Magnetic resonance imaging method and apparatus are provided for mapping the internal or bulk motion of an object by labeling the phase of a specimen magnetization with a selected spatial function and measuring changes in the phase of the magnetization. The spatial function is selectable to provide magnetization phase modulation corresponding to displacements in a selected direction, such as a radial or azimuthal direction. Methods and apparatus for producing images based on magnetization phase modulation acquire image data based on stimulated echos and stimulated anti-echos. In an embodiment, a series of 180 degree pulses produces alternating stimulated and stimulated anti-echos that are measured and assigned to respective images.

Magnetic resonance imaging ("MRI") is a noninvasive imaging method widely used for medical diagnostics. To date, MRI methods for tracking the motion of an object over relatively long periods of time have been based on spatially modulating magnitude of the specimen magnetization according to a specific grid pattern, and observing the deformation of this grid pattern as motion occurs. In order to quantify the displacement vector of any small volume element (voxel), the positions of the grid lines and their intersection points are precisely defined. This usually requires human assistance, and precision is limited by image resolution or voxel size. The motion of voxels between grid lines cannot be measured directly, and interpolation methods are used to estimate motion.
Other MRI methods measure voxel velocity by subjecting the transverse magnetization to a biphasic gradient pulse before readout, so that stationary spins do not accumulate a net phase change, while spins with nonzero velocity components along the gradient direction accumulate a phase change. By measuring such phase changes, one or more velocity components can be derived. While phase-contrast velocity mapping generally provides high spatial resolution and simple data processing, it is generally unsuitable for motion tracking, as it requires integration of velocity vectors from multiple measurements and mathematically tracking voxel positions. These integrations and voxel position tracking are difficult and prone to error.

Methods and apparatus for mapping internal and bulk motion of an object with phase labeling in magnetic resonance imaging

United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services


Ethylene is produced from ethane in three steps: first, ethane is oxychlorinated to produce ethyl chloride and water; second, ethyl chloride from the first step is cracked to produce ethylene and hydrogen chloride; and third, the hydrogen chloride from the second step is recycled to the front step.

One of the principal routs to the production of ethylene involves cracking ethane at high temperatures. Purified ethane obtained from refinery gas streams or from natural gas is heated to temperatures of about 816° C. The thermal cracking, which takes place without a catalyst involves free radicals and a chain reaction.
The results of the thermal cracking depend on such variables as temperature, pressure and residence time, collectively referred to as cracking severity. Even under the best of conditions, numerous byproducts limit the production of ethylene. Thus, a representative yield of ethylene is about 80 percent.
Because of the formation of byproducts ranging from hydrogen and methane to butane and higher molecular weight hydrocarbons, extensive processing is needed to separate the ethylene product. This requirement is made more stringent because many of the uses of ethylene, for example, polyethylene production, demand high purity material.
For the above reasons, present know-how for producing ethylene from ethane has severe drawbacks. Capital investment is substantial and operating efficiencies are average.

Process for producing ethylene by chlorination of ethane and dehydrochlorination of ethyl chloride


A warning apparatus for an injection molding machine includes a detection device for detecting an operation performed by an operator of the injection molding machine; a warning section for warning the operator in response to a detection signal from the detection device; and a cancellation section for canceling the warning when the operator correctly operates the injection molding machine. When there is a possibility that an operator incorrectly operates the injection molding machine, a warning is generated by the warning section. Therefore, the operator is prevented from incorrectly operating the injection molding machine. Thus, breakage of the mold unit is avoided. Further, since the cancellation section is provided, the operator does not have to perform any operation for canceling the warning, so that work efficiency is improved.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a warning apparatus for an injection molding machine.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, an injection molding machine has an injection unit. The injection unit has a heating cylinder in which a screw is disposed rotatably and in an advancingly-retreatively movable manner. Drive means rotates and advances or retreats the screw. In a metering step, the screw is retreated while being rotated in a regular direction, so that resin is supplied from a hopper and heated in the heating cylinder, and molten resin is accumulated in a space located ahead of a screw head. In an injection step, the screw is advanced so as to inject the molten resin from an injection nozzle.
A mold unit is disposed in front of the injection unit. The mold unit includes a stationary platen, a movable platen, a stationary mold, a movable mold, and a mold clamping apparatus. The mold clamping apparatus advances and retracts the movable platen in order to bring the movable mold into contact with the stationary mold and separate the movable mold from the stationary mold, thereby performing mold closing operation, mold clamping operation, and mold opening operation.
During the period of injection molding, an operator must perform attachment and removal of the stationary and movable molds to and from the stationary and movable platens (hereinafter referred to as "mold exchange operation"), adjustment of the operation of the mold unit, adjustment of the temperature of the mold unit, heating of the heating cylinder, and charging of resin into the hopper.
Also, during the period of injection molding preparation, the operator must perform an operation for increasing the temperature of the mold unit, purging, exchange of resins, change of colors, removal of resin remaining within the heating cylinder, setting of molding conditions suitable for the molding unit, and starting up of molding.
However, since the operator performs various kinds of work or operation in the conventional injection molding machine, if the operator incorrectly operates the injection molding machine, the molding unit may be broken.

Warning apparatus for an injection molding machine


A switchable stereoscopic display system, wherein the switchable stereoscopic display system can display two-dimensional and three-dimensional images, includes: an organic light emitting diode (OLED) display device; Electronics that rapidly updates individual OLEDs; and a linearly polarizer for the OLED display device. Additionally, a circular polarizing layer changes light from linearly polarized light to circular polarized light. A polarization layer, on top of the circular polarization layer, switches a polarization direction of emitted light within the OLED display device. Other electronics switches the polarization direction within independent segments of the polarization layer. Refreshed OLEDs are synched with the independent segments of the polarization layer.

Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) displays are known in the art. These displays are typically formed from a two-dimensional array of light emitting OLEDs. These solid-state emissive displays typically provide a high contrast ratio for static and dynamic patterns and wide viewing angle, thus providing a very high quality two-dimensional image.
Stereoscopic displays are also known in the art. These displays may be formed using a number of techniques; including barrier screens such as discussed by Montgomery in U.S. Pat. No. 6,459,532 and optical elements such as lenticular lenses as discussed by Tutt et al in U.S. Patent Application 2002/0075566. Each of these techniques concentrates the light from the display into a narrow viewing angle, providing an auto-stereoscopic image. Unfortunately, these techniques typically reduce the perceived spatial resolution of the display since half of the columns in the display are used to display an image to either the right or left eye. These displays also reduce the viewing angle of the display, reducing the ability for multiple users to share and discuss the stereoscopic image that is being shown on the display.
Among the most commercially successful stereoscopic displays to date have been displays that either employed some method of shuttering light such that the light from one frame of data is able to enter only the left or right eye and left and right eye images are shown in rapid succession. Two methods have been employed in this domain; including displays that employ active shutter glasses or passive polarizing glasses. Systems employing shutter glasses display either a right or left eye image while an observer wears active LCD shutters that allow the light from the display to pass to only the appropriate eye. While this technique has the advantage that it allows a user to see the full resolution of the display and allow the user to switch from a monoscopic to a stereoscopic viewing mode, the update rate of the display is typically on the order of 120 Hz, providing a 60 Hz image to each eye. At this relatively low refresh rate, most observers will experience flicker resulting in significant discomfort if the display is used for more than a few minutes within a single viewing session. Even when the display is refreshed at significantly higher rates, flicker is often visible when the display is large and/or high in luminance.
Displays employing polarization have also been discussed and employed. For example, Wolk et al in U.S. Pat. No. 6,485,884 has discussed the design and manufacture of an OLED display that emits linear polarized light and that can be used to provide a stereoscopic display. Using this approach, the organic materials are oriented when patterned onto the substrate such that they emit linearly polarized light. When these materials are patterned such that alternating columns have different linear polarizations and the observer wears glasses in which each lens has a different linear polarization, each eye sees the light from alternating columns in the display. Using this display, a stereoscopic image can be displayed with every other column of pixels from the left and right eye images being displayed on alternating columns of the display. While this method provides a stereoscopic image, the resulting stereoscopic image has half the spatial resolution of display. Since the polarization is permanently fixed during the manufacture of the display, alternating columns on this display always have different polarizations and alternating columns will vary significantly in appearance when the display is viewed without polarized glasses that provide the stereoscopic effect, making the display of little use when viewed without appropriately polarized glasses. Further, it is well known that stereoscopic displays formed using linear polarization suffer from a number of artifacts; including narrowing of display's viewing angle and cross-talk (i.e., leakage of light intended for one eye to the other eye) when the linear polarized glasses are turned to an angle other than perpendicular to the columns of the display.
It is known in the art that displays employing circularly polarized light provide many advantages over displays that employ linear polarized displays. Specifically, these displays do not suffer from significantly increased cross-talk when the observer tilts his or her head. These displays typically provide a linear polarizing layer, a quarter-wave plate to create circularly polarized light, and a switchable or patterned half-wave plate to rotate the handedness of the polarization for half of the image. Byatt, 1981 (U.S. Pat. No. 4,281,341) has described a system employing a switchable polarizer that is placed in front of a CRT and performs very similarly to shutter glasses, using the polarization to select which eye will see each image. This system has the advantage over shutter glasses that the user does not need to wear active glasses, but otherwise suffers from the same deficiencies, including flicker.
Lipton, 1985 (U.S. Pat. No. 4,523,226) described a display system that will not suffer from flicker, but instead uses two separate video displays and optics to present the images from the two screens appropriately for the two eyes. While this display system does not suffer from the same visual artifacts as the system employing switchable polarization that was described by Byatt, the system requires two separate visual displays and additional optics, providing increasing the cost of such a system.
Circular polarization has also been used in systems to provide lower resolution images without flicker, using an approach that is similar to that employed in barrier screen displays. Lipton 1997 (U.S. Pat. No. 5,686,975) and Ma, 2000 (U.S. Pat. No. 6,020,941) each describe display systems where alternating columns of a display device are each provided with circular polarizers that are arranged in columns, such that alternating columns provide light that is circularly polarized with left and right handed orientation. By changing the handedness of the polarization in this way, and by wearing polarized glasses, each eye is provided alternating columns of the information from the display. However, as the handedness of the polarization of the light is kept constant during display of stereoscopic imagery, the resolution is reduced due to the fact that each eye can only see half of the columns of the display while viewing stereoscopic imagery. Faris, 1998 (U.S. Pat. No. 5,844,717) and Faris, 2002 (U.S. Pat. No. 6,359,664) have described similar displays that provide stereoscopic images by arranging a two-dimensional array of micropolarizers on a display surface with each eye being able to see a checkerboard pattern of the image. These micropolarizers are static and therefore each of the observers' eyes once again see only half the resolution of the display. It is notable, that since each eye sees only half the area of the display, the perceived brightness of the display is also reduced by a factor of two. These polarized displays suffer from one additional constraint due to the fact that the transmission of the polarizing layer is wavelength dependent. Because of this effect, the color purity of the display and often the viewing angle is reduced by the presence of the polarizer as different colored pixels of light pass through a single polarizer that has not been optimized to transmit the luminance at the center wavelength of the emitted light.
Kalmanash in U.S. Pat. No. 4,877,307 discussed the wavelength sensitivity of the circular polarizing layer and proposed a CRT with three sheets of circular polarizers that are stacked between a linear polarizing layer and an active retarder for manipulating the handedness of the polarization. In this display device, each of the circular polarizing layers are composed of materials having a center wavelength that is matched to the peak wavelength of the red, green, and blue emitters in the display device. This stack of three circular polarizing layers was proposed to improve the circular polarization of the colored light from the three-color display. Unfortunately, Kalmanash does not address the problem that each of the circular polarizers can affect polarization over a range of wavelengths and therefore the circular polarizers at the top of the stack may interfere with and, for some wavelengths of the light, will reduce the circular polarization that is introduced by the circular polarizers at the bottom of the stack. Kalmanash also fails to solve the problem that the active half-wave retarded that is used to rotate the handedness of the circular polarization is also highly wavelength dependent and is therefore incapable of fully changing the handedness of circular polarized light that includes a broad range of wavelengths with multiple peaks as is common within a color imaging device.


