A portable map holder comprises a substantially rigid elongate sleeve member having an open end through which a folded map can be inserted. The sleeve has a top wall made of transparent material to expose a map inserted therein. A transparent cursor is mounted on the sleeve for slidable movement therealong over the transparent top wall. The cursor incorporates a lens for magnifying inscriptions on a map inserted in the sleeve and visible through the top wall.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a map holder, especially a map holder of the type suitable for carrying street maps and the like.
2. Description of the Prior Art
U.S. Pat. No. 4,641,440, discloses a map holder for an automotive vehicle comprising a transparent cover and a bottom plate between which a map can be sandwiched. A telescopic pointer is provided to permit the user to trace a proposed route with a non-permanent marker.
Such a device is not intended to hold foldable maps, such as street maps. Furthermore, a problem with street maps is that they are often printed in very fine print, making it hard to read them, particularly where little time is available, for example when navigating a strange city by automobile.


Disclosed is an electroluminescent device comprising a cathode and an anode and, located therebetween, a light-emitting layer (LEL) comprising a phosphorescent guest material, a hole- and electron-transporting host material, and an efficiency-enhancing material having an ionization potential lower than that of the host material and a triplet energy level that is lower than that of the phosphorescent guest material by no more than 0.2 eV. Such a device provides useful light emission features.

While organic electroluminescent (EL) devices have been known for over two decades, their performance limitations have represented a barrier to many desirable applications. In simplest form, an organic EL device is comprised of an anode for hole injection, a cathode for electron injection, and an organic medium sandwiched between these electrodes to support charge recombination that yields emission of light. These devices are also commonly referred to as organic light-emitting diodes, or OLEDs. Representative of earlier organic EL devices are Gurnee et al. U.S. Pat. No. 3,172,862, issued Mar. 9, 1965; Gurnee U.S. Pat. No. 3,173,050, issued Mar. 9, 1965; Dresner, "Double Injection Electroluminescence in Anthracene", RCA Review, Vol. 30, pp. 322-334, 1969; and Dresner U.S. Pat. No. 3,710,167, issued Jan. 9, 1973. The organic layers in these devices, usually composed of a polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon, were very thick (much greater than 1 μm). Consequently, operating voltages were very high, often >100V.
More recent organic EL devices include an organic EL element consisting of extremely thin layers (e.g. <1.0 μm) between the anode and the cathode. Herein, the term "organic EL element" encompasses the layers between the anode and cathode. Reducing the thickness lowered the resistance of the organic layer and has enabled devices that operate at much lower voltage. In a basic two-layer EL device structure, described first in U.S. Pat. No. 4,356,429, one organic layer of the EL element adjacent to the anode is specifically chosen to transport holes, and therefore, it is referred to as the hole-transporting layer, and the other organic layer is specifically chosen to transport electrons, and is referred to as the electron-transporting layer. Recombination of the injected holes and electrons within the organic EL element results in efficient electroluminescence.
There have also been proposed three-layer organic EL devices that contain an organic light-emitting layer (LEL) between the hole-transporting layer and electron-transporting layer, such as that disclosed by Tang et al (J. Applied Physics, Vol. 65, Pages 3610-3616, (1989)). The light-emitting layer commonly consists of a host material doped with a guest material, also known as a dopant. Still further, there has been proposed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,769,292 a four-layer EL element comprising a hole-injecting layer (HIL), a hole-transporting layer (HTL), a light-emitting layer (LEL) and an electron transport/injection layer (ETL). These structures have resulted in improved device efficiency.
Many emitting materials that have been described as useful in an OLED device emit light from their excited singlet state by fluorescence. The excited singlet state can be created when excitons formed in an OLED device transfer their energy to the singlet excited state of the dopant. However, it is generally believed that only 25% of the excitons created in an EL device are singlet excitons. The remaining excitons are triplet, which cannot readily transfer their energy to the dopant to produce the singlet excited state of a dopant. This results in a large loss in efficiency since 75% of the excitons are not used in the light emission process.
Triplet excitons can transfer their energy to a dopant if it has a triplet excited state that is low enough in energy. If the triplet state of the dopant is emissive it can produce light by phosphorescence. In many cases singlet excitons can also transfer their energy to lowest singlet excited state of the same dopant. The singlet excited state can often relax, by an intersystem crossing process, to the emissive triplet excited state. Thus, it is possible, by the proper choice of host and dopant, to collect energy from both the singlet and triplet excitons created in an OLED device and to produce a very efficient phosphorescent emission. The term electrophosphorescence is sometimes used to denote electroluminescence wherein the mechanism of luminescence is phosphorescence.
Another process by which excited states of a dopant can be created is a sequential process in which a hole is trapped by the dopant and subsequently recombines with an electron, or an electron is trapped and subsequently recombines with a hole, in either case producing an excited state of the dopant directly. Singlet and triplet states, and fluorescence, phosphorescence, and intersystem crossing are discussed in J. G. Calvert and J. N. Pitts, Jr., Photochemistry (Wiley, N.Y., 1966) and further discussed in publications by S. R. Forrest and coworkers such as M. A. Baldo, D. F. O'Brien, M. E. Thompson, and S. R. Forrest, Phys. Rev. B, 60, 14422 (1999). The singular term "triplet state" is often used to refer to a set of three electronically excited states of spin 1 that have nearly identical electronic structure and nearly identical energy and differ primarily in the orientation of the net magnetic moment of each state. A molecule typically has many such triplet states with widely differing energies. As used hereinafter, the term "triplet state" of a molecule will refer specifically to the set of three spin-1 excited states with the lowest energy, and the term "triplet energy" will refer to the energy of these states relative to the energy of the ground state of the molecule. Similarly, the term "singlet energy" will refer to the energy of the lowest excited singlet state relative to that of the ground state of the molecule.
One class of useful phosphorescent materials is the transition metal complexes having singlet ground states and triplet excited states. For example, fac-tris(2-phenylpyridinato-N,C2′)iridium(III) (Ir(ppy)3) strongly emits green light from a triplet excited state owing to, first, the large spin-orbit coupling of the heavy atom and, second, the lowest excited state, which is a charge transfer state, having a Laporte allowed (orbital-symmetry-allowed) transition to the ground state (K. A. King, P. J. Spellane, and R. J. Watts, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 107, 1431 (1985), M. G. Colombo, T. C. Brunold, T. Reidener, H. U. Güdel, M. Fortsch, and H.-B. Bürgi, Inorg. Chem., 33, 545 (1994). Small-molecule, vacuum-deposited OLEDs having high efficiency have also been demonstrated with Ir(ppy)3 as the phosphorescent material and 4,4′-N,N′-dicarbazole-biphenyl (CBP) as the host (M. A. Baldo, S. Lamansky, P. E. Burrows, M. E. Thompson, and S. R. Forrest, Appl. Phys. Lett., 75, 4 (1999), T. Tsutsui, M.-J. Yang, M. Yahiro, K. Nakamura, T. Watanabe, T. Tsuji, Y. Fukuda, T. Wakimoto, and S. Miyaguchi, Jpn. J. Appl. Phys., 38, L1502 (1999), T. Watanabe, K. Nakamura, S. Kawami, Y.Fukuda, T. Tsuji, T. Wakimoto, S. Miyaguchi. Proc. SPIE, 4105, 175-182 (2001)). LeCloux et al. in International Patent Application WO 03/040256 A2, and Petrov et al. in International Patent Application WO 02/02714 A2 teach additional iridium complexes for electroluminescent devices.
Additives have been used to improve the efficiency of triplet OLED devices. In U.S. 2002/0071963 A1, 4-(dicyanomethylene)-2-t-butyl-6-(1,1,7,7-tetramethyljulolidyl-9-enyl)-4H-pyran (DCJTB) was used as an additive to a triplet light-emitting layer. However, DCJTB suffers from having singlet emission in the red region of the spectrum and therefore can affect the color of the emission of a triplet OLED device. In particular, if an OLED device with blue or green emission is desired, a red contribution from DCJTB emission would be undesirable.
Notwithstanding these developments, there remains a need to improve the functioning of OLEDs containing phosphorescent organometallic materials so as to provide useful light emissions.

Organic electroluminescent devices with additive


A method performed by a network node includes receiving a service request for requesting a communication for a user equipment (UE). The service request includes information identifying a service type associated with the requested communication. It is determined whether to reject the service request based on the service type associated with the requested communication.

