An apparatus and method for compensating for light falloff in a film master frame of a photographic image. A masking unit is positioned between the master frame and copy material in an optical printer. The masking unit may be an LCD panel. A controller calculates a light falloff compensation function to produce a light falloff correction parameter that is used to control the transmittance values of a plurality of pixels in the masking unit. When a photographic copy is made, the masking function serves to counteract light falloff that existed in the master frame to produce a copy with reduced effect from light falloff. Control and selection of the light falloff compensation function can be based on a number of factors related to the camera type, lens type, film type, flash type, and other factors that created the light falloff on the master frame. In addition, one or more of the master frames from a roll of film may be scanned to generate data to drive the light falloff compensation function. The data may be averaged to improve performance of the system.

The invention relates generally to the field of photography. More specifically, the present invention relates to systems and methods for improving image quality in optical systems.
It is understood by those skilled in the art that lenses produce non-uniform illumination at a focal plane. This leads to non-uniform exposure of film, when imaging a uniformly illuminated surface. For instance, light from a uniformly lit gray wall, perpendicular to an optical axis, will pass through a lens and form an image that is brightest at the center and dims gradually as it moves radially away from the center. The intensity of light in the image will form a pattern that dims in accordance with the cos4 of the angle between the optical axis, the lens, and the point in the image plane.
In addition, other factors such as vignetting, contribute to the lens light falloff phenomena. Light falloff caused by vignetting results from mechanical interference by the lens with the path of some of the light rays as they pass through the lens and other opto-mechanical structures.
In the traditional optical photographic system, every image captured on photographic film contains some component of lens light falloff. The lens of an optical printer also introduces lens light falloff during the printing process. However, in the case of negative photographic film, this falloff occurs to the negative of the original scene, and thus has the effect of counteracting the lens light falloff in the negative and providing a means of partial falloff compensation. In the case of reversal films, the lens of the optical printer creates more lens light falloff, thus exacerbating the effect.
In general, the level of falloff compensation counteracted by the optical printer for negative film images is less than the amount of falloff caused by the optics of a capture device. For this reason, there is a need to compensate for residual falloff induced by a capture system on a captured scene.
In U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/293,197 filed Apr. 16, 1999, which is entitled xe2x80x9cA Method for Compensating Digital Images for Light Falloff and an Apparatus Thereforxe2x80x9d, invented by the present inventors as the present application and assigned to the present assignee, the teachings of which are incorporated herein by reference, describe a method of correcting for lens light fall of in a digital photographic copier. In the case of a digital image, manipulation ability is enhanced by the fact that the images reside in digital form in a computer so that digital manipulation is readily available on a pixel by pixel basis.
However, in the case of an image created by a traditional film based photographic system, the approach involving digital manipulation of every picture element is not always practical or feasible. Consequently, a need exists to compensate for lens falloff in a captured scene where the image resides on traditional photographic film materials.
In another aspect of photography and illumination of scenes captured thereby, when a flash is used in order to provide more illumination on a scene than is available from ambient lighting, an effect similar to lens light falloff is often observed in the captured image. This is due to the fact that most electronic flash units do not provide uniform illumination over the image field, and in particular where the lens angle of view is at or greater than the flash units designed angle of coverage. The effect is to reduce the level of illumination near the edges of the scene, in a similar fashion to lens light falloff. Consequently, there exists a need to create a flash light falloff compensation for those scenes where flash falloff degrades image quality.
In U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,926,258; 5,155,524; 5,467,165; and 5,638,153 all assigned commonly to AGFA-Gavaert, a photographic copier with a masking unit positioned in the optical path is described. This masking unit is described in terms of an array of LCD elements, each of which may assume different shades of gray. In the aforementioned U.S. patents, the unsharp mask gray values are derived from the density values of the image and superimposed onto the masking unit for the purpose of compressing the dynamic range of the image such that the optical printer can adapt the contrast range of the captured image to the contrast range available with the printed medium and therefore produce an image that preserves as much detail from the original scene as is practicable. The process employed in these patents is to mask the image in strict accordance with the illumination values found in the digital image data. This is referred to generally as a contrast mask and is not designed to be effective, nor is it effective, for compensating for lens light falloff or flash light falloff.
Consequently, a need remains in the art for a system or method for compensating for lens light falloff and flash light falloff in an optical photographic copying process.
The need in the art is addressed by the apparatus and methods of the present invention. The illustrative embodiments include an apparatus for compensating for light falloff present in a photographic master frame at the time the master frame is printed in an optical photographic copier. The apparatus includes a masking unit that has a plurality pixel elements, each controllable in light transmittance. The controller is operable to adjust the transmittance of the plurality of pixel elements in accordance with a light falloff function. In one embodiment, a control input for specifying one of a plurality of light falloff compensation functions defining a light falloff correction parameter for the master frame is provided. The controller then operates in accordance with the light falloff function specified by the control input.
The illustrative embodiments also include a method of compensating for light falloff present in a photographic master frame at the time the master frame is printed to a copy in an optical photographic copier that has a masking unit having a plurality of individually controllable pixel elements, a controller, and a control input. This is accomplished by receiving an input parameter by the control input, calculating a light falloff correction parameter by the controller based on said input parameter, generating an individual compensation value for at least one controllable pixel elements based on said correction parameter, and superimposing the compensation value onto the master unit so that the light falloff in the photographic copy is reduced.
These and other aspects, objects, features and advantages of the present invention will be more clearly understood and appreciated from a review of the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments and appended claims, and by reference to the accompanying drawings.

System and method for light falloff compensation in an optical system


Method and apparatus for forming and laying paving blocks in which interchangeable grids are provided of dissimilar configuration comprising a plurality of mould cavities each enclosing one or more fixed centers of the modules of the pattern, whatever is in the conformation of the said grids. The modular and transformable ramming assembly comprises a plurality of fixed securing points distributed to correspond to the fixed centers of the modules of the mould pattern and intended for the removable fitting of ramming plates of forms and dimensions analogous with those of the underlying cavities of the selected grid. The changing of forms and/or dimensions of the moulded paving stones or slabs is effected by replacing one grid by another differently conformed grid and by fixing new removable ramming plates corresponding to the forms and/or dimensions of the cavities of the new grid, by means of the said fixing points.

The present invention relates to a process and an installation for the moulding and mechanical or semi-mechanical laying of standardised paving stones or slabs of concrete or other material.
More precisely the object of the invention concerns especially a method and an apparatus permitting the formation at industrial rates of paving stones, slabs and other elements, providing the faculty of imparting a great variety of forms to them, for each of the numberless realisable modules, without the application of complex technical means.
It is emphasised that the invention applies advantageously to interlocking paving stones or slabs equipped with protruding or re-entrant parts on at least two lateral faces of the largest inscribed rectangular parallelepiped, or to paving stones or slabs without connection, that is to say comprising no interlocking or shoulders.
The traditional process for the moulding of unconnected or interlocking paving stones or slabs consists generally of a one-piece mould and a similarly one-piece rammer. These two parts are heavy and relatively expensive.
For the manufacture of a great variety of forms of paving stones or slabs a large number of moulds and rammers is needed, and this number must also be multiplied by the various desired thicknesses, most frequently 6, 8, 10 and 12 cm.
For the manufacture of bricks, machines are known which comprise a mould comprising individually removable cores and separations, so as to permit a change of the forms and/or dimensions of the moulded bricks, while the rammer comprises removable protruding parts capable of being replaced to correspond to the form of the cavities of the mould therebeneath.
However the changes of forms and dimensions are effected empirically and necessitate a separate dismantlement of each core and separation previously positioned in the mould, and the separate installation of each new core or separation. Under these circumstances such machines can at most be suitable for the simultaneous moulding of 1 to 4 construction elements, but are absolutely not appropriate to the simultaneous moulding of a large number of elements.

Process and installation for moulding paving stones or slabs

"P.B.I." Procedes et Brevets Industriels


A parabolic reflector antenna, designed to discriminate between incoming and outgoing waves having mutually orthogonal planes of polarization, has a ratio R between focal distance f and diameter D which, for optimum efficiency and cross-polarization decoupling, lies between 0.46 and 0.5 and operation in the TE.sub.11 mode and above 0.6 for operation in the dual TE.sub.11 +TM.sub.11 mode. An associated feed, in the shape of a slightly tapering horn of circular cross-section connected to a waveguide of square cross-section, has a relative aperture .alpha., defined as the ratio between its aperture radius r and the wavelength .lambda..sub.o at the center of the operating frequency band, which in the first instance ranges between 0.52 and 0.6 and in the second instance is given by kR+h with k.apprxeq.1 and h between about 0.1 and 0.15.