Embodiments relate to a capacitor having a high capacitance, a semiconductor device having the same, and a method for manufacturing the semiconductor device. In embodiments, the capacitor may include a lower electrode having a predetermined pattern, a dielectric layer formed on the lower electrode, and an upper electrode formed on the dielectric layer.

Embodiments relate to a semiconductor device. Embodiments also relate to a capacitor device that may have a high capacitance, a semiconductor device having the same, and a method for manufacturing the semiconductor device.
Merged memory logic (MML) is a device in which a memory cell array, for example, dynamic random access memory (DRAM), and an analog circuit or peripheral circuits may be integrated with each other in a single chip. With the development of such merged memory logic, various functions may be significantly improved. In addition, a more highly integrated and faster semiconductor device may be attained.
The analog circuit in the MML may include a capacitor, for example, a metal-insulator-metal ("MIM") capacitor that may operate at high speed. Such a MIM capacitor should have small resistivity and no parasitic capacitance.
A related art MIM capacitor may be made by sequentially forming a titanium Ti layer, a titanium nitride TiN layer, a first metal layer, a dielectric layer, a second metal layer, and a photo resist layer on a semiconductor substrate including conductive layer. The second metal layer, the dielectric layer, the first metal layer, the titanium nitride TiN layer, and the titanium Ti layer may be sequentially patterned using the photo resist layer as a mask.
A MIM capacitor should have a high capacitance. The capacitance of a MIM capacitor may be proportional to a dielectric constant and a facing area of the first and second metal layers, but may be inversely proportional to a distance between the first and second metal layers.
Accordingly, the higher the dielectric constant is, the greater a facing area is. Additionally, the shorter a distance is between the metal layers, the greater the capacitance of the MIM capacitor.
However, since a MIM capacitor may be made by sequentially forming the first metal layer, the dielectric layer, and the second metal layer on a plane, there is an upper limit to the capacitance of the MIM capacitor.
Moreover, because a higher degree of integration is desirable, a reduced size of a MIM capacitor would be beneficial. However, there is a limit as to how small the MIM capacitor can be made according to related art.


A method of determining optical constants n and k for a film on a substrate is described. Optical measurements are preferably performed with an integrated optical measurement system comprising a reflectometer, spectral ellipsometer, and broadband spectrometer such as an Opti-Probe series tool from Therma-Wave. A beam profile reflectometer is employed to first determine the thickness of said film from a best fit of modeling data to experimental data. The thickness data is combined with the ellipsometer and spectrometer measurements to produce an experimental data output which is fitted with modeled information to determine a best fit of the data. Constants n and k are derived from the best fit of data. The method provides a higher accuracy for n and k values than by standard procedures which calculate n, k, and t simultaneously. The method may also be applied to bilayer or multi-layer film stacks.