There are numerous studies ongoing in 3GPP where the 3GPP working groups study how to optimise the 3GPP networks for the new services to be deployed by 5G (and also 4G) mobile networks. New network operations requirements will address the necessary control and data plane resource efficiencies, as well as network configurations that optimise service delivery by minimising routing and load between end users and application servers. Support for Massive Internet of Things (MIoT) brings many new requirements. The expansion of connected things introduces a need for significant improvements in resource efficiency in all system components (e.g., UEs, IoT devices, radio, access network, core network). Unlike previous 3GPP systems that attempted to provide a 'one size fits all' system, the 5G system is expected to be able to provide optimised support for a variety of different services, different traffic loads, and different end user communities.
3GPP SA1 working group continues its work on new services definitions for future mobile networks in Technical Specification (TS) 22.261 V16.3.0. This technology revolution is achievable with the introduction of new technologies, both in access and the core, such as flexible, scalable assignment of network resources. In addition to increased flexibility and optimisation, a 5G system needs to support stringent KPIs for latency, reliability, throughput, etc.
3GPP SA2 working group is working on the CIoT for 5G study (Technical Report (TR) 23.724 V0.3.0) for architecture enhancements to enable CIoT/MTC functionalities in 5G CN and to address related service requirements defined in TS 23.261 V14.0.0 and RAN requirements in TR 38.913 V14.3.0 and how to enable them in 5G CN. One of the key areas of study is how to optimise the 3GPP network for delay tolerant UEs and applications.
3GPP SA2 working group is also working on Network Data Analytics Function (NWDAF) study (TR 23.791 V0.3.0) for data collection and data analytics in centralised manner. An NWDAF may be used for analytics for one or more Network Slice(s). 5GS Network Functions decide how to use the data analytics provided by NWDAF to improve the network performance.


Disclosed is a backlight device used for a color liquid crystal display (LCD) apparatus. The red light, green light and blue light, generated by a light source, made up by a red light emitting diode (21R), a green light emitting diode (21G) and a blue light emitting diode (21B), respectively, are mixed together to generate white light. The red light has a half-value width hwr such that 15 nm≦hwr≦30 nm, and the green light has a half-value width hwg such that 25 nm≦hwg≦50 nm. The blue light has a half-value width hwb such that 15 nm≦hwb≦30 nm. The white light illuminates a transmissive color liquid crystal display panel (10) from its back side. The transmissive color liquid crystal display panel includes a color filter (19) made up by a tristimulus filter for wavelength-selecting and transmitting red light, green light and blue light.

A TV receiver of an extremely thin thickness, such as one employing a liquid crystal display (LCD) or a plasma display panel (PDP), has been developed and put to practical use to take the place of a TV receiver employing a cathode ray tube (CRT) which has long been used since the start of TV broadcasting. In particular, a color liquid crystal display apparatus employing a color liquid crystal display panel is expected to become popular at a high pace because it permits driving with low power consumption and the large-sized color liquid crystal display panel has become less expensive.
As for the color liquid crystal display apparatus, the backlight system, in which a transmissive color liquid crystal display panel is illuminated from its backside with a backlight device to display a color picture, is in the mainstream. The light source, preferentially used for the backlight device, is a CCFL (Cold Cathode Fluorescent Lamp), emitting white light using a fluorescent tube.
In general, in a transmissive color liquid crystal display apparatus, a color filter, employing a tristimulus filter of spectral characteristics, shown for example in FIG. 1, made up of a blue filter CFB0 (460 nm), a green filter CFG0 (530 nm) and a red filter CFR0 (685 nm), where the numbers entered in parentheses denote the peak transmission wavelength of each filter, is provided from one pixel of the color liquid crystal display panel to another.
On the other hand, the white light, emitted by a three-wavelength CCFL, used as a light source for a backlight device of the color liquid crystal display apparatus, has a spectrum shown in FIG. 2. That is, the white light emitted by the CCFL contains light of different intensities in a variety of wavelengths.
Hence, the color reproduced by the combination of the backlight device, having such CCFL, emitting the light of three wavelength ranges, as light source, and the color liquid crystal display panel, having the color filter, described above, is rather poor in color purity.
FIG. 3 shows the color reproducing range of the color liquid crystal display apparatus, including the backlight device, having the above-described tristimulus CCFL as a light source. Specifically, FIG. 3 depicts an xy chromaticity diagram of the XYZ color system, as prescribed by the Commission Internationale de l'Eclairage (CIE).
As may be seen from FIG. 3, the color reproducing range of the color liquid crystal display apparatus, having the backlight device, employing the CCFL as light source, is narrower than the color reproducing range provided for by the standard of the NTSC (National Television System Committee) system accepted as the color television broadcasting system. That is, the first-stated color reproducing range may not be said to cope sufficiently with the current television broadcasting.
On the other hand, there is a fear that the CCFL, containing mercury in the phosphorescent tube, may have an ill effect on the environment. Hence, a demand is raised for a light source which may be used in substitution for the CCFL as a light source of the backlight device. With the development of the blue light emitting diode, the light emitting diodes, emitting light of three prime colors, namely red light, green light and blue light, are now in order. Thus, with the use of the light emitting diodes as light source for the backlight device, the color light obtained by the color liquid crystal display panel may be improved in color purity, and hence it may be expected that the color reproducing range may be made as broad as or even broader than the color reproducing range provided for by the NTSC system.
However, there is a problem that the color reproducing range of the color liquid crystal display apparatus, employing light emitting diodes as light source, is not as yet broad enough to satisfy the color reproducing range provided by the NTSC system.

Backlight device and color liquid crystal display apparatus


The present invention provides a high temperature chemical solution supply system for cleaning substrates. The system includes a solution tank, a buffer tank, a first pump and a second pump. The solution tank contains high temperature chemical solution. The buffer tank has a tank body, a vent line and a needle valve. The tank body contains the high temperature chemical solution. An end of the vent line connects to the tank body, and the other end of the vent line connects to the solution tank. The needle valve is mounted on the vent line, wherein the needle valve is adjusted to reach a flow rate to vent gas bubbles inside of the high temperature chemical solution out of the buffer tank through the vent line. An inlet of the first pump connects to the solution tank, and an outlet of the first pump connects to the buffer tank. An inlet of the second pump connects to the buffer tank, and an outlet of the second pump connects to a cleaning chamber in which a substrate is cleaned. The present invention also provides an apparatus including the high temperature chemical solution supply system and an ultra or mega sonic device for cleaning the substrate. The present invention also provides methods for cleaning the substrates.

During the process of manufacturing semiconductor devices, particles on a surface of a substrate need to be removed or cleaned prior to going to the next step process. Slurries and residues left on the surface of substrate such as post CMP (chemical-mechanical planarization) are difficult to remove. High temperature sulfuric acid (SPM) is being used for removing those particles. However the sulfuric acid is not only hard to safety handle but also the waste treatment of sulfuric acid is costly. Hot SC1 (containing hydrogen peroxide, ammonia hydroxide, and water) is very good candidate to replace the hot sulfuric acid. But the temperature of SC1 needs to be heated to more than 80° C. in order to effectively remove those particles.
When the SC1 being in such high temperature, chemicals H2O2 and NH4OH in SC1 are easily to be dissociated as gas bubbles of oxygen and ammonia gas if the SC1 chemical passes through low pressure suction, mechanical agitation, and heating processes. Those SC1 mixing with bubbles will cause miss function of pump, of heater, of flow meter and ultrasonic device during cleaning process.
Therefore, it needs to have a better method for controlling gas bubbles inside of hot chemical solutions during blending, heating, delivering and finally cleaning process when applying ultrasonic energy on substrate simultaneously.

Method and apparatus for cleaning substrates using high temperature chemicals and ultrasonic device


A rotary atomizing electrostatic coating apparatus includes an atomizing head having bores for self-cleaning the atomizing head, a center nozzle, and surrounding nozzle or nozzles. In the apparatus, an intersection of paint expelled from the paint nozzle or nozzles with the rear surface of the hub is offset from the rear openings of the bores.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a rotary atomizing electrostatic coating apparatus having a plurality of paint feed nozzles per rotary atomizing head, called multi-feed nozzle-type coating apparatus.
2. Description of Related Art
Japanese Patent Publication No. HEI 6-134354 disclosed a multi-feed, nozzle-type rotary atomizing electrostatic coating apparatus.
In the apparatus, as illustrated in FIGS. 6 and 7, a paint feed nozzle assembly 21 for feeding paint to a rotary atomizing head 25 is disposed within a thinner feed nozzle 24. The nozzle assembly 21 includes a center nozzle 22 disposed on an axis of rotation of the rotary atomizing head 25 and a plurality of surrounding nozzles 23 arranged around the center nozzle 22. The rotary atomizing head 25 includes a central portion (or hub) having a self-cleaning bore 26 for letting thinner from the thinner nozzle 24 pass therethrough to self-clean a front surface of the atomizing head 25.
When a color of a current paint is changed, feeding the current color paint from a current paint feed nozzle is stopped, then thinner is fed through the thinner tube 24 to clean the atomizing head 25. After cleaning is completed, feeding of the thinner is stopped, and then feeding paint of another color through another paint feed nozzle is started.
However, in the conventional apparatus, because a paint injection pattern from the surrounding paint nozzles 23 interferes with the self-cleaning bore 26, the paint expelled from the surrounding nozzles 23 at a high speed during metallic top coating enters the self-cleaning bore 26 at a high speed and passes through the self-cleaning bore 26. Because a centrifugal force does not act on the passing paint, the passing paint flows straight ahead to collide with a workpiece to be coated and causes a coating problem.