For two-way transmission of messages between two stations equipped with such antennas it is convenient to use mutually orthogonal planes of polarization for incoming and outgoing waves lying within a common frequency band. An essential requirement in such a case is the minimization of cross-coupling between the two types of polarization; this calls for an effective suppression of side lobes in the radiation pattern. A high efficiency in both transmission and reception is, of course, also required.
In so-called front-fed antennas, an important design parameter from the viewpoint of efficiency is the ratio R=f/D where f is the focal distance and D is the diameter of the paraboloidal reflector surface. Conventional means for the suppression of side lobes include the provision of an absorbent collar peripherally surrounding the reflector to reduce so-called spillover.
The cross-polarization field E.sub.x is generally given by the expression ##EQU1## where .rho. is the radial variable used for integrating the field over the reflector surface, .THETA..sub.p and .PHI..sub.p are angular coordinates determining the field of radiation, and .alpha. is the relative aperture of the feed given by r/.lambda..sub.o, r being the radius of the feed aperture confronting the reflector and .lambda..sub.o being the median wavelength at the center of the band of operating frequencies. Function g will be described in greater detail hereinafter.
Thus, effective suppression of cross-coupling requires substantial elimination of the field E.sub.x.
In a paper entitled "Feed Design and Method for Reflector Antennas", presented by us at the European Microwave Conference held in Brussels in September 1973, we have discussed the relationship of the efficiency of a front-fed parabolic antenna and the aforementioned parametric ratio R=f/D. We have since determined, however, that the conditions for maximum antenna efficiency .eta. do not yield the best results for the elimination of cross-coupling between waves polarized in mutually orthogonal (e.g. horizontal and vertical) planes.

Parabolic reflector antenna for telecommunication system

CSELT-Centro Studi e Laboratori Telecomunicazioni S.p.A.


Systems, methods, and devices of the various embodiments enable managing a start time of media content in a media receiver device. A processor of the receiver device may receive media content labeled with a transmission time from a sending device. The processor may determine a service construction delay of the media content of the media content. The processor may determine a time offset of the media content based on the service construction delay. The processor may deliver the media content to a streaming media client in the receiver device using the time offset.

Adaptive bitrate streaming is a technique used in streaming media data (such as video, audio, and other multimedia data) over a communication network. Examples of adaptive bitrate streaming techniques include Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) (DASH), Adobe Dynamic Streaming for Flash, Apple HTTP Live Streaming ("HLS"), and Microsoft Smooth Streaming. DASH is a streaming standard supporting adaptive streaming using the HTTP protocol. In one variant of DASH, media intervals may be composed of one or more layered chunks, and each additional layered chunk added to a base layer chunk may increase the quality of the media presentation for that media interval. Each media presentation may be encoded using a scalable encoder such that each media interval includes a base layer chunk and one or more enhanced layer chunks.
Streamed content data (e.g., media content) is received and rendered in a receiver device by a client application, such as a streaming media client. Among other delays, received content data may be subject to delays due to handling of the content data by a protocol stack of the receiver device. While the receiver device may be configured to anticipate a certain level of delay, if there is more or less delay than anticipated, performance of the streaming media client may be adversely affected. For example, the streaming media client may begin presentation of content data, or the streaming media client may launch, either too early or too late. When the streaming media client begins to present the content data too early, presentation stalls may result due to lack of sufficient data for smooth presentation of content. When the streaming media client begins to present the content data too late, among other things, the streaming media client may delay presentation of the content data longer than strictly necessary, degrading the channel change performance and increasing overall latency unnecessarily.

Delay compensation for broadcast adaptive bitrate streaming


A gelled food composition containing fruit pieces distributed therein is obtained by preparing, separately, a jelly ground mass composition and a fruit composition which contains fruit pieces and then combining the two compositions and cooling to obtain the gelled composition wherein (a) to prepare the jelly ground mass, ingredients, in amounts by weight based upon jelly ground mass weight, of from 15% to 30% sugar, of from 0.4% to 0.7% xanthan and of a gelling agent which is (i) from 0.5% to 1.5% of a carrageenan composition, (ii) from 0.4% to 1.0% of a carrageenan composition and from 0.1% to 0.5% locust bean gum and (iii) from 0.1% to 0.5% of gellan gum, are blended into water at a temperature so that the ingredients are suspended in the water, and (b) the fruit composition is prepared with fruit pieces and with xanthan in an amount, by weight based upon the weight of the fruit composition, of from 0.4% and 0.7%. Both compositions are heated to a temperature and for a time to at least pasteurize them, and to obtain the final gelled composition, the fruit composition, at a temperature of from 10.degree. C. to 20.degree. C., is injected into a stream of the jelly ground mass having a temperature which is not below a temperature which effects gellation, and the composition so combined is heated to a temperature above 70.degree. C. for preventing gellation and filled into a container which then is sealed and cooled to gel the product to obtain the gelled product in the container.

The present invention relates to food compositions which contain a food gel component and their preparation and particularly to gelled compositions which contain a fruit phase, more particularly fruit pieces, and to combining component ingredients to thicken, gel and stabilize the compositions.
It is already known to prepare a gelled dessert with juice and chunks. U.S. Pat. No. 3,556,810 concerns an aqueous dessert gel containing as gelling agents a combination of four polysaccharides, such as calcium sensitive low-methoxy pectin, locust bean gum, a potassium-sensitive carrageenan and a calcium-sensitive carrageenan. However, the complicated composition of thickener, the unsolved degradation of some of the thickeners during heat-treatment and the known reduction of thickening at elevated temperatures makes this system not useful in manufacturing practice. U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,658,556 and 4,752,489 concern a process for preparing a gelled composition containing a homogeneous distribution of fruit pieces, said composition containing as gelling agents locust bean gum and carrageenan. In the process, the containers are rotated during sterilisation and cooled down to the setting temperature. The process requires a special handling which can be done only with canned products, but is not useful for cup filled desserts. Additionally, the movement during gel setting or just before induces uncontrollable variability of the gel texture.

Gelled food composition including fruit pieces and its preparation


A system for recovering concrete wash product includes a support frame mounted pivotally to a chassis of a transit concrete mixing vehicle, and a container mounted to the frame for arcuate movement with the frame, between a collecting position with the container disposed below a discharge chute of the vehicle, and a dispensing position with the container disposed adjacent an opening of a mixing drum of the vehicle. The container initially is placed in the collecting position to receive concrete wash product from the discharge chute by gravity as the chute is cleaned with water. After cleaning, the frame is pivoted to raise the container to the dispensing position, and a valve is opened to allow the concrete wash product to flow from the container into the mixing drum by gravity. In vehicles equipped with booster axle systems, the booster axle frame supports and positions the container, and also supports and positions the booster wheel/axle assembly.

The present invention relates to recovery of the wash product generated when cleaning discharge chutes and other concrete dispensing equipment, and more particularly to wash product containment and recycling devices installed or retrofit to transit concrete mixers.
Major concrete installations typically employ transit concrete mixing vehicles, also known as concrete mixers or trucks, to deliver loads of concrete from a concrete production facility to the construction site. The trucks have rotating drums that mix the concrete during transit, so that the concrete is thoroughly mixed and ready for dispensing when the truck reaches the site. After dispensing, a concrete residue remains on the discharge chutes, hoppers, and tools such as shovels and trowels used to handle, guide, and shape the concrete. To prevent the residue from hardening, these components are cleaned on site, typically by rinsing them with water. The resulting residue of this cleaning, i.e. concrete wash product, includes water, dissolved cementatious materials, suspended fine particulates, and larger aggregate. The water is highly alkaline due to the dissolved materials, and consequently is considered a potential groundwater contaminant. Thus, the previous practice of simply dumping concrete wash product onto the ground at the construction site is generally prohibited by local ordinance, state statutes, or regulations.
A variety of systems and devices have been proposed to address the heightened environmental concern. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,117,995 (Connard, III), U.S. Pat. No. 7,147,360 (Elefsrud), and U.S. Patent Application Publication No, 2006/0000490 (Barragan et al.) disclose concrete mixing trucks equipped with containers for collecting the concrete wash product generated as discharge chutes and other components are rinsed.
Several of the systems involve returning the residue to the mixing drum. In U.S. Pat. No. 6,155,277 (Barry) and U.S. Pat. No. 6,866,047 (Marvin), a pump is used to transfer collected concrete wash product back into the drum. U.S. Pat. No. 6,039,468 (Kowalcyzk) shows a system in which a washout bucket mounted on a catwalk during transit is placed under the discharge chute during cleaning. After cleaning, the bucket is removably mounted to the booster axle frame, to be lifted by the frame to dump its contents into the mixing drum. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,741,065 (Bell et al.), a canister is placed below the discharge chute during cleaning. After cleaning, the canister is attached to an upright rail mounted to the mixing truck, then lifted upwardly along the rail until the canister is tilted to empty its contents into the drum.
Although these approaches are useful for avoiding groundwater contamination, they raise problems which to date have not been satisfactorily addressed. The removably mounted containers are difficult to maneuver due to their bulk and weight, especially when filled with concrete wash product. They are inconvenient, due to the need to attach and later detach the container from the rail, the booster axle frame, or other mechanism used to lift the container to a height sufficient for emptying its contents into the mixing drum. Time is required to remove the container from the fixture that supports it during transit from the concrete plant to the construction site, and further time is lost reattaching the container to the fixture after returning its contents to the mixing drum.
Some systems attempt to counteract these problems by permanently mounting the container to the mixing truck chassis. These systems rely on pumps or air pressure to lift the concrete wash product from the container into the drum, and neither approach is particularly reliable in cold weather. The alternative is to haul the collected concrete wash product back to the concrete plant for disposal or other handling.
Systems that recover concrete wash product and return it to the mixing drum advantageously reduce the risk of groundwater contamination while facilitating reuse of a product that otherwise goes to waste. However, if the content of the mixing drum is not taken into account at the concrete plant when the constituents of the next batch are loaded into the drum, there is a risk of unintentional and undesirable alteration of constituent ratios.
Therefore, the present invention has several aspects directed to one or more of the following objects:                to provide a container for collecting concrete wash product, mounted to a transit concrete mixer through a mechanism suitable for supporting the container in transit operable to alternatively lower the container for collecting concrete wash product and raise the container for returning collected wash product to the mixing drum;        to provide a device for mounting a container to a booster axle frame of a transit concrete mixer such that the usual pivoting of the booster axle frame moves the container between a wash product collecting position and a wash product dispensing position;        to provide a process for the recovery of concrete wash product by gravity, and the return of collected wash product by gravity to a mixing drum of a transit concrete mixer for reuse, without manually lifting, mounting, dismounting, or otherwise handling the container used for such recovery and return; and        to provide a device for measuring concrete wash product collected in a container while cleaning the discharge chute and other concrete dispensing components.