Photolithography is a key component of semiconductor device manufacturing. A photosensitive composition that is often called a photoresist or resist is spin coated on a substrate and is patterned with a mask and an exposure system. The pattern is subsequently transferred into one or more underlying layers by a plasma etch method. Process control of the lithography step is crucial in order to maintain the critical dimension (CD) of features in the printed pattern within a specified range.
Characterizing the optical properties and thickness of the photoresist and underlying layers is necessary to establish CD control. Typically, one or more wavelengths in a range from about 10 nm to about 500 nm is used to expose the photoresist. The light that passes through the photoresist may reflect off underlying layers and pass through the photoresist a second time and can either constructively or destructively interfere with radiation that passes in the opposite direction. Depending on the thickness of the resist, the total energy or accumulated radiation per unit area (referred to as milliJoules/cm2) required to print a feature at a desired CD varies according to the curve shown in FIG. 1 where the plot of thickness vs. exposure dose forms a sinusoidal curve 5 that has minima 1, 3 and maxima 2, 4. This "swing" curve has an amplitude A between a minimum and a maximum energy and a periodicity B defined as the distance (thickness) between two adjacent minimum points or between two adjacent maximum points on the curve 5. The magnitude of periodicity B is related to the wavelength of the exposing radiation. The amplitude A is calculated by dividing the difference between the energy for maximum point 2 (E2) and the energy for minimum point 1 (E1) by the average of E1 and E2 which is (E2−E1)/(E1+E2/2) and this value can be as large as 0.3 which is a swing of 30% in dose. Clearly, an accurate thickness measurement is needed in order to determine that a resist thickness target and thickness uniformity on a wafer is within a tight specification so that a large swing effect can be avoided.
The swing amplitude has a detrimental effect on the lithography process, especially if the magnitude is more than a few % of the average dose. Consider the condition in FIG. 1 where a swing amplitude of 30% is realized as determined previously for E1 and E2 and the patterned feature is a contact hole. If a dose E1 is used to form a contact hole in a photoresist with a thickness T1 on one wafer and the same mask and dose E1 are used to pattern the same photoresist but with a thickness T2 on a second wafer, then the size of the hole with thickness T1 will be much larger than the hole size with thickness T2 since the latter requires a much higher energy to form a hole to a predetermined size. The size difference in space width of the hole is likely to be much greater than the ±10% maximum variation typically allowed for a manufacturing process. Therefore, it is important to keep film thickness uniform within a wafer and from wafer to wafer and to minimize the swing curve to avoid a wide range of CD sizes.
In some situations, an anti-reflective coating (ARC) is applied to the substrate prior to the photoresist coating in order to control reflectivity during the photoresist exposure step and enable a larger process latitude by reducing the swing effect. The ARC which may be an organic or inorganic material is normally much thinner than the photoresist layer and is most effective on relatively flat substrates. However, thickness control for the ARC layer is also important. FIGS. 3a-3c demonstrate how the magnitude of a photoresist swing curve changes as a silicon nitride ARC thickness is varied. The silicon nitride layer has a thickness of 540 Angstroms in FIG. 3a, 750 Angstroms in FIG. 3b, and 1030 Angstroms in FIG. 3c. Reflectivity is minimized by keeping the film thickness of both photoresist and the underlying ARC layer within a tight specification and by tuning the optical constants (n and k) of both layers, if possible. Therefore, it is important to use a method for measuring optical constants n and k that is accurate and reliable and one that requires a minimum of time since several iterations in the photoresist and ARC development process may be necessary before a manufacturable photoresist or ARC product is achieved. In other words, optical film measurements are as important to optimizing a new photoresist or ARC formulation as to controlling a patterning process in manufacturing.
Spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE) is a well accepted tool to extract optical constants n and k in the industry and may be combined with other optical measurement instruments such as a spectrometer and reflectometer. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,798,837, 6,304,326, 6,411,385, and 6,417,921 assigned to Therma-Wave describe a composite optical measurement system that involves internal calibration as well as n and k measurements of single layer or multi-layer film stacks. Therma-Wave is the only SE tool company that offers an integrated system (Opti-Probe series) with the "expert" level or independent optical thickness measurement components called BPR (Beam Profile Reflectometry) and BPE (Beam Profile Ellipsometry).
A simplified version of a spectroscopic ellipsometry apparatus is shown in FIG. 2. Deep UV and visible sources 10 provide a beam 11 that is polarized by polarizer 12 and focused by a lens 13 onto a wafer or substrate 14 upon which a sample film has been deposited. The wavelength and incident angle of the beam can be varied. The reflected beam 11a passes through a collimating lens 15, a compensator 16 which rotates in this case, an analyzer 17, and into a detector 18. Ellipsometry does not directly measure film thickness or optical constants n (index of refraction) and k (extinction coefficient) but provides up to three parameters, cos Δ, sin Δ, and tan ψ, which are converted to the complex Fresnel reflection coefficients rP and rS. Here the "p" refers to light polarization parallel to the plane of incidence and "s" refers to light polarization perpendicular to the plane of incidence. SE measures the complex ratio rP/rS as a function of wavelength. Coefficients rP and rS contain information on how the magnitude and polarization of the incident light beam are changed by the film on substrate 14 according to the equations: EP,ref=rP×EP,inc and ES,ref=rS×ES,inc where E is the electric field magnitude and "inc" and "ref" refer to incident and reflected light, respectively.
FIG. 6 is a flow chart depicting how the data from integrated optical measurement tools in an Opti-Probe system comprising a broadbeam spectrometer (BB), a spectroscopic ellipsometer (SE) and a beam profile reflectometer (BPR) is used to calculate thickness (t) and n and k values. The BPR component includes a laser that directs a 675 nm beam onto the sample which is then reflected to a BPR analyzer. It should be noted that the three components (BB, SE, BPR) are connected to the same processor so that the data output from each of the three components can be analyzed simultaneously. In step 30, the substrate with the sample film is positioned on a stage within the integrated system. The sample is probed at various wavelengths in step 31 and the data from the three components is weighted in step 32 according to a percentage that may be X % BPR, Y % SE, and Z % BB where X=55, Y=18, and Z=27, for example. An experimental data output is provided in step 33 and collected in the processor.
In step 34, film stack information such as assumed film thickness and approximate n and k values of the film are entered into a modeling program in the processor. The model is exercised (step 35) in the processor to generate a simulated set of data that can be compared to the experimental data obtained in step 33. The fitting of experimental data to modeling data in step 36 may involve several iterations of changing the modeled input until a best fit of modeling data to experimental data is obtained in step 37. Once a best fit is achieved, the program provides values for n, k, and thickness simultaneously. Unfortunately, the accuracy of the n and k values are strongly dependent on the application engineer's experience. A wrong initial guess for the regression fitting in the modeling phase will turn out erroneous n and k values and unreliable mapping signatures. In order to reduce the potential error introduced by modeling a wrong initial setting or by a low instrument signal to noise ratio, a more robust methodology for solving optical constants n and k is required.
One additional application of the index of refraction as described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,057,928 is that it can be used to determine a dielectric constant. The index of refraction is measured by impinging a high frequency beam on a sample and monitoring the phase change and field reflectance for a variety of incident angles.

Approach to improve ellipsometer modeling accuracy for solving material optical constants N & K

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company


A sprinkler apparatus includes a sprinkler head, a riser which is in fluid communication with a fluid inlet and the sprinkler head, a base for supporting and maintaining the sprinkler head in an upright position when the base is in contact with the ground or other surface; and wherein, the riser extends substantially vertically from the base a distance at least twice the width of the base and the base is configured to allow the apparatus to be pulled over the ground.

In horticulture given the height of many crop plants irrigation systems tend to be:                In situ systems which are fixed in place e.g. buried pipes or plumbed systems used in hot houses;        High pressure systems using long reaching water jets;        Expensive pivot irrigators which again tend to suffer from being difficult to transport between fields on a regular basis.
There thus exists in horticultural or horticulture a real need for a mobile irrigation system which can operate on low pressure, such as mains pressure, which can spread fluid over crop plants situated one or more plants away from the sprinkler.
Such systems are either fixed in place, or require a major amount of labour, large vehicles or other equipment in order to move the system from one paddock to another, or to another part of the same paddock.
This lack of portability, together with the initial setup costs, contributes to a higher capital cost to the user.
These large irrigation systems also have a further disadvantage of being difficult to manoeuver into the required position on horticultural land such as orchards where movement is restricted by the trees.
Furthermore, these large irrigation systems also operate under high pressure which can easily damage the vegetation of the trees.
Therefore, small above ground irrigation systems with low-volume, low-pressure sprinkler heads are also known which provide improved portability. For example, New Zealand Patent No. 510282 discloses a sprinkler apparatus which comprises a housing to substantially protect a sprinkler unit mounted in the housing from damage, yet at the same time allows at least a portion of the sprinkler head to protrude above at least part of the upper edge of the housing. This type of sprinkler apparatus is commonly used in agriculture for farmed animals such as sheep, cattle, goats or deer and allows animals to continue to graze a paddock that has been irrigated using this type of low-pressure sprinkler system. Therefore, the sprinkler housing provides some form of protection to protect the sprinkler unit from damage.
New Zealand Patent No. 532441 discloses another low-pressure sprinkler apparatus which includes a housing and a strut. The strut extends from one side of the wall portion of the housing, above and over any moving parts of the sprinkler, and down to the opposite side of the wall portion of the housing. The purpose of the strut is to further prevent damage of the sprinkler unit by animals which may inadvertently kick or step onto or into the sprinkler apparatus.
However, a disadvantage of the above sprinkler apparatus is that the sprinkler head is mounted low and substantially within the housing of the sprinkler apparatus for protection. This type of configuration, although it provides protection from animals, it is particularly unsuitable for use in horticultural situations. This is because the sprinkler is located too low relative to the height of most crop plants to deliver fluid effectively. As the fluid only tends to reach plants directly adjacent to the sprinkler affecting the reach of the sprinkler and as a result not watering neighbouring plants which have plants between them and a sprinkler. Where for example, the sprinkler needs to deliver water to canopies or the tops of bushes that need to be irrigated.
As the sprinkler head is mounted low, it is not able to distribute fluid sufficiently far enough to provide the necessary irrigation to the canopy layer of trees, vines or the tops of other crop plants.
An object of the present invention, is to provide a sprinkler apparatus which overcomes the disadvantages of irrigation apparatus described above.
It is a further object of the present invention to at least provide the public with a useful choice.
All references, including any patents or patent applications cited in this specification are hereby incorporated by reference. No admission is made that any reference constitutes prior art. The discussion of the references states what their authors assert, and the applicants reserve the right to challenge the accuracy and pertinency of the cited documents. It will be clearly understood that, although a number of prior art publications are referred to herein, this reference does not constitute an admission that any of these documents form part of the common general knowledge in the art, in New Zealand or in any other country.
Throughout this specification, the word "comprise", or variations thereof such as "comprises" or "comprising", will be understood to imply the inclusion of a stated element, integer or step, or group of elements integers or steps, but not the exclusion of any other element, integer or step, or group of elements, integers or steps.
Further aspects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the ensuing description which is given by way of example only.


A method to obtain parts of high carbon gray cast iron and high carbon gray cast iron material includes, a process to obtain high carbon gray cast iron and high carbon gray cast iron castings parts from the material. The castings parts so obtained are casting parts, which undergo friction, such as brake rotors and drums used in general automotive vehicles, clutch discs and/or other types of castings whose main characteristics are noise absorption properties caused by friction, and increased reduction of thermal cracks and fissures on the surface as a result of the action of friction.

The gray cast iron used in the manufacturing of ordinary castings parts has a tolerance in its morphology of graphite veins sized from 5 to 8 (wherein the size is determined by the thickness.times.length in the gray cast iron material morphology). Such veins result in fine flakes in the structure of the material, providing for increased hardness and resistance within the known standards of specification for castings parts of gray cast iron, specially for rotors and brake drums.
The graphite presentation in the material morphology of the gray cast iron within conventional standards allows the occurrence of graphite veins of types "A" and "B" and occasionally of types "D" and "E".
For example, the graphite veins known for their shape in the material morphology of gray cast iron are type "A"--being irregular disorientated; "B", --being rosette; "C"--being irregular uneven; "D"--being disorientated interdendritic and type "E"--being right interdendritic.
To obtain regular or ordinary castings parts, it is not acceptable, except in meaningless proportions, to have the presence of type "C" graphite veins in the morphology of the gray cast iron, as such morphology produces a less resistant gray cast iron due to its brittleness in structure and in its reduced hardness, which is considered to be of a poor quality.
The gray cast iron is used in the manufacturing of general friction castings parts, specially brake rotors, clutch and brake drums. Besides the ordinary constituent components pertinent to gray cast iron, it also presents the necessary constituent components relevant to its composition, such as copper, manganese, chromium and silicon, in a wide variable ranges of concentration, and it can also present sulfur concentration in restrictive variable ranges.