Rotary atomizing electrostatic coating apparatus


An air separator for crushing coarse particles of a material and separating resultant fine particles has a single motor which drives a separator wheel having a plurality of blades mounted between two disks and defining radial blade channels through which separating air carries the fine particles from outside to inside. A plurality of beaters is mounted on one of the disks for crushing coarse particles. Apparatus for continuously varying the cross section of the flow path of the separator air is provided for varying a cut point below which particles are carried by the separating air and above which particles are returned to the beaters for further crushing without variation of the speed of the motor.

Ground stock generally has various grain sizes at the end of the grinding process and requires classification or separation. The mill and the separator are consequently integrated, in general, into one functional unit. The starting product is charged into the mill, and at the end of the grinding process, the ground stock, freed from coarse particles, reaches the separator, where the coarser and finer components of the ground stock (which have a heavier and lighter weight, respectively), are separated from one another.
The grinder and the separator are subject to different working conditions, which can be readily taken into account or can be readily created if the grinder and the separator are mutually independent units.
If the separator is an air separator, the essential criterion for the separator is the distribution number (the cut point) d.sub.T, which is described by the following equation. ##EQU1## Here, d.sub.T is the distribution number (the cut point) or the particle size,
.rho. is the density in kg/m.sup.3, PA1 V.sub.r is the radial velocity in the separator wheel in m/sec, PA1 V.sub.u is the circumferential velocity in the separator wheel in m/sec, PA1 r is the radius in m, and PA1 n is the dynamic viscosity in Ns/m.sup.2.
It follows from this that the distribution number in the separator depends mainly on two velocity components, which in turn means that the speed of the separator wheel must be variable if the working range of the separator is not to be so small that the separator operation would be uneconomical.
This analogously applies to the mill as well. In the case of a beater mill with beaters on the circumference of a rotating disk, the speed of this disk must be variable if the beater mill is to be operated economically.
The lack of a fixed relationship between the speeds of the mill and the separator is an important aspect for the design of a beater mill and an air separator. The speeds of the separator and the mill must be able to be determined and varied independently from one another. This does not represent any special problem if the separator and the mill are mutually independent devices with mutually independent drives.
Problems arise from the above-described situation if the mill and the separator are to be connected to one another not only functionally, but also structurally in order to reduce the cost of construction, or in order to quite simply keep the space required for installation small. It is logical in such a case to provide a common drive motor for the two devices and to provide a torque split transmission between the motor and the mill, on the one hand, and the separator, on the other hand, and to now provide a speed control between the torque split transmission and the mill, on the one hand, and the torque split transmission and the separator, on the other hand. However, this makes the entire machine with the mill and the separator so expensive that other advantages, which are expected from the structural integration, would be offset. Separate drives for the separator and the mill with speed controls of their own have therefore been maintained to date in practice even in the case of the structural integration of the mill and the separator.

Air separator and single-rotor air separator mill with such an air separator


System and method for operating a wireless telephone system particularly a wireless Private Branch Exchange (PBX), as both a voice system and a pager system. The system includes a protocol for communicating both voice conversations and display data to a remote unit. Remote units, which may be pagers, personal communications units, mobile telephones, and the like, communicate with the wired portion of the system using the same protocols and signalling techniques.

The present application is directed in general to systems and methods for communicating in telephone systems and in particular to systems and methods for using portable, wireless telephones integrated with a land-based wired telephone system.
The telephone industry has experienced tremendous growth in the last few years, driven in part by the availability of relatively inexpensive cellular telephone service. In such service, telephone subscribers use portable, battery-powered, hand-held telephone instruments to communicate via RF links with a network of base stations which interface the signals on the RF links into the land-based public telephone network. In such systems, a cellular configuration is generally used in which a particular base station uses certain frequencies to communicate with portable telephones within its "cell" and adjacent base stations use other frequencies to communicate with telephones within their cells. If base stations are sufficiently distant from each other, the same frequencies may be used in both cells so long as neither the base station nor the telephones in one cell generate signals of sufficient power to carry into the other cell. In this way, a limited number of frequencies can be re-used in a non-conflicting pattern which provides telephone service throughout a particular geographic area. Of course, as a telephone leaves from one cell to another, the telephone may have to switch frequencies (or "hop" to a new channel) during the middle of an on-going call to avoid broadcasting into a non-adjacent cell which is using the same frequency for a different call.
The use of cellular telephone technology has permitted broad geographic regions to be provided with the availability of many portable telephones. As the popularity of portable telephones has expanded, however, the frequencies (or "channels") have become filled. Within the limited RF bandwidth available for all the competing uses thereof, the solution to cellular overcrowding does not necessarily lie in merely adding additional frequencies or channels within each cell.
It has been proposed in the prior art to utilize smaller cells and to reduce the power of the cellular equipment so that frequencies may be reused in greater proximity to one another. Such a solution is not entirely satisfactory, however, as with much reduced power levels, the signal to noise ratios of the communications may approach levels unacceptable in telephone communications. Along these lines, the prior art has proposed making an office building, a portion of an office building or an office complex a cell site or a small cellular system. Given the crowding on the existing cellular systems, however, such proposed systems are generally limited in the number of portable telephones which they can accommodate.
In many office situations, the persons working in the offices frequently are away from their assigned duty locations for extended periods of time and may even roam throughout the office as their business needs arise. Providing telephone service to such roaming persons in the prior art often meant using call-forwarding schemes or the like to automatically route the call from one location to another. Such systems usually required substantial user input to implement, a drawback in a typical office environment. Thus, it is desirable to utilize portable or cellular technology for persons within an office. In a typical office building, the addition of cellular telephones to the already-present land-based system, such as a Private Business Exchange (or "PBX") provides some mobile communication but is insufficient for effective communication. Generally, the portable telephones are tied to a base unit which integrates the RF communications of the cellular system with the public land-based telephone system and not directly with the business person's own PBX. Effectively, such a solution in an office environment yields two independent telephone systems not well tied into each other or coordinated in any way. Additionally, the external structure of the building housing the office may make impractical the transmission of typical cellular RF signals to and from conventional base stations.
A solution to the desire to permit workers to roam within a particular geographic space, such as an office building or a portion of an office building, yet permit such workers to continue to be reachable by the telephone system and to permit the workers to utilize the advantages of the telephone system is to integrate a wireless system with a PBX. With such an integration, incoming calls to workers can be directed by the wireless system to the worker wherever that person may be within the operating range of the system. At the same time, the roaming worker will be able to readily place telephone calls both within and without the office as readily as if sitting at his own desk on the hard-wired system. The roaming worker would also have the benefit of all of the features of the PBX (such as a personalized repertory dialer, special access to restricted circuits, etc.) no matter where the worker may be located within the office.
Desirably, a wireless-PBX system would include a portable telephone unit which is easy to use, lightweight and has an extended battery life. The latter two desires are somewhat at odds with each other inasmuch as battery life often has a direct relation to the size (and weight) of a battery. Accordingly, it is often important in the design of portable units that they be as power-efficient as possible.
Within prior art cellular systems it is known for a particular base station to have associated therewith one or more control channels and several or numerous voice channels. The control channels are used to communicate with the control portions of the portable units to coordinate the use of voice frequencies and to perform an analog of typical central office functions (e.g., dialing a number, ringing the portable unit, etc.). When all of the voice channels within a base station are being utilized, there may no longer be a need for a control channel as there are no more control tasks to be performed until one of the voice channels again becomes available. In such systems, it is desirable to not waste the non-functioning voice channel and an additional voice channel can be obtained to enlarge system capabilities over conventional systems with no additional hardware costs and no additional bandwidth being occupied by the system.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a novel system and method to integrate a wireless telephone system into a private branch exchange or similar office telephone system.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a novel system and method to utilize every available channel of a wireless system for voice (or data) messages.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a novel system and method for reducing power consumption within a portable unit without reducing capabilities of such a unit.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a novel system and method which can be installed in an office environment without extensive wiring and/or substantial programming.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a novel system and method of providing an integrated wireless-PBX telephone capability using housings which can be readily mounted on existing wall or ceiling surfaces of an office.
It is yet a further object of the present invention to provide a novel system and method of communicating in a wireless system in which base stations may readily be added to the system (or reset after a power outage) and brought on-line without extensive programming.
It is still a further object of the present invention to provide a novel system and method for accurately and efficiently communicating between plural wireless telephones and plural base stations.
These and many other objects and advantages of the present invention will be readily apparent to one skilled in the art to which the invention pertains from a perusal of the claims, the appended drawings, and the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments.