In a first feature of the invention, an optical switching element is a semi-transparent, metallic film having variable absorption and transmission depending upon whether one or two optical signals are present. The metallic film can be illuminated from opposite sides in a direction perpendicular to its plane by two optical signals or can be illuminated obliquely at the same angle of incidence from opposite sides by two optical signals. In another embodiment, the metallic film is located between two optical waveguides. In a second feature of The invention, an optical switching element is an optically active material that rotates the plane of polarization of an optical input signal in the absence of an optical control signal and rotates the plane of polarization of the optical input signal to a lesser degree in response to an optical control signal. The optical input signal and the optical control signal have .pi. radians phase difference in the optical waveguide and have the same plane of polarization.

Optical switching devices, logic elements and other computer components have been the subject of research because of the desirability of optical systems in many circumstances. Optical computer systems offer the advantages of high operating speeds, immunity to electrical noise and lower power requirements. Such systems can be entirely optical, wherein all data and control signals are in optical form without conversion to electronic signals. A general discussion of optical switching networks is given by Hinton in "Architectural Considerations for Photonic Switching Networks", IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications, Vol. 6, No. 7, August 1988, pages 1209-1226.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,863,247, issued Sep. 5, 1989 to Lasher et al, discloses trinary optical logic systems using an optical three-state polarization scheme.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,811,258, issued Mar. 7, 1989 to Andersen et al, discloses an optical logic gate using nonlinear reflection and refraction at an interface.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,926,366, issued May 15, 1990 to Cuykendall et al, discloses thin film optical computing circuits including a thin film half adder, a full adder and a carry-propagate adder.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,761,060, issued Aug. 2, 1988 to Sawano, discloses an optical D-type flipflop that uses an optical switch and an optical bistable element.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,922,497, issued May 1, 1990 to Mori et al, discloses an optical logic circuit using a semiconductor laser.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,910,737, issued Mar. 20, 1990 to Payne et al, discloses a bistable optical fiber device that can be used for logic memory and regenerative amplification applications.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,900,115, issued Feb. 13, 1990 to Heuring et al, discloses optical logic circuits including a lithium niobate switch and an optical fiber loop as a delay line memory.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,875,181, issued Oct. 17, 1989 to Hagemeyer, discloses a device for performing logical operations wherein the plane of polarization of linearly polarized light is distorted by electric or magnetic fields.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,786,128, issued Nov. 22, 1988 to Birnbach, discloses a multilayer device for modulating and reflecting light, comprising an electro-optic layer with a variable index of refraction. The device can be used as an optical logic element.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,707,081, issued Nov. 17, 1987 to Mir, discloses a linear light valve array having discretely addressable electro-optic gates for selectively changing the polarization of incident polarized light.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,689,793, issued Aug. 25, 1987 to Liu et al, discloses optical logic gates and circuits based direct polarization switching in a semiconductor laser.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,632,518, issued Dec. 30, 1986 to Jensen, discloses a nonlinear optical logic device in which two input light beams having independent modes are launched. The device operates independently of the relative phases of the two inputs.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,262,992, issued Apr. 21, 1981 to Berthold III, discloses an integrated optical logic element formed on a substrate of electro-optic material, capable of being controlled to perform different logic operations.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,128,300, issued Dec. 5, 1978 to Stotts et al, discloses a generalized optical logic element capable of simultaneously performing different logic functions.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,984,785, issued Oct. 5, 1976 to Riseberg et al, discloses an optical logic device which includes a laser resonator which in turn includes means for producing an optical laser output having a direction of polarization along selectable directions.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,849,740, issued Nov. 19, 1974 to Brandt, discloses an integrated thin film logic gate including two input waveguides to a laser active film and one waveguide output from the laser active film.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,637,287, issued Jan. 25, 1972 to Hansen, discloses techniques for reducing the opening time of optical gates employing a gate medium in which birefringence is optically induced.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,363,106, issued Dec. 7, 1982 to Tai, discloses a computation module for an optical computer based on the residue number system.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,448,282, issued Jun. 3, 1969 to Fleisher et al, discloses an optical AND gate employing linearly polarized light and a tube having a photocathode.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,932,739, issued Jun. 12, 1990 to Islam, discloses optical logic devices which utilize soliron trapping between two optical signals propagating in a birefringent fiber.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,867,515, issued Sep. 19, 1989 to Normandin, discloses an optical modulator which utilizes a channel waveguide and an optical control signal.
All of the known prior art optical switching components have had serious disadvantages, including relatively slow switching speeds, high power requirements, and the like.
It is a general object of the present invention to provide novel optical switches.
It is another object of the present invention to provide apparatus for performing binary arithmetic operations using optical signals.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide optical switching components which require low power.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide optical switching components based o.sub.n controlled transmittance of light through a semi-transparent metallic film.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide optical switching components based on controlled rotation of the plane of polarization of an input optical signal by an optically active substance.


Electrostatic lens for focussing the beams of charged particles, more particularly of ions, which have electrodes being designed as an electric conductor with a ring-shaped section, the inner edge of which is essentially circular, whereas at least one of the electrodes is composed of sector areas (4) succeeding one another along the periphery of an electrode, whereas. each sector area is covering one predetermined angle area of the periphery, PA1 the sector areas are electrically connected to one another and PA1 the sector areas are linked to the holding device via at least one adjusting element per sector area PA1 the position of the sector areas may be adjusted irrespective of the other sector areas by means of the adjusting elements during operation of the electrostatic lens.. The sector areas may be mechanically separated or extend from one thickness minimum of an electrode cross-section with periodically varying thickness to the next one.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrostatic lens for focusing the beams of charged particles, more particularly of ions, which have at least two electrodes being designed as an electric conductor with a ring-shaped section, the inner edge of which is essentially circular, whereas each electrode is connected to a power supply, can be connected to an electric potential and is fastened on a holding device.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Electrostatic lenses are used in particle optical systems and may be used for multi-various applications. Of particular interest is the application of ion beam lithography used in structure semiconductors. In the case of ion beam lithography, an ion beam pictures the structures of a shadow mask on a wafer in a usually reduced picture. In order to produce a well defined picture of the mask structures on the wafer with the help of the ion beam, the ion beam is led through an imaging system in which a number of electrodes held at different electrostatic potentials are combined into electrostatic lenses.
Due to the extraordinarily high requirements expected in the production of semiconductors, the electrostatic field in ion beam lithography has to be very accurately defined in the areas traversed by the ion beam. The efficiency of such a physical system is thus essentially dependent on the fact that the actual electrostatic fields are corresponding with the set points. This means that on one hand, the shape of the electrodes--which is usually radial symmetric--and their spacing is "perfect" and, on the other hand, that all the parts of the projection system have to be "perfectly" aligned. The production of such a "perfect" system is implying considerable measures and costs. Furthermore, in case of a defect or a change in shape or alignment of the electrodes, for example, due to environmental factors, the repair or realignment of the system is particularly difficult.
If, during the mounting of an ion beam lithography installation, inaccuracies in production or misalignments are making their appearance, the image will be faulty also. Thanks to electric or magnetic multipole fields, the correction of image distortions is possible and well known to those skilled in the art.
In U.S. Pat. No. 2,919,381, multipole electrodes are used to correct image distortions. Such a multipole electrode is divided into sectors functioning as partial electrodes and having their own power supply. In feeding potential differences between the partial electrodes of a multipole electrode, a multipole field is being produced that corrects partially the different image distortions.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,963,748 teaches combining multipole electrodes longitudinally, thus further improving the image accuracy, as well as electrodes having a rotationally symmetrical basic shape and presenting, among others, advantages in manufacturing techniques.
In a multipole electrode of the type mentioned above, each partial electrode has to be connected individually to a supply point and has to be triggered by it. This may imply considerable measures. Moreover, the potential difference between adjacent partial electrodes may lead to big field intensities which are occurring particularly on the edges of the partial electrode of an essentially rotationally symmetrical electrode.