Process to obtain parts of high carbon gray cast iron and high carbon gray cast iron material in special to manufacture rotors and drum brake systems and general automotive application with noise absorption


A track geometry measurement system includes a plurality of wheels, a frame, and an inertial measurement unit. The inertial measurement unit is coupled to the frame and includes at least one gyroscope.

Railroads are typically constructed to include a pair of elongated, substantially parallel rails, which are coupled to a plurality of laterally extending ties. The ties are disposed on a ballast bed of hard particulate material such as granite. Over time, normal operations on the railroad may cause the rails to deviate from a desired geometric orientation.
Rail maintenance processes for addressing such concerns typically involve the use of chord measurement devices, which provide a reference system to measure the position of the track prior to applying the desired corrections to the track. An illustrative correction process involves lifting rail with mechanical clamps, aligning the track by shifting it to a calculated lateral position, and then tamping the ballast under each tie to hold the track in the desired position. This work sequence is typically repeated at each tie during the course of the correction process.
Reference points are used to establish a geometry of the track at the particular location being worked. An onboard computer may compare the previous section of track already corrected to the current section and makes the calculations for the required corrections to be made at the work heads.
In the railway industry, track geometry measurement may be used to measure the spatial relationship of the rails with reference to one another or other reference points. The resulting data from these measurement systems may be used to specify various maintenance activities, such as tamping.
The precision and accuracy of the track geometry measurement requirements vary based on operations. In the case of a high speed line on which trains travel at a high speed (for example over 200 kph), an acceptable wavelength for track deviations can be quite high. For example, to damp oscillations and limit suspension movement at a frequency of 1 Hz, a distance of a wavelength from a peak through a valley to a next peak may be 200 m or greater. For slower speed lines (<100 kph), wavelengths of 20 m are considered.
Track maintenance activities may include calculating a correction to the track geometry, based on either a smoothing of the measured track, or with reference to a defined location in space. During tamping activities the track position may be changed in the area of only some millimeters up to several centimeters. Thus, very precise measurements over long distances may be needed.
For some of these corrections (tamping to an absolute track position and not only smoothing of the track geometry) additional measurements are carried out to acquire the absolute position of the track relative to track-side reference points considered to be fixed in space. Such reference points are often mounted on catenary masts, other fixed objects, survey markers, etc.
To measure absolute position of the track at discrete locations, the position of the track may be measured relative to reference points by manual or semi-manual measurement using hand laser tools and D-GPS. However, measurements using these methods are time-intensive (hand laser tools) and relatively inaccurate (D-GPS—when used for measurements under a normally used period of time).
Measurements carried out with laser measurement systems to acquire the position of the track relative to the track-side reference points may be used for tamping operations. However, these laser measurement systems require a first operator team in front of the vehicle to place measurement equipment on the track rails to measure the position of the track. A second operator team is required behind the vehicle to place measurement equipment on the track rails after the vehicle has performed work to verify the adjusted position of the track. The presence of the operator team working on the track also leads to safety personnel being required to secure the work of the measurement team. In sum, 2-6 persons per tamping shift may be required to perform these measurements. Thus, laser measurement systems are slow and labor intensive. Further, laser measurement generally requires some kind of operator interaction to carry out.
To obtain accurate measurements carried out with a D-GPS system, the system may be required remain stationary for an extended period of time, sometimes many hours, to obtain enough data to average to determine an accurate absolute location suitable for tamping operations. Such an approach is not practical.

Track geometry measurement system with inertial measurement


Embodiments of the present invention provide a method, system and computer program product for partnership relationship management (PRM) data synchronization in a customer relationship management (CRM) data processing system. In an embodiment of the invention, a method for PRM data synchronization in a CRM data processing system can include receiving a data synchronization request from one of several different CRM systems over a computer communications network. The method additionally can include identifying the one different CRM system from amongst the different CRM systems and locating a mapping of data fields corresponding to the identified CRM system. Finally, the method can include synchronizing data received from the identified one of the different CRM systems data with data in the CRM data processing system that maps to the received data according to the located mapping of data fields.

Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of customer relationship management (CRM) data processing systems and methodologies and more particularly to partnership relationship management (PRM) in a CRM data processing system.
Description of the Related Art
CRM refers to the interaction that a business entity enjoys with its customers, whether the business entity provides sales or services to the customer. CRM is often thought of as a business strategy that enables business managers to understand the customer, to retain customers through better customer experience, to attract new customers, increase profitability and to decrease customer management costs. In real terms, however, CRM systems are used specifically to manage business contacts, clients, contract wins and sales leads. As such, CRM solutions provide the end user with the customer business data necessary to provide services or products desired by the customers, to provide better customer service, to cross-sell and to up-sell more effectively, to close deals, retain current customers and understand the identity of the customer.
The advent of the Internet has changed the changed the way in which end users approach CRM strategies because advances in technology have also changed consumer buying behavior and especially the way in which businesses communicate with customers and collect data about those customers. More than the past, self-service channels such as the World Wide Web ("Web") and more recently, the mobile computing world, have become the norm rather than the exception leading to easier ways in which to manage customer information electronically.
Partner relationship management (PRM) is business strategy related to CRM in which communication between different companies and respective channel partners can be improved. Web-based PRM software applications enable companies to customize and streamline administrative tasks by making shipping schedules and other real-time information available to all the partners over the Internet. Recently, several CRM application vendors have incorporated into their core CRM application some PRM features, such as Web-enabled spreadsheets shared through an extranet. However, the integration of PRM features into the core CRM system remains mostly an exercise in publishing PRM information to partners. Notably absent from modern PRM integrated CRM systems is two-way coordination of PRM data.

Partnership relationship management system to system data synchronization


A method for operating a navigation system and a navigation system for a vehicle, a motor vehicle in particular, data concerning geographic positions of the vehicle being determined by a position-finding system and transmitted to an electronic data processing device having access to a database and a digital road map. Based on this data, the location of the vehicle on the digital road map is determined and route guidance instructions are output to the driver of the vehicle acoustically and/or visually. Also, information from the navigation system may be used for traveling routes selected by the driver himself before the start of the trip and to which the navigation system does not output any route guidance instructions. Routes selected by the driver himself are entered into the navigation system and stored by a route memory of the navigation system.

Navigation systems for vehicles, motor vehicles in particular, and methods for operating such navigation systems are available. They are used to determine the instantaneous geographic position of the vehicle and, as a function of a specifiable destination to be reached, to calculate the most favorable itinerary and to give the driver instructions concerning the itinerary.
Such navigation systems require information, which is necessary to determine the instantaneous position of the vehicle and calculate the itinerary. In particular, this includes road routing, turning conditions, and the like. This data is provided in the form of a database. To this end, the database includes, for example, a digital road map containing landmarks and/or decision-making points of the possible routes. Providing the database in on-board mass storage devices, a CD-ROM, for example, is available.
Furthermore, a position-finding system that determines the instantaneous geographic position of the vehicle is necessary. The satellite-supported global position-finding system (GPS), for example, is available for this purpose.
An electronic data processing device compares the position data delivered by the position-finding system with the data stored in the digital road map and determines the instantaneous position of the vehicle. Corresponding to the selected destination, the electronic data processing device may provide route guidance information to the driver visually and/or acoustically on a selected most favorable itinerary using landmarks and/or decision-making points.
To perform the functions indicated, such navigation systems may be made up of functionally interconnected subsystems. Such individual subsystems include systems such as an electronic data processing device, position-finding system, digital road map, vehicle sensor system, communication module, obstacle calculation device, itinerary determination device, route guidance device, input unit, and output unit.
A disadvantage with such navigation systems and with available methods for operating navigation systems may be that if the driver allows himself to be guided by the navigation system, he may need to exclusively travel the route that is calculated by the navigation system and output to him as a route guidance instruction. If, according to his own discretion, the driver chooses another route to travel, which deviates from the route specified by the navigation system, he may not reasonably use the information from the navigation system because such navigation systems are not believed to be designed for this purpose. Therefore, the driver may not select a route for a segment familiar to him, which he has chosen based on personal criteria relating to length of time, traffic load, efficiency or preference, or use the navigation system when traveling this route.
For example, the driver may like to select a different route than the one calculated by the navigation system for the way from his home to his workplace and back. For this purpose also, certain information from the navigation system could be useful to him. Even if route guidance instructions are not necessary for this route because the driver knows it perfectly, he is still interested in obtaining timely information concerning the traffic situation in order to be able to travel another route if necessary if, for example, a traffic jam exists in the stretch of road still ahead of him in the route originally planned. However, the present methods for operating navigation systems and corresponding navigation systems may not allow the navigation system to output information concerning the traffic situation when traveling a route selected by the driver himself, which is not provided in the navigation system.

Method for operating a navigation system of a vehicle, especially a motor vehicle, and corresponding navigation system


This invention generally relates to a multi-stage polymer as a grinding additive and a method of producing the same.

