, radio network node and methods performed therein


A capacitor charging semiconductor apparatus including a plurality of serially connected capacitors to be charged. A direct current source is applied to the plurality of capacitors. A plurality of bypass transistors is provided to bypass charge current supplied to the plurality of capacitors when a voltage of a capacitor exceeds a prescribed reference level. A plurality of parallel monitor circuits is provided to control the plurality of bypass transistors to equally charge the plurality of capacitors. A plurality of capacitor connection terminals is connected to both ends and intersections of the plurality of capacitors. A plurality of transistor connection terminals is connected to the plurality of control terminals of the bypass transistor. A prescribed number of capacitors is optionally charged by increasingly shorting a number of capacitor connection terminals from the highest and lower voltage side capacitor connection terminals.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to capacitor charging semiconductor apparatuses, in particular, to capacitor charging semiconductor apparatuses each integrally formed from a plurality of parallel monitor circuits to equally charge a plurality of electric double layer type capacitors, which are serially connected to each other.
2. Discussion of the Background Art
An electric double layer type capacitor can be charged faster than a secondary battery because the secondary battery generally takes a certain time period to be charged. Since a rated voltage of the electric double layer type capacitor is generally low, for example, approximately three volts, a necessary voltage is typically obtained by serially connecting a plurality of such capacitors. When charging such capacitors, a problem that arises is unevenness of charge caused by a difference in a capacitor capacitance, its own charging and discharging, and so on. One approach is to employ an equally charging circuit called a parallel monitor circuit as illustrated in FIG. 6. Specifically, since an output of a comparator CMP1 becomes high, and accordingly a transistor Tr1 is turned on when a voltage V1 of a capacitor C1 exceeds a reference voltage Vr1 in the parallel monitor circuit, charge current is bypassed by the transistor Tr1 to avoid excessive charging to the capacitor C1 as discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid Open No. 2000-50495, for example.
However, due to non-integration of a semiconductor apparatus, i.e., assembly of discrete parts, size and cost of the background parallel monitor circuit increase. Then, the integration is conventionally demanded. However, if a semiconductor apparatus is manufactured while changing a number of parallel monitor circuits to be integrated, a small number of various products are generally produced because the number of serially connected capacitors varies depending upon usage. As a result, advantages of mass-production of the semiconductor apparatus are suppressed. Thus, the semiconductor apparatus is expensive and cannot practically be used. Further, if a semiconductor apparatus is manufactured with it being integrated with only one parallel monitor circuit, the parallel monitor circuit cannot be effectively downsized resulting in loss of the advantages of the integration.
Then, as shown in FIG. 1, when approximately five to ten parallel monitor circuits (e.g. five in FIG. 1) are integrated on one semiconductor apparatus IC1, and a number of capacitors to be charged is more than that of the integrated parallel monitor circuits, the same semiconductor apparatuses can be longitudinally connected as needed. Thus, a semiconductor apparatus can be mass-produced, while downsizing and reducing cost of the entire monitor circuit.
However, a total number of chargeable capacitors are unavoidably integral multiples of that of capacitors charged by one semiconductor apparatus. As a result, the other number of capacitors cannot be charged.

Semiconductor apparatus and method of charging desired number of capacitors