IMS-Ionen Mikrofabrikations Systeme GmbH


A piston packing has a mounting surface and a seal surface. The seal surface and the mounting surface are fitted with a head and an annular groove portion, respectively, of a piston.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a piston packing having a seal function, and more specifically, to a piston reciprocating in a cylinder tube which has the openings at both ends blocked by a pair of end plates, and a structure for mounting a piston packing to such a piston in an improved fitting manner.
2. Description of the Related Art
An actuator such as a rodless cylinder is conventionally employed for example as transfer means for a workpiece.
The rodless cylinder has a pair of end plates coupled to both ends of a cylinder tube in the longitudinal direction and a cylinder chamber is formed in the cylinder tube by blocking the openings at both ends of the cylinder tube therewith. In the cylinder tube, a piston reciprocating along the cylinder chamber is mounted and a slider placed to be movable integrally with the piston is attached on the upper side of the piston.
As shown in FIG. 6, a piston 3 moving along the cylinder chamber 2 of a cylinder tube 1 is fitted with a ring-shaped piston packing 5 along an annular groove 4 cut at the outer circumferential surface. In this case, the bottom surface 6 of the annular groove 4 and the seal surface 7 of the piston packing 5 are brought into close contact so that the entire piston packing 5 is stored in the annular groove 4. Meanwhile, the lip portion 8 of the piston packing 5 slidably comes into contact with the inner surface of the cylinder tube 1.
Note that there is an annular projection 9 serving as a wall to engage the piston packing 5 at one end of the piston 3.
The fitting manner of the piston 3 and the piston packing 5 is not limited to such a rodless cylinder but is universally employed for various actuators or the like reduced to practice which are not shown.
Note however that in the conventional rodless cylinder, the width and depth of the annular groove 4 must be kept at prescribed precision in order to allow the piston packing 5 to smoothly achieve the seal function.
Furthermore, the bottom surface 6 of the annular groove 4 serves as a mounting surface and also seal surface of the piston packing 5, and the wall surface of the annular groove 4 must be smoothed by finishing work in order to maintain the seal function.
In addition, there is a demand for subjecting the piston 3 and the piston packing 5 to mass production, thereby reducing the cost.
A general object of the present invention is to provide a mounting structure for a piston packing which can be subjected to mass production for reducing the cost while maintaining the seal function.


Methods for making a modified Cry3A toxin are disclosed. Such methods include the insertion of a protease recognition site that is recognized by a gut protease of a target insect, such as corn rootworm, into at least one position of a Cry3A toxin so that a modified Cry3A toxin is thus designed. The coding sequence of the modified Cry3A toxin may be transformed into a host cell and the host cell grown under conditions that allow the host cell to produce the modified Cry3A toxin. The host cell may be a plant cell and the plant may be comprised in a transgenic plant. Thus, the transgenic plant may be used to produce the modified Cry3A toxin.

Species of corn rootworm are considered to be the most destructive corn pests. In the United States the three important species are Diabrotica virgifera virgifera, the western corn rootworm; D. longicornis barberi, the northern corn rootworm and D. undecimpunctala howardi, the southern corn rootworm. Only western and northern corn rootworms are considered primary pests of corn in the US Corn Bell. Corn rootworm larvae cause the most substantial plant damage by feeding almost exclusively on corn roots. This injury has been shown to increase plant lodging, to reduce grain yield and vegetative yield as well as alter the nutrient content of the grain. Larval feeding also causes indirect effects on maize by opening avenues through the roots for bacterial and fungal infections which lead to root and stalk rot diseases. Adult corn rootworms are active in cornfields in late summer where they feed on ears, silks and pollen, interfering with normal pollination.
Corn rootworms are mainly controlled by intensive applications of chemical pesticides, which are active through inhibition of insect growth, prevention of insect feeding or reproduction, or cause death. Good corn rootworm control can thus be reached, but these chemicals can sometimes also affect other, beneficial organisms. Another problem resulting from the wide use of chemical pesticides is the appearance of resistant insect varieties. Yet another problem is due to the fact that corn rootworm larvae feed underground thus making it difficult to apply rescue treatments of insecticides. Therefore, most insecticide applications are made prophylactically at the time of planting. This practice results in a large environmental burden. This has been partially alleviated by various farm management practices, but there is an increasing need for alternative pest control mechanisms.
Biological pest control agents, such as Bacillis thuringiensis (Bt) strains expressing pesticidal toxins like δ-endotoxins, have also been applied to crop plants with satisfactory results against primarily lepidopteran insect pests. The δ-endotoxins are proteins held within a crystalline matrix that are known to possess insecticidal activity when ingested by certain insects. The various δ-endotoxins have been classified based upon their spectrum of activity and sequence homology. Prior to 1990, the major classes were defined by their spectrum of activity with the Cry1 proteins active against Lepidoptera (moths and butterflies), Cry2 proteins active against both Lepidoptera and Diptera (flies and mosquitoes), Cry3 proteins active against Coleoptera (beetles) and Cry4 proteins active against Diptera (Hofte and Whitely, 1989, Microbiol. Rev. 53:242-255). Recently a new nomenclature was developed which systematically classifies the Cry proteins based on amino acid sequence homology rather than insect target specificities (Crickmore et al. 1998, Microbiol. Molec. Biol. Rev. 62:807-813).
The spectrum of insecticidal activity of an individual δ-endotoxin from Bt is quite narrow, with a given δ-endotoxin being active against only a few species within an Order. For instance, the Cry3A protein is known to be very toxic to the Colorado potato beetle, Leptinotarsa decemlineata, but has very little or no toxicity to related beetles in the genus Diabrotica (Johnson et al., 1993, J. Econ. Entomol. 86:330-333). According to Slaney et al. (1992, Insect Biochem. Molec. Biol. 22:9-18) the Cry3A protein is at least 2000 times less toxic to southern corn rootworm larvae than to the Colorado potato beetle. It is also known that Cry3A has little or no toxicity to the western corn rootworm.
Specificity of the δ-endotoxins is the result of the efficiency of the various steps involved in producing an active toxin protein and its subsequent interaction with the epithelial cells in the insect mid-gut. To be insecticidal, most known δ-endotoxins must first be ingested by the insect and proteolytically activated to form an active toxin. Activation of the insecticidal crystal proteins is a multi-step process. After ingestion, the crystals must first be solubilized in the insect gut. Once solubilized, the δ-endotoxins are activated by specific proteolytic cleavages. The proteases in the insect gut can play a role in specificity by determining where the δ-endotoxin is processed. Once the δ-endotoxin has been solubilized and processed it binds to specific receptors on the surface of the insects' mid-gut epithelium and subsequently integrates into the lipid bilayer of the brush border membrane. Ion channels then form disrupting the normal function of the midgut eventually leading to the death of the insect.