In a typical paint-making process, a dispersant is added in the grinding stage to help pigments and extenders to stably disperse. Polyacid homopolymers or copolymers are commonly used as dispersants. In the same grinding stage, thickeners are added to provide high enough viscosity to grind pigment/extender to fine sizes, as well as to deliver the proper viscosity for the final paint. Thickeners used in grinding stage, typically, are Hydroxyethyl Cellulose (HEC) and Hydrophobically-modified Ethylene Oxide Urethane (HEUR). In the letdown stage, more thickeners are added to reach the target viscosity for the final paint. In economy paint space, HEC and polyacid dispersant are added in the grinding stage to deliver dispersion and viscosity, and minimal thickeners could be added in the letdown stage to reach the target viscosity.
In the effort of replacing HEC for cost saving and better flow/leveling, Hydrophobically-modified Alkali Soluble Emulsion (HASE) was added in the letdown stage to reach the target viscosity. However, this approach will make the paint film more hydrophilic and lead to significant loss on scrub resistance (washability). To make the paint film more hydrophobic, hydrophobic copolymer dispersant (such as Orotan 2002 of Dow Coating Materials) can be used to replace the polyacid dispersant in the grinding stage. However, HASE is not very compatible with hydrophobic dispersant, and sometimes causes many grids.
It is still desirable to paint formulators a compatible composition of HASE and hydrophobic dispersant, which will provide the paint formulation basic paint properties, such as the proper washability and opacity.

Multi-stage polymer as a grinding additive and a method of producing the same


A system and methods for redundant current-sum feedback control of an actuator system is presented. An actuator comprises actuation coils configured to actuate the actuator, and an actuation coil current sensor senses a measured total coil current comprising a sum of coil currents of each of the actuation coils. Actuator coil controllers control the actuation coils based on a commanded total coil current and the measured total coil current.

A flight path of an airplane is controlled by a deflection of flight control surfaces. In many modern airplanes, flight control surfaces are deflected by actuator(s). Such flight control surfaces may include elevators for pitch control, ailerons and flaperons for roll control, and a rudder for yaw control. In many cases, electric current controls output of the actuator. In some cases, an electromagnetic effect of the electric current directly produces a mechanical output for Electro-Mechanical Actuator (EMA), or Electro-Hydrostatic Actuator (EHA), while in other cases, it is amplified by some other means, such as through controlling the hydraulic flow through a servo valve such as a Direct-Drive Valve (DDV), or Electrohydraulic Servo Valve (EHSV) in single or multiple stages.
Electric current flows through a coil (or coils) and is converted to a magnetically induced useable force to actuate the actuator. A non-optimality causing an erroneous level of current could cause the actuator to move to an un-commanded position or output an un-commanded force. Such a non-optimality may cause an airplane to deviate from a commanded path and/or cause structural anomaly to the airplane, particularly if the non-optimality is oscillatory or cyclic.


An area efficient stacked TCAM cell for fully parallel search. The TCAM cell includes a top half circuit portion interconnected with a replicated bottom half circuit portion such that there is a shared match line between each of the half circuit portions. Each TCAM cell includes a pair of memory elements that is connected to a pair of associated compare circuits such that the interconnections between the memory elements and the compare circuits are substantially vertical in active MOS layers and substantially horizontal in metal layers. The memory elements and the compare circuits are connected such that they facilitate shorter interconnections and sharing of terminals at the boundary of adjacent cells. The resulting stacked TCAM cell provides shorter match lines, shared bit lines, and reduced silicon area to facilitate improved routing and performance.

Content Addressable Memories (CAMs) are commonly used in cache systems, and other address translation systems, of high speed computing systems. They are also useful in high-speed network routers, and many other applications known in the art of computing. Ternary Content Addressable Memories (TCAMs) are ternary state CAM cells and are commonly used for parallel search of high performance computing systems.
A TCAM system is composed of TCAM blocks with arrays of TCAM cells. A TCAM system typically has a TCAM block array (M×N) that includes a plurality of rows (M) and a plurality of columns (N). Further, each row has a plurality of TCAM blocks, and each TCAM block has a plurality of TCAM cells. These arrays typically have vertically running bit lines and search lines for data read/write function and horizontal running word lines and match lines. All TCAM cells in a column share the same bit lines and search lines, whereas the word lines and match lines are shared by all cells in a row. Each TCAM cell includes a pair of memory elements and a corresponding pair of compare circuits.
The TCAM cells are characterized by circuitry capable of generating a match output for each row of TCAM blocks in the TCAM cell thereby indicating whether any location of the array contains a data pattern that matches a query input and the identity of that location. Each TCAM cell typically has the ability to store a unit of data, and the ability to compare that unit of data with a unit of query input and each TCAM block has the ability to generate a match output. In parallel data search, an input keyword is placed at the search bit lines after precharging the match lines to a power supply voltage Vdd. The data in each TCAM cell connected to a match line is compared with this data, and if there is a mismatch in any cell connected to a match line, the match line will discharge to ground through the compare circuit of that TCAM cell. A compare result indication of each TCAM block in a row is combined to produce a match signal for the row to indicate whether the row of TCAM cells contains a stored word matching a query input. The match signals from each row in the TCAM cell together constitute match output signals of the array; these signals may be encoded to generate the address of matched locations or used to select data from rows of additional memory.
Each TCAM cell in each column is typically connected to a common read/write bit line pair and search bit line pair. The common read/write bit line is used to write the data to a pair of memory cells, which can be part of a TCAM cell. Each memory cell is accessed using a word line which is decoded using an input address. The common read/write bit line is also used for reading the data from a memory cell. The differential developed across the read/write bit lines are sensed using a sense amplifier during a read cycle.
Further, each TCAM cell in each column is typically connected to a common query data line, also referred to as a common search bit line. The common search bit line enables simultaneous data searching in each CAM cell in a column from a query input. The common search data line can also be used as a write data line, when the CAM cell is based on a PMOS compare circuit.
The unit of data that is stored in a TCAM cell is ternary, having three possible states: logic one, logic zero, and don't care. To store these three states, two memory elements are needed. TCAM blocks of these TCAM cells produce a local match compare result if the query input is equal to the data stored in the CAM cells in the TCAM blocks, the query input contains a don't care state, or the data stored is a don't care data. The TCAM cells produce a mismatch result otherwise. The TCAM cells are particularly useful in address translation systems that allow variable sized allocation units.
A typical problem with TCAM cells is that they use extra transistors for search function, and therefore require large silicon area and consume more power. The resulting interconnections contribute to leakage capacitance that affects system performance. Many inventions in the field of TCAMs are aimed at solving these issues of area, power and performance. One conventional technique to reduce the silicon area and power consumption uses different NAND based compare transistors connected in series, to reduce the TCAM cell size and power consumption. However, this technique fails to perform well at lower voltages, because the voltage at the gate of the TCAM cell is equal to VDD (supply voltage)−Vt (threshold voltage). Further, this approach limits the performance.
Another conventional technique uses same bit lines for read/write as well as search to reduce the number of total bit lines per TCAM cell in an effort to reduce the silicon area. This approach requires using PMOS transistors in the compare circuit, which generally reduces the speed of operation during a compare operation. In addition, this approach requires evaluating the search bit lines during write operation, which results in the dissipation of a large amount of power. Yet another conventional technique to minimize area uses DRAM based memory circuitry. But this approach is not suitable for speed sensitive applications such as cache memories since the dynamic refreshing required by DRAMs slows down the system operation.
Another significant problem of TCAMs is capacitance effects due to large number of match lines and bit lines, and the associated interconnect capacitances. Parallel searching requires high power and for large arrays, bit line capacitances are significant. Some approaches to circumvent this problem have been to reduce the number of bit lines and number of interconnections and the length of interconnections. Shorter lines reduce the line capacitances and thereby reduce the power dissipation.

Area efficient stacked TCAM cell for fully parallel search


A solid-state image sensing device has a plurality of pixels, a read-out circuit for reading out electric signals obtained by the photoelectric conversion element, and a signal processing unit for performing signal processing for the electric signal read out from the read-out circuit. The plurality of pixels include a first pixel having a transparent film, a plurality of second pixels each having a first color filter, a plurality of third pixels each having a second color filter, and a plurality of fourth pixels each having a third color filter. The signal processing unit has a color acquisition unit for acquiring a white pixel value and first to third color pixel values, an edge judgment unit, a color separation unit and a single color pixel calculation unit.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a solid-state image sensing device in which a plurality of pixels having photoelectric conversion elements are arranged in matrix form.
2. Related Art
Recently, CMOS image sensors have been actively developed. In particular, along with the miniaturization in a semiconductor process (reduction in design rules), a single-chip color image sensor has been commercialized in which the number of pixels exceeds five millions at a pixel pitch of, for example, 2.0 μm.
However, the trend of the pixel miniaturization is shifting toward a level with a pixel pitch of 1.7 μm and an aperture area or 1 μm or less. In such a pixel size, the wave nature of incident light is predominant, and the amount of the incident light more rapidly decreases than the reduction ratio of a pixel area due to a diffraction phenomenon. There is thus a need for new measures to increase the SN ratio of an element.
The CMOS image sensor of this kind generally has a color filter of a Bayer arrangement in which there are arranged one red (R) pixel, one blue (B) pixel and diagonal two green (G) pixels in a pixel block composed of two rows and two columns. The reason that two G pixels are provided in the pixel block is that the human visibility to green is high, and the green pixels are used as pixels for acquiring luminance (brightness) information.
Since the image quality changes depending on the arrangement of the color filter as described above, there have been proposed various techniques of elaborating the arrangement of the color filter to improve the image quality (e.g., refer to JP-A 2004-304706 (kokai), JP-A 2003-318375 (kokai) and JP-A 8-23542 (kokai)).
For example, JP-A 2004-304706 (kokai) discloses a technique in which white pixels used as luminance signals are arranged vertically and horizontally around a green pixel in order to ensure the charge quantity of the luminance signal. However, JP-A 2004-304706 (kokai) does not disclose any procedure for processing white pixel data, and gives no consideration to the processing of a pixel signal corresponding to an edge having rapidly changing luminance such as a subject at a high spatial frequency. JP-A 2003-318375 (kokai) and JP-A 8-23542 (kokai) provide no disclosure and suggestion regarding the processing of the edge either.