Multiple use wireless communications system and method


Among the genes identified, in a comparison of the global gene expression profile of metastatic colorectal cancer to that of primary cancers, benign colorectal tumors, and normal colorectal epithelium, the PRL-3 protein tyrosine phosphatase gene was of particular interest. It was expressed at high levels in each of 18 cancer metastases studied but at lower levels in non-metastatic tumors and normal colorectal epithelium. In three of twelve metastases examined, multiple copies of the PRL-3 gene were found within a small amplicon located at chromosome 8q24.3. These data suggest that the PRL-3 gene is important for colorectal cancer metastasis and provides a new therapeutic target for these intractable lesions.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to the field of cancer diagnostics and therapeutics. In particular it relates to a gene which appears to be significantly associated with the progression of cancer to more advanced stages, including metastasis.
2. Background of the Prior Art
Metastasis is the neoplastic process responsible for most deaths from cancer, as the primary tumors can usually be surgically removed. Metastatic cells cytoskeletal changes, loss of adhesion, enhanced motility, and express proteolytic enzymes that degrade the basement membrane (1-3). However, much remains to be learned about this lethal process and further progress is contingent upon identifying novel genes and pathways that are consistently and specifically altered in metastatic lesions.
In the case of colorectal tumorigenesis, the genes associated with initiation and progression to the invasive (cancerous) stage are well known (4). However, no gene has been shown to be consistently and specifically activated in liver metastases, the lesions that are usually responsible for the death of colorectal cancer patients. There is a continuing need in the art for targets which are consistently and specifically activated in metastatic cancers.


The invention is directed to compositions useful in methods for the treatment of coccidiosis. The compositions are designed to be administered to animals infected with coccidiosis-inducing organisms and contain an osmoprotectant, e.g. betaine, and an anticoccidial agent or coccidiostat.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to compositions, especially animal feeds, for treating coccidiosis in animals, such compositions containing an osmoprotectant, and especially, betaine, with or without coccidiostat. The compositions of the invention are also useful for the treatment of clinical or subclinical coccidiosis symptoms, including such symptoms that arise after vaccination against the disease.
2. Background of the Invention
Loses due to parasitic diseases are among the chief causes of economic loss to the livestock and poultry industry. The availability of antiparasitic treatments has enabled the development of higher levels of livestock and poultry production. Efficient and economic antiparasitic treatments also facilitate a worldwide supply of relatively cheap protein. Effective parasite prevention and control is especially important in the poultry industry, where the positive economic impact of antiparasitic prophylaxis, treatment and therapy is significant.
Coccidiosis is a common disease in domestic food animals, caused by protozoa belonging to the Eimeria family. Coccidiosis is found worldwide, and its economical impact, particularly on poultry farming, is huge. In the U.S. poultry industry alone, coccidiosis causes losses of 200-250 million dollars yearly. World-wide, coccidiosis is estimated to cause one third of all disease and mortality losses in the poultry industry (Trends in Veterinary Research and Development, part 6, Anti-coccidials, Lloyd-Evans, L. P. M. (ed.), PJB Publications Ltd., 1991).
Animals harboring coccidiosis infections may manifest severe or mild clinical symptoms or they may be entirely subclinical. The site of infection, i.e., tissue tropism, depends on the species of the parasite and the host. The majority of Eimeria and Isospora species infect the animal's intestinal epithelium. Severe infections are characterized by diarrhea, dehydration, emaciation and death. Mild and subclinical infections may manifest no overt clinical symptoms, but nevertheless the animals may suffer depressed growth, impaired feed conversion, loss of skin pigmentation and downgrading of the animal's assessed quality in terms of fitness for human consumption.
In chickens, typical clinical signs of coccidiosis include ill-thrift (lack of thriving), rapid loss of weight, diarrhea, and dysentery. The most serious effects take place in the intestine, where coccidia invade the mucosae and cause epithelial damage, lesions and hemorrhage. Physiologically, coccidiosis causes severe disturbances in the acid-base, ionic and osmotic balance of the gut, and decreases nutrient absorption (Ruff, Georgia Coccidiosis Conference, Nov. 19-21 (1986) pp. 169-183; Gwyther et al., Coccidia and Intestinal Coccidiomorphs, Vth International Conf., Oct. 17-20 (1989) pp. 279-284).
Since the 1950s, several dietary drugs (coccidiostats) have been developed to treat coccidiosis, but with only moderate success. The most serious drawbacks associated with the use of coccidiostats have been: 1) rapidly developing resistance of the parasites; 2) adverse effects on host animals; and 3) risk for residuals or quality defects in the consumer products. While the universal use of coccidiostats has decreased serious mortality outbreaks, subclinical effects of coccidiosis on animals markedly decrease productivity (Jeng & Edgar, Highlights of Agricultural Research--Alabama, Agricultural Experiment Station, v.28, p. 6 (1981)). Therefore, compositions and methods for decreasing the use of coccidiostats or increasing their efficacy are needed.
Many coccidiostats in common use kill parasites by breaking down their ionic and osmotic regulation. However, these drugs are not coccidia specific; they also alter the ionic and osmotic balance of the host and, consequently, may decrease nutrient absorption in the gut (Speight, 6th European Symposium on Poultry Nutrition, World's Poultry Science Assoc., Oct. 11-15 (1987), abstract 7A). As a result, the positive effect of coccidiostats on mortality may be offset by their detrimental side effects with regard to nutrient availability, growth and feed efficiency. Methods for protecting the animals against the detrimental side effects of the ionophoric coccidiostats are also needed.
Vaccination of animals has become an alternative, if not the preferred method for the treatment and prevention of parasitic diseases in animals. However, vaccination is not free of side effects. The most serious drawback of the vaccines, is that they tend to reduce the growth and feed efficiency of the animals, because the vaccine deliberately induces mild symptoms of the disease in the animal. This effect may last for a few weeks after the vaccine has been introduced. These side-effects negatively impact on the vaccinated animal's performance and thus also have an adverse economic impact.
Vaccines, especially, attenuated live vaccines are useful in the poultry industry for the inoculation of birds against coccidiosis. Live vaccines are also used, but are mostly limited to breeder flocks. Live vaccines are not considered suitable for broiler production because of the potential accumulation of live parasites in the litter.
In the use of vaccines against Eimeria parasites in poultry, the use of attenuated live anticoccidial vaccines has been limited to layers (egg-laying hens) and broilers that are grown to heavier weights. The use of these vaccines has been limited to chickens with longer growing periods because only these chickens have sufficient time to recover from the ill side-effects of the vaccine and thus are able to compensate for the vaccine-induced loss in growth. Therefore, methods for eliminating the side-effects of vaccination with coccidiosis vaccines are needed.
Betaine is an osmoprotectant. It increases the osmotic strength of cells without adversely affecting enzyme activity, and it protects enzymes from ionic or temperature inactivation (Nash et al., Aust. J. Plant Physiol. 9:47-57 (1982); Yancey et al., Science 224:1064-1069 (1982); Rudolph et al., Archives Biochem. Biophys. 245:134-143 (1986); McCue & Hanson, Trends in Biotechnology 8:358-362 (1990); Papageorgiou et al., Curr. Res. In Photosynthesis 1:957-960 (1990)). While some organisms (and tissues) can accumulate betaine in high quantities under osmotic stress through osmotically induced betaine synthesis, most animals lack this capability, and are dependent upon the intake of exogenous betaine. For example, isolated salmon liver mitochondria, when exposed to osmotic stress, show increased betaine intake, but not synthesis (Bjorkoy, G., Synthesis and Accumulation of glycine betaine in Salmon (Salmo salar) and a Mussel, MSc thesis, Norwegian College of Fisheries, University of Tromso, pp. 94).
Betaine has mainly been studied for its ability to act as a methyl donor in transmethylation reactions (Stekol et al., J. Biol. Chem. 203:763-773 (1953)) and for its ability to transfer methyl groups to homocysteine to produce methionine Harper, H. A., in: Review of Physiological Chemistry, Appleton & Lange, Publ., Los Altos, Calif., pp. 120 and 351 (1973)). Although betaine's chemical osmoprotective properties were known prior to the present invention, it was not appreciated that betaine or other osmoprotectants might be useful, in vivo, in alleviating the undesirable side effects associated with coccidiosis infection. In addition, it was not previously recognized that osmoprotectants, and especially betaine, plus a coccidiostat can act favorably together, even synergistically, to improve the commercial performance of domestic food animals suffering from coccidiosis.