In Lepidoptera, gut proteases process δ-endotoxins from 130-140 kDa protoxins to toxic proteins of approximately 60-70 kDa. Processing of the protoxin to toxin has been reported to proceed by removal of both N— and C-terminal amino acids with the exact location of processing being dependent on the specific insect gut fluids involved (Ogiwara et al., 1992, J. Invert. Pathol. 60:121-126). The proteolytic activation of a 6-endotoxin can play a significant role in determining its specificity. For example, a δ-endotoxin from Bt var. aizawa, called IC1, has been classified as a Cry1Ab protein based on its sequence homology with other known Cry1Ab proteins. Cry1Ab proteins are typically active against lepidopteran insects. However, the IC1 protein has activity against both lepidopteran and dipteran insects depending upon how the protein is processed (Haider et al. 1986, Euro. J. Biochem. 156: 531-540). In a dipteran gut, a 53 kDa active IC1 toxin is obtained, whereas in a lepidopteran gut, a 55 kDa active IC1 toxin is obtained. IC1 differs from the holotype HD-1 Cry1Ab protein by only four amino acids, so gross changes in the receptor binding region do not seem to account for the differences in activity. The different proteolytic cleavages in the two different insect guts possibly allow the activated molecules to fold differently thus exposing different regions capable of binding different receptors. The specificity therefore, appears to reside with the gut proteases of the different insects.
Coleopteran insects have guts that are more neutral to acidic and coleopteran-specific δ-endotoxins are similar to the size of the activated lepidopteran-specific toxins. Therefore, the processing of coleopteran-specific δ-endotoxins was formerly considered unnecessary for toxicity. However, recent data suggests that coleopteran-active δ-endotoxins are solubilized and proteolyzed to smaller toxic polypeptides. The 73 kDa Cry3A δ-endotoxin protein produced by B. thuringiensis var. tenebrionis is readily processed in the bacterium at the N-terminus, losing 49-57 residues during or after crystal formation to produce the commonly isolated 67 kDa form (Carroll et al., 1989, Biochem. J. 261:99-105). McPherson et al., 1988 (Biotechnology 6:61-66) also demonstrated that the native cry3A gene contains two functional translational initiation codons in the same reading frame, one coding for the 73 kDa protein and the other coding for the 67 kDa protein starting at Met-1 and Met-48 respectively, of the deduced amino acid sequence (See SEQ ID NO: 2). Both proteins then can be considered naturally occurring full-length Cry3A proteins. Treatment of soluble 67 kDa Cry3A protein with either trypsin or insect gut extract results in a cleavage product of 55 kDa with Asn-159 of the deduced amino acid sequence at the N-terminus. This polypeptide was found to be as toxic to a susceptible coleopteran insect as the native 67 kDa Cry3A toxin. (Carroll et al. Ibid). Thus, a natural trypsin recognition site exists between Arg-158 and Asn-159 of the deduced amino acid sequence of the native Cry3A toxin (SEQ ID NO: 2). Cry3A can also be cleaved by chymotrypsin, resulting in three polypeptides of 49, 11, and 6 kDa. N-terminal analysis of the 49 and 6 kDa components showed the first amino acid residue to be Ser-162 and Tyr-588, respectively (Carroll et al., 1997 J. Invert. Biol. 70:41-49). Thus, natural chymotrypsin recognition sites exist in Cry3A between His-161 and Ser-162 and between Tyr-587 and Tyr-588 of the deduced amino acid sequence (SEQ ID NO: 2). The 49 kDa chymotrypsin product appears to be more soluble at neutral pH than the native 67 kDa protein or the 55 kDa trypsin product and retains full insecticidal activity against the Cry3A-susceptible insects, Colorado potato beetle and mustard beetle, (Phaedon cochleariae).
Insect gut proteases typically function in aiding the insect in obtaining needed amino acids from dietary protein. The best understood insect digestive proteases are serine proteases that appear to be the most common (Englemann and Geraerts, 1980, J. Insect Physiol. 261:703-710), particularly in lepidopteran species. The majority of coleopteran larvae and adults, for example Colorado potato beetle, have slightly acidic midguts, and cysteine proteases provide the major proteolytic activity (Wolfson and Mudock, 1990, J. Chem. Ecol. 16:1089-1102). More precisely, Thie and Houseman (1990, Insect Biochem. 20:313-318) identified and characterized the cysteine proteases, cathepsin B and H, and the aspartyl protease, cathepsin D in Colorado potato beetle. Gillikin et al. (1992, Arch. Insect Biochem. Physiol. 19:285-298) characterized the proteolytic activity in the guts of western corn rootworm larvae and found 15, primarily cysteine, proteases. Until disclosed in this invention, no reports have indicated that the serine protease, cathepsin G, exists in western corn rootworm. The diversity and different activity levels of the insect gut proteases may influence an insect's sensitivity to a particular Bt toxin.
Many new and novel Bt strains and δ-endotoxins with improved or novel biological activities have been described over the past five years including strains active against nematodes (EP 0517367A1). However, relatively few of these strains and toxins have activity against coleopteran insects. Further, none of the now known coleopteran-active δ-endotoxins, for example Cry3A, Cry3B, Cry3C, Cry7A, Cry8A, Cry8B, and Cry8C, have sufficient oral toxicity against corn rootworm to provide adequate field control if delivered, for examples through microbes or transgenic plants. Therefore, other approaches for producing novel toxins active against corn rootworm need to be explored.
As more knowledge has been gained as to how the δ-endotoxins function, attempts to engineer δ-endotoxins to have new activities have increased. Engineering 6-endotoxins was made more possible by the solving of the three dimensional structure of Cry3A in 1991 (Li et al., 1991, Nature 353:815-821). The protein has three structural domains: the N-terminal domain I, from residues 1-290, consists of 7 alpha helices, domain II, from residues 291-500, contains three beta-sheets and the C-terminal domain 111, from residues 501-644, is a beta-sandwich. Based on this structure, a hypothesis has been formulated regarding the structure/function relationship of the δ-endotoxins. It is generally thought that domain I is primarily responsible for pore formation in the insect gut membrane (Gazit and Shai, 1993, Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 57:2816-2820), domain II is primarily responsible for interaction with the gut receptor (Ge et al., 1991, J. Biol. Chem. 32:3429-3436) and that domain III is most likely involved with protein stability (Li et al. 1991, supra) as well as having a regulatory impact on ion channel activity (Chen et al., 1993, PNAS 90:9041-9045).
Lepidopteran-active ε-endotoxins have been engineered in attempts to improve specific activity or to broaden the spectrum of insecticidal activity. For example, the silk moth (Bombyx mori) specificity domain from Cry1Aa was moved to Cry1Ac, thus imparting a new insecticidal activity to the resulting chimeric protein (Ge et al., 1989, PNAS 86: 4037-4041). Also, Bosch et al. 1998 (U.S. Pat. No. 5,736,131), created a new lepidopteran-active toxin by substituting domain III of Cry1E with domain III of Cry1C thus producing a Cry1E-Cry1C hybrid toxin with a broader spectrum of lepidopteran activity.
Several attempts at engineering the coleopteran-active δ-endotoxins have been reported. Van Rie et al., 1997, (U.S. Pat. No. 5,659,123) engineered Cry3A by randomly replacing amino acids, thought to be important in solvent accessibility, in domain II with the amino acid alanine. Several of these random replacements confined to receptor binding domain II were reportedly involved in increased western corn rootworm toxicity. However, others have shown that some alanine replacements in domain II of Cry3A result in disruption of receptor binding or structural instability (Wu and Dean, 1996, J. Mol. Biol. 255: 628-64a). English et al., 1999, (Intl. Pat. Appl. Publ. No. WO 99/31248) reported amino acid substitutions in Cry3Bb that caused increases in toxicity to southern and western corn rootworm. However, of the 35 reported Cry3Bb mutants, only three, with mutations primarily in domain II and the domain II-domain I interface, were active against western corn rootworm. Further, the differences in toxicity of wild-type Cry3Bb against western corn rootworm in the same assays were greater than any of the differences between the mutated Cry3Bb toxins and the wild-type Cry3Bb. Therefore, improvements in toxicity of the Cry3Bb mutants appear to be confined primarily to southern corn rootworm.
There remains a need to design new and effective pest control agents that provide an economic benefit to farmers and that are environmentally acceptable. Particularly needed are modified Cry3A toxins that control western corn rootworm, the major pest of corn in the United States, that are or could become resistant to existing insect control agents. Furthermore, agents whose application minimizes the burden on the environment, as through transgenic plants, are desirable.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Modified Cry3A toxins and nucleic acid sequences coding therefor