A medical probe assembly, tissue treatment system, and method are provided for ablating tissue. The probe assembly comprises an elongated member and electrode elements mechanically coupled to the distal end of the elongated member. The electrode elements are configurable as two bipolar electrode pairs with a common electrode element. At least one of the electrode elements comprises a plurality of electrodes (such as, e.g., needle electrodes) radially extendable from the elongated member. An ablation source, such as a radio frequency source, can be connected to the probe assembly in order to convey ablation energy to the electrode pairs, either simultaneously or sequentially.

The delivery of radio frequency (RF) energy to target regions within tissue is known for a variety of purposes of particular interest to the present invention. In one particular application, RF energy may be delivered to diseased regions (e.g., tumors) for the purpose of ablating predictable volumes of tissue with minimal patient trauma. RF ablation of tumors is currently performed using one of two core technologies.
The first technology uses a single needle electrode, which when attached to a RF generator, emits RF energy from the exposed, uninsulated portion of the electrode. This energy translates into ion agitation, which is converted into heat and induces cellular death via coagulation necrosis. In theory, RF ablation can be used to precisely sculpt the volume of necrosis to match the extent of the tumor. By varying the power output and the type of electrical waveform, it is theoretically possible to control the extent of heating, and thus, the resulting ablation. The diameter of tissue coagulation from a single electrode, however, is limited by heat dispersion.
The second technology utilizes multiple needle electrodes, which have been designed for the treatment and necrosis of tumors in the liver and other solid tissues. U.S. Pat. No. 6,379,353 discloses such a probe. The ablation probe disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,379,353, referred to as the LeVeen Needle Electrode, comprises a cannula having a needle electrode array, which is reciprocatably mounted within the cannula to alternately deploy the electrode array from the cannula and retract electrode array within the cannula. The individual electrodes within the array have spring memory, so that they assume a radially outward, arcuate configuration as they are deployed from the cannula. In general, a multiple electrode array creates a larger lesion than that created by a single needle electrode.
When creating lesions using needle electrode arrays, RF energy is commonly delivered to the tissue in one of several ways. In the first arrangement illustrated in FIG. 1, RF current may be delivered to an electrode array 10 in a monopolar fashion, which means that current will pass from the electrode array 10 to a dispersive electrode 12 attached externally to the patient, e.g., using a contact pad placed on the patient's flank. In a second arrangement illustrated in FIG. 2, the RF current is delivered to an electrode array 20 in a bipolar fashion, which means that current will pass between "positive" and "negative" electrodes 22 within the array 22. Bipolar arrangements, which require the RF energy to traverse through a relatively small amount of tissue between the tightly spaced electrodes, are more efficient than monopolar arrangements, which require the RF energy to traverse through the thickness of the patient's body. As a result, bipolar electrode arrays generally create larger and/or more efficient lesions than monopolar electrode arrays. To provide even larger lesions, it is known to operate two electrode arrays in a bipolar arrangement. For example, FIG. 3 illustrates two electrode arrays 30 and 32 that are configured to emit RF energy between each other. Specifically, the first electrode array 30 is operated as an active electrode array that emits RF energy, and the second electrode array 32 is operated as a return electrode array that receives the RF energy, thereby ablating the tissue between the electrode arrays 30 and 32.
Physician feedback has indicated that there is a continuing need for treating larger tissue volume. For the electrode configuration illustrated in FIG. 3, the distance between the two electrode arrays affects the volume of tissue ablated. For example, if the distance between the electrode arrays were to be lengthened to try to ablate a longer tissue volume, the energy transmitted between the electrode arrays may thin and not fully ablate the intermediate tissue. As a result, an hour-glass shaped ablation, rather than the desired uniform circular/elliptical ablation, would be created.
As a consequence, when ablating lesions that are larger than the capability of the above-mentioned devices, the common practice is to stack ablations (i.e., perform multiple ablations) within a given area. This requires multiple electrode placements and ablations facilitated by the use of ultrasound imaging to visualize the electrode in relation to the target tissue. Because of the echogenic cloud created by the ablated tissue, however, this process often becomes difficult to accurately perform. This considerably increases treatment duration and requires significant skill for meticulous precision of multiple electrode placement.

Multi-zone bipolar ablation probe assembly


A method of inhibiting the binding between N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors and neuronal proteins in a neuron is disclosed. The method comprises administering to the neuron an effective inhibiting amount of a peptide replacement agent for the NMDA receptor or neuronal protein interaction domain that effect said inhibition of the NMDA receptor-neuronal protein interaction. The method is of value in reducing the damaging effect of injury to mammalian cells. Postsynaptic density-95 protein (PSD-95) couples neuronal N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors (NMDARs) to pathways mediating excitotoxicity, ischemic and traumatic brain damage. This coupling was disrupted by transducing neurons with peptides that bind to modular domains on either side of the PSD-95/NMDAR interaction complex. This treatment attenuated downstream NMDAR signaling without blocking NMDAR activity, protected cultured cortical neurons from excitotoxic insults, dramatically reduced cerebral infarction volume in rats subjected to transient focal cerebral ischemia, and traumatic brain injury (TBI) in rats.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to compositions and methods for reducing the damaging effect of an injury to mammalian cells by treatment with compounds which reduce the binding between N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors and neuronal proteins. More particularly, the invention relates to such compounds, pharmaceutical compositions comprising said compounds, and methods for the preparation and use of said pharmaceutical compositions.
2. Description of Related Art
Ischemic or traumatic injuries to the brain or spinal cord often produce irreversible damage to central nervous system (CNS) neurons and to their processes. These injuries are major problems to society as they occur frequently, the damage is often severe, and at present there are still no effective pharmacological treatments for acute CNS injuries. Clinically, ischemic cerebral stroke or spinal cord injuries manifest themselves as acute deteriorations in neurological capacity ranging from small focal defects, to catastrophic global dysfunction, to death. It is currently felt that the final magnitude of the deficit is dictated by the nature and extent of the primary physical insult, and by a time-dependent sequence of evolving secondary phenomena which cause further neuronal death. Thus, there exists a theoretical time-window, of uncertain duration, in which a timely intervention might interrupt the events causing delayed neurotoxicity. However, little is known about the cellular mechanisms triggering and maintaining the processes of ischemic or traumatic neuronal death, making it difficult to devise practical preventative strategies. Consequently, there are currently no clinically useful pharmacological treatments for cerebral stroke or spinal cord injury.
In vivo, a local reduction in CNS tissue perfusion mediates neuronal death in both hypoxic and traumatic CNS injuries. Local hypoperfusion is usually caused by a physical disruption of the local vasculature, vessel thrombosis, vasospasm, or luminal occlusion by an embolic mass. Regardless of its etiology, the resulting ischemia is believed to damage susceptible neurons by impacting adversely on a variety of cellular homeostatic mechanisms. Although the nature of the exact disturbances is poorly understood, a feature common to many experimental models of neuronal injury is a rise in free intracellular calcium concentration ([Ca2+]i). Neurons possess multiple mechanisms to confine [Ca2+]i to the low levels, about 100 mM, necessary for the physiological function. It is widely believed that a prolonged rise in [Ca2+]i deregulates tightly-controlled Ca2+-dependent processes, causing them to yield excessive reaction products, to activate normally quiescent enzymatic pathways, or to inactivate regulatory cytoprotective mechanisms. This, in turn, results in the creation of experimentally observable measures of cell destruction, such as lipolysis, proteolysis, cytoskeletal breakdown, pH alterations and free radical formation.
The classical approach to preventing Ca2+ neurotoxicity has been through pharmacological blockade of Ca2+ entry through Ca2+ channels and/or of excitatory amino acid (EAA)-gated channels. Variations on this strategy often lessen EAA-induced or anoxic cell death in vitro, lending credence to the Ca2+-neurotoxicity hypothesis. However, a variety of Ca2+ channel- and EAA-antagonists fail to protect against neuronal injury in vivo, particularly in experimental Spinal Cord Injury (SCI), head injury and global cerebral ischemia. It is unknown whether this is due to insufficient drug concentrations, inappropriate Ca2+ influx blockade, or to a contribution from non-Ca2+ dependent neurotoxic processes. It is likely that Ca2+ neurotoxicity is triggered through different pathways in different CNS neuron types. Hence, successful Ca2+-blockade would require a polypharmaceutical approach.
As a result of investigations, I have discovered methods of reducing the damaging effect of an injury to mammalian cells by treatment with compounds to reduce the binding between N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors and neuronal proteins.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method of reducing injury to mammalian cells


In an optical information recording medium comprising a substrate (11) of polycarbonate, a recording layer, and a reflecting layer (14) covering the reflecting layer and containing Al, an alloy layer (17) of a Ni-Cr alloy is deposited on the reflecting layer to sufficiently protect transmission of moisture into the reflecting layer. A covering layer (18) of ultraviolet curable resin may be deposited on the alloy layer. The recording layer is formed on the substrate and includes a magneto-optical layer (13) sandwiched between first and second interference layers (15, 16). For protecting transmission of moisture into the substrate, it is preferable that an additional layer (21) of SiO.sub.2 is deposited on the substrate opposite to the recording layer.