A compact zoom lens system includes, from the object side to the image side, a negative first lens group (1), a positive second lens group (2), a positive third lens group (3) and a positive fourth lens group (4). The first lens group is stationary, and both the second and third lens groups are movable for effecting focal length change. The fourth lens group is also movable to compensate for image plane shift due to focal length change and thereby maintain the position of the image plane. The compact zoom lens system has a significantly reduced lens count and thus has an overall length of only 20 mm while achieving an approximately 3× zoom ratio. Sufficient back focal length is ensured even for such a short overall length. By employing aspheric lenses (10, 20, 301, 31, 41) for aberration correction, a high level of optical performance can be ensured.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a zoom lens system, and particularly relates to a compact zoom lens system capable of taking both telephoto and wide angle shots, of which the overall length is fixed and shortened for use in a camera phone, a compact digital camera, etc.
2. Description of Prior Art
It is well known that, due to the limited space, photographing lenses used in camera phones and compact digital cameras have dimensions much smaller than those in photographic cameras, video cameras and common digital cameras. Accordingly, camera phones and compact digital cameras generally employ fixed focal length lenses, which are disclosed in, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,650,486.
Recently, with the rapid development of the solid state image pickup device used in cameras, such as a CCD (Charge-Coupled Device) sensor or a CMOS (Complimentary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor) sensor, image resolutions for camera phones have been increased from 0.1 million pixels, 0.35 million pixels to 1.3 million pixels and even 2 million pixels. However, since the focal length of a fixed lens is fixed rather than adjustable, the angle of view that the picture takes in is also set. Thus, the photo taker has to move closer or further to the object to be photographed or change lenses. In the former case, it may not be possible to get noticeably closer. Accordingly, it is very inconvenient for the photo taker to use a fixed lens for photography. In addition, when digital zoom is applied, the resulting image will be degraded. As is well known, the main disadvantage of digital zoom is that the more that the photo taker zooms in with the digital zoom, the greater the enlargement and the lower the image quality. Therefore, currently, optical zoom using a number of lenses is still more preferred.
Various designs of optical zoom lenses have been proposed. U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,191,896 and 6,233,099 assigned to Canon disclosed a four-group zoom lens system having, from the object side thereof, a negative-positive-negative-positive refractive power configuration. During zooming, all the lens groups move along the optical axis in such a manner that the distance between every two-lens groups is changed. US Patent Application Serial No. 20030012567 discloses a three-group zoom lens system having, from the object side thereof, a negative-positive-positive refractive power configuration. Zooming is effected by varying the distance between the first and second lens groups, and the third lens group is not moved during zooming. However, during focusing and zooming, the overall length of each of the conventional zoom lenses as described above is changed. When the position of the first lens group varies upon zooming, working distance and the focusing position varies in the close-up focusing range, so it is not so easy to handle and use. Further, each of the above conventional zoom lens system is composed of at least six single lenses, and thus is difficult to incorporate into a mobile phone with a thickness generally less than 20 mm. Also, the production cost and weight are increased, thereby contradicting the compactness trend. Even the above conventional zoom lens system is incorporated into the mobile phone, accident impact on or damage to the zoom lens system may be caused during operation since the overall length varies during focusing and zooming. In addition, since the front lens barrel is rotated during focusing, it is inconvenient for the photo taker to use a circular polarizing filter and Petal-type hood.
It is reported that, Philips Research has demonstrated a unique liquid zoom lens system that alters its focal length by changing its shape. The Philips liquid lens consists of two immiscible (non-mixing) fluids of different refractive index, one an electrically conducting aqueous solution and the other an electrically non-conducting oil, contained in a short tube with transparent end caps. Without an electrical charge, the surface of the conducting liquid forms a curve. But when a charge is applied through the electrodes, the surface tension of the liquid changes, altering its curvature and thus the focal point of light passing through it. Different voltages produce different curvature changes. However, the operational durability, the optical performance and the lifespan of this unique zoom lens system remain to be further tested. Therefore, its rapid introduction into high-volume manufacturing cannot be expected.


Methods and systems for tracking signals with diverse polarization properties address both sensitivity and antenna tracking performance issues. In one embodiment, complex weightings for matching a polarization of an incident signal on a data channel are determined, and the complex weightings are applied to a tracking channel such that an antenna system polarization is matched to the polarization of the incident signal. In another embodiment, orthogonally polarized tracking channel components of an incident signal are processed to make a determination as to which of the orthogonally polarized tracking channel components is stronger, and this determination is used to select a polarization of a data channel to reduce a polarization mismatch loss.

Radio frequency signals received by antennas have polarization properties that characterize the orientation of the incident electric fields. Communication systems antennas are generally designed to receive radio frequency signals having a specified polarization. However, in practice, incident fields matching the design polarization for a given antenna are not always received. If the polarization of the incident field approximates the polarization of the antenna, most of the signal power is received by the antenna, and the difference between the ideal and actual polarization is characterized by "polarization loss."
When such communication systems require narrow beamwidth antennas for signal reception, the antennas must be accurately pointed at the received signal source to receive the maximum signal power. High gain antennas having a narrow beamwidth commonly use monopulse designs that can align the position of the antenna with the signal to receive the maximum available power; the deviation between ideal and actual antenna pointing is referred to as "pointing loss."
Closed loop monopulse tracking systems operate by processing two types of antenna patterns. The first is a sum pattern that has its maximum gain when aligned with the signal and is used for data reception. The second is a difference pattern where a pattern null exists on the axis of the sum beam. The ratio of the difference and sum beams has a linear variation for deviations from the antenna axis, and this linear deviation is used to configure a control system that automatically maintains antenna alignment with the signal as the relative positions of the antenna and signal direction vary.
In operation, the antenna control system treats the difference beam output as an error signal. Minimizing this error signal aligns the null of the difference pattern with the signal direction. By design, the peak of the sum beam for the data reception is coincident with the null of the difference beam. Thus, the antenna alignment with the null of the difference beam also aligns the peak of the sum beam used for data reception. Because the control system continuously monitors the error signal, the antenna follows the movement in the signal direction. These sum and difference patterns are commonly obtained by two different antenna feed designs. One design surrounds the central feed horn for data reception with smaller tracking elements that are sampled for the difference beam. Another design is a multi-mode horn where the dominant mode provides the sum beam and higher order modes provide the difference beam.
While such antenna tracking techniques perform very well when the incident signals have the design polarization characteristics, performance degrades when the incident polarization is cross-polarized with the design polarization. By way of example, for telemetry antennas on spacecraft, cross-polarized signals can result from antenna interactions with the surrounding spacecraft. Also by way of example, for ground tracking stations supporting launch operations, cross polarization can result from interactions with the launch vehicle and plume effects.
The cross polarized signal can result in unstable tracking performance and the antenna failing to track the desired signal. The reason for this loss of tracking lies with the cross-polarized antenna response.
When the antenna receives a cross polarized signal, the difference over sum ratio of the tracking output of the antenna no longer has the desired linear variation as the antenna position deviates from the antenna beam axis. Thus, the control system for antenna pointing does not have the assumed linear variation with antenna displacements from the axis. Instead of the desired linear deviation of the error signal as the antenna moves from its desired axial position, the cross polarized response has a peak value on axis, the "zero error condition" is double valued at positions displaced from the axis, and the slope of the response is opposite the desired slope driving the antenna away from axis.
FIG. 6 shows a difference pattern for an example principal polarization response. As shown, the zero error condition occurs on-axis with positive and negative excursions as the antenna deviated from axis. Measured data also presents a well-behaved angular step response; likewise the angular ramp response which scans the antenna back and forth about the axis follows the linear deviation of the difference pattern.
FIG. 7 shows a difference pattern for an example cross polarization response. In contrast with the difference pattern of FIG. 6, the zero error point is not on axis but rather off-axis at a level about 10 dB down from the beam peak. Worse yet, the slope of the difference pattern on the left side is opposite that of the principal polarization and instead of driving the antenna toward the axis drives the antenna away from the axis. This behavior has also been observed in measured data. The step response indicates the unstable behavior of the antenna. The ramp response, unlike that of the principal polarization, does not have any indication of the linear variation on which the control system is predicated. The antenna response during the measurements is basically a coning motion corresponding to the zero error value being at the 10 dB below beam peak level and the instability is exhibited in both the azimuth and elevation channels. In operation, as the antenna continues to search, it encounters the wrong slope and drives the antenna away from the signal. Thus, the antenna response is unstable when tracking the cross polarized signal.
For the data channel, diversity-combining techniques exist to maximize the received signal level. And for the tracking, two orthogonally polarized signals can be used with independent tracking receivers. Such an approach, however, requires the selection of the appropriate signal polarization and since either orthogonal polarization is not matched to the incident signal, loss of signal power occurs.
In summary, tracking performance is degraded by polarization mismatch loss, and antenna tracking can become very unstable when the received signal is predominately cross-polarized. Conventional antenna control systems expect an output from the tracking (difference) beam that linearly increases in amplitude with deviations from the boresight axis of the antenna. This linear increase in amplitude with deviation from the boresight axis is the pattern behavior in the null of the difference beam. Cross-polarized signals do not have this expected linear response resulting in unstable tracking behavior.
Two problems therefore are faced when the received signals have mixed and time-varying polarization properties. The first problem is the signal reduction that results from polarization mismatch, which in turn, results in a reduction in system sensitivity. The second problem is the degradation in antenna tracking performance and possible loss of antenna tracking resulting from the unstable behavior. It would be desirable to be able to provide a method that avoids or lessens this unstable operation and results in antenna tracking that is insensitive to the polarization of received signals.