A method for single or multiply charged ion implantation into a surface of a treated object, and a device for implementing the implantation method, the method including: directing towards the surface of the treated object an ion beam produced by an ion source of the electronic cyclotron resonance type; producing at least one primary electron beam and directing the primary electron beam so that it passes through the ion beam; and producing a secondary electron beam by reflecting the primary electron beam onto a target once the primary electron beam has traversed the ion beam, the target being oriented such that the secondary electron beam falls onto the surface of the treated object.

Sapphires or corundums are formed of aluminium oxide crystals (Al2O3) whose colour is determined by the presence of trace impurities (oxides) in these materials. It is thus known that the presence of titanium and iron gives a sapphire a blue colour, the presence of vanadium a violet colour and the presence of chromium a pink colour. Finally, the presence of iron in a sapphire gives the latter a yellow or green appearance.
This colouration can be explained by the fact that the impurities cause the appearance of energy levels in the forbidden gap of corundum, which modify the transmission and absorption spectra of the material and therefore its colour.
Sapphire can be heat treated; stones that are too light or too dark or have too many inclusions are heated. This heat process enhances the colour and improves the brilliance of the stones by dissolving the trace impurities present in the stone.
The laboratory manufacture of synthetic sapphires and rubies has been known since the beginning of the 19th century. The chemical composition and physical properties of these synthetic stones are the same as those of natural stones. Synthetic stones can, however, be distinguished from natural stones by their generally curved crystallisation lines, at least as regards the oldest manufactured synthetic stones.
Because of its high scratch-resistance, synthetic sapphire is used, in particular, for making watch crystals or lenses in optical cameras, especially in smart phones. Nowadays, the production of synthetic sapphires is carried out on an industrial scale.
It is well known that a synthetic sapphire surface reflects around 15% of incident light, which hinders the reading of information displayed by a watch dial, a flat computer or mobile telephone screen.
The light reflectivity value of a synthetic sapphire surface is obtained using Fresnel's equations which, for a light ray passing through a dioptre at an angle of incidence of 90°, give the following reflection (R) and transmission (T) coefficients:R=((n2−n1)/(n2+n1))2 T=4n1*n2/(n2+n1)2 where n1 and n2 are the reflection indices of the mediums separated by the dioptre.
Taking account of the principle of energy conservation, one obtains R+T=1.
For air (n1=1) and synthetic sapphire (n2=1.76), one obtains, with the above formulae: R=0.0758, T=1−R=0.9242. In other words, 7.6% of the visible light that falls perpendicularly on a synthetic sapphire surface is reflected, and 92.4% of this light is transmitted.
For a strip of synthetic sapphire formed of an entry face and an exit face which extend parallel to and remote from each other, the optical losses are two times higher and are thus around 15%. This high reflection of ambient light makes it difficult to read the information displayed, for example, by a watch dial (hands, date indication, decorations) located under the synthetic sapphire watch crystal.
There are anti-reflective methods consisting in depositing metal oxides which are relatively complex and expensive to implement. For example, for watch crystals, one of the methods used consists of the vacuum deposition (10−5 torr) of metal oxide thin films. In dust-free enclosures of the white room type, the watch crystals are first cleaned in cleaning lines and then ultrasonic dried. These watch crystals are then mounted on supports which are inserted into vacuum chamber Bell jars. The vacuum inside these vacuum chamber Bell jars allows the evaporation by sublimation of a metal oxide at a lower temperature than under atmospheric pressure. Evaporation can be achieved by Joule heating the metal oxide or by bombarding the oxide using an electron gun. The quality of the vacuum, the speed of evaporation and the thickness of the deposited films must be perfectly controlled. These thicknesses must of course be uniform.
There are other, less expensive, types of vapour phase depositions (also known as physical vapour deposition or PVD) which consist in depositing magnesium fluoride MgF2 (optical refractive index 1.38) or cryolite Na3A1F6 (optical refractive index 1.35). The refractive indices of these materials are close to one another, but their scratch-resistance properties are inferior to those of synthetic sapphire. PVD depositions made on synthetic sapphire to improve its anti-reflective properties can be scratched, or peel off, thereby completely removing any advantage that could be obtained for synthetic sapphire.
'Synthetic sapphire' means a material transparent to visible light. Synthetic sapphire is formed of aluminium oxide (Al2O3). In physical terms, synthetic sapphire is a very hard crystalline material (hardness equal to 9 on the Mohs scale) belonging to the corundum family and which has a very high refractive index equal to 1.76.
More generally, the present invention concerns any type of material such as, but not limited to, synthetic sapphire, polycarbonate, mineral glass or ceramics. The treated materials may be electrically conductive, or semiconductors, or electrically insulating.
Other known surface treatment techniques consist of implanting ions in the surface of a treated object.
These ion implantation methods consist of the surface bombardment of the treated object, for example by means of a source of single or multiply charged ions of the electronic cyclotron resonance type. This type of device is also known as an ECR ion source.
An ECR ion source makes use of electron cyclotron resonance to create a plasma. Microwaves are injected into a volume of low pressure gas intended to be ionised, at a frequency corresponding to the electronic cyclotron resonance defined by a magnetic field applied to an area located inside the volume of gas to be ionised. The microwaves heat the free electrons present in the volume of gas to be ionised. By thermal agitation, these free electrons will collide with the atoms or molecules and cause their ionisation. The ions produced correspond to the type of gas used. This gas may be pure or compound. It may also be a vapour obtained from a solid or liquid material. The ECR ion source is capable of producing single charged ions, i.e. ions whose degree of ionisation is equal to 1, or multiply charged ions, i.e. ions whose degree of ionisation is higher than 1.
Within the scope of the present Patent Application, we are concerned with a single or multiply charged ion source of the ECR type. Very briefly, and as illustrated in FIG. 1 annexed to the present Patent Application, an ECR ion source, designated as a whole by the general reference numeral 1, includes an injection stage 2 into which is introduced a volume 4 of gas to be ionised and a hyperfrequency wave 6, a magnetic confinement stage 8 in which a plasma 10 is created, and an extraction stage 11, which allows the ions from plasma 10 to be extracted and accelerated by means of an anode 11a and a cathode 11b between which a high voltage is applied.
The aspect of ion beam 12 produced at the exit of multiply charged ECR ion source 1 is illustrated in FIG. 2 annexed to the present Patent Application. It is noted that this ion beam 12 tends to diverge at the exit of ECR ion source 1, which can be explained by the fact that the ions, which all have the same electrical sign, tend to repel each other. Since ion beam 12 tends to diverge at the exit of ECR ion source 1, this causes problems of inhomogeneity of ion distribution at the surface of the treated object.
Another problem linked to surface ion implantation of a treated object concerns the gradual appearance of electrostatic potential at the surface of the treated object as the single or multiply charged ions are deposited. Indeed, the higher the number of ions implanted in the surface of the treated object, the higher the electrostatic field, and the more the surface of the treated object tends to repel the ions arriving from the ECR ion source, which also causes problems of inhomogeneity in the method for ion implantation of the treated object. In the case where the treated object is electrically conductive, this problem is less present insofar as at least some of the free or weakly bound electrons of the material from which the treated object is made can recombine with the implanted ions. However, in the case where the treated object is made of a non-electrically conductive material, the phenomenon of recombination between electrons and single or multiply charged ions does not occur, and it is difficult to guarantee homogeneous ion distribution at the surface of the treated object.

Method for implanting single or multiply charged ions into a surface of a treated object and device for implementation of the method

The Swatch Group Research and Development Ltd


Systems, methods, and articles of manufacture comprising processor-readable storage media are provided to implement read-ahead memory operations using learned memory access patterns for memory management systems. For example, a method for managing memory includes receiving a request from requestor (e.g., an active process) to perform a memory access operation, which includes a requested memory address. A determination is made as to whether a data block (e.g., page) associated with the requested memory address resides in a cache memory. When the data block associated with the requested memory address is not in the cache memory, a memory read-ahead process is performed which includes identifying a learned memory access pattern associated with the requestor, wherein the learned memory access pattern includes a plurality of data blocks starting with the data block associated with the requested memory address, and prefetching the plurality of data blocks associated with the learned memory access pattern into the cache memory.

Currently, in-memory management systems are being designed to rely on primary data residency in main memory (e.g., volatile byte-addressable random access memory (RAM)) and primary data persistence in low-latency non-volatile, byte-addressable memory to achieve lower access latencies for primary data used to execute various types of applications (e.g., database application). Furthermore, in-memory data management systems typically implement memory read-ahead techniques that are configured to speculatively read data into main memory with the assumption that the data will be accessed by an executing application or process. More specifically, read-ahead operations are performed to speculatively prefetch data into main memory (e.g., prefetch pages into a page cache backed by RAM) so that when the data is subsequently accessed by the application or process, the data will be read from the main memory rather than from a secondary storage device or system, such as a hard disk drive (HDD), which has much higher access latencies. While read-ahead memory access operations can significantly improve the overall performance of an I/O bound application by eliminating the need to wait for faults to resolve non-resident data, speculatively prefetched data can wastefully consume scarce memory and I/O bandwidth when the prefetched data is not actually referenced by the executing application or process (e.g., when the read-ahead operation does not match actual memory access patterns).

Memory read-ahead using learned memory access patterns


Amorphous copolymers of ethylene with propylene, and optionally with minor amounts of polyenes, have the following characteristics:. (A) the % content by mole of propylene in the copolymer (%P) and the triads ratio EPE/(EPE+PPE+PPP) satisfy the following relationship: PA1 (B) less than 2% of the CH.sub.2 groups in the chain are in sequences (CH.sub.2).sub.n, wherein n is an even number. These copolymers are obtainable by operating in the presence of particular metallocene catalysts having two fluorenyl groups joined together through a bridging group.. 0.01%P+EPE/(EPE+PPE+PPP).gtoreq.1

Copolymers of ethylene with one or more .alpha.-olefins and optionally a minor amount of polyenes are known which, after vulcanization exhibit elastomeric type properties. The most common of these are copolymers of ethylene with propylene (EPR), which can contain small amounts of a non-conjugated diene monomer (EPDM).
Thanks to their good resistance to high temperatures, chemical and atmospheric agents, and their dielectric properties, these elastomers find uses in various application fields. Principally they can be used as additives for lubricating oils, covering materials in building, electric insulators, components in the automotive industry or modifiers in mixtures with thermoplastic polymers.
The above mentioned ethylene copolymers are generally prepared in the presence of Ziegler-Natta catalysts. The copolymers so obtained have a high tendency to produce blocks of propylenic units in the chain, and this gives rise to crystallinity negatively influencing the final characteristic of the product. Therefore, in order to obtain vulcanized copolymers which are endowed with good elastomeric properties, it is important that the distribution of the propylenic units within the chain is as homogenous as possible.
More recently, these ethylene copolymers have been prepared in the presence of homogeneous catalysts obtained from metallocenes and aluminoxane compounds.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,001,205, for example, describes a process for the preparation of elastomeric copolymers of ethylene with an .alpha.-olefin, particularly with propylene, in which the product obtained from the reaction of methylaluminoxane (MAO) with a bis cyclopentadiene of Zr, Ti, or Hf, such as bis(tetrahydroindenyl)zirconium dichloride, ethylene-bis(tetrahydroindenyl)zirconium dichloride, or dimethylsilandiyl-bis(tetrahydroindenyl)zirconium dichloride is used as a catalyst.
The homogeneity of the distribution of the propylenic units in the copolymer that is obtained operating in the presence of these types of catalyst, although turning out improved with respect to the copolymers obtained from Ziegler-Natta catalysts, is still not totally satisfactory.

Elastomeric copolymers of ethylene with alpha-olefins and process for their preparation