This invention relates to an optical information recording medium, such as a magneto-optical disk, which is used for recording information by an irradition of a laser beam.
Various optical information recording media of the type are already known. For example, an optical information recording medium is disclosed by Sakuya Tamada and five others in Japanese Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 28 (1989), Supplement 28-3, pp. 67-70, under the title of "Design Concept of Magneto-Optical Disk".
In the manner which will later be described more in detail, the recording medium comprises a substrate, a protective layer, a recording layer between the substrate and the protective layer, and a reflecting layer between the protective and the recording layers. The substrate is made of polycarbonate and therefore is transparent for the laser beam. The protective layer is made of an organic material. The reflecting layer contains aluminum (Al) and therefore is opaque for the laser beam.
As will later be described in detail, the recording medium has a recording density which is relatively high. Therefore, the recording medium enables an information recording system to have a large record capacity.
It is assumed that the reflecting layer is subjected to oxidation and deflection when the recording medium is used or preserved in an environment of a high temperature and humidity for a long time. Namely, the recording medium is disadvantageous in its weather resistance. This is because the protective layer of the organic material is insufficient to protect transmission of moisture.

Optical information recording medium in which a protective layer comprises a Ni-Cr alloy layer


Systems and methods are provided for evaluating an effect of a simulated communication network to media data. The method includes encoding media data to produce a plurality of packets, each packet being associated with a packet index number, a packet size and a packet transmission time. The packet index number, packet size and packet transmission time for each of the plurality of packets can be input to a communication network simulator to create trace packets corresponding to the plurality of packets. The communication network simulator output indicates at least one effect of the simulated communication network to input trace packets.

In recent years communication networks have expanded service to provide various types of data transmission in addition to voice communications, such as short message service (SMS), multimedia messaging service (MMS), electronic mail, internet browsing, etc. The growth in services has led to increased network performance requirements. In order to meet the needs of users, communication networks may be designed based on technical requirements needed to provide the various types of data transmission.

System and method for evaluation of network performance


A method and apparatus for identifying and compensating for the effects of defective pixels in high resolution digital cameras having image processing apparatus. The apparatus includes a storage system for storing data corresponding to either a dark current reference image and a white reference image and at least one actual image captured by a pixel array, and at least one processor coupled to the storage system for compensating the data corresponding to the actual image based upon the stored data. The method includes capturing and storing both dark and white reference images as well as capturing and storing actual images, identifying pixels that are affected by dark current or are defective pixels, reading data corresponding to pixels of an actual image affected by dark current or that are defective from the storage system and compensating the affected pixels.

Dark current refers to an undesired signal generated by a pixel of an imaging device even in the absence of a light signal. One source of dark current is thermally-generated electrons and holes. Thermally generated dark current in a CMOS active pixel imaging device presents problems in many imaging applications. As temperature increases, dark current likewise increases. Thermal energy generates unwanted free electrons in pixels. These unwanted free electrons alter the desired signal produced by electrons generated by incident photons. Additionally, some digital still cameras require long integration (exposure) times, which allows for higher image sensitivity. However, the longer the integration time the higher the sensitivity to thermally generated dark current.
The largest portion of unwanted free electrons in a pixel array occurs at the interface between a silicon dioxide layer overlying a substrate and an epitaxial or other silicon substrate layer of a chip on which pixel devices are formed. Even in an ideal defect-free process, dark currents also exist due to generation/recombination centers in the depletion region of a photodiode employed as the light sensitive element of a pixel. There are thermodynamic lower limits for dark currents, which place limitations on light sensitivity. As pixel technology is scaled down for high-density mega-pixel arrays for single chip digital cameras, sub-micron CMOS technology process-induced defects increase dramatically. Stress, extended defects and metallic impurities among other factors all contribute to undesirable dark current.
For example, the transfer, reset, source follower transistors typically employed in a four transistor (4T) pixel must be scaled down to achieve higher pixel density. Such scaling is not possible without a corresponding increase in dopant levels (e.g., p-well, Vt-adjustment and halo implant) and a reduction in gate oxide thickness for the transistors. This leads to higher levels of junction leakage, gate induced drain leakage (GIDL), drain-induced barrier lowering (DIBL) among others. All of the above contribute to undesired dark current levels. Additionally, field isolation region pitch must also be scaled down leading to increased stress levels and electron leakage near the field-edge of the photodiode.
Dark current for a given pixel actually has two components, a static portion and a variable portion. The variable portion is due to shot noise and follows Poisson statistics, with the root mean square (rms) dark current noise being equal to the square root of the dark current.
One method of compensating for dark current has been to identify an average pixel dark current and subtract that average value from each pixel signal. This method, however, fails to provide accurate and realistic images and ignores dark current noise, which is generated from outside of the image area. This technique is not repeatable and does not work well for most CMOS image sensors.
Defective pixels are another problem with imagers. Defective pixels include hot pixels, bad pixels and dead pixels. Hot pixels have a higher than average dark current, which arises from the manufacturing process so the dark current caused by each hot pixel remains fixed and can be corrected. Hot pixel information is recorded with dark current information and dark current compensation will also compensate for hot pixels. Bad pixels are pixels that are bad when manufactured or have an indication that they may go bad during their life. Detection of bad pixels is accomplished by capturing images of a uniformly lit background with different integration times. In particular, as the integration time is increased, a well-behaved (i.e., good) pixel is expected to produce a signal which increases linearly as a function of the increasing integration time. Pixels that behave in a non-linear fashion (for example, respond to linearly increasing integration times with spurious values) are identified as bad pixels. Dead pixels are pixels that do not respond correctly to light input. These pixels may appear as a colored bright dot or a dark dot on an image depending on the failed mechanism. There are three forms of dead pixels; dark dead pixels, white dead pixels and saturation dead pixels. Dead pixels can be detected either by hardware or by software after a pixel array is fabricated. A dark dead pixel is detected when the dark threshold value is above an average value of normal pixels under no light condition. A white dead pixel is detected when the white threshold value is above or below an average value for normal pixels under, for example, approximately a 28 Lux light condition. A saturation dead pixel is detected when the saturation threshold is below an average value of normal pixels under, for example, approximately a 100 Lux light condition.
Defective pixels, such as hot pixels, dead pixels and bad pixels are created during the manufacturing process may occur during the life of an imaging device containing a pixel array. Yield considerations and replacement costs for pixel arrays dictate that an alternative to discarding pixel arrays or replacing cameras or pixels arrays of imaging devices be provided.

Method and apparatus for reducing effects of dark current and defective pixels in an imaging device


An electrophotographic apparatus includes a plurality of image forming devices, wherein each image forming device includes a developing device having a tip end part and a toner storage part coupled to the tip end part. A thickness of the tip end part is smaller than a thickness of the toner storage part. An exposure device, which is an LED array, is arranged near the tip end part.