A rear support pillar is configured by combining plural plate members extending in the longitudinal direction of the support pillar to define a closed section. An end face of one of plate members adjacent to each other in the closed section is abutted against an inner surface of the other plate member and in this state the abutted portion of the plate members is fillet-welded throughout the overall length of each plate member.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cab of a working machine such as a hydraulic excavator.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, a cab of a working machine encloses an operator's seat to protect the same seat. More particularly, the cap is provided with plural support pillars erected around the operator's seat.
There is such a support pillar wherein a closed section is formed by combining a plurality of pressed plates. In this type of support pillar, allowances for welding formed in a longitudinal direction of the constituent plates are brought into surface-contact with each other and are spot-welded intermittently in the longitudinal direction.
In such a support pillar, however, the thickness of each constituent plate cannot be set to a larger value than the thickness which permits the press working. Thus, a limit is encountered in point of the pillar strength. Further, since the constituent plates of this support pillar are joined intermittently in the longitudinal direction, joining strength between plates is weak.
In view of this point there is known a technique which adopts a pipe member as a portion of support pillars, as is disclosed for example in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Nos. 2004-42739 and 2004-42740. According to this technique, since the support pillar formed using the pipe member is of a single pipe member unlike the combination of plates having been subjected to press working, the anxiety about the joining strength is mitigated.
However, in the manufacturing process for the pipe member when adopted, it has so far been difficult to attain required sectional shape and sectional area.
Particularly, in the case of a support pillar as a frame of a working machine, it is desired to set a sectional shape so as to satisfy the strength and shape required for example in accordance with the place where the pillar is to be erected. However, providing the pipe member having a section which satisfies such a condition for each type of a working machine has so far been difficult in fact in point of cost and equipment.

Kobelco Construction Machinery Co., Ltd.


To provide an EUV mask blank which has an absorber layer having such a structure that the phase difference between a reflective layer and the absorber layer is in the vicinity of 180°, and the change of the phase difference between the reflective layer and the absorber layer is small to the film thick change of the absorber layer, and of which the absorber layer can be expected to be further thinner than a conventional absorber layer.

Heretofore, in the semiconductor industry, a photolithography method employing visible light or ultraviolet light has been used as a technique to transfer a fine pattern required to form an integrated circuit with a fine pattern on e.g. a Si substrate. However, the conventional photolithography method has come close to its limit, while miniaturization of semiconductor devices is being accelerated. In the case of the photolithography method, the resolution limit of a pattern is about ½ of the exposure wavelength. Even if an immersion method is employed, the resolution limit is said to be about ¼ of the exposure wavelength, and even if an immersion method of ArF laser (wavelength: 193 nm) is employed, about 45 nm is presumed to be the limit. Under the circumstances, as an exposure technique for the next generation employing an exposure wavelength shorter than 45 nm, EUV lithography is expected to be prospective, which is an exposure technique employing EUV light having a wavelength further shorter than ArF laser (hereinafter referred to as "EUV light"). In this specification, EUV light is meant for a light ray having a wavelength within a soft X-ray region or within a vacuum ultraviolet region, specifically for a light ray having a wavelength of from about 10 to 20 nm, particularly about 13.5 nm±0.3 nm.
EUV light is likely to be absorbed by all kinds of substances, and the refractive index of substances at such a wavelength is close to 1, whereby it is not possible to use a conventional dioptric system like photolithography employing visible light or ultraviolet light. Therefore, in EUV lithography, a catoptric system, i.e. a combination of an EUV mask and a mirror, is employed.
A mask blank is a stacked member before forming a mask pattern on a photomask. In the case of an EUV mask blank, it has a structure wherein a reflective layer to reflect EUV light and an absorber layer to absorb EUV light, are formed in this order on a substrate made of e.g. glass (Patent Document 1). For the absorber layer, a material having a high absorption coefficient to EUV light, specifically e.g. a material containing Ta as the main component, is used.
Patent Document 1 discloses that a nitride of a tantalum boron alloy (TaBN), an oxide of a tantalum boron alloy (TaBO) and an oxynitride of a tantalum boron alloy (TaBNO) are preferred as the material of the absorber layer since they have a high absorption coefficient to EUV light and further have a low reflectivity to deep ultraviolet light in the wavelength region (about from 190 nm to 260 nm) of pattern inspection light.
In recent years, in an EUV mask blank, the absorber layer is required to be thin. In EUV lithography, the exposure light is applied from a direction at an angle of several degrees, usually 6°, to the vertical direction to the EUV mask, not from the vertical direction. On that occasion, if the absorber layer is thick, at the time of EUV lithography, a shadow may be formed by exposure light on a mask pattern formed by removing a part of the absorber layer by etching, and the shadow is likely to impair the shape precision and the dimensional precision of a mask pattern to be transferred to a resist on a substrate such as a Si wafer using the EUV mask (hereinafter referred to as "transfer pattern"). This problem is more remarkable as the line width of a mask pattern formed on an EUV mask is thinner, and accordingly it is required to make the absorber layer of an EUV mask blank thinner.
As mentioned above, for an absorber layer of an EUV mask blank, a material having a high absorption coefficient to EUV light is used, and its film thickness is ideally such a thickness that when EUV light is applied to the surface of the absorber layer, all the applied EUV light is absorbed in the absorber layer. However, as mentioned above, since the absorber layer is required to be thin, not all the applied EUV light can be absorbed in the absorber layer, and a part thereof becomes reflected light.
What is required when a transfer pattern is formed on a resist of a substrate by EUV lithography using an EUV mask is the contrast of reflected light in the EUV wavelength region (hereinafter referred to as "EUV reflected light"), that is, the contrast between EUV reflected light from a portion where the absorber layer is removed at the time of mask pattern formation and the reflective layer is exposed, and EUV reflected light from a portion where the absorber layer is not removed at the time of mask pattern formation. Accordingly, it has been considered that so long as the contrast of EUV reflected light is sufficiently secured, there is no problem even if not all the applied EUV light is absorbed in the absorber layer.
Based on the above concept, in order to make the absorber layer thinner, an EUV mask utilizing the principle of phase shift has been proposed (Patent Document 2). This is characterized in that the reflectivity to EUV reflected light from a portion where the absorber layer was not removed at the time of mask pattern formation is from 3 to 15%, and the phase difference with EUV reflected light from a portion where the absorber layer was removed at the time of mask pattern formation and the reflective layer is exposed is from 175 to 185°. It is disclosed that such an EUV mask can maintain a sufficient contrast with the reflective layer to EUV reflected light from the absorber layer utilizing the principle of phase shift, and accordingly the absorber layer can be made thin.

Reflective mask blank for EUV lithography

Abstract: A reflective mask blank for EUV lithography, comprising a substrate, and a reflective layer for reflecting EUV light and an absorber layer for absorbing EUV light formed in this order on the substrate,                wherein the absorber layer consists of a layer (upper layer) on the surface side and a layer (lower layer) on the substrate side,        one of the upper layer and the lower layer of the absorber layer is a Cr film containing chromium (Cr) as the main component and containing at least one of oxygen (O) and nitrogen (N),        the other is a TaPd film containing tantalum (Ta) and palladium (Pd) as the main components and containing at least one of oxygen (O) and nitrogen (N), and        the absorber layer satisfies the following conditions (1) to (5):        (1) the total film thickness (L) of the absorber layer is at least 30 nm and at most 45 nm;        (2) the film thickness of the TaPd film is at least 8 nm and at most 36 nm;        (3) the peak reflectivity of the surface of the absorber layer to EUV light is at least 5% and at most 12%;        (4) the phase difference (φ) between EUV reflected light on the surface of the reflective layer and EUV reflected light on the surface of the absorber layer, is within a range of 180°±10°; and        (5) the gradient (Δφ/ΔL) of the change (Δφ) of the above phase difference (φ) to the change (ΔL) of the total film thickness (L) of the absorber layer is at most 15 deg/nm.


A necktie is preformed with a knot or knot like section which is adapted to be attached to the collar of a shirt by a fastening means that can be separated from the necktie body and can be attached to the shirt collar to cause the necktie to be suspended. Such an entirely new type of necktie can be used by one irrespective of age and sex.