This disclosure provides a method for measuring the velocities of water volumes flowing co-directionally in separate conduits nested such as in injection or production well-bores. The method allows an oxygen activation measurement of the velocity of the water flow in the tubing-casing annulus in the presence of water flowing in the tubing string in the same direction. The method allows continuous logging at variable or constant cable velocities or stationary logging. Based on the method of velocity gauging, the method isolates the signal from the annular flow and can produce a continuous log of linear and volumetric annular flow rates with depth.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention is concerned with measuring the relative and absolute velocity of water, or fluids mixed with water, through the tubing-casing annulus as applied to oil-field operations. The method employs neutron-excited oxygen activation combined with a mechanical water velocity measurement by a logging instrument deployed within the tubing.
2. Discussion of Related Art
Depleted oil production zones may be rejuvenated by water flooding. In this process the casing opposite the formation under consideration is plugged off by packers above and below the production zone. Water injection tubing, nested within the casing of an injection well, allows injection water to flow down the tubing to the desired injection zone, exit the tubing through specialized hardware, and flow in the annulus between the tubing and the casing. From this annulus the water enters the formation through perforations in the casing, pushing the oil in the formation ahead of the water-flood front. For good and sufficient reasons it is very important to the operator to monitor the velocity of the water flow in the tubing-casing annulus, and therefore the volumetric flow into a particular zone of the formation, throughout the vertical profile of the well.
Various methods are known for measuring the water-flow velocity through a single conduit such as the injection tubing itself. For example, the water flow velocity within the injection tubing can be measured by placing a spinner-type flowmeter inside the tubing. However, that method can not, of course, be used to measure the flow velocity in the annulus between the tubing and the casing which is inaccessible to a mechanical flowmeter.
Methods of measurement, which do not rely upon direct access to the flow stream in the tubing-casing annulus, have been described to measure the velocity of water flowing in the annulus. A radioactive tracer, for example, could be mixed with the injected fluid to monitor the progress of the fluid with detectors sensitive to radioactive decay. That method is unattractive first, because of the need for handling radioactive substances and second, because the results are highly qualitative.
Another well known method, referred to as oxygen activation, may be used to measure the velocity of water flow inaccessible to direct measurement. This method consists of continuously irradiating the oxygen nuclei of the flowing water with high-energy neutrons to generate therefrom the unstable isotope N.sup.16, which has a half life of 7.13 seconds. As the isotope decays, gamma rays are emitted which are counted by two radiation detectors downstream of the source that are spaced a distance, s, apart. The time behavior of the recorded count rates as seen at the two detectors follow the relation EQU C.sub.1 =K exp{-.lambda.t1} (1)
and EQU C.sub.2 =K exp{-.lambda.t2} (2)
where C.sub.1 and C.sub.2 are the respective count rates at times t1 and t2, at distances d1 and d2=(d1+s) from the source where d1 is the distance from the source to the near detector, K is the decay rate at time t1=t2=0, and .lambda. is the N.sup.16 decay constant. Using these relations and expressing time as the ratio of distance to velocity, the velocity of activated water flowing between the two detectors, V.sub.w, is given by EQU V.sub.w =s.lambda./(1n(C.sub.1)-1n(C2)) (3)
Another method for using oxygen activation to measure the velocity of water, referred to as the impulse method, differs from the above method in that the source is turned on and off, for example, in a 10-seconds-on, 60-seconds-off pattern. In this method, a localized volume of water in the region of the source is activated when the source is on and its time of passage past the detector is noted as a peak in the count rate. The velocity of the flow may be calculated from the time of passage and the known distance from the source to the detector.
While all of the current methods that employ oxygen activation to measure water flow are capable of measuring the velocity of water flow in the tubing-casing annulus, none can do so, for practical purposes, if there is an additional, physically separate stream of water present flowing in the same direction (a co-directional flow stream) at a different velocity. In that case the neutron source bombards the O.sup.16 nuclei of both volumes of water at the same time and the detectors cannot distinguish between the counts from the two flow volumes because of superposition of the decay activity. Hence, the measurement of the velocity of water flow in the presence of multiple co-directional flow streams is not possible using the current methods of oxygen activation.
Some of the applicable patents include U.S. Pat. No. 3,603,795, issued Sep. 7, 1971 to L. A. Allaud, entitled Method and Device to Measure the Speed of Water in a Polyphase Flow. This patent teaches a method substantially the same as the method described by equations (1), (2), and (3). That patent also directs its application to the detection of water flow outside the casing as well as inside.
A trilogy of U.S. Pat. No. 4,032,780, issued Jun. 28, 1977, U.S. Pat. No. 4,032,778 issued Jun. 28, 1977, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,035,640 issued Jul. 12, 1977, all to Hans J. Paap et al. teach various aspects of measuring water flow in the region outside the well casing where water might flow between stratigraphic levels through channels in the casing-cement-formation annuli. Such channels are the result of an incomplete cement seal between the casing exterior and the borehole wall in the formation. Water flowing in these channels is referred to as "behind casing water flow".
The '780 patent teaches a method to measure the volume flow rate of behind casing water flow by using a measurement of the flow velocity and an estimate of the distance R to the flow region. The velocity of the undesired water flow is calculated from the count rates in substantially the same manner as described using equations (1), (2), and (3).
The '778 patent teaches a relationship for the count rate ratio of two distinct energy regions of the gamma ray spectrum as a function of the distance from the gamma ray source. The distance to the flow channel is determined using this ratio. The calculation of the flow velocity is made in substantially the same manner as described using equations (1), (2), and (3). Using the measured velocity and distance to the channel, the volumetric flow rate may be determined.
The '640 patent teaches that background radiation due to prompt (n,.gamma.) radiation is largely avoided if the high energy neutron source is quickly pulsed and the measurements of activation count rates are made between the pulses. The linear water flow velocity of the undesired flow is calculated from the count rates in substantially the same manner as described using equations (1), (2), and (3).
In a paper entitled Applications of Oxygen Activation for Injection and Production Profiling in the Kuparuk River Field, published as paper 22130 in May, 1991 by the Society of Petroleum Engineers, H. D. Scott et al. teach use of a stationary logging instrument for measuring fluid velocity by oxygen activation using the impulse method described above. Referring to the interference from co-directional flows, the authors state that ". . . If flow does exist inside the tubing from zones below the packer, it may be difficult or impossible to quantitatively interpret the data from the zone of interest because of superposition of the flowing signals . . ." In the application under discussion in the Scott, et al. paper, the annular flow velocity to be measured is in the upward direction and the interfering flow is the tubing flow in the upward direction from zones beneath the region of the measurement. Later in the paper, the authors point out that if co-directional water flows having widely different velocities are present (such as 3 feet per minute and 100 feet per minute), the two velocities may be individually measured by use of a third, long-spaced detector for measuring the fast flow.
None of the presently available art solves the need for a general and practical method capable of measuring the velocity of the fluid flow in the annulus between the inner and outer conduit in the presence of co-directional flow in the inner conduit where two separate conduits are nested together. None of the references are directed to a general and practical method for measuring the flow velocity in the tubing-casing annulus where the difference between the flow velocities in the tubing and the annulus is not great.

Method for measuring the velocity of water flow through nested conduits


The gaseous chemical compound, carbonyl sulphide, has hitherto been unknown as a fumigant for the control of insects and mites. Experiments have shown conclusively that carbonyl sulphide can be used as such a fumigant, with fumigation properties comparable to those of phosphine and methyl bromide. The effectiveness of carbonyl sulphide against insects (both adult and immature stages), mites, termites and moulds is demonstrated. In addition, its low absorbtion by grain, lower flammability than phosphine, lack of influence on seed germination, and apparent environmental safety make carbonyl sulphide particularly beneficial as a fumigant of stored grain. It may also be used to fumigate other stored produce (including perishable foodstuff), soil, timber and spaces (such as buildings) and any material likely to be infested by insects or mites, or act as a source of such infestation.

Fumigants are widely used for the disinfestation, and protection against infestation, that is usually required to protect particulate materials (such as grain) and other stored produce (including durable and perishable foodstuff), porous bulk materials (for example, soil or timber) and spaces (typically, empty buildings). An ideal fumigant should be toxic to insects, mites, nematodes, bacteria, fungi and moulds. It should be effective in low concentrations. It should have a low absorbtion by materials in the fumigated region. It should have a low mammalian toxicity and leave either no residue or an inert residue. In addition, the ideal fumigant should present no difficulties as far as safe handling is concerned, and it should not adversely affect the commodity or space that is being fumigated.
No fumigant meets all of these "ideal" criteria. The two fumigants most commonly used in the fumigation of grain, other particulate materials, fruit and timber are phosphine and methyl bromide. Phosphine is the preferred fumigant for grain stores and the like because it is effective against grain pests and leaves little residue (which is essentially a harmless phosphate). However, phosphine is spontaneously combustible when its concentration exceeds a relatively low value.
Methyl bromide is more toxic to grain pests than phosphine when used for short periods of fumigation, but phosphine is more toxic to grain pests when long term fumigation is effected. Methyl bromide has a lower flammability than phosphine, but recent work has shown that methyl bromide depletes the ozone layer. Thus approval of methyl bromide as a fumigant is currently under review, following the Montreal protocol.
Other fumigants that have been used against grain pests include acrylonitrile, carbon disulphide, carbon tetrachloride, chloropicrin, ethylene dibromide, ethylene dichloride, ethylene oxide, hydrogen cyanide and sulphuryl fluoride. It will be noted that a halogen is present in the majority of these "conventional" fumigants, none of which has the "ideal" fumigant properties.
For many years, there has been a. constant seeking of new fumigants and there is no doubt that the quest for improved fumigants will continue.

Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation


A stud pin and a pneumatic tire are provided. A tip portion of the stud pin includes an end surface with a concave polygonal profile shape including one recessed portion and one protrusion portion on a side opposite the recessed portion. The stud pin is mounted in a stud pin installation hole with the protrusion portion facing a leading side in a tire circumferential direction and the recessed portion face a trailing side.