The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus, such as duplicating machines, printers, facsimile apparatuses, and the like, for forming a color image with the use of electro-photography, and more particular, to an electro-photographic apparatus for forming a color image making use of a plurality of color toners.
With an electrophotographic system, light from exposure means is irradiated on an evenly charged photosensitive body to form an electrostatic latent image corresponding to image data, toner is caused to adhere to the electrostatic latent image on the photosensitive body to develop a toner image, and the toner image is transferred to a recording medium to be fixed thereto.
Here, while an explanation will be given to the case where a recording medium is a paper sheet, the recording medium includes all sheet-shaped recording media formed of various materials such as plastics, and the like, as well as paper.
In forming a color image, a plurality of color toners such as yellow Y, magenta M, cyan C, black B, or the like are superposed to form the image.
Color image forming systems include a repetitive developing system of repetitively developing respective color toners on a single photosensitive body to form a color image, and a simultaneous developing system of simultaneously developing respective color toners on a plurality of photosensitive bodies to form a color image.
The repetitive developing system is one, in which a single photosensitive body is used to form a color image, and a four-revolution system is an example thereof.
The four-revolution system is one, in which a plurality of developing means for developing respective different color toners and an intermediate transfer body are arranged around a photosensitive body and color images formed on the photosensitive body are successively transferred color by color to the intermediate transfer body (see, for example, JP-A-8-137179).
Such transfer is repeated every color to superpose a plurality of color toner images on the intermediate transfer body, and then the color toner images on the intermediate transfer body are transferred to a medium to fix a color image thereon.
With the four-revolution system, color toner images of, for example, yellow Y, magenta M, cyan C, and black B are successively formed color by color on a photosensitive body and superposingly transferred to an intermediate transfer body, so that image formation takes time four times that taken in the case where a monochrome image is formed.
The simultaneous developing system is one, in which toner images are substantially simultaneously formed on a plurality of photosensitive bodies corresponding to several colors, and are transferred correspondingly to conveyance of a sheet to form a color image, and which is also called a tandem system (see, for example, JP-A-2001-356548).
With the tandem system, image forming means including a photosensitive body, charging means, exposure means, developing means, and cleaner means is independently provided every color, so that four sets of image forming means must be provided in the case where a color image is formed with the use of color toners of yellow Y, magenta M, cyan C, and black B.
With the tandem system, four sets of independent image forming means are used to form toner images substantially simultaneously, and the toner images are transferred to an intermediate transfer body, or a sheet. With the tandem system, color images are simultaneously superposed on one another, so that a color image can be formed in substantially the same time as that taken in the case where a monochrome image is formed, and so the system is suited for high-speed printing.
In recent years, demands for colored documents have been greatly increased in offices and color printers are being rapidly spread. Also, high-speed printing is wanted, and attention is paid to color printers of the tandem system.
Since color printers of the tandem system comprise four sets of image forming means, however, they are difficult to be miniaturized and large in size as compared with color printers of the repetitive developing system.
An example of conventional color printers of the tandem system is of a construction, in which four sets of independent image forming means making use of LED arrays as exposure means are stacked vertically and arranged, as disclosed in JP-A-2001-356548. In this example, exposure means are fixedly mounted in order to ensure accuracy in exposure, and developing means, that is, process cartridges are susceptible to taking out and putting in.
There has been proposed a construction, in which exposure means are fixedly mounted centrally of a body of an electrophotographic apparatus and light beams from the exposure means are irradiated on photosensitive bodies through spaces formed between charging means, developing means, cleaner means, and so on, which can be mounted to and dismounted from the bodies (see, for example, JP-A-2001-296713).
As to a toner regulatory blade for forming a thin toner layer on a developing roller, there is disclosed a configuration of a toner regulatory blade comprising an elastic blade made of a silicone compound or a fluorine compound and mounted on a tip end of a leaf spring (see, for example, JP-A-5-11584).
There is disclosed a configuration of a toner regulatory blade having a tip end thereof once bent so that a divergence, 30°≦θ≦90°, is formed between the blade tip end, which comes into contact with a developing roller in a direction following rotation of the developing roller, that is, in the same direction as a direction, in which a surface of the developing roller moves, and the developing roller (see, for example, JP-A-11-344858).
There is disclosed a configuration of a toner regulatory blade having a tip end thereof once bent so that a predetermined divergence is formed between the blade tip end, which comes into contact with a developing roller in a direction against rotation of the developing roller, that is, a direction opposed to a direction, in which a surface of the developing roller moves, and the developing roller (see, for example, JP-A-11-167278).
There is disclosed a configuration of a toner regulatory blade, in which a portion having an arcuate-shaped cross section is formed integrally at a tip end of the blade in contact with a developing roller in a direction against rotation of the developing roller (see, for example, JP-A-2-135470).
In the tandem system disclosed in JP-A-2001-356548, a pitch of photosensitive bodies is approximately 2.4 times a diameter of the photo-sensitive bodies. In the case where such pitch of photosensitive bodies is reduced to at most 2 times the photosensitive-body diameter, image forming means arranged vertically interfere with one another, and therefore a limit is placed on miniaturization of an area around the photosensitive bodies.
In the example disclosed in JP-A-2001-296713, exposure means are fixedly mounted centrally of a body of an electrophotographic apparatus and light beams from the exposure means are irradiated on photosensitive bodies through spaces formed between charging means, developing means, cleaner means, and so on, which can be attachably and detachably mounted to the bodies, so that a whole image forming apparatus becomes large in size and a limit is placed on miniaturization of image forming means.
No configuration suited to miniaturization of whole developing means is disclosed in the examples of JP-A-5-11584 and JP-A-11-344858.
In the system disclosed in JP-A-11-167278, in which a tip end of a toner regulatory blade is brought into contact with a developing roller in a direction against rotation of the developing roller, a fixing member for fixation of the tip end of the regulatory blade is in most cases arranged above the developing roller. When the spring is lengthened so as to decrease a spring constant of the regulatory blade to reduce dispersion in pressing forces, a larger space above the developing roller is needed, and so developing means must be thickened, thus making miniaturization of image forming means impossible.
In the system disclosed in JP-A-2-135470, in which a tip end of a toner regulatory blade having an arcuate-shaped cross section is brought into contact with a developing roller in a direction against rotation thereof, such system is of the "against" system and not suited to miniaturization of a developing means. Also, in the case where a toner regulatory blade having an arcuate-shaped cross section at a tip end thereof is diverted to a system involving contact in a direction following rotation of a developing roller and arranged substantially horizontally, there are generated a toner filming phenomenon, in which regulated toner accumulates between the toner regulatory blade and the developing roller to adhere to the regulatory blade or the developing roller, and a phenomenon, in which insufficiency of toner regulating forces causes an increase in a passing toner and insufficiency of electrification of toner.

Electrophotographic apparatus for forming a color image utilizing LED array exposure devices


A dental drill system with electrical-impedance sensing indicates when a bit of the drill system approaches cortical-cancellous bone, or bone-soft tissue interfaces. The drill system has a dental drill handset having a cannula bearing electrically coupled to a drilling bit, the drilling bit having an electrically insulated portion and an exposed portion. The cannula bearing is coupled to an electrical impedance spectroscopy sensing device configured to measure impedance between the cannula bearing of the dental drill handset and a ground plate, and a processing system uses EIS measurements to distinguish when the bit of the drill system approaches cortical- or cancellous bone, or bone-soft tissue interfaces.

Bone typically has two significantly different forms, cortical bone and cancellous bone. Cortical bone is typically found at surfaces of bone including in joints, as well as major portions of the shaft of long bones, and other areas that may be under high stress. Cortical, or compact, bone lines the outer surfaces of all bone and is denser and more structured in nature than cancellous bone. It is organized into tightly-packed osteons, each consisting of a Haversian canal (approximately 50 microns in diameter) at the center surrounded by concentric rings of matrix. Cancellous bone has a spongy structure, forming a mesh network that supports and conveys loads to and from cortical bone Cancellous bone, also referred to as trabecular or spongy bone, is found on the inside of long bones and the jaw (maxilla and mandible) bones and primarily provides light-weight, more flexible, structural support than cortical bone. It is composed of trabeculae ordered into a honeycomb-like structure and pores within cancellous bone are often filled with marrow and blood vessels.
Physical and biological properties of cortical and cancellous bone differ because of the differences in bone structure. In particular, because of the greatly different porosity of these bone types, penetration and adhesion of adhesives, the degree to which a screw or nail will hold in the bone, and growth rates of bone into porous implanted objects differ between cortical and cancellous bone.
Bone remodels throughout life. Where cortical bone lies over cancellous bone, thickness of the cortical bone varies with genetics, childhood nutritional and exercise history, age and health of a patient, as well as past medical history including fractures, periodontal disease, tooth extractions, muscle usage and weight born on the bone, and other factors. Surgeons must expect variation in bone structure between patients. In the mandible and maxilla, specifically, clinicians characterize the bone in dental implant sites according to the Lekholm and Zarb classification to determine the chance of implant success. There are four types, ranging from homogenous cortical bone, to a combination of cortical and cancellous bone, to almost entirely low density cancellous bone. Which classification depends on where the implant site is located (i.e. in the anterior region vs. premolar vs. molar) and patient characteristics.
Bone, and particularly bones of the head including the mandible and maxilla, may be penetrated by nerves and arteries, typically through foramen, or openings, through the bone. These nerves and arteries are critical structures as injury to them has potential to cause loss of sensation in parts of the mouth or face, or to cause necrotic degradation of parts of the bone. For example, the inferior alveolar nerve (IAN) penetrates through the mandible.
When performing surgery, including oral surgery, it is desirable for the surgeon to be aware of the type and dimensions of bone and surrounding structures, including critical structures, in which he is working. The surgeon may need to modify surgical techniques, such as the depth and trajectory of drilling, according to the dimensions, type, and thickness of layers of bone the surgeon is working with, to remain in bone to avoid penetrating adjacent structures like sinuses such as the maxillary sinus and nerves such as, the IAN.
One common dental surgery procedure is placement of an anchor implant to which abutments or dentures may be attached. This procedure requires drilling bone to form an initial osteotomy, or cavity within the bone, into which the implant is placed.
When performing an initial osteotomy, a surgeon may drill through a first layer of cortical bone before reaching cancellous bone, must drill deeply enough into the bone to give the implant good bonding surfaces, yet ensure the drill does not penetrate a thin distal layer of cortical bone to prevent such surgical complications as infections or neurosensory disturbances that result from drilling through the maxilla into a maxillary sinus cavity or into a nerve or blood vessel.

Electrical impedance sensing dental drill system configured to detect cancellous-cortical bone and bone-soft tissue boundaries