A necktie as a male's accessory that displays an expression of such as its wearer's taste, character, social status or emotion is an extremely important ware that has been used since the early nineteenth century. However, fitting or tying a necktie is hard if it is inexperienced. In addition, oppression around the neck area during its fitting restrains emission of the body heat and at the same time detriments flow of the blood, causing some to get the stiffness in the shoulders, and its improvements have thus come to be desired. Also, the knot in the conventional necktie when tied and its wider flap section beneath the knot are discontinuous in pattern and design, marring its appearance.
Accordingly, in order to facilitate fitting there has hitherto been proposed a necktie 1 as shown in FIG. 1 as Example 1 which is preformed with a knot 2 having a shape into which it is tied. A string 3 is passed through the knot 2 in the form of a circle and is hung around the neck and its one end 3a is pulled to tighten the circle. However, this prior art does not eliminate oppression around the neck area in fitting either and, if the end 3a of the string 3 is pulled intensively, even a suffocation may be brought about. Also, with a narrower flap section of the necktie tied in a layer on the collar of a shirt, the body heat is hard to escape so that it is stifling especially in the summer season. There are further the shortcomings that having a specialized maker form the knot 2 raises the manufacturing cost and that the knot 2 soiled most easily with sweat tends to absorb much water when washed and then is hard to dry and tends to lose its shape.
There has also been proposed a necktie 1 as shown in FIG. 2 as Example 2 which to facilitate its fitting is preformed with a knot 2 having a shape into which it is tied, the knot 2 including a nipping hook (snap fitting) 4 that is nipped on the collar of a shirt to fasten the knot thereto. While this prior art is designed to eliminate the oppression around the neck area during fitting, the first button of a shirt need necessarily be then fastened and, thought it is simple to fit, considerable force is required to detach. Further, direct contact of a hook section of the nipping hook 4 with the skin easily brings bout an allergic reaction. Here again, there are further the weak points that having a specialized maker form the knot 2 raises the manufacturing cost and that the knot 2 soiled most easily with sweat tends to absorb much water when washed and then is hard to dry and tends to lose its shape.
Furthermore, both the neckties mentioned above which have been machined into the shape in which they are tied cannot be returned to the state of a normal necktie. Also, with the knot made in a complicated way of tying, the problem of pattern discontinuity has been met in both types of neckties, impairing their appearances.
[Patent Literature 1] JP P 2002-317321 A
[Patent Literature 2] JP UM 3,012,134 A

Abstract: Use of the fastening means makes fitting easy and makes nil the sense of oppression around the neck area. Only a minor change made to an ordinary necktie allows this new necktie to be manufactured inexpensively and to be washed while retaining its shape. A necktie is thus provided that can be returned easily to the state of an ordinary necktie and that is not different in appearance from an ordinary necktie.


A method can include forming a contact trench in a semiconductor structure so that the contact trench extends to a contact formation, the forming including using a hardmask layer, and filling the contact trench with a sacrificial material layer, the sacrificial material layer formed over the contact formation. A semiconductor structure can include a sacrificial material layer over a contact formation.

A gate of a semiconductor structure can include gate spacers having gate sidewalls, a gate dielectric layer and gate work function conductive material. According to a known approach for fabrication of a gate contact structure, a dielectric layer can be formed over the gate. A gate contact trench can be formed that extends through the dielectric layer. A gate contact formation can be formed in the gate contact trench. The gate contact formation can span a vertical spacing distance from a top elevation of the conductive gate work function material to a top elevation of the dielectric layer.
A semiconductor structure can include source-drain areas that together with the gate can define a transistor. A dielectric layer, e.g. Middle of Line (MOL) layer can be formed over the associated source-drain areas. Source-drain contact trenches can be formed in the dielectric layer and a contact formation can be a formed in the source-drain contact trenches.

Method to protect MOL metallization from hardmask strip process


Systems and methods of performing data transmission and reception in a communication system are presented. In one exemplary embodiment, a method performed by a wireless device for transmitting a signal in a first communication system that is frequency-domain multiplexed with a second communication system may include generating (201), by a modulator (401), a modulated signal that represents one or more information symbols. The modulated signal may include one or more modulation symbols of the first communication system. The method may also include filtering (203), by a pulse shaping filter (403), the modulated signal to obtain the filtered modulated signal. The pulse shaping filter (403) may be configured to operate with a period that corresponds to the symbol rate of the second communication system. In addition, the method may include transmitting (209), by a transmitter (409), the filtered modulated signal at a carrier or sub-carrier frequency of the first communication system.

Machine-type communications (MTC) or machine-to-machine (M2M) communications envisions that everything that benefits being connected will be connected, which is also referred to as the Internet of Things (IoT). MTC/M2M communications offer a growth opportunity for the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) ecosystem and also a new revenue generation for mobile operators. In order to support IoT, the 3GPP community/operators have to address usage scenarios with devices that may be connected in challenging coverage conditions, e.g., indoor and basements. Moreover, MTC devices are expected to be energy efficient (e.g., battery life of ten years), and have low cost such that they may be deployed in massive scale. An enhanced coverage improvement target of fifteen to twenty decibels (15-20 dB) is required to support MTC devices that are deployed in challenging locations, e.g. deep inside buildings, and to compensate for signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) loss due to complexity reduction techniques.
The Networked Society and Internet of Things (IoT) is associated with new requirements for cellular networks such as with respect to device cost, battery lifetime and coverage. To reduce device and module cost, a system-on-a-chip (SoC) solution with integrated power amplifier (PA) is desirable. However, the current state-of-the-art of PA technology only allows about twenty to twenty-three decibel-milliwatts (20-23 dBm) transmit power when the PA is integrated in the SoC. This constraint limits uplink coverage from a user terminal to a serving base station. To improve this uplink coverage using a PA integrated in an SoC, it is necessary to avoid PA backoff. PA backoff is needed when the communication signal has a non-unity peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR). The higher the PAPR, the higher the PA backoff. Higher PA backoff also reduces PA efficiency, resulting in increased power consumption by the PA. Thus, for wireless IoT technologies, designing an uplink communication signal that has a lower PAPR is important for achieving the performance objectives concerning device cost, battery lifetime and coverage.
Currently, 3rd Generational Partnership Project (3GPP) is working on extending the Long Term Evolution (LTE) standard to better support IoT applications. 3GPP is standardizing Narrow-band IoT (NB IoT) technologies that may be deployed using one hundred and eighty kilohertz (180 kHz) system bandwidth, such as described by 3GPP RP-151621, New Work Item: Narrowband IOT (NB-IOT), Qualcomm, September 2015, Phoenix, Ariz. NB IoT is required to support three different modes of operation: stand-alone operation, guard-band operation and in-band operation. The stand-alone operation utilized, for example, the spectrum currently being used by GSM/EDGE systems as a replacement for one or more GSM carriers. The guard-band operation utilizes the unused resource blocks within a guard band of an LTE carrier. The in-band operation utilizes resource blocks within a normal LTE carrier. A leading candidate solution for NB IoT is an LTE-based NB-LTE solution. For this solution, the LTE uplink is based on single-carrier frequency-division multiple-access (SC-FDMA) modulation for uplink data and control channels. SC-FDMA requires certain accuracy of timing advancement to preserve orthogonality between UEs.
In LTE, an uplink random access procedure is used by user equipment (UE) to access an LTE network. The random access signal also allows the base station to estimate the timing advance needed so that the subsequent signals transmitted by a UE, e.g. Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) signals, may arrive at the base station within the cyclic prefix interval (CP). By doing so, orthogonality among uplink modulation signals is maintained, thanks to the Single-Carrier Frequency-Division Multiple-Access (SC-FDMA) scheme employed in LTE. However, a poor timing advance estimate may result in the loss of orthogonality among the uplink modulation signals and degraded PUSCH performance.
The performance objectives of NB IoT include ultra-low module cost, twenty decibels (20 dB) coverage extension, and ten-year battery lifetime. To achieve these objectives, it is desirable to make the PAPR as close to zero decibels (0 dB) as possible, especially for UEs that are in poor coverage areas. One solution to achieve close to zero decibels (0 dB) PAPR for the random access signal is to use a frequency-hopping, phase-continuous single subcarrier signal. However, such a random access signal may result in a poor timing advance estimate at the base station due to its narrow signal bandwidth characteristics. For example, the error in a timing advance estimate may be as large as thirty microseconds (30 μsec.), which exceeds the LTE normal CP of 4.7 μs. The sub-carrier spacing of NB-LTE may be scaled down from a fifteen kilohertz (15 kHz) subcarrier spacing for an uplink shared channel in LTE to 2.5 kHz subcarrier spacing, such as described by 3GPP R1-156010, NB-LTE—General L1 concept description, Ericsson. In this example, scaling down the subcarrier spacing by a factor of six compared to LTE provides a six times increase in CP, which helps cope with poor timing accuracy. However, using 2.5 kHz subcarrier spacing for NB IoT may introduce a coexistence problem with LTE for the aforementioned in-band and guard-band operations. Although, using 2.5 kHz subcarrier spacing with a longer CP helps preserve orthogonality between NB IoT UEs when the timing advance accuracy is poor, it does not preserve orthogonality with UEs using neighboring LTE physical resource blocks (PRBs).
Multi-user multicarrier systems which allow a mixture of broadband devices and narrowband IoT devices have been recently proposed in the 3GPP and Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) standard setting organizations. These systems are highly flexible in order to accommodate various requirements (e.g. throughput, latency, etc.) of a multitude of devices that may need to share the spectrum of the corresponding system. For example, IoT devices (e.g. a sensor) and broadband devices (e.g. a personal computer) have different requirements regarding battery consumption and throughput.
Many IoT devices will be battery operated (e.g., powered by a coin cell battery) and are intended to have long lifetimes, up to several years. Extended coverage is another common requirement for IoT devices, since many devices such as utility meters may be located in places where the penetration loss is high. For these reasons, power efficient modulation is desirable, especially when used at the IoT device transmitter. In particular, the use of constant envelope modulation is advantageous in IoT applications.
In order to tackle energy efficiency and coverage extension problems, NB-IoT proposes the use of a single sub-carrier. Such use achieves constant envelope modulation, and allows boosting of the power for the single tone used. A single carrier, linear modulator may be used to modulate a signal on a single sub-carrier such as described in FIG. 9. In FIG. 9, information bits are mapped to complex-valued constellation symbols (ak) that are modulated by an impulse train
  (            ∑      n                  δ                    (                  t          -                      n                        τ                          )              )to obtain a modulated signal
                    x                          (          t          )                    =                        ∑          k                                              a            k                                          p                                      (                              t                -                                  k                                                                                τ                                            )                                            )    .A pulse shaping filter (p(⋅)) filters the modulated signal to obtain a single carrier, linearly modulated signal. The pulse shaping filter (p(⋅)) determines the bandwidth of the modulated signal and, more generally, its spectral characteristics. The symbol period determines the rate at which the information bearing constellation symbols are transmitted.
Broadband devices on a multi-user multicarrier system may use an OFDM transmitter and/or receiver such as described in FIGS. 10 and 11, respectively. The subcarrier spacing Δf is a basic OFDM system parameter. The total number of subcarriers is N, but not necessarily all the subcarriers are used. The numbers 0≤k0<k1< . . . <kM-1≤N−1 are the subcarrier numbers, which determine the center of frequency of each subcarrier. The code bits are mapped to complex-valued constellation symbols (bkm)m=0M-1, usually called frequency domain symbols. Both the transmitter and receiver are commonly implemented digitally using a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT).
There have been contributions to the IEEE 802.11ax task group proposing to include the use of single carrier modulation with constant envelope and, in particular, the use of single carrier signals that are orthogonal to OFDM signals. IEEE is currently finalizing the 802.11ax amendment to the 802.11 standard. This technology is primarily intended for broadband devices. It focuses on high efficiency and introduces the use of Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA). On the other hand, there is a realization in the Wi-Fi community that it would be useful to multiplex narrowband IoT devices together with other devices in the 2.4 GHz and five (5) GHz ISM frequency bands. Thus, there are proposals to enhance the scope of IEEE 802.11ax to handle IoT devices, allowing for multi-mode base station subsystems (BSSs). As is common in IEEE, re-use of existing technology components and low complexity receivers are encouraged. Also, the data rates for the IoT devices are not expected to be too low, as relatively high data rates are seen as a competitive advantage with respect to other IoT technologies such as Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE).
Accordingly, there is a need for improved techniques for performing data transmission and reception in a communication system such as an NB-IoT system. In addition, other desirable features and characteristics of the present disclosure will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description and embodiments, taken in conjunction with the accompanying figures and the foregoing technical field and background.
The Background section of this document is provided to place embodiments of the present disclosure in technological and operational context, to assist those of skill in the art in understanding their scope and utility. Unless explicitly identified as such, no statement herein is admitted to be prior art merely by its inclusion in the Background section.