Conventional snow tires provide grip on icy road surfaces via stud pins mounted in a tread portion of the tire.
Typical stud pins are embedded in a stud pin installation hole provided in the tread portion. When stud pins are embedded in a stud pin installation hole, the stud pin installation hole has an expanded diameter. This firmly embeds the stud pin in the stud pin installation hole. As a result, stud pins are prevented from falling out from the stud pin installation hole upon receiving forces upon breaking or accelerating or lateral forces from the road surface when the tire rolls.
The stud pin is provided with a buried base portion, and a tip portion that projects beyond an end surface of the buried base portion. The buried base portion is embedded in the stud pin installation hole formed in the tread surface of the tire so that the tip portion projects from the tread surface.
The edges of the tip portion of the stud pin come into contact with the icy road surface, providing an edge effect that provides a high gripping force. Accordingly, effort has been made towards increasing the edge effect by providing the tip portion with more edges that come into contact with the icy road surface.
A stud pin is known that includes a tip portion with a concave polygonal end surface and a recessed portion in a side surface for increasing the edges of the tip portion (for example, see International Patent Application Publication No. WO 2014/122570). Additionally, effort has been made towards increasing the edges and thus increasing the edge effect by making the tip portion larger.
However, when a tire mounted with a stud pin that has a concave polygonal end surface runs on icy road surfaces, ice shaved by the tip portion when the tire is driven builds up in the recessed portion of the tip portion. A build-up of fine ice particles in the recessed portion may reduce the ability of the tip portion to break up ice when the tire is driven, and thus reduce driving performance.
However, increasing the edges of the tip portion results in an increase in the amount of wear of the road surface when running on a non-icy road surface.


Apparatus and a method for monitoring the rate of flow of storm water in an individual sewer. The apparatus comprises a collector bowl mountable beneath the storm sewer manhole cover and positioned to collect all water entering through the manhole cover. A flow pipe is mounted in the bowl and projects upwardly from the bottom thereof. Water collected in the bowl must rise to a level above the flow pipe before it will flow through the pipe and into the sewer. A flow meter sensitive to the water height above the flow pipe is positioned in the bowl and measures and records the rate of flow.

This invention relates generally to pollution control and the measurement and sampling of water effluent discharge and, more particularly, to a monitoring method and apparatus for measuring and sampling storm water run-off.
Growing concern over further pollution of rivers, streams, lakes and other bodies of water has given rise to more and stricter regulations governing the discharge and treatment of wastewater effluent. As a general rule, industrial run-off and municipal run-off are channeled through a sewer system for discharge into a large or flowing body of water. Depending on the flow rate and toxic material content of the run-offs, the effluent may require flow restraint and/or treatment before discharge. Continuous and relatively accurate monitoring and sampling of effluent run-off has thereby become essential.
In a typical sewer system, there is a substantially continuous stream of water flowing through an aqueduct, pipe or channel that is substantially horizontal. Streams of that type, known as open channel streams or flows, have long been monitored by a variety of methods and devices developed for that purpose. Examples of such known methods and devices may be found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,719,081, showing a flume arrangement and a pressure probe generating an electronic signal translatable into a flow rate; 3,929,017, showing a weir arrangement and a bubbler device responsive to the pressure required for gas bubbles to rise through a head of water; and 3,954,009 showing a float device associated with a weir arrangement. Weirs, flumes, and the like, are known as primary measuring devices and, as indicated in the said '017 patent, formulas have been developed for converting the height of liquid rise caused by the device into a flow rate based on the characteristics of the particular device.
Another primary measuring device is a plain cylindrical tube or pipe through which water flows in an open channel by gravity. That type of open channel flow is traditionally measured by the well known Manning formula wherein the slope of the hydraulic gradient is a factor so that the measured rate of flow is proportional to the slope of the pipe which normally will be some variance from the horizontal.
The various sensing devices and flow meters are known as secondary measuring devices which are adapted to automatically convert a sensed signal into a flow rate and also record the flow rate. The flow meters typically are programmable to the different types of primary measuring devices so that the proper conversion and flow rate is obtainable under varying flow conditions.
More recently, another source of potential water pollution has come under scrutiny, namely, storm water run-off. Storm sewers can be found in virtually all industrial facilities as well as commercial areas such as shopping malls and the like. The storm sewers are positioned and designed to be the collection point for storm water from building downspouts and paved or unpaved areas that require draining. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) studies recently conducted have indicated that storm water run-off from urban and industrial sites carries a considerable amount of pollutants. As a result, the EPA has in late 1990 issued extensive regulations which apply to industrial and municipal storm water discharges.
As a general rule, storm sewers are remote from a main wastewater sewer system or wastewater treatment plant. Water flowing into a particular storm sewer thus must flow independently through its own drainage channel before it can be merged with and flow into the main sewer system. Understandably, the storm water run-off of a given individual location is intermittent, depending on weather conditions, and of greatly reduced volume compared to the wastewater discharge flowing in a main municipal storm sewer system. Since monitoring of individual storm sewers is often required by the EPA regulations, use of the described primary measuring devices like flumes and weirs for monitoring under such conditions is no longer practical or effective.
There thus exists a need for a flow rate measurement and sampling means for monitoring the run-off in an individual storm sewer. A device for achieving such monitoring should be simple to install in a storm sewer and yet provide sufficiently accurate results as required by regulations.

Environmental Monitoring and Technologies, Inc.


An integrated circuit having a DRAM array connected to a power supply is tested for excessive current draw by selectively applying voltage to a single wordline or bitline, measuring current drawn, comparing the result with a reference number representing acceptable leakage, and replacing columns of the array having excessive leakage, thereby identifying and repairing latent defects that may become a cause of failure.

Testing integrated circuits, has become both more difficult and more important as the complexity of the circuits has increased.
The amount of resources spent in conventional burn-in and functional margin testing accounts for a non-trivial fraction of chip manufacturing cost. Sending a chip through a thermal cycle and testing it with a highly expensive automated tester is an expense that can be avoided if the chip can be eliminated by a less expensive method.
In addition, there is a class of latent defects that do not show up as fatal flaws in a conventional test, but have a high probability of causing the chip to fail.
In the past, excessive current draw has been tested by applying a voltage to the module or chip through a resistor and measuring the voltage drop across the test resistor. This procedure requires extra wiring on the chip that consumes space.
Some circuits employ Built-In Self-Test modules (BIST) that consume silicon area but permit testing a number of chips simultaneously.
The art could benefit from a simple and inexpensive testing technique adapted to identify chips with a high probability of failing.

International Business Machines Corporation


An organic light emitting diode display according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure includes: a substrate; a first electrode disposed on the substrate; an auxiliary electrode formed at the same layer as the first electrode; a pixel defining layer having a first contact hole overlapping a part of the auxiliary electrode; an organic light emitting member disposed on the pixel defining layer and having a second contact hole enclosing the first contact hole; and a second electrode disposed on the organic light emitting member and inside the first contact hole and the second contact hole, wherein the second electrode is in contact with the auxiliary electrode through the first contact hole and the second contact hole.

1. Field
The present disclosure relates to an organic light emitting diode display and a manufacturing method thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
An organic light emitting diode display includes two electrodes and an organic light emitting layer positioned therebetween. Electrons injected from a cathode which is an electrode and holes injected from an anode which is another electrode are bonded to each other in the organic light emitting layer to form excitons. Light is emitted while the excitons discharge energy.
The organic light emitting diode display includes a plurality of pixels including an organic light emitting diode made of a cathode, an anode, and an organic emission layer, and each pixel includes a plurality of transistors and a capacitor to drive the organic light emitting diode.
As the organic light emitting diode display is large, a screen smudge is generated by a voltage drop of the cathode. To prevent the screen smudge, the voltage drop of the cathode is minimized by positioning an auxiliary electrode in a display area and connecting the auxiliary electrode to the cathode.
The above information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the disclosure and therefore it may contain information that does not form the prior art that is already known in this country to a person of ordinary skill in the art.

Organic light emitting diode display and manufacturing method thereof


A predetermined control on an engine, i.e., a fuel-cut operation, is executed after an accelerator has been released under predetermined conditions when vehicle speed is higher than a fuel-cut vehicle speed value and engine speed is higher than or equal to a fuel-cut engine speed value. In an automatic transmission drivingly connected to the engine via a torque converter, a gear shift is initiated after the accelerator has been released. During a shift of the same kind, there occurs a variability in shift shock between the cases with and without the execution of the fuel-cut operation. In order to reduce this variability, the execution of the fuel-cut operation is inhibited until completion of the shift after the accelerator has been released under the predetermined conditions.

The present invention relates to a motor vehicle having an engine and an automatic transmission drivingly connected to the engine and more particularly to an engine control during a gear shifting after an accelerator has been released.
A so-called fuel-cut operation at deceleration is a well known measure for reduced emission of HC (hydrocarbon) and fuel consumption. According to a known control for such fuel-cut operation at deceleration, the fuel-cut operation is executed after an accelerator pedal has been released under predetermined vehicle speed and engine speed conditions. During the fuel-cut operation, cylinder injection of fuel by some of fuel injectors is suspended. In an automatic transmission, an upshift in gear position is initiated after the accelerator has been released. Thus, there can occur a situation where the fuel-cut operation is executed during the shift after the accelerator has been released when the predetermined vehicle speed and engine conditions are satisfied and another situation where the fuel-cut operation is not executed during the shift of the same kind after the accelerator pedal has been released when the predetermined conditions are not satisfied. In the former case, the engine speed drops quickly, while in the latter case, the engine speed drops less quickly. This difference in change in engine speed after the accelerator has been released causes difficulty in reducing a variability in shift shock taking place during the shift of the same kind.
An object of the present invention is to provide an appropriate engine control without causing any substantial variability in shift shock during a shift in gear position initiated after an accelerator has been released.

Fuel cut-off inhibit for a power-off upshift