A capacitor having a dielectric consisting of a glass layer with an alkali metal oxide content of at most 2 wt % and a thickness of at most 50 μm is provided. The capacitor includes at least two metal layers which are separated by the glass layer. The glass layer is preferably produced by a down-draw method or by an overflow down-draw fusion method.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a capacitor having a glass dielectric and to a method for the production thereof.
2. Description of Related Art
The constantly increasing need to store energy for times from microseconds to days with a large amount of electrical energy is necessitating materials having special dielectric properties.
Polypropylene film capacitors are generally used as high-power capacitors in the prior art. They can be rolled, and the dielectric—polypropylene—can be produced in the form of a very thin film. However, the dielectric breakdown voltage of approximately 1 MV/cm limits the density with which energy can be stored.
Electrolyte capacitors can also be brought to very high storage densities. For instance, Jeol in Japan has reported double-layer electrolyte capacitors with storage densities of the order of 20 Wh/l (JP 11288852 A2).
Such electrolytes, however, are in general chemically reactive and environmentally harmful, and in some cases may even be explosive.
Ceramic capacitors are furthermore known which use ceramics as dielectric, for example capacitors comprising ferroelectric phases. However, the residual porosity of ceramics limits their dielectric breakdown field strength.
Batteries, for instance lithium ion batteries, currently give the greatest storage density of up to 800 Wh/l. Batteries, however, have a limited lifetime and, in contrast to capacitors, have charging times of up to several hours.
Glasses as dielectric for capacitors are furthermore known in the prior art. Glass capacitors have been described since the 1940s. They are widely used in electronic applications for satellites and space flight, and can work in very aggressive environmental conditions. It is also known that the dielectric breakdown field strength of glasses is generally greater than that of the corresponding crystal systems. A. Hippel, R. J. Maurer, Phys. Rev., 59, 820 (1941) describe this phenomenon by comparing the breakdown field strength of quartz glass with quartz crystal. The authors indicate a breakdown field strength of the order of 7 MV/cm for quartz glass.
However, the production of capacitors from quartz glass would be an extraordinarily expensive and time-consuming process.


The invention relates to a barbecue with a flat barbecue food carrier swiveling by means of a motor and a lifting and/or lowering device for changing the spacing of the barbecue food carrier from a heating device at least while turning the barbecue food carrier, with a combined turning as well as lifting device consisting of a lifting arm and swivel arms swiveling by means of a drive being provided, which are connected with the barbecue food carrier, the fulcrums of the swivel and lifting arms being spaced from each other in favor of a swiveling and rotary movement of the barbecue food carrier with simultaneous movement of the lifting and swivel arms, the lifting and swivel arms being provided with guide elements engaged with each other for at least part of the path of motion of the lifting and swivel arms in foavour of the force guidance of the swivel arm.

The invention relates to a barbecue.
In the case of the known barbecues which, for instance, are heated with charcoal, the barbecue food such as sausages, pork chops and the like is turned manually on the cooking grill in order to achieve uniform cooking of the barbecue food. Particularly when too much barbecue food is on the cooking grill, this can be extremely time-consuming and, moreover, it is annoying for the person attending the barbecue to be subjected to the clouds of smoke produced.
It is also well-known that, in order to achieve uniform turning of the barbecue food, a spit is used which can be turned automatically. Such a spit should, for instance, be used for large roasts and the like, but not for small sausages and, especially, not flat barbecue food such as pork chops and the like. This barbecue food requires a flat barbecue food carrier to permit cooking of a large number of smaller barbecue food items simultaneously, or for flat barbecue food such as steaks and the like, and appliances permitting flat barbecue food carriers to be designed suitable for turning, on the one hand, and to remove the barbecue food carrier while turning from the heating device so as to prevent the cooking grill from butting in front of the heating device upon turning of the large area cooking grill, on the other, already form part of the state of the art. After completion of turning the barbecue food carrier is again brought near the heating device in order to achieve a, preferably, full utilization of the heat onto the barbecue food.
A corresponding barbecue is known, for instance, from the generic DE-OS 1 454 157 as well as from DE-GM 75 36 710.
The disadvantage of the barbecue known from DE-OS 1 454 157 lies in the fact that the device for turning and lifting or lowering, respectively, has been designed at great expense, thus making it cost-intensive in manufacture on the one hand, and liable to breakdowns, on the other.


A well completion system for a side valve tree that has a precision cut low profile helix that can be used in completing a wellbore where the bore is substantially curved is provided. The well completion system has a typical spool body assembly having an inside surface defining a vertical bore extending therethrough and having at least a lateral production fluid outlet port. The spool body assembly has a helix is positioned at the lower end. The helix has a tubular member having a generally cylindrical outer surface defining an outer diameter and a generally cylindrical inner surface defining an inner diameter, an upper end and a lower end. The tubular member has an organ pipe-shaped cut in the upper end so that the upper end is generally elliptically shaped to form a pair of arcuate ramps which meet at an apex at the upper end and at a longitudinally extending slot near the lower end and a means for attaching the helix to the spool body assembly. An orientation key on the tubing hanger is precision machined to match the profile of the helix.

This invention relates to completing subsea wellheads.
Christmas trees having a horizontal production outlet offer several advantages for the production of oil and gas from subsea wellheads and have been in commercial use now for about 10 years. However, difficulties still arise from time to time in the use of such trees in orienting the tubing hanger so that the horizontal outlet in the tubing hanger is in alignment with the horizontal outlet though the body of the christmas tree. It will be appreciated that such problems typically arise far beneath the ocean's surface, where human intervention or even diagnosis is difficult.
Horizontal drilling techniques have advanced rapidly during the same period and have exacerbated the problem. Where the subsea well has a deviated wellbore, a great deal of force is required to twist the tubing hanger in the body of the christmas tree to bring the outlets into alignment, because the production tubing depending from the tubing hanger must undergo bending and twisting against the curvature of the wellbore and frictional contact between the production tubing and the casing tubing downhole in order for the tubing hanger to be rotated.
A mechanism commonly used to provide the required rotational force is a helix ramp situated near the bottom end of the christmas tree body and a key which is attached beneath the tubing hanger and follows the helix ramp as the tubing hanger is lowered into position in the christmas tree body. However, as discussed above, with the advent of directional drilling, the amount of rotational force and torque required to move the tubing downhole is greatly increased. A helix and key arrangement precision designed to better withstand this increased torque would be greatly appreciated.

Well completion system having a precision cut low profile helix